#Now this can go multiple ways: the Fentons can see a boy that needs help

[gummybearstastelikesadness]

Jack and Maddie Fenton attend tons of ghost and supernatural conferences across the midwest, occasionally spreading out to the coasts or neighboring countries.

One of these times is a supernatural conference on the east coast, Gotham, New Jersey to be specific. Some of their ghost tech reacts prompting them to go hunt the ghost down.

Only to find a boy no older than their own son wandering the streets catatonic in a dirt covered suit.

[dcxdpdabbles]

DC x DP: Dog Walker

Danny needs someone to walk his dog.

He had been in Gotham for about five months when it became apparent he needed companionship.

Ever since Clockwork and Frostbite came to the same decision to move Danny to a new universe for his health- his core was deteriorating due to his obsession being fulfilled as Amity Park was safe, and everyone was ready to grow up and move on.

So Danny moved to a rough city in a harsh universe so that the danger could help his core restart his obsession.

The first few weeks were fine; he even found work as a computer program designer that allowed him to work from home thanks to his universe's advanced technology, but soon, he struggled with loneliness and homesickness—that was where his dog came into the picture.

He adopted Equinox- Nox for short- from the local shelter, and while Nox was a mutt with unknown parents, Danny had no trouble taking care of him.

That was until he accepted a job offer at Wayne Enterprise, and his work hours shifted from remote work seven days a week to four days. He wasn't stimulating Equinox properly by keeping him inside the three days he was out and his poor boy was suffering from it.

This could have easily be solved with a pet sitter or just a dog walker but this is Gotham. Danny knows he picked this place for its constant danger to keep his obsession active but he just wasn't expecting Gotham to be so...much.

He had a panic attack just thinking about what would happened to Nox if he trusted just anyone to take care of him.

Nox is the only living being that is under his Protection. It went against his very Instincts to not find someone he trusted utterly to walk him.

Danny checks his phone to see Nox peaceful sleeping in his doggy bed and sighs. His boy has been sleeping more and more lately, losing his bright spark.

"Whats wrong Danny?" Karla, one of the Office interns, asks from where she is walking along side him.

"Nothing, it's just my dog needs to go for a walk, and I'm not there to give him one." He says, turning the screen. "I wish I can have some one walk hin for me-"

"Understood. I shall pick up your dog tomorrow, Fenton," a tiny voice cuts in. The two turn around only to look down at the green eyes of Damian Wayne. His bosses' son and brother. Oh boy.

"Ugh, I'm sorry?" He blinks as the youngest, Wayne thrusts a piece of paper at him. Danny has no choice but to hesitantly takes the paper. On it is a professional if short resume belonging to Damian that highlights his skillset and community service.

"Father has informed me of the family tradition started by our Pennyworth. Every Wayne gets a part-time job from twelve to grow character." The boy says, hands behind him and back straight, appearing every bit his status. Also, it is like a little kid trying to appear as an adult. Danny found it kind of cute, and it reminded him of Jazz. "I have multiple experiences with animals, as you can see from volunteering at the local shelters. My fees for my services are also meager and would surely not be difficult to cover."

Danny's core turned cold, but not in the wrong way. It was a cooling sensation he had associated with a fun day of either a snowball fight or the fresh first fall. He knew he could trust the boy.

"You know what? Yeah I love it if you walked my dog. In fact would you be interested in being a dog sitter?"

The boy's green eyes brightened with childish glee, but he tried to remain serious. Danny's heart melted at the sight. Oh, he should call Jazz soon. "That would be most acceptable."

Unknown to Danny, Karla, or Damian, Dick Grayson watched the trio as his brother handed one of the most mysterious employees a resume. Now, why would Fenton want to be close to Damian?

Over the last few months, people have been trying to take advantage of Damian because they thought his brother stupid for his mixed blood, just as they did when Bruce first took him in.

Danny doesn't mind Alfred's rule to find a part-time job to help teach them values, but he finds people aren't as kind as they should be. He'll have to keep an eye on this Danny Fenton.

Maybe he can help co-sit his dog.

[charcoalhawk]

Someone to help (someone to hurt)

Hey @spoop-geist I was your secret Santa this year and I went with Identity reveal! I hope you enjoy some hurt/tiny bit of comfort because I went all out with this one!

Content warning: Vivisection/dissection aftermath, gore, overall disturbing imagery, description of injury

He notices it first during class, the jumpiness, the flinching, the fear. From what Edward Lancer had observed Daniel Fenton was a shy but overall friendly kid, if not the most academically inclined. He always greeted his friends warmly, gave back any kind of sass that Dash threw, and was respectful to his teachers.

His work was never perfect but it was always clear that he had put effort into it, and he asked questions in class and participated in discussions.

This all changes approximately two months into the school year. Daniel is absent from school that Friday, something that Lancer initially made an absent note of, mostly so he would remember to set aside a copy of what they did that day for Daniel to make up later. He takes more notice when he sees his two friends, Samantha and Tucker, act unusually anxious, whispering to each other and sending worried glances back and forth throughout the whole class period.

His first, and admittedly somewhat selfish thought is that Daniel is skipping or otherwise willfully missing his class and the other two still share that freshman fear of Lancer calling them out on it.

Lancer gets an email at lunch that apologizes for Daniel’s absence, stating that he had woken up with a small cold and he would hopefully return on Monday. After that Lancer thinks nothing of it until the following Monday, where true to its word Daniel is once again present.

And this is where it starts. Daniel never collects the work he had missed, and even after Lancer prompts him to take it the next day it is never returned. In fact, most work now is never returned, and not once does Daniel ever make excuses or promises to make anything up. Any work that does make its way back into Lancer’s hands is either barely done or blatantly copied.

Now Lancer had seen this kind of behavior in the past, but never had he seen a student spiral so fast and so drastically. After the first week he tries to gently prompt Daniel to talk to him on multiple occasions, but each and every time the boy would shrug him off, no excuses or justifications, but a small sad smile and a nod.

He eventually resorts to asking Jasmine if she has any idea what could result in this sudden change, and for her to gently encourage her brother to seek out help.

It takes approximately two more weeks for Daniel to approach him as the final bell is ringing on a Friday, shoulders hiked up to his ears, eyes darting between Lancer and the classroom door where his two friends are hovering. Daniel sends them away with some rapid hand shooing, and they reluctantly close the door behind them, but Lancer doubts that they’ve gone farther than the nearest set of lockers.

Lancer debates on waiting for Daniel to speak first, but ultimately decides to bite the metaphorical bullet.

“Is there something you need, Daniel?” There. Nice and open so that Daniel can guide the conversation to where he needs it without forcing the child to take the first step.

There are a few false starts as the boy collects his thoughts, growing increasingly frustrated with himself as the words don’t seem to come together, but eventually he shakes his head, scowling before blurted out,

“I have a, I have a problem, Mr. Lancer. Something, something happened a few weeks back, when I missed that Friday. I, something happened, and now everything is wrong and I don’t know what to do.”

Well, that’s not the most eloquent way of putting things, and he definitely notices that Daniel is deliberately being extremely vague, but Lancer would take anything over those first few weeks of silence.

“Do you think you could elaborate, Daniel? I’m more than happy to help and assist you with whatever is currently going on in your life, personal or school related, but please understand I need a bit more than ‘something happened’.”

“Yeah. I’m, yeah I know. It’s just,” and here Daniel pauses for a long time again, eyes jumping between Lancer and everywhere that is not Lancer. “I really don’t know how to explain it, and it not some dumb high school shi- stuff. And, and I don’t know who else to talk to but I don't think I can talk to anyone about this but Sam and Tucker but even they don’t know sh- anything about it.”

By this point Daniel has worked himself up to the point where he starts to pace the front of the room, becoming more and more agitated to the point that Lancer fears Daniel might just shut down, when something happens that catches both of them completely off guard.

When Daniel goes to turn from him to cross once again to the other side of the room he falters and trips, with only Lancer's quick reaction stopping Daniel from face-planting on the unforgiving floor.

A quick look down however reveals neither untied shoelaces nor debris, but Daniel's right leg from the knee down is just, gone.

The utter incomprehensibility of the situation is furthered when suddenly the small shoulders lancer is gripping just suddenly aren’t there and Daniel resumes tumbling to the ground.

“What the Frankenstein!” Lancer can’t help the yell that escapes him, and the almost squeak when the parts of the boy that weren’t there suddenly are again, as if they had never not been.

Lancer offers the child a shaking hand and he slowly and carefully pulls the child upright, grip tight as he fears Daniel will disappear completely without it.

Their eyes meet, Daniel breathes deep, once, twice, then looks up at lancer with frustrated tears in his eyes, that almost seem to glow-

And it all comes rushing out. The basement, that lab, the portal, the accident. Daniel speaks like he’s worried if he stops he may never start again.

He talks about the fear, the terror in suddenly being not wholly alive, the constant knowledge that with one misstep he might reveal himself, just like he did now.

And his parents. Daniel is completely and utterly terrified of his parents, of what they may or may not do to him if they find out, and the horrific feeling of his parents casually talking about dissecting him, molecule by molecule.

When Daniel finally stops the room is filled with an almost oppressive silence. It takes Lancer several minutes to come up with something to say, and when he finally does he tightens his grip on the hand he never let go of, taking a deep breath before attempting a smile.

“Thank you for telling me this, Daniel. I promise I’ll help you any way I can. Now, can you tell me why on earth you thought fighting a bunch of ghosts by yourself was ever a good idea?!”

———————

The knock comes late at night, Lancer is just getting ready for bed when he here’s the frantic pounding on his door.

His first immediate thought is Daniel. After three months of helping the kid with his extracurricular activity he knew only one person could be outside that late at night that needed him this desperately.

Lancer nervously made his way towards the door, hoping whatever injury Daniel had sustained this time was minimal. As horrible as he felt letting the kid get hurt under his watch like this he would rather the boy come to him to get help rather than try and suffer alone.

As he opened the door, prepared for nervous smiles and apologies about keeping him up ‘past his bedtime’ he was instead confronted with the horrific sight of Daniel slumped against the doorframe, skin like curdled milk and eyes hollow and he clutched one hand to his profusely bleeding chest.

With shaking hands he caught the boy as he started to collapse, hugging him to his chest as he felt blood and tears soak his favorite nightshirt.

“Daniel! Great Gatsby what happened?”

With shuddering breaths the boy haltingly explains that he tried to tell his parents who he was, and the horrible reaction the two had to the revaluation that their son was the hated Phantom.

“They said, they didn’t! I- I thought they would understand because you understood and and they didn’t listen! Kept calling me ‘it’ and an ‘imposter’ and sa- said that I wasn’t their real son! I tried to escape but mo- mom hit me with something and I woke up on a table and they were leaning over me and- and doing things, and it hurt! God Mr. Lancer it hurt so bad! And then, then something got their attention and I got out and came straight to you like you always tell me to! And I just, I just can’t understand why!”

Lancer has no response to the child’s heartbreaking wails as he carefully guides him to his small bathroom, sitting him down gently as he rummages through his now very well stocked medical cabinet for gauze and towels.

With gentle prompting Daniel lifts his ruined shirt, and Lancer has to use every bit of his courage not to scream. The large, bleeding wound on Daniel's chest is a perfectly done Y-incision, curling up to Daniel’s shoulders and ending right at his naval. Green ectoplasm and red blood are still sluggishly dripping from the wound.

Lancer is about to risk asking how the child is even still half alive when before his eyes he sees the edges of the wound close just a bit.

As he slowly starts to clean off the gore on Daniel’s chest a small red and green splattered hand shakily reaches out to fist itself in Lancer’s already ruined soft shirt.

Lancer has to steel himself before he can look Daniel in the eyes, and when he does he can no longer stop the sob that breaks its way out of his own throat.

Those terrified blue eyes are begging for an answer, for the adult he trusted with everything to promise to make everything better. To tend to his wounds and give him somewhere safe to sleep. To wake up the next morning to sad smiles and a plan moving forward.

But all Lancer can offer is tears.

[maximons]

Into The Sanctum

Chapter Summary: Doctor Strange brings Y/n into the sanctum as he explains to her the situation at hand. However, the introductions to the team don’t go very smoothly.

Word Count: 3,021

A/N: Here we are with chapter 2! This one is a lot shorter than the first, and honestly the rest of the chapters will likely be around this length lol Hope you enjoy!

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

“Y/n Fenton. 26 years old, acquired her abilities in 2019 after a lab accident.” Wong started explaining as he brought up multiple images and video clips of you throughout the years, using his magic. “Known abilities; Able to switch between human and ghost form at will, Invisibility, Intangibility, Flight, Able to overshadow other humans, Super Strength and Speed, Can summon ghost energy in a ‘ghost ray’, and Cryokinesis.” The sorcerer finished, leaving everyone in a moment of silence, not sure how to proceed after all that information.

“Whoa, that’s awesome.” Peter said in awe, but no-one else shared his excitement.

“We’re going to recruit a ghost...to fight other ghosts?” Loki was the first to ask.

“Fight fire with fire and all that.” Strange responded.

“How do we know we can trust her? Isn’t she one of them?”

“Yes, but she’s also human. Besides, just because she’s a ghost, doesn’t mean she’s automatically bad.” Wanda now piped up. “And you’re one to talk, Loki. Aren’t you technically a Frost Giant?”

“Yes I am, and look how well I turned out. Not exactly a good sales pitch.”

“Alright, that’s enough.” Strange interrupted. “This isn’t up for debate. The ghost realm is bleeding into our world more and more every minute, and Fenton is our best shot.” Strange slipped on his sling ring and began opening a portal. “I’m going to talk to her.” Before anyone could respond, Strange stepped through, portal closing behind him.

Everyone stood in silence for a moment, before Peter spoke up. “C’mon, I can’t be the only one who thinks this is cool.”

“The very fabric of our reality being at risk and our world being overtaken by ghosts is ‘cool’ to you, Peter?” Wong asked, causing Peter to scratch the back of his neck shyly.

“Well, when you put it like that...”

Amity Park

You and Tucker were walking down the street, heading to your favorite donut shop. You stared at your phone as you walked, not really worried about bumping into anyone or anything as you used your powers to subtlety phase through them.

“Hear anything?” Tucker asked and you shook your head.

“No, haven’t heard in hours now. She’s really mad.” 

“Well, you did manage to almost get yourself killed the other day.”

“I’ve been doing this for years now, I know what I’m doing. Besides, I’m already literally half dead.”

“Not the point.” Tucker sighs. “C’mon, you’ve been dating her for over a year, and have been best friends for even longer. You should know her by now. She’s scared.”

“I’m not faulting her for being scared, but I can’t keep going through fight after fight with her for just doing my job.”

“Is it really your job though?” Tucker shrugged, causing you to stop in your tracks. Him following a second later. “I’m just saying, there are a bunch of heroes back now after the blip. It wouldn’t kill you to take a few days off.”

“They can’t do what I do. And they don’t know what we know.”

“You don’t gotta be all cryptic” Tucker laughed and you couldn’t help but chuckle along.

“Yeah, maybe not.” You shrugged. “I don’t know though, we’re the only ones who really know how to deal with these ghosts. I love helping people, but I’m tired of this too sometimes. I’d love to be able to leave Amity Park, really start my life, but...I can’t. All the ghosts come from here, and I gotta do my best to keep it that way.”

Tucker opened his mouth to form a response, but before he could, a bright orange light appeared. The light began to form into a portal and a man with white and black hair, dressed head to toe in blue robes and a read cape, appeared.

“Y/n Fenton?” He asked, which took you and Tucker aback. You looked to your best friend before looking back at the man.

“Uh, who’s asking?”

“Oh, sorry, I’m Doctor Stephen Strange, and-”

“Wait, that’s you?” You interrupted, eyes wide.

“Yes? I assume you’ve heard of me then?”

Your eyes hardened at this. You knew the name Dr. Strange a little too well. He, along with Iron Man, had been part of the reason behind the death of your parents, having been part of that fateful fight in New York. You knew logically that this man didn’t go out of his way to kill your parents, and that he likely didn’t start that fight, but still. You didn’t appreciate the reminder. 

“Yeah. I have.”

Strange noticed the shift in your tone and tilted his head in confusion. You two stood in a stand off for a few moments before Tucker coughed beside you.

“Sorry, but uh, you’re one of the Avengers right?” He asked as he started to fanboy.

“I guess you can say I was, though they aren’t really around anymore.”

“Still, that’s so cool! Hey, did you know Iron Man before he-”

“What do you want?” You interrupted as you crossed your arms, eyes still glaring at the wizard.

Strange regained his composure as he continued. “I need you to come with me. It’s quite literally a matter of life or death.”

Your hard glare faded and in turn you furrowed your eyebrows in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Ghosts are pouring into our world, their reach is now far outside of Amity Park.” Your eyes widened when the wizard said this. You figured you shouldn’t be surprised that Strange knew of this, but you really weren’t sure how to react. “And I know you’re a little more than familiar about ghosts...considering your biology.” Now you really didn’t know how to react. You dropped your arms as you tilted your head towards Tucker.

“So much for that day off.”

Sanctum Santorum

Wanda stepped out of the room as the back and forth between the boys started. She needed a moment to herself to think, she needed air. She made her way to the rooftop and leaned on the edge, looking over the city.

She knew that her life would always entail having to deal with potential world ending threats. It was that way when she was an Avenger, and even more so now after becoming the Scarlet Witch. It got tiring, but she wouldn’t give up the responsibility. Not after Westview. Besides, it beat the alternative that Agatha had predicted for her, destroying the world.

But damn, a break would be nice.

Ghosts? Seriously? She guessed that she really shouldn’t be surprised that they exist, over the last year she’s seen some crazy stuff, but ghosts seemed like a scary concept. And not in a ‘Halloween spooky’ kind of way, it was more of a fear of the unknown. If all ghosts had the same capabilities as the Fenton girl had, she had no idea how she would be able to combat that.

Speaking of the Fenton girl, she couldn’t help but be intrigued. From what she’s seen and heard, the girl knew what she was doing, so she failed to see why she and the rest of the team had to get involved. Still, she figured that they should do whatever they could to help stop this threat.

She also agreed with Peter in that she was ‘awesome’, but she wasn’t about to voice that.

She took a deep breath as she bowed her head, calming her nerves. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad. Maybe it could be easily fixed and they could all get back to their lives quickly. She knew that was unrealistic, but she had to have a sliver of hope every now and again or she’d go insane.

“Wanda!” She heard Peter’s voice in her head, way too loudly. She cringed as she held her head.

“Peter, we’ve talked about this. You don’t need to be so loud.”

“Sorry, Wanda. Doctor Strange told me to tell you to come back down. Y/n is here.”

“Okay, thank you Peter.” She felt the boy’s presence leave her mind as she picked her head up. She shook her head, ridding herself of the pain while preparing herself as she headed downstairs.

A Few Moments Before

The telltale orange sparks started forming in the main hall of the Sanctum. Soon after, a portal opened and Strange had stepped out, but this time was followed by two people. A woman who was looking around in a mix of confusion and awe, and a man who seemed to be bursting with excitement.

“Whoa! What was that!? That was so cool!” The man turned to the woman in excitement. “Was that magic!?”

“Yeah Tuck, but we gotta be cool here, okay?” The woman told ‘Tuck’ in a hushed whisper.

“Right, sorry.”

“Don’t worry, I had the same reaction.” Peter piped up with a smile. He walked over to the two new figures, hand stretched out. “I’m Peter Parker.”

“Tucker Foley.” Tucker’s smile reappeared as he shook the boy’s hand excitedly.

Peter turned to the woman standing next to him. “And you’re Y/n Fenton, right?” You chuckled as you grabbed Peter’s hand, shaking it as well.

“I guess I’m famous around here.” 

“We just found out about your existence an hour ago, but I suppose you can call it fame.” Loki piped up, and you turned to him. Eyes widening a second later.

“Holy shit! Aren’t you the guy who led the alien invasion in New York?”

“That was over ten years ago, darling, let’s leave the past in the past.” Loki shrugged. “Besides, I’m doing the whole ‘hero’ thing now.”

“And how’s that working out for you?”

“It varies.”

“Okay that’s enough for the introductions, now-” Strange started before Peter cut him off.

“Wait, what about Wanda?” 

“Get her down here while I catch our new guests up.” Peter nodded as he began to call to Wanda with his mind. “Now, Y/n, you’ve done a lot of good over the last few years. Keeping the ghostly threat contained to Amity Park while the rest of the world remains none the wiser is quite impressive.”

“Aw, thanks.” You smirked with a shrug.

“However, those efforts might have only delayed this.” Before you could ask what the wizard was talking about, he brought up an illusion showing ghosts starting to spill through tears that were seemingly in mid air. “The Ghost Realm is starting to tear into our own.”

“Wait, the what?” You asked, causing Strange to falter slightly.

“The Ghost Realm?” He responded with a raise of his brow.

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“Um, where all of the ghosts are coming from? The source of your powers? You’ve been dealing with it for years-”

“Oh!” You shouted, finally realizing. “Yeah, we’ve been calling that the Ghost Zone.” You started to chuckle, Tucker joining, but everyone else remained silent for a moment.

“Right...” Strange proceeded. “Well the ‘Ghost Zone’ is starting to become a problem everywhere. We need your help.”

You coughed as you regained your composure, turning serious. “How is this even possible?”

“We were hoping you knew.”

“Look, I might know a lot about the Ghost Zone, but I don’t know everything. I’ve kinda just been dealing with it as it came for the last five years.”

“Well, it looks like you’re about to get a lot more proficient.” Loki said. Before Y/n could respond though, a new presence entered the room.

Wanda walked into the main hall where she found everyone in a heated discussion. She walked in further when she finally spotted the two new faces. A nerdy looking man, and the woman who she recognized as Y/n Fenton. She took a moment to observe her. She was in casual clothing, a white t-shirt covered with a red sweat jacket with jeans and red sneakers. A brown messenger bag slung across her body, indicating that she was on her way somewhere before she was brought here.

Wanda had only really seen Y/n in her Phantom form, since that was the only relevant part of her that they needed to know at the time, but she couldn’t help but think that the human side was captivating as well.

Wait a minute, what?

No, she wasn’t supposed to be looking at other people like this. Not after Vision. She never even thought someone else could turn her head again for one, but she also felt like she was betraying Vision and all they had by even simply staring at someone else for too long.

She coughed, as she tried to get rid of those thoughts, but in doing so she garnered the attention of everyone else in the room.

“Oh, good. Y/n, this is the Scarlet Witch. Otherwise known as Wanda Maximoff.” Strange had introduced her, and she gave a small smile along with a shy wave in response.

You, however, did not have the same welcoming response. You straightened up as your face tightened, eyes widening slightly. You recognized that name. “Wanda Maximoff...as in ‘Westview’ Wanda Maximoff?” You asked the room, however your eyes never left Wanda, who’s face now dropped.

The room stood in silence for a moment before Peter spoke up. “Yeah, um, we don’t really bring that up.”

“Yeah? Well, I am.” Before anyone could register what was happening, You changed into Phantom and blasted a powerful ghost ray towards Wanda. 

The blast hit her square on, knocking her to the ground. The witch shook the attack off quickly as she stood up. The awe that she had previously while staring at you was now replaced with anger, as she shifted from her current outfit into the Scarlet Witch. Hands and eyes glowing red, as your own hands and eyes glowed green. The two women stared each other down as the men stared in varying states of shock. 

Tucker was the only one who seemed to know what was going on as he brought his hand up and grabbed the bridge of his nose. “Oh man.”

“What the hell was that for!?” Wanda asked, almost shouting in anger. Your face didn’t waver however. You gritted the next words out, as you were also seething in anger.

“My sister was there.”

Everyone stood in silence for a few moments after the revelation, not sure how to continue. Wanda remained standing, but the red faded from her eyes and hands. Her gaze fell downwards for a moment as she straightened up. After no-one spoke for several moments, you continued. “I hope your little sitcom fantasy was worth it, cause Jazz is still going to therapy because of you.” You scoffed. “You didn’t even have the decency to give her a speaking part. Just one of your little extras.” 

Wanda sighed as tears started to spring to her eyes at the reminder. She shifted back into her normal clothing. “Look, I really am sorry for the pain I caused. I truly didn’t know at the time.”

“Sure you didn’t.” You scoffed before turning to address the rest of the room. “She’s a fucking terrorist. Actually, now that I think about it, what the hell am I doing in a room with all of you!?” 

You looked around briefly before pointing at Loki harshly. “You’re a fucking psychopath who almost took over the world!” Loki shot his hands up in surrender as you turned to point at Strange next.

“You were part of the fight in New York that killed my parents!” Strange’s eyes widened slightly at the revelation, but he didn’t get to say anything as you turned to Wong. 

“I know you were there too!” You finished by landing on Peter. 

“And you-” You cut yourself off as you realized you didn’t have anything against the kid. Still, you were stubborn and too into your rant to stop there. “I actually don’t know anything about you, but I’m sure you’re no good if you’re hanging around these freaks!”

“We’re the freaks?” Loki asked incredulously, as he couldn’t help himself. “Sweetheart, you’re basically dead.”

“Better being dead than a fucking murderer.” You seethed out. “I don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t care. My responsibility is to my home and to those I love, that’s it. I never signed up for this life, and even if I did, I definitely wouldn’t wanna work with any of you.” You began to float and move over to Tucker, who had been watching the whole exchange in silence. You grabbed his arm, taking you up with you. “Good luck, sounds like you’re gonna need it. I’m out of here.”

With that you began to fly up, Tucker in your arms. You sped up heading towards the ceiling. You were about to go intangible to phase out of the building, when suddenly, your ghost ring appeared around your waist and separated, turning you back into a human.

Your eyes widened as you and Tucker began to plummet back to the floor, but before you both hit it, red wisps surrounded you both, breaking the fall. They didn’t last long though, as a second later the disappeared, making you both hit the ground harshly. Tucker rubbed his arm as you brought your hands up to look at them, wondering what happened.

“What the hell was that!?” You asked as you looked back up to the people in the room.

“I went into your mind and triggered your transformation.” Wanda answered, and you could’ve sworn you saw a slight smirk on her face. Your face hardened once again.

“Stay the hell out of my head.”

“Alright, enough!” Strange shouted, finally putting an end to this. “Y/n, I understand your hesitation. I do. You don’t have to like us, you don’t even have to trust us, but believe me when I say we cannot do this without you. You may be angry at the world, hell all of us are, but we need you to put that aside.” 

You stood up, offering a helping hand to Tucker, but your gaze remained on Strange. You sighed, knowing you couldn’t ignore the severity of the situation. No matter how much you wanted to. You hesitated for a moment before finally speaking up.

“Okay. So what do we do now?”

[flutteringdreams-matw]

Out of Time (18)

First/Last

Read on AO3 /FFN

Word Count: 9296

Previously: The aftermath part 2 - some flashbacks, some concerns and lots of guilt. One of my favourite Lancer and Clockwork moments too.

Now: Climax. Resolution. I tried a few new things structurally that doesn't translate well to tumblr, so I heavily suggest checking it out on AO3.

