#Tucker’s PDA attacked Danny and he’s still not over it

[little-pondhead]

Overwhelming Urges

—

Technus curses Danny after he spends a little too long in Soup Jail.

Until Danny can break the curse, every piece of technology he touches will react badly-come to life, try to eat him, send his embarrassing Facebook photos to all his coworkers, delete his high score on Doomed, etc. He’s miserable.

And because he uses technology quite often to help him with his rogues, Danny has had to do things the old fashioned way by physically manhandling all the ghosts that come through the portal. It’s been putting a damper on everyone’s moods, but Technus refuses to release the curse.

(At least he can turn intangible, so the buildings he visits don’t try to burn him alive. Technically, he’s not touching anything!)

Danny’s coworkers eventually get involved when Victor Stone, AKA Cyborg, locks eyes with him at a Justice League meeting and immediately tries to shoot him.

[daisyjoyflower]

My thoughts/theory on the socioeconomic status of the main characters in Danny Phantom;

Tucker Foley - Middle class

It would seem he has been to the Amusement Park that Sam refers to in “Attack of the Killer Garage Sale” (as he knows the price to get it and the food expenses) meaning it is within his reach to go there, but not on a moment’s notice and not frequently, as he declines her offer to go, due to the expenses.

He can afford things like his PDAs, however he mentions in one episode that his current PDA isn’t paid off yet. This shows, his family, like many, can afford to make payments on electronic devices, however do have to pay in monthly installments and it’s a big enough deal that Tucker, at 14, is conscientious of the fact that his device is not paid off yet.

While we only see a few shots of Tucker’s house, it seems to be a fairly normal house and his bedroom appears to be a standard size bedroom (unlike Danny’s and Sam’s which are larger).

Even though he can’t afford unplanned trips to the amusement park and needs to make payments on certain items, he is never shown to be struggling for necessities, such as food and clothes.

This therefore, leads me to the conclusion that the Foleys are a part of the middle class.

————————————————————————

Danny Fenton - Upper Class

In “Attack of the Killer Garage Sale,” Danny’s parents make the statement that, as Fenton’s, they have plenty of money (but tell Danny he needs to earn his)

In “The Ultimate Enemy”, Jazz is seen to be telling her classmates that she has to choose between Hartford, Stanford, and Yale (all of which are expensive schools). Never is the money needed to go to these schools, mentioned as a problem though. And that can’t be blamed on “the show not tackling such issues,” as after Valerie’s family looses their money, Valerie is shown to have to work a job in order to save up for college. Therefore, it seems to be implied that the Fentons can afford to send Jazz to such a school, and still pay for Danny to go to college, two years later. The only loophole to this would be Jazz having a full ride scholarship to the school of her choosing, which is possible, but not probable.

When we see Danny’s house, it on the outside appears to be a normal size two story house, however Danny’s bedroom looks to be bigger than the average bedroom, some shots even making it look like it could be the size of a master bedroom. As well, both him and Jazz (the two kids of the house) are shown to have their own tvs in their bedrooms, something that isn’t standard, especially not at the time the show aired.

His parents have to pay for their ghost hunting equipment somehow.

This all makes it seem likely that Danny is actually from the upper class. It’s just not glaringly obvious, probably because his parents, rather than spend money on typical rich people things, such as fancy homes, ect., choose to spend their money on ghost hunting and lab equipment.

———————————————————————

Sam Manson - The 1%

The Mansons appear to be rich far beyond the Fentons. Sam states that her family is filthy rich. She was also self conscious enough about the amount of money they have, that she kept it hidden from Tucker and Danny for a long time.

Their house is huge. They have a screening room, bowling alley, middle of the night access to delivery services, and are said to be able to afford a plane and/or a yacht, most of which are out of reach to average upper class citizens.

There is an episode where she rhetorically asks why her parents can’t have day jobs, like normal parents, implying that her parents don’t work, at least not in the traditional sense.

She mentions that their money comes from her great grandfather, which tells us that her family’s fortune is “old money,” and there is enough of it that it’s been around for generations (though that fortune has probably grown over the years from being invested in the stock market and such)

With all this in mind, it seems the Manson’s are a part of the 1% or close to it.

[wolfjackle-creates]

The Two Ghost Motel

So, as I mentioned, I joined the DP Ecto-Implosion Event this past month and it's Posting Week now! So I get to finally share with you the first chapter of my fic. Still working on editing the second half of the fic, but it's fully written as of this time.

For those who don't know, for the Ecto-Implosion event, artists drew/animated/composed some piece of art and writers then went in and wrote fics based off their art.

I was lucky enough to be paired with the super talented @i-think-in-metaphors who made this gorgeous artwork:

You can read on AO3 here (this fic is not locked to AO3 users only).

And for those of you who prefer to read on Tumblr:

Word Count: 5k

Warnings: Minor Original Character Death (not in this chapter)

Fandom: DPxDC (though no knowledge of DC is necessary for this fic. I use a single character and he has amnesia, it takes place in an original setting or Amity)

Summary:

Danny is tired. Endless ghost fights with too many responsibilities and too little time; he barely passed sophomore year. When Ember visits town for a bit of fun, she mentions the Two Ghost Motel, a place of peace and refuge for restless ghosts who aren't ready to cross over. “I’m fine, Ember.” Danny’s got a home and friends. He’s fine, really. But when his parents begin experimenting with electricity to destabilize ghosts, it’s too much for Danny. Unfortunately, neither Sam nor Tucker can host him for the night and he’s left wandering in the night, alone. Then he sees it: The Two Ghost Motel. He checks in. “Welcome.”

-----

Danny wasn’t sure when he first saw the neon sign. Honestly, he didn’t even realize it was something ghostly when he did. He just thought it was one more ghost-themed business that had come to Amity since the portal opened.

But when he mentioned the motel to Sam and Tucker, they looked at him like he was crazy.

“I’ve never heard of any Two Ghost Motel,” said Sam. “Where’d you see it?”

Tucker was typing into his PDA. “Nothing’s coming up online, either.”

“Oh come on, you’re pulling my leg. We’ve passed it at least a half dozen times. Last night when we were leaving Nasty Burger for one! And I think, what, three nights before that? On patrol? Where were we?”

“Dude, that night we were near the library. No where near Nasty Burger. No way you could’ve seen the same place both nights,” said Tucker.

“Danny, when was the last time you got a full night’s sleep?” Sam’s brow was knit in concern.

Danny waved off her concern. “Whatever. I know I’ve seen it. The sign is bright pink and orange with blue ghosts on it.”

Sam just shrugged and shook her head. “Point it out next time you see it.”

Before Danny could reply, his ghost sense went off and he groaned. “Ugh, looks like someone’s around. I’m too tired for this.” Danny glanced around. They were in the park and no humans were nearby so he let his transformation wash over him.

He flew into the air and tried to listen past the sound of his breaths echoing through his mask. Even though he didn’t breathe when transformed, something about the hazmat suit remembered and the sound was inescapable.

A guitar chord played behind him and Danny instinctively threw up a shield and fell ten feet right as a blast from Ember’s instrument headed his way.

“Hey there, baby-pop!” she called. “I was sitting around, bored out of my mind, when I remembered I could just come here to have some fun!”

Danny turned to face her. “Come on, Ember.” His voice always sounded so robotic when filtered through the mask. “I’m tired.”

“Too bad. I’m not.” She grinned at him and strummed a few notes, sending more attacks his way.

Danny dodged, only to have to watch one of the blasts hit a bench and destroy it. He flew higher, hoping her next attacks wouldn’t cause more collateral that would be blamed on him.

“What, you just gonna dance around like that? Come on, attack back!”

“My moves not good enough for you?”

“You need to step it up if you want to be my back up dancer.”

Danny couldn’t help but laugh and when she sent her next blast his way, he avoided it by doing a backwards dive towards the ground only to circle back up until he was facing her. “How’s that?”

“Better, but you’re still not there. Your moves have to match the music!” She played a tune with a fast beat and Danny dodged and spun. And if he added some flair to his movements, well, he deserved the chance to have a little fun.

Another blast his way, and he twisted his hips. Matching Ember’s beat, he sent a few ectoblasts back at her.

Ember laughed. “Now you’re catching on!”

Danny allowed himself a quick glance down where he saw Sam and Tucker not even trying to hide. Tucker was filming them.

Which, of course, is when it all had to be ruined by the unmistakable sounds of the GAV driving cross-country.

“Through the park?” he moaned. “Seriously?”

“Shit, that’s your folks, isn’t it.”

“Yeah. C’mon, let’s get out of here.”

“You’ve got it, babypop. I came here for fun, not to mess with them.”

The GAV came to a stop and Danny saw his mom rush out of the passenger side with one of their new, long-distance guns. He tacked Ember, only just getting her out of the way of the blast.

Without any discussion, both turned invisible and flew out of the park. Danny didn’t let them stop until they were in a forest out of range of his parents’ trackers. Exhaustion set back in as soon as he realized they were safe, and he just plopped down on the ground and leaned against a tree.

“Ready to resume your dancing lessons?” asked Ember.

Danny groaned and rested his head against the rough bark. It was probably stupid, but he let his eyes close. “Maybe next time. I meant it when I said I’m tired.”

She didn’t say anything as one, two, three breaths sounded from his mask. And then he heard some leaves rustle. He cracked open an eye to see Ember making herself comfortable on the ground a few feet away.

“You really are tired, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Yeah. Finals are coming up and if I don’t do well, I’m going to fail sophomore year.”

“Y’know, I’ve heard of a place…”

Danny waited for her to continue, but when she didn’t, he hummed. “A place?”

“Yeah. Haven’t been there myself. But, there’s this place. It’s for ghosts who aren’t ready to move on from Earth just yet. Ghosts who live only on Earth without ever going the Zone get tired and weak. There’s just not enough ectoplasm around. Except for here, of course.”

“So what’s this place do?”

“Gives you somewhere to rest. And recharge. It’s not really on Earth. It’s a sort of in between place. Called the Two Ghost Motel. Might be worth checking in for a night if you ever don’t want to be at home for one reason or another.”

Danny hummed. “I’ve seen it around. Thought it was just a regular motel, but Sam and Tucker didn’t know what I was talking about.”

Ember picked out a tune on her guitar, but this time no attacks emanated from it. “It’s not a place for the living from what I’ve heard. Just the dead.”

Danny looked up at the stars through the tree branches, but he shook his head. “I’m fine, Ember. Just need to get some sleep.”

“Whatever you say, baby-pop.”

---

After that conversation with Ember, the motel began basically haunting him. Every night, as soon as dusk started to fall, he’d see it. Always a few streets away, just sitting there calling to him; it’s sign bright in the dark.

Sam and Tucker couldn’t see it, no matter how often he pointed it out to him. Jazz could sometimes see something out of the corner of her eye, but when she looked on more directly, it was never there.

Danny never approached. He was fine. He had a home and friends. There was no reason to go to some random motel.

Finals came and went. He managed to scrape by with at least Cs in everything. His parents, especially his mom, had not been happy with those grades, but Danny was just glad to have passed.

Didn’t stop him from being grounded and forced to help out more in the lab. One afternoon, he was in his room playing Doomed with Sam and Tucker when he got a message from his parents calling him back down to help them out.

“Ugh, I’ve got to go down to the lab.”

“Seriously?” complained Tucker. “Again?”

“Yeah,” agreed Sam. “Seems you’re always off helping them lately. Can’t you say no?”

“It’s this or having my phone and computer taken away. I’ll take the lab work.” He saved his progress. “Will you guys be on later?”

“Can’t,” said Sam. “My parents are forcing me to go to a fancy dinner somewhere. And they’re not giving me any more information than that to keep me from planning anything disruptive.”

“And mine have declared we’re having a tech-free family bonding night,” said Tucker, rolling his eyes. “With board games! Who plays board games in this day and age?”

Danny laughed. “I’ll see you both tomorrow, then. Later.”

Danny signed off and went downstairs. The hazmat suits were kept in a closet right next to the door to the lab, and Danny went through the process of pulling it all on. The mask that came with it was even more annoying in human form than ghost. The filtered air always tasted strange, but he’d given up complaining about that years ago.

He unlocked the lab door and went down to the lab.

“Dan-o!” called his dad as soon as he saw him. “Come here! You’re job will be to control the current!”

“Uh, current?” asked Danny.

“We’re trying to figure out how to disrupt the electrical signal in ectoplasm that gives ghosts their shape,” explained his mom. She had a bowl of ectoplasm in a glass terrarium and was arranging two metal probes so they dipped into it.

“Exactly!” agreed his dad. “So you’re going to sit at this computer”—he pulled out a chair before one of the lab computers and gestured for Danny to sit—“and adjust the frequency and voltage.”

Danny took a seat and stared at the program that was loaded on the screen. At least he wouldn’t be anywhere near the probes? A glance at the puddle of ectoplasm had him holding back a shudder.

“First we’re going to try and force the ectoplasm to form a shape,” continued his mom. “We’re going to do that with probe A. You’re going to start with a low frequency and voltage and slowly increase it while your father and I mark down how it affects the ectoplasm. We have some hypotheses about when it’ll start to form a shape.”

“And once it forms a shape,” said his dad, “you’ll use probe B to send a contrary electrical signal to destabilize it!”

“And then no more ghost!”

Suddenly Danny was glad his suit had a face mask. His parents were going to do what? Figure out how to use electricity to destabilize ghosts? It wasn’t possible. There was no way it could work. Right? He had to stay and prove to himself they were talking crazy.

“What—” His mouth was dry and he had to try again. “How should I start?”

“The settings are already loaded,” said his mom. She grabbed a tablet and sat down in front of the terrarium.

Dad sat next to her, grinning widely. “Go ahead, Dan-o!”

Danny’s hand shook as he placed it on the mouse. He sat on the other to hide it. Then he turned on the probe.

At first, nothing happened. The ectoplasm stayed a puddle and there was no visible change in it. But as he adjusted the current, it began to ripple. His parents loudly exclaimed over every change as they shouted instructions back to him.

Each change had Danny’s heart beating harder in his chest.

Two hours in is when it happened. The ectoplasm started to form a ball that rose up out of the bowl. Danny could feel something cold in the back of his throat. Not his ghost sense, but something close.

“This is it!” yelled his dad. “Danny, what’re the settings?”

Once more, Danny was glad for the way the mask muffled his voice just enough to mask how horrified he was by the thing that was forming. His parents’ theories about electrical currents couldn’t be true. They couldn’t.

“Now for us to try disrupting the current!” The glee in his mom’s voice made bile rise in Danny’s throat. But when she told him to turn on probe B, he did.

It only took twenty minutes to find the settings that made the ectoplasm fall apart back into a puddle.

Danny was up on his feet, chair toppled, in an instant. He held a gloved hand to his masked face as if he could keep from throwing up with the motion alone. It had looked so much like Ellie when she was destabilizing.

“Danny?” asked his mom, tablet forgotten on her chair as she rushed over to him. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“I… I’m feeling a bit sick. Can I, can I go? Bathroom?”

His mom reached out to brush a hand over his covered forehead as if to check his temperature. “Oh sweetie, of course you can. You should’ve told us you weren’t feeling well. There’s some soup in the fridge if you think you can eat that.”

“I— yeah. Thanks.” He didn’t wait to hear anything else she had to say and just ran up the stairs. He shed his gear in record time and ran all the way up to his room. He slammed the door shut and grabbed his backpack from where it hung on his desk chair.

With shaking hands, he took out everything in the main compartment. Then he ran to his dresser and grabbed a change of clothes and something to sleep in. He couldn’t stay here right now. He just couldn’t.

From the bathroom, he grabbed some toiletries and added those.

Less than fifteen minutes after leaving the lab, he was out the front door and walking down the street. It was late, dusk starting to fall.

He considered going to Nasty Burger to get some dinner, but then he remembered the way the ball of ectoplasm had melted and he changed directions. Eventually his wandering brought him to the park where he found a bench in an empty area and sat down, dropping his backpack at his feet.

Danny buried his face in his hands as he forced himself to just breathe. He and Tucker could mess with the results from these experiments just like they had so many times in the past. It was going to be fine.

His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out.

Jazz: Hey, Danny. Mom said you weren’t feeling well? Jazz: Where’d you go? You’re not in your room. Danny: Sorry, Jazz. I had to get out of the house. Danny: Ask mom and dad about today’s experiments. Danny: You’ll understand why. I’m gonna spend the night at Tuck’s. Jazz: Okay. See you tomorrow? Danny: Yeah. I’ll be back tomorrow. Jazz: Love you.

Of course, Tucker was having a family night. He couldn’t crash that. And Sam’s parents had banned him from their house. Where would he spend the night?

And then he noticed it. Right outside the park glowed the sign: Two Ghost Motel.

He was on his feet and walking there before he’d even consciously made the decision to go. A glance around showed he was alone, that night had fully fallen on Amity so he let his transformation wash over him.

He reached the street and, for the first time, was staring directly at the motel rather than catching glimpses from a block or two away. The parking lot had a few cars in it, the oldest looking like it might’ve been from the twenties with the newest looking like it was ten or fifteen years old.

A glance in either direction showed no cars coming, so Danny crossed the street.

As soon as he stepped off the sidewalk and into the parking lot, Danny could feel a change in the air. It was nothing obvious, but something integral was different. The sounds of the city were muffled, the sense of life dulled. The air felt lighter and the door seemed to call to him. Most importantly, it was easier to push away the memories from his afternoon in the lab.

The sign, when he reached it, buzzed softly in the night. He held a hand up towards it and felt an echoing buzz under his skin.

He stared at the lights for a moment more before continuing towards the building at the other end of the lot. It hadn’t been repaved in ages and was riddled with cracks. But the plants that grew up through them weren’t the normal grasses and dandelions. He wished Sam were with him to help him identify them.

Instead he knelt down and pulled out his phone to take a picture. They glowed slightly in the night, their stems ectoplasm-green with blue leaves and red bulbs. Danny reached out to touch one, only for the bulb to open and snap at his finger.

Danny laughed in surprise as he pulled his hand away. Something inside him relaxed. A night away would do him good and maybe he’d see other cool things besides the flowers.

The motel itself was a long, two-story building. The main entrance was smack in the middle of the building with rows of rooms extending to either side. Next to the office, a passageway through the building led to the back side of the building and had stairs leading up to the second level. It was clearly old, worn in the way only time could do.

The office door wasn’t automatic and the handle stuck slightly under his hand when he tried to turn it. But just a little bit of force had it opening.

Inside, the carpet was worn, beaten down and dull in the middle. The walls were covered in floral wallpaper rather than paint. Against one wall buzzed an ice machine and against the other sat a vending machine. A man with slicked back hair and a cane stared at the vending machine without moving. A two-seater couch was next to the vending machine with a wooden coffee table in front of it. Two women sat side-by-side on it: one in modern jeans and a windbreaker, the other in an old-fashioned dress that looked like it may have come from the sixties. They were holding magazines, but in the time it took Danny to look around, neither had flipped a page.

Cutting off the back of the room was a long desk, behind which sat a closed door. A woman sat behind the desk. Her blonde hair was cut shoulder length and curled inward. She wore bright red lipstick and heavy eye shadow. But strangest of all, she wasn’t moving. Her chest didn’t raise with her breathing, she didn’t shift in her seat. The women on the couch, at least, made the little movements people make when they’re engrossed in their reading. And the man at the vending machine was tapping his fingers on his cane as he tried to decide what to get.

But the woman at the counter was utterly still.

“Evening.” Danny’s voice was loud in the small room.

The woman in modern clothes cocked her head slightly as if trying to hear a distant noise.

“What are you reading?” Danny asked her.

She just shook her head slightly and looked back at her magazine. Slowly, she turned a page.

“Oh-kay,” said Danny to himself. He walked past them as he made his way to the desk.

As soon as he reached it, the woman came to life. She turned and smiled broadly at him and her finger started tapping on a paper log book that sat in front of her. “Well hello there. Welcome to the Two Ghost Motel!” She had a slight southern accent. “What can I do you for?”

“Uh, well. I heard you might have a room I could rent for the night.”

“Sure do,” she agreed with a nod. “Can certainly set you up with one of those.” She looked him up and down then nodded to herself. “Ah, yes. We knew you might need a place soon so we made sure you’d be able to find us. Glad to see you finally stopped in.”

“What, uh, what do you know about me?”

“Same as we know about any of our potential patrons, sweetie. That you’re a restless spirit that isn’t ready to pass on yet. Two Ghost was set up to give you a place to rest while you’re still on Earth.”

“How much would it cost for one night?”

The receptionist threw back her head and laughed. Her teeth were sharper than a normal human’s. Behind him, another voice joined in the laughter. Danny turned to see the modern-dressed woman was finally looking at him, though it was only to laugh at him.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck and smiled self-consciously. “I take it that was a stupid question?”

“Honey, there’s no charge for spending the night. Wouldn’t be much of a place to rest if we forced y’all to pay when no dead has money.”

“Right. So do you want anything in exchange? I’m pretty good at fixing things up.”

“All we want is for you to have a good night’s rest.” She turned the log book around. “I’ll just need you to put down your name here and I’ll give you your key.” She waved her hand to indicate a pen that was chained to the desk.

Danny grabbed it and hesitated just a moment before signing “Phantom” on the page. The ink was ectoplasm-green.

She took the book back and made her own marks before smiling at him. “Well that’s all in order. Now just to get you your room key.” She opened a drawer which was filled with a number of small envelopes, each with a handwritten number on them. She flipped through a few before stopping on one, seemingly at random, and pulling it out. “You’ll be in room 214. Leave the office, take a right. You can’t miss the stairs. Climb ‘em, continue to the back side of the motel, and take a right.”

Danny took the envelope from her. On it, the numbers 214 were written, with Two Ghost Motel in cursive below it. “Thank you, ma’am.”

“Enjoy your stay at Two Ghost,” she smiled one more time at him, then looked down at her logbook and froze exactly as she had been when he’d first entered.

“I appreciate your help. You sure there’s nothing I can do in exchange for the room?”

But the woman didn’t stir again. Danny shifted from foot to foot. Should he try and wake her? Was she hurt? Was this a normal ghost thing? He tapped on the desk again.

“Ma’am?”

No response.

Danny looked down at his key and back at the woman. Hesitantly, he turned towards the door, but he couldn’t help looking back frequently. He paused by the women on the couch, but neither looked up from their magazines. At the vending machine, he peered around the man.

“Do they have anything that looks good?” he asked.

The man didn’t move, so Danny shifted until he was standing right next to him and could look inside the machine.

The bottom two rows were filled with drinks, water and Gatorade took up space right next to shots of ectoplasm. And were those beers? What? Above those were a few types of nuts and candy bars and chips. Danny only recognized half the brands.

Then he noticed the package of bottle caps. “Oh man, been ages since I’ve had some bottle caps. Mind if I grab those if you haven’t decided yet?”

The man hummed and moved to the side so Danny could get to the bill input and number pad.

“Thanks, sir! Appreciate it.” He pressed the numbers for the candy to see the price, but the machine whirled to life and it was dropped down without requiring Danny to put in a single cent. “Oh, shit, did I just use your money? What do you like? I’ll get it for you as an apology.”

“I don’t… I don’t remember,” said the man. His voice was very quiet, but clear. Danny couldn’t place his accent.

“Are you looking for a snack or a drink? Sweet or savory?”

“My son always pretended he didn’t like sweets. I was going back to him. How did I end up here?”

“Dunno, sir. But if you like candy, I’d recommend the skittles if you want chewy, m&m’s if you want basic chocolate.” He opened his own package. “Hold out your hand, I’ll give you a few of these so you can see if you like them.”

The man did and looked at his own hand as if he’d never seen it before. Danny turned his package so a few bottlecaps fell out. “Thank you,” said the man.

“Sure thing. Hope you enjoy!”

The man stared at his hand a moment longer before bringing one to his mouth and chewing the candy with a pensive look on his face. “I think I remember these, but it’s been so long. Thank you.”

“Anytime. My name’s Phantom; I’m in room 214 if you need anything.”

“Phantom. Pleasure to meet you. I’m Tom.”

“Well, Mr. Tom, hope you find something to eat that you like.”

Tom hummed and turned back to look at the vending machine. Danny took one last look at the receptionist, still entirely frozen, before slipping out the door. He slipped the package of bottlecaps into his pocket; he’d eat them in his room when he could take his mask off. In the passageway to the back of the motel, two boys played jacks under a flood light.

