#You can imagine Jack in this situation instead of Maddie if you want | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sunnys567 · 2 years

Text

Friends in Strange Places Ch. 3

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

https://archiveofourown.org/works/39040329/chapters/97656390

-------------------------------------------------- Within a secret lab in a castle that once belonged to the Wisconsin Dairy King, light flickered on the face of Vlad Masters. He was focused very intensely on the soldering project he was working on. He hadn't left the lab in the last seven hours.

In the corner of the lab, two green vultures were picking through a pile of various machine bits. They looked over at Vlad, who was totally absorbed by his work, then made eye contact with each other. One of them coked an eyebrow and the other nodded.

"Oi, Vlad, ve're gonna take a quick break. Stretch our vings a bit, ya know?"

"Yes, yes, very good." Vlad replied, not looking up from his soldering. "Take as long as you need."

"Vouldn't hurt to take a break yourself, yeah? You've veen vorking in here an awful long time."

"Perhaps later. I don't quite feel the need for one yet."

The first vulture looked at the second one who just shrugged. He set the machine part in his beak down, and the two of them turned intangible and flew through the floor.

They returned to solidity as they arrived in one of Vlad's libraries. A third vulture was perched on one of the armchairs by the fireplace, a newspaper in his wings. He looked up at the other birds' arrival.

"Dat lunatic's not still vorking, is he?" He asked the other two. They nodded solemnly in response.

"Ve tried to convince him to take a break," The raspy voiced vulture said. "But he vouldn't go for it."

"D'oh ver Pete's sake!" The lead vulture threw up his wings in indignation, his newspaper pages splattering across the floor. "Dis is just getting ridiculous! I'm going to go knock some sense into dat guy!"

With that, he turned intangible and flew up through the ceiling. The other two looked at each other.

"Think ve should go too?" The vulture with the glasses asked his companion.

"Nah. Poor Vlad's gonna feel attacked enough vith just him up there. Besides, I'd like to catch up on da local politics." The raspy voiced vulture replied, rifling through the pile of disconnected newspaper.

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

"Plasmius!" Vlad's heart almost stopped as the bird popped up from the floor. "I have a bone ta pick vith you!"

"Can't it wait? I'm rather busy."

"Dat's exactly da problem! Ever since you returned from Amity Park you've done nothing but vork, vork, vork! If you're not in da lab, you're on da phone! And vhenever you do go out it's just to talk vork vith da suits!"

"My apologies for having a job. It's a thing humans have."

"Don't you sass me! You know I know how all dat stuff vorks you great buffoon!"

The vulture perched on Vlad's work table.

"Even ghosts need a break from time to time Vlad. I mean, I get vhy you don't want to come down to Florida with me and da birds, but why don't you go back down to Amity, eh? Ve're close to securing a path to the Fenton's portal. I bet dat ghost kid would be happy to see you. You of all people know how lonely it can get, being in his position."

"He's not lonely. He has friends who are aware of his situation and understand and accept him for his 'position'." Vlad lifted his goggles and looked at the vulture. "He's a teenager. I don't imagine he wants to spend his time hanging around with an old man like me."

"Ay ay ay." the vulture shook his head. "Vell, vhat about dose other two, yeah? You should go down and catch up vith dos freaks."

"Jack and Maddie are ghost hunters." Realizing the vulture wasn't going to leave him alone, Vlad begun packing away his tools. "Do I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea for someone like me to spend long periods of time around them?"

The vulture slowly sighed.

"Vlad. You and I both know you're better dan dat. You've had twenty years of practice keeping your powers hidden. Heck, da kid's veen living vith dem for months and he hasn't veen found out. And if dat doofus hasn't been caught, you're more dan safe."

"I don't want to bother them."

The vulture raised his eye brow at Vlad.

"Dat's veak Vlad. Ve saw how happy dos idiots vere to see you when dey came down here."

"I told you to stop spying on me when I have guests!"

"And I vant you to stop lying to my face, but ve can't all get vhat ve vant, can ve?"

The two of them glared at each other.

"You know, Vlad," the vulture's tone became uncharacteristically soft "You've been cooped up in dis castle with no one but us ghosts for da last two decades. Change can be scary, but it can also be good fer ya, you know? Personally, I tink you deserve to go after what makes you happy for a change, yeah?"

Vlad stared at his neatly organized soldering kit for a few seconds.

"Perhaps you're right."

"Finally!" the vulture threw up his wings and smiled "You're starting to listen to reason!"

"I'm going to the cabin for the week. That should provide a sufficient break."

The vulture's sour expression was back in an instant.

"Oh no, you're not fooling anyvun! You're gonna spend da whole veek collecting, and analyzing and basically da same stuff you do around here anyway. Dat cabin just means more vork!"

"Well, it'll be a break form your squawking, at any rate." Vlad said as the door to the lab slid open. "You three can handle the rest of the cleanup, can't you? Great. I'll be upstairs, packing for my trip."

The door slid closed before the lead vulture could respond.