Please let me know what you think! Feel free to drop a reply or reblog whatever. Much thanks to @avaritia-apotheosis for reading this over and making sure it wasn't too confusing. Next chapter will be up on Sunday - we're going weekly until the end. Regardless the link will be in the replies! Enjoy my friends.

The world exploded in pain…

…An explosion…

…Darkness…

Silence…

A ringing in his ears…

Too loud…

It was too loud…

“…an-ny!”

Hurts…

Burns…

Aches…

Pressure on his side…

Hurts - why does it hurt so much?

“…on Da…..sta….me!”

Something moved him…

Burns - so much pain.

“…dying…”

Oh.

That would do it.

Dying was bad.

He shouldn’t do that.

He felt himself push forward, through the burning pain.

His eyes fluttered open.

It was too bright…

Green - why was the sky green?

Why did it move?

Were there two skies?

“…nk go…ne…”

Something moved above him.

A shape.

Purple?

“Danny?”

So gentle.

Safe.

Worried.

Sam.

“Danny...”

She was speaking again.

To him?

To someone else?

Why was she so scared?

“…pressure…

wound…

Phantom…

blood…”

Ethelwulf.

Who was bleeding?

Pain erupted through him.

Something escaped his chest.

Heavy.

Raw.

Did he make that sound?

His core burned.

Oh.

He was trying to transform.

Could he still do that?

The sky moved.

Where were they now?

“…Shield…”

“…to -sig…”

His arm moved.

Something familiar was close.

That would help him right?

Shield.

They said the shield.

Was that his?

Something seared through him again.

It hurt.

“…on, okay? ….little more…”

She wanted him to hang on?

Did they not win?

Danger.

Protect.

His throat - was that his throat? - burned.

“…drop…shield…bad…”

No.

Shield…

Must protect…

Pain…

“…little longer…. Shield….home….ghost….”

He closed his eyes…

Hurts…

Pain…

Shield…

Hurts…

Family…

Shield…

Friends….

Shield.

“Ancients…”

Shield.

Anger?

“Danny….you’re…do…this….”

Fear?

Terror?

Shield.

Darkness…

Falling…

No…

Not Falling…

..Sinking…

..Sinking…

..Sinking…

Time.

He needed…

Needed some…

Time…

A Time Out.

…

…

….

…

….

…

…

…

…

“-ny?”

…

…

…

…

…

“Danny!”

….

…

…

…

…

Someone grabbed his arm…

…

Hurt…

…

“Danny!”

…

“Fenton!”

…

“Fenton!!”

…

He was hanging limply.

“Fenton!”

Danny gasped awake at his name, looking around wildly.

“Finally.”

He looked up at the gruff voice. “Phantom?” Danny queried. His ghost half hung off what Danny could only guess was a cliff with one arm. The other arm gripped Danny’s left, keeping him from dropping below into the darkness. Phantom’s jaw was tense, grunting softly in exertion. “What?”

Phantom shook his head. “No time,” he said quickly. He looked down at his human half. “You need to fix this.” Phantom’s eyes scrunched tightly, his gloved hand digging into the boy’s arm. “I can’t keep us like this for much longer.”

Danny’s eyebrows furrowed worriedly. “What do you need me to do?” he asked urgently. He looked down, frowning at the darkness.

“Think about getting us out of here,” Phantom told him. “Just onto solid ground.”

“It can’t be that easy,” he said flatly.

“Do you have a better idea? You’re the one who’s been unconscious for goodness knows how long,” Phantom bit back. He grunted again. “And I could really use a hand here.”

Danny sighed. As soon as the thought of solid ground crossed his mind, he was suddenly thrust upward by a gust of wind. He yelped, landing hard on something. He patted himself down, blinking in disbelief. “I’m okay!” he exclaimed.

“Great,” Phantom’s tired voice sounded from below. Danny frowned, turning around to see Phantom’s hand slipping from edge. “Little help?”

Danny moved quickly, grabbing his ghost half’s arm and pulling him up. Once Phantom was right side up, he flopped onto his back, gasping for air. Danny watched him with a frown, kneeling next to him. “You okay?” Phantom didn’t answer, scrunching his eyes tightly as he gasped. Danny looked himself over as the ghost teen lay in front of him; he didn’t seem to be injured at all. “Why am I okay and you’re not?” he wondered quietly.

“Neither of you are.”

Danny turned, surprised at the voice. Floating in front of them was one of Clockwork’s medallions, glowing in blue energy. “A time medallion?” Danny asked, standing up slowly to face it.

“The time medallion,” the voice stressed. It sounded like multiple people spoke, devoid of emotion. “You’ve not come in contact with one since you went to an alternate timeline.”

Danny stared. “How are you tal-“ he started, but waved his hands and stopping his train of thought. “Nevermind - priorities. What do you mean we’re not okay?”

The medallion flew toward the teen, stopping inches from his face. Danny braced himself for impact but lowered his arms when he realized it stopped. “Your fight with your future self has injured your body and mind,” it said.

Danny stared at it wide eyed. “Did we win?” he asked it.

“Winning is subjective,” it replied. “You are here because time wished it so.”

“What about my town? My family? Friends?” Danny pressed worriedly. “Are they okay?”

“Young halfa,” the medallion started. “That is currently irrelevant.”

“Irrelevant!?” Danny echoed hotly. “Listen you overbearing necklace, my evil self could be out there!”

“That is currently irrelevant,” the medallion repeated. “My master deemed you worthy - therefore you are here. Not out there.”

“And who exactly is your Master? Clockwork?” Phantom grunted, sitting up with effort and glared at the medallion. Fenton turned to his ghost half with a frown before shifting his gaze back to the medallion.

“Time,” it said. “It has smiled on you today half-human, half-ghost.” It shone brightly, engulfing their mindscape in blue. “You can end this paradox - but your battle is here. Time can interfere no longer.”

“In our mindscape?” Danny asked, confused. The medallion disappeared, leaving the two teens with more questions than answers.

“What was that about?” Phantom said, scowling. He winced, grabbing his knee harshly.

“No idea.” Fenton eyed the place the medallion disappeared from him before turning to Phantom curiously. “Why are you in pain and I’m not? Wouldn’t it make sense for us to share it?”

Phantom shook his head. “You wouldn’t be awake if I didn’t do this,” he said bitterly, putting his head on his knee. He closed his eyes, pressing his head further. “Fuck this hurts.”

Danny sat next to him, looking at him sympathetically. “How long was I out?”

“Not sure,” Phantom retorted shortly. He didn’t look up. “When I woke up, I watched you fall. I grabbed your hand but you were so heavy, I was almost dragged down too. You wouldn’t wake up and I could sense that something was wrong. So I started taking some of whatever pain you were feeling.”

“You mean all of it,” Danny replied with a frown. “Phantom…”

Phantom smiled wryly, half lidded green eyes glancing into a blue eyed glare. “Hero complex I guess,” he said. He grunted in pain again.

Danny sighed, turning to the rest of his mindscape. “We’re surrounded with Time Energy,” he said thoughtfully. The blue energy lit up as far as he could see. “Considering the medallion said time can’t interfere, it certainly seems like it wants to.”

Phantom nodded, green eyes narrowing at their surroundings. “We can end this paradox,” he muttered in thought.

“Our fight is here,” Danny finished, blue eyes turning to meet green. He sighed. “This won’t be easy.”

Phantom gave him a sarcastic glare. “Oh, you mean it’s not the Box Ghost?”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Not even Box Ghost with Pandora’s Box,” he replied with a small smile. The smile faded, moving to stand again. “Can you keep going?” he asked worriedly.

Phantom frowned. “I don’t think we’ll have a choice,” he said bitterly. Danny grabbed Phantom’s arm and flung it over his shoulder, supporting his ghost half as they stood. Phantom faltered slightly, leaning heavily on the teen. He nodded when he could mostly support himself.

“We’ll go slow,” Danny told him quietly. Phantom nodded.

They walked for a long time, stopping from time to time when Phantom faltered. Eventually, they reached a wall of blue energy, crackling with electricity.

Danny let his ghost half down gently, staring at the wall with a frown. “Time energy? Or core?” he asked.

Phantom’s green eyes narrowed. “Time, I think,” he said. He grimaced in pain. “Don’t think our core can handle much right now.”

Danny glanced at Phantom, before walking toward it. “It’s blocking our path.” He put his hand out toward it, wincing as electricity danced around hum. He pushed forward, going through the wall with some resistance -

“That’s right. You feel that pain? It’s nothing, nothing, compared to what’s coming to you Danny.”

Danny gasped, withdrawing his hand with wide eyes.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Phantom asked anxiously.

Danny stared at the wall warily, breathing deeply. “I just heard Dan’s voice,” he told the ghost teen. “It was… I think it was before Sam got there.” He finally turned, looking his ghost half over. “I don’t think we’ll be able to chance it the way you are.”

Green eyes regarded the boy intensely. “Then you’ll have to go on without me.”

They stared at each other, Phantom’s last sentence hanging in the silence.

It was Danny who broke it. “I’m not doing that,” he said seriously.

Phantom raised an eyebrow in his direction. “You just said I would be holding you back” he countered.

“Well yeah, but I’m not leaving you here by yourself.” Danny gestured to him. “I hate to break it to you, but you’re not cut out for any more battles on your own.”

Phantom rolled his eyes. “Which is why you need to go on ahead.”

Both boys glared at each other, neither wanting to back down. Eventually, Danny sighed. “I don’t think I can face that alone,” he admitted quietly, looking away.

He heard Phantom sigh. “We’re more than just ghost powers,” Phantom reminded him gently. “And unfortunately, there are some things we do need to face on our own.”

Danny tilted his head, acknowledging his words. “The Time Medallion said our mind was injured,” he said softly. He faced the wall of energy again. “You think this would tell us why?”

“Dunno,” Phantom replied. When Danny didn’t reply, Phantom continued. “Fenton, you’re in charge here. Our consciousness may split, but you - human you - can manipulate the mindscape. I’m just an extension of you.” Danny turned back toward his ghost half. “I think the Time Medallion knew that too - it only interacted with you. Meaning that you’re the key to ending the paradox - not me.”

“But…” Danny started, trailing off.

Phantom smiled reassuringly. “Listen - you can get through this,” he said. “Once you do, just bring me to wherever you end up. Just do whatever you did to get back on solid ground.”

Danny nodded, biting his lip as he turned back to wall of energy apprehensively. He took a deep breath, steeling his resolve. “Okay,” he said determinedly.

“Good luck,” Phantom wished.

Danny stepped forward, mind set on the road through the barrier. Phantom disappeared behind him as images and electricity bombarded his senses. “Focus,” he said through gritted teeth. He stepped forward, ignoring the pain and whispers as he moved forward.

“No! They can’t be dead!”

Danny stumbled, falling at the sudden loud voice. His vision shifted, electricity moving through him as he was brought to the middle of a lab. He breathed hard on all fours as the electricity dissipated. Danny frowned, standing slowly as he looked around. Quiet murmurs of two people reached his ears. His eyes widened as he saw himself, in ghost form glaring at Vlad wildly. Danny’s frown deepened, not recognizing anything about this conversation.

“Daniel,” Vlad said quietly. He was remorseful. “You were there.”

Danny watched himself breathe heavily, taking in what the man said. “It’s all my fault,” he said, voice breaking, dropping to the floor and turning human.

Vlad crossed the lab hurriedly to the boy on the ground. “It was an accident.”

Blue eyes suddenly looked up toward Danny, turning red as his gaze settled on the boy. “It was your fault.”

Danny screamed as electricity attacked him again, making him drop to the ground. The lab disappeared, a flurry of images moving around him. Voices overpowered his hearing; he folded in on himself as he tried to move forward.

He was screaming - feeling Dan’s hand squeezing his core, electricity flowing through him.

“You’ll suffer as I had to, watching them die painfully one by one, knowing that you couldn’t do anything to save them.”

“No,” Danny grunted, his fists curling as he crawled forward, writhing in pain as he did so. “They’re alive.” More electricity attacked him, making him cry out. He pushed through it; they had to be alive.

“Why do you have it so easy? You, who kept that weakness of humanity for a lot longer than I did? Why?”

Danny’s face grew determined, pushing himself up through the pain. These were not his memories. “My humanity is a strength,” he panted, staggering forward.

“I just have to run out the clock until your entire life falls apart.”

“It won’t,” Danny argued with Dan’s voice. “I made my choice.” He stood straighter, the electricity starting to die down.

“Why did Clockwork try so hard for you?”

“He didn’t - I did,” Danny said. A different memory came alive - he recognized it.

He was in Lancer’s classroom, quietly studying for the makeup test next week.

“Danny?” Lancer called. The boy looked up. “Detention ended 10 minutes ago.”

Danny shook his head. “I need to be here Mr. Lancer,” he said determinedly.

Lancer sighed worriedly. “You know, the C.A.T. isn’t that big of a deal right?” the teacher said. “I only make it such to get you all used to studying for the S.A.T. next year.”

Danny gave him a grim smile. “It is for me.”

Danny looked out past the vision, seeing the end in sight.

Dan managed to get through his Ecto-Storm, reaching toward him with arm outstretch. He met the wild red eyes of his Ultimate Enemy and tapped into the raw energy within him. Fire and ice exploded outward just as Dan reached him again, freezing the evil ghost in place. Dan was shocked before the world disappeared in white.

“I made my choice,” Danny replied. His body glowed green, protecting him from the Time Energy around him. He needed to remember.

His family laughing at something exploding in the lab.

Training with his parents and Frostbite in the basement of FentonWorks.

Playing video games with Tucker.

Watching a meteor shower with Sam at camp.

Congratulating Jazz on getting into another college.

“It was never my fault,” Danny said confidently. “And I will never make that mistake again.”

“…What makes you so special that you changed my destiny?”

“Nothing,” Danny replied to the memory. “I just made a choice.” He walked forward through the time energy, feeling more and more confident with every step he made. He struggled as the electricity started to resume in intensity.

“YOU DON’T DESERVE THIS!”

“Maybe,” Danny smiled sadly. “But I’m glad I have them.”

He yelled out determinedly, dragging himself out of the Time Energy. Once he was out, he dropped to his hands and knees, breathing hard. Vaguely, he noticed the energy behind him started to disappear and someone calling his name. “Phantom,” he called weakly.

“I’m here,” Phantom replied instantly, kneeling next to human half. “You got through it.” Phantom frowned, watching the human worriedly.

Danny shuddered. “Yeah,” he said breathlessly. He looked up at his ghost half, still out of breath. “But it’s not over.”

Phantom looked grim. “No,” he agreed. “I don’t think so.”

They fell in a comfortable silence as Danny recovered, sitting backward in the dark mindscape.

“That last fight,” Danny started after a while. “That wasn’t just the Ecto-Storm, was it?”

Phantom gave him a pointed look. “What do you think?”

Danny frowned. “Thought so. Our core isn’t just damaged…. Is it?”

Phantom stared at Fenton for a long time. “There’s something else,” Phantom confirmed. “It’s not cold.”

“Heat?”

Phantom nodded.

Danny let out a long breath. “That’s where we need to go,” he said, staggering upward. Phantom followed suit, faltering slightly but regained his bearing quickly. “We need to find our core.”

They continued through the darkness for ages, not knowing what to expect when they reached their destination. Occasionally, one of the two would stumble, wracked by some unseen force before they continued.

Eventually they reached another wall of time energy.

Danny threw his head back and let out an exasperated groan. “Really?” he asked sarcastically.

Phantom patted him on the shoulder sympathetically. “Hey, at least you know you can do this now,” he supplied unhelpfully.

“Think you can come along for this trip?” Danny asked with a raised eyebrow.

Phantom moved to the wall, putting his hand up to it and pushed forward. He wasn’t able to go through it. “It’s like an actual wall,” Phantom said with a groan. “One I can’t phase through.”

“Great,” Danny replied flatly. He sighed, moving forward and rolled up imaginary sleeves. “This better be the last one.”

Phantom gave him a reassuring smile as he moved toward the wall, gritting his teeth and braced himself for the electricity.

It never came.

Immediately, the world around him shifted, again making Phantom disappear. Danny looked up at the green-grey sky above. He frowned, suddenly recognizing where he was. “The Nasty Burger?” he whispered quietly.

“I'll tell you what's going on… Or better yet, I'll show you.”

“Jazz?” he questioned, confused. He ran toward the Nasty Burger, hiding behind a building as he watched Jazz in the Fenton Peeler attack the memory Danny full on. Dan’s disguise peeled away like a banana peel, leaving the evil Phantom on the ground.

“That’s not Danny!” she cried triumphantly.

Danny’s brow furrowed, looking as his parents trained their weapons at Dan. “This must be from before I got there,” he murmured. He watched Dan fly upward, goading his parents about his identity. Dan put his family, friends and Lancer against the Nasty Vat; Jazz attacked him. Dan put her on the vat too, starting to laugh menacingly. Danny turned above. “Which means -“

“Hey, old man!”

Danny turned at his past self’s entrance, flying forward with vigour. “Here we go,” he said. He watched himself tackle Dan, floating in front of his family.

“Don't worry. I won't turn into that. Ever. I promise.”

Past Danny turned to Danny, green locking with blue determinedly. “Make sure you keep that promise.”

Danny nodded, watching as his past self turn back to the events as they played out.

Danny kept moving, rushing past the fight now raging behind him. Images shifted violently around him, making him stop with a frown.

“You’re right,” Dan agreed darkly. Danny watched as an image of him and Dan outside of a cave materialized in front of him. “I am strong, stronger than you could be.” Dan blasted memory-Danny backward, Danny wincing as he watched himself hit a tree. “That’s ‘cause I gave up my humanity - you would’ve too if given the chance.”

Danny watched himself falter, growling at Dan’s taunts. “Forgot about this,” he muttered, eyes narrowing at Fake-Dan.

“And to think, that power in you is just itching to be released,” Dan continued. “Waiting for you to turn evil.”

Memory-Danny stared at him with wide eyes. “What?” he asked.

Dan laughed again, walking toward him. “Don’t you feel it? The power from the wail? Keep using it Danny, it’ll speed up the inevitable.”

Danny ran in front of his past self, staring up into the memory defiantly. “Liar,” he accused. “I choose my own path.”

The memory faded, meshing in with a variety of images again. Once they settled, he found himself on a beach, watching from afar as he unleashed the Ecto-Storm for the first time. "I will never be you," he heard himself vow, his ghostly echo seeming more otherworldly as his powers ran rampant. "So leave my friends and family alone!” More attacks and then memory-Danny spoke again. "I am done being afraid of you!"

Danny gasped, watching as his past self turned the copy of Dan into dust with one blow. Swallowing slightly, he pushed forward, ignoring the howling wind from above, the storm completely disappearing.

“Nope, don’t want to relive the next part,” he muttered bitterly, shaking his head. “That sucked.”

The island disappeared, replacing it with three sets of images. Danny stopped, watching as Dan battled with his mother, father and Jazz in concern.

“And yet you’re right in front of me!” Dan roared at Jazz. Danny looked toward his sister worriedly. She, however, didn’t look worried.

“But I’m not your Jazz,” she said gently to Dan. Her eyes were kind as she held the bazooka steady. “I’m his big sister. Not yours.”

Dan roared, making both Danny and Jazz flinch as he released a blast behind him. “He’ll lose you too. He doesn’t deserve this timeline - what good did he do to deserve this? Not cheat on a test? He should suffer, just like I have!”

Danny frowned, watching Dan get angrier. “Come on Plasmius, what took you,” Danny said, looking desperately to the skies.

“Danny made his decision a long time ago. He’s come a long way from the darkness you caused.”

That did it; Danny’s eyes widened as Dan lost it.

“I caused? I caused!?” Dan shouted. His ghostly aura flared at her words. “This was all his fault. Danny Fenton - playing the hero. He’s no hero Jazz. All that good you think he’s done? He’d throw it away in an instant if it was hard work.”

Danny watched Dan’s tirade, turning to the other images around him. His family had been fighting with him all this time. A surge of gratitude washed over him as he saw them not only recognize Dan for who he was, but held their own. Dan’s words were no longer true. He wasn’t going to throw this away. He kept going, more resolved to reach the other side.

When he saw the last wall, Danny jumped at it with a determined shout as he passed through. He fell to the ground, panting from exertion. “Well,” he said between breaths. “That’s wasn’t as bad as last time.”

“I beg to differ.”

Danny stiffened at the voice. He looked up slowly, still on the ground and out of breath to meet red eyes with surprised blue ones.

Dan sat as if he was on a throne, drumming his hand on the invisible arm with a smug smile on his face. He stood up, walking toward the frozen boy on the ground. “It’s much, much worse.”

:-=-:

Ethelwulf frowned as he looked at the new data on the console screen. “Frostbite, come take a look at this,” he called over. Frostbite and Clockwork both floated toward the screen, glancing at it with concerned eyes. Danny’s brain activity had started to become more agitated a few hours prior, core heat stabilizing below freezing, but still warm enough to cause him harm. A ghostly humanoid hand pointed to the screen. “This is the ecto-signature Tucker wrote for Danny,” he said. The screen shifted as he pressed a button. “This is Danny’s current ecto-signature. Notice anything?”

Frostbite frowned, glancing at one green and purple sample and one green, purple and red. “They’re different?” he asked.

“But have some similarities,” Clockwork said quietly. He pointed to the green and purple parts of the second profile as a weathered hand traced a line back to the first. “They line up.”

“Precisely,” Ethelwulf confirmed. He pulled up a third image, the profile looking more like the first but still had red intertwined. “This is what his ecto-signature looked like when we brought him back. Those red profiles? They were only visible under UV light.”

Frostbite bristled. “Correct me, but UV light is hot, is it not,” he asked with disdain.

Ethelwulf nodded. “Now look what happens when I take the UV light away.” All three images flickered, before becoming identical.

Frostbite gasped. “It looks the same! This explains the instability of his core temperature.”

Clockwork’s eyes hardened. “Ethelwulf,” he said seriously. “That means - “

“His ecto-signature hasn’t changed,” Ethelwulf confirmed, rising. “There’s a second ecto-signature attacking his core.”

Frostbite caught on, narrowing his eyes. “Dan,” he said gravely. “He’s here.”

As Ethelwulf stood up, Clockwork cried out in pain, blue energy rippling through his entire being. The old Time Master hissed, watching as the world around him slow. Etelwulf and Frostbite were moving slowly, regardless of their time medallions. He turned desperately to the infirmary down the hall. “Daniel,” he whispered worriedly.

The end was coming.

:-=-:

Danny’s eyes darkened. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said angrily, pushing himself onto his knees.

“Shouldn’t I?” Dan drawled, raising an eyebrow. “You’re the one who brought me here.”

Danny’s entire body stopped. “What?” he tested breathlessly.

Dan laughed. “It was too perfect actually,” he said, stopping halfway. He waved his hand in front of him, grasping at air. “I was trying to get to your core, but you surprised me Danny. Didn’t think you had it in you to release all that raw energy at once.” He smiled crudely. “It was a good thing I left my imprint on your core earlier in our fight. I was sucked in when your body tried to save you. Two Phantoms - one body.”

Danny’s eyes widened. “So what now?” he asked darkly.

“Oh,” Dan said in fake lightness. “Depends.” His smile grew menacing. “What are you going to do to stop me?” He threw an ecto-blast toward the teen.

“Fenton!”

Danny felt himself get tackled, bouncing across the mindscape. He looked up at Phantom’s worried face. “You good?” Phantom asked.

Danny nodded, frowning at his ghost half. “Are you?”

Phantom scowled. “Does it matter?” he retorted. He pointed backward. “We have him to deal with.”

Both boys turned back to an irate Dan. “Of course,” the evil spectre said with disdain. “You always have some last ditch plan up your sleeve.” Dan snapped his fingers. “Good thing I came prepared.”

A bluish white orb appeared between them, pulsing in a slow, deliberate pattern. Even from where they were, Danny could feel the temperature of his core rising.

Dan smirked at the two dumbfounded teens, his hand lighting up in blue flames. “Your core is weakened Danny, pushed past your limits to save the people you care about. So what’s going to save you?” Dan sent a fireball toward the floating core.

“No!” yelled Phantom, releasing an ice blast. It blocked the fireball, making it explode away from the core. Both ghosts glared at each other as Phantom stepped in front of Danny protectively.

Danny looked at his ghost core worriedly, frowning as it started to cool. “Phantom,” he asked urgently. “What happens if we lose in our mindscape?”

Dan turned to the teen. “Then you die,” he told him gleefully. “There are two dominant consciousness’ in here. If your core falls - you lose and I win.”

Phantom scoffed bitterly. “Like I’d let that happen,” he said unwaveringly. His green eyes found the fearful blue of his human half. “Danny, you need to get out of here,” Phantom told the boy quietly. “I can hold him off until -“

“Until what?!” Danny shot back. “I’m useless in here.”

Phantom shook his head. “You can end this,” he reminded him. When Danny went to argue Phantom cut across him. “You can.”

Dan growled, getting the attention of both of them. “I’d like to see you try,” he hissed. The older launched himself at the younger with arms ablaze. Danny and Phantom dove in opposite directions, narrowly avoiding the attack. Phantom wasted little time, kicking Dan in the gut as he jumped upward. The teen’s green hands glowed as he readied an attack, swiping and blocking an incoming punch to the face. Phantom pushed back, making Dan lose balance and tackled the older ghost. Dan recovered quickly, flying at the younger ghost, grabbing him forcefully and slamming him into the ground.

Danny watched as his ghost half squared off with Dan, completely shell-shocked at the intensity of the fight in front of him. He pushed himself off the ground slowly, watching as Phantom unleashed a series of ecto-blasts at Dan. Dan blocked all but two, wincing before his aura shone green, unleashing a large energy burst onto the younger Phantom. Danny seemed forgotten in the battle for his mind, as was -

As was his core.

Danny turned, looking at the orb floating lower and lower to the ground, feeling the temperature fluctuate between hot and cold as the two ghosts fought around him. He frowned in thought, watching it flicker between white and blue, looking for any type of pattern that he could use to his advantage. “If that’s changing,” Danny murmured to himself, watching a large ice blast being thrown into a fire blast. His core turned whiter as Phantom got a small upper hand. “Yes!” he exclaimed softly. Determined, the teen broke out into a run toward the core as the ghosts fought on. He dodged a stray ecto-blast, sliding right under the orb as it floated to the ground. He gasped as he caught it, surprised at the strong images trying to bombard his senses.

Talking with Mr. Lancer and Tucker.

The shield.

Sam and Ethelwulf watching two Ecto-Storms collide.

Danny shook his head, trying to focus on the memory of the shield. Something had happened to it. Gritting his teeth, he saw it grow, drawing power from deep within his core.

“Dammit Danny! Save your energy… please. You’re hurt. Don’t do this!”

It was Sam’s voice. He must have been in rough shape when he put the shield up for her to be begging; Sam doesn’t beg.

His core nagged at him, showing him more images of the shield.

The shield was breaking, weakened by the constant attacks throughout the day. So was his body - so how was he supposed to survive this and keep his family safe? If he took it down there’d be a good chance he’d live but - pain ripped through his being, clawing its way through his chest. Dan couldn’t win.

Sam was still talking to him, her voice quiet and desperate. She was scared - so was he if he was honest. He didn’t want to die. Maybe they could save him? They trusted him to protect them… he trusted them to save him. Energy flowed through from the battered core through his arm to the shield.