Danny couldn’t help but pause to watch them. He’d tried playing a few times when he was younger, but Tucker wasn’t into the game and none of the other kids had been willing to spend enough time with the weird ghost-hunter’s kid to teach him.

He waited until the kid who’d been picking up the jacks tossed them back on the ground before asking, “So, who’s winning?”

Both boys looked up at him with the same blank expression. The one on the right was a red-head while the one on the left was brown haired. They were about the same age, maybe ten years old and Danny wondered what happened to bring them here.

“I never learned to play,” Danny admitted, waving a hand to indicate their game. “So I don’t know how to tell. Or, is there even a winner in jacks? I might be completely off the mark.”

The red-head raised his hand. “I’m wining. I’m on the foursies round. Alan is only on twosies.”

“Matt cheated and made me drop my jacks.”

“It wasn’t cheating, just strategy,” protested Matt.

“Cheating,” repeated Alan.

“Prove it by beating your threesies round perfectly this time.”

Danny smiled to himself as the boys returned to their game and ignored his presence entirely.

“How’d you do that?” asked someone behind him.

Danny spun around to see a boy around his own age on the stairs leaning over the railing. He had dark hair and light eyes and was dressed in modern jeans and a t-shirt.

“Do what?” asked Danny.

“Get them to talk to you. Everyone ignores me entirely.”

Danny glanced back at the two boys who were entirely absorbed in their game and not paying Danny or the stranger any attention. “They’re mostly ignoring me, too.”

The kid rolled his eyes. “But they still talked to you. I haven’t even gotten that much.”

Danny shrugged. “I just asked them about their game.”

He groaned and kicked at the railing. “I’ve tried that. Who’re you, anyway?”

“I’m Phantom. Staying here for the night because, well, just because. Who’re you?”

“Jay.”

Danny cocked his head. “Like the bird?”

Jay’s eyes widened in surprise, then he grinned back. “That’s it! I knew I was forgetting something. I’m a bird. Thanks, Phantom.”

Danny laughed. “Sure thing, birdie.” He adjusted his backpack. “Let me put this down. I’m in room 214. What’s there to do in this motel?”

Jay shrugged. “More if you can get the other people to talk to us. But the TV always has your favorite show or movie on and the vending machine in the office always has your favorite snacks.”

As Danny made his way up the stairs, Jay fell in step besides him. “What’s your favorite movie?” he asked.

Jay shrugged again. “Dunno. But every time I turn on the TV it’s playing.”

“What did you watch last, then?”

Jay hesitated a moment and when Danny looked at him, he was frowning. “I don’t…” He shook his head. “I don’t forget things. My d— Someone made sure I could give accurate reports. But I don’t remember.” He looked at Danny with his brow furrowed. “Why don’t I remember?”

Danny shrugged. “Well, when we get to my room, we can turn on the TV and see what comes on.”

Jay brightened immediately at the suggestion. “Duh! That’ll remind me. Thanks, Phantom! Come on, your room’s this way. We’re neighbors; I’m in 215.” He jogged the rest of the way up the stairs so Danny had to speed up, too.

At the top of the stairs, Jay took a right and Danny’s door was several down.

“Home sweet home,” he said, gesturing to the door.

Danny laughed as he unlocked it. “So how long have you been here?” He pushed open his door and took in the space. The carpet looked like it hadn’t been upgraded since the seventies. A double bed sat against one wall covered by a faded, green paisley quilt. A low dresser and box TV against the opposite wall. Most of the wall facing the walkway was taken up with a large window, though the closed blinds kept it private.

It wasn’t until Danny stepped in and dropped his bags on the bed that he realized Jay had neither responded nor followed him in.

“Birdie? Jay? You okay?”

Jay was frozen outside the door staring out into the distance away from the motel. The back of the motel had very few lights, and the night made it seem like there was nothing out there but endless black. When Danny called out, Jay shook himself and grinned as he entered the room and sat down on Danny’s bed with enough force to bounce. “Course I’m okay! Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You spaced out there for a minute.”

Jay rolled his eyes. “No I didn’t. Where’s your remote?” Before Danny could do anything, Jay was already standing and picking it up from the dresser. He turned on the TV. “Oooh, the Godfather! Told you it always has your favorite movie.”

“So The Godfather is your favorite?”

“Of course.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen it all the way through.”

“Then you’re in for a treat! Come on, sit next to me. I’ll make sure you notice all the good parts.”

Danny did as told. Which is when he remembered he still had the candy. Wordlessly, he held it out to Jay who grinned as he took a few to snack on.

-----

Chapter 2

Hope you enjoyed chapter 1! This was so much fun to write. I loved taking part in the event so much. Please consider checking out the rest of the art and fics from this event because there are so many talented people who took part. (My reading list is gonna be filled for at least the rest of the year, no lie.)

Just search the tag #ectoimplosion2023 to see what I mean.

[papiliomame]

Finally I read the new graphic novel too and it was very enjoyable. I went in with zero expectation so I was pleasantly surprised with the big thing everyone is screaming about. Amazing art, amazing story amazing everything! Gabriela Epstein is a genius. She managed to solve many problems with the show and expands the lore in a cohesive way while also be in line with the humor and tone of the original show accompanied with wonderful illustrated panels!

Under the cut are some of my thought about it:

SPOILER WARNING!

First things first: Phantom Planet retconnned! Now the series can continue with the loose threads of the original show and the new one from this novel without making some brain gymnastic to make the events from the episode fit in these stories.

Techonological progress: Everyone upgraded to a smartphone and they even have internet and social media( which makes it funny that Vlad used an old fat destop PC for his research as a (former?) billionaire)

RIP Tucker's PDA.

Danny mentioned that Vlad terrorized him for the past few years, that means Danny is at least 16 or 17 years old in this?

Ghosts don't need to breath. Vlad didn't have a helmet on while in space in his flashback .

Clockwork doesn't shapeshift in his other forms for some reason.

And he was quite reckless to put the thermos with Phantom just there in the open, you would think you would seal an apocalyptic threat somewere safe away or something like that.

Clockwork's staff is part of the timeline itself. interesting...

Also Clockwork is really the emodiment of time not just a random ghost with the title passed down by the oberservants( read some fanon about that)

Ghost Speak is canon! Well atleast the language of the ancients is. It consist of basically of old dead languages.

The translation of Vlad's rubbings is incomplete I wonder if there is more to it.

Hmm not sure how I feel about this but the Fenton parent are still bad parents in this, like how they not care about Phantom although Jazz said that this is Danny from another timeline. Now I wonder if they would even adopt Dani with this attitude.

Badass Valerie and badass Jazz!

The Source is a beautiful place.

The truth about ghosts which is revealed in there is so deep and give so much material for worldbuilding

But one thing is sure: Ghost are souls/emotions/ energies of people or beeings who ones lived and not monsters.

Implication that ghosts are immortal. Does this count for halfas too?

Danny got a new power: fireworks

Obsessions are canon!

The fight scenes are wonderful illustrated!

Danny is really much more powerful after his newfound purpose. He didn's retransformed after the ghostly wail, he can create ice glaciers with his ice powers and his shield withstand Phantom atomic explosion attack.( also RIP A-Listers and Lance Thunder from this timeline and everyone else who was there and wasn't protected by Danny's shield.)

Phantom insisted that he is not Danny but much more than that, however while he was falling apart he glitched out and we saw Danny Phantom's face and Phantoms face but not Plasmius face in there, I wonder why.

Danny becomes the avatar!

The Valerie cliffhanger: Phantom was falling apart without an anchor, does that mean Valerie will also fall apart if she doesn't wear Clockworks medallion anymore?

The last scene: Clockwork encourage Vlad to do more with the clones and the scene is also a parallel to the ending to " The Ultimate Enemey" how the observants shift the responsibility over Phantom to Clockwork.

[oblivious-aro]

Friends in Strange Places Ch. 6 Pt 1

What if Vlad was good instead of evil? Link to chapter 1:

Summary: After a ghost fight, Danny and his friends hang out at The Nasty Burger and then Sam and Valerie go back to her house. Just the two of them. That won't be awkward.

Word count: 6700

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"Catch me if you can Dipsticks!" Ember cackled as she flew past the pier.

Danny and Valerie continued after her. Sam and Tucker stopped at the edge of the dock.

"Man," Tucker crossed his arms "It sucks not being able to fly.

After about twenty meters, Ember suddenly turned and blasted a pink beam from her guitar.

Danny and Valerie split apart, the beam missing both of them.

"Give it up Ember!" Danny said, charging up two ecto blasts "You can sing all the cheap pop songs you want, there's no one around here for you to even control!"

"Wrong on two counts, Dipstick!" Ember grinned smugly "My music comes from the heart, and I've discovered a brand new kind of audience out here."

Ember raised her hand high above her head and let out a mighty strum on her guitar.

Danny and Valerie looked around. Nothing happened.

"Look down, you drips."

Below their feet the the water was shifting ominously.

One by one, over a hundred fish began to break the surface. Their heads bobbed above the water, watching the floating trio.

"Seriously?" Valerie said "Fish? That's the best you could come up with?"

"Well I can't exactly go around rounding up teenagers again, now that you recognize me." Ember said bitterly "But with these little creatures, I can sill give you a performance you're bound to remember. Now, denizens of the deep," Ember pointed at Danny and Valerie "Attack!"

On Ember's command, the fish began launching themselves at Danny and Valerie.

"Agh!" They both yelped.

The fish were too small to hurt in any significant way, but getting smacked by dozens of fish over and over again was pretty disorienting.

Valerie activated the hand shield Tucker had embedded into her glove and attempted to bat away as many of the attacking fish as she could.

Ember floated there, grinning maliciously as pink and green ecto beams sailed right past her.

"Ooh, we turning this into a rave?" she said "I dig it."

"Stupid fish!" Danny cursed as one bounced off his face "That's it! I'm going where they can't reach me!"

Danny shot up into the air.

"Nice try Dipstick," Ember turned the dial on her guitar "But I've got a song for that."

She began to rapidly pick at the strings. Many of the fish in the water began to glow blue.

"Uh, Danny-" Valerie started to say.

Before she could finish her sentence, a dozen fish shot into the air towards Danny, leaving trails of blue behind them.

"Agh!" Danny yelled as he was assaulted by the high-flying fish "Why does your guitar even have that function?"

Ember laughed as she continued to pluck away.

Valerie tried to shoot her while she was distracted, but getting repeatedly bumped by so many fish kept making her miss wildly.

"Why did I decide to pursue ghost hunting again?" she asked herself as she swung her shield at a group of fish about to hit her face.

Back on the dock, Sam and Tucker were trying to watch the fight using the zoom feature on Tucker's PDA camera.

"It looks like they're having a rave over there." Sam said.

"Are those...fish?" Tucker squinted at the screen.

A fish suddenly jumped out of the water and latched onto Tucker's ear. The fish didn't have teeth, but it still freaked Tucker out.

"Aaaah!" he yelled "Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!"

After some flailing, Tucker managed to grab the fish and fling it back into the water.

"Did you really have to throw it that hard Tucker?" Sam chastised.

"The fish was biting me!" Tucker threw up his arms "What did you expect me to do?"

"It wasn't the fish's fault! You could at least-"

Sam was interrupted by another fish jumping out and grabbing onto her hand. She yelped and waved her arm around wildly until the fish went sailing off of it.

"What happened to it being 'not the fish's fault'?" Tucker smirked.

"If you say another word, you're going to have a lot more to worry about than a fish bite. Hey," Sam squinted at something behind Tucker "I know that person."

Tucker turned and saw a man standing in a stationary speedboat, transfixed by what was happening out on the water.

"Arnie!" Sam called, running towards the boat. Tucker decided to follow her.

"Ms Manson?" Arnie snapped his head towards the approaching teenagers "I don't know what you're doing here, but you better skedaddle! Some of them ghost creatures from the news are duking it out over there with a Power Ranger!"

"Arnie, we need you to take us over there!" Sam said, hopping into the boat.

"What're you doing child?!" Arnie cried "It's not safe! You ought to be heading as far away from the water as you-"

"Here's fifty dollars." Sam interrupted, shoving a bill into Arnie hands "And I'll double it if you don't ask questions. They need our help out there!"

"Ummm..." Tucker and Arnie said, a matching look of concern on their faces.

"Don't worry." Sam said "I have a plan."

"This is dangerous, and I don't like it!" Arnie said as he started up the motor "But knowing you child, you'll do something even more reckless to get over there if I refuse."

"Welp, I've gone along with worse plans." Tucker said to himself, jumping into the boat just before it sped off towards the fight.

Back at the fish-fight, Valerie was attempting to back away from Ember and hopefully the fish.

Getting some distance did help, but unfortunately there were still plenty of fish willing to attack her, even this far away from Ember.

"Stupid fish!" Valerie cursed as she kicked off a few that had latched on to her board "I swear, when this is over, I'm going to buy a deep fryer and-"

"Valerie!"

Valerie turned around to see Sam and Tucker approaching in a speedboat, driven by someone she'd never met.

"Sam?" Valerie raised an eyebrow under her mask "What're you doing here? Who's that?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Hey!" Arnie said indignantly.

"Think you can you distract Ember for a minute? We're gonna try a manouevre, but it won't work if she sees us coming."

"Can do." Valerie nodded as Sam and the others zoomed off.

"Hey Blue Man reject!" Valerie called.

Ember turned and Valerie charged, firing rapidly at Ember, who easily dodged them.

As Valerie got close, Ember banged out a chord that reverberated through the air, knocking Valerie off her board.

"Aah!" Valerie screamed as she went flying into the water. Ember was floating a meter away from her when she broke the surface.

"Gutsy move Red, I'll give you that." She said "You know, I like you. And that outfit's pretty rockin'. Any chance you wanna ditch ghost-boy and team up with someone who's actually going somewhere?"

"Not a chance you-you flamey freak!" It was hard to think of insults while trying to not drown.

"Aw well, your loss."

Valerie braced herself as Ember raised her hand.

"Hey Ember!"

Ember turned to the sound of Tucker's voice only to get drenched by the wake of Arnie's turning speedboat.

"Cowabunga." Tucker finished.

The dripping Ember hovered above the water completely shell shocked. Her makeup was runny and her fiery ponytail had vanished, put out by the water.

"Do you losers have any idea how much it'll cost if my guitar has water damage!" she screeched.

"Yeah, yeah, bill me from the Ghost Zone." Sam shrugged as Tucker pulled out The Fenton Thermos and sucked up the powerless Ember.

"Turns out there's a downside to hanging around water when you're a fire-based ghost." Tucker pulled the pair of Fenton Phones out of his ears "Thank goodness I can take out these ugly things."

Valerie's hoverboard zoomed to a stop beside her, hovering a few centimeters above the water. Valerie reached out and pulled herself up onto it.

"You good down there?" Danny asked, flying down to check on Valerie.

"I'm good." she said, standing up on her board "Wanna hear something neat? Turns out my suit is watertight."

"Ha, nice! Mine is too, actually. Except for the face part." Danny pulled off a fish that was still latched on to his boot "She's gone, you can go home." he said as he dropped the fish back into the water "Sheesh. Those little guys have a lot more determination than you'd expect."

Danny turned to look at Arnie.

"Hey uh, thanks...whoever you are."

Arnie didn't respond. He just gaped at Danny and Valerie for a very awkward fifteen seconds. Then he turned to Sam.

"Ms Manson," he said "You're gonna have to triple your initial offer to keep me quiet."

"Extorting me because I'm not really in a position to say 'no'? Low, but understandable."

"No, it's to cover the cost of a facial and massage at The Amity All-Day Spa. After what I've just been through, I need the relaxation desperately!"

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Arnie wasn't the only one who needed to decompress. The four of them decided to stop by The Nasty Burger before heading home.

They all let out a collective shudder when they saw the poster advertising the new fish burger special.

"So that's two Nasty Combos with diet cola, one of the fries upsized, and a Nasty Alternative Substance Patty with a diet ginger ale. Is that everything?" the cashier asked.

There was a moment of silence before Sam turned to Valerie.

"You gonna order anything?" she asked.

"Nah, I'm pretty strapped for cash right now. Between homework and ghost fighting, I don't exactly have time for a job."

"Order whatever you want." Sam said "It's on me."

Danny and Tucker wordlessly glanced at each other.

"Thanks, but I'd feel bad taking money from you." Valerie said "I know none of you three have time for jobs either."

"It's on my parent's tab." Sam clarified "And they're loaded, so you absolutely should not feel bad."

"Well in that case I'll take one of everything." Valerie grinned. Her expression quickly dropped "Uh, kidding, just kidding. I would take a Nasty Combo with diet iced tea if you're offering, though."

"You honestly could order the whole menu for all I care." Sam shrugged as she paid for their order.

"We can?" Tucker asked. Danny elbowed him.

"Sam and her parents don't really get along." Danny explained to Valerie as they sat down at a booth.

"If by 'don't get along' you mean they're overly controlling self-centered snobs with an incredibly narrow mindset they refuse to even try to broaden, then yes, we don't get along."

Nobody was really sure what to say to that.

"Ugh, don't look now." Sam suddenly cringed "Intense make out session happening at three o'clock. Actually, you can probably look, I don't think they'd notice if a meteor hit this place."

Danny, Tucker, and Valerie looked at the table next to them.

A girl with red hair and a boy with a beanie had moved their chairs right next to each other and were kissing. It was, as Sam put it, intense.

"Oh wow, they're...uh...pretty into it, huh?" Danny said.

"I'm jealous." Tucker grumbled "Being single sucks."

"It's not that bad." Sam rolled her eyes.

"You saying you wouldn't swap places with her if you could, Sam?"

Sam made a face like Tucker had just suggested she eat cat vomit.

"He's okay, I guess." Valerie shrugged. She looked down at spot on the table as she spoke "I wouldn't mind swapping places with him, though. The redhead's pretty cute."

"Oh," Danny said, turning to Valerie "So, like you're into girls? That's cool." He gave her a friendly smile.

"Yeah I'm...I'm actually bi." Valereie smiled back.

"Really?!" Tucker whipped around to face her. "That's awesome! Did you just figure that out recently, or-"

Sam kicked Tucker under the table.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Cool it with the estions-quay." she hissed.

"Nah, it's cool." Valerie waved her hand.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I've known for a while. Saw Brandy as Cinderella on TV when I was seven and something clicked. Paolo Montalban wasn't too bad as the prince either."

"Really?" Danny said "I had a crush on that Cinderlla when I was eight, actually. Can't speak for Montalban, though."

"No way!" Valerie smiled "I literally begged my dad to buy the VHS, I had it sooo bad for those two."

"That's so cool!" Tucker was beaming.

"Ha ha, yeah. I've actually still got that tape stashed in my dresser drawer. A lot of sentimental value there." Valerie looked back down at the table. "It's...actually kind of nice to tell someone."

"Wait," Sam raised her eyebrows "Are we the first people you've told?"

"Pretty much. My dad would probably be cool with it, it's just kind of awkward because you know, he's my dad. And we didn't really talk about this kind of stuff in my...old friend group."

"LGBT+ stuff?"

"Personal stuff."

"Kind of seems like that defeats the point of having frien- Ow!"

This time Tucker kicked Sam.

"Eh, you're not wrong." Valerie said. "I mean, I guess we did share stuff sometimes, just nothing too deep. You know how it is in Amity Park, especially at Casper. People aren't like, outright homophobic if they find out you're gay or whatever, they just..."

"Get kind of weird when you talk about it?" Danny finished.

"Yeah."

"Order number twelve!" Someone called up front.

"That's us." Danny said "I'll go grab them."

"I'll help." Sam stood up and followed Danny.

No one said much after Danny and Sam returned with the food. Ghost fighting was hungry work.

"Welp, I better get going soon." Danny said after they'd all finished eating "I want to get my homework out of the way in case some ghost raccoons decided to go through our trash later or something."

"Smart plan." Sam nodded "Tucker and I were going to go back to my place to do some training."

"Sounds terrible." Danny smirked.

"Yeah, we don't all have supernaturally enhaned abilities." Sam elbowed Danny "Some of us have to work for our brawn."

"I mean, if you want to try frying yourself with who knows how many volts of pure ecto energy, go ahead." Danny rubbed his arm.

A thoughtful look crossed Sam's face.

"Oh, and you also have to regularly clean my parents' lab."

"You know what, I think I'll stick to building muscle the old fashioned way." Sam said, flexing her arm. "Ecto stains do not come out without a fight. Even in black clothes."

"Sam's got her own private home gym." Tucker told Valerie "It's decked out with everything. Treadmills, weights, ellipticals, those gymnastic ring thingies, you name it."

"Nice." Valerie said "I mostly just fly around the park and set up old soup cans to shoot out of trees. And curl some dumbells I found in a closet. I mean sure, we couldn't keep vanity, but we kept the box of weights my dad hasn't touched in a decade." Valerie sighed and rested her chin on her hand "I suppose I should be thankful, though. At least that gives me something to strength train with."

Sam seemed to think carefully before speaking.

"You...could come too, if you want to Valerie. To train, I mean."

"Really?" Valerie said.

"Sure." Sam shrugged "If you're going to be regularly fighting ghosts with us, then you should be in the best shape you can be."

"Yeah, I definitely noticed ghost fights were a lot less strenuous after Sam and I started working out regularly." Tucker said "I'm honestly surprised the first few attacks didn't kill me. Running from ghosts is hard work. And the more work-out buddies you have, the funner it is! Right Sam?"

"Sure." Sam smirked "Maybe Valerie'll actually be able to keep up with me on the treadmill."

"Hey!" Tucker said "It's not my fault you cheat!"

"Tucker, I've been running on that things regularly for years. That's not 'cheating'."

"I'd call a multi-year headstart cheating." Tucker said indignantly.

He suddenly frowned.

"Aw dang, I forgot, it's Cleaning Day at my house."

"Cleaning day?" Valerie raised an eyebrow.

"It sounds fake, but it's very real." Danny said grimly. "They do it every month. I'm not allowed to come over Tucker's on Foley Cleaning Day."

"You don't escape Foley Cleaning Day." Tucker confirmed "My folks are usually very nice and normal people, but if I'm not home in fifteen minutes, they might actually kill me.

"Oh wow, your parents really go hard for cleaning, huh?" Valerie glanced awkwardly at Sam "Well, I guess we can train together another time or whatever."

"What? No, it's fine. We can work out, just the two of us." Sam's face fell a little as if she only just realized what exactly she was signing up for.

"Oh, okay." Valerie seemed genuinly surprised that Sam hadn't cancelled. "Yeah, sure. That'd be...cool."

"Yup." Sam said "Totally cool."

Tucker and Danny watched the awkward exchange, completely unsure what to do.

"Welp," Danny stood up quickly "I'd better get going."

Everyone else stood up and followed him out of the booth. Both groups split up once they were outside The Nasty Burger, Sam and Valerie heading to Sam's house, and Danny and Tucker heading to their own homes.

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"They'll...be okay. Right?" Danny said after he and Tucker had been walking for a bit.

"Sam and Valerie?" Tucker raised an eyebrow at Danny "Why wouldn't they be?"

"I don't think Sam's exactly Valerie's biggest fan."

"Aw, come on Danny. That was just one particular...incident that they talked out. Sure, they might not be BFFs or anything, but they've gotten along fine in ghost fights and stuff since then."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Danny said.

"Besides, if Sam had a problem hanging out with Valerie alone, you know she would not hesitate to say so."

"That is very true." Danny laughed.

"Uh, speaking of Valerie though..."

"What's up with Valerie?"

"Nothing's up with her, I was...kind of thinking about asking her out."

"Really?" Danny smiled "Well good. it's about time! I mean, you've liked her for-"

"Alright, alright, knock it off!"

Danny frowned.

"What's the matter with you?"

"What? A guy can't request that people don't tease him about his love life?"

"It's not that, Tuck. You just don't usually mind teasing this much."

"I'm just kind of nervous about it. Asking Valerie out, I mean."

"What? But you've asked out tons of girls. This technically isn't even the first time you've asked Valerie out."

"This is different."

"How?"

Tucker adjusted his back pack straps.

"Because I'd actually care if she turned me down."

"Oh."

There was a brief pause while Danny processed what Tucker had said.

"So you like, actually like-like her, huh?"

"Yeah, Valerie's really cool. And a good friend. Like, when I asked all those girls out to the dance, I just wanted a date, you know? I mean, it wouldn't be the end of the world or anything if she did say 'no', but it would hit a little harder than getting rejected by a girl I barely know."