"Oooooh, dat Plasmius." he fumed. "If he didn't give such good vacation time, I'd peck dat idiot's eyeballs out."

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

Maddie sighed next to Jack on the couch.

He was working on a cross stitch pattern of a ghost. She was holding an old photograph of a time she'd taken Danny to Amity Park Park when he was nine. In the photo Maddie was hugging the smiling Danny's shoulders. They both looked so happy.

They didn't seem to have days like that anymore.

"I miss Danny." she said out loud.

"I think he's up in his room." Jack responded without looking up from his work.

"Or did I send him to clean up the lab?" he tapped his chin thoughtfully with the needle.

"No, not like that Jack. It feels like we used to be a lot closer than we are now. Danny would always come to me about everything. Problems, secrets, or even just to ramble about space." Maddy smiled briefly at the memory before frowning again. "I'd give anything for him to open up to us. Or even just hear him list the moons of Jupiter or something."

"Speaking of space, he is a teenager Madds. Teenagers need space to grow and figure themselves out."

"I know Jack." Maddie sighed. "It just almost seems like he's purposely been avoiding us for the last few months. Have you noticed how quiet and nervous he's gotten? And it feels like it came on suddenly. Ever since the-"

Their conversation was interrupted by the doorbell.

"I'll get it!" Jack cried, practically leaping from his seat. Maddie smiled. That man was like a distractible puppy. She sighed and went back to staring longingly at the photo.

Jack opened the door and met the most dour looking letter carrier he'd ever seen. He wordlessly handed Jack a white envelope.

"Thanks man." Jack said.

Were you supposed to tip delivery people? Jack thought the mail carriers usually just dropped letters in the mailbox and left, so he wasn't sure what the protocol was here.

He had heard stories about the US postal service that were scarier than any ghosts he'd ever faced, so he figured he'd better tip the letter carrier, just to be safe.

He dug through his pockets for a coin and flipped it into the mail carrier's hand. The coin almost seemed to disappear in his palm. Weird.

Jack began to retreat into his house. "By the way," he paused halfway through closing the door "You might want to get some sun, pal. You're as pale as a ghost." He shut the door the rest of the way before the carrier could respond.

There was no return address on the envelope. In fact, there wasn't any address at all. Not even a stamp. Not a clue as to who it was for. Guess I'll just have to open it and find out. Jack thought, as he sliced open the envelope with a Fenton Letter Opener they kept on the table near the door. He pulled out the contents, which were a piece of paper and a brochure. He quickly skimmed the letter as he walked back to Maddy.

"It seems to be for Danny." He said, handing the letter and brochure over to her. "Some kind of science-convention thingy he was randomly selected for."

Maddie sat up and hungrily scanned the papers. She was beaming when she finished reading.

"Jackpot!" Maddie pounded her fist in the air. "This is is exactly what the doctor ordered!" she said, seemingly talking to the paper. Where's Danny?"

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

Up in his room, Danny was in an intense state of focus. He summoned a small ball of ecto energy and held it, clenching his hand into a tight fist.

Tucker and Sam, who were sitting on a bean bag and an office chair respectfully, gave each other doubtful glances.

The energy around Danny's hand began to glow brighter. Sweat began to gather around Danny's forehead. He tried as hard as he could to maintain the ball's stability while feeding it more energy, but eventually he lost control and a giant ecto beam shot out of Danny's hand, the kickback knocking him off the bed.

Sam and Tucker ducked as the beam bounced wildly around Danny's room before flying out the open window. A horrible squacking sound was heard from outside.

"That...was probably nothing." Tucker said.

"Hey, um, maybe we should move this somewhere safer, preferably without delicate computers and open windows?" Sam asked.

"Ugh!" Danny grunted in frustration as he got up from the floor. "I've been practicing forever, but I haven't made any progress!" Danny looked down at his hand. "How did Vlad even do that?"

"Maybe you could ask him?" Sam suggested.

"I'd love to!" Danny threw his arms into the air before flopping down onto his bed. "But he hasn't been back since the Axiom fiasco."

"Wait, seriously? But that was..."

"Nearly two months ago." Danny finished for her.

"Really? Dang." Tucker said. He looked over at Sam. "I thought you said he'd try to clear up his schedule."

"It was an educated guess," Sam raised her hands defensively. "But still just a guess. Does seem kind of weird, though."

"I overheard Mom say she's basically given up on calling him." Danny said. Sam frowned at that statement.

"That's a shame." Tucker said. "I'd hoped we'd see him again. That guy was cool. Kind of scary, but cool. Equal parts scary and cool."

Danny laughed at that.

"I know what you mean. I literally thought he was a nightmare I was having the first time I ran into him."

"He must really hate your parents, Danny." Sam said.

"What?"

"I mean, he's obviously avoiding them. Unless he's got beef with you. You didn't say anything stupid to him, did you?"

"What, no! But why would he be avoiding my parents? They're his best friends."

"You know Danny," Tucker said "We're your best friends, and you typically don't go twenty years in between seeing us."

