#The Fentons are knew as eccentric out of Amity

[nelkcats]

Double Trouble

During a convention in Gotham, the Fentons brought the rebuilt Fenton Ghost Catcher, they were extremely proud of their invention and were going to catch as many ghosts as possible at their paranormal convention.

But as is normal in Gotham, a rogue attacked. Croc personally wasn't too interested in what was going on there but he was paid by some others to cause a distraction while some villains robbed the place and extra money was always great.

From the looks of it, the news that the Fentons were coming to Gotham were public. The Fentons were known as very reclusive weapon makers with peculiar interests. Their inventions sold very well, and were extremely dangerous so Peguin assumed that even if they were destined for "ghosts" they would work perfectly fine with bats.

Jason already knew that the two weapon inventors were in the city, the Bat was too paranoid not to know, but the Fentons never showed that they wanted to cause harm so when Croc attacked Red Hood was guarding the place.

The problem was that during the battle he was pushed into the Ghost Catcher and separated into two halves. One looked like the normal him but more ghostly? while the other was more lively and energetic. The second one looked like a bigger version of what Robin would have been without his death. Of course, the invention blew up right after that, and the Fentons looked sad.

Danny scrambled to hide both Jason before his parents noticed, motioning for him to be quiet as he watched the villains make off with the anti-ghost weapons. He knew the convention would turned into a mess since the beginning.

[dcxdpdabbles]

DCxDP fanfic idea: Big Fish in Gotham Pond

Based off of @saphushia art found here. . I just loved the idea of Tucker not knowing his skill level because he grew up in the boonies

Tucker gets scouted by Wayne Enterprises after he fixes a kid's computer game while in Gotham visiting Danny.

See, Tucker always known he is passable at tech- one has to be when a technology theme ghost is consistently harassing one's best friend- but to be good at something in a small town like Amity Park didn't mean much .

It's a big fish in a small pound sort of deal. That's why he's never put much thought into it. If Tucker were ever to rank himself in terms of school grades, he would say his computer skills were about a C-.

B+ if it was just coding.

His parents also don't think much of his obsession with his PDA or phones. They thought he waste too many hours on them like the rest of his generation.

It didn't matter that Tucker's technology was about five or more years behind his classmates.

The Foley were hard-working people who barely scraped enough for bills. They were never below the property line, but they danced on it often enough that Tucker knew never to ask for unnecessary purchases.

For as long as he could remember, his parents have always worked long and hard hours. He never blamed them for missing so much of his childhood, in fact he was grateful that they worked so hard to keep the roof over his head, but he did miss them.

That's why Danny's house became a haven for him. He was always at the Fenton's place because the loud, wacky family was much better company than the home silence.

Tucker knew that his family's financial situation didn't change how Danny or Sam viewed him. They had his back through tick and thin just as he did for them, but as they got closer to graduation the difference between them became jarring.

Sam had easy picking of what she wanted to do and where she wanted to go. Her parents were so overjoyed that she wanted to go to a university that they didn't even argue about her wishing to major in botanical biochemistry.

She had started house hunting in Star City midway through senior year. Her parents would gift it to her as a graduation present. Sam would live there for the next eight years to finish her degree.

Danny's parents, while somewhat eccentric, were also certified geniuses. Between the two of them, they had five PHDs and were often freelancing for companies when not doing ghost research. They too could send their two kids to college States away with housing not being a issue.

Jazz went to Metropolis to study Physiology. She lived in a small apartment but was doing well off her scholarships and parent's funding. Last he heard, she had a part-time job at the Daily Planet as a research assistant to gain some independence.

Danny wanted to go to Gotham for their engineering program. He, too, had an apartment of his own, with scholarships and equal funding from his parents. He also worked at Wayne Enterprises, but he was a receptionist. He hoped that once he graduated, he could apply for their engineering program

Not Tucker. His family could only help him get into Community College near Amity. He also couldn't afford to move out so he stayed with them, picking up a part time job to help out when he could.

Tucker is a first-generation college student so even though it wasn't much, he loved to see how his parents glowed when telling others their boy was futhering his education. He wanted to do something that paid well- and after years of patching up Danny- he figured nursing would do the trick.

Tucker would do all his basics in the community College, take a break to save up some money and then move on to the bigger schools.

The day of the graduation felt bittersweet. Team Phantom was finally adults, finally starting out in the real world, but while Danny and Sam moved on to bigger and better things, Tucker knew he would be left behind in little no-where Amity Park.

He never brought it up, but he felt a small dosage of envy the last day of summer before his friends finished packing and left.

Despite both being gone, Tucker had little to no social life even though they called, texted, and emailed often. His days blurred between class, work, and home. Even then, classes were long and tedious, work often ending with one or more customers screaming in his face to try and get free food.

His parents quickly started to nag that he should find a wife as they had married young. They couldn't figure out why he didn't want the same, even though he had no social life again.

Life became dull.

Tucker's only sparks of joy were playing online with Danny and Sam - when they found the time to log in or re-coding his old tech to try and salvage it whenever it broke down.

Soon, it became apparent that Tucker was slowly lacking motivation when he started skipping classes to sleep in and started feeling anxious when he needed to clock in for shifts.

It leads to him barely getting out of bed.

He felt horrible about it, thinking his parents sacrificed so much for him only to have him throw away the opportunities they gave him, and the cycle of not being able to get out of bed would start all over again.

It was Danny who caught on, and all but begged Tucker to come to Gotham for a weekend. He even sent money over for the plane ticket.

Tucker couldn't have gotten on that plane fast enough. He arrived early on Friday since the tickets were cheaper- and Uber over to WE headquarters to pick up Danny's keys as they agreed.

That way, Tucker could sleep and rest in the apartment while Danny worked.

Danny would finish his shift and have the weekend plus Monday and Tuesday off to spend with Tucker. When he arrived, Danny was helping a school check in for a field trip, so Tucker sat down to wait.

Next to him, a kid was growling at his laptop, frankly typing and moving his fingers over the computer's touch mouse. Tucker accidentally glimpsed his screen when the kid started swearing in a different language.

It looked like a shooting game but his lag was bad. By the time the boy pressed the buttons to have his little drone move the other flying things he was chasing were flipping though the air and out of his shooting rage.

It sucked when that happened, and since he was using WE free wifi for guests, it was probably the game. The graphics were badass, though. Seemed almost real.

"Hey try updating the system" He tells the kid after seeing the boy once again lag so bad he missed his shot.

Green eyes swing to him drenched in rage. Which yeah, Tucker knows how frustrating that could be.

"Did I ask for your help!?" The boy snaps, his words lined with an upper-class accent. Made sense since he was wearing a Gotham Academy uniform like the rest of the large school group. "Why are you even looking this way, peasant?"

"No, sorry. I just noticed the lag." Tucker raised his hand, slightly amused at the peasant insult. "I thought I could fix it for you."

The boy's face spams, "You believe you have the ability?"

"Ugh sure? I can try?"

"Here. Be quick. The fate of this city's air defenses depend on it" the boy turns his lap top to him and Tucker blinks.

Okay. So fix the game. He can do that.

And he does, quickly opening the code, analyzing the control and commands , he gets it running properly in less then twenty minutes. The boy seems utterly shock but he quickly takes control of the game and shoots down all the escaping ninjas from the sky.

"Thank you." The boy says with no more tense in his shoulders. Then he closes his laptop and dissappears with the crowd of students.

Tucker thought the kid was a cute.

Danny hands him the keys not long after and he leaves.

Never was he aware of the Boy being Damian Wayne and that the game was not a game but a actual defensive drone system that was fighting off the League of Assassins.

He only finds out how important those two facts are when Danny gets a call from Tim Drake asking if he could pass along Tucker's information because the CEO wanted him on staff as soon as possible..

Both nineteen-year-olds lost their minds after getting the call, screaming at each other in ghost shrieks of glee. They called Sam to let her know- and have her lawyers look over the contact Tim Drake sent just to make sure it wasn't a big-time company trying to screw him over.

He went to an interview three days later. He faced Tim Drake, the current seventeen-year-old CEO, Leo Noir, the current head of HR, and Jessica War, the current head of computer services. They asked him many questions about himself- some of which he felt he had answered terribly- then had him take a computer test.

Tucker thought it was busy work, so he quickly breezed through it. He fixed the problem in many of the coding for various programs, adding his flare to the final product, and after thanking them for their time, went out into the lobby.

He hadn't even reached the door before Jesssica ran after him, offering him the job. Apparently, the first two problems they had him do was the busy work. Tucker had thought they were the ones to let him get comfortable with the coding program.

Like a tutorial in video games.

The other seven were actual issues; many of their latest cellphone products failed. Tucker had solved them in an hour, which had taken the actual team of coders about a month.

"Nitey one dollar and thirty-five cents an hour," Tim tells him tapping the hiring contact. "It would be eighty hours every paycheck. You can work here or at home. Full Benefits. What do you say?"

Tucker's jaw drops. "When do I start!?"

He calls his parents to tell them he will be staying in Gotham with Danny. He tries to explain what had happened but it was all so fast that he can only babble about certain parts.

They tell him not to worry about explaining because they understand how much this means to him.

His parents help pack everything for him and when he flies back for it they, offer him hugs and support. Tucker is so glad they aren't mad.

"I sort of knew it was coming," His dad laughs. "You and that Fenton boy have always been inseparable."

"I did the same thing, you know," His mom says, wiping tears from her eyes but smiling all the same. "I moved with your father states away with little to no plan when I turned twenty too. Drove your grandfather mad."

He loves them both so much. He promises to send money- disregarding their denials- and flies back to Gotham, where Danny has opened his apartment until he gets enough for his own place.

He plans on renting a house with three bedrooms, one for him, one for his office, and another for Danny, as soon as he can. He wants to pay his friend back for everything he did and Danny deserves a bigger living space.

And for once, he'll not have to worry about money!

For once, life is looking up!

(What Tucker is unaware of, is that his parents think he moved to the big city to be with his childhood best friend turned recent lover. They don't know that the money he is sending home is from his own payroll and not Danny's. They think he's a stay-at-home husband.

Tucker is also unaware that the Bats are closely watching him in case he goes rogue. They have been slowly "causally" running into him in the city and breaking into his place to check for supervillain activity.)

[mutable-manifestation]

Red

based on @13thdoodle's drawing Day 4: Red Red Green which is based on this prompt from @danphanwritingprompts.

***

For a long, long time the Fenton parents had been the kooks of Amity Park.

But eventually, ghosts became a known quantity. Suddenly it wasn’t so crazy to believe in ghosts.

Suddenly, Fenton Defense equipment was actually a hot commodity - whatever their eccentricities, they knew what they were doing when it came to working with ectoplasm.

Unfortunately, the Fenton’s also went about shouting theories that were - though it took some time - proven untrue in the eyes of the masses. 

All ghosts couldn’t be evil, not when the Box Ghost - for all he shouted about doom - would float away happily if given a box as a gift. 

Not when the ghost of Sidney Poindexter only ever appeared to cheer up bullied students, and only once in a blue moon - the Fenton boy didn’t seem to receive the same courtesy for all that he was the main target given his habit of stepping in and drawing attention to himself to spare other students (perhaps Poindexter just didn't want to make the necessary multiple-times-a-day appearance that it would take).

Not when Phantom did his best to protect them from the ghosts that truly meant them harm - plenty of the older generation might have fallen for the Fentons’ lies after the incident with the mayor and the circus, but plenty were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Still, whatever people thought of their theories on ghosts’ behaviors and personalities, when it came to simple ectoplasm and biology it was acknowledged that Jack and Maddie Fenton knew their stuff.

Ghost shields worked just like they said they would, their weapons - while poorly aimed - worked just fine in competent hands, and things like ghosts being made purely of ectoplasm seemed to bear out when the ghosts that Phantom fought would - very rarely, ghosts being so much harder to injure than humans - get a scrape and bleed that same neon green.

(The students of Casper High see even more evidence of this when Manson panics at lunch and lipstick-blasts a blob ghost she’d seen out of the corner of her eye. The spray of gore hadn’t appeared to contain anything defined as far as the students could tell through their panic and sadness - thankfully, the blob was able to pull itself back together before zipping away from the incredibly relieved goth.)

And so the facts of life in Amity were thus:

Ghosts are real

Ghosts will attack the city pretty frequently

Phantom will protect Amity from attacking ghosts

Fenton brand ghost equipment is reliable as long as you know exactly what it is meant to do

You will have to ask for details. This is necessary, but you will regret it. Set aside at least 4 hours.

It is best to avoid unknown ghosts until proven safe (either because they are friendly or because they are a Box Ghost level threat).

Ghosts bleed green

And, finally:

7. Despite the number of fights he has been in, whether by skill or sheer dumb luck, Danny Phantom has never bled.

No one ever thought about it, ever wondered.

And why would they? Danny Phantom is dead, and the dead bleed green. No one has to wonder when they already know the answer.

Until the day that Skulker and Technus team up. 

Technus is already captured by the time the cheering crowd appears - familiar enough with Phantom v Skulker fights to see that it is coming to a close and willing to take the newly-decreased risk to get a closer look at their hero in action.

Phantom is already aiming the thermos at a heavily-damaged Skulker when he throws one of he and Technus’ collaborative weapons in a last-ditch effort to escape.

Phantom dodges lower to the ground - the round looks like a net-projectile, he thinks, it should just pass over-head.

It was meant to be an area-of-effect taser. Not that anyone can tell when the haphazardly-assembled device explodes over Phantom’s head just as Skulker is sucked into the thermos.

The crowd screams and reshuffles just out of the way of where Phantom plummets to the ground - they know he can tank a crash, but the explosion is new and worrying. 

The bit of dust clears to Phantom sitting up and holding his head, eyes closed as he groans. 

And then his hand pulls away, and all anyone can focus on is the red, red liquid dripping down his pale face and smeared across his white, white glove and the edge of his hairline.

He stares at his glove, face slack in something like disbelief while the trail of blood curves over his cheek to trail towards his chin and the crowd whispers around him. 

The dead bleed green, the living bleed red. 

Humans bleed red.

And

Is Phantom alive?

At the last, he jolts to attention, slapping on something that is as much a grimace as it is a grin.

“Whaaa-aat? Noooo. This is just paint.” He points at his head as he speaks, rising unsteadily to his feet with his free hand - like gravity matters, like he’s forgotten he can fly. “Why would I bleed red?”

His voice rises too, and the people closest to him - Kwan among them, given Phantom had practically landed on his doorstep - can see the sweat forming on his brow as he speaks. His voice rises to a higher pitch than normal.

The ‘paint’ finally drips to his chin, and falls to splash bright, obvious red-on-white on his collar.

Kwan can just see the cut beyond the blood - where it’s coming from. He pockets his phone and steps forward, worry overtaking any confusion or admiration.

“Phantom-”

Phantom jolts fumbling back a step before his eyes widen and he floats up, into the air like he’d just remembered how.

“Anyway!” Phantom’s voice is practically a squeak and it’s plain to see the tension in every limb. “Gotta go wash off all this paint! Red really isn’t my brand, y’know. Haha. ha.” 

Phantom lives up to his name (does he? Can he? Is he?) and vanishes from sight.

The crowd has all of ten seconds to glance at the specks of red on the ground where he’d landed before an open jug of bleach materializes to fall to its side, contents covering the area.

[q-gorgeous]

They Had Been Afraid of Their Own Parents This Whole Time

fanfiction

ao3

word count: 1346

The Fenton Parents are the best parents in the world, but even they've noticed how much their kids have changed since the Portal activated. At first they think it's their logical fear of the ghosts that now attack Amity and they redouble their efforts to create weapons and defenses to keep their kids safe. But it only seems to make their kids grow more distant and Danny. Danny looks downright -terrified- at some of their weapons. It's not until one of their kids throws themselves between the Drs Fenton and a ghost that the Fentons realize--it's -them- their kids are scared of. @akela-nakamura

more fic wooooo

Jack and Maddie Fenton always prided themselves in being the best parents they could be. 