"Yeah, that's definitely understandable."

They walked in silence for a few seconds.

"Hey, would you mind not mentioning any of this to Sam?" Tucker asked.

"Sam already knows you have a crush on Valerie, you're kind of super obvious dude."

"No, I mean don't tell her I'm asking Valerie out. I'm nervous enough as it is. I don't need Sam making fun of me."

"She wouldn't make fun of you for this."

"She's been teasing me about Valerie since day one."

"Okay true, but if she knew how important this was to you I'm sure she wouldn't."

"Maybe, but I still don't want to tell her just yet, okay?"

Danny frowned.

"You want to keep this a secret from Sam?"

"Just until after I actually ask Valerie out." Tucker said "And then I'll tell Sam. And I will ask her out soon."

Sam was one of Tucker's best friends. The fact that he wanted to keep something like this from her didn't sit well with Danny, even if it was just for a tiny bit.

"Okay, what's up with you two?"

"What do you mean?"

"It feels like you've been at each other's throats for months. And it's beyond friendly banter. I don't know what's going on, but it feels like something happened between you two that you refuse to talk about."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, dude." Tucker said.

Danny wasn't satisfied, but they had arrived at his house, and Danny knew Tucker needed to be home soon. He'd just have to interrogate him another day.

"If you say so." Danny relented "But maybe consider talking to Sam if there's something you're not telling me. Anyway, this is my stop. See you tomorow. Have fun cleaning." Danny started up the steps.

"You know I won't."

"And good luck with Valerie!" Danny called.

Tucker let out a strangled noise as Danny shut the door behind him.

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The walk back to Sam's house was painfully silent.

Despite her initial (admittedly hostile) reaction to Valerie, the two of them had gotten along just fine with each other the past few weeks.

Not great, not bad, just fine.

Outside of ghost fights, Sam and Valerie barely said a word to each other. Not maliciously, it was more that neither of them could really figure out what to say to the other.

They worked together well enough in combat, but Sam found there was an awkwardness between them that wasn't there with Danny or Tucker.

An awkwardness that was definitely here now.

"Welp, this is my place." Sam said, not looking to see Valerie's reaction. Since her dad worked security for the Mansons, Valerie already knew Sam's family was rich, but Sam still couldn't help feeling a little self-conscious.

"Not bad." Valerie said as she looked over the giant house.

The Manson's house brought up some mixed feelings in Valerie. Not too long ago, she'd been living in a house that size. Now she and her dad lived in an apartment and had to share a bathroom.

That being said, Valerie was thankful that her dad had found a better apartment for them after he'd gotten a decent job. And this one was a lot closer to Valerie's school.

But still, she missed the home she grew up in.

Sam led Valerie inside and down a set of stairs to the basement gym.

Valerie looked around, clearly impressed. The space was as decked out as Tucker had said. The Manson's home gym might have been mistaken for a public gym, if it wasn't for the fact that the equipment was only set up for one or two people to use at a time.

Sam took Valerie around the space and gave her the basic rundown. Valerie actually seemed to already have some familiarity with fitness equipment, and once the tour was done she went to inspect the rack of weighted plates.

Sam took a breath. She figured she should at least try to start up some kind of friendly conversation with Valerie. Just to try to break the ice.

"Hey uh, nice job out there today." Sam said "Ember doesn't com around a lot, but she's a pretty tough ghost. You did good." Sam hoped she didn't sound as awkward as she felt.

"Thanks. You too. Hey, how'd you know that guy with the boat?"

"Arnie? My grandma plays cards with him sometimes."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Sam wanted to keep talking, but she didn't know what to say next. What should she talk about? Sam barely knew anything about Valerie. What was she even interested in outside of ghost hunting?

The silence had been stretching on too long and Sam's scrambled brain landed on the thing she'd most recently learned about Valerie.

"So," Sam said "Back at The Nasty Burger. That was cool. When you told us you were bi, I mean."

"Yeah?" Valerie's tone was hard to read.

Maybe that had been a bad topic choice. Where was Sam supposed to go with that?

A lightbulb went off in Sam's head; she could tell Valerie she was aromantic! This was perfect! An exchange of similar information to establish mutual trust and connection.

"I find that kind of funny since-"

"What? Why?" Valerie's face hardened and she gripped the ten-kilogram disc in front of her like a shield.

Sam realized with horror the way Valerie thought she might've been about to end that sentence.

Operation improve-tense-relationship-with-Valerie was going just fantastic.

"I just meant that I kind of run on the opposite end of the spectrum." Sam said.

"What'd you mean?" Valerie asked.

"I'm like reverse bi. I don't like anybody." Sam internally facepalmed. 'Reverse bi'? Did she just seriously say that?

"Well, that's not exactly shocking."

"I meant romantically." It took all of Sam's willpower to avoid tacking 'you idiot' onto the end of that sentence.

Maybe she should just go back to being enemies with Valerie. It would be a lot easier (and a lot less painful) than her attempt at friendship so far.

"Like you're aromantic? That would be pretty on-brand for you." Valerie grinned.

Sam felt her heart stop.

"Wait, you know what aromantisism is?"

"Yeah, I was on a bi forum and someone mentioned it."

"Okay, that's really cool," Sam smiled "But why was someone talking about aromantisism on a bi forum?"

"I think the poster was both. Like, they were aromantic and bi."

"You can be both?"

"Yeah. I guess there's actually, like, a couple different kinds of attractions, so some people are more than one thing. That was a pretty neat rabbit hole I got sucked into."

"Huh. Didn't know that. That's interesting. Are you more than one thing?"

"Nah. It was just neat to read about. You?"

Sam considered this.

"Nah. Just aromantic feels pretty right."

"Rad. Recent discovery for you?"

"Yeah. Just figured it out on that trip we took last weekend. Had a weird conversation that made some things clear."

"Heh, been there."

"With the bi thing?"

"Hm? Oh, nah, I figured that one out pretty early on, so it's always felt...normal, I guess. But recently I have been thinking about some other things, and...well, I'm not really sure, but I think I might be demi."

"What's that?"

"I don't think I can really like someone in a romantic way if I'm not close with them first. Like, they have to be a friend first."

"Really?" Sam raised an eyebrow "But I've seen you go to a few dances with people you don't really hang out with, and didn't you say you had a crush on Cinderella? Cuz I feel like you weren't personal friends with Brandy Norwood as a kid."

"Well, it's...I don't really know how to explain it, but crushes with fictional characters are...different."

"Huh. Okay."

"But that wouldn't make me less demi!"

"Oh, yeah, no, for sure." Sam said earnestly.

Valerie paused, taken aback by the lack of challenge from Sam.

"...So that makes sense to you?"

"Not really, if I'm being honest." Sam shrugged "But in my experience, the way you feel doesn't have to make sense. It just...is."

"Huh." Valerie said "That's pretty deep."

"Read that on a forum I found the other day." Sam said "So, did you like Kwan? I remember you two were going to go to the last dance together before- well, you know." Kwan had ditched Valerie at the last second and she'd ended up going with Tucker as a last resort. "To be honest, the whole going-to-the-dance with someone always confused me. I never got why it was such a big deal to go alone."

"I mean, going to the dance with someone is more about status. You don't really need to like your date, you just need to prove you're desirable. I may have been willing to go to a dance with Kwan, but I definitely don't like him that way. He's kind of nice, but he's also a total idiot who just goes along with what people tell him to do."

"I despise people like that." Sam glowered.

"But I did have to go with someone, and he asked me, and we were both part of the popular crowd, so you know. I mean, going with someone unpopular was preferable to going alone, but it's better to go with someone popular and not risk being too associated with the socially undesirable."

"This is legitimately how you thought about things?" Sam rubbed her temples "I'm getting tired just listening to you. Uh, no offense."

"None taken. Honestly, you're not wrong. It's actually a huge relief to not be caught in that mindset anymore. Turns out the only other people who really cared in the first place were the other popular kids. Ironically, it was the people I called my friends who were enforcing the idea that I constantly needed to keep up that 'socially acceptable' image. And I never considered how messed up that was for even a second!"

Valerie's knuckles turned white. She noticed this and put the plate she was clutching back on the rack.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to get into all that."

"What? No, it's fine. Paulina and her crew are vultures. I totally understand."

"Do you? Cuz Like, no offence, but you three never seemed to be bothered by this stuff. Especially not you. You just say and do whatever you want and you don't care what people think about you. I wish I was more like you."

"You...do?" Sam was genuinely surprised to hear that. She never thought she'd hear anyone say that, least of all Valerie Gray.

"Yeah. You never hold back so people will like you. If I was more like you, maybe I wouldn't have wasted so much time with all that 'popular kid' nonsense. Hunting ghosts with you three and keeping Amity Park safe is the most fulfilled I've ever felt in my life. If I hadn't spent so much time caught up in my own self importance, I could've found people I actually trusted way sooner, and it makes me so angry that I didn't. I mean, it wasn't like my life was terrible or anything. My dad's great and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy all the shopping sprees and tennis lessons, but I could've been a much better person so much earlier and I wasn't. I hate that. I hate that it took almost dying and losing everything for me to start caring about things that actually mattered."

Sam was stunned by how raw Valerie's words were. She had always seemed so self-assured. In Sam's mind, Valerie in a way seemed above such angst.

Of course now Sam realized that was kind of ridiculous. Valerie, however well she carried herself, was still human, and just as susceptible to human fear and doubt as anyone else.

"Well...you're here now." Sam said "So that's gotta count for something."

"But I could've- should've gotten 'here' earlier. I mean," Valerie gestured around the room "You were raised with the same financial status as me, and you didn't turn out to be a total self-absorbed snob."

"I mean, I'm not perfect either, I can be kind of self-absorbed sometimes." Sam scratched the back of her head "And honestly...sometimes I think the only reason I do a lot of the 'good' things I do is just because I to end up being like my parents."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I spent years watching them putting on fancy outfits and fake smiles and bending over backwards just so the right people would like them. And not even for anything. There was no goal or greater purpose for their stupid charade. They wasted so much time nitpicking their appearances just to be whatever the adult version of 'the popular kids' is. And I was just an accessory to only let me wear these awful frilly pink dresses, and they'd always laugh at me whenever I brought up certain serious things they didn't want to think about. They were always trying to force me into this stupid mould just to impress some idiots who didn't even care about us. My mom actually tried to bleach my hair when I was seven."

"Oh." Valerie's eyes widened in horror "That's...really messed up."

Sam felt herself shaking a little.

She didn't often talk about this stuff in detail, even to Danny and Tucker. She wasn't sure they'd really get it. They thought it was cool that Sam was rich and could just 'buy whatever she wanted'. Sure, there were definitely perks to her life, but Sam often wondered if it was worth the annoyances she had to put up with everyday.

Sure, she'd learned how to deal with her parents constant criticisms and occasional yelling, and she'd gotten pretty good at fighting back and channeling her anger into productivity as she'd gotten older, but even after all this time her parents' behaviour still wore at her.

So once Sam had started talking, she found it difficult to stop. To her surprise, Valerie did actually seem understanding towards Sam's situation, but Sam wasn't sure how she felt exposing this much of herself to someone she didn't know that well.

Sure, she'd wanted to get to know Valerie better, but this was a bit too much at once.

Sam needed to lighten things up a little.

"It's actually a funny story." she continued "That incident's actually why my mom started wearing gloves. I fought her with all the ferocity a seven-year-old could, and ended up biting her wrist so it left a mark for a week."

Sam laughed as she finished her story. Valerie laughed too, but it was stilted.

Maybe that story wasn't as funny as Sam had always thought...

"It wasn't a total sob story," Sam hurriedly switched topics "I had my grandma. She was always nice. And really funny. She always made faces behind my parents back when they were ranting at me, and she let me try her champagne at one of the stupid galas my parents forced me to go to. It was pretty gross." Sam smiled at the memory "Lots of kids with bad parents don't have someone like her in their lives, so I really could've had it a lot worse. Not to mention how handy it is to be able to finance some of our ghost hunting endeavours."

"Still though..." Valerie said.

Sam frowned. The amount of pity in Valerie's voice made her feel weird. Yeah, her childhood had been kind of rough, but it wasn't that rough...

She wasn't sure how she felt about Valerie's reaction. Or about sharing so much with Valerie in the first place. Or about what Valerie had shared with her.

They'd covered a lot of ground in such a short conversation. It had felt kind of good, and Sam had managed to ease some of the tension between her and Valerie, but now she was feeling pretty drained emotionally. She needed a break from deep conversation.

"So yeah, I learned very early on that all that pomp and ceremony was pointless, and there was no point in torturing yourself for approval that isn't real love anyway." Sam quickly summarized "Anyway, I'm gonna work on some pull-up exercises. You end up having to do so much more climbing than you'd expect when ghost hunting. Well, those of us that can't fly, anyway. Be careful if you're gonna use the barbell. It's easy to overdo it."

"Yeah, don't worry. This isn't my first rodeo."

"Good." Sam nodded as she headed to the pull-up bar.

The two of them spent the next hour exercising in near silence.

Sam watched Valerie pick out some weights for the barbell while she held herself up on the pull-up bar.

She hadn't meant for things to go that deep, and she had a feeling Valerie neither did Valerie.

A few months ago Sam had written Valerie off as another one of Paulina's airhead friends, and now here they were baring their souls to each other.

And it had been so effortless.

She'd only known Valerie for a short time, but she'd just gone full force into subjects she barely touched with Danny or Tucker.

Valerie was so different from them. Maybe that was it. She understood what feeling pressured to keep up appearances was like. Danny had never had the option with his parents' reputation following him everywhere, and Tucker had no qualms hanging out with the nerds, openly carrying his PDA everywhere, and constantly quoting Star Trek. He was a full blown geek and he never seemed to feel the need to try and hide it.

Sam didn't either, but they didn't know what it was like having a constant presence in your life trying to force you to be something you're not.

And she'd had no idea it'd feel this way to have someone understand what that was like.

Sam was so caught up in her thoughts she didn't notice Valerie was finishing up putting her weights away.

"Whew!" Valerie wiped her forehead with her arm "That was way better than my dad's old hand weights! I should probably get going now, though. Thanks for having me."

"Sure." Sam dropped down from the bar "Hey, feel free to drop by anytime. Seriously, even if I'm not around you can still use the gym."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Ghost hunters gotta keep in shape. The same invitation's open to Tucker, but he never uses it. Don't know why. Personally, I love burning off steam down here."

"I'll...keep that in mind." Valerie smiled "Thanks."

"No problem. You, uh, need me to show you the way out?"

"Nah, I'm good. I remember." Valerie said, grabbing her backpack. She stopped at the foot of the stairs. "Your gym's pretty cool. And...I enjoyed our conversation. Earlier."

"Yeah," Sam scratched the back of her head "Me too."

Valerie smiled.

"Well, see you later Sam." she said as she headed up the stairs.

Sam waited until she was sure Valerie was gone. Once she couldn't hear her footsteps anymore, Sam flopped down on the weight bench and let out a breath.

Truthfully, she was a little relieved Valerie was finally gone, but some part of her was looking forward to hanging out with Valerie in the future.

"It's progress, I suppose." Sam said to the empty room.

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

Valerie wasn't sure how to feel about what had just happened.

She'd assumed Sam had only invited her to her gym to be polite. It genuinely surprised her when Sam had actually agreed to hang out with her alone. It wasn't like she thought Sam hated her, or vice versa. They got along just fine in ghost fights, but Valerie had gotten the impression Sam didn't exactly want to be BFFs from their...tumultuous first meeting.

But Valerie had somehow ended ended up spilling her guts to Sam, and Sam had done the same. That was truly shocking.

Then again, Valerie had kind of done the same with Tucker and Danny on separate occasions. Valerie wasn't the kind of person to hold her tongue, but she hadn't really shared such deep parts of herself with her old friends. And yet she did so so easily with those three.

It was a little scary how open she found herself being with her new friends.

Were they friends?

Sure they fought ghosts together, and they always invited her to hang out with them afterwards, but Valerie had been pretty sure that the A-listers were her friends, and they-

Valerie shook her head.

No, her new friends weren't anything like her old 'friends'. She felt comfortable with Tucker, Danny, and even Sam in a way she never had with Dash, Paulina, and any of the others.

It was a good thing that she could open up to Danny, Tucker, and Sam, she told herself. That meant her relationship with them was better than the A-Listers.

Strange and different, but better.

"Hey Dad!" Valerie called as she opened their apartment door "I'm home!"

"Hey Sweetheart!" her Dad "Did you have fun with your friends?"

"Yeah." She said "I did. We hung out by the wharf for a while and then went to The Nasty Burger."

"The wharf? Heh, you teenagers sure like hanging out in the strangest of places."

"It's nice." Valerie said defensively "It's...you know...peaceful. Anyway, how was work?"

[doctorshipper137]

Never Poke My Child

[Danny wants peace from Vlad's childish games and their fights.

Clockwork cannot always be there to save the day but he will do anything for Daniel and knows just a thing to make Vladimir stop his chase after Ghost child.

Walker owns him after all]

                              _______________________________

"Why that fruitloop…" Danny grits his teeth getting Ecto blast by Vlad Plasmius a.k.a Vlad Masters whose first Half Ghost and human just like him.

 "Have you changed your mind, little badger?" Plasmius asks, floating above him. "You know I hate doing this to you"

 "You know my answer will always be 'NO' to you" Danny replied, getting up from the ground and rubbing his shoulder where Vlad shot him. "Why are you so obsessed with me anyway? I thought you were after my mum? Even though I am glad you are no longer after her"

 "As much as I love Maddie, which I still do! You are my top priority…"

 "Great, I feel special"

 Plasmius landed on the ground and grinned. "Does that mean you will be my son?"

 Danny hums fake thinking and taps his foot. "Hm…how about…NOOO!!!" He shouts, scaring the shit out of the older ghost and blowing him away using a Ghostly wail.

 They were fighting outside the Casper High school building, it was weird how no one had noticed them yet except Sam and Tucker who watched their fight and worried for their friend.

 "We have to do something!"

 "What can we do? If it was technology I would have been hacked and I can't call Police to help us, can we?"

 Sam's eyes wide and look at Tucker. "That's it! Call Clockwork now!"

 Tucker immediately pulls out his phone and calls Master of time.

 The phone was specifically made by Technus that can help make a call in the Ghost Zone and the Human world with ease.

 Danny and Sam find out Tucker was friends with Technus because of their shared love for Technology. 

 It didn't surprise them because Tucker never leaves his PDA like it's his baby and always plays with it.

 "The number you try to reach is out of reach, please don't try later because I don't have time for the boy scouts, Good day" The call cut off before Tucker would speak and look at Sam with a dumbfounded expression. 

 "What did he say?"

 "He…said hi?"

 "Huh?"

                                      _________________________

 ‘Honestly, what do they think I am? Knight in shining armor?’ Clockwork thought as he watched the mirror where Daniel and Vladimir were fighting with each other. 

 He cannot always interfere and saves the day. 

 Although he can bend rules and teach Vladimir a lesson that he will never forget.

 Yes, maybe he should.

Nonetheless, he stays there and watches over the time stream. His time hasn’t come yet and he is always on time.

Clockwork adult form changes to child form and Old form. Ah, he sometimes can’t control his forms.

 “Now…How should I approach this?” He mumbled to himself. “So many choices…”

                                     _______________________

 It has been 5 weeks since Danny fought with Vlad, He just hopes Vlad doesn’t decide to pop out of nowhere and attacks him again. His surprise visit always leaves him in buries and annoyance.

 Currently, the group is visiting Nasty Burger after their Ghost hunt and avoiding Dash’s group who wants to bully Danny because it’s his fault he got a ‘C’ on his history test.

“I don’t even understand how that is my fault! I didn’t overshadow him and make him fail the test!” Danny says in frustration and anger.

“Did you?” Tucker and Sam ask at the same time looking at him.

“No! Why would I? I have a lot of work on my plate and fighting with ghosts…Plus ever since the Pointdexter accident I decided to never bully again…I almost became Dash in a way…” Danny replied.

 “You learn the lesson”

 “True, in a hard way…”

“Cheer up, Danny! One large meat in buns will clear all your troubles away! In fact, why don’t you come to my house? Mum will be making steak tonight”

Before Danny would say a word, his ghost sense went off, and groaned. “Great…Trouble”

 All three look up at the sky where they see none other than Vlad in his Ghost form Plasmius flying and ready to fight.

 Danny looks around to see no one and glares at the Halfa Ghost. “Don’t make me sue you, fruit loop! Attacking a minor and stalker is illegal!”

 “It’s the Father’s job to look out for his children”

 “NOT YOUR CHILD!!”

 Plasmins shrugs. “Deny as much as you want”

 Danny throws his bag at Tucker and takes a stance. “I am going Ghost!”

 Plasmins smirks seeing the transformation and raises his hand ready to blast him. After Transformation Danny Fenton turns into Danny Phantom, he flies toward him in speed and dodges the Ecto-Blast then slams himself into Plasmins.

 “I AM GONNA KICK YOUR BUTT, FRUIT LOOP!!”

 “TRY IT, LITTLE BADGER!!”

 “Gosh, they do fight like a father and son duo” Tucker commented dumbfounded.

 “Don’t let Vlad hear you saying this…” Sam says already feeling tired and watching the fight. “I don’t get it…Why is he so obsessed with Danny? Why not go after his mother?”

 Tucker funnily looked at her. “Do you want him to?”

 Sam made a sick face and shook her head. “Nope”

 Suddenly a portal opens, and Clockwork flies out of it in his child form and looks at the fight with an unreadable expression.

 “Hey, it’s Clockwork!” Tucker exclaims in surprise and is startled.

 Clockwork changes to his adult form and looks at the two children with a calm smile. “Hello Samantha and Tucker”

 “Here to stop the fight?”

 “In a way, yes”

 “Dude, why did you ignore my call the first time?”

 “I was busy” Clockwork lied easily. “Besides it isn’t my time”

Sam frowned. “What do you mean?”

They heard Danny scream and land on the ground beside them. Danny sat up and rubs his head. “A little help would be nice guys…” Danny says rubbing his head and his ghost senses went off. His eyes widen and see Clockwork floating on his side. Danny gets up and looks alert. “What are you doing here? Did something happen? Did Dan escape? Is there Timeline about to get destroyed because of me again!?”

Clockwork put his hand on his shoulder and shook his head. “I am here to give Vladimir a taste of his own medicine”

“Huh?” Danny looks confused. “What do you mean?”

“Give up already, little badger? I just-“ Plasminus froze seeing Clockwork and frowns. “What are you doing here?”

Clockwork adult form changes to old form and grins. “Duck”

Plasminus looked confused by that and yelped, getting hit from behind. Danny, Sam, and Tucker’s jaws drop seeing the attacker was none other than Walker himself along with some guards.

“Vlad Plasminus, you are under arrest!” Walker says proudly and arm crossed behind his back.

“For what?” Plasminus asks after he composes himself and looks at Wadern with a deadpan. “I didn’t do any crime!”

Walker pulls out a rule book and opens it. “Section -0991 Crime 69 ‘Assault the underage minor’ The sentence…” He shut the book and pointed his finger at him. “10,000 YEARS!!!!”

“WHAT!?!?” 

Danny unconsciously turns back to his human form and looks at Clockwork. “Oh my god…you sue him for me? To Walker!?”

“I had a much more fitting lesson for him…But I found this situation very amusing besides Wadern owns me” Clockwork says grinning madly. “Now he won’t bother you for a while”

 “Oh yeah…He can’t get out of Ghost Jail” Tucker said, finding this amusing as well.

“If he was in Human jail he could have gotten out easily but how will he get out of Ghost Jail…” Sam laughs. “Money won’t save him from Walker himself!”

Danny couldn’t hold himself back and hugged Clockwork. “THANK YOU!!!”

Clockwork hugs him back. “No one can touch you while I am around, Daniel”

“W-WAIT! THIS IS A MISTAKE! I AM NOT-“

“GET HIM, BOYS! DON’T LET HIM ESCAPE!”

“STOP IN THE NAME OF LAW!!”

Plasmins flies out of there like a rocket and Walker follows after him along with the squad while Danny, Clockwork, Sam, and Tucker laugh at Vlad’s dismay.

                                     ___________________________

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

Family, Suspicions, Rage and Plans

A Phantom adopted, Chapter 2, ao3

Team Phantom and the Lumano Clan discuss, separately this time.