"Guys!" Danny was starting to get ticked. He didn't know why Sam and Tucker were so on Vlad's case. "When Vlad got turned half-ghost by the accident, he didn't have nearly as much information as we did. He was figuring everything out on his own. It's perfectly reasonable that he was worried about slipping up and accidentally revealing himself to someone, especially my ghost-hating parents. I mean, remember how worried we were at first?"

"Okay, but he can control his powers now." Sam said. "So why's he still hiding?"

That made Danny pause. Why was Vlad still-

Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by Danny's door being kicked open.

"Dad!" Danny said "What have I told you about- wait, Mom?"

"Sorry Sweetie, I know privacy's important, but I was just so excited to show you this!"

She thrust out a piece of paper towards him.

"The...Rekluks Center Science Symposium?" Danny read.

"Working to lure and capture unique scientific minds with our educational display of rare scientific collections?" Tucker read from the pamphlet.

"Yup. Pack you bags Danny, we're going to Florida!"

"What?" Danny said.

"What?" Tucker and Sam said together.

"What?" Jazz head popped into Danny's doorframe. -------------------------------

"At least you're going somewhere." Jazz moped. Tucker and Sam had long since left, and Danny was waiting in the living room for his mom to finish getting ready to go. "Meanwhile I'm doomed to special alone bonding time with Dad."

"And I'm stuck on a plane all weekend with Mom. Want to trade?"

"I'd love to. That science symposium actually sounds interesting. Who were the organizers agian...Rekluks?" Jazz narrowed her eyes at the pamphlet. "Okay, that sounds more like some kind of Bionicle name than a real organization, which I guess makes sense for a company run by a bunch of weirdos in Florida." Danny raised an eyebrow.

"Bionicles Jazz?" he smirked.

"Oh! Look at whatever Mom and Dad are doing!"

Danny looked over and saw his dad handing his mom some kind of belt.

"To keep you safe from ghosts, I converted the family ghost shield into this! I call it the Spectre Deflector! No ghost creeps gonna lay a hand on you in Florida!"

Or talon, Danny thought to himself.

"That's wonderful Jack!" Maddie smiled, fastening the belt around her waist. "Are you sure you and Jazz will be alright without the ghost shield for the weekend?" Maddie smiled, fastening the belt around her waist.

"The two of us'll be fine. We've got all the other ghost weapons here. I'd rather you had the protection. You never now what can happen." Jack narrowed his eyes ominously.

"Yeah, I might get bored to death." Danny muttered.

Jazz patted him sympathetically on the back.

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

"Isn't this nice Danny?" Maddie smiled at him from the other side of the table.

"Our own private plane for a weekend getaway with just the two of us?"

"Do you want the truth, or one of those little white lies I tell you to not hurt your feelings?" Danny scowled.

Maddie sighed.

"Look Danny, I know this was kind of sprung on you, but maybe we should try not starting off on the wrong foot. Just look out at that sunny Florida coastline!"

"Folks, this is your captain speaking," a voice on the overhead said. "If you look to your left, you'll notice the cold hard landscape of the Colorado Rocky Mountains."

"Colorado?" Danny looked out the window. "But that's nowhere near Florida!"

"And if you look to your right," the captain continued "You'll see me evacuating the plane before it goes careening out of control."

Danny and Maddie rushed over to the other side of the plane just in time to see the pilot falling for a few seconds before he was obscured by a parachute.

They looked at each other before rushing to the front of he plane. The cockpit was empty.

Maddie jumped into the pilot's seat and grabbed the controls.

"They're jammed!" she grunted, yanking ineffectively at the wheel. "I don't know how we're going to get out of this one!"

"I know one way." Danny quietly groaned. He crouched down and transformed.

This wasn't at all how he wanted his mom to find out, but it was objectively better than dying.

He stood up and grabbed Maddie's shoulders. The light on the buckle of the Spectre Deflector glowed green, and Danny was suddenly enveloped in painful green electricity. He stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, transforming back into his human form.

Maddie, who'd been too occupied to notice what Danny had been doing, shortly gave up with the controls. She looked up and saw Danny dazed on the ground.

"Danny!" she jumped out of her seat. "Are you alright?"

She moved to put a hand to Danny's forehead, but he slapped it away.

"I'm fine mom!"

A brief look of hurt flashed across Maddie's face, but it was soon replaced by a focused determination as she scanned the cabin. She suddenly shot up and dashed back into the cabin of the plane, shortly returning with two grey backpacks with giant green 'F's stitched onto them.

"Put that on!" she said, thrusting one at Danny. "We're jumping!"

Danny swung the backpack over his shoulder as he followed Maddie out of the cockpit. Once she'd double checked Danny's parachute was secure, Maddie threw open the emergency exit door and she and Danny jumped.

They freefell for a few seconds.

"Three...two...one! Deploy you chute Danny!"

Danny pulled the string, and after the initial jolt, he and Maddie were both gently floating to the ground.

"Why on earth did you bring your own parachutes?" Danny asked, the adrenaline beginning to wear off.