“Okay,” he said softly to the core, realizing what it wanted as the images gave way. He curled his body around it protectively. “I understand. We can -“ he cut himself off with a yell as an ecto-blast hit him from behind. Danny groaned, falling forward to protect his core.

“Think I forgot about you human?” Dan spat, narrowed red eyes glaring in his direction. “Where do you think you’re going with my core?”

Danny hissed, glaring defiantly at his older self. Phantom was pushing himself off the ground and faltering as he rushed to get back up.

Dan smirked as Danny stayed silent. Already the teen felt the core’s temperature rising. “You want to hear what I’d do first when I have control of your body?” Dan asked snidely. Danny tightened his grip on his core as Dan came closer. “Oh, I won’t kill you right away. I’m going to make you watch as I destroy every last one of the people in Amity. Then your friends and family - I wonder, who would make you break the fastest?”

Danny stood slowly, putting the core behind him. “I’ll stop you,” he vowed quietly, voice full of conviction. He felt the core in his hand grow colder at his words. “You won’t win.”

Dan reached the boy, matching the disgust and disdain reflected back at him. Dan chuckled lowly. “In what time?” he asked maliciously. His arm raised as blue flames appeared above him. “Face it Danny, you’re too late.” His hand came down to attack the boy, Danny still glaring at Dan with no fear.

Dan’s hand bounced off a strong green ecto-shield as Phantom materialized in front of the boy, protecting them both. Dan snarled, pounding his fist into the shield as Phantom dug his boots into the imaginary ground. “Go!” His ghost half ordered.

Danny nodded, letting go of his core and ran forward. His chest burned as he ran, ignoring the loud sounds of ecto-blasts exploding in the distance.

“I can do this,” Danny said determinedly, wincing as something hurt deep within his chest. He shook his head, pushing aside the new sensation. “I just need to -“ he didn’t finish his sentence, feeling himself being pulled upward into bright light.

:-=-:

It was 3:14am.

Tucker and Sam left around 9:30, vowing to return as soon as they could. Jazz promised she would update them. They had given him a small bit of diluted Ecto-Enhancer eight hours ago.

The rest of the Fentons kept vigil over the youngest, watching for any sign that he was getting better. When they weren’t sitting in silence, they were taking turns sleeping.

No one was leaving Danny alone tonight.

Maddie sighed tiredly, glancing at Jazz who was nodding off, psychology textbook slipping through her fingers as sleep threatened to claim her. Jack chuckled fondly at the sight, locking eyes with his wife from across the bed.

Two beeps in rhythm. The third had an echo.

He’s alive. Maddie thought factually. Those beeps mean he’s here. He can make it through this.

Heartbeat. Heartbeat. Heart a;nd Core beat.

The steady rhythm kept time.

“He’s fighting,” Jack told her strongly.

Heartbeat.

Heartbeat.

Core and heart beat.

Madie nodded. “He always is,” she said with a proud smile. “Don’t think we’d ever be able to stop him.”

Jack smiled. “Darn right too,” he said. “Fentons don’t give up.”

Heartbeat.

Core and Heartbeat.

Maddie and Jack bristled at the last noise, scrambling to look at the monitor. Another heart and core beat shrilled, breaking Jazz out of her daze, sitting up on high alert. “What’s wrong,” she asked hurriedly, rushing forward.

Maddie pursed her lips. “Jack, his core is starting to beat faster,” she told him. Her eyes widened, “And his temperature is fluctuating rapidly, I -“

Danny’s body twitched, cutting her off. All three Fentons stared at the bed in disbelief. Danny’s core beat faster still. Another twitch.

“Jazz…” Maddie whispered, looking up into her husband’s uncertain eyes. “Can you -“

Danny’s body arched upwards, thrashing on the bed as his core started to beat alarmingly fast. Maddie and Jack moved quickly, holding their son down to avoid excess injury.

“Danny!” all three Fentons cried, alarmed.

The boy continued to thrash, oblivious to their shouts. He arched up through his restraints, face twisted painfully as he breathed hard into the mask.

“Danny,” Jack coaxed loudly as he held the boy down by the shoulders. “It’s okay, your safe.”

Maddie tore her gaze back to the monitor; his core temperature spiked above and below zero readily. “Jazz, Ethelwulf, now!” she barked worriedly, moving toward her son’s head. Jazz rushed out of the room. “Danny, you’re home,” she told him, smoothing his hair back comfortingly. He arched up again, twisting his face into the pillow. “You need to wake up okay?”

Four core beats per heartbeat.

“Danny!” they cried.

:-=-:

He heard the shouts of the Fentons, watched as Jasmine burst out of the room, slowing down gradually as she moved toward the ghosts. Her eyes widened, seeking out Clockwork’s gaze as her body slowed, trying to stop in slow motion. He watched her piece together what was happening just as she managed to stop.

Clockwork floated to the ground as more time energy rippled outward violently. “Danny,” he grunted to the girl desperately. “Get to Danny.”

He watched her head move, nodding her head twice painstakingly slow. She turned her body, headed back to the room, slowly getting faster.

Clockwork gritted his teeth, waiting as his young charge stopped time within the paradox, fighting with an unseen foe. He groaned after fifteen minutes, feeling time slacken slightly as Ethelwulf finally noticed something was wrong with time.

Clockwork grunted again, frowning as he searched through the pathways of time for any hint of the outcome. He had prepared Danny as best he could but he was so young - could he truly do this?

It was another thirty-seven before time reset and Clockwork’s form shifted for the first time in two weeks.

:-=-:

Danny’s eyes flew open with a gasp, as if he couldn’t get enough air. Very suddenly his eyes closed, grimacing painfully with a wordless cry of agony.

“Danny!” Maddie cried, relieved. Jack echoed her, tears coming to both parents’ eyes.

His eyes opened, staring up at the ceiling and blinking. He tried to move, eyes scrunching tightly as a pained, raspy noise escaped his lips.

“I know,” Maddie said soothingly, pushing his hair back. “I know sweetheart, but you’re okay.”

Danny’s brow furrowed in confusion as he opened his eyes half-lidded. She wasn’t entirely sure he was focusing on her.

“Son,” Jack whispered worriedly. Maddie let her husband get into Danny’s field of vision. “Dan’s gone, he can’t hurt you anymore.”

Danny arched upward with a groan, trying to tug weakly at the oxygen mask still around his face. Maddie removed it gently, watching her son gasp for air as his body twitched.

Jack turned back to the monitor with a deep frown. “Maddie,” he said warningly. Maddie looked up at his tone. “His core temperature.”

Her head whipped back, gasping as she watched her son’s core still spike above freezing. Danny let out another noise of pain. She turned her attention back to him. “Sweetie, what is it, what’s wrong?” she asked urgently.

Danny looked as if he tried to say something, nothing more than a pained gurgling sound escaping his lips. He whimpered, arching upward again. Jack held him down.

“Oh no you don’t,” he said determinedly. “You’re not hurting yourself anymore kiddo.”

Blue eyes stared up at his parents, pleading with them to understand something.

Maddie frowned, a quick plan forming. “Danny you’re back at FentonWorks,” Maddie tried again, locking eyes with her son. He continued to twitch underneath Jack’s arms. “Blink once if you understand, twice if you don’t.”

One blink.

Both Maddie and Jack let out a small relieved breath as they looked worriedly at the screen. “Your core is overheating,” Maddie continued. One blink. “Do you know why? Once yes, twice no.” One blink.

Danny arched upward with a groan, his core beating faster once more. His eyes became panicked, staring up at his parents with urgency. They flashed green briefly, before he grimaced, arching up again.

“Something’s wrong?” Jack supplied. One blink. “Dan?” One blink. “Danny you beat him.”

Two blinks.

Jack and Maddie stilled. Danny blinked twice once more.

“He hasn’t been seen since you last fought,” Maddie said quickly. “Do you know where -“ one blink cut her off.

“Time’s slowing down; Dan’s here!” Jazz exclaimed worriedly, rushing over to her brother’s bedside. She gave him a watery smile of relief before becoming serious. “Danny’s, he’s here, isn’t he?” One blink. Jazz swallowed nervously as Danny looked more panicked.

“Where?” Maddie exclaimed, whirling around.

Danny let out a pained noise, eyes flickering green and then red before returning to blue.

Jack’s face grew grim, looking to the monitor as the pieces came together. “Maddie,” he said urgently.

Maddie gasped, realizing it also. She turned back to her son in horror. “Danny? He’s -“ One blink, another pained noise escaping his throat as he thrashed on the bed. His core temperature started to rise as his eyes flickered red again; Danny’s eyes closed tightly in pain.

“Okay little brother, you can do this,” Jazz uttered hurriedly. “Dan’s jealous of you, so use that to your advantage. You’re stronger than he is. Take down the shield and end this paradox.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Jack assured, holding onto his son tightly.

“You’re not fighting alone,” Maddie told him gently. “Just come back to us.”

Danny’s eyes opened painfully, flickering green and blue for a moment before his body slackened. He dropped back onto the bed, eyes rolling backward and breathed shallowly.

:-=-:

Consciousness was unkind as he awoke, his body burning in agony. He heard his parents call out to him, felt disoriented at his surroundings. His core ached painfully, making his body move in protest.

Someone was stroking his hair.

It was nice, soothing.

Loud, shrill beeping made his head pound.

“..you’re home…”

Mom. She was safe.

Where was Dad? Jazz?

Home? He was home?

Pain tore through his body.

“Danny!”

His eyes flew open, throat burning as he gasped for air.

It hurt.

He tried to scream but he couldn’t make a sound.

Eyes closed again, too much effort to keep them open.

“Danny!” his parents’ relieved cries reached his ears.

Where were they?

He forced his eyes to open, staring up into the bright lights of the Fenton Infirmary. He tried to move, a fresh wave of pain washing over him. His throat burned as a raspy noise escaped his lips.

Why did he feel like he was tied down?

“I know,” his Mom was pushing his hair back again. “I know sweetheart, but you’re okay.”

Okay?

Oh something was not okay.

Too warm, too much pain.

Eyes opened, blurry figure above.

“Son.” His Dad was there too - thank goodness. He sounded worried. His Dad’s blurry orange figure moved above him. “Dan’s gone, he can’t hurt you anymore.”

His chest felt heavy, burning as if he was on fire.

No - he wasn’t.

Dan was here.

Something was on his face… he needed to warn them.

Suddenly it was gone, breathing became a lot harder.

He tried to speak, pitiful noises escaping him.

Why did it hurt so damn much?

His parents were speaking again. More pain.

“Sweetie, what is it, what’s wrong?” Mom asked him.

Dan he tried to say. He’s attacking me. He’s going to hurt you. We need to stop him.

His parents stared at him worriedly.

He felt like he was being stabbed, arching up as his core throbbed.

“Oh no you don’t. You’re not hurting yourself anymore kiddo.” His Dad held him down.

Please. He’s here. I can’t…

“Danny you’re back at FentonWorks,”His mom was speaking, looking him in the eye. She had an idea - she must have. He felt his body move on his own. “Blink once if you understand, twice if you don’t.”

He blinked once.

“Your core is overheating,”

One blink again.

“Do you know why? Once yes, twice no.”

Again one blink.

He could do -

He arched upward with a groan, his core beating faster once more.

It felt like it was going to explode.

He was losing.

He looked up in panic, staring up at his parents with urgency.

They needed to understand.

“Something’s wrong?” His Dad supplied.

Yes!

One blink.

“Dan?”

One blink.

“Danny you beat him.”

Two blinks.

No. He’s here. He’s trying to kill me.

His parents stiffened.

Did they believe him? He blinked twice once more.

He had to hurry.

“He hasn’t been seen since you last fought. Do you know where -“

Danny blinked once before she could finish.

“Time’s slowing down; Dan’s here!”

Jazz.

She was okay too.

Suddenly, she was there, all business.

“Danny’s, he’s here, isn’t he?”

A small sense of relief washed over him as he blinked once.

His core ached again - he felt too warm.

How could he get them to understand?

Something in their voices shifted.

His Mom gasped. “Danny? He’s -“

One blink, another pained noise escaping his throat as he thrashed on the bed.

How the hell was he still alive?

“Okay little brother, you can do this,” Jazz uttered hurriedly. She came back into focus. “Dan’s jealous of you, so use that to your advantage. You’re stronger than he is. Take down the shield and end this paradox.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” his Dad assured.

“You’re not fighting alone,” His Mom told him gently. “Just come back to us.”

Shield? Could he even use his powers anymore?

He tried anyway, power rushed through him.

Hurthurtshurtshurts.

The shield - he felt it.

A sudden release.

The world disappeared….

…

The haze of unconsciousness was equally unkind, Danny landing in his mindscape with a grunt of pain. He doubled over, wincing as his chest throbbed. “Where are you?” he muttered. An explosion answered him. Danny stood slowly, turning his head toward it. Another ecto-blast made him frown.

“Our consciousness may split, but you - human you - can manipulate the mindscape,” Phantom had said. So all he needed to do was think about it.

“Take me to my core,” he said quietly.

He felt a slight pull, the mindscape shifting as small green lights exploded in the distance. They got closer, Danny running toward them worriedly. Heat was radiating around him. “Hang in there Phantom,” he muttered. The pulling stopped, making Danny stumble slightly. He frowned, looking around before he heard Phantom cry out in pain.

His eyes found Phantom’s crumpled form, doubled over in front of their core painfully. He was bruised and battered. Their core was blue, pulsing painfully as the temperature rose. Dan stood triumphantly in front of Phantom.

“You’ve lost,” Dan told the young ghost cruelly. Danny’s eyes narrowed in thought, realizing neither of them recognized his presence. “Letting him go was a waste of time. Do you realize how close you are to dying?”

“Fenton will come through,” Phantom argued, wincing as he glared up at the evil ghost. “You shouldn’t underestimate him.” Danny moved closer, eying his ghost half warily as a plan started to form.

Dan scoffed. “What can he do that I can’t?”

“Dan’s jealous of you, so use that to your advantage. You’re stronger than he is.” Jazz had told him. Danny’s eyes widened, realizing what he had missed in Dan’s plans.

“That’s enough,” Danny said forcefully. Red and green eyes turned to the boy as he walked toward the two ghosts calmly. They tracked his movements as Danny put himself in between his ghost half and evil self. “That’s enough.”

Dan laughed scathingly. “And what are you going to do to stop me?”

“Fenton, what are you doing?” Phantom asked worriedly.

Danny turned his head to his ghost half, smiling slightly before he looked back to Dan. The smile slid off his face, replaced by pity and remorse for the first time. “I’m sorry about your family,” he told Dan sympathetically.

Dan’s eyes widened, taking a step back in disbelief before a cruel smile replaced it. “What?” he asked darkly. “I don’t need your pity.”

Danny nodded solemnly. “I know… but I’m also not you,” Danny continued calmly. Behind him, Phantom sat up on his knees, wide eyed. “But you were me - and if what happened to you happened to me? I would blame myself too.” Danny smiled ruefully. “In fact, I did - for a really long time.”

“Because it was your fault,” Dan accused, aura flaring at his words.

Danny shook his head. “No,” he said softly. “It was an accident. It was no one’s fault, Dan.”

Dan’s aura flared dangerously. “How would you know anyway?” Dan asked darkly.

Danny let out a low chuckle. “You fused a Time Medallion in me,” he said sardonically. “Did you think that wouldn’t have any side effects? I’ve been seeing bits of your past for months.” His tone softened. “I saw the aftermath of the explosion.” An image of a past Danny running toward the Nasty Burger appeared around them. Both ghosts gasped as Danny continued. “I saw the funeral.” Memory Danny being led by the caskets now joined the other. “I saw your interactions with Vlad to make you this way.” More images now.

“What are you doing!?” Dan exclaimed, growling at the images around them.

Danny looked up at him determinedly. “I saw it all - even when I faced you.” Danny smiled wryly. “You felt it right? All that power I wielded? All because of the Time Medallion you used to trap me in the future.” He laughed. “Ironic huh?”

“No,” Dan snarled. He gestured wildly to the images around him. “This isn’t power! This is weakness.”

“Why do you have it so easy?”

Dan’s voice echoed around them from the memories.

“Ghosts are supposed to live in the past,” Danny continued softly. “That’s how they draw power. Vlad knows that - it’s why his anger and jealously of Dad keeps him going.” The boy gave his evil self a pointed look. “You knew it too - that’s why you went there. I didn’t understand until now.” Danny looked up at Dan’s memories wistfully. “Me? I’m still human.” He looked Dan in the eyes. “Meaning I face my past and shape my future. It’s why I was able to get past the time visions trapping us here. Did you even try to go through the Time Energy?” Danny paused, glancing backward to Phantom before he returned his attention Dan. “I keep growing.” He shook his head, keeping eye contact with the ghost. “So I won’t ever let you win.”

Dan had heard enough. He moved toward Danny, reading a punch. Phantom shouted a word of warning but Danny smiled sadly, watching as Dan inched closer and stopped the punch with his hand. He didn’t flinch as Dan’s hand lit up in green, trying to blast through the boy. Red eyes widened in surprise, as did green.

“How are you doing that?” Phantom whispered in awe, gripping his arm with a wince.

“You’re the one who said I controlled the mindscape,” Danny retorted with an amused raised eyebrow. He pushed Dan backward, watching the ghost stumble backward and looking up at his human self in alarm. “Dan has no more power here.”

With a manic roar, Dan lunged at his human self with blue flames. Danny blocked it again, protecting his ghost half with a stretched out palm. Dan kept attacking, aura flaring dangerously. “No!” he screamed. “No! I am inevitable! I will kill them all, you hear me you little runt? I will kill them! You deserve this!”

Danny heard Phantom stagger to his feet, coming up next to his human half. “You were created out of rage,” Danny told him sombrely. “That self-loathing you’ve felt for all that time? It fuelled that rage; let you give in to that power. It’s why you couldn’t control it.”

“Having that much power, it's a burden, isn't it, child?”

“The power isn't the burden. The burden is in how I use it…”

The three looked up at the memory before back at each other. “I was afraid of my powers,” Danny admitted, glancing at his ghost half. “Not of having them… just fully accepting them. I thought that if I gave into them, I would lose myself. Become the Ghost King… or worse; become you. But you reminded me - my family? My friends? They’re the reason I keep fighting. I’ll never forget that - ever. I’m not alone.” He shot Dan a pitied smile. “I’m sorry you have to be.”

“In my weaker moments…”

“Stop it!” Dan cried, clutching his head. He dropped to his knees as the images around them bombarded him. He looked like he was in pain. “Make it stop! I will -“

“Lose,” Danny finished solemnly. His left eye turned green locking eyes with Phantom, whose eyes mirrored his. Ecto-Energy whipped up around their feet. Their core floated over to them, hovering in between Fenton and Phantom. “Because we’re ready to move on.” Energy shot upward, swirling around them as if they were in a hurricane. Their core pulsed strongly, turning white as a sonic boom of blue energy whooshed outward.

Dan cried out in pain, eyes wide and almost fearful. “You can’t destroy me!” he howled. “I’m a part of you whether you like it or not - you can never get rid of me Danny.”

The memories around them started to fuse with the Ecto-Storm, becoming stronger and crackling with raw power. Danny smiled grimly. “You’re right,” he told the ghost softly as his power grew. “And I accept that... but I’m done letting you hold me back.” Both Phantom and Danny nodded at each other, releasing their hold on the storm and watched it explode outward, flying through Dan as he disappeared in a wordless scream of rage.

The Ecto-Storm died down around them, getting weaker as it continued to push outward. Their memories disappeared, silence deafening the mindscape. Danny dropped to his knees, watching his ghost core float toward him as it started to cool. He breathed hard, staring out at where Dan used to be in slight disbelief.

He won.

“You okay?” Phantom asked softly, kneeling down. Green eyes looked the boy over in concern.

Danny swallowed heavily, still breathing hard. “I…” he started, shaking his head. “I will be.”

Phantom nodded. The two teens were silent for a while before Phantom spoke again. “How did you…” he started before smiling. “Three outcomes… Think this is what Clockwork meant?”

Danny shrugged, finally turning to his ghost half. “Maybe,” he said. “I just accepted it all; visions, power, help. Doubt Clockwork can read minds.” Suddenly, he grimaced. “We’re going to hate what comes next though.”

Phantom looked at him worriedly. “What can be worse than that?”

Danny looked at him, dead-panned. “Recovery.”

:-=-:

The Fentons stared at each other, breathing hard.

“Clockwork told me to get to him” Jazz whispered, swallowing slightly. “Ethelwulf and Frostbite are mostly frozen in time. I started to slow down when I ran away from here. I think Danny’s stopping time again.”

The monitor shrilled, the Fentons watching as a large spike of heat went dangerously upward. Danny broke out into a small sweat, wheezing as he twitched fitfully.

“You can do it Danny,” Maddie murmured, putting his oxygen mask back on. He did not respond. Jazz walked over to the sink, running a small towel under the cold water. She came back and wordlessly handed it to her Mom, who nodded in thanks. She dabbed his forehead tenderly.

“Can Clockwork do anything?” Jack asked, not taking his eyes off Danny’s face.

“He’s…” Jazz bit her lip. “Whatever’s happening with Clockwork, we can’t get to him. Time is only moving in this room.”

Jack swallowed. “So it’s just us,” he whispered, gripping Danny’s shoulder comfortingly. Vaguely, they felt the ground shake beneath them, ignoring it as they stayed by Danny’s side. The boy stopped twitching, completely unconscious, making the father frown. “That had to be his shield,” Jack said quietly. Maddie nodded, also frowning at the stillness of the boy in front of him as she continued to try and cool him down.

It felt like ages as they waited, the shrilling monitor still sounding angrily beside them. Jack moved back, watching his wife still continued to cool Danny down. It was thirty agonizing minutes later that something happened.

The monitor froze, the heart and core beats no longer pulsing in any comforting rhythm. Danny shuddered, a blue aura glowing around him. It spread outward, pulsing out of his chest with gentle force. When the light subsided, a small, broken time medallion laid on his chest.

Heartbeat.

Heartbeat.

Core and Heartbeat.

“Did he….” Jack whispered hopefully. Maddie turned wordlessly to the monitor, finding his core temperature.

It was falling steadily.

Jazz walked backward toward her chair, planting herself in it heavily as she looked at her brother in awe.

“He did it,” Maddie whispered in disbelief. Her lip trembled as she brought her hands to her mouth. “He did it!”

[youngfanbunny]

Gizmoduck To The Rescue!

Back at it again, surprisingly. Not gonna lie I overthought this one, adding more details and events that simply jumbled the whole thing. I got so frustrated with it, after working on it for nearly a week I deleted everything, copied the short paragraph I had previously and worked around there. It took me less than half a day to finish it. Will admit this one feels bit unpolished, but then again it’s only for practice (..yes). Hope you enjoy this bit, I will keep adding to it. Care to tag along? [Writing tip I learned: if ever frustrated, delete text and try again]. May do a quick summary here or recap ... Worth a shot - 

Fenton moves to Duckburg and becomes wary of whether he should be G-Duck at all. An incident made him reconsider it, and the words of an annoyed citizen helped him decide. 

                                   The G-Duck In Duckburg

Fenton expected stressful, knowledgeable and tiresome four years of education, with an additional 2 for his masters. However, he didn’t expect to be the campus’ Hero during that time. Though it was exhilarating, it wasn’t ideal for his education. Much like a Hero, sacrifices had to be made. He lost the chance to apply for masters programs and internships, but least he had the chance to graduate with a good major and minor. After graduation, Fenton decided to go back home to Duckburg, but raised the question of whether he could be “The G Duck” (he seriously has to change the name). He became a small icon at Uni, gaining some momentum but barely garnering any attention outside of the college bubble. Still, it felt good to stop and apprehend criminals. He debated whether he should join his M’ma in the force, but remembered her words of him never wanting to be part of the crime fighting scene, especially with how it can hurt him. He decided to give up the mantle of G-Duck, for his M’mas’ sake and his own, especially his own. As much as he enjoyed saving others, he was still Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera, a Latino duck with the dream of inventing contraptions to help others. Being G-Duck had interfered with his regular life so much, he’s nearly lost sight of his goals and desires entirely. So, he decided to start making a life plan while working at a bean factory as a machines engineer. Unfortunately for him, the plan stayed in the workshop for nearly 3 years. Fenton continued to work at the factory while hopping from different internships and jobs, hoping to get something to click, much to the annoyance of his M’ma. He hoped to figure out his path in life, least not feel lost on not knowing how to become an amazing inventor. He needed a sign, a direction, something to direct him to the right path. What Fenton didn’t expect was faith hurtling at him few days later. On a cold February morning, Fenton was waiting for the bus home after work when his gut felt a sharp pain, something wasn’t right. His tiredness forgotten as he returned to the moment, sensing someone nearby. He brushed off his worry as paranoia until they started walking towards him. Fenton tried not to react, trying to seem unaware as the way they were approaching him felt - wrong. Right then, he heard the kick of snow as they lunged at him. Fenton’s entire body immediately goes into action as he grabs the bird and slams them to the ground. He looks down to see different items scattered about, multiple wallets and digital devices, a thief. After contacting the police, Fenton was told  they’ve been chasing the crook for over 3 blocks now, but got unlucky with Fenton. After the incident, his M’ma came to pick him up (hearing about the incident via her radio), scolding him for fighting the crook but complimented for his bravery as she dropped him off home. As he laid in bed, he kept repeating the events from earlier over and over his head, thinking of how - alive and right he felt on taking down the thief. He began to wonder if - he did the right thing in giving up being G-Duck, but he’s only a single duck in a big city, he wouldn't be able to protect it all, right? Destiny had other plans, as they came hurling towards him once again. He was at an electronics store, looking over parts to calm his urge of wanting to invent another gadget for his G-Duck persona (after the incident, he couldn’t resist, especially after grabbing the wrong duffle bag of G-Duck stuff instead of his gym clothes). As Fenton stayed in the back looking for specific wirings, a slam from the front of the store made him look up quickly. A trio of Beagle Boys had entered, demanding for money and goods. Fenton was out of sight, able to sneak into the “Employees Only” room to change into his G-Duck suit. He goes over multiple case scenarios: what they’ll do, how he should attack, who else can be involved. He wouldn’t be able to take them all down easily, he’ll need to sneak up on them, but how. Then, he slipped into the vents while changing, giving him an idea. He crawls through the vents to the center of the store, accessing the situation from above. The Beagle Boys had taken a hostage, making Fenton’s job be a bit more complicated, but not impossible. He finds the biggest Beagle Boy, jumping down and on top of the mutt, knocking them out before using his blaster and net to knock out and trap the other two crooks. As he tied up the biggest Beagle Boy, he checked over to the citizen he saved, a rather angry - chicken? Rooster (they are male but don’t have any tail featherings, odd). Fenton helps the c- citizen up from the ground, grumbling as they dusted themselves off before turning towards Fenton. He clears his throat and begins to fidget a bit as he - begrudgingly - thanks Fenton for saving him. Fenton welcomes them, the citizen soon commenting about his gadgets, or “gizmos” as the citizens called them. He talked about the cooling time of his blaster, stating it’ll be cut in half if they added a second ‘round to the blast. Fenton was confused, looking over his blaster, making his statement hypothetically possible. As he looked up again to thank him, the citizen had already left. He was confused before hearing the sirens of police, well that was his cue. He was able to find a quieter and private place to change back to his regular clothes, able to take his regular route back home. The memories of the incident replayed on his head again, over and over, being beyond thrilled of the incident (even with the danger of being caught). Could he - really be G-Duck in Duckburg? Though G-Duck won’t work, the name at least. Thinking back to what the citizen said about his gadgets, his gizmos. G-Duck, gizmos … Maybe now he can make this work.