Jasmine Fenton was a good person, as many people would agree, and as such did not deserve to be startled by gremlin-like little brothers phasing their heads through her walls.   Thankfully she had only one of those, and so her startle was only a tiny bit, followed by a scowl.

“Danny!  Can’t you knock?”

Danny laughed, falling into her bedroom with each breath, and flopped onto the floor.  Jazz rolled her eyes and nudged him onto his back with her foot.

“Ok, sorry, you’re right.  I finally got you though!”

“Ah yes, a jumpscare, truly the height of being frightening.  Was there something you wanted to talk about, Danny, or was this just to tell your friends you managed to scare a single person in your whole life?”

Danny clutched his heart and curled up with a few more laughs and Jazz smiled.

“Oof, friendly fire there.  Yeah, big news actually and we felt like you should probably be filled in cause you’re smart and all that.”

Danny picked himself up by floating until he could get his legs under himself and Jazz couldn’t help the fuzzy warmth in her chest, knowing he trusted her enough now to use his powers so freely in her presence.  It wasn’t too long ago that Danny would overact normalcy around her the same that he did for their parents, and while Jazz had been determined to wait that period out, it still hurt to be put in the same boat as them.

“Ok, I assume Sam and Tucker are in your room and I’m not letting Sam and her nature-covered boots all over my nice clean floor.”

Danny pointedly looked down at papers strewn about near her desk and Jazz turned him around by the shoulders.

“My floor is without dirt upon it, Danny, I’ll not have your friends change that just because Sam feels the need to rebel against her parents when they aren’t even here.”

“Gosh, tell me what you really feel.”

“Ah, but this is about your big news, not views I have the good manners to keep quiet about little brother.”

Once they were in Danny’s room, door closed firmly, Jazz took a seat on the bed next to Danny, with Tucker on his other side and Sam in the spinning desk chair.

“Ok, so what happened today that I need to know?”

“Well,” Sam said, fingers steepled in a triangle like some rich supervillain.  “Today we met a ghost who was appalled at the treatment other ghosts give Danny and decided to purge them all.”

“He specifically swore not to slaughter them all, Sam,” Danny all but pleaded.  “Maybe his magic binds him to his word?”

“Dude, he said, and I quote,” Tucker said, pulling up his PDA to read from, “’I promise not to slaughter all of the ghosts you inform me of that have hurt you in the past few months.’  There’s so many loopholes in that.”

“But the spirit of the deal-“

“Isn’t the deal, Danny.”  

Jazz shrugged when Danny turned a betrayed look her way.

“Sorry, that left way too many openings.  I’m not sure a ghost can truly be destroyed anyway, though, so do you really need to worry about that?”

“Besides, he promised you and Sam that, dude, I gave him the list.”

Tucker laughed as he was shoved nearly off the bed and shook his head.

“I’ve got to say, that’s suspiciously serendipitous, Danny.”

Jazz leaned back, crossing her legs and drumming her fingers against her arm.

“What does he get out of swooping in and dealing with all of your enemies for you?  You might’ve given him a list of allies to rally together into an organized force to attack you with.”

“He’s a liminal like me, for one thing.”

Danny grinned and Jazz’s eyes widened slowly.

“He said that Danny’s basically a toddler in ghost years and so he’s just absolutely horrified that he’s being basically hunted down for brawls by adult ghosts.”

Sam caught the pillow that Danny threw at her, and Jazz just barely managed to dodge it herself when Danny phased through the return throw.

“He put on the kind of fake cheery tone that you only hear from someone ready to explode, and his wings lit up again.”

“Ok, Tucker, wait.  Start from the beginning, please.” #

Valdan watched Toby burn his way across a massive purple rock floating in the void, slashing it apart with his claws and smashing it to bits with hooves, tails, and all manner of weaponry gifted by nature to its beasts.  Even upon reaching the coveted arch-druid status, Valdan had rarely seen him act like this.

He couldn’t blame him, of course.  The ectoplasm around him buzzed with the whisper of notes to a war song that could bring down fortresses and rally armies out of civilians.  He balanced a knife on his finger, daring the tip to pierce him, and watched the flames dance off the blade.

A warm hand pressed against his back, heat pouring into muscles that relaxed like thawing ice, and Valdan hummed, leaning into Duncan at his side.

“Is everyone back, yet?  I’m not talking about this over dinner, that’s for pleasant things.”

“Well, I think Apo and Cole are back from chatting with the dragon princess, and they’re only a little charred, so I think that’s everyone.”

“Right, well, someone’s gonna have to reign in mister Wrath of Nature over there.  I’m not doin it.”

“Lazy bones,” Cole calls out as he jumps off the deck of the ship that was still taking the shape of a somewhat standard sea vessel.  Valdan can’t hear what they say to each other, doesn’t need to, but soon enough Toby is his human looking self again, and the both of them are on the deck.

It doesn’t take long to gather everyone below deck in their little meeting area, there were only 7 of them after all.  Still, Valdan paced a bit, eyes narrowed as he thought.

In a trip around the table all the weapons that could be removed had been placed in a neat pile in the corner, which did nothing to ease the tension in the room.

“Right, so.  We’ve got a handful in our lap, damn that compassion of ours.  The kids provided us with a lovely little list of problematic poltergeists that attack their little hometown.  They isolated for us three particularly bad pests but summarized only two of them.  Both of these threats need to be eliminated as soon as possible, but I imagine we’re gonna have an easier time finding one than the other two.”

“There’s also another plane-touched child that particularly needs our help and isn’t gonna get that help from anyone else on their material plane.  She’s a result of the only adult plane-touched round here being a total scum bag.”

Apogo sighed, waving a hand to make sure he had their attention.  Valdan braced himself for the speech that would come at some point in the conversation.

“Hold on now, look.  I know that whoever’s on that list needs a good ass kicking, obviously, but are we gonna go around destroying souls just like that?”

“I don’t think any of us have the magic to destroy a soul, Apo.  Well, unless the weird power boost we’ve been getting from being here between Realms has gifted me the illustrious power of eating them.  We just shoot them in the core and they’re souls floating around in the void.”

“Deprived of their senses and unable to control their movement.  I’m not saying we don’t take out the worst of them, I’m sure you’re about to tell me something irredeemable about these two ‘worst child fighters’ but maybe we should get a bit more information from them before we go on a bloody campaign?”

“Oh absolutely, just from the hilarious names given I suspect most of these people aren’t a major problem, we can handle them in an afternoon or two.  But, well, I took your weapons away cause I don’t want you to blow holes in the ship when I tell you about this Vlad Masters guy.”

“We have developed self-control, Val, what could he have done?”

Simply because he was the one to say that, Valdan kept his eyes on his brother while he relayed everything Danny told them about his clone.  He did, however, have the tact to keep a hand on one of Apogo’s shoulders through the tale.

With the powder keg of magic in the room, Valdan wondered if he should’ve had this conversation on the deck.

David drummed his clawed fingers against the table and closed his eyes.  His other hand was occupied with holding onto Leico’s, more to keep him from leaving than comfort.  Leico himself was looking rather ready to call on his precious goddess to smite the man in his stead, but Valdan knew he wouldn’t.  That would be too easy.

“So, the misery demon lady will die first, I think.  Easier target, no clean-up really needed.  While Leico and Duncan track her down, Valdan I want you to find where Vlad lives, see how easily we can turn his environment against him.  Toby, you head to the Far Frozen and see if they can help, learn some new medicine stuff even.  Cole, how do you feel about training a kid with weather powers?”

“I feel like I need to know what you plan on doing, David.  Don’t forget to let everyone else in on your master plan.”

“Oh, I’m going to learn the new technology of this place’s prime material plane, maintain our ship so it doesn’t fall apart, and prepare to commit murder.  Perhaps you and I can even go out and socialize, find some of the other ghosts on that list of Valdan’s so that we can judge them ourselves.  When we take down this Vlad Masters, we should raid his laboratory so that we have all the relevant data on Elle needed to help her.”

“Until then, how about we eat ourselves some dinner, yeah?  We’re all stressed, and acting without thinking is going to get us nowhere.  Besides, I have a feeling the kids are gonna call us again soon anyway.”

“Of course, Lei, you always make the best food to get over rage with.”

That night, while everyone else was getting much needed sleep after a patrol around the city and several smaller ghosts captured or sent on their way, Danny took to the roof of the Ops center, staring up at the stars.  He looked down at his hand, curling it into fists over and over.

“The weather, huh?  Wonder how far up that goes.”

[sunnys567]

Friends in strange Places Ch. 6 Pt 1

What if Vlad was good instead of evil? Link to chapter 1:

Summary: After a ghost fight, Danny and his friends hang out at The Nasty Burger and then Sam and Valerie go back to her house. Just the two of them. That won't be awkward.

Word count: 6700

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"Catch me if you can Dipsticks!" Ember cackled as she flew past the pier.

Danny and Valerie continued after her. Sam and Tucker stopped at the edge of the dock.

"Man," Tucker crossed his arms "It sucks not being able to fly.

After about twenty meters, Ember suddenly turned and blasted a pink beam from her guitar.

Danny and Valerie split apart, the beam missing both of them.

"Give it up Ember!" Danny said, charging up two ecto blasts "You can sing all the cheap pop songs you want, there's no one around here for you to even control!"

"Wrong on two counts, Dipstick!" Ember grinned smugly "My music comes from the heart, and I've discovered a brand new kind of audience out here."

Keep reading

Ember raised her hand high above her head and let out a mighty strum on her guitar.

Danny and Valerie looked around. Nothing happened.

"Look down, you drips."

Below their feet the the water was shifting ominously.

One by one, over a hundred fish began to break the surface. Their heads bobbed above the water, watching the floating trio.

"Seriously?" Valerie said "Fish? That's the best you could come up with?"

"Well I can't exactly go around rounding up teenagers again, now that you recognize me." Ember said bitterly "But with these little creatures, I can sill give you a performance you're bound to remember. Now, denizens of the deep," Ember pointed at Danny and Valerie "Attack!"

On Ember's command, the fish began launching themselves at Danny and Valerie.

"Agh!" They both yelped.

The fish were too small to hurt in any significant way, but getting smacked by dozens of fish over and over again was pretty disorienting.

Valerie activated the hand shield Tucker had embedded into her glove and attempted to bat away as many of the attacking fish as she could.

Ember floated there, grinning maliciously as pink and green ecto beams sailed right past her.

"Ooh, we turning this into a rave?" she said "I dig it."

"Stupid fish!" Danny cursed as one bounced off his face "That's it! I'm going where they can't reach me!"

Danny shot up into the air.

"Nice try Dipstick," Ember turned the dial on her guitar "But I've got a song for that."

She began to rapidly pick at the strings. Many of the fish in the water began to glow blue.

"Uh, Danny-" Valerie started to say.

Before she could finish her sentence, a dozen fish shot into the air towards Danny, leaving trails of blue behind them.

"Agh!" Danny yelled as he was assaulted by the high-flying fish "Why does your guitar even have that function?"

Ember laughed as she continued to pluck away.

Valerie tried to shoot her while she was distracted, but getting repeatedly bumped by so many fish kept making her miss wildly.

"Why did I decide to pursue ghost hunting again?" she asked herself as she swung her shield at a group of fish about to hit her face.

Back on the dock, Sam and Tucker were trying to watch the fight using the zoom feature on Tucker's PDA camera.

"It looks like they're having a rave over there." Sam said.

"Are those...fish?" Tucker squinted at the screen.

A fish suddenly jumped out of the water and latched onto Tucker's ear. The fish didn't have teeth, but it still freaked Tucker out.

"Aaaah!" he yelled "Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!"

After some flailing, Tucker managed to grab the fish and fling it back into the water.

"Did you really have to throw it that hard Tucker?" Sam chastised.

"The fish was biting me!" Tucker threw up his arms "What did you expect me to do?"

"It wasn't the fish's fault! You could at least-"

Sam was interrupted by another fish jumping out and grabbing onto her hand. She yelped and waved her arm around wildly until the fish went sailing off of it.

"What happened to it being 'not the fish's fault'?" Tucker smirked.

"If you say another word, you're going to have a lot more to worry about than a fish bite. Hey," Sam squinted at something behind Tucker "I know that person."

Tucker turned and saw a man standing in a stationary speedboat, transfixed by what was happening out on the water.

"Arnie!" Sam called, running towards the boat. Tucker decided to follow her.

"Ms Manson?" Arnie snapped his head towards the approaching teenagers "I don't know what you're doing here, but you better skedaddle! Some of them ghost creatures from the news are duking it out over there with a Power Ranger!"

"Arnie, we need you to take us over there!" Sam said, hopping into the boat.

"What're you doing child?!" Arnie cried "It's not safe! You ought to be heading as far away from the water as you-"

"Here's fifty dollars." Sam interrupted, shoving a bill into Arnie hands "And I'll double it if you don't ask questions. They need our help out there!"

"Ummm..." Tucker and Arnie said, a matching look of concern on their faces.

"Don't worry." Sam said "I have a plan."

"This is dangerous, and I don't like it!" Arnie said as he started up the motor "But knowing you child, you'll do something even more reckless to get over there if I refuse."

"Welp, I've gone along with worse plans." Tucker said to himself, jumping into the boat just before it sped off towards the fight.

Back at the fish-fight, Valerie was attempting to back away from Ember and hopefully the fish.

Getting some distance did help, but unfortunately there were still plenty of fish willing to attack her, even this far away from Ember.

"Stupid fish!" Valerie cursed as she kicked off a few that had latched on to her board "I swear, when this is over, I'm going to buy a deep fryer and-"

"Valerie!"

Valerie turned around to see Sam and Tucker approaching in a speedboat, driven by someone she'd never met.

"Sam?" Valerie raised an eyebrow under her mask "What're you doing here? Who's that?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Hey!" Arnie said indignantly.

"Think you can you distract Ember for a minute? We're gonna try a manouevre, but it won't work if she sees us coming."

"Can do." Valerie nodded as Sam and the others zoomed off.

"Hey Blue Man reject!" Valerie called.

Ember turned and Valerie charged, firing rapidly at Ember, who easily dodged them.

As Valerie got close, Ember banged out a chord that reverberated through the air, knocking Valerie off her board.

"Aah!" Valerie screamed as she went flying into the water. Ember was floating a meter away from her when she broke the surface.

"Gutsy move Red, I'll give you that." She said "You know, I like you. And that outfit's pretty rockin'. Any chance you wanna ditch ghost-boy and team up with someone who's actually going somewhere?"

"Not a chance you-you flamey freak!" It was hard to think of insults while trying to not drown.

"Aw well, your loss."

Valerie braced herself as Ember raised her hand.

"Hey Ember!"

Ember turned to the sound of Tucker's voice only to get drenched by the wake of Arnie's turning speedboat.

"Cowabunga." Tucker finished.

The dripping Ember hovered above the water completely shell shocked. Her makeup was runny and her fiery ponytail had vanished, put out by the water.

"Do you losers have any idea how much it'll cost if my guitar has water damage!" she screeched.

"Yeah, yeah, bill me from the Ghost Zone." Sam shrugged as Tucker pulled out The Fenton Thermos and sucked up the powerless Ember.

"Turns out there's a downside to hanging around water when you're a fire-based ghost." Tucker pulled the pair of Fenton Phones out of his ears "Thank goodness I can take out these ugly things."

Valerie's hoverboard zoomed to a stop beside her, hovering a few centimeters above the water. Valerie reached out and pulled herself up onto it.

"You good down there?" Danny asked, flying down to check on Valerie.

"I'm good." she said, standing up on her board "Wanna hear something neat? Turns out my suit is watertight."

"Ha, nice! Mine is too, actually. Except for the face part." Danny pulled off a fish that was still latched on to his boot "She's gone, you can go home." he said as he dropped the fish back into the water "Sheesh. Those little guys have a lot more determination than you'd expect."

Danny turned to look at Arnie.

"Hey uh, thanks...whoever you are."

Arnie didn't respond. He just gaped at Danny and Valerie for a very awkward fifteen seconds. Then he turned to Sam.

"Ms Manson," he said "You're gonna have to triple your initial offer to keep me quiet."

"Extorting me because I'm not really in a position to say 'no'? Low, but understandable."

"No, it's to cover the cost of a facial and massage at The Amity All-Day Spa. After what I've just been through, I need the relaxation desperately!"

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Arnie wasn't the only one who needed to decompress. The four of them decided to stop by The Nasty Burger before heading home.

They all let out a collective shudder when they saw the poster advertising the new fish burger special.

"So that's two Nasty Combos with diet cola, one of the fries upsized, and a Nasty Alternative Substance Patty with a diet ginger ale. Is that everything?" the cashier asked.

There was a moment of silence before Sam turned to Valerie.

"You gonna order anything?" she asked.

"Nah, I'm pretty strapped for cash right now. Between homework and ghost fighting, I don't exactly have time for a job."

"Order whatever you want." Sam said "It's on me."

Danny and Tucker wordlessly glanced at each other.

"Thanks, but I'd feel bad taking money from you." Valerie said "I know none of you three have time for jobs either."

"It's on my parent's tab." Sam clarified "And they're loaded, so you absolutely should not feel bad."

"Well in that case I'll take one of everything." Valerie grinned. Her expression quickly dropped "Uh, kidding, just kidding. I would take a Nasty Combo with diet iced tea if you're offering, though."

"You honestly could order the whole menu for all I care." Sam shrugged as she paid for their order.

"We can?" Tucker asked. Danny elbowed him.

"Sam and her parents don't really get along." Danny explained to Valerie as they sat down at a booth.

"If by 'don't get along' you mean they're overly controlling self-centered snobs with an incredibly narrow mindset they refuse to even try to broaden, then yes, we don't get along."

Nobody was really sure what to say to that.

"Ugh, don't look now." Sam suddenly cringed "Intense make out session happening at three o'clock. Actually, you can probably look, I don't think they'd notice if a meteor hit this place."

Danny, Tucker, and Valerie looked at the table next to them.

A girl with red hair and a boy with a beanie had moved their chairs right next to each other and were kissing. It was, as Sam put it, intense.

"Oh wow, they're...uh...pretty into it, huh?" Danny said.

"I'm jealous." Tucker grumbled "Being single sucks."

"It's not that bad." Sam rolled her eyes.

"You saying you wouldn't swap places with her if you could, Sam?"

Sam made a face like Tucker had just suggested she eat cat vomit.

"He's okay, I guess." Valerie shrugged. She looked down at spot on the table as she spoke "I wouldn't mind swapping places with him, though. The redhead's pretty cute."

"Oh," Danny said, turning to Valerie "So, like you're into girls? That's cool." He gave her a friendly smile.

"Yeah I'm...I'm actually bi." Valereie smiled back.

"Really?!" Tucker whipped around to face her. "That's awesome! Did you just figure that out recently, or-"

Sam kicked Tucker under the table.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Cool it with the estions-quay." she hissed.

"Nah, it's cool." Valerie waved her hand.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I've known for a while. Saw Brandy as Cinderella on TV when I was seven and something clicked. Paolo Montalban wasn't too bad as the prince either."

"Really?" Danny said "I had a crush on that Cinderlla when I was eight, actually. Can't speak for Montalban, though."

"No way!" Valerie smiled "I literally begged my dad to buy the VHS, I had it sooo bad for those two."

"That's so cool!" Tucker was beaming.

"Ha ha, yeah. I've actually still got that tape stashed in my dresser drawer. A lot of sentimental value there." Valerie looked back down at the table. "It's...actually kind of nice to tell someone."

"Wait," Sam raised her eyebrows "Are we the first people you've told?"

"Pretty much. My dad would probably be cool with it, it's just kind of awkward because you know, he's my dad. And we didn't really talk about this kind of stuff in my...old friend group."

"LGBT+ stuff?"

"Personal stuff."

"Kind of seems like that defeats the point of having frien- Ow!"

This time Tucker kicked Sam.

"Eh, you're not wrong." Valerie said. "I mean, I guess we did share stuff sometimes, just nothing too deep. You know how it is in Amity Park, especially at Casper. People aren't like, outright homophobic if they find out you're gay or whatever, they just..."

"Get kind of weird when you talk about it?" Danny finished.

"Yeah."

"Order number twelve!" Someone called up front.

"That's us." Danny said "I'll go grab them."

"I'll help." Sam stood up and followed Danny.

No one said much after Danny and Sam returned with the food. Ghost fighting was hungry work.

"Welp, I better get going soon." Danny said after they'd all finished eating "I want to get my homework out of the way in case some ghost raccoons decided to go through our trash later or something."

"Smart plan." Sam nodded "Tucker and I were going to go back to my place to do some training."

"Sounds terrible." Danny smirked.

"Yeah, we don't all have supernaturally enhaned abilities." Sam elbowed Danny "Some of us have to work for our brawn."

"I mean, if you want to try frying yourself with who knows how many volts of pure ecto energy, go ahead." Danny rubbed his arm.

A thoughtful look crossed Sam's face.

"Oh, and you also have to regularly clean my parents' lab."

"You know what, I think I'll stick to building muscle the old fashioned way." Sam said, flexing her arm. "Ecto stains do not come out without a fight. Even in black clothes."

"Sam's got her own private home gym." Tucker told Valerie "It's decked out with everything. Treadmills, weights, ellipticals, those gymnastic ring thingies, you name it."

"Nice." Valerie said "I mostly just fly around the park and set up old soup cans to shoot out of trees. And curl some dumbells I found in a closet. I mean sure, we couldn't keep vanity, but we kept the box of weights my dad hasn't touched in a decade." Valerie sighed and rested her chin on her hand "I suppose I should be thankful, though. At least that gives me something to strength train with."

Sam seemed to think carefully before speaking.

"You...could come too, if you want to Valerie. To train, I mean."

"Really?" Valerie said.

"Sure." Sam shrugged "If you're going to be regularly fighting ghosts with us, then you should be in the best shape you can be."

"Yeah, I definitely noticed ghost fights were a lot less strenuous after Sam and I started working out regularly." Tucker said "I'm honestly surprised the first few attacks didn't kill me. Running from ghosts is hard work. And the more work-out buddies you have, the funner it is! Right Sam?"

"Sure." Sam smirked "Maybe Valerie'll actually be able to keep up with me on the treadmill."

"Hey!" Tucker said "It's not my fault you cheat!"

"Tucker, I've been running on that things regularly for years. That's not 'cheating'."

"I'd call a multi-year headstart cheating." Tucker said indignantly.

He suddenly frowned.

"Aw dang, I forgot, it's Cleaning Day at my house."

"Cleaning day?" Valerie raised an eyebrow.

"It sounds fake, but it's very real." Danny said grimly. "They do it every month. I'm not allowed to come over Tucker's on Foley Cleaning Day."

"You don't escape Foley Cleaning Day." Tucker confirmed "My folks are usually very nice and normal people, but if I'm not home in fifteen minutes, they might actually kill me.

"Oh wow, your parents really go hard for cleaning, huh?" Valerie glanced awkwardly at Sam "Well, I guess we can train together another time or whatever."

"What? No, it's fine. We can work out, just the two of us." Sam's face fell a little as if she only just realized what exactly she was signing up for.

"Oh, okay." Valerie seemed genuinly surprised that Sam hadn't cancelled. "Yeah, sure. That'd be...cool."

"Yup." Sam said "Totally cool."

Tucker and Danny watched the awkward exchange, completely unsure what to do.

"Welp," Danny stood up quickly "I'd better get going."

Everyone else stood up and followed him out of the booth. Both groups split up once they were outside The Nasty Burger, Sam and Valerie heading to Sam's house, and Danny and Tucker heading to their own homes.

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"They'll...be okay. Right?" Danny said after he and Tucker had been walking for a bit.

"Sam and Valerie?" Tucker raised an eyebrow at Danny "Why wouldn't they be?"

"I don't think Sam's exactly Valerie's biggest fan."

"Aw, come on Danny. That was just one particular...incident that they talked out. Sure, they might not be BFFs or anything, but they've gotten along fine in ghost fights and stuff since then."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Danny said.

"Besides, if Sam had a problem hanging out with Valerie alone, you know she would not hesitate to say so."

"That is very true." Danny laughed.

"Uh, speaking of Valerie though..."

"What's up with Valerie?"

"Nothing's up with her, I was...kind of thinking about asking her out."

"Really?" Danny smiled "Well good. it's about time! I mean, you've liked her for-"

"Alright, alright, knock it off!"

Danny frowned.

"What's the matter with you?"