"In case ghosts attacked the plane."

"Seriously? Why would a ghost ever be involved in hijacking a plane?"

"Folks, this is your captain speaking," Maddie and Danny both looked over to see the pilot floating down next to them "I'm here to inform you that you've been the victim of a cruel hoax."

There was a sudden pop and a flash of light, and the pilot and his parachute were transformed into a green ghostly mail carrier.

"Happy landing!" he said before flying out of sight.

Maddie gave Danny a smug look. He crossed his arms saltily as the two of them descended below the treetops.

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

They passed the next few hours in silence, Maddie slicing her way through the foliage, Danny following closely (but not too closely) behind. He was very careful not to accidentally touch her.

Eventually, the sun began to dip below the horizon and Maddie decided they should stop by a small stream to make camp.

Maddie put Danny in charge of making the fire while she set up camp. Luckily, she'd happened to bring along sleeping bags in dehydrated pills, which Danny thought was kind of insane, but admittedly convenient.

When she was done setting those up, alongside a lean-to shelter, Maddie sat down next to the tired Danny by the fire. She started rifling through her hip bag.

"Fenton jerky?

"Why do you have all this?" Danny asked, taking a piece.

"It never hurts to be prepared Danny. Case in point." Maddy gestured to the woods around them.

"Yeah. You wouldn't happen to have a cell phone in there, would you?"

"How would that help you if a ghost attacked?" Maddie laughed.

Once Danny had finished his jerky, he noticed that his mom hadn't even started hers.

"Y'know Danny," she said, fiddling with the jerky in her hands "Being stranded in the woods aside, I'm glad we're getting to spend this time together."

"I guess."

There was another pause. Maddie sighed.

"I feel like we haven't been doing that a lot lately."

"I'm a teenager now. I have homework, and I hang out with Sam and Tucker, and you and dad have your ghost stuff."

"I know teenagers have their own lives and don't want to hang out with boring adults all the time, Danny. I was a teenager once and I've already raised one." Maddie laughed briefly before her face turned serious.

"I understand that you need space, but it just seems like ever since the accident-"

"The accident has nothing to do with anything!" Danny said a little too quickly. Maddie looked at him for a few seconds before she continued talking.

"Look, Danny. It's okay if you're mad at your father and me. I wouldn't blame you. It's just that, whatever's going on, I don't want you to feel like you have to hide it from us. "

As Maddie was talking, she reached out and brushed Danny's hand. Danny yelped at the shocking sensation and pulled his hand away.

"Don't touch me!" he snapped. Maddie looked like he'd slapped her.

"Danny, I'm sorry, I-"

"I'm going to sleep now." Danny shot up and began dragging one of the sleeping bags away from the makeshift tent. Maddie didn't stop him.

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

Danny was having trouble sleeping. He couldn't get his mom's hurt face out of his head.

He hadn't meant to snap at her. Really, he hadn't. The Spectre Deflector just hurt. A lot. He knew how that must have looked to his mom, but what was he supposed to tell her?

Danny rolled over and sighed. What did she mean about the accident? Sure, some of his time had been eaten up by ghost hunting, especially when the portal first opened, but major ghosts only popped up a few times a month at most now. He'd actually gone back to making his curfew and turning in his homework. Things were getting better, so what was worrying his mom?

Had she noticed him trying to hide his powers? Did she notice how nervous he got whenever they brought out their latest device? She'd never noticed his powers acting up, but did she notice him running away at random times?

Danny thought he'd been hiding it well, but his mom seemed to realize that something was off. Were other people noticing? Did his dad and Jazz notice? Okay, his dad probably hadn't, but Jazz had been offering to drive him to school a lot more lately, and there was that incident with the guidance counsellor.

At the time Danny had been focused on the fact that Spectra turned out to be a joy-sucking ghost, but Jazz really had been trying to get Danny some help.

She'd also mentioned the accident. Just like his mom had.

Was keeping his ghost powers a secret affecting his relationship with his family?

Danny sat up and got out of his sleeping bag. This was a lot. He needed a break from thinking, and he needed to pee.

He'd barely walked a few feet into the trees when he felt the familiar chill run up his body and out his mouth.

His ghost sense.

Danny was suddenly on high alert.

He barely heard it. An almost imperceptible click, but it was enough to make Danny instinctively lean left, just in time to see a blue beam shoot past him on the right.

He squinted in the direction the beam came from and spotted the faintest glow amongst the branches. There was a soft rustling as the glow retreated into the woods.

"Oh no you don't!" Danny said, thrusting up his arms. "I'm Going Ghost!"

The woods were briefly illuminated by the dual white rings that travelled up and down his body, changing him into ghost form.

The woods darkened again as his transformation concluded, but now Danny's ghostly aura lit up the area around him, making it easier to navigate the woods.

"Even when I'm on vacation, you ghosts just can't leave me alone!" Danny complained as he flew after the ghost.

He didn't have to fly for long before the light from the other ghost was once again visible through the trees. Danny quickly shot out an ecto blast. He heard the snapping of wood and a deep grunt as the blast hit its target.