[goldenchan-fx2thepeacock]

Don’t Go Running Off Into Danger, Even If I Do

Randon idea for a DP (Danny Phantom) GF (Gravity Falls) crossover. I’ve been browsing Tumblr tags for way too long and whatever. This, unlike the neighbourhood phantom fic from earlier, will have multiple chapters. Also, Danny is sixteen and Dipper and Mabel are fouteen.

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Chapter One

The fight with Skulker was a long one. Maybe that was an understatement. Sam and Tucker were both out of town and he was stuck with Wes and the ghosts alone. Well, Wes wasn’t exactly an issue, but if he somehow got proof, Danny would be in a pickle. He set down in the alleyway and stared at the tattered remains of his jumpsuit. Whatever. Street clothes Phantom would have to do for now. Danny sighed and the glaringly visible binder. At least Skulker hadn’t seen. With a twirl of his fingers, the tattered jumpsuit becam a pullover hoodie with the Phantom logo and ripped jeans. Once the clothing change was done and it didn’t seem like anyone was watching, he transformed. As his luck would have it, he heard a gasp. Luckily, it wasn’t someone he knew. 

~~~~~~~~~

Mabel and Dipper had just moved to Amity Park to live with their Aunt Molly. Dipper was excited because he’d heard that there was a lot of paranormal activity here. Mostly ghosts but still. What he wasn’t expecting was to see a boy with white hair wearing a black sweatshirt turn into one with black hair and a red tee. Both he and Mabel gasped. The boy cursed under his breath and turned around. “Oh thank god. At least you aren’t anyone who knows me. Welcome to Amity Park!” The boy seemed stressed.  “What was that! That’s so cool!” Dipper said excitedly. “Listen, I’ll tell you, but you gotta promise to keep it a secret. What do you know about Amity so far?”  “Just that it’s a hotspot for paranormal activity, nothing like Gravity Falls, but alot happens here,” Dipper said and pulled out the journal to write info down. “I don’t really know what Gravity Falls is, but Amity is a hotspot for ghosts. Mostly cause my parent made a portal in the basement of my house. So, you know nothing about Danny Phantom?” “I think I might’ve heard rumours on the street?” Mabel says. She was staring at the boy. Great, a new crush.  “Well, Danny Phantom, who just so happens to be my alter ego, goes around dealing with the ghost threats and making sure Amity doesn’t get completely destroyed. My name’s Danny Fenton by the way,” “Don’t you think that’s kinda obvious?” Dipper scribbled a picture of Danny into the journal. “Nah. Even my own parents don’t know, and they’re the ‘leading experts’ in the field of ectobiology and ghost hunting,”  “The what now?” Mabel said. “Study of ghosts. Heck, the portal wouldn’t even be open if I hadn’t half died when turing it on,” Danny laughed. “You died?” Mabel stared at him. “Yes and no. Nobody knows Danny Phantom is only half ghost except fucking Vlad and the rest of the ghosts,” “Who’s Vlad?” Dipper was curious. “Ah, Vlad Masters. Mayor of Amity Park. Pretentious billionare. Creep trying to get into my mom’s pants. Oh, and Plasmious on the side. Could you believe that my parents created two half ghosts?” “We let a dream demon into our world a couple summers ago,” Mabel said. “Mabel, that violates the Never Mind All That Act,”  “He’s been through weird stuff too!” “I mean, I fought an all powerful ghost king that sucked Amity into the Ghost Zone,” “Fair enough,” Dipper conceded. Danny looked down at his watch.  “Listen, I’d love to stay and chat, but I’m gonna miss curfew. And Skulker needs to go home before he figures out a way out of the Fenton Thermos,” “Wait! Where can we find you?” “Look for the big glowing FentonWorks sign. It’s impossible to miss. And don’t mention the Phantom thing to my parents. They want to rip me apart molecule by molecule as is!” “Are you sure that’s enough direction?” Dipper was skeptical. “You couldn’t miss FentonWorks if you wanted to,” He laughed and ran off. Dipper had half a thought to follow him, but they had to get to Aunt Molly’s. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny ran to FentonWorks. He probably would’ve flown if he’s though of it or if he wasn’t concerned about getting caught. The kids weren’t from Amity at least. He managed to get in just as his curfew alarm went off. “Daniel, you almost missed curfew!” his Mom said. “Yeah, but I didn’t!” Danny said triumphantly. “No, I suppose you didn’t,” She sighed and went back to whatever blueprints she was drawing up. If it mattered, he’d find out. Once he was certain she was distracted, he went down to the lab and stuck the thermos in the attachment.  “Dann-o! You catch a ghost?” Fuck. Danny turned to his dad. “Nah. But I left my thermos out accidentally. I put it in just in case someone caught one with it,” He was getting way too good at lying.  “Oh well. It’s good to see you got back in time,” Dad pulled Danny into a bone crushing hug. “Dad! I gotta get my binder off before you can break my ribs!” Dannt squeaked out. “Oh right. Sorry Dann-o. Go get changed,” Dad put Danny down and gave him a slap on the back. Ow. Danny rushed upstairs. He wrangled the binder off and flopped back on the bed once he put his shirt back on. Jazz poked her head in. “Hi Danny!” She said cheerily.  “Sup, Jazz Spazz,” He sat up. He had a burn on his thigh from the fight. “Keep in mind only you can call me that. Finally catch ‘Ghost X’?” She said. Danny snorted.  “I’m going to kill you if you call Skulker that seriously ever again. Yeah, I caught him. A couple of newbies saw me transform though. Now I have to explain stuff to them so they keep my secret,” “Well, at least they won’t tell!” “Jazz, always looking on the bright side,” Danny pretend narrated. They both giggled.  “Well, Mom and Dad are gonna be out giving protection to the people tonight,” “Planning sesh! Yes. I can fix the jumpsuit,” “Oh geez, what happened to it?” “Just got shredded. Skulker didn’t see anything, but still,” “Oh. I’ll get the sewing supplies,” She walked into her room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dipper and Mabel walked into Aunt Molly’s house.  “Hey kids! Glad to see you got here in one piece!” She rushed over to them and kissed their heads. “Yup. We’re here. Hey, Aunt Molly, do you know where FentonWorks is? We met someone who said they lived there today,” Mabel said. “Oh, that eyesore. Nothing against Jack and Maddie, but they could really use some decorating help. Who did you talk to? Jazz or Danny?” “Does everyone in town know them or something?” Dipper was shocked. “Well of course. Fenton tech is the best protection from ghosts other than Phantom,” “Well, it was a guy, so Danny I’m guessing,” Mabel said. Of course it was Danny. “Ah, Daniel. Poor kid. Dash Baxter needs to leave him alone. Runs at the sight of a ghost. If you ever need to get to his place, I can give you a ride,” Molly sighed. Dipper would’ve thought more in depth about it if there wasn’t a loud knock on the door.  “That must be the Fentons. I forgot it was safety tech day,” She opened the door. A man in an orange jumpsuit came in. He was massive. But the black hair and blue eyes were recognizable. A woman came in behind him. She was in a teal jumpsuit.  “Jack, Maddie! Come in. These are my neice and nephew, Mason and Mabel,” “Can you call me Dipper?” He turned to Molly. “I thought you would at least introduce yourself formally,” Molly sighed.  “Ah, new kids. Remember kids, if you see the menice of that ghost boy, you stay clear. Town might make him out to be a hero, but he’s not!” Jack said. Dipper and Mabel exchanged a look. Poor Danny.  “Alright, that’s not why we’re here. Do you want a ghost shield to keep the kids safe Molly?” Maddie pulled out a strange contraption.  “You know, that doesn’t sound like a horrible plan. I don’t know why you bother with yours when you have a portal in your basement,” “We close the portal most times,” Maddie seemed offended.  “Oh well. I’ll take a few lipstick lazer and wrist blasters with that,” Molly placed the contraption on the shelf and Maddie pulled some lipsticks and weird blaster thingies out of her bag. The Fentons left. “Don’t listen to them about Phantom. They have prejudices against him for no reason. He’s saved our town too many times to count. The least they can do is stop threatening to dissect him!” Molly scoffed. Dipper went pale. But he didn’t have time to think about it. They had school in the morning.

[earthstellar]

TFP Megatronus x Orion Pax Experimental Concept Playlist: The Timescale of Cybertronian Lives + Music from 1890 - 2021

I know there are tons of playlists for these characters out there, but I’m trying to do something a little less conventional with this one; Please hear me out! 

Two Playlists in One: Love Throughout The Ages 

The first half of this playlist is almost all new music mixed in with some hits from the 60s, 70s, 80s, etc. to give variety, plus tracks from different genres so that hopefully everyone has a song they can enjoy in there somewhere.

For the second half of the playlist, I wanted to emphasise the idea of how long the war on Cybertron has been going on for, and just how old this conflict and the people involved actually are. 

Cybertronian Timescale: Long Lives and The Perception of Time 

We think of the Orion Pax / Megatronus stage of their relationship as being relatively brief, which it was in comparison to how long the war has been going on for as of TFP, but these are people who live for centuries. The scope of that is staggering. 

Optimus Prime and Megatron have known each other personally (either positively or negatively) for longer than modern human civilisation has existed. 

So to me, the best way to touch on that idea of time, musically, is to have the first half of the playlist be modern music, remixes, etc. and then the second half is well known and lesser known hits throughout early radio/TV (with many tracks on this playlist pre-dating those forms of media as well). 

What’s on the Playlist, Then?

My grandmother was born in 1914, and her music collection spans nearly 100 years. It’s all good stuff.

I have included some of her favourites, which she always called her “sweetheart jingles”, on this soundtrack. I think many of them work surprisingly well for the Megatronus/Orion Pax relationship.

Many of these songs will probably be unknown by the vast majority of people who might want to listen to this playlist, which is also appealing to me. (I hope if this is your first time hearing some of these, that you enjoy a few of them!)

My parents were born in 1944, and I remember all of the classics they would play; Some of those tracks will be more recognisable as this was the era when radio and TV became far more common and accessible, but I picked the tracks that I think best apply to the pairing and the relationship between the two characters at that point in their lives. 

The link to the playlist is below after some notes on Cybertronian language evolution! 

Quick Thought: Cybertronian Language Over Time and Era Specific Speech Patterns 

While thinking about my grandmother’s music collection as I assembled this playlist, I thought about some of the words and phrases she used commonly that are now totally non-existent in modern conversational English. 

She had what would probably sound to most people like “1930s radio voice” or a more Trans-Atlantic Accent way of speaking; She grew up in the Northeast USA and so she had a very distinctive way of stressing the vowels in words. It’s not just the words themselves, or how they were pronounced, but the tone and pace of speech was also very different. 

This got me thinking about Cybertronians, age, and speech:

Bots as old as Ratchet may have grown up with a totally different spoken language version of Cybertronian, and we already know that there are regional dialects, multiple written forms (glyphs), and era-specific types of Cybertronian language. 

But the way they speak, as I mentioned above with the stressing of vowels and the tone and pace of speech, might still be different due to the different eras, even after language packs/programs are downloaded and updated periodically as needed. We already know Cybertronians have regional accents, so it stands that generational accents would also possibly exist as well. 

Such a difference in speech patterns could possibly be used as a primary indicator of relative age on Cybertron, as physically they don’t age in the sense human beings do. 

Back to the Playlist: Link + Track List + Notes on Audio Prior to 1930

The playlist is here on YouTube. 

Scroll down to get to the second half (oldies section) if that’s what you’re here for! 

Please note that the songs are not arranged in any particular order aside from the first half being newer music and the second half being far older music.

Also note, where original recordings are available on YouTube for some of the older songs, I have used those original recording versions. 

However, keep in mind that there may be a couple seconds of “fuzz” at the top (start) of those older tracks, because they have been recorded from records or wax cylinders, which are formats of music that typically had a “pause” on the track to allow for needle and speed calibration when playing them manually. Modern records don’t do this in quite the same way and nobody uses wax cylinders anymore, but older records typically did. If this bothers you, skip ahead about two seconds or so, and it will resolve. 

Tempo may seem slightly “fast” on two of the tracks due to difficulties with the medium and modern recording tech/methods, and one track has some persistent “fuzz” throughout due to the original recording being rare and therefore it is a “best copy available” type archival recording, but otherwise I’ve managed to find the clearest audio possible for the vast majority of the older songs! 

(Fun music note, the “click track” in modern digital music was partially inspired by the clicking of the needle hitting the “countdown grooves” on old cylinders and records, which creates an audible mild clicking sound as the needle finds the groove and provides time for usually a half rotation or full rotation of the record before the track actually begins to allow for adjustment before the music starts! If the clicking is too fast, dial down the rotation speed, for example. 

This itself was inspired by classical metronomes as well as the actual physical method of playing the music in this way, but it’s cool to see how this persists throughout musical history even now when we don’t need the click for digital production for quite the same reasons/applications. It’s all about timing, no matter the medium or era!)

Due to the method of how some player piano rolls were credited, often by roll company and not by individuals, the actual artist name is often not available for those tracks. Where possible and where known, I have included credits to the artists/musicians. I have done my best to research and find the artists in these recordings. 

I have also included orchestrions and other “automated” music in addition to a player piano track as I think it’s interesting; These are often very old compositions being played on these machines, and as such are designed to reflect the earliest days of their relationship. 

Songs range from the years 1890 to 2021, and I will add more as I manage to find YouTube videos with some of the older songs I’m still looking for. 

By the way, if you need a love song for like an actual partner or crush that you have, I’m just going to say it now and point out that a lot of these classics are great to use in real life for cute purposes. My partner of ten years agrees, and my grandparents were married for over 60 years and sang many of these daily, so obviously something here works well. You’re welcome. ;) 

Below the cut is a track list of the second half of the playlist, as it’s 7 AM and I’d like to emphasise the “classics” section here as it’s the central theme of the concept.

I will add to this list as more tracks are added:

You’re the Top - Cole Porter

What is this Thing Called Love - Leslie Hutchinson 

I Get a Kick Outta You - Cole Porter 

Puttin on the Ritz - Phil Spitalny Orchestra

What a Day - Carl Fenton

Come Fly With Me - Frank Sinatra

Earth Angel - The Penguins

Ring a Ding Ding - Frank Sinatra 

In my Merry Oldsmobile - Billy Murray

Singin in the Rain - Gene Kelly

Dream a Little Dream of Me - Doris Day

Unforgettable - Nat King Cole 

Can’t Help Falling in Love - Elvis Presley 

Good Golly Miss Molly - Little Richard

Bei Mir Bist du Schoen - The Andews Sisters

Shine on Harvest Moon - Ruth Etting 

1920s Dance Sequence from Don’t Knock the Rock

In the Mood -Glen Miller Orchestra

Dream Lover - Bobby Darin 

When the Ragtime Army Goes Away to War (Artist Unknown) 

After You’ve Gone - J. Lawrence Cook 

My Sin (Artist Unknown) 

Flick Flack by Albert Vossen (Unsure; Song + Artist Unknown; Orchestrion) 

Lotosblumen Walzer by E. Ohlsen (Hupfeld Violina) 

Waltz no.2 - Dmitri Shostakovich 

Jupiter - Gustav Holst 

Love Potion no. 9 - The Clovers (Please note, this song mentions the word “g*psy” once in the beginning of the track. Skip this song if you would prefer not to hear it; I have done my best to only include songs that are friendly to the modern listener, but where needed I will make annotations such as this one to ensure nobody has to hear anything potentially offensive, as is unfortunately often the case with older music/lyrics.)

Come a Little Bit Closer - Jay and the Americans 

Sh-Boom - The Crew Cuts

Oh Boy - Buddy Holly

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Reviews: The Battle for Castle McDuck!

How to sum up how I feel about this episode.... 

Yeah that’ll do it. This wasn’t a BAD episode. It flowed nicely, had two great new additions to the cast.. but after weeks of really good episodes, warts and all.. this one was just.. okay. Part of the problem isn’t the episode’s fault as I went in expecting the answers to scrooge’s immortality, the answers to hortense we didn’t get last week, and you know donald and della actually getting to interact with their grandparents. I got.. pretty much none of that, though I did get some answer as to how Hortense lived long enough to have donald. But we’ll get to that. Point is part of the episodes baggage is on setting my expectations too high, the same happened with “Astro B.O.Y.D.” earlier this season and in hindsight, that one is really excellent even if it wasn’t the fenton episode I was hoping for, it’s still really damn good. THis one... even if it’s not what I was hoping ofr, while not bad it’s still pretty medicore. Let’s get into why shall we? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We open at Castle McDuck, where Webby’s narrating for people who didn’t see the last episode set here and aren’t obsessive about watching the show like you or I. And also because this time she’s not so starstruck that she can’t actually speak or function, so she can actually get all the lore she wants in. The family is here because while the Druid stones seem to be working, the mists protecting the castle, and keeping it out of lockstep with reality every 5 years, have suddenly vanished.  Naturally Fergus blames Scrooge for that. I’m mixed on this version of Fergus. While i’m fine with chanigng things up from life and times, having him live and having him resent scrooge on some level, it worked better last time as there was emotional weight and a reason behind it: Scrooge and him didn’t get along becasue Fergus missed his boy and resented that his sucess lost him a son and made him cold and bitter like Fergus himself. It fit both men to just be too damn proud to talk it out. So while Fergus being a bit crotchety still isn’t ENITRELY out of character him still being a dick to his son for no real reason and given no new one for being an asshole to him just annoys me. The character last time was three dimensional, understandable and likeable. This one is just a bitter old man constantly yelling at his son and doting on his daughter. More on that bit in a bit. 

Downy meanwhile is just as lovely as last time: Since she lived long enough to see her grand children this time, I love seeing her as a wonderful doting grandmother to her great grandbabies. She’s wonderful and I’m thrilled to see her again. It does however bring up one of this episodes biggest issues: Donald and Della are absent and this time for no good reason. Last time, it was fair enough to exclude Donald as there was no real space for him in the narrative, and he likely , even if he loved grandma and grandpa, didn’t want to have to explain his estrangment with scrooge to them and break his poor gram-gram’s heart. That’s fair.  This time though? Their not there because.. frank didn’t want to use them. That’s.. literally it. They could’ve fit fine into the family fued narrative epseically since we’ve seen them sibling squabble, and unlike other adventures they’ve been absent, where they clearly just wanted scrooge to have time with the kids, or in the case of rumble for ragnarok scrooge had valid reason for not using them, this time? There’s no good excuse. Della would want to see her grandparents, Donald would get drug along. They only appear every 5 years. WHy the hell wouldn’t they be here?! I get trying to have character ballance but we’ve had several episodes this season of just scrooge and the kids. We DIDN’T need it this time and the lack of characters dosen’t really change anything. It instead wastes plots like getting to see what Donald and Della’s relationships with their grandparents is like, or their aunt, or finding out how their mother died or at least fucking MENTIONING hortense outside of one word and a photo. YOu think the fact their sister is dead would be important to Scrooge and Matilda but it just.. never comes up. Their niece and nephew never come up and my patince comes up short. I’m fine with character ballance but i’m not fine with wasting a golden opportunity for character interactions we haven’t gotten. I get we just had two weeks of donald and della I do, but it dosen’t make this any less frustrating or nonsensical. Having characters appear two episodes in a row dosen’t magically make them irrelevant or we’d be seeing less of Huey or Louie or Dewey and outside of last week, we REALLY haven’t. If they can show up once an episode why can’t their parents?

Point is a mystery’s afoot, and so is THE PHANTOM BLOT.. to no one’s suprise as he was both in the episode’s description and frankly magic being drained is his mo, this time using a portable generator. Webby dosen’t catch on to this.. but  I let it slide as while she’s the only one to have really met and fought the blot.. she’s also busy with mc duck family stuff and frankly while a missing mystery is here, given how deep the mcduck rouge’s gallery goes, it’s not a stretch to say it could be any one of them. Especially Glomgold, who while not magic is willing to pay for rediculous shit why would “dispersing scrooge’s family castle’s mists to bug his parents” be any diffrent. Or possibly replace them as their son because he’s kind of nuts and entirely made of stupid and that’s why we love him. And Magica has the obvious motives of revenge on scrooge, as this isn’t her first set of dead parents, and a castle full of mystic wonders. It’s plausable to wait and see who it is first instead of just assuming it’s one guy. 

And yup there’s a mysterin town:A set of mystical bagpipes of the clan mcduck that can bring life to where there is none. We don’t know if they can raise the dead but they can bring inanimate objects to life so there’s that. But seriously Donald should take them to his parents graves just to be safe. But before we can get to duck necormancy we have to find them so we get... (checks notes) a Louie and Huey team up again where Louie is an abrasive jackass to his brother for planning ahead, despite the fact he’s been proven wrong on that front twice now, and is entirely insufferable and has learned nothing about trying to find a quick and easy way of doing things depsit elearning this lesson 80 times already. 

As you can tell I hate this subplot and am getting it out of the way NOW because it’s not good and treads ground we’ve tread THREE TIMES ALREADY. and you did it right the first time, you did it okay if sloppiily with let’s get dangerous. Why this ? Louie learns nothing, Huey learns nothing and it’s not funny.The two just search for the mystery, and Louie is impatient. Though talking with a friend in a ducktales server, i’m in one now and it actually really helps with these, did make me realize that Louie’s character development has stalled like I thought... it’s simply a Marco Diaz situation. Like the third season of star vs the forces of evil, it’s basically a coin flip if your getting a well developed verison of the character that’s been built up over multiple seasons.. or a jackass whose learned nothing and treats other people badly. Their different FLAVORS of jackass but jackass still tastes awful no matter who it is. It’s not as BAD as it was there as while it’s not helpign the character, it’s not actively having him do the worst things possible, but it still makes Louie’s plots a chore to sit through at times as when he’s not well written like with split sword, rumble for ragnarok or tickening, he’s just a 2 dimensional greedy jerkhole and I don’t want to spend time with him. And the other brothers have had times of being written one dimensional, not going to lie, but all I get from Louie in these plots is this:

After almost getting his family killed, after getting scrooge’s fortune overnight with minimal effort and having everything he wanted only to learn, suprise, it takes a lot of work to maintain.. and he still just dosent’ get that the easy way isn’t always the way, and after the trickining and let’s get dangerous hasn’t learned his brother is usually right when he’s being anal retentive. This was fine in the last 2 seasons but too much has happened for him to get away with this shit and not come off as obnoxious. It just drags any episode it’s in down with it. I”ll leave the rest of the review under the cut. 

One more subplot before we dig into the main one: The Phantom Blot and his new partner, Pepper! If you don’t remember her it’s fine as she wasn’t named but she was the egghead voiced by Amy Sedaris who showed up for one scene back in the Blot’s first apperance and who frank said they had more plans for. Well we see those plans now as Pepper has been paired with the Blot for this mission as Bradford’s policy for missing mystery missions now is the buddy system. No going solo, despite the Blot really not liking any of this. Which honestly both fits Bradford, as he’s endlessly practical, and is just a good idea: most of his agents are kind of wild cards and have their own agends so forcing them to work together not only gives them better odds with scrooge, but prevents them from working their own angles against FOWLS better instrests. IN this case having the peppy, energetic and talkative pepper go with the closed off and dogmatic blot keeps him from going overboard, as Castle McDuck is basically one large magical nightmare for him to destroy and Blot keeps pepper on task and on stealth since, as we learn now we get to know her, she’s a bit overly excitable and not all that subtle, if not to dewey or della levels. She can stealth when necessary. She’s also DETERMINED to get the blot to bond with her and work with her, and is delighted to work with him, getting the job because.. no one else wanted it becasue the blot scares people and puts them off with his intensity, which he’s shocked about but really shoudln’t be. 

IT’s just a nice dynamic, he helps her be a better agent and she helps him realize he can’t do EVERYTHING alone and that blindly destroying all magic in his path, as much as he’d like to isn’t the option, using some runes to track them. Sure pepper makes their presence obvious once or twice, btu she’s also essential to the mission more often than not and by the end, even if they loose, we’ll get to that, Blot has fully accepted his partner. It’s.. honestly heartwarming when you think about it: The blot’s probably closed him off from personal relationships of any kind because A) his family got brutally murdered by the person he’s hutning and B), he has a mission he can never rest in. He likely wanted to work alone because it’s how he rolls nad i’t sonly through seeing someone who genuinely WANTS to be around him and wants his missiong ot succeed that he realizes he dosen’t have to push everyone away and allies are more useful than none. It’s a warped way of thinking but for someone with as much baggage as blotty, it’s progresss and it’s a really sweet story. HOpefully this relationship will go farther.. I mean strange relationships have happened than a dogmatic dog who hates magic and a peppy go getter both working for an obliviously evil businessman. 