"What? A guy can't request that people don't tease him about his love life?"

"It's not that, Tuck. You just don't usually mind teasing this much."

"I'm just kind of nervous about it. Asking Valerie out, I mean."

"What? But you've asked out tons of girls. This technically isn't even the first time you've asked Valerie out."

"This is different."

"How?"

Tucker adjusted his back pack straps.

"Because I'd actually care if she turned me down."

"Oh."

There was a brief pause while Danny processed what Tucker had said.

"So you like, actually like-like her, huh?"

"Yeah, Valerie's really cool. And a good friend. Like, when I asked all those girls out to the dance, I just wanted a date, you know? I mean, it wouldn't be the end of the world or anything if she did say 'no', but it would hit a little harder than getting rejected by a girl I barely know."

"Yeah, that's definitely understandable."

They walked in silence for a few seconds.

"Hey, would you mind not mentioning any of this to Sam?" Tucker asked.

"Sam already knows you have a crush on Valerie, you're kind of super obvious dude."

"No, I mean don't tell her I'm asking Valerie out. I'm nervous enough as it is. I don't need Sam making fun of me."

"She wouldn't make fun of you for this."

"She's been teasing me about Valerie since day one."

"Okay true, but if she knew how important this was to you I'm sure she wouldn't."

"Maybe, but I still don't want to tell her just yet, okay?"

Danny frowned.

"You want to keep this a secret from Sam?"

"Just until after I actually ask Valerie out." Tucker said "And then I'll tell Sam. And I will ask her out soon."

Sam was one of Tucker's best friends. The fact that he wanted to keep something like this from her didn't sit well with Danny, even if it was just for a tiny bit.

"Okay, what's up with you two?"

"What do you mean?"

"It feels like you've been at each other's throats for months. And it's beyond friendly banter. I don't know what's going on, but it feels like something happened between you two that you refuse to talk about."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, dude." Tucker said.

Danny wasn't satisfied, but they had arrived at his house, and Danny knew Tucker needed to be home soon. He'd just have to interrogate him another day.

"If you say so." Danny relented "But maybe consider talking to Sam if there's something you're not telling me. Anyway, this is my stop. See you tomorow. Have fun cleaning." Danny started up the steps.

"You know I won't."

"And good luck with Valerie!" Danny called.

Tucker let out a strangled noise as Danny shut the door behind him.

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The walk back to Sam's house was painfully silent.

Despite her initial (admittedly hostile) reaction to Valerie, the two of them had gotten along just fine with each other the past few weeks.

Not great, not bad, just fine.

Outside of ghost fights, Sam and Valerie barely said a word to each other. Not maliciously, it was more that neither of them could really figure out what to say to the other.

They worked together well enough in combat, but Sam found there was an awkwardness between them that wasn't there with Danny or Tucker.

An awkwardness that was definitely here now.

"Welp, this is my place." Sam said, not looking to see Valerie's reaction. Since her dad worked security for the Mansons, Valerie already knew Sam's family was rich, but Sam still couldn't help feeling a little self-conscious.

"Not bad." Valerie said as she looked over the giant house.

The Manson's house brought up some mixed feelings in Valerie. Not too long ago, she'd been living in a house that size. Now she and her dad lived in an apartment and had to share a bathroom.

That being said, Valerie was thankful that her dad had found a better apartment for them after he'd gotten a decent job. And this one was a lot closer to Valerie's school.

But still, she missed the home she grew up in.

Sam led Valerie inside and down a set of stairs to the basement gym.

Valerie looked around, clearly impressed. The space was as decked out as Tucker had said. The Manson's home gym might have been mistaken for a public gym, if it wasn't for the fact that the equipment was only set up for one or two people to use at a time.

Sam took Valerie around the space and gave her the basic rundown. Valerie actually seemed to already have some familiarity with fitness equipment, and once the tour was done she went to inspect the rack of weighted plates.

Sam took a breath. She figured she should at least try to start up some kind of friendly conversation with Valerie. Just to try to break the ice.

"Hey uh, nice job out there today." Sam said "Ember doesn't com around a lot, but she's a pretty tough ghost. You did good." Sam hoped she didn't sound as awkward as she felt.

"Thanks. You too. Hey, how'd you know that guy with the boat?"

"Arnie? My grandma plays cards with him sometimes."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Sam wanted to keep talking, but she didn't know what to say next. What should she talk about? Sam barely knew anything about Valerie. What was she even interested in outside of ghost hunting?

The silence had been stretching on too long and Sam's scrambled brain landed on the thing she'd most recently learned about Valerie.

"So," Sam said "Back at The Nasty Burger. That was cool. When you told us you were bi, I mean."

"Yeah?" Valerie's tone was hard to read.

Maybe that had been a bad topic choice. Where was Sam supposed to go with that?

A lightbulb went off in Sam's head; she could tell Valerie she was aromantic! This was perfect! An exchange of similar information to establish mutual trust and connection.

"I find that kind of funny since-"

"What? Why?" Valerie's face hardened and she gripped the ten-kilogram disc in front of her like a shield.

Sam realized with horror the way Valerie thought she might've been about to end that sentence.

Operation improve-tense-relationship-with-Valerie was going just fantastic.

"I just meant that I kind of run on the opposite end of the spectrum." Sam said.

"What'd you mean?" Valerie asked.

"I'm like reverse bi. I don't like anybody." Sam internally facepalmed. 'Reverse bi'? Did she just seriously say that?

"Well, that's not exactly shocking."

"I meant romantically." It took all of Sam's willpower to avoid tacking 'you idiot' onto the end of that sentence.

Maybe she should just go back to being enemies with Valerie. It would be a lot easier (and a lot less painful) than her attempt at friendship so far.

"Like you're aromantic? That would be pretty on-brand for you." Valerie grinned.

Sam felt her heart stop.

"Wait, you know what aromantisism is?"

"Yeah, I was on a bi forum and someone mentioned it."

"Okay, that's really cool," Sam smiled "But why was someone talking about aromantisism on a bi forum?"

"I think the poster was both. Like, they were aromantic and bi."

"You can be both?"

"Yeah. I guess there's actually, like, a couple different kinds of attractions, so some people are more than one thing. That was a pretty neat rabbit hole I got sucked into."

"Huh. Didn't know that. That's interesting. Are you more than one thing?"

"Nah. It was just neat to read about. You?"

Sam considered this.

"Nah. Just aromantic feels pretty right."

"Rad. Recent discovery for you?"

"Yeah. Just figured it out on that trip we took last weekend. Had a weird conversation that made some things clear."

"Heh, been there."

"With the bi thing?"

"Hm? Oh, nah, I figured that one out pretty early on, so it's always felt...normal, I guess. But recently I have been thinking about some other things, and...well, I'm not really sure, but I think I might be demi."

"What's that?"

"I don't think I can really like someone in a romantic way if I'm not close with them first. Like, they have to be a friend first."

"Really?" Sam raised an eyebrow "But I've seen you go to a few dances with people you don't really hang out with, and didn't you say you had a crush on Cinderella? Cuz I feel like you weren't personal friends with Brandy Norwood as a kid."

"Well, it's...I don't really know how to explain it, but crushes with fictional characters are...different."

"Huh. Okay."

"But that wouldn't make me less demi!"

"Oh, yeah, no, for sure." Sam said earnestly.

Valerie paused, taken aback by the lack of challenge from Sam.

"...So that makes sense to you?"

"Not really, if I'm being honest." Sam shrugged "But in my experience, the way you feel doesn't have to make sense. It just...is."

"Huh." Valerie said "That's pretty deep."

"Read that on a forum I found the other day." Sam said "So, did you like Kwan? I remember you two were going to go to the last dance together before- well, you know." Kwan had ditched Valerie at the last second and she'd ended up going with Tucker as a last resort. "To be honest, the whole going-to-the-dance with someone always confused me. I never got why it was such a big deal to go alone."

"I mean, going to the dance with someone is more about status. You don't really need to like your date, you just need to prove you're desirable. I may have been willing to go to a dance with Kwan, but I definitely don't like him that way. He's kind of nice, but he's also a total idiot who just goes along with what people tell him to do."

"I despise people like that." Sam glowered.

"But I did have to go with someone, and he asked me, and we were both part of the popular crowd, so you know. I mean, going with someone unpopular was preferable to going alone, but it's better to go with someone popular and not risk being too associated with the socially undesirable."

"This is legitimately how you thought about things?" Sam rubbed her temples "I'm getting tired just listening to you. Uh, no offense."

"None taken. Honestly, you're not wrong. It's actually a huge relief to not be caught in that mindset anymore. Turns out the only other people who really cared in the first place were the other popular kids. Ironically, it was the people I called my friends who were enforcing the idea that I constantly needed to keep up that 'socially acceptable' image. And I never considered how messed up that was for even a second!"

Valerie's knuckles turned white. She noticed this and put the plate she was clutching back on the rack.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to get into all that."

"What? No, it's fine. Paulina and her crew are vultures. I totally understand."

"Do you? Cuz Like, no offence, but you three never seemed to be bothered by this stuff. Especially not you. You just say and do whatever you want and you don't care what people think about you. I wish I was more like you."

"You...do?" Sam was genuinely surprised to hear that. She never thought she'd hear anyone say that, least of all Valerie Gray.

"Yeah. You never hold back so people will like you. If I was more like you, maybe I wouldn't have wasted so much time with all that 'popular kid' nonsense. Hunting ghosts with you three and keeping Amity Park safe is the most fulfilled I've ever felt in my life. If I hadn't spent so much time caught up in my own self importance, I could've found people I actually trusted way sooner, and it makes me so angry that I didn't. I mean, it wasn't like my life was terrible or anything. My dad's great and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy all the shopping sprees and tennis lessons, but I could've been a much better person so much earlier and I wasn't. I hate that. I hate that it took almost dying and losing everything for me to start caring about things that actually mattered."

Sam was stunned by how raw Valerie's words were. She had always seemed so self-assured. In Sam's mind, Valerie in a way seemed above such angst.

Of course now Sam realized that was kind of ridiculous. Valerie, however well she carried herself, was still human, and just as susceptible to human fear and doubt as anyone else.

"Well...you're here now." Sam said "So that's gotta count for something."

"But I could've- should've gotten 'here' earlier. I mean," Valerie gestured around the room "You were raised with the same financial status as me, and you didn't turn out to be a total self-absorbed snob."

"I mean, I'm not perfect either, I can be kind of self-absorbed sometimes." Sam scratched the back of her head "And honestly...sometimes I think the only reason I do a lot of the 'good' things I do is just because I to end up being like my parents."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I spent years watching them putting on fancy outfits and fake smiles and bending over backwards just so the right people would like them. And not even for anything. There was no goal or greater purpose for their stupid charade. They wasted so much time nitpicking their appearances just to be whatever the adult version of 'the popular kids' is. And I was just an accessory to only let me wear these awful frilly pink dresses, and they'd always laugh at me whenever I brought up certain serious things they didn't want to think about. They were always trying to force me into this stupid mould just to impress some idiots who didn't even care about us. My mom actually tried to bleach my hair when I was seven."

"Oh." Valerie's eyes widened in horror "That's...really messed up."

Sam felt herself shaking a little.

She didn't often talk about this stuff in detail, even to Danny and Tucker. She wasn't sure they'd really get it. They thought it was cool that Sam was rich and could just 'buy whatever she wanted'. Sure, there were definitely perks to her life, but Sam often wondered if it was worth the annoyances she had to put up with everyday.

Sure, she'd learned how to deal with her parents constant criticisms and occasional yelling, and she'd gotten pretty good at fighting back and channeling her anger into productivity as she'd gotten older, but even after all this time her parents' behaviour still wore at her.

So once Sam had started talking, she found it difficult to stop. To her surprise, Valerie did actually seem understanding towards Sam's situation, but Sam wasn't sure how she felt exposing this much of herself to someone she didn't know that well.

Sure, she'd wanted to get to know Valerie better, but this was a bit too much at once.

Sam needed to lighten things up a little.

"It's actually a funny story." she continued "That incident's actually why my mom started wearing gloves. I fought her with all the ferocity a seven-year-old could, and ended up biting her wrist so it left a mark for a week."

Sam laughed as she finished her story. Valerie laughed too, but it was stilted.

Maybe that story wasn't as funny as Sam had always thought...

"It wasn't a total sob story," Sam hurriedly switched topics "I had my grandma. She was always nice. And really funny. She always made faces behind my parents back when they were ranting at me, and she let me try her champagne at one of the stupid galas my parents forced me to go to. It was pretty gross." Sam smiled at the memory "Lots of kids with bad parents don't have someone like her in their lives, so I really could've had it a lot worse. Not to mention how handy it is to be able to finance some of our ghost hunting endeavours."

"Still though..." Valerie said.

Sam frowned. The amount of pity in Valerie's voice made her feel weird. Yeah, her childhood had been kind of rough, but it wasn't that rough...

She wasn't sure how she felt about Valerie's reaction. Or about sharing so much with Valerie in the first place. Or about what Valerie had shared with her.

They'd covered a lot of ground in such a short conversation. It had felt kind of good, and Sam had managed to ease some of the tension between her and Valerie, but now she was feeling pretty drained emotionally. She needed a break from deep conversation.

"So yeah, I learned very early on that all that pomp and ceremony was pointless, and there was no point in torturing yourself for approval that isn't real love anyway." Sam quickly summarized "Anyway, I'm gonna work on some pull-up exercises. You end up having to do so much more climbing than you'd expect when ghost hunting. Well, those of us that can't fly, anyway. Be careful if you're gonna use the barbell. It's easy to overdo it."

"Yeah, don't worry. This isn't my first rodeo."

"Good." Sam nodded as she headed to the pull-up bar.

The two of them spent the next hour exercising in near silence.

Sam watched Valerie pick out some weights for the barbell while she held herself up on the pull-up bar.

She hadn't meant for things to go that deep, and she had a feeling Valerie neither did Valerie.

A few months ago Sam had written Valerie off as another one of Paulina's airhead friends, and now here they were baring their souls to each other.

And it had been so effortless.

She'd only known Valerie for a short time, but she'd just gone full force into subjects she barely touched with Danny or Tucker.

Valerie was so different from them. Maybe that was it. She understood what feeling pressured to keep up appearances was like. Danny had never had the option with his parents' reputation following him everywhere, and Tucker had no qualms hanging out with the nerds, openly carrying his PDA everywhere, and constantly quoting Star Trek. He was a full blown geek and he never seemed to feel the need to try and hide it.

Sam didn't either, but they didn't know what it was like having a constant presence in your life trying to force you to be something you're not.

And she'd had no idea it'd feel this way to have someone understand what that was like.

Sam was so caught up in her thoughts she didn't notice Valerie was finishing up putting her weights away.

"Whew!" Valerie wiped her forehead with her arm "That was way better than my dad's old hand weights! I should probably get going now, though. Thanks for having me."

"Sure." Sam dropped down from the bar "Hey, feel free to drop by anytime. Seriously, even if I'm not around you can still use the gym."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Ghost hunters gotta keep in shape. The same invitation's open to Tucker, but he never uses it. Don't know why. Personally, I love burning off steam down here."

"I'll...keep that in mind." Valerie smiled "Thanks."

"No problem. You, uh, need me to show you the way out?"

"Nah, I'm good. I remember." Valerie said, grabbing her backpack. She stopped at the foot of the stairs. "Your gym's pretty cool. And...I enjoyed our conversation. Earlier."

"Yeah," Sam scratched the back of her head "Me too."

Valerie smiled.

"Well, see you later Sam." she said as she headed up the stairs.

Sam waited until she was sure Valerie was gone. Once she couldn't hear her footsteps anymore, Sam flopped down on the weight bench and let out a breath.

Truthfully, she was a little relieved Valerie was finally gone, but some part of her was looking forward to hanging out with Valerie in the future.

"It's progress, I suppose." Sam said to the empty room.

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

Valerie wasn't sure how to feel about what had just happened.

She'd assumed Sam had only invited her to her gym to be polite. It genuinely surprised her when Sam had actually agreed to hang out with her alone. It wasn't like she thought Sam hated her, or vice versa. They got along just fine in ghost fights, but Valerie had gotten the impression Sam didn't exactly want to be BFFs from their...tumultuous first meeting.

But Valerie had somehow ended ended up spilling her guts to Sam, and Sam had done the same. That was truly shocking.

Then again, Valerie had kind of done the same with Tucker and Danny on separate occasions. Valerie wasn't the kind of person to hold her tongue, but she hadn't really shared such deep parts of herself with her old friends. And yet she did so so easily with those three.

It was a little scary how open she found herself being with her new friends.

Were they friends?

Sure they fought ghosts together, and they always invited her to hang out with them afterwards, but Valerie had been pretty sure that the A-listers were her friends, and they-

Valerie shook her head.

No, her new friends weren't anything like her old 'friends'. She felt comfortable with Tucker, Danny, and even Sam in a way she never had with Dash, Paulina, and any of the others.

It was a good thing that she could open up to Danny, Tucker, and Sam, she told herself. That meant her relationship with them was better than the A-Listers.

Strange and different, but better.

"Hey Dad!" Valerie called as she opened their apartment door "I'm home!"

"Hey Sweetheart!" her Dad "Did you have fun with your friends?"

"Yeah." She said "I did. We hung out by the wharf for a while and then went to The Nasty Burger."

"The wharf? Heh, you teenagers sure like hanging out in the strangest of places."

"It's nice." Valerie said defensively "It's...you know...peaceful. Anyway, how was work?"

[five-rivers]

Jack-o-Lantern

Exhumed was the second winner of my poll, so here's a fairly short, fluffy piece for it!

Warning: mentions of dead bodies and past violence, none actually shown 'on screen.'

.

“Detective Patterson,” said Danny, “why did you leave five messages on my phone on a school day?” After the whole ‘I’ve been sort of dead for a couple years and also I get into massive amounts of trouble all the time through no fault of my own’ revelation, his parents had gotten the whole family cell phones.

Danny still generally preferred talking to people face to face, but he was definitely developing a slight addiction to cell phone charms.

“You didn’t listen to any of them?”

“Why would I do that when I can just call you?”

He heard a loud groan from the other side of the line.

“Oh, is Detective Collins there, too?”

“You heard that?” asked Patterson. “That’s- Okay, Collins. I’m getting there. I know we’re in a hurry. Look, how fast can you get here, Fenton?”

“That depends entirely on where you are and which one of me you want. Also, can Sam and Tucker come? We were going to hang out.”

There was a sort of staticky blaat from the other side, and the skritch skritch cha of a phone being moved, accompanied by unintelligible arguing. “Did you really just ask if you can bring your friends to what might be a crime scene?”

“Is it a crime scene?” asked Danny.

“Not yet,” said Collins.

“So?” prompted Danny. “Can I bring them?”

“You don’t respect us at all anymore, do you?”

“I respect you plenty,” said Danny, “but I like hanging out with my friends, I’m doing this for free, and there aren’t any explosions where you are.”

“You tell him, Danny,” said Sam, giving him a little fist bump, even though she was mostly watching Tucker play bootleg Tetris on his PDA.

“Just because there aren’t explosions doesn’t mean there isn’t anything dangerous,” argued Collins.

“Sure,” said Danny. “But it isn’t like they aren’t in danger all the time anyway. Ghosts attack the school, like, daily.”

“That is a terrible argument.”

“But true,” countered Danny.

“Fine, they can come. Just get here quickly.”

“I would, but you know, you still haven’t told me where you are.”

.

Danny, when touching down in a nearby alleyway, didn’t see anything particularly out of the usual. For Amity Park, that was. Except that no one was out on the streets, and there were several police cars. Still, that could be for anything. Normal things, even.

Except, they had called him.

“You don’t think it’s a dead body, do you?” he asked. “I mean, I don’t really want to see a dead body…”

“If there’s a dead body, I’ll be throwing up on you,” said Tucker, who had, as a matter of fact, been icy calm when faced with Danny’s body the first time around, and had only had a breakdown the next day. “Just, you know, as revenge. Between friends.”

“They did say it wasn’t a crime scene, right?” asked Sam.

“Yeah,” said Danny. He returned to human form. This way, he didn’t have to worry as much about people connecting Sam and Tucker to Phantom… although, that might be a lost cause. He had seen that ‘who is the ghost boy dating’ article a while back.

“So, there probably aren’t any bodies,” she said, reasonably.

“Right,” said Danny. “That makes sense. I think they were this way.”

The street they walked onto was heavily decorated for Halloween. There were skeletons and streamers, blow up monsters, orange and purple lights, spiderwebs, black cat statuettes, blood splatters, houses that almost looked really abandoned, except for the neat lawns… The neighborhood had really gone to town, especially given that this particular town was Amity Park.

Of course, there were also dozens upon dozens of jack-o-lanterns. They were lit, too, which was odd in the daytime, flickering with rainbow colors. Maybe someone was doing a Pride event?

His core chilled slightly, and a thin stream of mist emerged from between his lips. “Oh,” he said, delighted.

“Hi, Danny,” said Patterson, briskly walking over to him from where she and Collins had been observing the street. “We got the call a few hours ago, apparently a bunch of little ghosts have infes- Uh. Gone into all the Halloween decorations here.”

“Were you about to say ‘infested?’”

“Maybe,” said Patterson. “Sorry.”

“Apology accepted, please continue.”

“Anyway, after the whole ghost invasion thing where we got sent to the shadow realm-”

“Nightmare Realm,” corrected Tucker. “The Shadow Realm is completely different.”

“I was making a Yu Gi Oh reference,” said Patterson. “But people are sensitive to this kind of thing.”

“Have they done anything yet?” asked Danny.

“No, but we’ve issued an advisory,” said Collins, finally joining them. “Do you know why they’re here? Or how to get rid of them?”

“There’s not really any reason to get rid of them,” said Danny. “Wisps are mostly harmless. Here, I’ll show you.” He jogged over to the nearest jack-o-lantern and waved the others over.

“Hey, is this the best idea?” asked Tucker. “Aren’t these the guys who accidentally drugged you?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” said Danny. “We’ve moved past that.” He knocked on the top of the pumpkin, and several wisps flew out, happily whirling around Danny. “See? They’re just little guys.”

“Great,” said Collins, “why are they here?”

“Uh, because they were invited, basically?” said Danny. “They’re will-o-the-wisps. And these are jack-o-lanterns. They’re, uh, originally, both of those were names for the same thing, and jack-o-lanterns are supposed to ward off evil spirits and represent good spirits, or house good spirits, and stuff, so…” Danny gestured vaguely.

“This is going to be a city wide thing, isn’t it?” asked Collins.

“Probably,” said Danny. “I mean, wisps are basically all over the place. They’re good little guys.”

Collins placed his hands in front of his face like he was praying. “And if the GIW come after them?”

That would be bad. Danny felt himself bristling.

“The GIW are dumb enough that we could convince them they’re just candles, as long as no one told them otherwise,” said Sam.

“Maybe sow the idea a little bit beforehand,” said Tucker. “Put an ad out for rainbow tealights, maybe?”

Collins looked at them, unamused. “And we’re going to be the ones doing most of that ‘convincing,’ aren’t we?”

“You are the adults,” said Sam, shrugging.

Danny felt himself tearing up. “You guys are the best friends,” he said.

“Oh no,” said Tucker, eyes wide. “It’s happening again.”

“What, what’s happening?” asked Patterson.

Sam pulled Danny away from the wisps. “Wisps are great,” she said, “but they can overcharge other ghosts.”

“In other words, they make Danny high,” explained Tucker.

“I’m not high this time,” protested Danny. “I can’t be grateful for good friends?”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” said Danny.

“Right,” said Collins. “Well, we’re going to give you a ride home. Patterson, you get to explain to the Fentons what happened.”

“What, why do I have to tell them that ghost drugs are a thing?”

“Because I had to tell them about the time his arm came off.”

“I still don’t get why you’re so upset about that,” said Danny, “I put it back on, like, a minute later.”

“That is, in fact, part of why we’re upset.”

“I don’t get you guys.”

[yetanothergreyjedi]

What We Might've Been: Part 2

Part 1 Part 1.5

Part 3

Inspired by @liminalhollow 's Spork AU

For @dargeon-lissa @dp-marvel94 @aethtalon

...

“I- Uh- I’m not you- I-“ Danny racked his brain for an explanation that wouldn’t immediately get him killed. He'd entered the ghost's haunt. How had his room become a ghosts haunt?! But the thing didn't attack, didn't possess him, or use some mind altering power. It only tipped its head and watched him flounder for words. It seemed to notice it’s disguise slipping. The light in its eyes faded, leaving behind a dead grey-blue.