Danny stopped flying as he emerged into a small clearing. Standing at the other end, shoulder slightly smoking, was none other than-

"Skulker?"

"Surprise whelp!" Skulker said, a bazooka on his shoulder, that Danny somehow hadn't noticed before, whining to life.

Danny barely moved out of the way in time to hear the crunch of a tree splintering apart where he had just been.

"What are you doing in Colorado? And how did you get back in your ecto skeleton?"

"If there's one thing I've learned as a hunter, it's how to be patient and resourceful!"

"Um, actually, that's two-" Danny was interrupted by Skulker whipping out a wrist blaster and nailing Danny square in the chest. The blaster wasn't as powerful as the bazooka, but it was enough to knock Danny back into the trees.

Danny recovered pretty quickly, though, and managed to look up just in time to see a blue net headed straight for him. He quickly blasted it to shreds before retreating into the trees, hoping that would make it harder for Skulker to hit him.

After flying a good distance away, Danny looked over his shoulder. He didn't see Skulker.

Danny stopped and looked around. He couldn't spot any signs of Skulker anywhere. Where was he?

A jolt of electric pain suddenly hit Danny in the back, making him cry out. The pain spread through the rest of his body and lingered, forcing Danny out of the air. He felt himself transforming back into human mode.

"What the-" Danny tried to transform back but it didn't work. "How did you-"

He looked up and saw Skulker standing over him, a wide grin on his face and a small taser-looking device clutched in his hand.

"This device designed to suppress your ghost powers. For the next few hours, you're nothing more than a pathetic human. I call it, the Ecto Minimus!"

"Wow, did you come up with that name all by yourself?" Danny hoped his sarcastic tone was covering up how terrified he was.

"You may have bested me back on your own turf, whelp," Skulker said, hoisting Danny up by his shirt collar "But the great outdoors is the domain of Skulker, the greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone!"

Danny gulped.

Suddenly, a shrill unearthly battle cry rang through the night, and a large shape descended on Skulker from the treetops, causing him to drop Danny to the ground.

Danny watched as Skulker struggled to remove the attacker from himself, but they clung on tight and relentlessly pounded at his helmet.

"You get your filthy mitts off my son you giant hunk of ecto-junk!"

"Mom?"

Maddie Fenton continued to slash and yell. Sparks began flying off of Skulkers helmet in every direction. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Skulker turned himself intangible, Maddie's screams finally relenting as she fell to the ground. Skulker flew backwards a few feet and then turned invisible.

"Your invisibility tricks won't work on me ecto-freak!" Maddie yelled into the trees

"If I see you anywhere near me or my son I will personally slice every limb of your ecto armour to shreds!"

Maddie turned and walked towards Danny, her face softening.

"Danny, are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm okay..."

"Then you'd better have a good explanation," her face hardened again "for what you were doing so far from camp young man."

She reached down and grabbed Danny's arm.

"Wait! Mom, don't-"

"Oh no, you are not getting out of this." Maddie interrupted, pulling Danny onto his feet. "Running into the middle of the woods by yourself as night is incredibly dangerous."

To Danny's surprise, the Spectre Deflector didn't go off. Wow. That Ecto Minimus really worked. The name still sucked.

"I didn't run off, Sk- the ghost attacked me at camp."

"And you ran into the woods instead of towards me? Danny, that's basically playing right into its hand!"

"It wasn't like I was trying to get killed by a ghost!"

Maddie sighed. It wasn't an angry sigh, though.

"I'm sorry Danny. You're right, it's not like you got attacked on purpose. I was just so worried. When I woke up to those horrible noises, and then you weren't in your sleeping bag, and- anyway it doesn't matter."

Maddie began rifling through her bag. She pulled out a key and inserted it into the Spectre Deflector.

Danny felt more guilt being added on to the already immense pile in his stomach.

"Mom, I-"

Before Danny could finish speaking she'd snapped the Deflector around his own waist.

"I didn't think we'd actually run into any ghosts on this trip," she said "But, since I seemed to have been wrong about that, you'd better wear that for protection Danny. And stay close to me. Who knows what could be lurking in these woods."

With that, Maddie turned around and began slicing through the foliage. Danny gave the Specter deflector a few experimental tugs. It was not coming off.

"Well this is just great." he said to himself before setting off to follow his mom.

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

They walked in silence for a long while. Maddie was continuously scanning their surroundings as they walked, ready for action. She didn't notice how Danny flinched every time a leaf so much as rustled.

He hated to admit it, but Danny was feeling incredibly off-kilter and vulnerable without his powers. It was like a part of him was missing. A part of him that would be really useful if they happened to get attacked by a ghost, which was likely in this situation.

Maddie suddenly froze and threw her arm out in front of Danny. He almost bumped into her in the dark.

She turned to look at him and pointed ahead. Danny wasn't sure how he missed it but, just on the other side of the bushed they were standing behind, was a glowing green moose. It's head was bent over a small stream.