They had always encouraged their kids' interests. They were well aware that their own interests seemed a bit eccentric to most people, so they wanted to give their own children undivided support when it came to the things they were interested in or wanted to do. 

Jazz had always loved learning about how the mind worked. She’s been a bright young girl from an early age and once Jack and Maddie started noticing how many times Jazz would check out certain psychology textbooks from the public library, they eventually bought her her own copies. 

And Danny. Danny had the brightest imagination. He was always reaching for the stars, quite literally. He wanted to be an astronaut someday. They bought anything space related that he wanted. Glow in the dark stars, model rockets, posters. He decorated his entire room with it all. It was what he dreamed of, to be able to be among the stars. 

But something was different now. Danny didn’t seem to be as interested in becoming an astronaut, if his grades were anything to go by. Becoming an astronaut took a lot of knowledge and book smarts and it was something Danny seemed to lack these days. He was always skipping class, missing assignments. It was like he didn’t care anymore. 

Ever since the portal turned on he was different. They knew he was down there for some reason when the portal miraculously turned on one day. It had given him quite the electric shock. They’d taken him to the hospital to make sure he was okay but the doctor said he was perfectly healthy. But still, something had changed with Danny that day. They just didn’t know what that was. 

Then the ghosts appeared. With every ghost that came through the portal, Danny had a new excuse about why he couldn’t go with his parents to capture it, or why he didn’t want to be in the lab when they were doing experiments. He even avoided all mentions of ghosts that he could. There could only be one thing wrong.

Their son was afraid of ghosts. As he should be! Ghosts were very dangerous, especially to people who could be easily manipulated, like teenagers. 

One prime example of a ghost coming to Amity Park that targeted teenagers was that Ember Mcclain girl. Danny was lucky to not have fallen for her ploy, but Jazz did. For all of Jazz’s smarts, she was still tricked by a ghost. 

So Jack and Maddie had to protect them. They needed to do everything in their power to keep their kids safe from ghosts. 

They spent day and night building new weapons and defenses. With the ever increasing ghost problem, it was necessary. 

They’d take their new inventions up to the dinner table with them and proudly show them to Danny and Jazz. At first, Jazz would roll her eyes. She never believed in ghosts herself. Not until she had a close call with one at the school. Now, Jazz looked just as terrified as Danny. But they didn’t have to be afraid anymore. Not when Jack and Maddie could make whatever they needed to take down, capture, and defeat the ghosts. 

That’s when the real fun would begin. Once they captured the ghosts, they had an extraordinary opportunity to study it. They planned on doing experiments, examinations, all sorts of things. This would be what would help spur their research on. 

But no matter how much Jack and Maddie tried to comfort their kids, they still looked terrified. But that was okay. Being afraid of the ghosts would protect them. 

Especially Phantom. He flew around and pretended to save the town, pretending that he was the good guy. But he caused just as much damage as the other ghosts and he had even committed crimes! He stole from a jewelry store and attacked the mayor! This ghost’s expert manipulation didn’t work on Jack and Maddie. His near perfect mimicry just made him the perfect ghost to capture and examine. They wanted to see his insides, what made him tick, how long he would keep up his charades. 

Phantom was too good at tricking them. Even their kids, who were terrified of ghosts, were fans of Phantom. Jazz was even going as far as to start arguments with Jack and Maddie about him. Telling them that they just needed to give him a chance. They should have an actual conversation with a ghost, maybe they would learn something. She was so convinced that what he put on display for the town to see was genuine. 

Not long after this, Danny and Jazz became more distant. They could tell that they were upset that they couldn’t sway their parents' views. They eventually stopped arguing, but they also stopped coming to breakfast and dinner. They’d make excuses for why they couldn’t eat at the table or why they wouldn’t be home that night. 

It infuriated them. Phantom had put such a rift into their family. How? What could he have possibly done to convince Danny and Jazz that their parents were in the wrong?

It wasn’t until a day far after that that they finally understood. 

Phantom was fighting a ghost in the middle of the football field. He’d been fighting for a while already when Jack and Maddie had arrived and they could tell he was getting tired. The ghost he was fighting hit him and it sent him flying through the air. He landed on the ground in front of Jack and Maddie. They trained their weapons on him, preparing to shoot. 

This was their chance. They finally had him. They were going to tear him apart molecule by molecule and prove to their kids that there was no exception to ghosts being evil. Phantom was not some kind of good ghost. He was just playing a part. 

They were ready to pull the trigger when they heard a shout. 

Running from behind the bleachers was Jazz. She had a panicked look on her face. It was the most scared they’d ever seen her. 

She ran and planted herself in front of Phantom, her arms splayed out wide to put as much of a barrier in between them as she could. What was she doing? Why was she protecting this dangerous ghost?

But then they saw the fear on her face. She was standing closer to Phantom than she was to them. She wasn’t afraid of Phantom. She felt the need to protect him. What was she afraid of?

Jazz’s eyes flicked down to their weapons and then back up to their eyes. It hit them like a train.

Jazz was afraid of them. 

What had happened to make Jazz afraid of her own parents? Why was she afraid of them? Was this some new ghostly ability that Phantom had? The ability to manipulate their emotions? 

But then Phantom groaned and placed a hand over his stomach where a wound was seeping ectoplasm. A bright ring appeared around his waist and they charged their weapons, the ecto-guns they held in their hands whining. This wasn’t something they’ve seen Phantom do before. What was happening? What was this new ability?

They could see as Phantom tried to hold it back. The rings kept splitting, merging back together, and disappearing over and over again. They watched as Phantom seemed to give up, the fight left his body. He leaned against the back of Jazz’s legs and it seemed like he passed out. The rings finally appeared again. They separated and passed over his body and Jack and Maddie were stunned to see what was left behind. 

Their son sat bleeding out in the middle of the football field. Jazz still looked ready to hold her ground against them. Their weapons clattered to the ground. 

Their son was a ghost. Danny was Phantom. Jazz and Danny hadn’t ever been afraid of ghosts. No. 

They had been afraid of their own parents all this time. 

[avaritia-apotheosis]

Phantom Children Ch. 8

What's this? An update! Massive thanks to my betas for helping me get through this chapter <3

In Which: A few answers are given to the family and Danny is rudely awoken

[Side note: If you wanna know the general ages of the batfam, its listed in the AO3 version. I also talk about katanas in the end notes ^-^]

AO3 | Prologue | 7 | [ 8 ] | 9 DAMIAN INFORMED TODD—and Drake when he arrived on his bike sometime later on—that the boy whose face is plastered across the monitor was neither a picture of himself nor of Father.

Drake took one glance at the monitor and sighed, pressing his fingers against the bridge of his nose. “Just when I thought this day was getting better.”

“What, did that café on 5th finally let customers supersize their drink?”

“God that would be the dream, wouldn’t it?” Drake sighed wistfully. “Nah, but I did get a lead on where some of that stolen Cadmus tech might’ve ended up. I was gonna spend the night following up on it, but I guess we have to deal with,” he gestured to the monitor, “whatever this is.”

Todd leaned against the edge of the computer, arms crossed over the red bat insignia on his chest. “What are we dealing with this time, brat? A clone? An alternate universe counterpart? Magic shenanigans?”

Maybe. Perhaps. All of those were perfectly valid conclusions for the enigma that was Daniel James Fenton. (Why Fenton and not al Ghul? Or even Wayne?)

Damian, too, was a genetic experiment; a ‘test tube baby’ as Drake put it at times. Damian was born for greatness, created to be perfect. The perfect soldier. The perfect assassin. The perfect heir. Was this boy—Daniel—like him as well?

A failed one, then. Perhaps the precursor to Damian’s own existence. But that would not explain why the boy was allowed to exist for so long. His grandfather demanded perfection, especially from those of his own blood. If the boy was a failure, he would have been eliminated immediately, not sent to live with some eccentric scientists in the Midwest.

Damian was not naïve enough to think that his mother and grandfather did not keep secrets from him. On the contrary, he expected it. The League of Shadows dealt in secrets as often as it did in death. Certain information was worth its weight in gold, whether it was given or buried away.

But he could not help the sharp pang in his chest. A lightning strike, quick and electrifying at the notion that they kept secrets about their family from him.

His father’s face flashed in his mind. The shock turned into a slow, dawning horror. That flicker of light, of recognition, as he scrutinized the contents of the flash drive and cross-referenced it with a public database.

And grief.

Damian recognized the grief.

Alfred, too, nearly dropped his tray of fresh-baked cookies when he stepped in front of the monitor. His usual unflappable demeanor was momentarily broken at his father’s whispered “Sixteen years. Alfred— he’s sixteen years old.”

His father knew of the boy. He was allowed to know of Daniel when he was not allowed to know about Damian.

------

Grayson returned to the cave with a distinct lack of energy in his step. His mask dangled off the tips of his fingers, chin angled downwards and covered largely by his hand. For a split second, their eyes met. Grayson shifted his gaze away, scratching the back of his neck. Father told him, then. Damian wondered how much Father revealed to his favorite son.

Damian clucked his tongue and buried himself deeper into the chair, arms crossed and pointedly looking away. If it was not for his accursed ankle, he’d have headed out to the training ring to take his frustrations out on the dummies.

“Oh, thank god you’re here, Dickface. Damian’s completely out of it.”

Damian shot him a look. “Shut up, Todd.”

“Leave him alone, Jay. Is Tim back yet?”

Drake emerged from the changing room in a dark green shirt, a fresh cup of coffee in hand. He took one long sip before exhaling. “Yeah, I’m here.”

“O-kay…” He pressed his hands together, mouth thinned into a grim line. “Uh, hey Tim, glad to see you back safe. Bruce is coming down soon to explain some things.” He let out a deep sigh, carding a hand through his hair. “This kind of thing would probably be better with the girls around, but I—god, I don’t know.”

Todd raised an eyebrow. “Don’t know whether to call Steph and Cass in Hong Kong, or don’t know what’s going on?”

“Yes.”

------

When Father arrived, Pennyworth following dutifully behind him, it was with an aching slowness in his gait. His steps measured and precise, preternaturally quiet as he made his way to stand by Damian’s chair. Damian sat up straighter, shoulders squared and back an inch away from the backrest. The rest, even Todd, stood at attention; an ingrained habit among Robins and an amusing instinct even among the senior heroes of the Justice League when it came to facing the Batman.

His father kept a steady hand on Damian’s shoulder, and Damian, shamefully, leaned into the touch; his head inclined towards his father’s hand so much so that he could feel the ends of his hair being pushed up slightly as he brushed against his father’s forearm.

He spoke with his usual monotone, as if he was heading a Justice League meeting as opposed to unveiling the secrets surrounding that boy. He brought forward the few photos they obtained from the flash drive. “A few weeks ago, we were alerted of suspicious movement from the League of Shadows in Amity Park, Illinois. Their objectives are, as of now, unclear, though it appears to be tied to the death of Amity Park resident, Daniel Fenton.”

One photo was a standard ID picture people get for their driver’s license, the lighting deliberately horrible so that any attempt to look decent would always end in failure. Another photo was a little better; a candid scene of him chatting with two others his age, a Caucasian girl in gothic-style clothes and an African-American holding a sleek, but still very outdated PDA. His blue eyes crinkled at the corners, hand reaching up to his face to stifle a laugh. There were other photos like this, some candid, others posed. At the forefront of each, a boy that looked too much like his father, too much like Damian.

His father glanced at the photos. He shut his eyes and when he opened them again, he fixed them on some distant stalactite in the Cave. “Around six months ago, Daniel was pronounced dead in a vehicular accident. A body was present, but according to police reports, he was identified via his driver’s license as opposed to any kind of DNA profiling.” He leaned over Damian’s chair to pull up a profile of Masters. “Our source—Vladimir Masters, mayor of Amity and a friend of the Fenton family—indicated his belief that Daniel is actually alive. I am inclined to agree.”

“He’s your son, isn’t he,” Drake said, more of a statement than a question.

Father gave a curt nod. “I cannot say for certain until I can perform a DNA test, but I highly suspect that to be the case.”

“First the demon spawn, now this. Great.” Todd made a hand motion towards the screen. “You know, Bruce, not knowing you have a kid once might be a coincidence, but twice? How do you do that?”

“As of three hours ago, I was still under the impression that my son never made it to term.”

“What?”

“Over sixteen years ago I was involved in a mission that put Ra’s and I on the same side. During that time, Talia and I entered a relationship that resulted in a pregnancy. Though initially ecstatic, she eventually led me to believe she miscarried the child and pushed me away. For what ends, I do not know, but trust me Jason, if I knew—” He paused, the hand that was not on Damian’s shoulder curled into a tight fist.

Father pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why she hid it from me then doesn’t matter. Why Talia wants him back now is important. Judging from Daniel’s records, he was adopted into the Fenton family as an infant and has since lived a seemingly normal life as a civilian. His adoptive parents, Jack and Maddie Fenton, are brilliant scientists and engineers focused on the field of paranormal studies. Eccentricities aside, they have zero connections to the League of Assassins or any other concerning parties.”

“So why now?” Dick asked, shifting his concerned gaze from Bruce to the static picture of Danny’s tired smile. “Why, after all this time, decide that now would be the best time to recover him?”

------

Danny’s experienced plenty of rude awakenings before, but waking up at the ass-crack of dawn to avoid his kidnapper-slash-assassin-slash-biological-mom launching a surprise attack takes the fucking cake. He can’t believe he’s saying this, but thank god for all those late night ghost attacks that conditioned him to be a light sleeper. And, of course, the League’s insistence that everyone be in optimal condition regardless of how little sleep you actually got.

Danny kicked Talia off of him, ripping his blanket away before scrambling to his feet. Seriously, if the universe decided to spontaneously give him powers again, he’d really like an upgrade to his ghost senses, please and thank you. Something that works on humans and not just ghosts. Like spidey-senses. He’d really, really like some spidey-senses.

“Your reaction times have improved considerably,” Talia said.

He eyed the katana sheathed beside his bedroll. “Thanks. Who could have guessed that constantly challenging someone to a spar in the unholy hours of morning would make them paranoid to sleep too much? Really, how am I supposed to grow taller at this rate? ” If he could just get it--

She smiled, taking a step forward. “Prepare yourself.”

“Heh.” Danny stepped further away from Talia, keeping his back to the mouth of the cave. One hand stretched in front of him and the other, coated in a green light, was kept hidden behind his back. “Am I actually gonna get some answers today?”

“Let us make it interesting. Last 10 minutes against me and I shall tell you more about your brother.” Talia twirled her blade. “If you happen to draw blood, you may ask any one thing of me.”

“Anything?”

“Within reason.”

His face caught between a grimace and a smile. He’d rather be sleeping right now, but if he had to be awake, then he’d better make the most of it. “Deal.”

Talia’s smile dropped. She veered her body to the right, barely dodging the streak of bright green that whizzed from behind her. The ectoplasmic energy that surrounded the katana bled away as the handle connected with Danny’s outstretched hand.

She quickly glanced back at Danny’s bedding. Beside it lay an empty sheath. “You have telekinesis?”

He shrugged. “It comes and goes.” Yeah, no way was Danny gonna admit that seven-out-of-ten-times he forgot that he had telekinesis. Besides, that shit was hard to do when he wasn’t Phantom.

“A surprise attack from behind is a sound strategy, Daniel. Though it’ll take a lot more than that to harm me.”

Danny pointed to the side of his cheek. “Are you sure about that?”

Talia frowned. She reached up to her face. Her fingers brushed against her cheek and came away with a thin streak of blood.

Danny grinned, pointing his blade at his opponent. “First blood goes to me.”

------

Fact: most fights don’t last long. An average street fight could last anywhere between 25 to 40 seconds, and sword fights rarely last over a minute. Like Talia said, the goal of a fight was to end it with as few injuries to oneself as possible. Humans, even the most skilled ones, can rarely last long in a fight. Prolonged combat is suicide; it makes you tired, makes your muscles heavy. It’s nothing like what Hollywood would have you believe.