It sighed, "Did Vlad do this?"

"W-what?"

"Vlad Masters. Did he do this?"

"Why would Dad's creepy friend send me to the future?" He still didn't think it was the future, ghosts could have some crazy powers but that? No.

"Because he's a fruitloop." It answered immediately, and accurately, the guy from Wisconsin wouldn't leave his mom alone. But why, how, could he have anything to do with this?! The thing stopped, its eyes flashed green again for a moment as it said, "Wait- Future?!"

Danny nodded, he'd barely been sure what was happening but he was certain that's was what the ghost had said. Surely one ghost's explanation would be more accepted than the other?

“Where’s your medallion then?”

“My what?”

“Clockwork’s medallion. I know how time travel works."

Danny opened his mouth, then closed it. Ignoring the utterly bizarre statement. This was a trap, a trick. The ghost masquerading as him either wanted the object for itself or it wanted to remove his only protection against the other one, the one that had frozen him in place without seeming to expend a drop of energy. No, no, it couldn't have it. But there weren't many other options. He should've known better than to bring up the time question! He needed to get out of here!

He threw the first thing he could reach, hoping to catch it off guard and ran towards it— Through it, even better. He sprinted down the stairs. There was a flash of bight light behind him, he dodged low, almost throwing himself down the stairs before he realized nothing had been fired.

"Whoa, hang on!" Its voice echoed in a way it hadn't before. He kept running, not wasting a moment to glance at it, and ran directly into someone.

"Whoa! Hey, Dann-o! You came outa—"

"Ghost! In my room!" His dad didn't miss a beat, the gun was up by the time he finished the word 'ghost' and he was firing by time the sentence was over.

The specter dodged the first blast, made a shield for the second and paused to speak, "So not cool, man!"

His mom heard the commotion and joined the fray, while Danny sprinted to the basement. He needed a weapon, that thing had been mimicking him. He barreled into the lab, to the weapons case. Opened it and—

Crash.

He barely jumped back in time to avoid getting crushed.

What?!

Who filled the case with all this junk?!? The case was the second most important piece of the lab (the portal took first), not even Dad wouldn't do this?!

"Danny?" Sam looked at him from the other end of the room, slightly baffled. Tucker was also staring. "Did you bring it?"

"Bring wha—"

"Dude, what's with the jumpsuit?" Tucker cut him off, "Is it really that dangerous? I thought you said you blasted it?"

"What? We talked about the jumpsuit!"

"Did we?" Tucker looked to Sam.

"No." She affirmed.

"Could you explain it again, then?"

"Its cause of all the ghosts..." Danny said slowly, they should know this, he'd been wearing them since the first ghost attacks... Suspicion crossed both his friend's features.

There was a long pause, the pair shared a look and Sam demanded, "Secret word."

"Uh, what?"

"What's the secret word." Tucker clarified, as if that clarified anything.

"What are you guys- Hey! Whoa!" Three ectoguns were now pointed at him, Sam with twin wrist blasters and Tucker with a laser-y thing that had come out of his PDA (When did he do that? It was a very good idea).

"Who are you?" Said Sam.

"Is Vlad cloning again?" Asked Tucker.

"What? No! I mean I don't know! I'm not impersonating me, the ghost upstairs is impersonating me!"

"Nice try. Now answer."

"Uh... Sam?" Tucker was focused on the PDA screen. She glanced at him, quickly, before focusing back on Danny. She'd used these before, not like Sam... His Sam, who avoided any involvement with ghost hunting, who refused to accept that they were just monsters. "His scans are weird..."

"What kind of weird?"

"He's a level 2.5." Tucker switched to a whisper.

"What?" Sam followed suit, "That's too low for a shapeshifter."

"Uh... that's normal..." Danny lied, well kind of. He normally was a level 1.3 but he'd also just been in a ghost's lair (two lairs if you counted not-future-him's bedroom) and had a ghostly artifact in his pocket. Those things were likely to temporarily raise an ectosignature's power rating. He was 76% sure.

Another pause, Sam tried to gesture something while still aiming, there were some whispers he didn't catch. Then Tucker asked, "Did Vlad... raise you?"

"No!? Why does everyone keep talking about Vlad?! The Fruitloop lives in Wisconsin, I've seen him maybe twice!" The pair shared another look. He had no idea how to read those expressions.

He sighed, "You guys won't believe me."

"Try us."

"Yesterday I was at the—"

"Guys! We have a problem!" His hair stood on end as the ghost dropped through the ceiling. Danny shuttered. It was so much worse now that he got a look at it, it was wearing a Fenton hazmat suit, his suit, no, a mockery of it. The colors were inverted and the FentonWorks logo was replaced with some other symbol. That wasn’t the only thing inverted, twisted, he was staring at his own face only not. It’s tintless white hair stuck up just like his, and it’s eyes burned deadly ectoplasm green. Danny still didn’t have a weapon. “Oh, you found him! We have slightly less of a problem.”

“He’s saying Vlad has nothing to do with this... I’m not sure if I believe him.” Sam lowered her blasters, because he was somehow more of a threat than the monster crackling with unused power.

“Yeah, no... he said something about time travel—“ both of his friends groaned, “Then! He sicced my parents on me,” It turned his attention to him, “which is rude by the way! Honestly, I was getting close to being able to ask about a truce, but now they’re gonna be chasing me around for ‘attacking their son!”

“Oof,” Tucker added, as Sam asked about something the ghost could do to get his parents back on his side. Danny stopped listening and scanned for something useful in the pile of discarded machinery. Weapon, weapon, weapon... this wasn’t promising. There were blenders and half disassembled watches and a few things that looked like they’d been pulled out of a trash fire. The thing that looked the least like junk was probably a scanner, but his parents had started putting tasers in those, so it was something.

“Hey,” too late. the ghost was in front of him, he dove for it. Grabbed it. Rolled with the momentum and brought the scanner up as he got to a kneeling position. The thing came to life with a whirring sound.

The ghost laughed, the sound lasted longer than it’s mouth had been open, “That’s the ghost Gabber.”

“That’s the Ghost Gabber. I am a ghost, fear me!”

“Look, I don’t know what’s up with you, but really it’s better for everyone if you go back to whatever time you’re from.”

“Look, I don’t know what’s up with you, but really it’s better for everyone if you go back to whatever time you’re from. Fear me.”

“Could you please turn that off.”

“Could you plea—“ The sound died as Danny flipped the switch and tossed it back on the pile. Why did his parents even make that?

“Why should I trust you, Ghost?!”

[q-gorgeous]

Phantom Hunting

Prompt: Danny, Sam, and Tucker go ghost hunting in an abandoned house, but find themselves biting off more than they can chew. (PR235) by @library-of-cronos

Word Count: 1954

ao3

ffn

look another one you guys

There were legends about the house on Raven Road in the city of Adamsville, Wisconsin. About how the ghost would attack any person who trespassed inside the building, how territorial it was. Only one or two people had ever been able to talk to the ghost and make it out unscathed. Danny had thought this would be the perfect place to go ghost hunting. There was only one thing. 

The house was empty. The ghost from all those legends was no longer there. 

“This blows. What happened to the ghost that’s supposed to be living here?” Sam said as she pushed aside a dusty curtain and looked out through the front window. “When were all these stories from anyways?”

Tucker squinted at his PDA. “It looked like the last recorded sighting of this ghost was in the late 70s. After an army of men in white suits stormed the town.”

“What?” Danny said, turning to face Tucker. 

“Yeah.” Tucker scrolled down. “This newspaper clipping says that one day all these guys showed up and eradicated the town’s ghost population. Only a few made it out.” 

“The GIW have been around since the 70s?” Sam asked. “They didn’t seem to know what they were doing when we met them the first time. How have they been an established organization that long?” 

“Forget the GIW, what happened to all the ghosts?” Danny said. “This town was full of ghosts bound to it, a lot of them couldn’t have just left.”

“Unless they were taken.” Tucker said quietly. 

The three of them headed back into town. They went asking around about what had happened when the GIW stormed the town. Many of the townsfolk were apprehensive to talk about it but they all said the same things. That ghosts lived among the humans with their loved ones before the ghost raid, the town was filled with them. One person gave them a more detailed story though. 

An army of white suited men had rushed into town. They had captured almost all the ghosts. Some had gotten away, but both ghosts and humans had disappeared that day. Some they had never seen again. 

There was one ghost that they believed still resided in the town, even through the raid. The one in the abandoned house on Hollow Road. Its address wasn’t on any maps and no one had seen any of the white suited men go down that old dirt road, so they had assumed the ghost that lived there had been left alone. That it had been the last one that still resided in town, though no one had wanted to check. 

The house on Raven Road was your typical “right of passage” to adulthood that every teenager went through in this town. But ever since the ghost disappeared, there were no other houses they were willing to sneak into to get that adrenaline rush. The house on Hollow Road was rumored to be that dangerous. 

But that was where Danny, Sam, and Tucker were headed right now. 

“I wonder why the ghosts that were living here seem to be so different from the ghosts in Amity Park.” Sam said as she looked over Tucker’s shoulder at the notes on his PDA. “The ghosts in Amity Park are a lot more volatile, but they’re not bound anywhere. From what the townsfolk said, there are ghosts that were bound to specific locations here, that couldn’t leave even if they wanted to.”

“I mean.” Danny started as he kicked a rock in his path. “Technically we’ve seen that already with Sidney. He was stuck in his own purgatory in the ghost zone.”

“But he got out eventually.” Tucker said. “He wasn’t bound to it forever. Maybe he didn’t ever really think about leaving until you showed up. Maybe he could’ve left anytime before that if he really wanted to.”

They walked up to the end of the dirt road and looked up at the old, faded street sign. The dirt road was so overgrown with weeds, grass, and wildflowers that if the sign hadn’t been there, they wouldn’t have ever expected a road to be hiding underneath. “Maybe it was the way the ghosts died that plays a part in it.” Sam said as they started pushing their way through the plants. “It seemed like most of the ghosts in this town were family members of the humans living here, so maybe they didn’t need to have a horrible death to stick around and that’s what binds them here.”

“But they could roam freely around town like the ghosts in Amity Park could.” Tucker countered. “But the ghosts that lived in the abandoned houses were bound to those buildings alone. They couldn’t go anywhere else. So what decides whether or not a ghost can roam or is bound to a place?” 

Danny takes Tucker’s PDA from him and starts writing down more of their new questions. “That’s what we’re here to figure out. Maybe if we can figure out how ghosts actually work, we can help them move on instead of fighting them all the time.”

“If that’s even possible.” Sam said. “We have such a weird mix of ghost science and the traditional idea of ghosts that we don’t know if it would even work on all of them.”

“Random thought.” Tucker said as he pushed through the last of the tall grass. “Could there be more than one type of ghost?”

Sam snorted. “What? A ghost’s a ghost.”

“Yeah but why are the traits that they have so wildly different from one region to the next? We’ve seen a whole civilization of ghost yetis in the ghost zone, could that not count as a whole separate species of ghost?”

“Maybe it makes a difference if a ghost was born to the zone? We know that can happen because of Box Lunch. They wouldn’t be bound to a human place if they weren’t born there.” 

“But we know ghosts in Amity Park who have died.” Danny points at himself as he walks up to the front door. “And they’re not bound to a place. But what is the difference?”

Sam walks up next to him. “That’s what we’re here to figure out right?” She turns the door knob and pushes the door open.

On the inside is a dusty, fallen apart living room. The furniture had holes and the curtains were ripped apart and shredded. As they walked along the floor, they kicked up debris and dirt. Tucker pulled the door shut behind them and it echoed through the house. 

They all stood still for a minute, waiting for anything to happen. Looking around for any sign of the ghost that was supposed to inhabit the house. Sam groaned.

“Is this another empty house? How are we gonna do any research if every house we go to is empty?”

“Sam, we haven’t even been in the house for five minutes yet. We should probably just look around first. It’s not like the ghost will just pop out at us as soon as we enter the door.”

“The last ghost was supposed to.”

“Sam-”

Danny walked away as Sam and Tucker started bickering with one another. He slowly walked down a short hallway and when he came out the other side there was a big staircase waiting for him at the center of the room. Between each baluster were cobwebs collecting dust and bugs. The walls all over this room were covered in scratch marks that went deep into the walls.

“Uh, Sam, Tucker?” Danny called over his shoulder. “You might want to come in here.”

They follow in behind him and Danny hears them gasp when they enter the room. Danny sees them looking around, their eyes following the scratch marks in the walls.

“What happened here?” Sam whispered.

“Where’s the ghost?” Tucker asked. 

A chill crawled up Danny’s spine. He squeezed his eyes shut and shivered and when he opened them back up, someone was standing at the top of the staircase. 

His eyes widen and he points at the top of the stairs. “Look, there’s the ghost.”

Both Sam and Tucker look up but their brows furrow. 

“Dude, there’s no one there.” Tucker said.

“What? No, he’s standing right there.”

“Danny, your ghost sense didn’t even go off.” Sam said, crossing her arms. “Don’t joke like that.”

“I’m not joking!” Danny said, pulling out his parent’s ghost tracker. “See, look-”

He turned it on and there was no trace of an ectoplasmic reading. 

Danny’s brows furrowed. “This can’t be right. He’s standing right up there. Staring at me.”

“Menacingly?” Tucker asked.

Danny shot him a look. 

“No ghost sense, no pickup on the tracker, are you sure you haven’t finally lost it?” Sam said.

“I haven’t-”

“W H E R E A R E T H E Y?!” 

A deep voice boomed throughout the whole house. It rattled the balusters on the stairs and the floorboards. The three of them covered their ears as they ducked, avoiding the dust falling from the ceiling. 

“What the fuck?” Sam shouted, her hands still over her ears. 

“W H E R E A R E T H E Y?!” 

“Where is the ghost now, Danny?” Tucker yelled. He stepped a little closer to Danny and Sam did the same.

“He’s still standing at the top of the stairs! He hasn’t even moved!”

New scratches started carving themselves into the walls and the building creaked. 

“W H A T D I D Y O U D O W I T H T H E M?!”

Danny pulled his hands away from his ears and looked back up at the ghost. “What?”

“Who is this ghost looking for?” Sam said as she grabbed onto Danny’s arm.

The entire building started rumbling, the cacophony coming to a crescendo as the ghost finally moved from the stairs and shot towards Danny’s face. He backed away from it, Sam and Tucker following. Their eyes were wide, darting all over the ghost’s face. It looked like they could finally see it. 

“W H A T D I D Y O U D O W I T H M Y C H I L D R E N?!”

The ghost's jaw unhinged and it swiped at them. Danny pushed the three of them out of the way and the wall behind them was knocked down. 

“Danny, I think it’s time to go!” Tucker shouted.

“Right!” Danny transformed and grabbed Sam and Tucker around their waists and flew into the air and through the walls. The ghost’s roars suddenly disappeared as they flew through the outer wall of the house, like it had never been there in the first place. 

“What the hell?” Sam shouted after Danny had dropped them in the grass. “Why didn’t that ghost set off your ghost sense? Or the tracker? Why couldn’t we see it?”

“What if it wasn’t even a ghost?” Tucker said, pacing through the dirt. “What if it was a demon? Do those exist?”

“I don’t know. Can demons have kids?” Danny asked.

“Ghosts can have kids and they’re dead.” Sam pointed out.

Danny sighed. “This didn’t really answer any of the questions we had. Now we just have even more.”

“I don’t know about you.” Tucker said as he started walking back down the overgrown road. “But I’m ready to get out of Wisconsin.”

“Ditto.” Danny and Sam said, following behind Tucker.

Another shiver crawled up Danny’s spine as he took one last look at the house. Through the window he could see a hand pressed against the glass. His stomach dropped and he turned back around. 

The feeling of dread would follow him all the way home.

[rinkunokoisuru]

Happy Holidays

Sorry it’s so late… Happy holiday truce @phantom-phoenixx !

"Dude, I am so ready for Christmas vacation to start. A few weeks with no classes is just what I need."

Danny smirked at Tucker from where he was sitting at his desk, "As if you pay attention in class anyway. You're always messing around on your PDA." "Hey!" Tucker exclaimed as he clutched his device to his chest, "Charlotta helps me take notes, thank you very much."

"Calm down, Tuck. It was just a joke."

"What has you so chipper lately anyway, Danny? I thought you hated the holiday season," Sam looked at him in bemusement from her place on the bedroom floor. Danny looked away in thought for a moment, "I guess after what happened last year with the Ghostwriter, I'm just glad to get some time where I don't have to worry about any random ghost attacks. And that gives me the added bonus of getting to hang out with you guys without dragging you into any ghost stuff."

The trio smiled softly at the idea of getting a break from their ghostly activities. It had been a long time since they had the chance to spend time together without having to expect some ghost or other to show up mid conversation. "Now come on!" cried Sam, " Help me pick which movie we're going to start with."

Sam gestured to the pile of DVDS laying on the floor in front of her. From Nightmerica to Resentment to The Forewarning and everything inbetween, the three teens had gathered as many horror flicks as they could find for a massive marathon of old favorites and movies they hadn't gotten to see due to their extracurricular spirit fighting. Danny and Tucker joined Sam by the mountain of movies and started sifting through it. After a few minutes of calling out titles and vetoing them, Tucker popped up with a realization.

"Snacks! We need snacks!"

"I must have forgotten them in the kitchen," Danny said, "If you're going to use the microwave, keep an eye out for anything my parents might have left behind. They're experimenting with edible ectoplasm again."

"Do I want to know why?"

Danny reached up and rubbed at his neck, eyes briefly darting from side to side, "It's, uh, not important."

"Why couldn't we just do this at Sam's house? She has a giant movie theater!"

Sam scoffed, "With my mother at home? As if she'd left us have a horror movie marathon while she's inviting all her friends over for parties."

Tucker pulled himself and Charlotta up from the floor, "I'll get the microwaved snacks then."

While the techno geek feigned shambling away in disappointment, the goth and the ghost stayed behind to continue looking through movies.

"Hey what about Trinity of Doom?" Danny held up the box featuring the deadly trio of Nightmerica, Terminatra, and Femalien, "I still feel bad that we never got to see it together when it came out."

"Oh, we're definitely going to be watching that one," Sam chuckled, "But are we sure it's the best one to start with?"

Danny shrugged, "I'll add it to the maybe stack then."

"Hey, do you hear something?"

"Sounds like grunting."

Suddenly, Tucker burst into the room, arms laden with all manner of sweet and salty treats, "I got the food."

"Holy!"

"Wow," Danny scurried over to take some of the load, "if I'd known you were getting this much stuff I would have helped you bring it up here.

"Hey, it's no problem. Your mom was down there to help me get it all together. She was mumbling something about ranch when I got down there, which was weird, but not anything new for your family."

"Ha, yeah."

"Oh!" Sam held up one of the DVD boxes above her head in triumph, "Given Danny's sudden acceptance of the holiday season, we have got to start with Dead Teacher: Ho-ho-horrible Christmas Vacation."

"That's right, you've never seen that one, have you Danny?" Tucker asked as sat back on the floor and placed all the snacks next to their little group.

Danny thought for a moment, "That's true, I always avoided it because of the whole Christmas thing."

"Well now is the perfect time to watch it!"

With that, Sam scrambled over to the DVD player and popped in the disk. The three teens piled together at the foot of Danny's bed to watch the movie.

Hours later, with their food demolished and several movies marathoned, Danny had started dozing off.

"Man, I really missed hanging out like this," Danny smiled as his eyes drooped, "I love you guys."

Sam and Tucker and shared a glance before wrapping their ghost boy in a hug. They stayed like that for a while, as Danny slept.

[ashtheshortstack]

Truth be Told

Rating: G Fandom: Danny Phantom

Sequel to dwelling on deceit

Tags: Valerie POV, Post-PP

Read on ao3

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

Danny Phantom saving the world with his genius plan was something Valerie had to give him kudos for. Especially after he confirmed her suspicions and transformed back into Danny Fenton right before her eyes. She was a bit stunned to see it happen to say the least, but she knew. And was glad she was right.

The Danny she knew was just a dorky, awkward kid that she had ended up crushing on. It was… sudden. And she didn’t quite know how it happened. Little did she know she’d been fraternizing with the enemy. Danny did though. He knew she was hunting him. And yet… still pursued her. Still wanted to feel like a normal kid and date the girl he liked. She couldn’t imagine how hard it’d been for him. How hard she’d made it on him to constantly fight her knowing full and well he didn’t want to.

Dating Danny had been an uphill battle. As much as she liked him, she knew in her heart that he liked someone else more. Valerie wasn’t stupid. She could see the way he looked at Sam. It was selfish of her to confront the goth girl on the issue, but she wanted to hope that Sam would back off. She remembered when she overheard Sam saying that they’d give her a chance for Danny’s sake, but they knew. They knew this wouldn’t work out.

Jeez, Valerie owed Sam an apology. But… that would come later.

When she suited up, she hadn’t expected to find Danny so quickly. And surprisingly… alone? He and Sam had been attached at the hip since the Disasteroid. Valerie had noticed a small class ring on Sam’s finger every day at school when the two walked down the hallway with their fingers intertwined. Which was super lame and definitely not Sam’s color, but was fitting for Danny. She hated to admit that they were cute. As much as it made her want to gag.

He sat upon the town billboard. The one with the dumb “Amity Park: A Nice Place to Live!” slogan. Yeah, Amity Park was a great place to live if you enjoyed the constant ghost attacks. She was sure their town was going to become a tourist attraction not too long after the famous Danny Phantom saved the world.

“Do ghosts normally haunt billboards at night, Phantom?” she teased as she retracted her hoverboard beneath her feet.

“Night is the best time to haunt, Red, makes things spookier,” he replied, not turning to face her yet. His ever charming sarcasm oozed from his voice, but she could place a bit of hesitance in his tone as well.

Poor guy. Danny probably thought the worst of her. She hadn’t spoken to him since they had returned to school. He had spared her a few glances and nervous smiles between classes, but she hadn’t said anything. She hadn’t dared to pop open that can of worms. And yet, there she was… somehow finally finding her courage to speak to him. The boy she had hunted… the boy she had dated.

Her face softened as she smiled. “Hey, Danny.”

He looked at her then, those green eyes piercing and glowing. “Hey, Val,” he smiled. A genuine Danny smile that she had come to appreciate so much.

Valerie took a seat next to him, not sure where to even begin. But Danny took the lead, of course.

“So, how long is this truce thing going to last? I kind of miss you chasing me around with blasters,” he joked with a half hearted shrug.

Valerie chuckled, leaning back on her palms. “I didn’t know you enjoyed fighting so much..”

“Oh, yeah. Screaming in pain, getting caught in nets, even Skulker constantly telling me he wants my pelt on his wall: love it.”

“That’s a little TMI, Danny. I didn’t need to know that you were a masochist.”

Danny gaped at her. “That is not what I--”

Valerie cut him off with a burst of laughter. He pursed his lips, giving her a glare for teasing him but seemed to relax and join in the fit of giggles with her.

When the chuckles died down, Danny finally leaned back on his palms as she was. “You knew, didn’t you?”

She didn’t have to ask him to elaborate. Valerie already knew what he was asking. She looked up, gazing at the stars with a hesitant smile etching at the corner of her lips. “I had a suspicion. That was my fault, though, I shouldn’t have been so nosy and pried.”

Sighing, he shook his head. “No, if anything I was glad you knew. It’s hard explaining why I didn’t like Vlad Masters without a reason. Especially as a ghost.”

“If it’s any consolation, I don’t like him either.”

Danny snorted at that. “Pretty sure no one likes him anymore, Val. He tried to conquer the world by force and promised safety he couldn’t follow through on. Even my dad hates his old pal Vladdy.”

“Well, I didn’t like him anymore before that. And I tried so hard to play nice so he’d give me information. I think he tried to hint at your identity a few times too.”

Humming, he nodded. “Sounds right. Vlad always had a weird obsession with me.”

“What a freak.”

“A crazed up fruitloop.”

Valerie snorted at that. “I just--I want you to know that I’m happy for you. You’ve never seemed happier and I’m glad. You deserve it, Danny.”