Danny had never seen a moose before and was rather taken aback by the creature's size. Was it just huge because it was a ghost? Danny knew moose and deer were different, but this ghost was a lot bigger than the deer he'd seen back at home.

The ghost moose lifted it's head and turned to look directly where Maddie and Danny were standing.

All three of them just stood there looking at each other for a solid minute. It felt like an hour.

"I'm going to approach it." Maddie finally whispered. "Try and scare it off."

"Mom are you crazy!" Danny hissed back. "Look at the size of that thing, there's no way it'll be scared by you!"

"No matter how big it is, Danny, it's still a ghost. And any ghost that knows what's good for it will fear me."

That statement kind of made Danny fear her, even if he wasn't technically a ghost right now. He held his breath as Maddie stepped out from behind the bushes. She approached the ghost slowly but confidently, Fenton Machete poised in front of her torso.

The moose's fur began to fluff up and its ears went back.

Did that mean his mom's plan was working? Was the ghost scared?

A rustling from above made Danny to snap his head up. Above him in the trees, three pairs of glowing red eyes were staring down at him.

"Mom?" Danny said, right as another rustle sounded in the bushes behind the moose.

"Shh!"

"Mom, the moose isn't alone."

Maddie turned her head around to look at Danny. That was when the the moose began to bat the ground with it's front hooves. Danny didn't know how he knew, but he knew that that wasn't a good sign.

"Mom look out! The moose!" he shouted.

Maddie barely had time to jump out of the way as the moose attempted to charge her. It sailed past, but turned right back around and started pawing the ground again.

A bunch of green glowing goats jumped out from the bushes Danny had seen rustling earlier and started bleating like crazy, their cries causing a cacophony of chaos and confusion. Many of them tried to ram Maddie, but she fought them back expertly, dodging half of them and deflecting the other half with her machete. It was both incredible and terrifying to watch.

Danny's eyes were drawn away from the tense battle by the sound of horrible hissing above him. The raccoons were all standing straight up and their teeth were bared menacingly.

In the distance Danny saw some large green birds approaching from above. Danny assumed they would be about as friendly as the rest of the ghost animals.

"I can handle them Danny!" Maddie called from the throng of goats. "It's you I'm worried about! Run!"

It was like a battle was going on in his body. On the one hand, he was powerless, unarmed, and in great danger here, but he couldn't just leave-

"I SAID RUN DANNY!"

The part of Danny's brain telling him to run won out at the desperation in his mother's voice, and he was suddenly fleeing from the ghost animals as fast as his legs could take him.

It was hard to navigate through the thick brush in the dark. Danny almost tripped at least twenty time, but he kept running. His lungs began to burn, but he didn't stop.

After a bit, Danny noticed a light in the distance. For a second he was worried it was Skulker, but the light was more yellow than Skulker's sterile white aura. Danny had no idea what that light could be, but he decided to find out. He got as close as he could without being detected and stopped running.

Big mistake.

Every muscle in his body was suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion.. Danny began panting, gulping in as much air as he could, but it didn't help the burning in his lungs.

Danny looked into the light. His vision had actually gone blurry from the exertion, but he could see that there was a person holding an electric lantern. He hoped they were friendly.

"Daniel?"

Wait a minute, he knew that voice.

"Vlad?"

"What in the sweet sarsaparilla are you-"

The sound of rusting leaves interrupted them.

"Get behind me." Vlad commanded, reaching to push Danny out of the way.

"No, Vlad, wait I-"

Too late. Vlad's hand made contact with Danny, and the light on the Spectre Deflector went off. Vlad screamed as green electricity enveloped him. He yanked his hand away from Danny and fell to the ground. The sparks faded, but Vlad was still dazed.

Danny's head snapped toward the woods where the rustling was getting louder. He realized he was too weak and tired to fight back or run as he looked between the dazed Vlad and the rustling trees, panic rising.

He braced himself for the worst as the noises were suddenly right next to them. A group of small green animals burst from the foliage, heading straight towards Danny and Vlad. They were moving too fast for Danny to identify them all, but he was pretty sure saw some rabbits and chipmunks.

Danny instinctively threw his arms up in front of his face, but the animals just ran right past the two of them, disappearing back into the woods. They either ran around or between Vlad and Danny.

Danny watched the swarm of animals until they stopped coming. A green squirrel jumped down from above somewhere and landed beside Vlad. It turned to face him and began chittering wildly, waving it's arms frantically.

"Sorry, Joe." Vlad said, leaning on his elbow to face the squirrel. "I left the translator back at the lodge. I don't know what you're trying to tell me, but rest assured, if there's trouble afoot, I will find and take care of it." Vlad said the last bit with a finality that almost made Danny shudder.

This seemed to satisfy the squirrel, who ran off after the other animals. The woods were suddenly quiet again.

"Well," Vlad grunted, pushing himself onto his knees. "Something seems to have gotten them riled up."

"Yeah. Uh, are you okay?" Danny asked, offering a hand to help him up.