Even with Danny’s own enhanced stamina and Talia holding back, he couldn’t last a full ten-minute spar. If Talia didn’t finish him within twenty-five seconds, then he’d fall by his own human limitations.

But the goal wasn’t to spar continuously for ten minutes.

He only had to last that long.

Danny sprinted out of the cave. The sun barely peeked out of the horizon, a thin line of deep orange breaking apart the wide expanse of blue-black sky above. He couldn’t see shit; great news since that meant there’s a good chance Talia couldn’t either, but that doesn’t fix the fact that he can’t see.

Nearly stumbling on the ice, Danny veered to the left. The edges of the lake stopped at towering rocks twice Danny’s height, leaving little room for cover. Though if he remembered correctly, there should be a few crevices here and there to hide in.

“You’ll have to be faster than that, Daniel.”

Shit—

Danny stopped. He brought his sword up to parry Talia’s strike and twisted away, putting distance between them.

Well, so much for just avoiding her for 10 minutes.

He adjusted his grip, keeping his sword steady and eyes trained on Talia as they circled each other. Danny lunged with an overhead strike. Talia used one hand to block the downswing by gripping his wrists. She thrust her sword forward, the tip harshly poking Danny’s abdomen.

“Less than three minutes.” Talia let his wrist go, Danny’s arms slumping to his sides.

He sighed as he sheathed his sword. “Damn, I thought I’d last longer than that.”

“You made a good effort,” Talia assured him. “Putting as much distance between us at the beginning was a good strategy. You recognized the win conditions immediately and attempted a battle of attrition.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I am very proud of you habibi, especially as you managed to draw first blood.”

A warmth grew in Danny’s stomach at the words, heating his cheeks. Sheepishly, he scratched the back of his head. “I wasn’t entirely sure that would work, honestly.”

“It was clever; half a second later and you might have even killed me. You are an al Ghul through and through” She brushed his hair out of his face. “What would you like as your prize, then?”

Danny’s heart clenched. He frowned, dropping his arm to his side. If I was such an al Ghul, then why didn’t you keep me? The question lodged itself in his throat, stifling his thoughts. It was something he’d been wondering for a while, actually, in the moments of solitude he had at the compound. Talia, during their training, would always remark at his potential. How talented he was, how adaptable he was, how much greater he would have been if he had been trained at a younger age.

Well then, why wasn’t he? Why did she give him up?

But each time he tried to ask, his tongue would turn to lead and the moment would pass, the question still left unsaid and simmering at the back of his mind. A Pandora’s Box that held none of the world’s evil but all of Danny’s possible shortcomings.

He could ask the question now.

He could.

He didn’t.

“Why did you take me?”

Talia tilted her head. “It is because you’re my son.”

“No. Not that. It has to be something more than that. You had sixteen years to come back for me—or, hell, you could have just never left me.” His breath hitched, fingers mussing his hair and hiding his eyes. “Why else did you take me?”

“It is true that there was more than one reason why we decided to retrieve you from Amity Park. One of which is because you are my son and an heir of the Demon’s Head.” Talia stilled. The dark skies of dawn made it impossible for him to read her. “The second reason was to protect you.”

“You kidnapped me…to protect me?”

“Knowledge of the ghosts of Amity have spread through the more insidious parts of the world. There are many out there who would pay exorbitant fees to study one of you or to use you.”

Use him? What did she mean by—

Oh.

Ghosts—Amity Park’s brand of ghosts—were a new element that the world had to contend with. Amity Park might have a crime rate of zero but that wasn’t the case everywhere else. Theft, assault, murder; the world was rampant with crimes and criminals clawing their way to the very top. Having ghosts, even ones with the most basic powerset, would be a huge advantage.

“There’s no way that would work,” Danny insisted. “Most ghosts just want to be left alone, and the ones that want to wreak havoc would never work with humans. The only reason they even work with halfas like me at times is because they still consider us as ghosts.”

“If my sources are to be believed, ghosts might not even get a choice.”

Danny’s blood curdled in his veins.

No.

Someone’s found a way to control ghosts.

[redrobin-detective]

From a young age, Jack Fenton wanted a life of adventure and excitement. Working on his family’s quiet farm in the middle of nowhere never sat right with him. Late one night, he sees something he can’t explain in the woods which sparks a lifelong passion for the supernatural. He worked day and night at various odd jobs once he was old enough in order to save up money for school. Pa and him had a huge row when he saw how much money Jack had saved over the years. That money could’ve bought new equipment, could have put food in his sisters’ mouths. But Jack held fast, he loved his family but he needed to find his own way and he wouldn’t find it here. As soon as he got his acceptance letter for his college of choice, he left the farm and never looked back.

Rooming with Vlad Masters was a struggle at first but his roommate’s intense desire to prove Jack wrong about ghosts eventually sparked a friendly continuing argument which just became friendly in general. Jack was too loud, too enthusiastic for everyone else, almost always the biggest and broadest guy in the room. Jack first met Maddie during college orientation, or rather he met her bountiful bushy red hair 3 rows up that his eyes kept wandering to. He met her properly when they got into an intense discussion of the use of the supernatural in fiction during literature class. Girls had never registered for Jack before, always seemed less interesting than his research. But Maddie, she like a revelation in and of herself. They continued their debate after class, into the dining hall where Vlad somehow got roped in. They exchanged phone numbers and continued their theories long into the night. They never really stopped.

Maddie was like the campfires Pa used to make when he was young. She was small and contained but with an all-encompassing energy that warmed everyone around her. He finally met his match with her, her enthusiasm encouraged his and vice versa. Her mind thought differently from Jack but in a complementary way, he did his best thinking when she was there to bounce ideas off of. As close as he and Vlad were, sometimes the whole world disappeared when Maddie was around. Vlad proclaimed his desire to date Maddie on a couple of occasions, asking Jack to back him up. Jack never knew how to answer, it should be okay as long as the two of them were happy and he and Maddie could stay friends. But he couldn’t just ignore that chemistry he felt when Jack’s eyes met hers.

 Vlad’s accident occurred not long afterwards, he was stuck in the hospital and forced to drop out of school their last semester. The guilt ate away at Jack but Maddie made things better. He danced with her for their last college dance, kissed her for the first time as they threw their caps into the air for graduation. Being with her was like being whole for the first time in his life. When he got down on his knee and asked her to be his lab partner for life, it was the best thing he’d ever done. They had something of a shotgun wedding, neither of them had two nickels to rub together both coming from poor families and a load of student debt. Jack couldn’t afford to rent a suit so he wore his hazmat suit, figuring Mads would get a kick out of it. When she walked down the aisle with her lab goggles on, he knew he’d found the one.

They moved to Amity Park, a peaceful but still bustling suburb an hour outside Chicago. In their research, they’d discovered several anomalies in and around the area that suggested it was a hot bed of paranormal activity. They bought a house and worked on making it their own. Maddie initially hadn’t wanted children, wanting to focus more on their work. Jack, however, had come from a big family and had wanted kids even when he’d been a kid. Many long discussions and time to settle and soon they had a beautiful daughter. He asked to name her Jasmine. His mother had loved the smell and kept it around the house growing up, even years later, the scent calmed him. Looking at the precious girl in his arms, he knew that she would be his new home.

Danny had been a little bit of a surprise. Him and Mads were content with their chatty, precocious daughter. They hadn’t even discussed having a second when they found out she was pregnant several months in. She hadn’t been symptomatic, Maddie fretted the rest of the pregnancy, worried she’s inadvertently harmed their child by exposing herself to chemicals. But everything turned out alright, Danny was born just fine, if a solid pound smaller than Jasmine. While Jazzy had wailed and wailed, Danny was a quiet baby, instead choosing to look around with wide, curious eyes. When he gripped Jack’s finger and brought it into his little mouth, Jack was smitten.

He loved being a scientist, a husband, but Jack especially loved being a father. Maddie said he never quite grew out of being a kid and he agreed with her. The sound of his daughters delighted screams as he ran around the house with her on his shoulders. The beaming smile Danny gave when Jack held him up high so he could be closer to the night sky. He loved his work, an obsession he was more than willing to admit, but his heart truly lied with his family. Jack could have lived an eternity in those early days when his children looked up at him like he could do no wrong. Of course, it wouldn’t last. Children grew up, socialized and learned that ghost hunting wasn’t the cool, legitimate profession they’d believed. His kids loved them but there was a separation that hadn’t existed before, a disconnect of a passionate farm boy searching for the unknown to modern kids who didn’t understand what it meant to to crave understanding.

Maddie was the one who shopped the idea of working on the portal again. Jack had been skeptical at first, it had been his dream but after what happened with Vlad and with the kids still living in the house... But Vlad was fine now, on his way to being a millionaire the last Jack heard and his thirst for knowledge couldn’t be quenched. It took years to draw up the schematics and begin building. The process was slow, made slower by Maddie going back to school for her second degree in psychics, by losses of funding, taking shady government contracts to put food on the table. When he saw the sad, hungry looks on his kids’ faces when they had discount TV dinners, he finally understood his father’s anger over Jack selfishly hoarding money for college. But years of blood, sweat and tears saw the fruition of their dreams completed.

The portal hadn’t worked right away to his immense disappointment only to miraculous start up when him and Maddie weren’t looking. Danny started acting sick immediately after, enough to scare the hell out of Jack. Visions of Vlad’s ecto-scarred face and the sounds of him vomiting up blood and ectoplasm haunted him. Not his Danny, not his sweet boy. But Danny recovered and things seemingly went back to normal. They say hindsight is 20/20 but Jack will curse himself until the day he died for not seeing the signs until it was spelled out for him. He knew Maddie and him were unconventional but he tried to foster love and trust in their home. The idea that his son didn’t think he could come to them for the dramatic changes the portal had done to him, that he was scared of them. Jack wept heartily at the thought of how he’d failed, that he’d been the sort of prejudiced, uninterested father like his Pa had been.

So he’d gotten down on his knees, making himself smaller and less threatening to his boy - he was so tall now, when had that happened - and asked for another chance. Danny, always too kind for his own good, forgave them. He said it before Jack believed he meant it but it was the biggest relief he’d ever felt in his life to have the opportunity to make things right. It was hard, erasing decades of biases. To not jump when Danny acted a bit too ghostly, to not to correct him when his boy made some comment on ghosts that Jack disagreed with. But he listened and he learned and even though his heart was already fit to burst, he found more love in his heart for his son. His son, who carried a heavy burden with dignity and grown into twice the man Jack was when he hadn’t been looking. Jazz too was paving her own way forward with the same zeal and intelligence that Jack admired so in Maddie. 

His wife, his friend, his lab partner for life stood by his side as their children left home to change the world. When he was young, Jack dreamed of excitement, of never-ending exploration and fearsome battles. He got all of that, and more, but he also found something else. Jack found people who loved him for all his eccentricities, who he felt free to be as loud as silly as he desired. He raised two beautiful children who he loved more every day and who he knew loved in return. He wished he could tell his younger self that while excitement put hair on your chest, his Ma and Pa had been right in that family was something worth investing in. Jack Fenton made staggering advancements to the field of ectology over the years but his greatest accomplishment, should you ask him, would be living his best life with the woman of his dreams and their children.

[burning-clutch]

Shielded From The Truth

Cross posted on A03: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30441042 -.-.-.-.- Warnings: Mild wounds. Number two in the phic phight! When his parents put a shield up around Casper high to keep the ghosts out, and it means that Danny’s day hardly goes to plan. And he was so close to being on time for once too…. PHIC PHIGHT 2021 For team ghost! -.-.-.-.-.- Prompt by: Silverwing013 Danny's parents have kindly offered to set up a ghost shield generator for Casper High. Hijinks ensue as Danny attempts to handle the situation. 

-.-.-.-.-.-

Danny groaned as he only half listened to his parents rattle off whatever ghost nonsense they were going on about as he ate his breakfast. A bowl of dry cereal because the milk was contaminated and he really didn’t want to chance it giving him more than a stomach ache. This had become the norm this week it seemed as his parents seemed invested more than usual into the ghost shields that they had been working on and improving.

Why only shields? They would be installing one in the school soon… but beyond that? He wasn’t sure. They probably told him, sure, but being a teenager and one that had parents that hated half of him, had the effect of making him only lightly listen to the weapons and things that were meant to fully kill him off. That and at least the ghost shields weren’t usually a hindrance to him, in fact, they had proven themselves useful on a few occasions.

Plus he had the added advantage of being able to simply return to his human form and slip through the shield with little issue. Given his parents had no knowledge of half ghosts existing, at least he hoped not, they shouldn’t be designing a ghost and human shield. After all, that would defeat the purpose, right? It wasn’t as if Amity really had any human threats anymore.

Well, regardless of the eccentricities of his parents he could at least take some comfort in the fact that Skulker couldn’t simply attack the school to get to him any longer.

Small mercies he supposed.

Danny blinked as his father said something to him before slapping him on his back causing the teen to practically choke on his cereal from the force of the smack. “Isn’t that just great Dann-o?” the large man exclaimed happily before looking at his son expectantly. Oh great, he wanted him to ask something? Great.

“S-Sure” Danny choked out as he flailed, grabbing in front of him for the orange juice he had nabbed from the fridge, it thankfully hadn’t been in there long enough to start glowing… yet…

He shook his head as he finally got his breath back without inhaling dry cereal pieces into his lungs. When he was sure he wasn’t going to sound like some dollar store squeaky toy he tried to ask his parents a question, always a dreadful time if he were honest, but hey, he would usually be late for school anyway.

“So this will go around the whole school?” Danny tried weakly.

“Yep! And the best part is it’ll sense where there's an evil ectoplasmic entity nearby and spring up instantly! We made sure there won’t be a ghost within Twenty feet of the school before that puppy jumps up to the rescue! Like a big Fenton airbag!” Jack exclaimed all too enthusiastically for what the current time in the AM should allow a normal person to exhume.

Danny hummed noncommittally and sent a glance of ‘help me’ to his sister, who, in turn, rolled her eyes at her little brother. “And the shield even uses the ghost’s power to run the shield right?” Jazz asked side eyeing her father from her own spot not wanting to fully engage in the conversation they were having.

“Oh, yea! That’s the best part!” Jack practically cheered out.

“And the stronger the evil skum is the faster the shield will react and sooner it will be picked up. It will only go off on a level three or higher.” Maddie explained with a pleasant smile as she sips at her coffee.

“And we got it all finished last night to be ready for you kids today” Jack added happily.

“Hooray, more fun on a Monday” Danny sighed out into his last bites of cereal. Jazz snorted but didn’t comment, though Danny blew her a childish raspberry.

Jack continued to go on about the more intricate details of the shield they had put up though only one thing really caught his attention in the spiel, “-And Vladdie helped with the funding to outfit the school! Even helped us get the materials we needed to make such a large shield!”

“Ah, there it is…” Danny groaned letting his head fall forward onto the table in instant defeat.

“Danny! I really wish you would learn not to stay up so late playing video games! Look at you! If I get another call from one of your teachers about you sleeping in class-” Maddie started only for Danny to cut her off jumping to his feet.

“Yep! Thanks for that, mom! Look at the time! Love you bye!” Danny prattled off quick as could be before grabbing his book bag by his feet and bolting like a scared rabbit. After all, if his mother never finished that sentence when he inevitably fell asleep he couldn’t be grounded… she never officially gave him the last warning…

That’ll work, right?

It wasn’t long when he was out of the house that he was at his usual waiting spot for Sam and Tucker. Unsurprisingly, Sam got there first though they didn't have to wait long for Tucker to lumber forward, half asleep to his friends, and together they made their way towards the school as a unit.

Things seemed well enough until he got onto the stairs leading up to the main doors. That was when all hell broke loose. A deep alarm sounded before his father’s voice rang out from the speakers, in his over the top cheery way that only Jack Fenton knew how to pull off.

“Attention kids! Guess there’s an evil spook nearby so we’re deploying the shield! This ghost protection was brought to you by Fenton-works and sponsored by your mayor!”