He looked at her, those green eyes seeming to pierce her soul. He really was too kind. Too good, ablet a bit devious at times she knew. He always wanted what was best for everyone. Willingly sacrificed himself for the greater good so many times. And somehow, he was still the dorky unpopular kid at her school. The one she was mean to for so long because she thought that’s what she was supposed to do. Dating Danny had really opened her eyes to the person he could be. It didn’t surprise her one bit that he was Danny Phantom: the ghost hero of Amity Park.

“Thank you.”

The response was so genuine… it made her heart ache. There was a look on his face, however… something that told her there was more he wanted to say. Something in his eyes that didn’t sit well in the pit of her stomach.

“What is it?” she asked.

Danny swallowed, seeming tense. “I have to ask… how do you not hate me? I lied to you--a lot. You were dating me. You were dating Danny Phantom, the literal ghost you wanted to blast to bits and had no idea. Why didn’t you come here screaming at me?”

Sighing, she felt her shoulders sag. “After that stuff with Vlad… and after I figured you out, I had a lot of time to think about it. I was a little angry at first, I guess. But then I thought about how it must’ve been for you. You just wanted to be normal for once. It’d be lame of me to blame you for that. You knew I was literally trying to destroy your other half and yet you still wanted to be with me. I can’t hate you for that.”

He considered her, seeming to soak in her words. When he nodded with a smile, Valerie felt some relief. It wasn’t even a worry she realized she had. She hadn’t thought about Danny fearing how she’d react to him being Phantom. She was glad she could clear that up for him, at least.

Clearing her throat, Valerie quickly realized that sincere conversation was no longer for her. “Sooo, is Tucker seeing anyone?”

He blinked. “Aside from his PDA? No, not that I know of,” Danny paused and grinned. “Why? You interested?”

“I dunno. Dating Amity Park’s youngest mayor in history sounds enticing..”

“What? And dating Amity Park’s ghost superhero isn’t?”

She cocked a brow. “Yeah, but I heard he’s taken.”

“Again, that’s not what I meant.”

“Duh, I know what you meant.” Valerie paused, letting silence wash over her a minute before she sighed and glanced away from him. “We were never going to work, you know that, right?”

He cocked his head in a curious gesture. “What?”

“Danny, you’ve always loved her. Even when you didn’t know it. It was so obvious to everyone else. I just--I just thought I’d take my chances.”

Danny’s cheeks tinged pink (with a little bit of green mixed in, oddly enough.) “Valerie, I liked you. A lot. My feelings for you were real too.”

“‘Liked’ being the operative word. Danny, it’s okay. You don’t have to validate your feelings to me. I know you liked me. I just know you have had stronger feelings for Sam.”

He opened his mouth as if he were going to argue, but snapped his jaw shut quickly. Pursing his lips, he glanced away. “I do. I love her.”

“Have you told her?”

“No…?”

Valerie smacked him on the arm.

“Hey!”

“Why are you telling me, Fenton!? You should be telling Sam that!”

“I will!”

“When?”

“When it feels right!”

Valerie groaned, flopping her head back. “Ughh, you’re such a hopeless romantic. It’s almost gross.”

“Hey! You liked it when I tried to woo you!”

“Maybe so.”

He gave her a knowing look before turning away. “I don’t know how to tell her. I’ll get there, okay?”

Raising her hands in surrender, Valerie caved. “Okay, fine. But do it quick, someone may snatch her up.”

“Are you trying to steal my girlfriend, Valerie?”

“Hey, maybe I just want to homie hop. I’ll date Tucker next then steal Sam from right under your nose.”

Snorting, Danny shoved her gently. “As if. Pretty sure she loves me.”

“Uh huh. Maybe she’d say it if you say it first.”

There was a beat of silence, and Valerie worried she had pushed the conversation too far. But Danny surprised her instead.

He smiled at her.

“Can we be like this all the time,” he asked.

“Me threatening to steal your girlfriend?”

He barked a laugh. “No! Just--Just being friends.”

Valerie smiled in return, holding out a hand to him. “Permanent friends truce, then?”

Nodding, he took her hand. “Permanent friends truce.”

When she let go, Valerie turned to look over the streets. As stressful as it could be to live in Amity Park, there’s nowhere else she’d want to go. This was home. These were her people. And she loved her life. It took her a long time to see it. But Amity Park meant so much to her. It was terrifying to know her life was a risk. Her home was at risk. But Danny saved them. Saved her. Just like he always did.

“You want to be a member of Team Phantom?”

“Oh, God,” she made a gagging sound. “You guys have a team name?”

“Hey! We’re cool enough to have a team name.”

“Sure, keep telling yourself that, Fenton.”

[nocturna-starr]

Intentional Creation

Prompter: @phantomphangphucker

Prompt: Danny created Phantom intentionally and knew full well what he was doing, the first time.

Words: 1508

In Danny’s totally unbiased opinion, his parents were naive. They were creating a portal to another world! Did they not expect said inhabitants from said world to make an appearance in the living realm? Or did they believe that somehow the very creatures they wanted to study wouldn’t be curious themselves?

“Don’t worry Danno! No ghost would dare cross through Jack Fenton’s portal!”

Sure.

“Danny, your parents are the experts, right? Just leave it to them! Everything will be okay!”

Yep… Nothing to worry about…

“Ghosts aren’t even real!”

Was everyone around him actually this stupid?

He should be playing the newest update for DOOM or studying for Mr. Lancer’s test on the Merchant of Venice. He should not be studying his parents research to make sure they didn’t blow up the house or contaminate him and Jazz again like they did the last time Jack and Maddie Fenton tried to invent a green energy source.

Suddenly Danny heard a knock on the door.

“Danny, it’s Jazz. Aren’t you going to get some sleep? We have school tomorrow!”

“Just looking over some papers.” Danny called. He heard his sister huff, but fortunately she didn’t push the issue forward. No doubt she herself would be up all night studying some new psychology book she had found in the library.

And she said that she was nothing like their parents.

He found himself glancing at the numbers. Math may not be his best subject, but to his untrained eye the calculations his mother made had no mistakes. The machine they were going to finish would certainly rip a hole into another dimension.

Then his dad would tell anyone and everyone who would listen that he would protect them from the threat he himself had created. His dad would go up against the wrong supernatural creature and…

Despite how much his father annoyed him, Danny loved the man. He couldn’t imagine a world without Jack Fenton. His mother, a former cop, might be able to handle the situation slightly better, but even she would become overwhelmed by the ghosts eventually. They needed someone who was on the same power level as the ghosts and who would protect humanity rather than harm it.

Didn’t his parents say that someone had gotten ectoradiation due to their naivety the first time they had built s portal? What was his name again… Paul… Chad? It didn’t matter. Maybe it was possible to replicate something like that! But instead of being contaminated, maybe one could fuse with the ectoplasm.  But who could he convince to give up their humanity for the world?

Danny put down the papers. Didn’t Sam say she wanted to make a difference?

xXx

“Whoa! I can’t believe it dude! Your parents actually made a real portal.” Danny’s best friend Tucker Foley gawked at the expensive machinery in the wall.

“Yeah, if only it worked.” Danny eyed the knobs at the side of the portal. Everything was still in position fortunately. His dad for once in his life had decided not to fiddle with something he had not done.

“It’s actually pretty cool, even not working. Imagine the worlds that are barely out of reach.” Sam sighed.

Danny smiled. Sam was still innocent. He hoped that her optimism, despite being a ghost, would remain. It would suck if he had to repeat the experiment all over again. Tucker wouldn’t be as powerful a ghost. Anyone after that would be a malicious ghost that Jack Fenton would have the honour of destroying.

The goth gently touched the portal, as if it were something sacred. It was like she knew her place of death was here. Tucker snapped a couple of pictures. Danny watched them, noting each soft smile or excited look sent his way. Would they feel this way when the portal took everything they knew in a couple of minutes?

“Wanna look inside?” Danny asked. He felt his heart begin to race. This was the moment that would forever change humanity. In the future, kids would be talking about the origin story of Sammy Geist or Tucker Ghouly. Would they see him as a good person, or a mad scientist? Would they understand why he did this and not judge him only on his actions? Or would they allow his name to fade to time because no one would ever know that the accident wasn’t an accident?

“Sure Danny!” Sam grinned. Without a second thought she walked inside.

“I’m good dude. I’d rather not be inside, and the thing click on.” Tucker didn’t look up from his PDA.

Maybe he should have tried to get Sam to dress in a Hazmat suit. The extra protection could have led her into a false sense of security which would allow for mistakes to occur. The Hazmat suit also could have acted as a disguise. Sam Manson, Amity Park’s most famous goth, would never have been caught dead in one of those.

“What are all of these wires for? What about all these buttons? Tuck you’re the tech guru, you should really come inside.” Sam called.

“Actually Sam, I think you should get out.” Tucker warned. Did Tucker suspect something? Danny had never even written his thoughts down in a journal let alone share them with anyone else! How could his best friend even know?

Why did he suddenly feel so guilty?

“Just a sec Tucker!” Sam called. Her hand grazed a large red button. Danny wanted to tell her to push it or to startle her and cause her to “accidentally” press it. Yet the words refused to come from out of him. Why did he feel so terrible for wanting to save the world? What was one life to billions? It wasn’t like she was actually going to die!

Why was his life more important than Sam’s?

“Hey Sam, I want a turn to see!” Danny found himself calling. He watched as she safely exited the portal. He grabbed the suit his father had made especially for him and put it on.

Sam grinned, ripping off the picture of his dad’s face that he insisted on putting on everything. “You aren’t going in with that on, are you?”

“I guess not.” Danny tried to smile.

“Nervous? Just think of all the cool worlds that this portal can connect to.” Sam grinned.

He nodded, hoping to disguise his dread as minor fear. He took a step in the portal and began walking towards the button that Jack and Maddie Fenton in their infinite wisdom had chosen to keep. Time seemed to slow the closer he got to it. He could hear his own heart beat and feel every breath he took. Once he was transformed, would he miss feeling of breathing?  There was no going back. If he chickened out now, Danny knew he would never build the courage to do this again. Then the world would be doomed.

Once he was close enough, Danny “tripped” and pressed the button. His walk of death couldn’t compare to the absolute freeze in time that occurred just after he pressed the button. The youngest Fenton swore he heard the phrase “All is as it should be…” before the light engulfed him into a world of agony.

He was glad that he didn’t force his best friends to experience it. His essence was ripped apart then sewn back together again. His heart raced before falling into a slow and steady rhythm. He was Danny Fenton, then he was nothing. He was human, until he wasn’t. Everything became dark.

He saw flashes of his life slip by and flashes of the future. He heard the screams of the dying and cries of those who were living for the first time. He felt sudden felt a weight that he had never known fall off of his shoulders. The freedom was only felt for a couple of seconds (or was it years?) before a much heavier weight was flung onto him.

He felt himself begin to walk. A light and a voice beckoned him forward. He felt something grabbing his leg, trying to keep him away. He knew he had to fight against it. If he stayed, then there would be no one to fight against his parents’ mistakes.

As he moved forward, the thing clutching his leg felt heavier and heavier. His steps became smaller and smaller. Maybe it was best if he stayed behind? Just as the it seemed that the thing would win, he broke free. He raced to the light, determined to not be trapped again.

“DANNY! DANNY!” Her heard a woman cry.

As he came closer, the light became a doorway. He smiled and stumbled across.

“Danny is that you?” Sam cried.

It worked?! Danny grinned. Everything would be fine now. Tomorrow there would be problems, but now there could be solutions. Ghosts would attack and he would be right there to stop them. The lack of sleep the previous night and the exhaustion of the portal claimed him. Danny fell into his last peaceful rest.

[ghostgothgeek]

Chaos.

Another for the Phic Phight! This one kinda combines two prompts and I had so much fun writing it! In this, Danny and Tucker don’t know Sam plays video games yet. 5,063 words.

"What do you mean you don’t feel the same way? We´ve had a mutual crush on each other for years." Sam says angrily after finally confessing her love to him. But Danny´s heart was beating hard for someone else entirely. Prompt by phantomfana. 

Danny wants to ask his crush to the upcoming school dance. Prompt by Rikaleeta.

-----

It was another long night of ghost hunting for Danny. Technus took up the first part of the night, trying to take over the park’s new security system. Tucker was fortunately still awake to help him out with that. Then Johnny and Kitty rolled in, but they weren’t looking for trouble, they just wanted a date night and swore they wouldn’t be a problem. Apparently Fridays were their days off for “everything but each other”. Danny was a romantic, but he didn’t know if this was sweet or nauseating. Ember had put up a good fight, though. He was proud he only had one injury to tend to. He had dodged most of her attacks, but she was still a pretty advanced ghost. And, of course, Danny had caught the Box Ghost six, count them, SIX times. How did he always manage to get out?! He wasn’t difficult to take down, he was just a pest. 

Danny sighed as he sat down at his computer chair. It was only 12:30 am, and it was a Friday. He could sleep in tomorrow and he deserved at least a couple hours of fun. He logged into his online gaming account and saw Tucker was online. Figures. He pulled up the chat anyway. 

Astrohaunt: Hey Tuck. Still up?

Technopedia: You know it. Chaos signed on about a half hour ago and I’m not passing up the opportunity.

Astrohaunt: Dude is so good it’s unreal!

Technopedia: He goes to our school, I tracked one of his IP addresses and he logged in at school a few times.

Astrohaunt: Tucker wtf. That’s creepy!

Technopedia: I just want to make sure Chaos is actually a kid and not Lancer again!

Astrohaunt: I still can’t wrap my mind around Lancer playing Doomed…

Technopedia: Same. But Chaos IP is different from Lancer, so we good. Unless more teachers play Doomed.

Astrohaunt: I hate you for putting that image into my brain.

Technopedia: Sorry dude. But quick come join before someone else gets Chaos.

Danny, Tucker, and Chaos had made a great team. Whenever Chaos was around, they were actually able to progress through the game. They played several rounds until Tucker was caught by his mom and was forced to sign off, but Danny and Chaos kept playing. 

TeamChaos: Hey, what’s up?

Astrohaunt: Omg dude you’re so awesome. 

TeamChaos: Ha, thanks. Gotta blow off steam somehow. 

Astrohaunt: Tell me about it! Between Lancer’s three projects and midterms and...other stuff...this is my only time to actually chill. I’ve been so stressed!

TeamChaos: Same. I did finish one of the projects though. I’m always here if you need to talk, you know. 

Astrohaunt: Wow, I may just take you up on that offer. I’ve had a rough night.

TeamChaos: Lay it on me.

And so Danny, sparing the ghost hunting details, stayed up chatting with Chaos until 5 am. He got along really well with the guy, they had a lot of similar interests. This was just the first of many up-all-night conversations they shared. After a few months, Danny felt a special connection with Chaos, and yet, he didn’t even know his name! 

Astrohaunt: We’ve been talking all these months and I still don’t know your name. I’m Danny. 

TeamChaos: Oh, thought you knew. It’s Sam!

Astrohaunt: Hey! One of my best friends is named Sam! 

TeamChaos: You don’t say!!!

The next day at school, Danny pulled Tucker over to him, whispering, “Dude, help. I think I might be gay....” 

“What?!” Tucker shouted.

“Quiet, Tuck!” 

“Okay, well uh...why?” Tucker sent him a weird look and took a step back. 

“No, not you. Chaos. I think I have a crush on Chaos.” Danny ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know what to do! I never thought I’d be...you know. Chaos and I just have good conversations and he’s always there to listen to me when I need to vent. I thought maybe I found another best friend but...this is different. Chaos is so cool and I’m crushing and I don’t even know who he is or what he looks like! Or if he feels the same way! Maybe I’m just stupid and-”

“Dude, chill. You’re jumping too far ahead of yourself. Whichever way you, you know, swing...I’m still your best friend.” Tucker pulled out his PDA. “Let me see what I can find out. I know Chaos goes to our school.”

“Thanks, Tuck. As if being half ghost wasn’t hard enough! Oh, and he’s in our class, because he’s talked me through assignments and knows what they are and stuff. He’s almost as good as explaining things as Sam. Crap...Sam. Don’t tell her about this!” Danny started fidgeting. 

“Well,” Tucker raised his eyebrows in surprise, “I can tell you with absolute certainty that Chaos is definitely a girl.” 

“You found out who Chaos is?!” 

“What, like it’s hard?” Tucker chuckled. “I traced the IP addresses she uses. I know who she is. So do you,” Tucker smirked, “It shocked me at first, but it makes total sense! And I can totally see why you like her.” 

“Really?” Danny let out a breath in relief. “Okay that makes me feel a lot better...hey, maybe I can ask Chaos to the dance next Saturday!” 

Tucker rested a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “Go for it. Ask Sam. I’m almost positive she’ll say yes.”

“Okay, I will...wait, not Sam! Chaos!” Danny clarified. “Well, actually, I think Chaos told me her name was Sam. Ha, small world. I can’t wait to introduce Sam to Sam. I think they would really get along.” 

Tucker busted out laughing, “Oh, dude. You go ahead and do that.” He left Danny standing there in the hallway, still laughing all the way to his next class.

Danny, a bit confused by Tucker’s laughter, shook his head and smiled to himself. Okay, good. He’d had enough identity crises to fill a lifetime. Chaos was definitely a girl. Now if he just knew Chaos returned his feelings, things might actually work out for him this time and he could actually have a girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Sam was having an internal debate of her own. Sitting in a class where the teacher couldn’t give two shits about what the students were doing, she had always used this class as her thinking time. Usually her thinking-about-Danny time. She nervously clicked her pen as she thought about recent events. 

She and Danny spent so much time chatting online when they weren’t hanging out in person. Danny was a little bit more bold online, probably because he didn’t have to interact face-to-face or risk his pants falling down in public again. Online, they talked about everything. No topic was off limits. Plus, Sam felt like their friendship had only grown even stronger when they could chat online and not have to worry about blushing or getting teased by Tucker. Chatting online took away all the pressure and made it much easier to connect with Danny. 

Danny hadn’t said anything yet, of course. He was probably scared. Hell, she was scared. She was already so in love with him, and getting closer online only further solidified that fact. She had never been in love before, and even though she hunts ghosts, this was more terrifying! She was fairly certain he returned her feelings, but both were too chicken to actually make that final step. They’ve been best friends forever. She didn’t want to mess up their already great dynamic or force Tucker to be the third wheel, though he did insist he was more than okay with that and encouraged them to finally get together. 

Sam stopped clicking her pen as she suddenly remembered it was senior year. They hadn’t picked colleges yet, but whether they ended up going to the same school or not, things were going to change. Danny was very attractive, and going off to college meant girls may actually approach him when they didn’t know his parents were ghost fighters. The fact had never bothered Sam, but she did kind of like how it kept most girls at school from asking him out or giving him attention. Valerie had been a challenge, especially because she was a ghost hunter herself and probably wanted to get tips from his parents. Sam was glad that relationship ended relatively early. It was too hard on her. Joyous or not, though, she was still mad at Valerie for how she broke his heart. 

But that was 2 years ago. They had all moved on and friendships were more or less mended across the board. This made Sam glance at her favorite picture of her and Danny. Tucker had taken the candid picture and it was now her phone’s background. In it, Danny was giving Sam a piggyback ride. Her arms were lightly strung around his neck, legs looped around his waist. Danny had kept going in the opposite direction Sam told him to go, which frustrated her but also made her laugh. She had rested her chin on his shoulder, her face pressed right up against his. Danny was looking at her and Tucker had captured that rare moment when Sam had a huge grin on her face, still laughing. She smiled at the picture. They would be okay no matter what. Their friendship would survive.

Anyway, Sam also realized she had already come close to losing Danny, in more ways than one. Whether it was to other girls or a ghost, there was always that anxiety stirring in her head that she could lose him entirely some day. Life was too short. She needed to take the plunge for both of them and just get them both over this hurdle, and they could finally, finally, actually get together. 

Sam made her decision. It was now or never. She was going to tell him. Today. The trio was meeting up at Danny’s house later anyway, and if she got there early enough, she could talk to him before Tucker showed up and teased them about it. Sam firmly nodded her head to herself, a confirmation of her decision. It was finally time.

After school, Danny was pacing in his room, trying to figure out how he wanted to do this. Asking a girl to the dance wasn’t a huge deal, and yet at the same time, it was. He would rather ask in person, but he still didn’t know what Chaos looked like, so asking in person seemed to be off the table. He could look in the yearbook for all the girls named Sam at their school. He could already omit one Sam Manson from that list. How many Sams could possibly attend their school? It would be easier to ask Tucker, though. Tucker already knew who she was. Sam and Tucker were on their way over right now. When Sam wasn’t paying attention, he could ask Tucker for Sam’s full name. 

Chaos Sam, not best friend Sam. God, this was so confusing. Why were girls so hard for him? Freshman year, Paulina only liked his ghost half and wouldn’t give his human half the time of day. Sophomore year, Valerie hated his ghost half and that hatred was more important to her than her feelings for his human half. Junior year, he had been denying that he was in love with his best friend. And now that he had finally accepted that he did like his best friend as much more than a friend, a new girl entered the picture and he now found himself trying to choose between two Sams. Because it apparently wasn’t hard enough for him already to make the biggest and most important change he could possibly make in a friendship, let’s add another crush to the mix and give them the same name.

Sam. Best friend Sam - that’s who he was planning on asking originally, even if he chickened out and had to ask her as a friend instead. Plus, he and Sam had somehow gotten closer recently, and he was pretty sure she liked him. Sure, it was only because Tucker told him so, but it was a possibility. The thing was, he didn’t want to ruin things. Especially because he truly didn’t know how Sam, best friend Sam, felt about him. She was a tough and courageous girl, surely she would have said something by now if it were true. So Tucker must be pulling his leg.

But he did have another option - Chaos Sam, who may actually return his feelings. Sure, the feelings weren’t nearly as strong as what he felt for his best friend, but the feelings were still there. Plus, if he got rejected by Chaos, it would be less heartbreaking than being rejected by Sam, someone he had known for years rather than months. He could deal with losing a newer friend, but not one of his best friends. Sam was too important and he knew he needed her in his life.

Danny sighed. This was really hard, but he made a decision. It was easier to go with Chaos than risk ruining things with Sam. Danny had enough drama going on in his life already, he needed an easy win. 

He broke from his thoughts when the doorbell rang. He ran downstairs and opened it, only slightly surprised to see Sam there. She was usually early for things. He and Tuck were more prone to being late. 

“Hey, Sam. Come on in!” Danny moved so Sam could enter his house. He shut the door and followed her upstairs and back to his room as she returned his greeting. She was pacing the same path he just had, muttering quietly to herself. She looked nervous. “Something on your mind?” 

Sam was startled out of her thoughts. “Huh? Oh yeah.” She noticed his disheveled appearance, also noting he was fidgety. Was he going to do what she was about to do? “What about you, you look like you’ve been thinking a little too hard about something.” She smiled softly. 

Danny chuckled, “Yeah, but it’ll resolve itself soon. I’ll worry about it after the movies. Tuck should be here any second. Oh, but I’m glad you’re early. Can you help me with something quick?” 

“Of course.” Sam followed him to his desk, smiling and rolling her eyes when he pointed to a homework problem. “I should have known.” 

Danny gave her a lopsided smile and watched as she showed him how to do the problem in her perfect handwriting. It took no more than a couple of minutes. Now, they were just waiting for Tucker to arrive. 

Sam looked at the time. He would be here soon. She needed to do this now. She needed to tell Danny. She couldn’t wait until after the movies for him to tell her. She had already waited long enough and couldn’t bear another second.

“Danny, can I talk to you for a second?” She sat down on his bed and gestured for him to do the same. 

Danny could sense the seriousness in her voice, and nodded anxiously. He was scared when Sam was serious about things. It was usually something bad.

“Danny…” She decided to get straight to the point. “I like you. As in like-like you. More than like, and more than a friend. And we’ve been doing this dancing around for at least 4 years now and I’m sick of it. I just want to be with you already. What do you say?” Sam held her breath as she waited for Danny to answer. 

He stared at her with wide eyes before nervously rubbing the back of his neck and turning his attention to his shoes, avoiding eye contact with the goth. God, why him?! He had stupidly thought, for once, things would be easier for him this time. He had already sent an offline message to Chaos that he wanted to ask her something, and then Sam had to come along and tell him what he had wanted to hear for some time now. But he couldn’t blow Chaos off when he had already somewhat asked. Of course, his life just had to be complicated every step of the way. He really liked both girls and didn’t want to hurt his best friend. Regardless, he had to be honest. He owed Sam that much. “Well, I mean, yeah, but…” 

“But what?” Sam whispered, clearly already upset. Fuck. Fuck fuck FUCK. This was exactly what he didn’t want to happen. He decided to try going with Chaos so he could avoid heartbreak from his best friend. The very thing he had been so afraid of, he was doing to her right now. 