So onto the main plot: Turns out Scrooge wasn’t the first person Fergus called this episode as we meet the DT17 version of Matilda! Horay! She’s voice by Michelle Gomez who like David Tennant and Catherine Tate before her is a doctor who alumnus.. though this time she’s past my time watching the show. I really gotta get on catching up. She played Missy, the female regneration of the master. Gomez is spectacular in the part here, and while I have no past experince with her I certainly want to see more of her work as she’s a delight.  Matilda is Scrooge’s sister. In the comics she was the duitful sister who looked up to her big brother as he left Scotland to make his fortune, sending money and mementio’s back she scrapbooked. She eventually went with Scrooge to america with him... but this didn’t end well as Scrooge took advantage of his sisters as help and when he finally did take them along on an adventure, it was his lowest point, going from an honest buisness man to a cruel robber baron for one moment and left him and his company. She and Hortense TRIED building a bridge with a suprise party.. but by that point while Scrooge had backed away from being a monster, he was still such a dick things blew up. As far as we know he never saw hortense alive again, and he only saw matilda in her old age with the two reconcliing. I’ll get more into ALL of this when I get to those pieces of life and times obviously. Point is she’s a good character.  And so is her reboot version.. but the reboot version did catch me off guard as, much like her dad she’s not really much like the sensible sweet woman from the comics. But given DT17 tends to really play fast and loose with previous versions of characters, and it often works out i’m not going to gripe about it: what  they did here works. As for what EXACTLY they did here, this version of Matilda is more flighty: not incomptient or lacking in charm, but due to sort of bouncing from one improable venture to the next and staying at her parents between ventures. She’s sort of a female version of Jubal Pomp, an itallian duck comics character who modelded himself after Scrooge, but dosen’t have the common sense or work ethic scrooge does. That’s really matilda here minus the looking up to scrooge part: she dosen’t seem untalented, just a bit footloose. She also likes needling her brother and is unsuprisingly her dad’s faviorite since she’s around more.  The two naturally get under each others skin, and we get our main conflict... not just because of their fighting.. but because Webby can’t help but mettle. She’s what makes this plot work: Webby can’t help but try to interfere because she dosen’t get siblings sometimes fight and have long standing resentments, something I relate to, and that stepping in or trying to end it sometimes just makes it worse. Granted sometimes’ it’s necessary, but in this casey Dewey, whose trying to inch her away is right on the money and after the awful plot with these two in SPlit Sword, it’s nice to see Dewey be in the right, but for actually good reason instead of just because the episode says so. Here he’s right that her getting involved will only escalate and her attempt to do so only reveals Matilda kidnapped scrooge’s pet hair clump and died it. She also has something resembling an emu.  This only makes things worse and starts to escalate tensions leading to some between both sides, as Fergus takes Matilda’s and Downy takes scrooges. Again REALLY could’ve used the twins. We do get a nice bit where Webby coaxe Dewey, who understandably dosen’t want to help her further spiral into her own issues by helping mend family issues she really isn’t qualified to solve.. because she’s you know... 13. I mean granted Steven Universe did this sort of thing at her age.. but given he eventually repressed his issues so much he had a mental breakdown and turned into a giant angst monster, and only got better with therapy.. maybe get some therapy instead Webby. Just saying. Therapy everyone? Therapy? But yeah she coaxes Dewey with a statdew, and yes she says that exactly.  This gets the family breifly united, as Dewey fakes an injury.. but finding out it’s fakkkke combined with Huey and Louie coming in just causes the enitre family to spiral into squabbling and webby to shut down a bit, with Scrooge planning to form his own clan after bickering iwth his parents and sister. Oh and it only gets worse when Pepper accidently brings some statues to life, and they get in on it too while Webby’s convinced the families over and she just wanted a place in it. And even if this isnt’ the BEST episdoe the show’s ever done, i’ll get to why in a second, I do like this. Webby’s nearly LOST this family once, way back at the end of season 1 when no one but beakly thought of her feelings about her best friends and surrogate uncle all leaving her after her other surrogate uncle you know.. said some pretty unforgivable things. She’s trying SO hard to force it to fit, so hard to fix things because she can’t stand them being broken, something I PAINFULLY relate to given my own personal issues with not being able to stand people being upset with me. She just wanted a family and i’ts gone.  Of course it isn’t and webby’s sad words coupled with some house crashers get the clan mcduck statues included to kick Blot and Pepper out and get the bagpipes back, while Scrooge points out it’s the good families that can withstand a squabble. So the mystery’’s gotten, Scrooge and Matilda are squareish... and this episodes thankfully over. Happy day! Final Thoughts: This episode is okay. I very clearly have my problems with it.. but it’s a fine half hour of television and funny enough to bounce through it with some good character stuff. It’s just after the last few weeks, and really this whole season.. I expect more. There was no real emotional core besides webby this episode and her issues wer eboiled down to “Families fight but it’s fine”.. which itself is a pretty uncomplicated message when family dyanmics can be complciated messy and painful. My family is thankfully fairly stable, if not without issues because hey no one is, but given other people watching might come from far worse homes where the bickering is far worse and far more toxic.. yeah maybe have some nuance here.  And this is from a show that usualy does that WELL: We saw it with Fergus last time before he was hollowed out for this episode and reduced to an angry dick. We’ve seen it with Donald and Scrooge’s estrangment or Donald and Della’s relationship: Family is complicated , messy and even good ones have problems. That should’ve been the message: family can squabble or even have serious issues but they come back together. Instead we just got a bunch of bickering for a cheesy message that dosen’t quite fit with what the series done. It fits for thanksgiving: family , the good kind, can last arugments and is there for you regardless.. and I know my family is. I just feel they could’ve done the message better. Basically the episode was fine... it just wasn’t up to the high standard this season has set even in it’s down turn and is easily the weakest epseically since Matilda really dosen’t feel all that fleshed out even though what we got of her was great. Basically not a BAD episode.. but it could’ve been a great one, and i’m disapointed the series didn’t try harder.  NEXT TIME: regular coverage for the year concludes as we go back a few months chronlogically to find out why Santa and Scrooge hate each other. IT’s christmas time ya’ll! Until then if there’s an episode of ducktales or another disney series you’d like me to take a look at, suggest it in the comments or comission it outright for give bucks via my direct messages on here or send an ask for my discord. Until we meet agian, there’s always another rainbow. 

[pilyarquitect]

"Don't make me tape your mouth shut” with Gosalyn and Huey

93. “Don’t make me tape your mouth shut.” Huey and Gosalyn

“… and this is why birds migrate south when the cold arrives.” Huey smiled finishing his explanation. He loved to share his knowledge, and in this case, he was sharing this knowledge with his newest friend, the red-haired girl they met on St. Canard.

Currently, the two of them were walking towards Uncle Scrooge’s bin. The girl walking at his side looked at him with a little annoyed appearance.

“Wow, that’s super interesting” she sounded sarcastic “I’d never guessed it, specially having a scientist grandfather!”

How stupid! Gosalyn was right! how could he have forgotten about her grandfather? Dewey told him about doctor Waddlemeyer and that he was family with the duckling at his side.

“Ops… true, sorry Gosalyn…”

Huey felt ashamed for this, but Gosalyn just smiled and kicking the duckling in red on his arm she just laughed, showing she wasn’t mad with him.

“You can call me Gos,” she said with her habitual energy.

Huey looked at her in surprise. It was the first time the red-haired girl told him to call her by her abbreviated name.

“Okay… Gos… can I ask you something?”

“Sure, go ahead,”

Huey took a deep breath just hoping the girl wouldn’t be mad for the question he was about to do.

“Why did you asked me to come with you? As far as I know… you befriend Dewey first, and… you seem to understand perfectly well each other… why me?”

Gosalyn opened her eyes wide. She probably didn’t expect this question at all. She looked away for a while. She was silent for so long that Huey considered on repeat his ask, but fortunately, it wasn’t necessary.

“About that… Dewey is a great boy, but he doesn’t seem to be the cleverest boy in town. I guess you know that better than me. And for what I wanted to do; I needed the cleverest person possible.”

“Oh! And this person is me?” Huey felt excited someone could considerer him the cleverest person.

“Nah, I think it’s Fenton.” Clarified Gosalyn “I know he helped Darkwing Duck to try to find my Grandfather.” She pointed at Huey “ But… I don’t know Fenton personally, and I’ve found out you know him,” now she crossed her arms over her chest “so… I though you could be the one to head me to Fenton so by doing so I can talk with him… I need to talk with him.”

“About your Grandfather?” wondered Huey. Since Dewey explained him she was trying to find her grandfather that could be trapped in one of those multiple dimensions, the red-dressed triplet regret to had been so insensitive saying they should destroy that machine before it was too late.

“Yes…”

They arrived to the bin, but Gosalyn stopped at the entering door. Huey also stopped seeing her depressed attitude. Huey hated to see people sad. He had to cheer her up!

“You know? I know at least two more people that can also help,” he explained putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Oh really? Who?” asked Gos with slight hard voice. Huey smiled. He knew she just try to look as if nothing affected her, but the older triplet guessed she was curious to know the answer. And… who was he to keep her in the dark?

“On one side, Dr. Gearloose, the head scientist of my uncle Scrooge,” explained Huey opening the bin’s door.

Gosalyn smiled mischievously entering to the bin. She realized what Huey was trying to do, and honestly, she thanked him it.

“Right… and the other one?”

Huey smiled proudly, joyful to give her the answer.

“Gizmoduck.”

Gosalyn’s reaction wasn’t at all the one Huey expected.

“Are you serious? Gizmoduck?”

“Yes… he’s a superhero, the best one!” Huey put his best proud voice “But he’s also a good scientist!”

“The best… superhero? Him? Are you kidding?”

Huey arrived to the elevator door and pressed the button to call it. After do this, he turned surprised to the red-haired duckling.

“Wait, you don’t think Gizmoduck is the best superhero?”

“Obviously he isn’t,” replied the girl crossing her arms again.

“Oh right.” Huey also crossed his arms “Then, who’s the best superhero for you?”

“There’s only one answer to this question: Darkwing Duck!”

“Seriously? Now who’s kidding? First of all, original Darkwing Duck is a character of a TV show, and the one we met on St. Canard was someone to crazy to believe that could bring into real life this fictional character. He’s just a normal citizen that will end up hurt if he continues doing what he does.”

The ding behind him told him the elevator was here. The doors didn’t take longer to open.

“How can you say that?” almost screamed Gos “We could tell the same about Gizmoduck. He’s just a normal guy with an incredibly dangerous armor. He could get hurt himself, he’s not a superhero,”

Passing Huey, Gosalyn entered the elevator. Huey opened his eyes wide after hearing Gosalyn’s words.

“What?” Now it was him who sounded angry while entering the elevator too. Nobody speak like this about Gizmoduck. Nobody! “I won’t let you say those things! Gizmoduck is the greatest and coolest superhero that has ever existed!”

“Don’t make me tape your mouth shut.” Threatened Gosalyn pointing him with her index finger “We both know what you said isn’t true. The best superhero is Darkwing Duck, he fights without armor.”

She moved until to the other side of the elevator leaned against the wall of it.

“Maybe Darkwing doesn’t have armor,” said Huey in order to defend the hero he admired “but he has a lot of gadgets to help him to fight, as well as Gizmoduck’s armor. But Gizmoduck has all his gadgets on his suit. He’s the best.”

“No way!” screamed Gosalyn “To have all the gadgets together doesn’t turn someone a better hero!”

“It doesn’t to not wear an armor either.” Pointed Huey “But Gizmoduck has been doing this for most time than Darkwing Duck. He’s better.”

“No, he isn’t, it’s Darkwing Duck.” Taking an step forward.

“No Gizmoduck.” Answered Huey also stepping forward.

“Darkwing!”

“Gizmo!”

The two kids were face to face now.

“Darkwing!”

“Gizmo!”

The elevator doors opened revealing the lab, but apparently not Huey nor Gosalyn noticed it. Fenton was walking through his working space when he heard the doors opening and saw the kids inside the elevator looking furiously each other.

“Kids? Why are you arguing?”

“For nothing!” answered both at the same time.

The brown plumage duck raised an eyebrow. Well, if they wouldn’t want to talk about it, he could do nothing. The adult duck cleared his throat.

“Oh, okay then… why are you here?”

Huey and Gosalyn looked each other.

“Well Fenton” began Huey “we’re here because…”

[ghostsray]

Ch6: Stuck

(first - prev - next)

Skulker tossed the nets holding Niel and Ellie like potato sacks onto the cold metal floor. Niel saw his dad stop pacing around the lab and come toward them.

"There you are," he spoke in his smooth voice, his deep blue eyes latched onto Niel. Without glancing up at Skulker, he asked, "Why is my son inside a net?"

Skulker grunted, but he pulled out a blade and cut Niel's net open. Niel staggered to his feet. His muscles felt sore from being tangled up for so long, but he didn't give himself time to stretch. Instead, he quickly stood in front of Ellie's net in an attempt to hide her from Vlad.

Unfortunately, this didn't work. His dad spotted the other figure Skulker had brought, and his eyes widened. Then a smile formed on his lips. "Do my eyes deceive me, or is that Danielle?"

Niel wavered, but he didn't move from his spot. Behind him, Ellie groaned, stirring awake.

"Move away, son," Vlad ordered. "I want to see my dear daughter."

"Fruitloop," Ellie muttered.

Vlad looked over Niel's shoulder at the girl. "How unoriginal. Is this how you greet your father?"

Ellie's eyes opened so she could glare angrily at Vlad. "You're not my father," she hissed.

Vlad pouted and placed a heart on his chest. "Am I not the person who created you?"

"Sure, right before you tried to melt me down," she spat back.

Vlad's eyes drifted to Niel. Niel gulped.

"Don't hurt her," he pleaded. Vlad's eyebrows rose.

"You care about her."

"She's my sister."

Understanding dawned on Vlad's face, and he said, "So that's why you were so keen about what happened to the other clones. You've befriended one."

Niel stood his ground despite the nervousness that was steadily growing in his chest. "Is it true?" he asked his dad. "You were going to kill her?"

"Kill?" Vlad laughed and said, "Of course not! I was planning on fixing her afterwards. It's like turning a computer on and off. She would have reformed."

"You're a liar," Ellie snapped from inside her net. Skulker gripped his blade and growled, but Vlad held up a hand placatingly.

"It's all right. You're here now, and you can be fixed. After all, I'm sure you don't enjoy looking like this from time to time," he said and nodded at her face. That was when Niel saw it. Ellie had once told him she didn't look so pretty when she was emotional, and that was true. The right half of her face looked like whenever Niel left a piece of chocolate out for too long and it began to melt. Ellie cupped that side of her face with her hand and looked down, blinking angrily.

Vlad cooed. "Yes, you hate that. But don't worry. I won't hurt you. Isn't that right, Niel?" and he turned his eyes to the boy.

Niel felt like he was stuck. He looked at Ellie, and her visible eye watched him pleadingly, begging him not to side with Vlad. But Vlad--his dad--was watching him as well, his eyes cold and expectant.

Niel gulped. He shifted his feet and mumbled, "Maybe you can trust him..."

Ellie looked devastated. The hand hiding her face began to melt, too. Vlad smirked.

"See? You can trust me. Skulker, cut open her net. I want her to see that I'm trustworthy."

Skulker seemed reluctant, but he did as he was told. As soon as the net fell away, Ellie turned on Skulker and kicked his face.

It was easy to forget that such an innocent-looking girl like Ellie still knew how to fight, and even better than Niel. She had trained under Vlad during the brief time she was under his stay, and she no doubt must have fought for her life multiple times while living on the streets. Niel watched with dumb amazement as Ellie punched Skulker in the gut, dodged all his swings, and finally brought him to his knees by kicking his legs.

She didn't have time to enjoy her triumph over Skulker, because as soon as he went down, Vlad shifted into Plasmius and shot her with a pink ectoblast. Ellie was shoved onto the far wall and tumbled to the ground. The areas in her body that were melting had begun to turn green and slowly dripped onto the floor.

Seeing Ellie hurt snapped Niel out of his stupor. He whipped his head to look at his dad and saw him wearing a grin, his ghost form's vampiric fangs long and visible. For the first time, all those things that Danny and Sam and their friend told Niel about the evil deeds Vlad had done finally sunk in. His dad was a villain.

His dad was a villain.

Vlad made his way casually to where Ellie lay. She was trying to get onto her feet, but she kept falling down. The fact she was about 60% liquid now didn't help.

Niel was spurned into action. He ran in front of Ellie and spread his arms open, glaring Vlad down.

Vlad's mouth twitched. "Niel, move away."

Niel shook his head. "She doesn't want to stay. She doesn't have to."

"Ah, see, I wish that were true. Unfortunately, when you start to wonder about something like her moving around town...well, it's not a very normal sight, is it?" Vlad eyed her cheekily. "Sooner or later, someone will notice how odd you are, and then they're going to look into your past and link you back to me. I can't let that happen. So, you have only two options: let me fix you. Be my daughter. Or else, die."

Ellie managed to half-stand by leaning against the wall. She raised her chin and said, "Go to hell."

Vlad tutted. "I'm afraid that's a no. You heard her, Niel. If she doesn't want to join me, then she's not your sister. No need to protect her anymore."

Niel didn't move. "You--you want to kill her."

Vlad rolled his eyes, like this was another obvious math problem that Niel wasn't getting. "Were you not just listening to what I said?" He saw Niel's horrified expression, and he sighed and forced himself to soften. "Come on, Niel. This is for the safety of our family."

"You want to kill her," Niel repeated. "You don't care about family."

Vlad frowned. "I'm your father. Are you going to side with her over me?"

Something wet and cold wrapped around Niel's hand. He looked down and saw Ellie holding his hand, looking up at him pleadingly.

He swallowed back his bile and stared Vlad in the eyes. "Yes."

Vlad would never hit Niel outside of training. Vlad would never harm his son. Niel thought that was true.

Niel was wrong.

As soon as Vlad realized that Niel was serious and that he was not about to change his mind anytime soon, his face darkened. He grabbed Niel by the arms and shoved him aside. Niel fell onto the hard floor. He fell on his hand, forcing his fingers to bend at odd angles, and Niel had a feeling that would become very painful once he shifted back to human.

He bit his tongue and blinked his tears back, then turned in place to see Vlad. The villain reached toward Ellie. Niel's jaw tightened, and he pushed himself off the floor with his good hand and landed next to Ellie, hugging her melting form to his chest.

Vlad sighed. "Really?"

Green-stained liquid leaked from Ellie's eyes, though Niel couldn't tell if they were tears or more ectoplasm. He held her goopy form protectively and glared at Vlad.

In the corner of his vision, he saw Skulker stand up and approach them. Faced off against both him and Vlad, the odds were pretty obvious that Niel wasn't going to go free with Ellie in tow. He had already lost against Skulker once, and Ellie was in no shape to fight.

If he tried to go forward, or sideways, or up, he knew either of the ghosts would intercept him. But maybe not all hope was lost yet. Only a few feet to the side on the wall behind him lay Vlad's ghost portal.

Vlad caught Niel glancing at the portal, and his eyes widened. "Don't," he warned.

Niel, carrying Ellie, shot toward the portal. Both ghosts tried to stop him, but he was too fast. He pulled the lever that opened the blast doors and squeezed himself and Ellie through before they were fully open.

"Stop! I order you to come back!" Vlad shouted after them, but Niel ignored him. He sped through the Ghost Zone, not bothering to look back to see if Skulker was following them. The Ghost Zone blurred around them in lines of green and purple. Niel had never been allowed to visit this realm often, but now was not the time to appreciate the view.

He found a floating cluster of rocks and hid between them to catch his breath. His core thrummed anxiously, and the phantom sensation of his heart seemed to beat against his ribs.

"Danny," Ellie murmured. Niel looked down and had to hold himself back from grimacing. Her face was barely noticeable as a face now.

"I'm Niel," he softly told her.

"I know that, you idiot," she replied, her speech slurred from the fact that her mouth was melting. "I meant we should go to Danny's. He has Ecto-Dejecto."

Niel didn't know what an Ecto-Dejecto was, but he guessed it must be able to heal her problem. He peeked his head from around a rock and looked around. Just as he was beginning to despair the possibility of them getting lost, he spotted it: a metal frame in the distance. He knew it wasn't the one they went through, which meant it was the Fentons' portal.

The stone they were hiding behind suddenly burst. Niel shielded his face from the debris, then looked up to see Skulker flying toward them. Adrenaline high, Niel carried Ellie with him and zoomed toward the portal.

As he made his way toward it, his stomach sank again when he noticed that the blast doors were closed. They weren't going to make it. Skulker was going to catch them, they weren't going to make it--

Miraculously, the doors opened. Niel's core leapt with relief, and he burst through the portal and was greeted by the human world's air.

He and Ellie landed on a table full of half-built weapons, knocking most of them off. When Niel allowed himself to sit up and look around, he found Danny, in Phantom form, gaping at them with wide eyes. He was standing right next to the portal, a thermos in his hands, so he must have been about to empty the device into the Ghost Zone when Niel and Ellie came in.

Before Danny could ask them what the heck was going on, a third head poked through as Skulker followed them. Danny was quick to jump into action. He shot Skulker with an ectoblast and shoved him back into the portal. As soon as he was submerged in the green swirls, Danny slammed the button next to the portal, and the doors closed.

Once that was dealt with, Danny dropped his forgotten thermos and rushed toward Niel and Ellie. "Dani!" he exclaimed when he saw the melted girl.

She was little more than a puddle by now. Niel slid off the table and watched her with horror.

"It's my fault," he said. "If she wasn't with me--Vlad wouldnt have--"

"Vlad?" Danny said, then shook his head. "It's fine. I can help her, she just needs some Dejecto." He started rummaging around the lab for the Ecto-Dejecto while Niel stayed rooted in place.

"Vlad," Niel said, then sobbed. "Vlad was going to kill her. He was going to kill his own child."

Danny glanced over his shoulder briefly at Niel before continuing to search the lab. "It sounds like you went through some shit with the fruitloop, and I'd comfort you, but Dani really needs her..."

Niel covered his face and cried. All the shock and trauma cascaded down his cheeks in the form of tears as his shoulders shook with every sob. He felt stuck, trapped inside a bubble with no air, suffocating inside.

"I wish I can change everything," he whimpered.

The rummaging stopped. "Please tell me you didn't say the W-word," Danny said.

Niel brought his hands away to look at Danny. Instead, his eyes landed on the thermos on the floor that Danny dropped. The lid was open.

A green cloud of mist formed around Niel, and he heard a woman's chuckle. "So you have wished it," she said, "so it shall be."

The last thing he heard was Danny shouting a very rude swear before the green mist thickened and filled his vision.

[mischiefandspirits]

Doppelgänger (5/?)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Fright Night}

“So a trio of ghosts need to create a haunted house room,” Danny said, smirking at his partners as he dropped down on his bed.

“Think we could just stick Audrey II in there and call it a day?” Tucker asked and sat backwards on the desk chair.

Sam shrugged and sat next to Danny so she could put his head in her lap. “If I stopped pruning her, she should be big enough to give someone a scare by then. I don’t think just one thing will cut it though.”

“We could bring in some more plants for you to move around and have it be a haunted jungle,” Tucker said.

“Oh, so Danny makes a stupid bet and I have to do all the work.”

“Hey, I’m the one who gave Twoey sentience and unless you force her with your powers, she only listens to me. I think that counts for something,” Danny pointed out.

“You know, what is it with you and the non-sapient ghosts and ecto-beings?” Tucker asked. “Twoey, Cujo, those will-o'-wisp blob things that follow you around when we’re in the zone. You’d think Sam would be the one they're attracted to with her nature thing.”

Danny hummed and pressed into Sam’s hand so she’d start carding her fingers through his hair. “Well, like I said, I brought Twoey to life, so maybe she imprinted on me. And Cujo might just be able to sense that you guys hate dogs.”

“We don’t hate dogs. They're just loud and annoying,” Sam said.

“And Cujo is literally as demonic as his namesake,” Tucker added.

“He’s a good boy and this is why he doesn’t like you.”

“He trashed a lab for a toy!” Tucker said.

“And they put him down. Fair's fair.”

“Can’t disagree with you there,” Sam said with narrowed eyes. She’d launched quite the internet scandal when she’d dug up why, exactly, the old kennels she’d found the toy in were abandoned. “Back to the matter at hand though, you still haven’t explained the blobs.”

Danny blushed. “I, uh, might feed them chips sometimes when they show up while I’m cleaning the lab.”

There was a moment of silence before both his partners started snickering.

“Don’t feed the wildlife, Danny,” Sam said mockingly.

“All this time, they’ve been the ghost equivalent of pigeons.”

“Not pigeons! They're actually really sweet. Like… hummingbirds!”

“Sure, dude.”

“Whatever you say, Danny.”

“Can we just get back on topic? Sam, you’re goth, shouldn’t that make you our resident creepy person. What would go good with a living jungle and a literal man-eating plant?”

Sam patted his cheek condescendingly, but leaned back to plot. “I had something else planned, but if you guys insist on the jungle idea…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This has to beat whatever Dash has,” Danny said as the trio looked over the room.

Audrey II’s pot had been attached to the ceiling so her stalks could hang down, dripping -- thankfully only harmful to ectoplasm -- acid. Once the haunted house was open, she’d been instructed to snap at anyone who came near. She luckily didn’t like the taste of humans so there wasn’t any worry about her going overboard.

Sam had brought in some crawling vines and tropical plants to cover the walls and floor so she could have them tug at or trip people as they moved through the room and make it harder for people to find their way through.

Danny’s herd of blobs were drifting around the makeshift jungle, making soft lights flicker through the semi-darkness.

Tucker had set up electric field generators to give the room an eerie feeling.

The pièce de résistance, however…

“Did you get it set up?” Sam asked.

“Try it out,” Danny said.

The boys watched as she walked over to an archway on one side of the room. She walked through it, only to come out an archway on the opposite side a second later.

“Yes!” Tucker cheered, high-fiving Danny. “Thank you, Space Fold!”

Sam tested out all the other archways to be sure they had a similar effect then came over to join the boys. “Congratulations, you’ve built a cartoon hallway.”

“You’re just mad you didn’t think of it,” Danny said and she ruffled his hair.

“Well, my work here is done. Now if you’ll excuse me,” Tucker grabbed the empty pumpkin-shaped candy bucket waiting by the door, “I’m a little late to start scamming some free candy.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny flinched when Sam pinched him for squirming.

“I’m almost done, you big baby.”

“Sorry if I’m a little creeped out by you sticking sharp things very close to my eyes.”

“Just be glad you don’t need contacts. There, perfect.”

Danny smiled when Sam held up a mirror. His hair was covered by a long, braided black wig that a crown of thorns sat atop. His face had been given a slight green tint while his lips were a deep forest. His smile showed off fangs that were just as long and sharp as their ghost form’s and prosthetic ears gave him the same points. Dark makeup made his eyes look sunken, which highlighted his eyes when he let the red of his ghost form glow through. His hands had been given claw-like fake nails before being dipped into blood-red paint while he’d been dressed in black and dark green princely clothes. It all came together to make him look like a ghastly elfin prince.

He stood up and turned to Sam. “Thanks, Sam. This is great.”

She frowned and shook her head. “No, more brooding.”

“I really don-”

She pointed a finger in his face. “You wanted my help. This is me helping. More brooding. Imagine all the light draining from your soul.”

Danny pushed her hand away. “You’re just using this as an excuse to make me goth for a night.”

“Only for a night, but yeah. It’s a good look on you. Now brood or I’ll leave and you can do without my plants.”

Danny rolled his eyes, then tried to channel his angstiest self.

Christmas Danny.

Sam blinked at his scowl. “Wow, I didn’t think you could even get that dark. You’re usually our resident prep.”

Jingle Bells. Gingerbread. SANTA.

Danny shoved it all down, but the scowl only lessened slightly. “That’s because your family always goes away for the holidays.”

Sam looked confused, but didn’t get a chance to ask before they heard footsteps approaching. She transformed, saying, “Showtime. Maybe lose the anger a little.”

“I’ll try.”

She disappeared and all the plants except Audrey II started to sway and glow slightly. They seemed to thicken, making it impossible to see more than a few feet into the room.

Danny shooed the flytrap’s stalks up towards the roof. “Alright, Twoey, just like we practiced. Remember, be a good girl and you get a nice big bottle of ectoplasm as a treat.”

One of the lobes nuzzled him then they all retreated into the darkness Tucker had carefully maneuvered the lights to create on the ceiling.

“This is why she likes us. We spoil her,” a voice whispered in his ear.

“I don’t… I only spoil her a little.”

Sam chuckled and he felt her drift off.

“Mr. Fenton, it’s time,” William Lancer said as he arrived at the door to the room Daniel had taken. It was painted with toxic green glowing runes and vines as well as the words, The Kingdom of Thorns.