"Yes dear boy, I'm quite alri-" as Vlad grabbed Danny's hand, the indictor light on the Spectre Deflecter went off again and Vlad was once again screaming and sparking. Panicking, Danny dropped his hand, causing Vlad to fall back down to the ground. The electricity quickly vanished.

"Oops, sorry. You should, uh, probably avoid touching me."

"Noted." Vlad gritted from the ground.

Danny was worried he'd done some serious damage. He let out a sigh of relief when Vlad finally sat up.

"Beef brisket," Vlad swore as he rubbed his head "Whatever you've got there packs quite the punch."

"My dad calls it the Spectre Deflector. He converted the house ghost shield into a belt to protect my mom from ghosts on our trip."

"I suppose a personal protective device of that nature would require such a powerful regulator." Vlad nodded. "But why on earth isn't it effecting you?"

"My powers got disrupted. I'm all human for the next...well, I don't actually know how long." The Ecto Minimus did wear off, right? Skulker had implied it did. Danny sure hoped it did. "But I am zero per cent ghost right now, I guess." "The Spector Deflector can disrupt your powers?"

"No, it electrocutes me too. I ran into Skulker earlier. He's got some kind of new gizmo."

"Butter biscuits! I thought Skulker had abandoned this area! And here I thought this would be a nice peaceful week of quiet research." Vlad floated back onto his feet and brushed himself off. "You mentioned your mother. Is she around?"

"Yeah, but we got separated a bit ago. I think Skulker rigged up this whole trip as a way to get to me."

"I suppose that makes sense. Which direction were you with her last? We should start walking."

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

"...and so after my mom kicked Skulker's butt we ran into a buch of ghost animals and got seperated." Danny finished explaining as he and Vlad walked.

"It seems Skulker's caused you quite a bit of trouble this weekend. He always has been rather persistent. And annoying."

"Can't argue with you there." Danny laughed. "So, what brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"Ghost research."

"Can't you do that back in Wisconsin?"

"As it happens, Skulker used to use these very woods as a sort of practice hunting ground. He left it many years ago, but the spirits' of the beasts Skulker slayed still linger here, making it one of the most lucrative spots for ghost research. Outside of the Ghost Zone itself, of course."

"I didn't know animals could leave ghosts."

"Didn't we fight three such spectres the last time we met?"

"Oh. Yeah, I mean, I kinda thought ghosts like that just...formed I guess?"

"It is true that some creatures seem to be able to manifest a form from the excess ectoplasm in the Ghost Zone. I assume the formation of the ghosts in these woods was somewhat relevant to the spectral nature of their hunter, but it is quite difficult to determine what truly causes a ghost to form. Similar trials have yielded completely different results, so the question of what ghosts are and where they come from may perhaps always be a mystery."

Danny was too stunned to speak. It was like someone had taught his parents to talk fancy.

They continued to walk in silence for a bit.

Danny suddenly rememebered something that he wanted to talk to Vlad about.

"Vlad." Danny said. "We haven't seen you in months."

"I've been busy, Daniel." Vlad said. "Between my CEO duties and arduous ghost research, it can be rather difficult to find the time to stop by."

Danny thought back to his conversation with Sam and Tucker.

"Do you...actually want to see us?"

"What? Of course, don't be ridiculous."

Vlad seemed genuinely taken aback by Danny's accusation. Danny didn't want to offend him, but something about the whole situation just wasn't sitting right, and Danny knew that it would continue to bug him if he didn't find out. And if he didn't find out now, then he might not see Vlad for another few months.

"To be honest, if really feels like you don't."

"Daniel, I told you, I'm extremely busy, and-"

"It's been months. You've only stopped by once since the reunion. And you don't pick up the phone when my mom calls you."

"As I said," Vlad's tone was steadily getting less friendly. "I'm-"

"Busy, yeah, I know." Danny was running out of patience too. "I get that you've got a lot going on, but honestly it just seems like you can't be bothered to haul your butt down to Amity to see us."

"That's enough Daniel. Drop it."

"Are you telling me you're too busy for a five-minute phone conversation? Or even an e-mail?"

"I said drop it."

"I just want to know why. Are you still angry at them? You say you're not, but you act like you-"

"How could I be angry at them?!" Vlad's eyes glowed a dangerous red. "They're my only friends! You have no idea what you're talking about!"

Danny took a startled step back.

The red glow faded from Vlad's eyes. He looked horrified by what he'd just done.

"Daniel, I-"

A blue blast suddenly came out of nowhere and hit Danny, knocking him back into a tree.

"Daniel!" Vlad cried. He turned to face where the beam had come from, anger in his eyes.

Skulker stepped out from the shadows, a wide grin on his metal face.

"Well, what do you know," he smiled "I didn't expect to run into both halfas in the same place."

A black ring appeared around Vlad's waist.

"You have five seconds to explain who you are and what you want," the ring split in two, transforming him into his ghost form. "Before I personally tear you apart piece by piece."

"Vlad, that's Skulker," Danny said from the ground. The impact from the tree had left him too dazed to get up. "He's here for my pelt."