Danny frowned. “My ghost sense didn’t go off…” He mentioned quietly to his friends.

“Maybe the shield sensors are more sensitive than you are?” Tucker asked with a frown.

“Since when?” Sam argued incredulously.

“Well who or whatever it is, it isn’t bothering me right now and no one’s screaming, no one’s panicking, so it can wait. I’m actually going to be on time for once!” Danny says waving the notion off.

He continues his trek up the stairs and towards the doors of the school, though when he reaches the threshold of the shield he finds himself having to really push hard against the thing. It was like hitting a wall of foam or Jell-O. He could push through if he pressed hard enough but it was not pleasant or as easy as going through the air.

Once through the initial shield wall, he blinked slowly feeling sluggish and as though all his limbs were moving through water. He even sort of felt like he was having to ‘swim’ as he walked like he was both heavier and lighter than he should be, but unable to find that buoyancy happy middle ground.

“Dude…” Tucker said smartly as he frowned at his friend’s almost slow motion, yet stop motion like movements. It was eerie, to say the least, not to mention the more pressing issue that he noticed right off the hop, “Your eyes are shining, man. And your, um… Neck...”

Sam, ever prepared for whatever bull their lives seem to throw their way, slipped her bag around to her front and offered Danny a pair of sunglasses, which the halfa put on promptly, along with the spider webbed patterned black and silver scarf.  “I mean, it’s better,” Sam argued, not even giving Tucker's look of disapproval her full attention.

“They’re spider glasses.” The boy states with a shake of his head. “Not really digging the whole-” Tucker waved his arm about Danny’s head in little circles, “-pseudo goth thing” he finished finally. Though he had to admit it was at least marginally better than seeing his friend’s glowing eyes and the electric scars showing up on his neck and disappearing under his shirt collar.

“Better?” Danny asked out sluggish, his voice almost sounding like it was being drawn out on a tape deck that was starting to lack battery power and not playing at quite the proper speed making the pitch and timing slower and lower.

Sam and Tucker shared a look before offering a thumbs up to their friend, both deciding it better not to address… whatever that was… The look they shared between one another spoke of their mutual hope that this would perhaps be one of those problems that simply go away on its own.

Ignoring the problems they have usually makes it go away… Yeah, that always works out.  

Danny makes a grab for the door to pull it open again, having that weird slow stop motion effect, like he was flickering between blinks rather than making a smooth motion forward. “Ehm, maybe don’t move around too much man… it’s um… creeping me out.” Tucker offers helpfully.

“Huh?” it took Danny a minute to process, as while he looked slow to them they seemed to be hyped up on caffeine to him… “Why are you talking so fast?” He wondered, his head almost appearing to glitch into a tilted and confused look.

“I think the ghost shield is making you go all slow motion. Just stop talking.” Sam says forcefully before letting out a shudder of her own.

Sam and Tucker share a glance before they each grab onto one of Danny’s arms and half drag him off to his locker. Despite his friends’ efforts he still got many looks shot his way, and a couple of people started whispering to one another as he passed by them.

“How is this going to work if I’m already weirding everyone out?” Danny asked, voice still sounding like a slowed record as he blinked sluggishly and his head jerked almost unsteadily from side to side. From his perspective, everyone was speeding along and talking at 1.5 times the normal speed.

“Maybe I should look for the ghost that triggered this, maybe Tuck, can you look into this mess?” Danny asked after a moment of trying to figure out what was being said around him through the noise of the hall.

“Yeah that might be best…” Sam responded shifting from leg to leg as she locks eyes with a basketball jock who was staring at their group incredulously.

“I got you, man, I’ll change everything to present and, block any ‘call home’ recommendations.” Tucker pipped up already pulling out his PDA to set that up preemptively.

Danny nodded and let out a hum before glitching his way out the nearest exit and out of the shield’s bounds. Once he slipped back out through the barrier, strangely enough, a harder feat than it was getting in, but that wasn’t a problem he wanted to focus on, he already blamed Vlad so he would simply continue to do so until the fruitloop showed himself.

As soon as he was through the green line of the shield Danny practically fell forward in relief. That stifling feeling now gone from his core and bones making his movements fluid and normal, well as normal as a clumsy half ghost could be anyhow…

It was a moot point and not one Danny wanted to think on too long. He gave a quick “thanks” to his friends, before diving between the dumpster and the school’s bricks, transforming into his ghostly alter ego and taking off into the sky. He would do a few laps around the school and city as he looks for whatever ghost set off the shield.

-BREAK-

It wasn’t until lunchtime Danny returned looking much more windswept and all around more miserable. He entered the courtyard through the side joining his friends out on the picnic table they had claimed.  He made it over to them, flopped down on the bench next to tucker with a groan before his head smacked into the table before him.

“You find them?” Tucker asked around whatever horrid monstrosity of a sandwich he was eating, spewing bits of half chewed bred at Danny’s head.

“No” Came the muffled reply, filled with tired disdain.

“No ghost sense?” Sam wandered, flicking the bits of bread from Danny’s raven hair and back towards Tucker.

“No”

“Huh… You think it was you who set off the shield?”  Sam wondered with a thoughtful frown.

“When I went into the back end of the generator though it wasn’t supposed to go off for anything that low, Danny in human form is like a two at best,” Tucker argued spinning his PDA around to show what he’d found when he hacked into the motherboard of the Fenton’s latest device.

Danny groaned. He supposed had he listened to his parents he could have been more prepared for whatever lunacy his parents’ decided to toss his way but alas, his short attention span and teenage rebellion and lack of caring got the best of him yet again.

Joyous of joys.

He tuned out his friend’s back and forthing for a bit, wondering if he could get away with smashing the device as Phantom when Tucker had his a-ha moment of discovery. Danny turned his head and raised a brow at his friend who was furiously typing away at his device.

“You were right about Vlad, Sam”

“Naturally,” She agreed.

“Well, he had an over right line here specifically set for Phantom’s ecto- signature,” the boy states running his finger along the line of code he’d found in the program.

Danny’s mood instantly brightened at that. “So then we just get rid of that bit right? And BAM everything’s fine?” He asked. “Man, what happened to me? Why do I want to get into the school again?”

“To keep up the illusion of normalcy on this mortal plane.” Sam supplied stabbing at her salad a little more forcefully than she probably needed to.

“Eh, yeah, I suppose.” Danny agreed with a lacklustre shrug.

“There, that should do it” Tucker spoke, interrupting whatever tangent Sam was getting ready to spew off about how normalcy was only an illusion created by corporations or some other such thing.

“And just in time The bell just rang,” Danny says with a small grin clasping a firm hand onto his friend’s shoulder. “Nice one Tucker!” he cheered as the trio made their way over to the doors that would lead them back into the cafeteria.

Unfortunately, as soon as Danny’s hand hit the door handle the shield once again sprung to life, though this time, instead of simply having a hard time passing through the shield, he was thrown back across the field earning a cry from several students who were following the trio.  

“Grapes of wrath Mister Fenton!” Lancer, (of course it was Lancer) shouted out in worry, his shout even carrying over the prerecorded message containing his father’s voice. Lancer half jogged half waddled over to Danny who blinked up blearily to his teacher, eyes flashing green for the briefest of seconds before draining back to blue.

“Leave it to Fen-turd to get himself possessed.” Dash snorted from behind the pot bellied teacher earning a few nervous glances between the small crowd of gathering students. The mutterings of the students didn’t take long to start up after that.

“I’m not possessed,” Danny argued, though, it was rather hard to make said argument when the palm of his hand was burned and leaking ectoplasm from where he had touched the door.

“Course he’s not possessed! He’s a ghost himself!” Wes shouted pointing an accusatory finger at the youngest Fenton.

Danny glared. “Not the time Westly.” He muttered under his breath as he was hauled to his feet by his friends. He tried to brush himself off only to end up smearing the ectoplasm from his hand onto his jeans, leaving a luminescent streak across his thigh.

Seeing his chance the ginger jock was all too eager to point it out. “See look! He’s bleeding ectoplasm!”

“No, I’m not! It’s from the shield! it sputtered out at me.” Danny tried to protest, though even in his own ears it sounded like a weak argument.

“Really?” Wes argued and marched over to the shimmering shield. The teen waved his arms about freely in the shield’s range hopping back and forth pointedly across the line of the barrier before showing his hands and clothes were completely clean of any glowing goo. “See! Ghost!” he accused again after he did a little pirouette to show his lack of ectoplasm.

“Yeah? Well, it sputtered at Danny only ‘cuz it turned on with him in the threshold.” Sam tried to argue back glaring at the ginger, venom in her gaze.

“Well then, why don’t you just walk through the shield Fen-toad?” Dash said with a smarmy grin, ever eager to get his own jabs in and seemingly not wanting to be outshined by the ginger conspiracy theorist’s bullying of his favourite punching bag.

“Fine” He spat back bitterly and marched up to the shield with a huff.

Sam and Tucker exchange a glance with one another as Danny presses his hand into the shield again. Thankfully this time there wasn’t anything that blows him back but he also really had to try and push through the shield.  

Danny could see out of the corner of his eye Wes’s smug grin as he grunts and does his best to push through the shield. His persistence is rewarded and he falls to the ground on the other side jumping up and giving a quick ‘HA!’ as he faces the small gathering crowd of students shifting uncomfortably just beyond the shield.

Sam had a look of exasperation and she looked like she was trying to restrain herself from face palming. Tucker on the other hand had no such restraint. He was almost over eager to bury his face into his hands.

From Danny’s perspective, he simply smacked into the ground and stood back up, but from the other students’ perspectives, Danny fell into the shield but instantly slowed down, looking as though he were falling with the moon’s gravity rather than the earthly speed everyone was used to. It also didn’t really look to them like he had hit the ground, instead glitching his body back into an upright position before cheering in that low slow motion state as he had earlier.

And if that wasn’t damning enough his eyes were glowing a lovely shade of ectoplasmic green.

Wes smirked, seemingly very smug and content with himself and this development. “See told you all he was a ghost!”

“T-that’s enough Mister Weston… Right…” LAncer muttered to himself a few moments watching as Danny seemed to glitch about as he cheered before seemingly realizing something was wrong. “I think there was a procedure to depossess a student…I bet the teachers in Bridgestone don’t have to exercise their students in this manner…” He complains. Sure they had gym class and he would appreciate the pun and irony if he wasn’t so tired.

“I don’t get paid enough for this,” he muttered, ignoring the look of panic that spread across Danny’s face.

It took some doing, a lot of flailing limbs and pressing himself against the damn shield, but Danny soon was through back out and free. His eyes still glowed brightly as he stared at his classmates looking very much like a deer in the headlights. Eyeshine and all might he add.

A few of the students were snickering, because only in Amity park could one get possessed by a ghost and have it come across as though someone had merely said something embarrassing or misheard an instruction and was now staring blankly ahead.

“Er….” Danny stared at his classmates half panicked before simply vanishing from view.

“Moby Dick!” Lancer exclaimed, almost dropping the book he was thumbing through from the Fenton parents. Sure it was a ghost, and could potentially be dangerous, but it wasn’t attacking so there wasn’t really anyone panicking.

Instead, the teacher simply felt tired. “Right, I’ll call the Fentons and let them deal with this, Everyone back inside I do believe the lunch bell rang already!” the teacher called out shooing the students into dispersing.

Danny stood there invisibly and holding strong as he internally groaned. At least they thought he was possessed, that could be easily explained away but he was not looking forward to trying to explain it to his parents…

Still maybe if he gets ahead of this…

It was with that thought in mind that he bolted away into the treeline beside the school, transformed and headed off to his home landing in his bedroom only a few minutes later. He went human, back intangible and invisible came out the door, made sure the coast was clear before speeding his way down into the basement.

He just made it down the stairs startling his mother and father who blinked at him curiously, when the phone rang cutting off his mother’s “Honey? What are you doing home so soon?”

“It’s the school calling Mads,” Jack says, sounding disappointed as the large man sent a look of disapproval to his boy.

“Wait!” Danny jumped forward answering the phone and instantly hanging it up.

“Daniel!” His mother exclaimed abashedly.

“I wanna explain first! Do you know how all your stuff goes off on me? Well, the shield at school started doing that and they think I’m possessed! I’m not, it's just the… ya know…” Danny rambled off hurriedly hoping against hope that his parents wouldn’t try to send him to decontamination … again… (Thanks to his ghost half, it burned in places he didn’t ever want to burn)

“You’re possessed Dann-o?!” Jack exclaimed instantly pulling a Fenton gun from somewhere on his person and brandishing it towards his son.

Danny threw his hands up and waved them placatingly at his father. “NO! Just the normal stuff! The contamination from the portal accident set it off. I got too close to the sensor!” He says quickly ignoring how his parents seem to flinch slightly.

His parents shared a look before his father seemed to deflate, seemingly upset at the fact his son wasn’t possessed. “I thought we fixed that... “ Jack says with a frown. “But, we can’t let the school know we may have messed it up! I know we’ll just run the tests again and fix it in the night!”  

“Yeah, that would be- Wait what?” Danny blinks. Why couldn’t they just go down and fix it normally? Of course, his parents had to be weird about this too. “Thanks… Is there anything you need from me to help?”

And with those words said he almost instantly regretted it. “Well… We would really like to know why your ecto signature lines up perfectly with Phantom’s but perhaps that can wait.” Maddie offered with a small amused smile.

Danny sputtered at that, “Wh-What?”

“We set up a monitoring system so we can tell which ghosts most frequent the school… Phantom was the one that triggered the shield twice today. There actually wasn’t anything else that did,” Maddie explained with a deepening frown.

“You sure you’re not possessed, son?” Jack asked again this time sounding almost defeated in how, well, normal a volume he asked that. The hidden meaning was all too obvious especially after he mentioned his accident…

They thought he was dead! The portal killed him! And as the growing pit of dread grew into Danny’s stomach he couldn’t help but feel awful knowing they were correct in that assumption, well at least half right anyhow.

“Yeah… I’m… I’m me…” Danny managed out his voice cracking

“O-oh hun....” Maddie sniffed.

“But it’s not I… I’m me, I promise and I’m not all dead. I still have a heartbeat and everything!” Danny argued or rather tried to as his mother was quick to kneel before him taking his face in her hands as tears bubbled down her chin.

“Mom really I’m like … half at most. More human with a side of ghostly abilities ya know?”

“Oh, it’s okay Dann-o… You're still my son, I know ya are. It’s been almost a year since that accident and you’re mostly still you.” Jack said. “Just worse grades and more hormones and-”

“Thanks, guys really,” Danny sighed in relief both at dodging the potentially awkward birds and ghostly bees talk as well as the tepid acceptance he was getting. Awkward though it may be it was still acceptance nonetheless.  He was happy for it just the same.

“Maybe while we work on fixing up the shield to ignore Phantom’s signature you can tell us about some things?” Maddie asked sniffling again as she looked over her son’s face trying her best to hold herself together and not outright bawl at the thought she had killed her youngest child.

“Y-yeah… I’ve been wanting to tell you about this for a while now but, well, ya know…” Danny offered uselessly.

“I think it’s us who should apologize for that, son but maybe we can just all go get some triple chocolate fudge milkshakes and go deal with that shield after dinner?” Jack offered with a smile, ever the one to break up tension.

“Yeah, yeah… that sounds good.” Danny agreed. Well, it wasn't how he was expecting this to go, but he was kinda glad it ended up like this. Maybe now they could repair their strained relationship.

As Maddie ruffled up Danny’s hair the teen offered her his first genuine smile in almost a year.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Total words: 4245 Complete

[animaniahq]

Danny Fenton || 24 || Paranormal Investigator || Amity Park

"Actually dad, I want to be an astronaut."