The door creaked open slowly to reveal Daniel standing a few feet away.

Automatic door, nice touch, William noted. The boy was also in a more elaborate costume than Dashiell’s. His contacts were actually a bit disconcerting with how the light made them appear to glow. It wasn’t helped either that the normally cheerful, if downtrodden, boy had on a scowl that looked rather resentful and fell.

The boy gave a graceful bow. In an empty voice, he announced, “Welcome. May your stay be eternal.”

A shiver went up William’s spine. The boy’s voice sounded off. Echoey-perhaps, except it didn’t sound like Daniel’s voice echoing back. More like multiple someones were whispering his words alongside him. Some sort of speaker setup, maybe? But the teacher swore the voices were coming from Daniel.

Pushing down the emotions, William pointed to the door. “I hope that’s not permanent.”

“What?” The eerie expression and voice were gone in a blink. “Oh, yes. I mean no, it’s not permanent. It’s just a little ectoplasm from my parent’s lab. I have the dissolving agent.”

That… was not as comforting as Daniel seemed to think it should be. “Is that safe?”

“Yeah, sure. Pure ectoplasm is harmless to humans in small doses. You could eat the amount on there and still be perfectly fine. It’s the charged stuff that’s dangerous.”

Still not as comforting as the boy’s smile made it out to be. “Right. Shall we begin?”

Daniel gave a toothy -- fangy? -- grin and stepped to the side, gesturing William forward.

The door slammed closed once the teacher started walking, not close enough to hit, but enough that he could feel the breeze of it passing on the back of his neck. He glanced back and was surprised to see vines covering the door. He made note of it.

“You’re free to roam, but I would stick to the path,” Daniel said as William passed him, his show voice back on and just as creepy as the first time. “And I wouldn’t recommend eating anything. Or being eaten.”

William glanced back, only to see the boy was gone. But he had just heard him right behind him.

He shook his head and continued forward.

So far the room itself didn’t look particularly scary. It mostly looked like a poorly lit and abandoned greenhouse without the glass walls and ceiling. Though there was the odd lights flying about, like fireflies the size of softballs. The plants almost seemed to be moving as well, like in the wind though William couldn’t feel anything, and he swore they were glowing a bit. Some sort of paint?

“You didn’t put anything harmful on these plants, right?”

“Of course not,” whispered something in his ear and he jerked away. He looked around, but couldn’t see anything.

“No, they’re Sam’s. She’d kill me if I hurt her plants,” came Daniel’s normal voice from somewhere across the room.

“G-Good.”

“Are you alright, Mr. Lancer? You’re not lost are you?”

“No, Mr. Fenton.” He shook himself. He must have been hearing things. He took a step forward and immediately felt like he’d stepped into something, or through something. He rubbed his arms as goosebumps began to crawl up them. He made a note and quickly moved on.

After a few moments more of the random goosebumps and the feeling of vines or leaves brushing him despite being sure he wasn’t getting close to any of the plants, he reached an archway. The teacher frowned and he pulled aside the curtain to look in. He swore the passage was supposed to lead directly into the next room, but instead he found a short hallway. It appeared to be a pitch-black void littered in stars that went on forever, but directly ahead, perhaps two feet in, was another doorway with a curtain. Some sort of mirror trick?

He made another note and walked carefully through the hall. Perhaps it was the star pattern, but he almost felt weightless as he passed through. He pulled the curtain aside… and found himself in the room he’d started in? But that was impossible! And yet, the windows were on the archway’s left, just as they had been for the arch he’d come from. The chandelier hanging above, original to the house though Daniel had wrapped it in vines, was also the same one that had been in the previous room. He must have curved around, except he was sure he’d gone in a straight line.

“Something wrong, Mr. Lancer?”

The teacher jumped and spun around to find Daniel standing right next to him, staring up at him through half-lidded eyes. His head was tilted almost unnaturally to the side and he was giving his usual smile, though the sharp fangs made it feel like he was baring his teeth instead. Some of the flying lights were perched on his crown, but their shapes were indistinct which made it appear the crown was alight with swirling green flames.

“Just-just taking in your creativity, Mr. Fenton. I wish you would put such effort into your schoolwork.”

His grin grew and his eyes glowed brighter. “What can I say, I guess I have an affinity for all things ghostly and dead.” He turned on his heel and disappeared into the foliage. “I’ll leave you to it.”

If William was shaking as he moved through the room, there was no one around to tell. He kept a careful eye out, but even still it felt like more plants were brushing against him and he was in a constant state of goosebumps. Then, just as he reached the center of the room, a hand grabbed his shoulder.

He shrieked and spun around, dropping his clipboard in the process. There was no one there. He looked all around him, but couldn’t find any sign of a person.

Something creaked above him.

He slowly looked up and saw something moving in the shadows, multiple long necks and wide heads with gaping maws.

“Mr. Lancer?”

“The Iliad and the Odyssey!” William shouted, looking down to see Daniel standing right in front of him, looking worried.

Aside from his glowing crown, none of his showman’s grace was on him anymore. Not even in his voice as he glanced down and said, “Oh, you dropped your stuff.”

William’s eyes widened as he spotted the three long stalks that had lowered down from the ceiling, each carrying the heads of a horror-movie approximation of a venus flytrap. The flat lobes were all around a foot long and would have looked normal, if not huge, except for the toxic green acid dripping from their centers.

At the same time that Daniel leaned down, one of them shot forward to strike like a snake, its jaws closing around the space his head had been not a moment before. They all darted back to the ceiling as Daniel stood up, appearing his normal awkward and helpful self.

He held out William’s pen and clipboard. “Here you go.”

The teacher’s hands were shaking as he took his things from his student.

Daniel rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry, I guess we might have gone a little overboard. Was it the halls? I can take those out.”

Something grabbed William’s ankle. “No! No, it was wonderful. Leave it as is. I just remembered I have somewhere to be.”

“So… does that mean…”

“Yes, Mr. Fenton. You win. Now how do I get out of here?”

Daniel pointed to the side.

There was a straight path to the door that most definitely had not been there before.

William shook the vine off his leg and walked quickly out of the open door.

Danny threw his hands up and cheered as soon as the door shut behind Lancer. He turned and gave Sam a high-five. “That was great! He didn’t even stay long enough to see Twoey in action.”

“We’re an oblivious idiot,” she said as she turned visible.

“What do you mean?”

She plucked off one of the blob ghosts nuzzling his head and shook her own. “Nevermind. Come on, we’ve got a few new ideas from that test run.”

“Cool.”

“By the way, that line about eating ectoplasm. We haven’t actually done that, right?”

“Well, not on purpose, but you’ve seen my house. Sometimes a bit of ectoplasm ends up in the food.”

“We’re never eating at our house again.”

“Hey, it’s okay. I never let you guys stay for dinner when my parents or I cook and Jazz sterilizes everything so she never gets ectoplasm in anything.”

“Never again.”

“And besides, we’re ghosts now. Ghost food is made of ecto-”

Sam put her hand over his mouth. “Never.”

He nodded. Once she’d removed her hand and floated off, he muttered, “It’s not even bad as long as the food doesn’t come to life. Just kind of citrusy.”

“We’re going to throw up!”

[ectoplasmicbutton]

Ghostly Mysteries- Chapter 1

The sun shines down upon the forest of a small town, the birds sing happily and peaceful silence ruffles through the air. Soft footsteps of creatures known and unknown press through the grass and undergrowth, happily hidden away from curious eyes.

A loud groan interrupts the peace of the forest, followed by stomping feet as a set of twins push their way through the shrubbery.

“Blenngggghhhh... Dipper! How much longer do we have to stay out here? It’s hot!” The girl, Mable, complained to her brother, her pink dolphin sweater drenched in sweat.

Her brother, known as Dipper, didn’t even look up from the journal he was holding, “Well, maybe if you didn’t wear three-inch thick sweaters everyday in the middle of summer, you wouldn’t be so hot.”

Mable glared at the back of his head, “They’re not three inches! They’re 2.67, thank you very much. Besides, these are my summer edition sweaters! My sumweaters, if you will.”

“Your sumweaters are going to give you heat stroke.”

“Well, if you keep that attitude up it might just happen!”

“It won’t be a karma thing, Mabel,” Dipper retorts, finally looking from the journal to his sister, “Besides, I know theres something out here. I saw it!”

Mabel rolls her eyes, “I’m not sayin’ you didn’t see anything, but we see something everyday! It’s probably just gnomes or somethin’.” Nevertheless, she takes off her sweater and ties it around her waist, knowing they’re not going to be leaving the heat anytime soon.

Dipper turns back to his journal and ducks under a fallen tree, “Yeah but... I know this is different. I can feel it.” He flips slowly through the old pages of the book as Mable opts to go over the log instead of following her brother’s steps of going underneath.

Dipper heads deeper into the forest, pushing away more branches and leaves as he does so. He’s so focused on his journal that he fails to process Mable’s sharp gasp and small tap. It’s only when she starts furiously poking his arm that he looks up and glares.

“Wha-?!” His mouth is covered and he notices the look on his sisters face, expression softening and following the line her finger made towards a lump of... something next to a tree. Mable removes her hand as the twins slowly approach.

The closer they get, the more they can see. A head of black hair, blue jeans, a white t-shirt, pale skin... but something isn’t right. Dipper strains his eyes until the figure shifts, visibly contorting in pain even as it seems asleep. That’s when Dipper and Mable get a proper look at him.

The figure is a human boy, probably a teenager, and he was covered in blood.

————————————

Needless to say, Danny Fenton was absolutely not having a good week so far.

Sure, it started fine; school was out and he was spending time with his friends at the mall before, naturally, his ghost sense went off. It turned out to just be the box ghost, so he told his friends to keep going, that he‘s going to be fine, that they should have fun and he’ll join them in a bit.

That was two days ago.

Now, he was helping his giant, on-the-run-from-the-ghost-police dog friend, Wulf, with being on the run from the ghost police. Wulf had met up with him after he had trapped the box ghost in his “cruel cylindrical container”, explaining (rather slowly so Danny could understand) that Walker had found them. Of course, what Wulf had failed to explain was that Walker and his endless army of guards were two minutes behind Wulf, and had appeared through the last portal that he had opened.

Without the time to tell his friends, Danny climbed onto Wulf’s back as he sliced a new portal to the Ghost Zone into existence. They leaped through, followed by the Warden and a handful of the guards. They’d been jumping in and out of portals to get away, but around the seventh one, a guard had gotten lucky and thrown a spear, which had landed its mark.

Into Danny’s side.

White, blinding pain hit Danny as the spear sunk into his skin. Ectoplasm, with a tint of blood, erupted from the wound and soaked through the rubbery material of his hazmat suit. Wulf, who had seen what happened, slashed a portal into existence and quickly dived through. Danny’s vision was gaining spots, but he fought to stay awake. Wulf was landing in a forest, speaking in fast Esperanto with only a few words that Danny had heard and understood. He blinked for what he thought was a moment, but when he opened his eyes again he was on the floor and surrounded by grass. Wulf was leaning over him, ghostly black fur blocking out the blinding sun. He looked concerned, speaking in the few English he knew, “Stay here, be back. Stay quiet.”

It took everything Danny had to not let out a scream when Wulf tried, and failed, to take the spear out carefully. The dog-like ghost had then set Danny against a nearby tree, telling him again to “stay here” before launching off into the sky and opening a portal to lure the guards away from Danny.

The last thing Danny saw was the portal closing.

The last thing Danny felt was dread.

—————————

Dipper didn’t know what to make of the bloodied teenager they had decided to drag back to their home. It was questionable, sure, and sketchy, no doubt, but he looked like he needed help! Besides, questioning him when he woke up probably wouldn’t hurt, right?

They had found that the blood came from a wound on his right side, which was deep and, judging from the clean edges, looked like it was cut by some sort of blade (all thanks to the hours Dipper spent reading mystery novels). Mabel didn’t see a problem with using her sweater as something to help stop the bleeding, so thats what they did. Dipper grabbed his left arm, Mabel on his right, and they started their trek back to the Mystery Shack carrying a stabbed stranger they found in the woods with a pink dolphin sweater tied on his waist.

When they finally arrived (Mabel kicking the door open and shouting “medic!”), Soos took one look at them before dropping his broom and making all three of the current tourists leave the building. Wendy, who was definitely NOT napping by the register, leapt into action, “What happened?!” She asked, alarmed by the sight of the body.

“We don’t know!”

“It wasn’t us, I swear!”

Wendy disappeared into the kitchen to get the first aid kit while the twins set the teen on the table Soos had cleared off. The movement must’ve finally jostled the teen into stirring awake, because thats exactly what happened. His eyes fluttered open, slowly and squinting at the light, but they were open nonetheless.

Suddenly, he shot up. No one in the room expected any movement from him in his current state, so they all leaped away. It appeared that he also regretted the movement, seeing as the teens whole body contorted and he let out a silent yell. He fell back to the table, glaring at everyone in the room.

“Where am I?” He questioned, a hand on his wound.

Dipper stepped up, “You’re in the Mystery Shack. We brought you back because you were hurt in the woods! Well, I mean you’re still hurt and not much has changed but you’re awake now so-“

He was interrupted by Wendy entering the room again with a large first aid kit. She saw that the boy was awake, so she tried to appear as calm as possible as to not startle him, “Hey, so like you’re hurt and we can try to answer all your questions while I clean you up. What’s your name?”

The teen glanced at everyone in the room,

“You tell me all of yours first.” His voice was raspy, but light.

The redhead nodded, “Fair enough. I’m Wendy, this is Soos-“ The janitor waved, looking slightly pale from the sight of blood but still trying to appear as friendly as possible. “-Mable-“ “Hi! You’re wearing my sumweater!” “-and Dipper.”

The younger boy tipped his hat with what he hoped was a friendly manner, but one could never be sure.

“If you see an old man around here demanding for money, thats Grunkle Stan,” Wendy explained, gathering things from the first aid kit, “I’m going to lift up your shirt a bit to clean out your wound, if thats alright?”

When the teen gave a small nod, Wendy immediately got to work. He sat calmly, wincing only once or twice even when Wendy put the rubbing alcohol on to clean it.

“Wow Wendy,” Mable exclaimed, “I didn’t know you were a doctor!”

“My mom taught me this kinda stuff when I was little. We were always active little kids, y’know?”

“Hey,” Dipper cut in, “you never gave us your name.”

The teen looked away from the ceiling and to the group he saw around the table, “Uh-Danny. My name is Danny Fenton. Do you mind telling me where I am again?”

“The Mystery Shack,” Dipper responded, “It’s in Gravity Falls, Oregon.

The boy-Danny-bit his lip. He seemed stressed.

“Where are you from, Danny?” Mable asked.

If there was one thing Danny could do, it was string up a lie on the spot, “I’m from Amity Park, Illinois. We decided to take a road trip, we must’ve passed through here.” Technically, it wasn’t ALL a lie. They (being Danny and Wulf) decide to go on a trip through multiple places, it just wasn’t by choice.

“Okay, and how did you get that?” Dipper asked, pointing to the wound that Wendy was now bandaging up.

Danny glanced at him, then to the bandages, “I fell. Hit a sharp rock, then hit my head on something... next thing I know, I’m here.”

Even as Mable, Soos, and Wendy continued making small conversation with the teenager on the table, Dipper could tell something wasn’t right. He was lying. He was hiding something, and Dipper was going to get to the bottom of it.————————

end chapt 1!

[phantomphangphucker]

In My Veins Flows Chaos, But I Could Do Without It Being This Obvious - DannyMay - Day 29 Vein

Summary: The science of a glow bug

This is one of those moments where Danny really really should have been paying attention in class, as he looks between the ectoplasma ball and his shocked teacher; before looking around the classroom and chuckling, “well this is awkward”.

—half an hour ago—

Mr. Trent shakes his head at his most frustrating student, really the most frustrating student to every teacher. Watching as the boy’s off reading some strange book he's sure isn’t from the library or related to science. The kid’s smart, he could probably ace every class, if he cared.

But today that kid would participate, even a little, as the Fenton parents finally finished the little project he commissioned from them. Sure, it was pretty well known the Fenton boy didn’t care for ghost stuff and didn’t agree with his parents on a lot of things. But Mr. Trent’s sure everyone will at least get some interest out of this and with how the Fenton home is, Fenton will have the best reaction.

Mr. Trent pats on the top of the box for, what he’s decided to call, the ectoplasma ball. He doesn’t even really want to know what horrid name the Fenton’s had come up with for it. “Now students, since this is Amity, everyone and their mother have ectoplasmic contamination. Of course, we now know this isn’t really something to fret about in smaller quantities”, he continues speaking as he unboxes the sphere, “now, I’d assume you all are well aware of novelty plasma balls. Well, it turns out hyper-concentrated pure ectoplasm contained inside glass filled with a selection of gases has a similar effect”.

Mr. Trent won’t claim to be surprised that most of the class is paying acute attention now, nearly everyone always did when anything had to do with ghosts. Turning on the device, Mr. Trent traces his fingers over it; causing the neon green sphere inside a glass one to shoot out green ectoplasm like webbing, to where his fingers are touching it. Half the class looks downright giddy, while the other half tries to seem unimpressed; and then there’s Fenton, who doesn’t even look like he’s noticed.

Pulling his fingers away and showing how they’re glowing faintly green now, as he speaks, “unlike the electricity in regular plasma balls, this ectoplasm concentrate is only attracted to ectoplasm, no matter how small. So it pulls all the little flakes of generalised free-floating ectoplasm in a person to whatever part of that person contacts the sphere. Making that persons little bit of ectoplasm visible and glowing for a few hours”. Tapping on his fingertips, “the more you have the brighter it will glow, if you have enough the ectoplasm might just pile up. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people’s entire hands can light up”. And that reaction is exactly what he expects from Fenton. The kid lives surrounded by ecto everything, after all, no way he doesn’t have the highest ectoplasmic contamination in school.

Pointing at Star as she raises her hand, “what if a ghost touched it? Would they just light up all over?”. Mr. Trent wiggles his hand back and forth in the air, “the ectoplasm in ghosts isn’t generalised or free-floating. Meaning it wouldn’t get pulled or collected at all. Instead, this would just make the ectoplasm inside them glow extremely brightly wherever it is. Many ghosts have ectoplasm covering every bit of their body so they would indeed just glow green all over, but some only have their ectoplasm in specific areas. Meaning only those areas would light up or would light up more than the rest of them. Ghosts can also have ectoplasm of different colours, so they might not even glow entirely green, but also purple or blue or red in spots”. Now of course Mr. Trent wasn’t crazy enough to flat-out drag in a ghost to prove this.

Mr. Tent smiles at the eager faces and decides to hand it around to a few people, slightly curious to see if Fenton even noticed the change in classroom norm. After about six people have rubbed their fingers or hands all over it, some having enough to actually leave green light tracers in the air with their fingertips. Quite a few of the students start pointing at Fenton and mouthing, “do him, do him”. Mr. Tent won’t claim to be surprised everyone’s officially curious what his reaction will be, there’s not a soul in Amity that would even doubt he had the strongest case of ectocontamination. Especially with all weird things he does and that happen to him. He’s heard more than a few rumours of the boy disappearing or appearing randomly, unusual shows of strength, and getting to impossible places. Heck, no one even knows how he gets to school anymore, no way he was walking halfway across town every day.

Fenton puts down his book as Mr. Trent steps in front of him, plopping the ectoplasma ball right into his hands as soon as they’re free. Mr. Trent would feel bad about startling the jumpy paranoid boy but he wouldn’t be startled if he’d been paying even a slight amount of attention. Mr. Trent would also almost be impressed at this level of tuning out your surroundings if he didn’t just notice the earbuds sneakily wrapped behind his ears, with the cord clearly running down the back of his shirt.

But he doesn’t exactly get to dwell on that, as all of Fenton’s skin glows green faintly, while his veins glow green almost painfully bright; and his chest looks like someone just shoved a blue sun in there.

—Return to Danny present—

“Well, this is awkward”.

Danny can easily see the borderline absurd level of glowing from all his arms veining out of the corner of his eyes, flicking his eyes over to the board to read about this “ectoplasma ball” and mentally facepalming. At least it won’t hurt him but this is bad, “uh” is all Danny can think to say.

Flicking his eyes back down to the sphere in his palms, the ectoplasm in it is practically all splashed up against where he’s touching it, and he can feel the raw energy in it. This stuff is pure, very pure and very concentrated indeed; which really makes him want to consume it. Pure highly concentrate raw ectoplasm was horrendously delicious and a major power boost. His core would lap it up hungrily. Just touching it like this, even with the barrier, he could feel the prickling power and it leeching into him.

Pretty well shoving it back to the teacher before he does something really stupid and after hearing what sounds like lightning crackling in his hair.

The entire class gets pulled out of their shocked stupor at the sight of his hair frizzing out and little extremely bright green electrical arches zapping between the strands of his hair. Mr. Trent has got no clue what to say, he was expecting a big reaction but nothing like this. It was like this kid was literally flowing pure ectoplasm through all his veins, to the degree where it seeped into all of his skin. Flicking his eyes from Fenton’s toxic glowing green ones to his chest, the colour properly clicking into Mr. Trent’s head. Blue ectoplasm wasn’t even possible in ectocontamination and his hair was a weird reaction too, like he’d actually absorbed in energy and was now overflowing with it.

One of the students slowly gets up and clicks off the lights, and everyone pretty well gasps as the glow from Fenton easily lights up the whole room. The room’s silent enough for everyone to hear him mutter, “um... So I guess I’m probably going to need to give an explanation for this?”.

Danny runs his hand through his hair, which results in lots of rather loud zapping sounds, as his teacher nods slack-jawed. Pointing his finger at the teacher and at a couple, more loose-lipped, classmates, “keep this in school, I’d rather not deal with my parents wanting to see and poke at me for hours on end”. Danny’s a little surprised they all nod readily, well till Kwan speaks up, “Fenton dude, no one really wants them to go off about ghosts to anyone. No one wants anyone to seem more ghostly or whatever to them, especially not the guy who has to live with ‘em”.

Danny moves his hand back down to his desk, noticing the massive light tracers he’s leaving. Waving his hand around a bit, “okay, that’s cool”. Shaking his head before turning his attention back to the class, “to say I am, contaminated, might be a bit of an understatement”. Everyone nods at him, but Mr. Trent points at his chest. Looking down at himself, Danny realises his core is basically on full display as his teacher talks, “ectocontamination, it’s only green. So clearly, that’s more than just an understatement”.

Danny can’t help but pat a bit affectionately at his chest, he’s pretty well screwed here but maybe he could weasel his way out of a full reveal. Chuckling awkwardly, “uh, yeah. You don’t say. It’s a bit weird, my core being visible like this”. Mr. Trent squints at him, “humans don’t, exactly, have those”. Danny’s glad this teacher is one that doesn’t utterly hate him, not to mention he’s open to some plain weird ideas. Patting at his chest again, “you try getting fried by the entire ghost zone and not wind up with one”. Rubbing his neck and looking around as a bunch of people gasp and whisper amongst each other, “I, uh, a portal, ghost portal, opened up on me”.

Shrugging a bit as multiple people cringe, Star commenting, “that sounds insanely painful Danny. How’d that not kill you?”.

“Dumb luck, with a side of luck. My core forming, sort of, protected me. But, uh, it being there, rather means, my ectocontamination can’t actually, like, dissipate”, Mr. Trent can’t help but find that horrendously worrying. Sure, he’s glad this saved his student, but everyone was constantly ectocontaminated in Amity because of the ever-present ectoplasm from ghosts and ecto everything replenishing the ectoplasm that dissipated out of people. So everyone’s levels fluctuated based on how much ghost related stuff or ghosts they came into contact with. Or how much time they spent where there was high levels of or recent ghost activity. If Fenton couldn’t dissipate any of this then, “so, you, you just keep getting worse? Absorbing more and more? How could that possibly not be harmful?”. Waving his hand over Fenton’s brightly glowing from, if he focused he could swear he could actually see the ectoplasm flowing or pulsing in his veins, “this, this is already beyond what’s safe. Drastically so”.

Obviously, Fenton’s aware of that as he rubs his neck, “yeah, sort of. This is kind of why my family can’t know. They’ll try to decontaminate me. See, having it, at any level, isn’t what’s bad for me. It’s not having it that would be, well, bad. My core, it feeds off of, consumes, all the free-floating ectoplasm around”. Mr. Trent finds that does make sense, a core needs to be supported, that’s half the reason ghosts stayed in the ghost zone. So their cores and ectoplasm could feed off of and be supported by the free-floating ectoplasm there. But if Fenton just had a core to feed then maybe Amity’s freakishly high levels of free-floating ectoplasm was enough for him. But that gets Mr. Trent to notice something else strange, Fenton’s ectoplasm should have pooled. The entirety of his arms, and probably chest, should just be lit up solidly green. Instead, all his ectoplasm stayed in place, well, ok, that wasn’t quite true. Fenton’s hands and forearms were pretty well solidly green but his veins still stood out vibrantly. Which could only mean, “your ectoplasm, most of it isn’t generalised. It’s raw, sentient. Like a ghosts unique kind”.

A couple of his classmates' nod and Danny was really hoping he didn’t get called out on that. But if he doesn’t give an explanation they’re going to make assumptions and possibly connections, “um, yeah. My core creates it. It um, flows alongside my blood. Hence the veins”. Danny’s almost worried by how curious his teacher looks now, and pretty well the entire class has just straight up moved their desks around him. He’s pretty used to being the town freak but this was like being a literal freak show. Which he kind of was but even if he did have pride in that now, he can’t say he likes being gawked at by his entire class.

His teacher mutters, “how is that even sustainable?”, as he walks up to the board and starts drawing. Danny’s thankful for the eyes being taken off him even if he’s still clearly the focus of everyone’s attention. As the teacher draws a little cartoon ghost and squiggles coming out of it, tapping on the board, “ghosts having raw and sentient ectoplasm is what causes them to ectocontaminate things, leeching out ectoenergy that becomes free-floating ectoplasm. Like how humans shed skin, do you, do you do this too? Because, with what you’re saying, you should”.

Danny winces a bit, knowing full well that well over half the free-floating ectoplasm was from him. Though for him it was more accurate to call the free-floating ectoplasm, that came from him anyway, latent ectoplasm. Since he could tap into it and use it to create things or heal faster. Nodding awkwardly at his teacher, “yeah, I’m sort of a walking contaminant. But, um, not nearly as bad as a ghost. I’ve got bones, organs, skin, the works; to contain it. That's why it’s sustainable”.