Danny sighed again. “But I can’t. I’m so sorry, Sam.” It was hard to choke out, but he said it, and he felt terrible. He pressed his lips together and kept staring at his shoes until Sam lifted his chin up, forcing him to look at her. 

“What do you mean you don’t feel the same way? We’ve had mutual crushes on each other for years!” Sam said angrily, feeling her heart break as her best friend and love of her life rejected her confession of love. She was so sure he returned her feelings! Especially after all the great conversations they had shared online these last few months. “Or, at least, I thought we did.” Tears swelled in her eyes. Did he lead her on? “I-I need an explanation, Danny,” she quietly stated after he didn’t continue. 

Danny frowned and his heart ached. He didn’t want to hurt his best friend like this. Hell, he really liked her! Of course their crushes were mutual! And if this had happened 6 months ago instead of now, he would have jumped at the chance. But now...now he had Chaos and already forced himself to stick with his decision. It was easy with Chaos; there was no friendship to risk, no denying of being lovebirds or brushing off kisses as fakeout makeouts. Plus, he couldn’t lie to his best friend. She would know if he was lying. And he already told himself she deserved the truth. “There’s...someone else…” 

“What?” Sam whispered before turning angry again, “Paulina? Valerie? Star?” she spat out. 

Danny shook his head, “Ew, no...it’s someone I met online...I’m so sorry, Sam. I like you a lot, I really do, but I think I’ve already come to the conclusion that I like this girl I met online, Chaos, and I have to try to see that through.” 

Many emotions crossed Sam’s face as she pieced together what he just said. At first she was upset, but as he explained himself, she felt disbelief, confusion, anger, and finally, hope. He couldn’t really be that clueless, right? “Show me.” 

“Huh? I mean, I don’t actually know what she looks like, but we message every night and she really understands me! I know it sounds ridiculous, but-” 

“Show me,” Sam repeated. “Show me her profile.” 

“You’re not going to hurt her, are you?” Danny questioned cautiously.

“No, of course not. Just shut up and show me the profile.” Sam was more calm now, and that was kind of scary. Even though Sam said she wouldn’t hurt Chaos, he didn’t want to give her the chance. But he knew how stubborn his friend was, and eventually in whatever way, she would force the information out of him. 

Danny sighed and pulled up the profile to show Sam. “I’m sorry, Sam. I’m still your best frien-” 

“Shut up.” Sam scrolled through what Danny pulled up for her and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. Closing her eyes slowly, she took a deep breath. “Didn’t Chaos tell you her name?” 

“Uh,” Danny thought, “oh yeah! She said her name was Sam, because I thought she was a boy at first and I had an existential crisis, but then Tucker told me-” 

“Danny. I’m Sam.” 

“No I know, and sure it’ll be a little weird cause you’re Sam and she’s Sam, it’s confusing, but I-” 

Sam interrupted him once again. She could hear Tucker’s footsteps approaching. She was running out of time to not make this a spectacle. “No, Danny. Chaos. Sam. Me. I’m Sam. I am Sam,” 

Tucker only heard the tail end of the conversation as he entered the room. Never able to pass up a comedic opportunity, he smirked and added “I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like green eggs and ham!” 

It was suddenly silent in the room as his friends seized conversation and glared at him. Oops. 

“Oh, am I interrupting something?” Tucker could see the fire in Sam’s eyes. “Uh, oh wait I forgot my...sock. I’ll be downstairs!” He raced out of the room.

Sam turned her attention back to Danny. “No, you stupid fucking MORON. I am Chaos. You’ve been talking to me the whole time. I thought you knew that!” Danny stared at her blankly until she pulled out her phone and he watched her log into her account, proving it to him. Sure enough, it was Chaos’s profile. He could see all the direct messages between them, including his offline message about wanting to ask her something.

“Wait, you? You’re Sam? I mean, Chaos? I mean Sam?” Danny looked back and forth between the profile and his best friend. 

“UGH!” Sam shouted as she threw her hands in the air. “Yes, Danny. That’s me! Did you really not notice that Chaos was the same age as me and a girl who goes to our school? We have the same name and interests! Didn’t you wonder why it was so easy to talk right off the bat? I thought you put that all together and us just pretending to not know each other was a little bit you were trying to do or something!” 

Danny stared at her as he continued to piece it all together. He was definitely embarrassed. He felt so stupid. How could he not tell that Chaos was Sam, his best friend since 7th grade? Talk about being totally clueless. 

Wait. Clueless? Well, fuck! He got the nickname now! 

His eyes flickered back and forth as he thought everything through. Eventually, he started to crack a smile. “Wait, so I’ve had a crush on you and also you? You’re the same person! This is great! Do you know what this means?!” 

Sam slapped her forehead and began walking downstairs. “I don’t even know if this is worth it anymore…” 

“Wait, how come Tuck and I never knew you played video games! We can enter team tournaments! You’re so good!” Danny chased after her. 

Tucker watched as Sam grumbled about Danny caring more about video games than her. An excited Danny was right on her tail. 

“Tucker! Sam is Chaos! I’ve been in love with Sam this whole time!” Danny explained. 

“Tucker, I need you to refrain me from slapping his stupid clueless face,” Sam started. 

“Wait, you didn’t know Sam was Chaos? Dude! I thought I was obvious about that!” Tucker began laughing at Danny. 

“I know, so did I.” Sam crossed her arms over her chest. 

“Danny, you can calculate levels of rocket fuel and figure out how to get us to Mercury or something,” Tucker started. 

“Mars, actually,” Danny corrected. 

“But you can’t figure out that your best friend and your crush are the same person? You’re more than Captain Clueless, you’re like….Lieutenant Clueless? That’s like, bigger right?” Tucker continued. 

“I don’t think that’s how it works, Tuck,” Sam chimed in. 

“Shut up Sam, this isn’t about you,” Tucker immediately stopped his train of thought when he felt Sam glaring daggers at him. “Heh, uh. Except it does. It actually has nothing to do with me. I’m sorry I told you to shut up, please don’t hurt me!” He threw his hands up in front of himself in defense. 

“Relax, Tucker. I’m more angry with this fucking dingus,” she pointed her thumb in Danny’s direction. 

The halfa was about to protest, then closed his mouth. “That’s fair, I deserve that.” 

“I can’t even look at you right now. You scared me! I poured out my emotions to you. I thought you were rejecting me and that I would have to change my name and move to a different country! Wait, are you still rejecting me?” Sam stopped her pacing to look at him. 

“Of course not, Sammy!” 

“Oh don’t you ‘Sammy’ me! I told you I love you, you stupid fucking idiot!” Sam began throwing pillows at Danny, who expertly dodged them (though as a result, Tucker got hit in the face by one). 

“Technically, you didn’t say ‘love’ you said ‘like’”, Danny offered as Tucker shook his head and slashed finger across his neck, signaling Danny to stop talking. 

“Oh, I’m sorry! This is all my fault! I’m going to go jump off a cliff now!” Sam growled and Danny let out a small “oomph” as one of the pillows finally got him. 

“I’m out. Good luck, bro!” Tucker quickly slipped out the door, leaving Danny and Sam alone. 

Sam was about to follow Tucker out when Danny stopped her, “please don’t leave!” She still had angry tears in her eyes. He frowned. This was not how he expected things to go. She watched him for a few seconds before sitting down on the couch, refusing to look at him. “Sam I’m so sorry, this is just a huge misunderstanding.”

“No, Danny. It’s not. You were going to turn me down to go out with someone else.”

“But that someone was still you!”

“Yeah, but you didn’t know that! We’ve been friends for years, and you were more interested in someone you just met a few months ago! I don’t want to be anyone’s second choice, Danny! I’ve been standing by for years as you continuously chose other girls over me. I thought we were done with that, and that you were finally choosing me first, but you won’t and you never will and I’m so stupid.” Sam put her head in her hands as she tried her hardest not to let tears fall. 

And that was when he finally figured it out. It wasn’t just the moment of rejection, it was years of rejection, and at her biggest confession, she still thought he was choosing someone over her. Not to mention, Tucker witnessed most of the conversation. Sam rarely showed her emotions. She always had her heart guarded, and he knew this. Tucker knew this. Hell, she didn’t even tell them she was rich until after a few years of friendship. It took them a while to get her to open up to them. She was a pretty private person. She was probably already hurt like this before. And now, she was probably embarrassed.

“You’re definitely not stupid. I’m stupid. I should have known it was you. That was actually what I really liked about Chaos, she reminded me of you.” 

Sam forced a small sarcastic laugh, “Yeah, right.” 

“No really,” Danny sat on the couch next to her and grabbed her hand, placing it in both of his. “Sam, you’re absolutely incredible. How dumb would I have to be to not notice?” Sam gave him a pointed look. “Okay yeah but it’s not the way you think it is. I liked Chaos because she was a lot like you. She reminded me of you. And it just seemed easier to go with her because she was basically you, but she and I didn’t have a really great friendship that could have gotten ruined if we broke up or something. I could live without her, but I can’t live without you. You’re always my number one. Always have been, always will be. Even if I did just fuck everything up. I’m so sorry, Sam. I’m ready to be with you, if you’ll still have me.” 

Sam stayed silent and stared at her lap, processing this new information. Of course she would forgive him; she always did. She just needed a little time. 

Danny was getting nervous that he really did fuck this up for good. This was so fucking important! He couldn’t risk fucking this up! Sensing her hesitation, Danny tried one more thing to get her back. One thing he hasn’t done before. One thing he just learned how to perfect.  

“Sammy, I’m sorry,” a duplicate popped up next to her on the other side of the couch, startling her. 

“Please forgive me?” Another duplicate was floating in front of her, hanging upside down, hair flopping all over the place. 

“I know I’m a dummy but,” Sam snapped her head towards a third duplicate. 

“I’m only a dummy because I’m in love. With you,” the real Danny finished. Sam looked back and forth between all the Dannys.  

“We’re sorry, Sammy,” all the duplicates said at once. 

Sam was trying really hard to hold back a smile. “You learned how to duplicate,” she stated simply. 

Original Danny grabbed her hands. “Sam. I will make this up to you. I promise.” 

She could hear the determination in his voice and sighed. “You better.” 

Danny smiled and hugged her. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!! I love you so much!”

Sam pushed him off of her. “I love you too, you fucking idiot.” 

“But I get to be your idiot!” Sam couldn’t hold her laughter back anymore. “Oh!” Danny shouted, “Will you go to the dance with me? Please?” 

Sam pretended to ponder the answer before saying “alright”. 

“Yay!” All 4 Dannys cheered. The duplicates on either side of her kissed her cheeks as the real Danny kissed her forehead tenderly. The final duplicate, feeling left out, squeezed his way in to give her a hug. 

Sam was now roaring with laughter before kissing the real Danny sweetly. “You know, duplicates won’t always get you out of trouble,” she warned. 

“Yeah, but they could come in handy for other things,” he wagged his eyebrows up and down suggestively before passionately kissing her, the duplicates kissing her neck and touching her in near-dangerous places. 

Sam bit back a moan, eyes lustful before smirking, “I think you just found a way to make it up to me.” She began dragging the real Danny and one of his duplicates back to his room. Fuck the movies.

[aenxiome]

Chapter 3: Suck it up Fenton

The rest of the day ended up being lackluster.

In the beginning, things were going well, seating assignments had been changed, and more teachers roamed the halls during and between classes. Unfortunately, the changes aren't going to last. While teachers were punishing students for bad behavior, it wasn't always the ones who did the deed that got punished. It is almost like the trouble makers started rapidly evolving. Many of the A-List target students got detention, with their reflective bully doing a whole 180 when a teacher showed up. Thankfully I managed not to get detention for a second day and a row, but that may be from Dash getting in trouble earlier today.

I may be giving my classmates more credit than they are worth, though. Before today, none of the teachers ever monitored the events in the hallways—giving everyone free rein to do what they wished without any consequences. This isn't anyone evolving. This is their way of getting around the new, hopefully, standards that they are trying to implement. If things continue to go this way, the A-Lists and others are just going to become less subtle in their actions. Not that I expect them to be able to pull it off in the end, but the new arrangement might cause even more issues.

'Great going Fenton, you just screwed everyone, I tell myself. Not everyone can handle themselves as well as you can. This is going to mean so much trouble. But, I try to look on the bright side, thinking about Astronomy. I got some papers back today, full credit on my star chart, though that's pretty much expected of me at this point. So not too surprising. Hopefully, other classes will improve with the seating arrangements being changed, but there is no way of telling if they truly will.

Once classes were over and done with, I met up Sam and Tucker at the Nasty Burger. The restaurant is just starting to get busy with the constant incoming groups of students coming through the door. Thankfully we can claim our regular booth and put in an order for food. " So, how did your guys' day go?" Tucker asks, fiddling with one of his newer PDAs. He goes through PDAs as Dad goes through fudge, a lot of them and all the time. Sam and I just shrug in response and continue the conversation going through some random small talk.

In the middle of our conversation, Tucker suddenly goes still and stares at the PDA. He shoves the device in front of Sam's face making her read whatever has grabbed his attention. Once she is done looking at whatever it is, she and Tucker make eye contact conveying something to each other that I am unable to make out. Sam starts to say something but is interrupted by our food arriving.

"Danny," Tucker says as I shove fries into my mouth, " what happened last night?" I give him a questioning look. Sam slides over the PDA it is showing a local news article. The headline, "MORE DESTRUCTION IN AMITY," is plastered at the top. Below it shows a picture of a destroyed abandoned lot, the same lot from the fight with Skulker earlier this morning.

MORE DESTRUCTION IN AMITY

by Charisma Lynn

This morning residents of this local neighborhood woke up to the remains of another ghost fight. All around the grounds, traces of the battle can be found. Burn marks cover the ground in many areas showing the intensity of the fight. When officials first got on the scene, they found a couple of abnormalities not commonly seen. In a couple of different places, shattered pieces of ghostly green energy can be found. At first appearance, the pieces look like stained glass, but after the first contact turns into a gooey substance. Residents are being told not to worry as the substance is completely harmless but to still take caution. Along with the glass-like substance is a frozen piece of the ground. Even in the sunlight, the spot has shown no difference and is as hard as a rock. Out of the earth is a broken piece of ice. So far, we are unable to tell where the ice has come from, but our best guess is from some kind of ghostly interference. Many residents of the neighborhood have to ask where Phantom was? Was he part of the destruction, or is there a new ghost in town? Find out more tonight at 6 on APC.

I look up from the article to see Sam and Tucker staring at me. I shove more unsalted fries into my mouth. Did you know salt is a natural ghost repellent I, unfortunately, learned that the hard way. Never again. I finish chewing before reassuring them, " Guys, it's fine it was just a typical ghost fight." Tucker starts on his food apparently satisfied with my answer while Sam looks like she is getting ready to argue, but I interject before she gets the chance.

" It was just Skulker, it wasn't anything too bad" the mixture of "too bad" and Skulker grabs Tucker's attention once again. With him too now giving me a critiquing look over. " Are you sure dude? You aren't hurt anywhere are you?" His voice started to become a little bit frantic as he says, "Because Im not going to the hospital. Sorry but that's where I draw the line."

" Okay, but that doesn't explain what's up with the ice spot and glassy thingy," Sam says, bringing us back to the point of the conversation. " Not now," I tell them. I glance around the crowded room before looking back to them, "not here."

They look as if they are preparing to argue as I whisper, " in private." I get a couple of questioning looks as I continue, " Theres' too many people that could overhear" With the promise to talk about it later, our meal went back to everyday small talk and griping about whatever else is bothering us.

Thankfully they let it go. For now, at least.

We finish up our meal and leave the restaurant, then start on down the road. "So," Sam asks, looking in my direction, " where exactly are we going? Your place?" I start to agree but get cut off by Tucker, " We should go to the lot." I give him a questioning glance. He continues his thought, saying, " The picture in the article doesn't show much, and you never know the media could be over-exaggerating again."

"Why not," Sam says with the tone of excitement in her voice, " sounds like fun." I stop walking as I think it over. Before I can say anything, the two of them rush off ahead in the direction of the lot while a feeling of dread overtakes me. "Guys," I call out to them, trying to catch back up, " I don't think this is a good idea." I tell them in a rush, "I will tell you about it when we get to my place. We don't need to go there." Sam narrows her eyes at me before saying, "you're hiding something."

" No, that's not it," I wring my hands in my shirt, unsure of how to proceed. She doesn't let up with her glare at my words. Sam sighs and comes towards me, grabs my arm, and pulls me along with her. I try to pull myself away without hurting her, but I just can't seem to do it. Finally, I become resigned and hesitantly follow without protest.

Didn't they read the same article that I did? It says authorities looked at the lot. They would have had to call ghost experts. Who is to say that they still aren't there? What are we going to say if the Guys In White stuck around? Or even worse, my parents.

When we arrive, the lot is empty, only showing past signs of anyone having been here. The three of us cautiously walk towards the destruction. Next to me, I hear Tucker gasp before saying, "Oh my…" he stops himself before saying anything else. Sam isn't much better putting her hand around my arm in a vice grip.

Before them stands the evidence of one of my fights. In the daylight, the damage looks worse than it did under the moon, making me feel even worse about our actions than I already do. The ground doesn't look so much burned but scorched. As if a fire had burned away its beauty and left a hot steaming pile of muck in its place.

The few trees that line the property have missing limbs that have either splintered or lie on the ground. Shards of ectoplasm are scattered around in the grass, waiting for an unsuspecting human to fall victim to its goo or a ghost to impale its self on its sharp edges. In the middle of it, all is the spikey ice collum surrounded by the frozen frosty ground.

" So they under exaggerated this time," Tucker said, trying to bring humor to the situation, " who would have guessed." I look away from them, ashamed. " It didn't look this bad at night," I say softly, " It didn't" Unable to meet their eyes, I walk forward towards the Ice. Sam and Tucker tell me not to touch anything that I don't know where it comes from As I get near it. I ignore them and put my hand on the side of the spike. Even in human form, I am still unable to feel any of its coldness. It feels just as warm as the air around us, a little moist but not cold.

Sam and Tucker, at some point, walk towards the spike and join me at my side while I inspect the spike. " What does it feel like to you?" I ask. " Dude, it's Ice, it's cold. What else is it supposed to feel like?" I continue to glide my hand over the ice while telling them to humor me. I watch as they put their hands onto the ice, and as soon as they touch it, their hands go flying away from it. They both hold their hand as if something is attacking them. "Danny, how can you touch that!" Sam exclaims, " that stuff is freezing!"

" It feels warm to me," I tell them nonchalantly as if this is an everyday occurrence. " Danny, this isn't normal," Sam says in a worried tone. I don't say anything in response, knowing that this isn't normal for human beings, not at all. Instead, I stare at the ice, trying to figure out how to fix it, when suddenly, an idea comes to my head. I look towards them and hum to catch their attention, "Hey, do you think you can back up for a second? I have something I want to try."

As soon as they are far away enough, I check and double-check that no one is around. Before going forward on my idea, I yell to Tucker, " Tuck, can you check for cameras and stuff first?" He pulls out his PDA and tells me, " No problem with 'Simone' I'll know if anything is there in a jiffy." I wait a second until I hear him give the okay and start my attempt.

My eyes start to glow an icy ethereal blue as I stand before the spike and tap into my ice core. I can feel the cold rushing through me and out to my surroundings. In my presence, the spike starts to repair itself as I let my core come to the surface. In the middle of the spike, I can feel a connection to myself, its ectoplasmic connection to myself. Instead of pushing the ice out, I pull it in, and before my eyes, the ice starts to melt. Instead of shattering like before, it slowly becomes raw energy becoming a blue-white blob.

I gather as much energy as I can from the earth, defrosting it and adding it to the rest of the blob. I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding when all of the ice finished melting. I look around the lot for the scorched places, instinctively knowing what to do. I melt the icy ectoplasmic blob even more into water and send it around to saturate the ruined earth. When the ecto-water hits the ground, the earth lets out a satisfying hiss. The ground looks as if it has partially recovered, making it look like months have gone by instead of only a few hours since the initial conflict. Slowly I let go of my core, letting my eyes go back to their normal human hue. A smile comes to my face at my accomplishment, and I look over at Sam and Tucker. They are both staring at me with huge eyes with different emotions flashing through them: amazement, surprise, and wonder.

I go to take a step towards them when the world starts to spin. I feel myself stumble forward. " Danny!" I hear my name called out in fear and a rushing of feet coming to me. A wave of nausea hits me hard, and I lose my balance falling forward. Luckily Sam is just close enough for me to fall onto. "Danny," I hear my name called out again, " oh my gosh, are you okay?" Feeling too weak to answer, all I can do is groan.

" What are we going to do?" I hear Tucker ask Sam frantically, " we can make it to his place from here, and both of our houses are on the other side of town." The two of them keep coming up with ideas that won't work to get us out of the lot. I try to interject but just moving my mouth causes me pain.

Finally, I manage to groan out a name, "Jazz," but they don't seem to hear me. I try again, a bit louder this time, "Jazz," Sam stops talking, and when Tucker doesn't, I listen to her hit him in the back of the head. "Hey, what was that for" he complains, "Shush, Danny said something." With the raging quiet for the last time, I groan, "Jazz."

A quick vague phone call later and give or take a few minutes, Jazzs' car pulls up, and they give a sigh of relief. I hear a door slam and a worried Jazz making her way over. When she gets to us, I try to look up at her and grab her attention, but I am unable to reach her eyes. " What happened" She interrogated as she crouches down to take hold of me. I feel fatigued and start to lose track of the conversation. The next thing I know, someone has picked me up, and I'm in the car. I feel at ease with the motion of the car as we race home. It doesn't take long for me to close my eyes and fall asleep.

When I come to, I'm staring at the old stick-on stars that are attached to my bedroom ceiling. I cautiously sit up, feeling the strain of an invisible muscle, my core, in my chest. My sister and friends are spread out in the room, passed out exhausted. I glance at the clock next to my bed and read the time 3:18 AM. I try to get up from the bed, but I tumble down onto the floor. The sound wakes up Jazz, making her spring into action, helping me back up. "Hey," she whispers, "don't move too fast. You are still recovering."

I wince a little at the movement. Once she gets me steady, I whisper, "Can you help me get to the bathroom." She nods and carefully helps me to the bathroom. Once everything is situated, Jazz brings me back to my room and helps me onto the bed. I scoot over, making enough room for her to join me, which she quickly accepts.

"They told me what happened at the lot," she says, motioning towards my friends, " What were you thinking trying something like that?" She admonishes. I snuggle into her, getting comfortable before starting my defense, " I was just trying to clean up the mess we make," With a look, I explain further, " Skulker and I fought there last night. It went a little longer than expected. I didn't realize that we made such a mess."

"What about the ice," she inquires. I give half a shrug, " It was unexpected; I don't know how it happened." I tell her truthfully, " I plan to go visit Frostbite this weekend and see if he knows anything." She starts raking her hand through my hair then continues the conversation, " They said you got rid of the ice and fixed part of the ground? They didn't explain it too well. Care to elaborate?"

"It's weird. I just kind of knew how to do it. It was like…." I trail off, not liking the word I need to use. Jazz, unfortunately, knew where to pick up at, "Instinct?" She questions, with my silence being the only acknowledgment she needs. She sighs before saying, "It's okay, you know, to admit it." We lay there for a while before I decide to respond, " I can't." I react in denial, " If I acknowledge it, then it makes it true." Jazz lets out a breathy laugh at that, " So, what if you don't talk about it? It's going to go away?"

" I wish," I mumble, "It's just if I talk about it, then it becomes more real. I can pretend to be normal." She scoffs at my response, " Normal is overrated anyway." I let out a yawn and looked over at the time 4:03 AM. " Can we talk about this later? It's late." She lets out a yawn of her own, having caught mine before saying accusingly, " You just don't want to talk about it." I don't deny her accusation but put some more distance between the two of us and painfully turn over.

What does she want me to tell her? That I feel drawn to go to Ghost Zone? That I like laying around in my ghost form? I can get away with feeling like me under the stars and use insomnia as an excuse, but there is no way to explain anything else. If I told her some of these things, it would just be more of a confirmation of what I already know: I'm a freak.

" Good night, Jazz."

"Good night, little brother."