✨ Biography:

Growing up Danny Fenton was a pretty average kid. He wanted to be an astronaut, but his grades weren’t the best. He didn’t have many friends, but he did have Sam and Tucker. The three were the best of friends, though Danny often felt closer to Tucker. Sam was their token goth friend, Tucker was the brains, and Danny was, well, Danny. He never thought of himself as anything special, though his mother always told him otherwise. He had an annoying older sister, Jazz, who always seemed to butt her nose in where it didn’t belong. His dad was very eccentric. Both of his parents were, but his dad was a little insane. Not really in a bad way, just that he was obsessed with ghosts. His parents wanted to rid the world of ghosts while also studying them. The basement of their house was practically a science lab for studying the supernatural and one day Danny and Sam were looking around at his parents’ newly build ‘ghost portal.’ Supposedly it teleported one to the ghost realm but they could never get it to work. After messing around with the portal one day something happened. Danny’s DNA was crossed with ectoplasm and he became a hybrid of a ghost and human. It was strange, because he could kind of turn it on and off. He wasn’t always sure how to control his powers, but he managed. With becoming part ghost though he accidentally released actual ghosts from the portal and into Amity Park. He made a vow though; to rid Amity Park of ghosts and keep the town safe.

He’s been doing it since he was fourteen. A decade later he’s pretty much mastered his ghost powers. Sam and Tucker have been there for him the whole time to support him, as well as keep his ghost powers a secret. His dreams of being an astronaut were abandoned, but he did end up going to school. Until he was kicked out for having poor grades. That didn’t stop him from trying his best though! He may have been a lazy student, but he knew he needed to get his butt in gear to be successful in life. It was difficult somedays as he was pretty much a freak by societal standards, but hey, he manages. Currently, he works for himself and sometimes his parents. He’s deemed himself a paranormal investigator and works mostly with Tucker and Sam. It’s crazy how many people come to him, telling them their house is haunted and such. With the knowledge he’s gained of ghosts over the years he’s pretty much perfected the art of ridding the world of ghosts. The problem is that there’s just so many and he can never seem to catch a break. He’s sure one day things will slow down, but for now he uses his ghost powers to help people while trying to live a somewhat normal life.

✨Personal:

Species: Half-Ghost Sexuality: up to player Pronouns: up to player Favorite Song: up to player Big Three: up to player

✨Connections:

Norman Babcock: He’s probably the only person who can see Danny in his ghost form. It scares Danny that he can and he tries to steer clear of the guy as much as he can. Somehow, though, Norman always seems to pop up.

Shaggy Rogers: Danny thinks the guy is super cool, but for some reason he seems terrified of Danny. He never understood why, maybe Shaggy just has some sort of internal radar that can sense all things ghostly and spooky. Regardless, Danny just tries his best to be friendly to him.

Dipper Pines: The kid asks way too many questions. He’s a huge fan of Danny’s work, but can be a bit overbearing for Danny’s taste. He’s a nice kid and all, but Danny tries to keep his answers vague when talking to him.

Based On: Danny from Danny Phantom Faceclaim: Elliot Fletcher FC Change: Not Allowed Availability: Open

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Verboten 2 | (T)

ff.net | AO3

Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)

Summary:   AU. When Danny was five years old, he went missing for 2 weeks. In the years that follow, his family tried to make sense of what happened, only for the truth to be discovered years later.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, language. Be prepared for some very weird things

Parings: Danny/Sam

Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr. This fic is very heavily inspired by folklore surrounding mysterious wilderness disappearances

Chapter 2

“I’m honestly surprised your parents allowed you on this trip, Danny,” his friend Sam mentioned as they and their other friend, Tucker, packed their bags onto the bus.

The now seventeen year old Danny shrugged as he focused on trying to make sure his bag wouldn’t be squished in the luggage compartment of the bus during the trip. He brought a foldable telescope with him in case he had a chance to stargaze, and he didn’t want it to get broken.

His school, Casper High, had some sort of deal with one of the local National Parks. The school was allowed to camp at the park at a reduced rate as long as the students helped the Forest Rangers with some minor tasks. Both parties considered it a win-win situation as the Park Service received some extra hands, and the school was able to pride itself on the survival and conservational experiences its students received. Technically, the trip was voluntary for seniors, but the teachers indirectly pressured the students to participate.

“To be honest, I’m more surprised they convinced Tucker to go,” Danny eventually replied after he was satisfied with the location of his bag.

“You’re telling me!” Tucker whined as he waited for his two friends while he fiddled with his PDA. “My mother actually threatened to stop making her meatloaf for me if I didn’t go! They said, “It would be good for me”. Can you believe that?”

“I think a little bit of hiking do you some good.” Sam poked him in the stomach for emphasis.

As Tucker shouted in protest, Danny and Sam exchanged a glance. Tucker did not like the outdoors, and he was very vocal about it. His world primary consisted of technology, and while it was amazing what he could do with his handheld and twenty minutes, his physical prowess was lacking.

“But seriously, Danny,” Tucker injected after he finally fended off Sam, “how did you convince your parents to let you come?”

Danny shrugged as he headed towards the door of the bus. Shouts from the teachers made it clear they would be boarding soon. “It seems like the school board managed to somehow convince them. All I know is that they had a meeting with them to raise concerns and to tell them I wasn’t going to go, but they came back stating it was fine. It must have been one heck of a persuasive argument.”

“That’s because my mother was involved.” The boys glanced over to see Sam angrily kick a rock out of the way. Her parents were often a taboo topic. “I thought I told you she was on the school board. I don’t know the full details of it, but I know she was preparing counterarguments to objections.”

“I’m honestly surprised your parents are so gung ho about this trip. You’d think they’d consider camping beneath them.”

“It’s because of the prestige. They can brag that their daughter and their daughter’s school has ties to a government agency.”

While Danny raised an eyebrow, he admitted it seemed petty enough of a reason. Sam’s parents were very wealthy and liked to show off their wealth, much to their daughter’s dismay. They often argued with her regarding her appearance, music tastes, friends, after school activities, and other issues as they believed their daughter’s choices reflected poorly on them. However, they were usually fine with their daughter’s activism regarding conservation and animal rights as long as she didn’t go too far with it, such as the time she tried to stage a break out at the local zoo.

Their conversation ended as the boarding began. The three somehow managed to get the back of the bus, which allowed them to continue to talk without interruption. Most of the other students tended to avoid their group. They didn’t know why until one of the band members, Mikey, once asked Tucker how he put up with being so close to Danny. Confused, Tucker asked him to elaborate.

According to Mikey, a lot of the other students felt unnerved by Danny. As polite and quiet as he tended to be, there was something odd about him that no one was directly able to pinpoint. Mikey said he thought it could have been his eyes, citing how at times it almost seemed like Danny saw the world in a slightly different way than the rest of them. Tucker just laughed it off and explained that Danny had a traumatic event as a child so he often seemed unusually reserved. Mikey seemed to accept that answer, and afterwards, at least some of the students involved with the band were more open towards Danny.

The Fentons moved to Amity Park two years after Danny’s disappearance, so the majority of the student body was unaware of the event. If he was honest, Danny would never have told Sam and Tucker what happened, but his parents’ eccentricities forced the issue.

When his parent’s found out about Sam’s activism the first time she and Tucker visited their house, they made her swear she would not take their son into the woods with her. When he was finally allowed to take them to his room after Sam promised she wouldn’t, he hesitantly explained why they were so intense. His friends were very understanding, though they were just as puzzled about the entire thing as he was. Tucker even offered to hack into the old case file if Danny ever decided to look into it.

Sam did mention that it did help explain why they sometimes caught him staring off into space. She figured he was probably traumatized by something he couldn’t quite remember. Danny mentioned his sister once told him something similar, but he honestly didn’t remember anything that happened.

What he never admitted to his friends was that he knew why he sometimes seemed distant. Ever since his disappearance, he sometimes saw figures out of the corner of his periphery. Usually, he thought it was another person, but when he tried to check, whatever it was had disappeared. More recently, however, the figures seemed to let him glimpse them for a second or two. He could never make out anything other than the vague shape as a person. Since no one else seemed to notice them, he figured it was some weird sort of paranoia due to a repressed memory.

….

About a half hour after they left, Danny received a voicemail from his parents. He had forgotten he had put it on silent, but there was no way he could call them back while he was on the bus since Mr. Lancer was the chaperone for his bus, and that man was a stickler for the rules. Instead, he made a mental note to call them back as soon as he had permission as he clicked the play button.

His mother’s voice sounded absolutely frantic. “Daniel, you call me as soon as you get this! I don’t know what came over us, but we never should have let you go without some sort of protection. I should have never have let you go. If the teachers won’t let you call us, jest remember to never be the last or first in line, and never, under any circumstances, go anywhere alone. And, this is important Danny, if anyone you don’t know offers you food, don’t take it.” His dad could faintly be heard in the background talking about some sort of weaponry he made.

“And here I thought only my mom could sound like that. What was that about?” Sam asked. Her raised eyebrow told him she wasn’t going to let it drop until he had an answer.

“I think my parents finally realized I was going into the woods,” he replied as he put his phone away.

“I thought you said they were fine with you going,” Tucker chimed in while he rummaged through his back for a snack.

Danny didn’t immediately answer. He glanced away for a moment before finally he decided to open up about something which had been bugging him. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but my parents almost seemed like they were in a daze after that school meeting. They were so adamant I was not going to be allowed to go on that trip, and then they just changed their minds and stopped voicing their concerns. It was so weird that I actually called Jazz.”

It was true. He had called his sister at collage because of how out of character it was. While Jazz understood his concern, she reassured him one of the teachers or other parents managed to ease their concerns, and/or they realized some of their worries were silly and unfounded. He tried to tell her there was something more to it as she couldn’t physically see how off they were, but she just told him he was being paranoid and to enjoy himself.

Tucker whistled. “It must have been weird for you to do that.” Both Sam and Tucker knew full well how Jasmine “Jazz” Fenton tended to overanalyze almost everything. As a result, Danny often tried to avoid asking her questions regarding why a person would act in a certain way. The resulting explanation was often too lengthy to be interesting.

“As weird as that is, do you really think anyone in Amity would do something like drug or hypnotize your parents?” Sam argued.

“I… I don’t really know. Look, I never told you guys this,” Danny sighed as he steeled himself, “but, there has been a second incident prior to us moving. Our old house had a wooded area behind it. It wasn’t dense or anything, and you could see in it for like a half mile… but, according to my parents, and Jazz confirmed it, I went missing again for several hours in those woods. I don’t remember saying this, but they said I mentioned something about my playmate from the forest in Arkansas payed me a visit. There’s been an unspoken worry that this guy is following us for some reason.”

Neither of his friends said anything for a while until Sam spoke up. “That’s really messed up, but do you really think that’s the case? How would this person be able to find you? Do you even know what he or she looks like?”

He shook his head. “You know my parents are big names in fringe science. It’s possible he found us that way. I know that it’s really unlikely… It… It’s just… it was too weird, you know? With how my parents go on and on about other dimensions and being spirited away, them just suddenly changing their minds went against everything they believe.”

“Don’t worry, Danny. You’re with us and a bunch of other students. We’ll keep an eye on you.”

“And if something does happen, Sam can chase off the bad guy with those boots of hers. Ow!” Tucker glared at Sam as he rubbed his shin. “That was a compliment.”

She just snickered which caused the two to start bickering. The familiarity of it helped ease some of Danny’s worries. He knew he was just being paranoid, and that it was very unlikely anyone did something to his parents. It was just that he couldn’t shake off his uneasy feeling.

….

Their camp ground was in the Cuyahoga Valley region which was on the outskirts of the Allegheny plateau. The hills in the area were rolling due to the plateau and ancient glacial activity, but they were nowhere near as large as the ones found closer to the mountains in the next state over. Like many forests in the plateau, it was surprisingly old and dense.

Danny was unsettled by it. The hardwood trees blocked out a large percentage of the sun which cast permanent shadows on the area. Not only was it unlikely he would be able to stargaze, he kept thinking he saw something peek out from behind the trees. Chalking it up to paranoia, he decided to focus on the interior of the bus until they reached their destination. He didn’t need to freak out this early in the trip.

Due to the amount of students, the school split them into groups of about thirty and split them around the park. His group was sent to a series of cabins near one of the ranger stations. There were five or six assigned to each cabin. Thankfully for Danny, Tucker was also assigned to the same cabin.

After Mr. Lancer told them some general rules, they were told they had an hour to settle in before they would met up for lunch. The unpacking was fairly uneventful, though Danny was dismayed to learn some of the football players would be in his cabin. Most of them tended to leave him alone, but the one, Dash, liked to bully him. It was strange since he was the only person aside from Sam and Tucker who would come anywhere near him. Thankfully, other than a warning to keep his weirdness to himself, the football players decided to ignore him and Tucker.

He unpacked fairly quickly, so he decided he had enough time to try to contact his parents. Stepping outside, he tried to make a phone call. Someone picked up on the other end, but the signal must have been poor as the call was extremely choppy. After several minutes of trying to figure out what she was saying, he told her he would ask the Rangers if they had a land line he’d be able to use before he ended the call. He frowned as he checked the bars on his phone. There signal was strong enough that the call shouldn’t have been that choppy, but it was a cheaper phone since he had a bad habit of breaking them, so that could have been the reason.

They ate lunch at a mess hall in the camp complex. It was a fairly modest meal, but the beef and gravy was surprisingly good. Danny mused it was probably because his parents often experimented with cooking which often created strange results. He was also surprised that there was a vegetarian option available for Sam, but the school must have called ahead to let them know.

When they were finishing up, Mr. Lancer announced that one of the Rangers had an announcement. Danny glanced over to see a stern man, possibly in his late thirties, move towards the front of the room. He was fit and weathered, but every once in a while, there was a haunted look in his eyes.

The ranger, Rusty, gave the group a rundown of the general rules. He then paused for a moment before he spoke again. “This is unprecedented, but we are going to need your help for a search for a missing person.” Murmurs of excitement ran through the students. “This is a serious matter, and I request you pay attention. We have our search and rescue people and volunteers out right now looking for a twenty-two year old male. He is Caucasian and was last seen in a red jacket and blue jeans. He goes by Aiden.”

“Because you are not properly trained,” Rusty continued, “I only ask that you walk along the nearby trails for a couple hours in groups of two or more. Each group will be given a walkie-talkie. If you see or hear anything strange, call it into us. Don’t go off the trails. We don’t need more people getting lost today.” He fell silent and seemed to argue with himself for a moment before adding, “If you hear what sounds like screaming, particularly a woman screaming, call it in immediately. Large cats sometimes make that kind of sounds, and we definitely have Bobcats around. Luckily, they tend to avoid people, but we do like to know when we have signs of them.”

Twenty minutes later, the teens separated into their groups. Each group was provided a map, compass, and walkie-talkie. Rusty took them to a large map posted outside the Ranger station and explained a little about the area. The trails he wanted them to take circled the surrounding area and were well marked. Before he let them go, he again warned them to report anything off, but did try to reassure them by letting them know other rangers would be regularly sweeping the area.

“Well, isn’t this a reassuring start to our trip,” Tucker sarcastically mentioned as he tried to figure out the map.

“It can’t be helped,” Sam told him as she ripped the map out of his hands and corrected it before handing it back to him. “They must be desperate if they’re asking students to help.”

“Hey, I’m not used to replying on handheld maps.”

“You could try bringing it up on GPS,” Danny mentioned as they headed towards the one trail.

“That’s a great idea!” Tucker fiddled with his PDA for a moment before turning back to his friend. “Are you okay, dude? You sound a little off.”

“Oh, I guess this would hit a little too close to home,” Sam mentioned as she examined his expression.

Danny sighed as he glanced away from her. “Kind of. Even though I don’t remember it, I was in this exact same situation before. I hope they find the guy, at least for his family’s sake.”

The trio fell silent as they began their walk on one of the easy trails. They didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, though Tucker complained starting about halfway through the hike. Sam tried to distract them by identifying some of the local flora, but it only worked for so long.

By the time they made it back to camp, it was almost dinner time. Danny was glad to be back around the group. Although he never mentioned anything to his friends, he felt as if he was being watched the entire time. The trees seemed oppressive at times, and he was honestly surprised he didn’t have a panic attack while they were on the trail.