“So what? You self-contaminate and feed off of that and the free-floating ectoplasm?”, Danny nods at Star, it’s damn weird and is kind of like auto-cannibalism, but it’s not that different from someone chewing on and eating their own skin. Which a large portion of people did, but just didn’t really think about how kind of weird it was. “People consume bits of their own skin or fingernails or even hair, consuming my own expunged ectoenergy is just a bit more, Amity”, a couple look grossed out but pretty well everyone seems to agree with his logic.

Mr. Trent taps his chin, it does make sense. Weird but reasonable. Though that means Fenton is still contaminating things and probably people actually, “well, since you’re actually a constant in Amity your ectoenergies free-floating ectoplasm should be all over the place. Heck, most townsfolk have to be carrying some from you. Not only that but a ghost having their ectoenergies free-floating ectoplasm coating everything is what establishes a lair. So?”. Mr. Trent’s too curious to feel bad about prying, even if Fenton winces a bit. Besides, Fenton’s just a really weird human, a really ghostly one but still. Better to have him lay claim to the, really ghostly, town than some ghost. Sure, there was Phantom but he wasn’t always here, though how he’d show up here so quickly and then vanish was a complete mystery. Most just assumed he had a sense for when danger happened here.

Fenton rubs his neck, “I prefer not to think about it that way, kind of creepy. But yeah, I’m sort of in everyone and thing”, pretty well everyone could see him cringing as he talked. Fenton straightens out some, “and Amity’s my home. That’s all a lair is, just add in ectoplasm markings and stuff”. Mr. Trent tilts his head a bit, that’s oversimplifying it a lot. But he did still get his answer, technically. Amity was indeed a lair by ghost standards, it just had to be extra weird, like always, and have a human for a keeper. Even more odd that he was just a kid and yet odder that Fenton didn’t try to protect his lair. Well, not being a ghost likely means he doesn’t have ghost nature, which is what makes them all so protective of their places. Maybe that’s why Phantom was around, protecting the lair of someone who couldn’t, or just didn’t, protect it themselves? It would be something the heroic ghost would do.

Jesse Reinbache, one of the geeks, apparently agrees with Mr. Trent’s line of thought, “shouldn’t you, like, protect your lair or whatever then? It’s not like you’re not capable of it”.

Danny is not liking where this is going but the kid’s fully right, Danny already is protecting the place. He’s just trying to avoid them knowing that, “I’m sixteen, give me a break. Besides, if my parents even suspected I was fighting or doing anything with or related to ghosts, I would never hear the end of it”. Sighing a bit as they all look rather unimpressed even if most nod and he can hear a few mutter about how “he’s got a point there”. Getting a bit startled as his teacher speaks up again, “well what about Phantom? It’s he basically picking up your slack?”. Ok, now Danny just feels slightly insulted. And the class is judging him, highly unimpressed, again. Everyone loves Phantom, which he does like, but now they’re all thinking he’s making a hassle for Phantom. Sighing a bit defeatedly, he had to salvage this otherwise this was definitely not staying in school at all, “Phantom doesn’t do what he does alone. Partners you could say. But like seriously, my parents hate him. So hush”.

Danny gives himself a mental pat on the back as everyone just seems to accept that. Mr. Trent nods, “that actually explains a lot. Lair keepers can manipulate their lairs so you’re probably the one who covers up Phantom’s ectosignature, probably even making portals for him to get in and out. Not to mention how he gets Fenton tech and always seems to know what it does”. Danny’s not sure whether to roll with this or beg him to shut up. Though he damn well wishes he could make damn portals.

Danny groans as everyone expectedly looks at him for a demonstration, “fine”. Danny covers up his eyes in a show of seeming embarrassed, though he’s really aiming to keep them from noticing his eyes glowing even more; as he swirls his fingers to severely condense his latent ectoplasm in the air into an easily visible spherical ectolight.

Mr. Trent judges by the slight smirk on Fenton’s face, as everyone passes around the ectolight, that he’s actually a bit proud of what he can do. Which he absolutely should be, especially if he’s a little hero or sidekick himself. No wonder Fenton was never around at the exact same time as Phantom, yet always showed up nearby. They couldn’t actually risk being seen together and heck, Fenton could probably teleport himself and/or Phantom anywhere in town by making portals. Mr. Trent goes wide-eyed as something hits him, talking almost quietly at Fenton, “that’s why you run off all the time. To help or get Phantom”. Mr. Trent’s not sure why that makes Fenton glare at the ectoplasma ball before responding, “I can, um, tell if a ghost shows up in town. When, where, who...”. Multiple people mutter, “so that’s why Phantom seems to just always know, he’s got a damn informant”. This makes complete sense to Mr. Trent, of course, he could tell if someone entered his lair, like having a convenient security system.

Danny is straight up glad that his teacher has apparently ran out of questions and, way too close to home, ideas. Watching as everyone goes after the etcoplasma ball again, he’ll admit it is kind of cool but he kind of hates the thing right now.

Blinking down at his brightly glowing veins after the bell rings before walking up to his teacher, “so, um, how long does this last?”. While he appreciates the energy boost, way better than any coffee or crappy energy drink, he’d like to not look like a damn glow bug with glow sticks for veins. Mr. Trent chuckles, “if you’d been paying attention you’d know. Normally I wouldn’t tell you as punishment but that would be pretty unfair and mean here”, smiling warmly, “it should only last three hours at most but that’s tested on regular, core and raw ectoplasm free, people”. Danny shrugs, he’s a bit too used to uncertainties, “well it’s just lunch now so here's hoping”. At least his teacher has the decency to look rather apologetic, though Danny can’t really blame the guy; it’s not like he knew.

Danny plops down with his tray, trying to ignore all the staring while he startles the crap out his friends, “dude! Oh man, you look like someone turned on every single light inside you. How’d you explain this?”. Sam pokes at his veining, “kind of cyber goth though”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “me having a core is public knowledge now, Mr. Trent’s decided Amity’s my lair, and I’m Phantom’s sidekick. But hey! Managed to get everyone to agree to keeping this a Casper high secret. So I’m not utterly fucked, in regards to my parents anyway”. Though he’ll be amazed if his parents don’t hear about this eventually, he just needed some time to prepare for that. Tucker points a fry at him, “it is your lair though, you’re just fucking weird about it”.

“I’m weird about every, Tuck”.

Danny’s a bit surprised no one peppered him with questions too much about, well, everything; as the day goes on. But then again, pretty well everyone had heard the answers he’d given out in class, by the end of lunch. Thee teachers are all just trying to play it off like it’s normal now, which he’s both thankful for and weirded out by. Though, staring down at his veins in eight just makes him plain happy that the shit is finally fully fading away. At this point, all he had left was dimly glowing green veining, and the blue glow from his chest wasn’t viewable through his clothing anymore; well, unless the lights were turned off.

But heading out of class, he knows damn well he’s not going home till it’s completely worn off.

Valerie gives him an excuse though, as she practically jumps on him as soon as he’s alone in the schoolyard. His friends having to go home because of family crap or whatever. “Alright, so I know we’re not the closest but what the hell Danny. I’ve heard so many downright strange rumours today and you damn well bet I saw you being a freaking glow stick. So just what?”, Valerie plops down and stares incredulously at his chest. Which Danny pats in response, “yeah the core one’s true. But if I had it my way no one would know. My life’s weird enough without the school being freaky towards me”, sighing a bit, “and yes I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But like, “I have what’s functionally a ghostly supernova in my chest”, is just not something you tell people”. Valerie nods and sighs, clearly understanding but also glad for the apology, “I’m more concerned by the lair rumour actually, can’t really claim to be surprised that your bodies messed up. Your parents aren’t exactly safe”.

“Point, but, um, that one’s sort of true too. I just don’t, like, think of it that way. Amity’s just my home, even if my ecto crap is all over everything”, which absolutely was useful to Danny and gave him a major advantage over any ghostly foes; it was just still too weird to view his town as his ghostly lair.

“Yeah well, it’s got to be affecting the town. Outside of just contaminating everything. Even if you don’t mean to, you’re probably manipulating or changing things”, Danny damn well knew he was, a little anyway. The colour palette of Amity was off for a reason, especially at night. And he did have a bad habit of changing the colour of things in response to his mood.

“Not my fault, I can’t change this. Also can’t say I really want to, this is my normal”, Danny’s not really impressed but he pats his chest affectionately and makes sure that affections is palpable. Valerie eyes him for a bit before sighing, “I know and I get it, I do. It’s just sort of hard to be ok with. Sure, I’d rather you over some ghost, but I’d rather Amity be less ghostly altogether”. Danny can’t help but snort at that, ghostly was pretty well what defined Amity now, “like that’s ever going to happen. Ghosts are a part of Amity, Amity’s normal. The veins of Amity run with human life and ghost ectoplasm, like me, and separating them really would never end well”. Valerie’s sigh makes it pretty obvious that she knows that, even if she doesn’t like it.

Valerie nods, “wishful thinking I guess, but that’s got to feel weird, for you. Having both, having a core, being a halfa”.

Danny coughs and blinks a bunch before composing himself, while Valerie smirks, “I’m not an idiot, Phantom. Though mad props for the impressive lying skills you got. Now we both know each other’s secret identities”. Blinking at her some more, “yeah, should have seen that coming. Um, still friends though?”.

“Duh, I can’t blame you for lying or hiding. I did the same damn thing. But how did this even happen to you? The portal opening on you rumour is a little bit out there”, Danny can tell she’s not impressed that he’s laughing at that. Running a hand through his hair and smirking a bit, “that’s the truth. You’re very right on my parents not being safe. Built a portal, put the on button on the inside and I accidentally touched it. Then blam! Ghost zone to the face, well whole body really but still”. Valerie gapes at him a bit, “wow, that is actually kind of sad. In the pathetic kind of way. Your parents are hazards”.

Danny nods, before checking under his shirt for glow, “you have no idea. But I’m alright with the end result, like you with huntress stuff. And thank fuck this shits gone now”. She snickers as the two get up, “they’re gonna know about this incident eventually, you know. Whole towns gonna”. Danny nods with a bit of a frown, prompting Valerie to speak up again, “well, they might just listen to a fellow hunter better than you. So consider that an option, it’s not like they know I’m just a teenager”. Danny blinks and smiles slowly, “I think I just might take you up on that. See how things play out, I’ve never been much of a planner”.

“No, you’re just an idiot. An idiot with a fucking mess in your veins”, Danny just gives her a shit-eating grin as they head off.

End.

[darks-ink]

Play Your Part 5

Chapter 5: Not Only Will I Soar Again

I am Very Boldly posting this chapter with linebreaks and readmores and praying it doesn’t turn out like the last one. And if it does, well... Tumblr let me edit back the readmore today so it won’t be messed up forever, anyway.

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Danny’s eyes watered as he reached out. One hand, shaky with emotion, made contact with the picture. Ultimate proof that it was… that this was real.

“Is-- Is that--”

“A ghost core?” Tucker grinned wider. “That’s exactly what it is, yeah.”

“But then…” Danny frowned, one hand still on the core on the photo, the other reaching for his chest. “Why isn’t it… working, then? If I have the core, why don’t I have the powers?”

“Well, we can’t know for sure, of course, but…” Jazz placed one finger on the photograph as well, tapping the core. “This isn’t an active ghost core. We have pictures of Danny’s, and of a few regular ghosts, and this one looks even less active than Danny’s when he’s in human form.”

“Oh.” One hand still rested on his chest, as if he could feel the core’s hum now that he knew it existed. “How? Why?”

“We already figured that you lost your powers because you purged your ectoplasmic contamination, right?” Jazz shrugged, gently pulling the photograph out of his hand. “In doing so you must’ve run your core out of ectoplasm, forcing it into some sort of hibernation. I think, if we can carefully feed it ectoplasm again, that it might activate again.”

“And that’ll get me my powers again?” Danny brightened up slightly, hope unfurling in his chest. It sounded… it all sounded very possible. Would it just be that easy?

“Well, probably. Like I said, we can’t know until we try.” Jazz sighed, placing the photo on the table Danny was sitting on. “At least I know a good way to get you ectoplasm in a somewhat safe manner.”

“Oh lord, Jazz, you want him to eat--” Tucker made a disgusted face, pretending to vomit. It wasn’t very encouraging, to be honest.

“Oh grow up.” She shoved the boy, turning to Sam, who looked far more steady. “Sam, can you go fetch some of the leftovers in the fridge? You know how to recognize the right ones, yeah?”

“If they try to bite me they’re good.” Sam nodded, turning around like she hadn’t just said that food might actively attack her, hello? What the hell was going on here?

Danny cleared his throat, drawing Jazz’ attention back to him. “What’s, uh. What this ‘safe manner’ of ectoplasm consumption?”

“Well, it’s.” She blushed, twirling a strand of hair as she tried to find the right words. “Uh, you know how in this universe, our parents are ghost hunters?”

“Uh huh,” he said, slowly.

“And ghosts are made out of ectoplasm. Which means that for their inventions, they do a lot of experiments with said ectoplasm, including ways to use this to make food faster?”

“Oh.” He still didn’t understand where she was going with this.

Jazz opened her mouth to explain further, but a strange hissing sounded by the stairs, and Danny twisted to look at that instead. Sam was coming down, her arms full of various plastic containers, some of which were duct-taped shut.

“Got the leftovers you asked for. Is the malevolence directly related to how heavily contaminated they are?”

“I think so.” Jazz shrugged, releasing her hair. “Not sure. Mom and Dad never really looked into it much.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Danny waved his hands around, drawing the attention of everyone else back to him. He ignored the jostling of the plastic bins for the moment. “You want me to eat… contaminated food? Living food?”

“Well, it’s not living, technically.” Jazz wiggled her hand a little, making a so-so motion. “They’re kind of… reanimated, I guess? We’re starting off slow, with the stuff that just glows. Anything that moves we’ll re-cook first.”

“Like the weenies,” Tucker added helpfully, taking one especially violent container from Sam. The duct-tape on it seemed to strain to hold it closed, and through the plastic Danny could see sausage-like shapes bouncing around. “These are definitely some of the worst in the fridge.”

“Yeah, and the fact that they’ve been in there for months hasn’t helped.” Sam shook her head, moving over to the table to put down the other stuff. “Anyway, don’t worry about it, Danny. Our Danny can eat this stuff just fine, and so can any ordinary ghost. We’re not giving it to you until we’re sure you’ve got enough ghost in you to do the same.”

“Oh. Um.” He looked at the boxes that now shifted over the table, driven by the force of their contents. “Thanks, I guess?”

“Don’t thank us until it works, man.” Tucker placed his one container on the table as well. When it immediately threatened to throw itself off again, he placed a heavy-looking invention on top of it. “Seriously, if we make you eat this stuff and it doesn’t work you’ll hate us.”

“Tucker, stop discouraging him,” Jazz scolded, picking up one of the containers that lacked duct-tape. “Danny, it’ll be fine. Mom and Dad and I have eaten this stuff on multiple occasions, and you’re supposed to have this stuff in your body. Do you really think I would be giving this to you if I thought it would be a problem?”

“No,” he said, “but this wouldn’t be the first time you’ve tried feeding me something weird as a big sister prank.”

Jazz made a face, then nodded. “Ah, I guess that that’s fair.” She opened one box, showing its contents to him. “How do you feel about starting with these mildly glowing carrots?”

Bad, he wanted to say.

“I guess they’re… okay?” he said instead, taking the bin from her. They did, indeed, look like regular carrots. Y’know, if carrots came in ecto-green and glowed. “Do I… have to?”

“You can try the Portal too, if you prefer that,” Sam suggested, leaning against the table. “Get it over with in one quick swoop.”

Danny made a face, then shoved one baby carrot into his mouth. The moment he bit down he pulled a face. It tasted like what he imaged raw ectoplasm might taste like; copper and rusted pennies and something like lemons? Except it still had a mild taste of carrot, and its texture was mostly carrot-like. Mostly, because it was just a little goopy on the inside.

He slapped his free hand over his mouth, trying to push away his desire to puke. Come on Danny, just bite through it!

Swallowing, he made another grimacing face at the others.

“Ah, come on, they’re not that bad.” Jazz clicked her tongue, shaking her head disapprovingly. “How is it that you guys in the halfa-universe are less used to eating ectoplasm infused food, huh? Am I the only one wondering about that?”

“No, I was too,” Sam admitted, looking far too amused for Danny’s liking. “And I bet our Danny is, too. He’ll definitely be enjoying the break where he doesn’t have to worry about his lunch coming to life.”

Danny sighed, placing the carrots down again. “Can I try something else? Maybe that’ll be better.”

Tucker snorted disbelievingly, but to his credit, did push one of the other boxes towards Danny. “Here, I think this one is just glowing toast.”

“Ugh, toast.” He pulled off the lid, revealing, indeed, several slices of ecto-green toast. “Well, can’t be worse than regular toast, right?”

He took a bite of one of the slices. Wow, hey, that’s actually worse than regular toast, who would’ve thought? Again that taste of copper and lemons and sour metal, although the inside wasn’t quite as soft as with the carrots. Just felt like untoasted bread instead of goop.

“Well?” Tucker asked, a grin on his face again. “Better or worse?”

“Better than the carrots,” Danny said as he swallowed the bite. “And honestly? Not much worse than regular toast.”

“You want jam or something with that?” Sam asked, turning one of the slices in her hand as she looked it over. “That might mask the taste a little.”

“Hm, maybe.” He took another bite, trying to chew it away quickly. “Egh, yeah, let’s give that a shot if you’ve got some.”

“I’ll go look,” Jazz said, ruffling his hair as she passed him by. “Sam, Tucker, stay out of trouble.”

“Trouble?” Tucker gasped dramatically. “We would never!”

Danny shot him an unimpressed look as he chewed away another bite of sour toast. “You two literally tried to zap me with a giant ghost portal while she was away.”

“Don’t get involved, Fenton.” Tucker swung a finger in his direction. “Eat your toast and shut up.”

“Yes sir.” He took another bite of the toast. Against all expectations, he was actually kind of getting used to the taste of ectoplasm-infused food. It felt kind of warm in his throat, like it was melting as he chewed it away.

He’d finished his first slice of toast when Jazz reappeared downstairs, carrying a few types of jam and some margarine. “Wasn’t sure what would go best with, uh, ectoplasm,” she said, blushing a little. “What do you want to try first?”

“Margarine, I guess?” He shrugged, picking up a new slice of toast to butter it. “I think I just had to get used to the toast, anyway. It’s not too bad anymore. Kind of nice, actually? Warm and melty.”

Jazz frowned, sharing a glance with Sam and Tucker. “Warm? Ectoplasm is cold and goopy, usually.”

“Oh.” Danny took a bite of his still-unbuttered toast, tasting it carefully. “No, it definitely tastes warm. Like, pleasant warm, like honey?”

“Maybe that’s what it tastes like for half-ghosts?” Tucker suggested, his brow creased in consideration. “They are made out of the stuff, so of course it wouldn’t feel cold to them.”

“Does that mean it’s working?” Danny asked as he started buttering the toast. The taste of lemon and metal hadn’t gone away entirely, and he wasn’t too hot on it still. “If I just keep eating enough toast, that’ll fix my core? It’s really just that easy?”

“I mean, you’ll probably have to move on to something stronger eventually.” Sam tapped on one of the taped boxes, ignoring the way it jerked in response. “Danny has a lot of ectoplasm in his body, usually. If you want to recover all of that in a short time, you’ll need to eat more ectoplasm and less actual food. There’s only so much food you can eat before you’re full, after all.”

“Right.” He took a bite of buttered toast. Not bad, actually. The butter definitely offset the sourness, even if wasn’t entirely functional against the taste of copper. “So when should I switch, if the higher amounts could be dangerous?”

“Finish off all the toast first, then we’ll see.” Jazz looked distastefully at the weenie-container, which seemed to be trying to throw off the heavy weight that pinned it down. “Honestly, we might try roasting the weenies. They’re definitely the highest in ectoplasm to food ratio, and they won’t fill much either way.”

Danny eyed the box suspiciously. Then, rather than speak up about the fact that these hot dogs might just be the most dangerous thing in the lab, he took another bite of toast.

“We, uh, should probably get them roasting sooner than later, then.” Tucker leaned down next to the box, his frown deepening. “I think that they’re trying to chew through the plastic.”

“Do you think the Thermos would work on them?” Sam asked, her tone light as if this was perfectly normal. “Or are they not ghostly enough?”

“That might just suck out all the ectoplasm and leave behind the weenies.” Jazz sighed, stepping away to dig through some equipment. “If they break out, just trap them in something metal. Or, like, trap them in a box with something else and let that distract them. I’ll look for something moderately safe to cook them with.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Tucker declared cheerfully, frown gone again. He picked up a larger plastic bin, opening it and peeking inside. “Ah, non-sentient ham. That should keep them occupied if they break out.”

Sam sighed and shook her head, but didn’t comment. Danny shoved another piece of toast inside his mouth. If she didn’t want to comment, neither did he.

But, really. How was this world so much crazier than his own world? Is this what their planet would be like if it was ruled by humans instead of half-ghosts? Crazy. Maybe they really were still out there somewhere, surviving unseen thanks to their sheer insanity.

“Well, so, most of the stuff I found I wouldn’t trust around food,” Jazz said plainly as she rejoined them. In one hand she held a metal pot, the inside stained a suspicious mix of green and black. The other, she held behind her back. “I wouldn’t worry about the ectoplasm on this, except that it seems to be burned to hell and back, and I don’t think the charcoal will be any good. And I don’t trust the bunsen burners with this, either.”

She placed the burned pan on a nearby table, then swung the object in her other hand around to her front, using her other hand to hold it up as well. It looked like a weapon, but not any Danny was familiar with. Sci-fi esque, silver with glowing green accents. Round and shiny, like a cylinder with another cylinder on top. This, at least, looked kind of like the water containers on a water gun. The vivid green really just kind of reinforced this appearance.

“I don’t think I’m familiar with that one.” Sam stepped closer, twisting her head to look at the weapon. “What is it? A flamethrower?”

“Yep,” she simply said, placing it in Sam’s arms. “Here you go, I’m pretty sure you’re the best shot of all of us.”

“Tuck’s pretty good too, and you’re not too shabby either.” But as she said this, Sam shifted the flamethrower in her arms, gripping it properly. She grinned like she was absolutely loving this. God, humans were scary. Danny was faintly sorry that he had ever felt lesser for thinking he was human if they were all like this.

Rather than get involved, he took another bite of toast and jumped off of the table. He could watch the proceedings from somewhere further away, he was sure.

Tucker lifted the machine off of the bin that contained the hot dogs, pinning the box down with his own strength instead. “I’ll count down and then dump them on the table. Got it?”

Sam, grin widening, nodded. “Got it.” She turned to gun onto Tucker, holding it steady with one finger already on the trigger. “On 3?”

“I was thinking on fire, actually.” Tucker nodded back, licked his lips, then started counting. “3. 2.”

“1,” the both of them counted in sync, muscles bunching as they got ready.

“Fire!” Tucker shouted, peeling the container open and spilling the contents onto the table, then stepping back in the same swift motion.

The hot dogs seemed thrown off by the sudden movement, sitting dazedly on the metal tabletop a long moment. They were ecto-green, glowing, and they seemed to have… eyes and pointed teeth? Yikes.

On the shout Sam had pulled the trigger, and bright flames spilled from the gun. Despite his expectations, they weren’t pure green; pink was scattered throughout the flames, and the inner column was white-hot.

The reanimated meat screeched when the flames reached them, but they were quickly silenced under the steady fire.

An unmeasurably long moment later, Sam cut off the flames. Jazz stepped forward to inspect the results, expression carefully blank. Then she smiled, expression lighting up. “Looks good to me! I think we can finally put the Frankenweenies to use.”

“Frankenweenies?” Danny repeated incredulously, swallowing his last bite of toast. “Really?”

Jazz hummed. When she turned back to him, she was holding one of the hot dogs pinched between her fingers. The flames hadn’t lessened its glow, but they had turned it into a darker green. The eyes and mouth seemed to have somehow disappeared entirely. “What do you think? Does it look appealing?”

“No,” Danny said honestly, taking it from her. “But neither did the toast.”

He took a bite, chewing it experimentally. The skin was like… not like a hot dog, but more like a regular sausage? Somewhat tough, a little chewy, but not in a bad way. The inside was soft and warm and gooey, and actually kinda sweet. Like it was filled with honey.

“That’s… pretty good, actually,” he said when he swallowed it. “I mean, I don’t think it beats actual food, especially since the green is a real deterrent, but…”

“What, the glow is fine with you?” Sam scoffed, but the smile on her face didn’t leave. “Priorities, Danny.”

“Eh, the glow isn’t too out of place where I’m from.” Danny shrugged, taking another bite of the hot dog and swallowing it. “With all the half-ghosts and stuff. My parents, especially Mom, they use telekinesis pretty often, so stuff often glows in and around the house.”

“That’s fair,” Sam decided, nodding approvingly. Her fingers drummed on the barrel of the flamethrower. “Hey Jazz, do you want this thing back or can I keep it?”

“If you get in trouble for having it I’m not taking responsibility.” Jazz crossed her arms, twisting to look at Sam. “My parents will just blame its disappearance on a ghost anyway.”

“Nice.” Sam flipped a switch on the side, and the glowing elements dulled down. A safety switch, then. “I’ll find a spot for it, don’t worry.”

“I’m not,” Jazz said, just as Danny hiccuped. Loudly.

“Sorry,” he apologized, hiccuping again. Something in his chest rattled strangely. “I think something didn’t go down right.”

He clenched his eyes closed, dropping the half-eaten sausage back on the table. His other hand came up to claw at his chest. Something felt wrong, it hurt, it hurt--

Another hiccup, following with a thrum in his chest. He opened his eyes again, staring wide-eyed at his friends, his sister, hoping for some sort of help or advice or--

“Look!” Jazz exclaimed, enthusiastically. “See, I told you it would be fine!”

“Fine?!” Danny bit back, his voice peaking up high as a hiccup burst through the last half of the word.

“Well, yeah, obviously.” Jazz gestured at him like it was an explanation. “See, and your eyes brightened even further. Must be your core.”

Tucker frowned, looking a little concerned. “Are you alright, dude? Besides the hiccuping, obviously.”

Danny groaned back, his fingers digging into his chest even more. His core? Was that what this was? Why did it-- “Why does it hurt?”

“It’s not… supposed to.” Jazz darted closer, suddenly, kneeling a little to look at his face. She pried his hand off of his chest, placing her own there instead. “Maybe it’s because it was out of energy for so long? Like when you boot up a machine after it’s been off for really long, and it sounds like it’s struggling to get functional again?”

“Or like when your muscles hurt way more if you haven’t been active in a while?” Sam suggested, tone not as jubilant anymore. “That could be it, yeah. Should we hold off and give it time to work through it, or should we try feeding it more energy?”

“I don’t know,” Jazz said, slowly. “Danny, do you think you could eat?”

“Dunno.” He huffed, feeling faintly breathless. It felt like something was burrowing in his chest, trying to shove all his organs aside to make room for itself. “Maybe.”

“Alright, that’s a no in Danny-speak.” Jazz took him by the arm, gently tugging him towards a table. “Sit down, tell us if it gets worse.”

He nodded, letting her shove him onto the table. He tried clawing at his chest again, but Jazz swatted his hand away and he gave up.

It was hard for him to tell how much time passed. For most of it, he had his eyes closed, focusing exclusively on the feeling in his chest. As the pain receded, he started to feel his core more clearly. It was pulsing, thrilling and humming in his chest. Like a heart, but also… not? It was clearly trying to drag in energy, awake but not… not satisfied, he didn’t think.

Once it felt as stable as it would get, he opened his eyes again, looking at his best friends as his sister. “It, uh. I think it’s done. But I don’t think that it has all the power it needs, still.”

Jazz nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face. “Didn’t think so. But we got it enough energy to wake up, so if it’s functional we can try feeding ectoplasm straight to your ghost form.” She started, looking at him somewhat guiltily. “If you’re okay with that, of course.”

“I mean… sure? Assuming that I can shift right now.” He shrugged, then settled one hand on the back of his neck to rub it.

“Do your parents have some of that Ecto-Dejecto still?” Sam asked, turning towards Jazz. “Danny uses it sometimes when he’s really really out of energy, but I think he stockpiles it all in his walls.”

“Oh yeah, that’s a good idea.” Jazz perked up, gesturing at one of the nearby drawers. “I think they have some in there?”

Sam hummed, moving to search it. “Worst come to worst, we can try having Danny search through his own walls. If, uh, he can maintain that kind of intangibility, that is.”

He made a face, not that she could see. “Yeah, let’s not risk that.”

“Oh, wait, here it is already.” Sam straightened up, a tube of unnaturally bright ectoplasm in her hand. “We just need a needle, and for Danny to shift into his ghost form.”

“At least we won’t have to fight with his sleeve this time,” Tucker joked, nudging Danny. “Did you know how much of a hassle that is, to roll up the sleeves of those jumpsuits? Absolutely awful.”

“I’ll… keep that in mind?” He tried mentally poking his core. How were you supposed to shift to your ghost form, anyway? He thought he was doing it right, but he had no way of knowing whether he was doing it wrong, or if his core just didn’t have enough energy. “When should I shift?”

“Now’s fine,” Sam said, reappearing with a worryingly large syringe. It was filled with the same fake ectoplasm as the vial before. The ‘Ecto-Dejecto’, presumably. “We’re ready if you are.”

“Oh, joy,” he muttered, stirring his core more forcibly. He tried to encourage it, tried to picture himself as the photos he’d seen of Phantom. Tried to goad it with the lure of more energy.

Then, suddenly, it was like lightning crackled through him. Pure energy burst forth, sparking through his flesh and his skin but not hurting him. It formed a ring, bright and luminescent, and Danny felt like he could cry.

As with everyone else, with every shift he’d ever witnessed, the ring split into two. Twin halos of pure light danced over his body, inverting the colors everywhere they passed, until he was left in his black shirt and with white hair hanging down in his eyes.

“Arm,” Sam immediately commanded, like she hadn’t just witnessed something incredible and life-changing. When he didn’t respond, Jazz grabbed it and pulled it towards Sam for him.

He was so occupied with, well, everything, that he didn’t even notice the needle until its contents were being pushed into his body. It wasn’t even cold, not really. Just… weird? Very energetic. His core thrilled, immediately pulling in the energy provided.

“Holy shit,” he whispered, feeling the pulse of power throughout his entire body. His core hummed so loud that he wondered if everyone else could hear it, too, like the purr of a cat. “That’s… holy shit.”

“Sounds like it worked,” Tucker commented dryly, not even bothering to hide his smile. “Feeling good, ghost boy?”

“Yeah,” he answered, breathlessly. “Yeah, wow. It’s like… Like this weight in my chest is gone, suddenly. Like I’ve been dragging around my core this whole time, like a ball and chain, and finally I’m free.”

“How poetic.” Sam grinned, nudging him playfully. “Want to take your powers for a spin?”

“In the lab?” he asked, already pushing off of the table. “Are you sure?”

“We train Danny’s powers here all the time,” Tucker said dismissively, flapping a hand. “And it’ll be safer here than outside.”

“Fair enough.” He bounced a little on the ground, feeling lighter than usual. He wondered how floating worked. Didn’t it come naturally to--

“Oh.” He flipped in the air, maneuvering like he’s been doing it his whole life. “Wow, that’s really fun. Now I get why everyone’s always flying everywhere.”

“I guess I should’ve seen that coming.” Jazz grinned at him. “Danny’s favorite power is flight, too.”

“I can’t blame him!” Danny exclaimed, flying a lap at moderate speed through the lab. “It’s so much fun!”

“Alright, well, let’s run through a few more powers. Hopefully establishing that your powers work will trigger the switch back.”

“Yeah,” Danny hummed, feeling his core pulse with happiness at the thought of showing his parents his powers, before a spike of dread stabbed through it. “Unless your Danny has something he needs to achieve, too.”

Danny’s eyes watered as he reached out. One hand, shaky with emotion, wrapped around his mother’s wrist. “Wait.”

“Yes, sweetie?” She crouched down in front of him, smiling softly. “What’s wrong?”

“I… I can’t.”

“Can’t what, kiddo?” His dad frowned as he, too, crouched by Danny.

“I…” He groaned, burying his face in his hands. “You’re all so nice.”

“Of course they are,” Jazz said, voice carefully blank. “They’re our parents. When have they ever not been nice?”

“That’s complicated,” he muttered back through his fingers. They’d never meant to be mean towards him, of course, but… but they’d uttered plenty of insults and threats towards Phantom. And that was… it was just hard to ignore, especially when faced with such complete and utter acceptance.

A silence fell, and Danny got the feeling that his parents and sister were sharing confused glances.

“What do you mean, son?” his dad finally asked, uncertainly. “We’ve always tried…”

I know.” He dragged his hands off of his face to shoot them a look that hopefully expressed how lost he felt. “You’ve been nothing but nice, I know. But you’re not-- I am not--” He groaned again, now in frustration at himself and his trouble to put his feelings into words.

Jazz narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you Danny?”

“Is he what?” his mom asked, at the same time that he shook his head. While she snapped her jaw shut, he corrected himself by nodding, then made a so-so motion with his hand.

“I’m Danny Fenton,” he finally said, giving up on his attempt at miming out an answer. “But I’m not… your Danny.”

“Oh,” both of his parents chimed, perfectly synced.

“Yeah.” He dragged a hand through his eyes, wiping away the half-formed tears. “I’m… yeah. It’s, um. Complicated, I guess.”

“How?” His mom reached for him, twisting his head like she could suddenly see differences that didn’t exist before. “Why? What happened to our Danny?”

“I… I don’t know. I really really don’t know,” he admitted, much as it pained him. “I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t understand it. Usually if I get brought to a different timeline I’m told why, what I’m supposed to do. Not…” he gestured vaguely. “Not this.”

“And our son?” his mom repeated. “What about him?”

“I’m sure he’s fine.” Danny dragged his hand through his hair, mussing the black locks up beyond their normal mess. “Sam and Tucker and Jazz will take care of him. They’re good at that kinda stuff. They’ll catch on quickly, I bet.”

“That’s good.” His mom – this version of her – patted him on the arm. Her expression was hard to read, though. “Now, what was this about your parents, sweetie?”

“I, um.” He blushed, licked his lips. “It’s. Complicated. Like I said. They don’t… they don’t mean it, they’re nice, but it’s…”

He hummed, looking at his hands in his lap. “You know how you’re all half-ghosts, and so am I?”

“Yes?” His mom frowned a little, shooting a short glance towards Jack. “Is that not… Is that a problem, back home?”

“Well, I wouldn’t know, because I never told them.” He blew out a breath, the confession making him feel lighter. Not much, but, well. A little. “It’s… You know how you’re human hunters, here? Well, my parents, they hunt ghosts.”

“Oh,” his dad said on his other side, voice low and quiet.

“Yeah.” Danny sighed, thumbs twirling. “They, um. They’ve seen me in my ghost form, but they didn’t know it was me. I’m the only half-ghost in town, so I… fight the other ghosts? To protect the town. But they don’t see it like that. They just see an aggressive ghost causing trouble.”

“They hurt you,” Jazz stated, her voice clearly forced into neutrality to cover up her emotions. “Right? They’ve hurt you, but they didn’t know it was you because you never told them. And they don’t think of the similarities, because they don’t think half-ghosts can exist.”

He barked out a humorless laugh. “Yeah, you nailed it. They’ve, uh. Made something of a habit out of threatening and insulting ‘Phantom’ around me and Jazz. They work on their inventions in the lab and in the kitchen, and they keep going off near me, and one day--” He snapped his mouth shut, shaking off the thought.

“And you’re afraid that one day it’ll go wrong.” Light flashed as Maddie shifted back to her human form without moving. Her hand, laying on Danny’s, became marginally warmer. “You’re afraid of your parents, because they don’t know that their prey and their son are the same person.”

Danny nodded, listlessly.

“Can I offer some advice?” Jazz asked, her hand on his knee. She continued before he got a chance to answer. “Tell them.”

“What?” he frowned at her.

“Tell them,” Jazz repeated, looking from him to their parents. “You’re afraid because they don’t know that you’re half-ghost. So tell them.”

“But they-- They hate ghosts.” He gestured with his free hand, leaving the one with Maddie’s hand on it. “They hate ghosts with such fervor that they’ve dedicated their life to getting rid of every single one of them!”

“Danny.” His dad caught his free hand, gently placing it down and pinning it with his own warm hand. At some point he, too, had shifted back to human form. “Danny, I don’t know how different your version of me is, but I can tell you one thing with absolute certainty. The most important thing in my life, always and ever, is my family. And that includes my son, human or ghost or half-ghost.”

“Oh,” he said, soundlessly. “But--”

“What about your sister?” his mother asked, suddenly, cocking her head at him. “You said that she would help, and Sam and Tucker. Does she know?”

“Uh…” Danny twitched at the non-sequitur. “Yeah? I mean, I didn’t tell her, but she figured it out on her own.”

“And she hasn’t recommended that you tell your parents?” this Jazz asked, brow quirked. “She didn’t comment on the secret-keeping, on the damage it could do?”

“I, well…” he sighed, letting his head hang. “She did, actually. But she’s… big on letting me tell people at my own pace. And she’s heard the vitriol my parents spit, so…”

“So she should’ve encouraged you to tell them,” Jazz insisted, more forcefully. “Danny, you need your family. You can’t hide this. Do you really think that they haven’t noticed that something changed, that their relationship somehow got damaged and they don’t even know what happened?”

“I… oh.” He looked at his hands, both covered by his parents’ hands. “I hadn’t… thought about that.”

Maddie sighed. “And I guess I didn’t think about how we might’ve done something similar to our Danny, insisting that he had to be half-ghost as well.”

“Well, how about this, then,” Danny said, trying to summon his bravery a little. He could, at least, help this other version of himself, right? That’s what heroes did, and he was a hero. “You tell him that you love him, that you accept him, half-ghost or not, and I’ll tell my parents.”

“Sounds like a plan to me!” his dad boomed, his characteristic grin finally reappearing. His free hand clapped on Danny’s back. “Now we just need to figure out how to get you back!”

Danny opened his mouth to reply, but halted as a pulse of energy ripped through the atmosphere. He couldn’t tell where it came from, just felt the pure power hum--

White light blinded him, energy ripping at his body, he didn’t know what was happening, and--

Then, blissfully, he passed out.

[ecto-american]

Bidding War

Challenger name: @fabnamessuggestedbytumbler

The Challenge: This year at Amity Park's yearly charity event, the committee has planned a "date auction" with the City's most eligible bachelors. Somehow, they even manage to rope Phantom in- after all, a celebrity like him is sure to win a fortune for the charities.

Rating: T

Pairings: Implied Danny/Sam, implied Danny/Dash, implied Danny/Paulina, implied Danny/Tucker

Word Count: 3259

Warnings: None

Other Notes: This is for the Phantom Phic Phight contest and I’m so sorry this is unedited NONSENSE I’m just tired of nitpicking at it my APOLOGIES to fabnames oaisfh

“Danny, this is a terrible idea.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. It’s just a charity bachelor auction,” he repeated himself for what felt like the millionth time. He was looking in the mirror at himself in his old room. The halfa glanced over at his sister, who was sitting on his old bed. Her hair was already styled very formally, make-up done and dressed in a nice dark teal dress. “Do you know anything about tying bow-ties?” Jazz sighed.

“No,” she admitted. Danny shrugged and put the bowtie into an inner pocket of the tux. “Danny, you’re going to get seriously hurt. I don’t think you should do this.”

“Come on, Jazz, even Sam’s on board,” he argued. He studied his reflection. Jazz had cut his hair for him a few days ago, so it looked presentable, and it was styled neatly. Snow white hair was contrasting the black tux, and in a sense, he looked as he usually did when in his Phantom form. “And Vlad’s already agreed to help take precautionary measures. I’m not afraid of ghosts, why would I be afraid of a few fans?”

“Can you really trust Vlad though?” Jazz wondered. She stood up, going over to stand with him in front of the mirror. The graduate student was now just an inch shorter than her brother. She leaned in to check her eyeliner.

“Vlad’s…different now, I think,” Danny said slowly as his mind raced back to the memories of the past few years. “But if nothing else, I doubt he’d want me to ruin his big Christmas charity event.”

“Just, be on your toes,” Jazz told him. “I’ll keep a thermos in my purse.” Danny patted his tux.

“I got one too,” he replied confidently. “Do you have your Fenton lipstick?” She nodded. Danny beamed at her.

“I’ll see you there then,” he said, taking a deep sigh.

The Christmas Charity Party that Vlad had hosted ever since his first mayoral election. Every year, there was a publicity stunt done to raise money for charity. Well, multiple. Every year there was a gingerbread decorating contest, snowball fights, the usual. But then there was always the big event. And this year…

“Mr. Phantom, it’s so fantastic to see you here!” Lance Thunder chirped, holding a microphone up as a camera crew filmed the party. Just like every year. Danny smiled politely at him. He had barely stepped foot in the door when the reporter began bulldozing through the crowds towards him. “May I ask what made you decide to participate in the auction?” He desperately held his mic out to Danny as he finally came within two feet of him.

“It felt like a great opportunity to participate in the charity event,” he explained. “So when Mayor Masters asked for volunteers, of course I signed up.”

“And your girlfriend doesn’t mind?” Lance questioned. The cameraman had properly caught up and was rolling, and Danny shifted uncomfortably.

“I don’t have a partner at this current time,” Danny replied.

“What do you expect your winning bid number to be?” Lance wondered. Danny shrugged his shoulders.

“I hate to sound full of myself, but I hope for the sake of this event that it’s high,” Danny picked his words carefully. “I’m really hoping that we can raise a lot of money tonight. I’m also hoping that everybody stays safe.” Fuck was he saying hope too much? Christ, Fenton. Lance nodded.

“Of course, with the bachelors available, our news team is expecting this to be the best year for this Christmas Charity event,” Lance replied. Danny raised an eyebrow and gave a small noise of pretend interest.

“I really hope so,” he replied. Use! A! Word! Other! Than! Hope! “Uh, I need to check in and get my auction number. Have a good evening, Mr. Thunder.” Danny extended his hand out for a friendly handshake, which Lance eagerly took. The reporter began to direct his attention to somebody else.

Danny began to wade through the crowd with surprisingly less stares than he was fearing. He made his way to a table with a sign announcing the bachelor sign in, and he smiled happily at a friendly face. Sam’s bored mood seemed to cheer up as she saw her friend, and she broke into a grin.

“Hey, Danny,” she chirped. Her elbows were on the table, head resting on the back of her hands as she held a pen in her hand. Danny felt his heart warm.

Sam was dressed up for the event in black and dark purple, hair that had grown so much since their freshman year of high school so long ago neatly braided. She had grown a lot actually. Even though they attended different schools, Danny always believed that it made them closer still. He cherished what time they spent together when both were home from college on holiday break, like now. He had yet to really even properly spend time with her since he had gotten home, and he felt a dull, annoyed ache over that.

“Hey, Sam,” he replied as he got to the table. He put his hands down on it, leaning casually. “Boring night already?” She snorted in amusement.

“Yeah, a bit, but once all the bachelors are checked in, I’m free to come hang out with you,” she told him. Danny felt eyes on him, and he glanced over his shoulder to see a familiar face looking at him. Dash was staring at him with awe. Sam glanced over at Dash too. “You already need rescuing?” she teased. Danny flushed.

“Nah, I’m good,” he replied. He turned his attention back to her.

“Maybe I’ll just buy you at the auction and save you a bunch of trouble,” Sam teased before giving a nervous giggle. Danny felt himself give out an awkward chortle as well, his cheeks flushing green. “Sign in, clueless,” Sam continued, handing him the pen.

Danny smiled as he took the pen and signed his name next to his printed one on the form, and he got a pin. Bachelor Number 42. Danny had begged Vlad to put him as 42 on the list specifically for the number.

“Thanks,” he replied, and he put the pin on. Sam stood up, leaning forward to help him pin it on. Once it was pinned, she lightly patted it.

“Looking fly,” she grinned.

Danny smiled, saluting her with two fingers as he began to back up.

“Sam?” he spoke, and she raised an eyebrow curiously. “We really should hang out later. I miss you.” She burned red, but nodded in agreement, making the motion that she’d call him later.

Danny turned and took a few steps before realizing Dash was still staring at him. Dash had changed a lot since high school, since Danny had last talked to him outside of Facebook. The ex-bully had even delivered a proper apology that Danny never expected or believed he’d get. They weren’t really friends, but they were more friendly. Dash had become more friendly and nicer. Better to be around. They talked on and off on Facebook about the Packers.

Danny found himself giving an awkward wave before feeling an excited yet anxious stomach turn when the other took that as an invitation. He quickly came over to the halfa.

“Danny Phantom!” he quietly exclaimed, happily holding his hand out. Danny smiled, taking his hand. Dash gripped it tightly, his other hand happily clasping on his upper arm. “Dude! I can’t believe you’re in the auction! I’m totally bidding on you!” Danny’s eyes widened a bit in surprise. Somebody was super eager to bid on him? Already? And it was Dash?

“Oh, awesome!” Danny replied happily, gripping the handshake in return. He didn’t really feel uncomfortable by the touching. Dash was always super friendly to him, and it was...oddly nice to be around people who didn’t want to punch him. “I look forward to seeing if you win.” Dash beamed, and Danny smiled back.

“I can’t wait to go flying with you and have dinner!” What? Oh, right. The date Danny had promised on his application was going for a flight and having dinner. In that specific order. He had learned from Tucker to do that specific order to avoid having to make a trash can pit stop to throw up.

“Yeah, that’s what the app says, but we can always make adjustments if that’s too mushy,” Danny promised. Dash’s cheeks flushed a bit red, and he finally let go of Danny’s hand.

“Uh, actually,” he began, and Danny felt this odd spark of hope he hadn’t expected begin to flow through him. “I’m...I kinda like both. So I wouldn’t mind a date.” Dash quickly added, “But like, if that’s too weird for you, I-I-”

“Dude, it’s chill,” Danny held a hand up to stop him. “I swing both ways too. Lots of people do. Truth is, I don’t really care if I end up with a girl or a boy winning me. It’s all for charity.” Dash exhaled an intense sigh of relief.

“Cool,” Dash replied. “Because you’re just so cool, and I wanna get to hang out with you more, and I just,” the ex-bully began to ramble, and Danny patiently listened for a few moments. Dash soon stopped himself, and he flustered more. “Sorry for all that. I’m just excited. I’m actually getting auctioned off too.”

Danny glanced and noticed that, indeed, Dash had a bachelor pin on his tux jacket. Number 58.

“Oh dude, that’s great,” Danny spoke lightly. “If I had money, I’d def bid on you.” The words left his mouth before he could really process his own thoughts, and he was left lightly flushing green. Dash was staring at him in an awed, but excited, shock.

“Really?” he asked. Danny nodded, and he remembered a piece of advice Vlad had given him. Mingle as much as possible during the auction, to both help Phantom’s image by interacting with his fans, but to encourage people to bid on him. Vlad’s advice, only when it came to public image, had...annoyingly, failed to let Danny down yet, and so he cleared his throat a bit awkwardly.

“I need to go and socialize more,” he told him. “But it was great seeing you.” Dash was in a seemingly stunned silence, and he nodded as Danny quickly made his exit.

No sooner than he took a few steps that a familiar voice called out to him.

“Ghost boy!”

Danny turned to see Paulina eagerly going up to him, and despite being Phantom, he could feel Fenton’s heart skip. She looked beautiful, in a dress that complimented her perfectly with finely done make-up and hair mostly up. She smiled a dazzling smile at him, and he instantly felt weak.

“Hey Paulina,” he greeted her eagerly, and her eyes seemingly sparkled in excitement.

“You remembered me!” she said happily, and she clutched her hands together at her chest.

“Of course, I could never forget my biggest fan,” he replied. She stared at him for a moment before giving a light frown.

“Where’s your bow-tie?” she asked, pointing to his shirt. Danny flushed, putting his hand to his throat.

“Oh, I didn’t know how to tie one,” he admitted. Paulina hummed.

“Do you have it with you? I can tie it for you,” she offered.

“Oh, yeah!” Danny immediately began to pat himself down as he tried to remember which pocket his bow-tie was in. He soon produced it, and he handed it to her. She gestured for him to lean over a bit, and he did. She slipped the bow-tie around his neck and began to expertly tie it with practiced ease. “How have you been?”

“Great!” she replied warmly. “I’m on the dean’s list at my school, and I’m on track to graduate a semester early. How have you been?” He had forgotten that she too had gone to college. For chemistry, of all things. Danny had always been on Sam’s side in assuming that she did terribly in high school. Apparently, that’s just what she wanted her classmates to think.

“Good,” he gave the social answer. Truthfully, it really wasn’t, but when had his life ever been such a way? Not since the accident. He accidentally locked eyes with Paulina. She looked unusually serious.

“Danny, how have you been?” she asked, her voice more gentle about it. Danny felt a bit of a mental whiplash. She rarely called him Danny, and his voice got caught in his throat. He coughed awkwardly.

“It’s...been a bit rough,” he said slowly. She nodded understandingly. She finished tying the bowtie, and she carefully pressed his collar.

“You’ll get through it like you always do,” she told him confidently. “I believe in you. I always have, and I always will.” Danny felt his cheeks turn green as he stood up straight. This was going to be a trend, it seemed.

“Thank you,” he told her. “I hope you can graduate soon. I miss seeing you around Amity Park,” he told her honestly. Paulina laughed.

“I keep up with you on the news,” she confessed. “And I’ll be seeing you when I win the auction.” Danny nodded. A date with Paulina sounded magical, he couldn’t lie.

“I look forward to it if that’s the case,” he replied. He remembered what Vlad had told him. Socialize, and he reluctantly continued, “I’ll let you mingle with others. I hope to see you again soon.” Paulina nodded understandingly.

“I’ll see you at our date, Danny!” she replied confidently.

“Dude, you’re on fire.”

Finally, a voice he actually really wanted to hear. Tucker had found him, and he looked great in his tux. Instead of a white shirt, he had opted for a dark orange shirt underneath. It suited him perfectly.

“Hey!” Danny eagerly greeted him, and the two immediately fist bumped happily. “You look great! You should have signed up to be a bachelor.” Tucker chuckled, shrugging.

“Yeah, I regret it, but I was dating Mia at the time,” he reminded his friend. “She wouldn’t have been cool with it. In hindsight, probably a sign.” Danny just shrugged sympathetically.

“I’m just glad you’re here,” Danny told him. “I already ran into Sam, Dash, Paulina, and damn. That’s not even counting Lance Thunder. I know Harriet Chin’s around somewhere too.” Tucker gave a low whistle.

“Damn, that’s quite the roster,” he said.

“Honestly, it wasn’t so bad. Especially since I know there’s friendly faces like you here,” Danny commented. Tucker chuckled.

“Do I need to bid on you to free you from your torment?” Tucker teased. Danny laughed.

“I already joked to Sam that she should, but man, we’d probably have a lot of fun,” Danny admitted. Tucker snickered.

“Wait until my birthday so you can truly wine and dine me,” he joked. Danny felt his cheeks flush a bit, but he laughed again.

“Like how last Valentine’s day we just made ourselves each other’s Valentine’s?” Danny questioned. Tucker nodded eagerly.

“Yeah, and instead of going out to eat sushi like we planned, we ordered Domino’s and did nothing but play DOOMED and get sick on bread bites.”

“Dude, I’d rather do that with you than go out on a date anytime,” Danny told him. Tucker flushed a bit in return.

“Same,” he agreed. “I love hanging out with you more than I ever did Mia.” Danny made a noise of agreement.

“Yeah! And same with you, honestly!” he chattered on excitedly. “Dude, just buy me! They’re giving me a free food coupon, so we can just buy a bunch of pizza again and pig out!”

“Dude, I can make you take me out for free, but I’ll place my bets and see how I fare,” Tucker assured him. He lightly punched his shoulder playfully. “I’ll leave you to socialize. I’m gonna go see how Sam’s surviving.”

“Catch up with me later! I really wanna hang out with you!” Danny called out after him as Tucker passed him. Tucker flashed a peace sign in response, and Danny exhaled deeply.

People were so exhausting. How could Vlad do this all the time? Danny decided to just break for some food. His eyes scanned over the options as he approached. The buffet style options had a wide range of options, from fancy looking shrimp to chicken to salads. He picked up a plate and began to serve himself some food. It was time to take advantage of all the free food.

He picked up a few pieces of food, setting it on his plate. He grabbed a drink and settled into a chair to eat. There were so many people here. He only talked to those few, but people...really wanted their chance it seemed. And it made him feel terrible for only really wanting to be with one of them. He couldn’t help it. He truly hoped that they won.

The poor halfa didn’t even get to take a bite when he was distracted by a voice, but he didn’t mind. He flashed a happy smile to the one that was already on his mind, who stood before him with their own plate of food.

“Can I join you?”

“Of course.”

Danny stood before the crowd, trying to look cheerful and confident but it was very obvious that he was anxious and nervous. He could only pray that he could mask at least part of it. Vlad lightly patted Danny’s back encouragingly, and it oddly helped ease his anxiety. The billionaire was standing on the makeshift stage, mic in hand and a stapled packet of papers in the other with the bachelor’s information on it.

“Ladies and gentleman, this is Danny Phantom,” Vlad spoke, and he began to read from his paper. “He stands at 6’3’’, and he considers himself nerdy. He’s very interested in science, specifically astrophysics and engineering. In his spare time, when he’s not fighting ghosts, he enjoys playing video games, science fiction movies and astronomy. For your date with Danny Phantom, he has promised a one of a kind dating experience in a flight through town before you two have a nice dinner at the restaurant of your choice!”

The crowd was murmuring excitedly, and Danny felt a nervous bead of sweat begin to form. This was the most information Amity Park had ever really been given about him, and he could see Lance in the corner, taking intense notes. Other people seemed surprised at the listed hobbies of choice and interests.

“So, as part of tonight’s charity auction and due to Mr. Phantom’s popularity, I propose we begin the auction a little higher than normal, at $100,” Vlad said, and no sooner than he spoke, every hand in the audience shot up. Danny’s throat tightened.

“Oh, it looks like it’s going to be quite the contest,” Vlad lightly teased, and Danny glared at him briefly. “Do I hear $150?”

The entire bidding was a rapid blur. Danny’s head shot around as the bidding war went crazier than he could ever imagine. He began to space out.

“Anybody higher?” Vlad asked for the billionth time it seemed. “No? Going once.” Danny’s attention snapped back to reality as he scanned to see who was on the verge of winning him. “Going twice.” Danny’s chest tightened anxiously. “And sold to bidder number 113!”

Danny locked eyes with the winner, and they exchanged smiles. To his relief and joy, the person who won him was the one he had been wanting more than any other all night.