After dinner, he asked Rusty if there was a phone he would be able to use. Rusty told him that he would have to wait until the morning because they needed the line for the search. Danny understood and thanked the man.

Before he had a chance to head back to his cabin, Rusty called out to him, “While you’re here, make sure you never go off on your own.”

“I know. I mean, my parents drilled that into me for years,” Danny admitted with a shrug.

Rusty examined him closely before stepping closer and whispering, “You’ve witnessed something strange in the past. I can tell by the look in your eyes and how tense you are. In any heavily wooded area, the more open you are to the unusual, the more likely it might show up again.” He walked off without another word. Unnerved, Danny returned to his cabin and waited for his friend.

Tucker still wanted to complain about the amount of walking they did when he returned to the room, which prompted a discussion regarding how in the world Sam was able to enjoy things like that. Danny was about to bring up what the ranger told him when the football players burst into the room. Normally, Danny would just ignore them, but this time, he was intrigued by their excited whispers.

“Hey dweebs,” Dash addressed them, much to Danny and Tucker’s surprise, “did you hear what happened?” An evil grin appeared on his face when they told him they didn’t. “Kwan overheard the rangers talking earlier. You know that guy they were looking for?”

“Yeah,” Danny answered, “Did they find him?”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t alive.”

“Wait, what?”

“You heard me. They’re saying he’s dead.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of chapter notes :

The Cuyahoga (Ky-ah-HOE-ga) Valley is a real place. I chose it for some very specific reasons. 1) The forests in that area are extremely large 2) I’m fairly familiar with the landscape and weather as I grew up in another part of the Allegheny plateau 3) The parks in that area are a bit unusual as you have a mix of privately owned and government owned areas which I’m using to my design as there’s more leeway with what they can and can’t build in those areas 4) some old towns have been “swallowed” by the national park including one famous “helltown”

The Allegheny (Al-ah-gain-ie) plateau is one part of the Appalachian Mountains, which are said to be the oldest mountains in the world. You don’t really have the high peaks or rock terrain associated with other ranges since they’re so worn, but there are a lot of hills, valleys, creeks, and streams. There are also a lot of coal mines since it’s a coal rich area. What’s also very strange about the plateau is that you can be in a town or suburbs, but within 15-20 minutes, you can be on the outskirts of a deep forest. There are also some swamps and marshy areas within the plateau as well.

Also, a lot of the names for natural landmarks in the Allegheny plateau originate from the tribes who originally settled there. There are even some burial mounds in the Cuyahoga area.

[phandom-phriend]

Phic Phight 2020 - Time Flies

“Danny is fourteen. But he is so, so much older than that” | Prompt by @bibliophile

Word count: 1,117

Danny is fourteen. Just your average student with below average grades, a close group of friends, and a wild family. He is someone you would see passing in the halls or streets and not think twice about. He is always just...there. In the background of life. Just another side character doomed to be barely remembered in the future at any high school reunions there may be.

 Even the faculty seem to brush past his existence in class. It’s like he’s a ghost, just floating through life. But some people are just like that. There’s nothing really concerning about it or anything. And with such eccentric parents and a head-strong sister, it’s all the more easier to just… fade.

 Danny is fourteen. But no one even noticed when he went missing. His close friends and sister chalked it up to him skipping class for “ghost things”, as they would later tell the police. His parents just assumed he was either in his room or with Tucker and Sam, it wasn’t odd to not see him around the house for a few days at a time. And the school's faculty had such little care about him being gone on the norm, they stopped bothering to call his parents months ago about the boys absence. One day he was there, and the next, gone.

 It took an embarrassing two weeks before anyone really realized anything was seriously wrong. And maybe the most surprising thing of the situation was that it was Dash Baxter of all people to report it.

 There was a big game that coming Friday, and realizing he hadn’t been able to beat all of his pent up energy out on someone in a while, Dash went to look for Danny around school. (Although he told the cops that Danny helped him calm down by talking, not by Dash beating him up. No one else disagreed with this statement) So Dash went to Mr. Lancer, asking where the twerp was and saying that he was essential for Friday's game enthusiasm. When the teacher not only noticed that the boy was absent that day, but that he had been for weeks, he called the Fenton’s. When they reported not having seen him either, the police were brought in to investigate.

 After interviews with townspeople and camera footage, it became clear no one was sure of even the exact day he was gone. It took an additional week of sifting through the town's camera footage of places the boy frequented. The Nasty Burger, his route to the school, Casper High, and the near-by park. They never realized how poor their cameras were until they were searching for the boy. How could there be so many blind spots all over town? How had no one seen this issue before?

 Danny is still fourteen when they find him on tape at long last. He is leaving school, going down to the sidewalk when he stops. He looks around, almost confused at his surroundings. But then he walks to the end of the walkway, turns a corner, and is gone.

 There’s just nothing after that. No other camera shows the boy, there's no sign of a mystery figure or a looming car. He’s just there, and then he isn’t. A fourteen year old teen gone, like he was lost to the wind. Like the air itself chose to swallow him up and take him from Amity.

 It was two years before the investigation was officially called off. Just a cold case left to the dust of the archives. What more could they do? No evidence, no sign of a struggle, no notice of the now sixteen year old boy. They were stumped, they had to quit or it would drive them insane. It was a miracle they had lasted two years at all.

 But his parents, his friends, they never gave up. The Fenton’s worked themselves into the ground to find their son. All their time spent on searching, scanning the city. Since the ghosts stopped attacking Amity (when did that happen?) and Phantom stopped making an appearance (did he have something to do with this?) they had all the time and money in the world to spend on him. Jazz tried to help too, making sure she was there every weekend, even when she moved to college a few states away.

 His friends combed the Ghost Zone. Even getting the aid of a few other ghosts for a more thorough and wide search, but that was just a rumor. They would leave for days at a time, just to come back more tired and disheveled than when they left.

 They never found him.

 Danny is one hundred and seventy two when he returns. Right in the exact spot in which he vanished. He looked fine, for the most part. Alive. His clothes were in taters, cuts and bruises lining his body next to scars that looked old. But it was all superficial, nothing too much out of place.

 The second he was taken to the hospital, everyone knew who he was.

 An infamous cold case of the boy who vanished. A story that brought in true crime and paranormal tourists in like cats to fish. The Fenton Works building became a “haunted” location for tours and overnight stays. His face all over the news and online forums. A tragedy turned into profit.

 Danny is one hundred and seventy two, still looking fourteen when he is told what year it is. When he is told his family and friends are gone. When he is told his house has been taken in by the town. When it becomes clear there is nowhere else for him to go. He is back, but he looks more lost than ever. His eyes are heavy and while his form looks strong, it seems that the weight of everything is enough to turn him to dust with one wrong move.

 When he gets up and leaves, they know they won’t see him again. But no one tries to stop the fragile teen. A minor shouldn’t be able to go alone, be without protection. But he is older than anyone else in town. A complicated case, but it becomes clear that having him be anywhere he doesn't want to be isn't going to happen.

 No one asks Danny where he went or what happened for all those years. They don’t even think to. Just one look from his cold eyes, and all questions get stuck in their throats.

 And yet, through it all, the police station can’t help but to give out a collective sigh of relief as they move a single file from their Cold Cases, to Solved.

[phantomphangphucker]

Ectober Day 21: Shattered - Legless On Maim Chap.1 - One, Two, Three...Oh Ancients That’s A Lot Of Broken Bones

Danny gets hurt a lot, eventually that had to land him in the hospital. And Lewis always ends up with the weird patents.

*Note: This wasn’t supposed to be a crossover. It just decided it had to be one halfway through.

It had always been a bit of a running joke just how bad Jack Fenton’s driving was. Many even saying that so long as he was behind the wheel, any vehicle could defy the laws of both gravity and reality...and the rules of the road. Which meant that everyone always got out of their way, cops included. The Fenton RV taking impossible turns and breaking 300mph was just a part of Amity Park.

So it was normalised, comfortable. Everyone lulled into the mindset that the Fenton’s were somehow immune to car crashes or that their RV was functionally indestructible. And at least they wore seat belts right? Okay, they usually wore them anyway.

Which is why, when the cops and ambulances were called out to a massive car pile-up, everyone was stunned stupid to see the eccentric family’s RV torn in half in what could only be described as a car massacre. Thirty or thirty-five, it was hard to say, vehicles strewn over the road; most damaged horribly. There’s body’s laying all over the road and limbs sticking out around twisted metal. Screaming and crying filling the air, with the less injured trying to help out the worse off. Paramedics start running everywhere, as the cops get the area closed off and join in helping victims.

If it wasn’t for how used to the Fenton’s the town was, everyone would have likely been incredibly shocked and paused; as Jack Fenton deadlifts and throws half of the massive RV. What does cause shock, is him being splattered in blood. No one having ever seen either Fenton with blood on them; or the daughter for that matter. It was just the boy that could occasionally be caught a bit bloodied and beaten.

Which is why Todd, a paramedic who honestly hasn’t had enough sleep, isn’t surprised as he rushes over to the bloodied and oversized man; easily telling it isn’t his own blood. Pushing Jack out of the way to stop the man from touching the, definitely injured, boy. Who’s caked so heavily that it’s impossible to tell who he is, which is why Todd is very surprised as the kid groans and tries to sit up.

Jack stammers barely above a whisper, “D-Danny-boy?”.

Of course, it was the son, great. Todd looks the kid over as he pushes the kid's shoulder to stop him from moving, “son, you need to stay still”.

“‘M fine”, based on how the kids speech is slurred and he’s shaking his head to clear it, he definitely is not fine.

Todd completely ignores his partner asking Jack about medical histories and allergies and if he was injured. Todd can’t help but scoff over how the large man wasn’t so much as scratched. Before frowning at the kids legs, he honestly did not want to touch them. It looked like he’d jumped feet first into a cheap meat grinder. The flesh mangled and torn, bits of bone jutting out or on the ground. If Todd had to guess, he’d say not even once inch of bone or skin was intact.

Todd blinks as he hears the kid mutter, apparently able to self-access to a disturbing level, “breaks: eight ribs, left arm, seven fingers, fuck my legs, shit. Dislocated shoulder, five cracked ribs, six herniated discs”, wheezing, “blood, lots of that. Okay okay, legs. That’s, uh, not good”.

Todd clears his throat once he’s gotten the gurney set up, seriously thankful the kid is half sitting half laying on a blanket. Effectively startling the boy out of his mutterings, who looks at him wide-eyed, “oh shit, person”.

Todd rolls his eyes but gets to work, motioning his partner over to help move the boy. “Just stay still kid”. Watching and having half the mind to whack the kid over the head, as he flops to lay down -which is beyond bad to do if he thinks he’s damaged his spine- and sounds, of all things, annoyed.

Todd’s partner chuckles at the boy as they carry him over to one of the waiting ambulances, “you definitely seem a Fenton that’s for sure”.

Todd has to force the kid to lay down as he tries sit up, after getting him in the ambulance, to look around, “kid, your folks are fine. Just take it easy. It’s you who needs to be worried over”.

The kid actually scowls at him before tilting his head around to scan the accident site, “okay, if you don’t stop moving we are immobilising you completely”. But Todd sighs slightly as Maddie hops in and hovers her hands around Danny, “sweetie, oh Zone, Danny”.

Todd grunting, “I’m going to have to ask that you don’t touch, sorry”, as he’s hooking up vitals and bags. There’s no way this kid hasn’t lost a concerning amount of blood and it’s a small miracle, if you could call it that, that the kid was even conscious.

Todd’s a bit surprised that the kid is still trying to look around, albeit a bit more subtly, “anyone hurt?”.

Maddie gives him a soft smile, “your dad and I are fine sweetie”.

“No, everyone. Is anyone hurt?”. Todd is seriously thrown by the seriousness and urgency to the kids tone. He sounded more like one of his fellow medics or a cop, than an injured kid.

Maddie blinks and worries her lip, “I’m not positive sweetie, but I’m sure there are injuries”.

Todd and his partner grab the kids' shoulders and force him to lay down. The kid looking like he wants to run off and seemingly moving to do exactly that. Todd holds up some straps, “do I seriously need to use these?”.

The kid glares at him before huffing like this is the hardest thing in the world and grumbles, “no”, as he lays still on the gurney; glaring at the ceiling with an almost impressive level of annoyance. But, apparently, not fretting about people -even though he’s injured to such a horrific level that Todd’s not even able to touch the kids' legs- is enough for the kids' body to just give out; as the kid blacks out.

Todd and his partner exchange worried glances, as the kids ECG turns on, showing an alarmingly slow heartbeat. Both watching it as they clean some of the blood off the kids' torso; hoping that’s interfering with the readings. It’s not, but in doing this they both notice the multitude of scars. Some with clear stitch marks and others that are completely unfamiliar to them.

Todd glances to Maddie with a slight frown, no kid winds up this scarred on their own. But that’s a problem for the cops, not him; as they arrive at the hospital.

The two paramedics hopping back in their ambulance to head back out before blinking at Jack running into the hospital. How he got here almost before they did, they’ve got no clue. The two shake their heads and shrug, speeding off, just more Fenton weirdness. Hopefully, that weirdness will help the kid out, he’ll be lucky to even keep his legs.

Dr. Lewis’s assistant snaps on his gloves for him after rigorously cleaning his hands, she opens the doors for him as he speaks, “so what are we dealing with? From the crash right?”.

Brittney pushes up her glasses with her wrist and nods, speaking as everyone else in the room makes space for the head surgeon, “yes, the Fenton son. He’s got more broken bones than intact ones...”.

Lewis smiles, thinking as Brittney rattles off the very long list of injuries, it had been a while since he had seen them, years in fact. Though this isn’t exactly how he’d like to be seeing any of them. Lewis nods before setting to work, “ah Danny, he’s grown a lot. His folks are old friends of mine”. Multiple people mutter about how, “that explains a lot”, and, “somehow that’s not surprising”.

Lewis is honestly amazed Danny’s even alive. Especially considering his strange vitals. But Lewis has seen strange before, so so long as Danny’s vitals don’t drop it’s whatever. But based on just his listed central injuries he should have lost more blood than the human body even carries. He managed to sever his Inferior Vena Cava, Superior Mesenteric Artery and Femoral Artery.

He’s not sure if that’s weird or just really impressive. Though he doesn’t let it faze or interrupt his work. But once he gets Danny’s chest open he stills completely, more than a little confused.

Multiple people whisper, “what is that?”. And Lewis has no answer. There’s just a glowing pale blue ball of what seems to be energy. Somehow it was partly through other organs as if it wasn’t physically touchable. Lewis pokes it, curious, only for his hand to go through it. But Danny shivers, so he promptly decides it’s just part of him and messing with it would be bad.

Lewis shrugs, back to the actual problems with Danny. Lewis can actually work with normal medical problems. Even if they were excessive and weird. Seeing as he came in with two, TWO, ruptured lungs. One kidney was a lost cause, the other barely salvageable. His spine was an interesting puzzle to put back together, but he’s not paralysed. Small miracles Lewis, small miracles. Thankfully his arms and hands just had simple breaks and dislocations, even if nearly every finger on his left was badly crushed. But hey, at least Danny was right hand dominant.

His legs though...Lewis sighs after poking and looking around, he knew with one look the legs were going to be bad. And normally he’d like to do the most difficult task first. It was always the most interesting and usually needed his full alert attention. But someone could live without good legs, they firmly can’t with major severed arteries and non-functioning lungs. Again, Danny should be dead. Very dead. Even if he was miraculously without any head or neck injuries. Not even whiplash.

Sighing again, Lewis turns away and snaps off his gloves into the trash. These legs weren’t salvageable. He was good, one of the best actually, but even for him limits exist. And leg bones that were shattered into millions of tiny pieces, like someone had put a bomb in a room full of oddly fleshy and bloody glass, was far past his limits.

Lewis nods to his team, “keep him stable”.

They nod as he leaves but nearly all of them mutter, “he’s actually doing the taking? The bad news? Wow”. Now it wasn’t that Lewis shirked his duties or couldn’t handle breaking bad news. He just wasn’t a people person, wasn’t sensitive enough apparently.

Lewis approaches Jack and Maddie, making a point not to smile and sends a small nod to their daughter, Jasmine, before speaking to the parents, “I’m sorry that this is how we run into each other again”.

Maddie nods and fiddles with her fingers, “agreed”, looking up at him and smiling pleadingly, “but you were always the best in your classes. So I’m sure he’s in the best hands”.

Jack clears his throat, “how is he? Will he be okay? How much longer?”.

Jazz sighs, “I’m sure he’ll be fine dad. Danny’s tough”.

Lewis forces down a laugh, not appropriate right now, “he certainly is”, looking more serious and looking back to the parents, “by all accounts, it’s a miracle he made it here at all. I’ve seen folks who’ve gone through wood chippers with less injuries. But he’s stable, he’ll live”.

Both parents sigh in relief but Jasmine squints at him, “and what’s the bad news? You didn’t say he’s out of surgery so clearly he’s not. The head surgeon wouldn’t leave the middle of surgery just to mingle”.  

Maddie and Jack look from her to Lewis, worried and scared. Lewis nods with the appropriate frown, sighing, “unfortunately you’re right”, clearing his throat, “though he didn’t sustain any head injuries, and all the major and minor central damage has been repaired and will heal fine. His legs, I’m afraid, can’t be helped. Even keeping them would be a bad idea”.

Maddie chokes out a sob and clings on Jack. Jack speaking softly, “are you...are you sure?”. While Jazz looks extremely startled and slightly conflicted.

Lewis nods at his two friends, “I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can even begin to do or try”.

Jack bows his head before nodding slightly and clenching his fists. Looking back up to Lewis, “Danny-boy’s a strong kid. I’m sure we can all handle adapting. Do what you think is best”.

While Jasmine walks up and plays with her hands, looking slightly pleading, “you’re sure he can’t keep them? Even a little?”.

Lewis sighs and nods, “I’m sorry Jasmine”, before giving her shoulder a slight squeeze and heading back to surgery.

Lewis picks up the bone saw as he reenters, freshly washed and gloved hands. His newest team member grimacing slightly as he gets to work. His team moving around and aiding him as he goes, pushing his weight on the device, occasionally switching out to bone nibblers or scalpels and other smaller tools. Everyone firmly ignoring Lewis’s slightly fond smile as he admires his work. Walking around to check out the symmetry. Most medical surgeons don’t exactly care how their work looks, Lewis does. Like tattoos, if you make scars and wounds pretty enough or give some kind of design people might actually grow to like them. Though clearly Danny had no issue with scars, considering the impressive amount of them he had. But hey, everyone likes symmetry.

Lewis makes a couple slight, and arguably unnecessary, changes, before having his underlings do the closing and heading back out to see his friends. Glancing at the clock as he goes, twelve hours total, expected honestly but still.

It’s no surprise that they’re less hopeful and happy about seeing him this time. “He’ll be fine. You can probably see him in a while but it’s best you don’t touch him”.

Jack and Maddie nod, looking a bit shell shocked. Lewis motions for someone to bring them some water and sits down. Clearing his throat, “now he’s going to be out for around half an hour, after that he’s going to be a bit groggy and he’ll be on a lot of medications. It’s best you wait till he asks to tell him about his legs. I can do that if you’d prefer?”.

The two nod as they accept waters, Maddie speaking, “thank you Dan. We’d like it if you were there to...explain things if he asks for specifics, but we can tell him”.

Jack nods, smilingly slightly forced, “he’s a curious kid. Always asking what this or that does”.

Lewis returns the smile more genuinely while Jazz appears to be grimacing.

Jack rubs Maddie arm and doesn’t call Lewis out on just sitting there somewhat awkwardly. His lack of people skills never even seemed to be noticed by the two, which is part of why he could call them friends. They were so strange that his strange went unnoticed.

Jazz eyes her parents before getting up and tugging on Lewis’s coat slightly, whispering, “give them some room, I’m a curious one too”.

Lewis raises an eyebrow before nodding, yes ‘space’ was something people usually needed. Walking with the girl who’s got a deep frown for a while till she speaks to him, “so...your name’s Dan?”.

“It is, not short for anything. Why?”, Lewis was fully expecting some questions about aftercare or even the nitty-gritty of surgery, not his name.

Jazz frowns slightly more, “then make sure you’re introduced as ‘Lewis’ first then”.

“Bad experience?”.

“Very”.

Lewis looks behind them, towards the parents, “I take it they don’t know?”.

Jazz shakes her head but smiles ever so slightly, “he likes to keep somethings to himself”.

Lewis smirks as his pager goes off, calling him away. Likely more people from the crash.

All three Fenton’s stiffen and hold their breaths as Danny groans, “who dropped a semi-truck on me?”, screws up his face, and opens his eyes. Blinking a couple of times, “oh duh, a road did”, before chucking slightly.

Jazz smiles softly and shuffles her chair closer to him, while their parents flinch, “you’re pretty close actually little brother. But I don’t think there were any semi’s involved”.

Danny clearly attempts to lift up his hand, but it is held in place. Jazz speaking as Danny looks not pleased about that, “don’t try breaking it. You need it, the public hospital did a good job though. Looks cool”. Seriously hoping that he gets that he has to act at least somewhat normal.

Danny snorts, “ice ice baby”, before blinking and screwing up his face again, “hospital? Am Imma bag of broken shards and bloodied mashed potatoes or something?”.

Jazz cringes at that, “yeah”.

Danny rolls his shoulders slightly, “well alright then”, snorting and looking at her, “what’d I fuck up this time?”.

Now all three cringe, Jack clearing his throat, prompting Danny to look towards him as Jack speaks, “nothing, son. It was just a freak accident-”.

Danny’s barked laugh cuts him off, “sounds like the story of half my life”.

Jack blinks and exchanges a slight smile with Maddie, though they still look sad. Maddie pets his hair gently, his head being the only thing not wrapped or restrained, “but one that none of us were even slightly responsible for”.

Danny chuckles, “that’s a nice change. Change is good. Let’s you buy burgers. Hospital burgers though...”, Danny makes a disgusted face, “not worth a cent. Prob make my tongue fall off or sometin’ and I like my tongue. It’s squishy and doesn’t belong to a snake”.

“Sounds like someone’s up”, everyone turns to Lewis’s voice. Danny chuckling, “look, a doctor, in a hospital. Who would have thought”.

Lewis smiles, “certainly not I”.

Danny shifts, Jazz is sure he was attempting to point at Lewis, “I like you. You seem very hit-able, but, like, the kind that also makes questionably strong coffee“.

Lewis shrugs as he walks fully into the room and stands next to the bed, “I’ll take it, and you’re right, I do take my coffee black. I don’t even mind the grounds”.

“Ah a doc after my heart, possibly literally. But it’s mine, not yours. You want it, you gotta lick it, like a cat”.

“My wife’s got a cat, real prick. Not going to copy any of his behaviour”, Lewis smirks and shrugs, “even if you have a very healthy and nice heart”.

Danny laughs loudly, everyone else laughing slightly as well. Jack and Maddie thankful for their sons weird, and definitely inebriated, humour. Jazz completely understanding why, or more so how, Lewis is friends with her parents. He might be weirder than them actually.

Danny smirks, “I would slap my heart if I wasn’t told to not break my white wrapping confines. ‘Cause this muscly bastard gets all the exercise!”, Danny screws up his face and laughs again, “pretty sure a cat tried to kill me once!”.

Lewis glances at Danny’s ECG, showing a heartbeat that is way too slow and pulse much the same. Not to mention the startlingly cold body temperature. But since Danny seems fine and stable in those regards, he’s just assuming that’s normal. He’s seen weirder and the Fenton’s are exactly the people to have a strange son.

Danny follows Lewis’s eyes, chuckling at the faintly beeping thing, “huh, well that’s awkward”, snorting, “really half-assing the job. Lazy prick”.

Lewis tilts his head and can’t help but laugh, it really was only half what it should be.

Jack smiles, “it’s doing a great job actually Danny-boy”.

Lewis smirks, “really holding you together there”, before shuffling, slightly self-aware. He liked patients who were a bit out of it, he could let his tongue fly more. But there were others here, friend kind of others. But no one seems fazed, though Jazz groans sounding exhausted rather than bothered.

Danny grins goofily, “so my bones n’ shit are lazy then, cause that’s their job. Heart’s jus suppose make a right bloody mess”, wiggling slightly, “just be really dramatic about it. Like with that tv show guy who got stabbed by a straw? Just spewing red like a fountain”.

Jazz groans, “that’s really morbid Danny”.

Lewis laughs slightly, “that’s also not really possible”, shrugging, “not like that at least”.

Danny smirks, “oh? Do tell. That’d make a great prank”.

Jazz groans, “Danny no”.

Making Danny smirk at her, “Danny yes”.

Maddie smiles at him, “I’m sure doing that wouldn’t be a good idea”.

Danny shrugs, “it would be really messy. I’m good at that though, I mean my room? My life? Just oof. Mess”, screwing up his face, “right right yeah, I ‘twas a mess wasn’t I? Drenched like went swimming in viscera”.

Lewis is the only one who doesn’t cringe. While Danny raises an eyebrow at Lewis, “who gots to clean that all up? I could, like, sign the soiled towels or whatever”.

Jazz, officially worried Danny thinks he’s in ghost form, “little bro, us Fenton’s are odd but not odd enough for people to want our signatures”, she then flicks his black hair so that it is definitely in Danny’s line of sight.

Danny blows air at it, “just a Fan of weird but not weird weird”. Danny then tilts his head and blinks, frowning, “right, accident. Just piles of twisted metal”, frowning more.

Everyone is fully expecting that he’s noticed something’s missing now but instead he asks, “everyone fine? From that? Serious injuries? It wasn’t a ghostly accident was it?”.

Lewis blinks, ghosts?, that’s right, Jack and Maddie are ghost hunters. Lewis clears his throat, “mostly scrapes, whiplash and some broken bones. But there have been a few reported deaths”. Lewis almost jerks from Danny reacting like someone just shot him directly in the face and point-blank. “Woah Danny, it was a nasty crash, casualties are expected-”.

Jazz cuts him off and plucks out one of Danny’s hairs, functionally startling him out of any mental spirals, “there’s nothing anyone could have done Danny. Including you”.

Danny screws up his face and it looks rather painful, “but those paras, they wasted time on me and holding me back. Coulda helped”.

Jazz cringes, knowing how hard that would have been on him. While Jack and Maddie gape at him. Maddie speaking, “sweetie you needed it. Your life isn’t a waste of their time”.

“But they could have saved someone else if they hadn’t been busy with me! I’d have been fine!”.

Maddie jerkily moves her hand to grab his but thinks better of it and runs her hand through his hair, “sweetie no”.

Lewis, a little caught off guard, “you really shouldn’t have survived yourself”.

Danny actually rolls his eyes, “‘m fine”.

Jack clenches his hands, “I, son, no you’re not”. While Jazz pokes his cheek, “just breathe and focus on your own healing, like the rest of us mortals”, winking at him and putting on a slight smile, “you go be helpful when not ensnared by the medical system”.

Danny looks at the ceiling and blinks a little, “what caused it? The accident?”.

Jazz instantly saying, “not ghosts”.

Lewis clears his throat, “it was a drunk driver apparently”.

Danny squints at him, “at three p.m.?”.

Lewis shrugs, both impressed and pleased he remembered what time it happened at, “if it helps, he died”.

Danny frowns, “it doesn’t...much”. Lewis represses a smirk at that.

Danny tilts his head slightly and squints at Lewis, “this ain’t Amity hospital. Why you no question ghost shit?”.

Lewis blinks and actually laughs slightly, realising he forgot to give his name, “right, I’m a friend of your parents actually. Dr. Lewis. I know about their profession”.

Danny snorts, “convenient”, and eyes Lewis cautiously. Lewis can tell Danny’s visually picking him over, looking for danger. This boy was scarred and paranoid, that didn’t really add up to a pretty picture. Maybe he was a hunter too, would make sense. Just clearly more, would ‘intense’ work best?, about it.

Jazz flicks Danny’s ear, “he’s a good guy. Little odd, but that’s for the best”.

Danny eyes Lewis some more, but Jack and Maddie both smile at him so he blows out a breath and rolls his eyes, “so fams doctor friend was getting all friendly with my organs. Really getting to know me on an internal level”.

Jazz laughs, “yeah. Danny. Yeah”.

“Guess I gotta do one better then”.

Now Lewis is the only one not glaring. Danny had an extremely dark sense of humour.

Danny smirks, though his eyes still look rather freaked out and haunted, “what? Gotta make sure my meat suit knows who owns and haunts it”. Jazz just sighs.

Jack smiles and laughs, it’s a bit hallow though, “no ghost could ever overshadow you Danny-boy!”.

Danny gives a genuine toothy smile, “I’m already spooky enough”.

Maddie blinks and looks to Lewis, having been reminded about Danny’s contamination and thus how his body functioned a bit different. Though the slow heartbeat was a bit of a shock, “that’s right, you never asked us about Danny’s unusual readings? I’m sure you’re curious about that?”.

Lewis shrugs, “I’ve seen some seriously weird stuff over the years. So long as no one or thing tries to kill me or my patient, it’s cool”.

Danny laughs, “it’s like we’re the same person! Just you see more guts, hopefully anyway”.

Lewis smirks, “well I am very good at handling them. Hands of an Angel some say”.

Danny smirks right back, “well some say I’m downright devilish. So yay, yin and yang. Very black and white, I approve”, Danny looks to the ECG, “but yeah, that’s me norm”, shrugging as he looks back to Lewis, “everything’s my norm”. Danny keeps talking as everyone cringed, “though I’d really like to know where the fuck my legs are”.

Everyone gapes at him for a bit, even Lewis has never had a patient just let something like that roll off their tongue. Usually there was at least some shock or a mild freak out. Sometimes they just refused to believe it before freaking out severely. Danny just sounded like he’d misplaced his hairbrush or forgot to study.

Maddie shakes herself off slightly, petting Danny’s hair, “they were, um, they were too badly damaged sweetie”, before looking to Lewis, who nods and steps forward slightly. “They were pretty well shattered apart. Most pieces too small to even attempt to put back together. Your skin and muscle was hardly any better. The bone absolutely had to be removed and leaving the rest would only hinder you and would risk your health”.

Danny nods, “well alright then. You did what you thought best so it’s cool”.

Lewis blinks, “Danny...that is the single most relaxed reaction I’ve ever gotten or heard of”.

Danny chuckles, “Imma chill dude”, blinking and then laughing, “oh Ancients! I’m legless on main!”.

Jazz makes a face and groans into her hand, releasing he’s referencing how his other-self is sometimes legless, “that is a horrible joke Danny!”.

Jack gives an awkward smile, “well at least he’s handling it well”.

Lewis isn’t sure if this qualifies as ‘handling it well’, but it does make his job easier and more enjoyable. Plus, they’re friends, so of course Lewis is going to do the house check-ups. Even if they’re in another city. So it works for him. Traumatised emotional wrecks and people spiralling into depression, he can’t deal with that; at least not well. But someone looking to crack a joke or relax and pretty much ignore the damage? That, he can do.

Danny smirks, “Imma terrible terror so good!”, tilting his head down as far as it can go, which isn’t very far, “so will I be able to draw constellations on the scars?”.

Lewis smiles and decides to just speak, they weren’t exactly normal people, “sure, but wait till it’s not raw. But it looks good as is, I like to play around with my work. Make things look nice”. It’s refreshing to not get looked at strange though. This is exactly why he missed the two strange scientists.  

Danny smiles, “anything for the asstetic...antiseptic...fuck...aesthetic”, making everyone laugh slightly.

Lewis nods, “yes, it’s clear you don’t mind scars-”.

Jazz interrupts him, “yup! That’s guys for you”. While Jack and Maddie just look confused. Lewis blinks, getting the message from both her comment and the dirty ‘shut the hell up’ look, obviously, Jack and Maddie aren’t aware of the scars. Which is odd, if they were from ghost hunting they would probably know about it. If he was getting them professionally treated then they would also know about it. And considering the oddity and severity of some of the scarring, he absolutely needed professional treatment. There was no way he was treating himself. The skill would be admirable, but that would be one extreme pain tolerance. But that thought makes him blink, deciding to look over Danny’s readings. His levels of pain killers were way lower than they should be, okay everything was off. But logically Danny should be in pain. Glancing at him, “you okay overall though?”.

Danny just gives him a confused raised eyebrow, “‘m fine”.

Lewis gives him a dubious raised eyebrow in return, “considering you did imply you were fine without functioning lungs and missing chunks of ribs and multiple broken vertebrae. That’s not even mentioning the legs. So not sure if I actually believe you”.

Jazz nods and hums, muttering, “that’s a good rule of thumb with Danny. He’s an idiot”. Danny just huffs, rolls his eyes, and mutters, “I’d have been fine”.

While Maddie gasps slightly and Jack clenches his fists and jaw. Maddie nearly whispering at Lewis, “that bad?”.

Lewis nods, he’s still impressed and confused how Danny’s alive. But it is interesting and he is glad Danny’s not dead.

Danny rolls his eyes and huffs, “I’m fine. Go fret over someone who needs it”.

All four saying, “you need it”, which Danny just scoffs at.

Lewis has to run off at the sound of his pager again, Danny snickering, “run off a lot doc? Got a patient sense?”. Making Jazz groan.

Lewis waves as he heads out the door, “running off is half the job”.

Danny snorts, near shouting, “that’s half the life!”.

Jack and Maddie smile, Maddie ruffling Danny’s hair, “you’re sure you’re feeling fine? Right now?”.

Danny smiles softly, “I’m good. Swear it”.

Maddie pats his head, “well hopefully you heal fast. And we could, could build you legs”.

Jack chuckles quietly, “and you’re a Fenton! We’re tough! You can handle it for sure! We’ll adjust”.

Danny chuckles awkwardly, “yeah...”, clearing his throat, “so I’m hungry, who else is hungry?”.

Jazz tries to not sigh exaggeratedly but nods to her parents. It would be good for them to have some alone time, she was the only one who hadn’t been in the vehicle at the time, “you guys go get something, anything not greasy for me and something soft for Danny. I’ll keep him company”.

The two exchange a glance but nod and head out.

Danny rolls his eyes at Jazz, “what if I wanted fries?”.

Jazz glares at him, “a normal person in your state shouldn’t be having that”.

“You know, it’s going to be more annoying eating mush for however long than ‘healing’”, giving her a look, “I would point at you but I can’t, well I can, just shouldn’t. Like I said, quote-unquote ‘healing’, ‘cause you know, can’t let myself actually heal”.

Jazz sighs, “I know, has any of it actually healed? Since you weren’t exactly conscious to stop it”.

Danny rolls his shoulders, “I stopped it as soon as I spotted the paras. But I did heal the head stuff before then”.

“Lewis thought that was weird, the lack of head injuries”, glancing at the door quickly, “you know, neck and head injuries are one of the most common to get? I’m guessing the legs would have taken too long, but you should have healed your chest”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “head injuries are waaaaaay more annoying. And Jazz literally all of my neck was broken. That would have been way more suspicious. My ribs get broken every week, though fine, shoulda fixed the lungs”.

Jazz cringes, that was arguably way worse. While Danny looks where his legs should be, “know that I am making imaginary wild hand motions at my quote unquote ‘legs’. Jazz, I don’t know if I even can heal this. I’ve never lost a limb before. Cuts, scrapes and breaks aren’t the same as regrowing a freaking limb. Two freaking limbs”.

Jazz sighs, “yeah I know, I tried to stop him from completely removing them but there really was no reasonably human explanation for why, I could give him”, shifting, “but you’ve lost bones before right? They grew back”.

Danny chuckles, “right as ectoplasmic rain they did”, sighing with a frown, “but I also wasn’t putting off my healing at the time”. Danny glances at the medications they have him on, nodding his head at them, “guessing you can’t do anything about getting me off this stuff either?”.

Jazz giggles and shakes her head slightly, “you’re stuck on doctors orders Danny. Plus, it is helping with the pain, right? Even if it is making you a little loose-lipped”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “loose-lipped plus secret identity don’t goddamn mix. But this stuffs supposed to remove foreign stuff, supposed to help healing. Ectoplasm is normally foreign, I can feel my ectoplasm reacting to it even if my ectoplasm is all pushed down and hiding”, wiggling a bit, “I can tell it’s making me produce more ‘plasm; which is both energising me and making me weaker. And the stuff is actively making it hard not to heal”.

Jazz looks at the ECG and thinks over the strange doctor. He clearly knew Danny was weird already. It was rather obvious right now, “okay, that’s probably bad, but Lewis knows your weird, clearly. Mom and dad know about your quote-unquote ‘ecto-contamination’. So I could just tell him your bodies so normalised to ectoplasm that you need the little bit in you?”.

“Or I could just pull some overshadowing shit”, the two stare for a bit before Danny sighs, “fine”.

Jazz nods and goes to open her mouth but Danny whispers, “shhhhhhh, hush-hush time”. With Jack and Maddie returning with food seconds later. Danny getting green jello, which he laughs at, and milk.

They all sit around talking some more, in-between eating, before Danny starts making a show of yawning and being tired. Jazz easily picking up that he just wants to be left alone. “So I know Sam and Tucker are going to want an update on Danny, since they can’t actually come in and see him”, giving her parents meaningful looks.

Jack and Maddie don’t want to go, not at all. But they both know their daughter is probably right. Plus hounding him probably won’t help him at all. They know he wouldn’t want them to put their lives on hold. Plus they have to prep the house. Jack puts on a smile and stands, “I’m sure Danny-boy wouldn’t want Amity left unprotected either!”.

Jazz grimaces at Danny’s flinch and heavily veiled panic. Leaning over him and whispering, “Sam and Tucker can handle it. You trust them right?”, and kissing his forehead.

Danny makes a disgusted face at her but she can still read the panic and paranoia on his face. While Maddie ruffles his hair and Jack awkwardly pats his head. Danny just makes an exaggerated grumpy face over that. Whispering at them as they walk out to leave, “I’ll be okay, promise”. They look at him with smiles, no one really wanting to disagree or look like they were holding him to that. Jazz being the only one that truly understood the weight of Danny’s promises, seldom made but always kept.

Jazz slips off, saying she has to go to the bathroom as her parents take a breather on a bench and just stare at the floor squeezing each other. Thankfully, she finds Lewis pretty quickly; looking over some papers. He glances at her and back to the papers before looking to her fully and tilting his head, “everything alright? I haven’t been notified of anything?”.

Jasmine looks around, Lewis easily getting the message that whatever was going on was very much private. So he starts down one of the empty hallways, Jasmine falling in step. “Actually, something is wrong. Sort of”, Jasmine looks him up and down cautiously before speaking again, “obviously Danny’s a bit...different”.

Lewis chuckles slightly, something weird was going on and she clearly wanted to know just how much he knew. He’s got a gut feeling that what he says will affect what she tells him, “that might be an understatement. His heartbeat alone shouldn’t be sustainable, he should be hypothermic, and his blood is not only not the right shade of red but also oddly thick. That’s not even mentioning how malleable his bones are, how fast he’s metabolising medications, how long he can go without breathing, or the strange scars”.

Jazz giggles and smirks, though a little alarmed at just how much he had noticed, “so you are curious then?”.

Lewis shrugs, “I like interesting and I’ve seen weirder”, Lewis looks around slightly, “though my ghost hunter buddies, which yeah that’s an odd profession, battered son, who should really be dead, showing up on my operation table, with impossible vitals and more scars than flesh, and then I open him up to find what looks like a blueish white sun that’s somehow impervious to touch; is definitely up there for the prize of weirdest day for Dan Lewis”.

Jazz coughs, firmly caught off guard, blinking at him as she breathes out, “you saw that...”.

“I was near blinded by that”.

Jazz pauses in her walking and replays Lewis’s words, tilting her head at him, “wait, that’s not the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen?”.

“I had a patient try to eat me once. They genuinely debated trying again directly in front of me. That wasn’t even the weirdest part”, shrugging, “they’re one of my best friends now though, so it’s fine”.

Jazz blinks and wheezes slightly, “oh Zone. You are like Danny”, shaking her head, “all three of his closest friends have tried to kill him. One even tried it with a scythe”.

Lewis chuckles, “based on Danny’s sense of humour he probably approved of that”.

Jazz nods as they start walking again, deciding this guy was trustable and had an extremely high tolerance for weird, “you’re right on that. I guess you can handle weird. And there is a reason for what’s in Danny’s chest”, frowning, “but our folks don’t know, best they don’t. Best no one does, so keep it to yourself”.

Lewis nods, he doesn’t exactly agree but who was he to control what kids told their parents? “I won’t be telling tales. Is it safe for him?”.

Jazz can’t help but blink at that, just like Danny his first concern was other people’s health and safety, smiling slightly, “yeah, he needs it actually”, looking around quickly, “heard of ectoplasm?”.

“In conspiracy theory and mythology books, yeah?”, tapping his chin, “always in relation to ghosts actually”, chuckling, “let me guess, ectoplasm is very much real and, for whatever reason, Danny has it in him?”.

Jazz smiles and nods curtly, “ecto-contamination it’s called. Most of the people in Amity have it. But Danny’s is...special. Because of an accident with our parents' ghost stuff. The thing in his chest? Is basically a hyper-concentrated ball of ectoplasm. Creates, filters and flows ectoplasm. Works like a heart but with ectoplasm instead of blood”, Jazz shrugs, “so while ecto-contamination usually wears off, his won’t”.

Lewis nods, “so this ‘ectoplasm’ flows along with his blood then? I take it, that it’s not red and is thicker”.

Jazz nods, “green actually. Of his quote-unquote ‘blood’, we guess about a quarter is ectoplasm”, smirking, “so any blood samples you’ve taken are going to come back weird, probably unusable”, frowning, “especially if your technicians tried to remove the ectoplasm”.

Lewis sighs slightly, having a feeling he knows where this is going. That Danny needed very special treatment, possibly off the books kind. “I’m making another guess and saying that Danny’s blood and ectoplasm are codependent?”.

Jazz nods, “you catch on quick. He needs both and that’s why everything with him is a little off. Ectoplasm is really cold, so his temperature is lower. His heart doesn’t have to do all the work but both have to do it, so his body does it the most efficient way it can, thus the slow heartbeat and pulse. And so on”.

“And this makes him able to survive things he shouldn’t? Why all the injuries his scars came from haven’t been treated professionally?”.

Jazz nods, looking around again, “yeah. Ectoplasm is a lot more versatile than blood. It can do the functions of blood or oxygen. Even brain functions. It’s also capable of increasing its own production”, sighing, “which is the reason I’m even telling you all this”.

Lewis scrunches up his eyebrows, this explained an awful lot. This ‘ectoplasm’ had been acting as oxygen, letting him bypass his lungs. It had been acting as extra blood so the blood loss wouldn’t kill him. He’s more curious over the ‘why she’s telling him’ bit though; likely important for his patients' health, “oh?”.

Jazz blinks at him and shakes her head, “okay Danny got lucky getting you”, sighing again, “basically, the medication you have him on. At least one is affecting his ectoplasm. Making him overproduce. Messing up healing and making him weak from overexertion. Also making him hyperactive though, so he won’t be able to sleep probably”.

Lewis frowns and nods, that definitely wasn’t good. “Well what medications can he take?”.

Jazz frowns, “that’s the thing, we don’t know. He just never takes anything for anything. Caffeine is probably the closest thing he gets to medicines”.

Lewis couldn’t legally have a patient, who just had multiple major surgeries, not have any pain medication. That sort of thing was considered unethical. But it was simple enough to fake giving someone medication. So long as no one other than him checked in on Danny. He could use the Fenton’s well-known weirdness to his advantage for that but it would be far easier if he could send them home. But Danny’s injuries were far too severe to be out of the hospital in even a wheelchair. But then again, “tell me, does Danny’s ‘condition’ give him a healing factor? Or make wounds, in general, less serious? As he seems to have implied?”.

Jazz cringes slightly, Danny and his mouth, before nodding, “yeah. But that’s supposed to be a secret”.

Lewis smirks and nods, of course it was. Someone might want to replicate that, “of course, from your parent as well I assume”, at her nod he asks, “why all the secrets though? From them”.

Jazz sighs, “they’d try to correct it. They’ve already tried to remove the ectoplasm but it didn’t work since he just makes more. If they knew why and how, they’d try to remove it”, frowning deeply and looking at Lewis, “that would basically kill him”.

Lewis frowns, surely his friends wouldn’t do that if their kids just explained the risks? Sure those two always did hate ghosts, they wouldn’t be hunters otherwise, but still. “You sure they would? Seems out of character to me”.

Jazz smiles, “I don’t personally. If Danny explained it to them. But Danny’s...a little paranoid”.

Lewis chuckles, that sounded a little familiar, “I can understand that. I’m guessing he okayed you telling me this because of the medication issue?”.

Jazz nods making Lewis laugh and shake his head slightly. “Well, I’ll see what I can do. Legally he has to be on medication”, shrugging, “but if that, say, never actually makes it to him and no one notices. Then who’s to say he didn’t have his medication”.

Jazz blinks at Lewis, who’s just casually suggesting breaking the law for a kid he’s never actually met before; just because he was friends with said kids' parents. Before breaking into a small mischievous smile, “guess we’ll be seeing you a lot then. Got to make sure your dear friends' son gets what he needs after all”.

Lewis chuckles, “indeed, and who would dare deny the head surgeon?”.

Jazz simply smiles as she turns to head back, “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then, Dr. Lewis”.

Lewis nods and smiles to himself as he watches her go. He’s gotten himself messed up in yet another strange patient through one of the people in his, honestly small, social circle. Hopefully, this one doesn’t get abducted or try to kill him though.

[going-dead]

World Building Week Day 2: Urban Legends

Everyone in Amity Park knew about ghosts, hard not to when one attacks every week. So did the towns close by, the more intense battles straying near. It was normal to see some of the more nicer ghosts just floating around the town. People outside these select areas figure all the talk about ghosts was just that, talk. Something to draw in tourists and cryptid hunters. Not like the town had anything else going for it.

It is said that anyone who went to the town looking for the unknown rarely came back, and if they did they weren’t the same. They came back paranoid, muttering to themselves, jumping at the littlest things and refusing to step outside at night.

But when the residents of the town traveled out of its boundaries they seemed perfectly normal, if a bit strange. Their reflexes were uncanny, almost to the point of a sixth sense. Every new place they entered their eyes calculated the room as if they were mapping out every and any escape routes. They had strange gadgets, belts that glow green that they refused to take off, and bracelets around their wrists that looked like they were made to shoot something. Sure they were in no hurry to die, but they all seemed to have a differing view on death, as if they knew what would come after.

The strangest of the town's residents that people encountered were the Fenton’s. If the rest of the town was eccentric they were that and more. The parents were always wearing jumpsuits no matter the weather. The oldest kid seemed permanently annoyed by her parents antics, and seemed more mature than both of them combined. The most unknown Fenton was the boy, he was quiet and glared at anyone who came close. The strangest thing about him was his eyes, they seemed to hold pain that no one let alone a kid should hold. 

No one believed the stories circulating about the residents of Amity Park. Not unless they happened to come across one themselves. There were countless online forums on the strangeness of the town and its residents. Each person who experienced something about the town flocked to tell their own stories, warning those who haven’t to be cautious. Those who came back from visiting the town told stories of ghosts, wolf like creatures, and things that could take control of your mind and body. No one knew exactly what was going on in that town, but it was understood that Amity Park, along with its residents, were shrouded in mystery on the level of any cryptid or ghost story.