"That's Skulker? He was a lot smaller the last time I saw him. When did he get that armour?"

"You like it?" Skulker gestured to his suit. "I've had some upgrades! Now,"

Skulker raised his arm and fired at Vlad with a double barreled wrist blaster. Vlad went intangible and sunk into the ground.

Danny felt Vlad grab him from behind and rise into the air. He set Danny down on a particularly thick tree branch.

"Stay here." Vlad said, voice firm. "This shouldn't take long."

"Where else would I go?" Danny muttered, clutching the trunk of the tree as Vlad flew away.

After getting some distance from Danny, Vlad threw some pink energy blasts at Skulker. Unfortunately, he was able to dodge most of Vlad's hits using the the trees as cover. A few of Vlad's blasts did manage to hit Skulker, but they didn't seem to do much damage to his sturdy armour.

Skulker soon began firing back with his wrist blaster, but Vlad was able to use the trees to the same advantage Skulker had. Vlad was more nimble than Skulker, so he managed to avoid all of Skulker's blasts.

As Vlad dodged, he moved closer to Skulker and Danny saw him charge up ecto energy in his arm like he had the night he fought Technus. Once Vlad was close enough, he dashed over to Skulker and grabbed his wrist blaster with his charged-up hand, melting the blaster clean off Skulker's arm.

Vlad smirked as he unceremoniously dropped the deformed lump of metal to the ground.

Vlad threw a punch at Skulker, but Skulker managed to dodge it and jabbed Vlad with a familiar device. Danny's heart stopped as he watched him fall to the ground, screaming and surrounded by pink electricity.

The black rings returned, reverting Vlad to his human form.

A rare look of panic crossed Vlad's face. Some black stars sparked around him as he unsuccessfully attempted to change back into his ghost form.

Vlad pushed himself up from the ground and threw all his momentum into a punch directed at Skulker.

Grinning, Skulker reached out and caught Vlad's oncoming fist. Vlad could barely stifle a pained noise as his hand made contact with the hard metal of Skulker's armour.

"Nice try, Plasmius." Skulker sneered. "But I'm afraid both of you are useless in this form, and that terrifying blue hunter is currently occupied by my previous conquests, leaving both your pelts ripe for the picking."

"Ew." Danny and Vlad said at the same time.

"Complain all you want," Skulker pointed his arm canon directly at Vlad's face

"There's nothing you can do to escape your fate."

The gun began to whine. Vlad shut his eyes from the glare. Danny clutched the trunk of the tree even tighter.

SHWINK!

There was a sudden blur of motion, and Skulker's canon arm fell clean off, the glow from the barrel fading away.

Danny didn't recognize the figure standing beside Skulker right away. They were covered from head to toe in dark mud and leaves, which was probably why no one had noticed their approach.

"I warned you to stay away from my son ghost!"

"Mom?"

"Maddie?"

Maddie moved with incredible speed. She danced and hopped around Skulker, hacking at his armour with her Fenton Machete.

Skulker tried to fight her off, but his clunky armour clearly wasn't designed to take on such an agile opponent at close range. Bits of metal and sparks flew off of Skulker as he desperately flailed about, failing to hinder the enraged Maddie in any way. His other arm soon joined the first one on the ground.

"This is what happens when you mess with me ghost!" Maddie cried as she jammed the Fenton Machete into Skulker's face.

Skulker's head went flying and landed a few meters away. A tiny green blob with limb's crawled out from inside of it.

"I yield! I yield!" he squeaked "You are the superior hunter! I admit it! I'm out of here!"

The tiny Skulker turned intangible and dove into the ground.

Behind Maddie, the body of Skulker's now empty armour swayed and fell to the ground with a crash.

Danny and Vlad just blinked.

Maddie looked at Vlad.

"Now, what in the sweet sarsaparilla are you doing in Colorado, Vlad?"

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

"It's very fortunate we ran into you out there, Vlad." Maddie said. "You're sure it's not a bother having us here?"

"Oh don't be ridiculous Maddie." Vlad smiled "What else am I going to do? Just send you two out there to fend for yourselves in those treacherous woods? Preposterous. Anyway, this is where you'll be staying."

After clearing up some confusion and getting Danny out of the tree, Vlad had led the group back to his log villa. It was smaller than his mansion, but it was still quite big. Vlad told them it was a very old structure, but it had had electricity and running water installed at some point, which Danny was very thankful for.

Vlad had offered to give them a tour, but after spending hours on edge in the woods at night, Danny and Maddie just wanted to go to sleep. Vlad was very understanding and had led them directly to the spare bedrooms.

"Ooh, this is much ritzier than our makeshift campsite, eh Danny?" Maddie gently elbowed Danny in the side. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to change into a less muddy jumpsuit."

With that, Maddie walked into the bedroom and shut the door.

"She brought an extra jumpsuit, but no cell phone." Danny wasn't even surprised anymore.

"Yes, that does sound like Maddie." Vlad smiled fondly. "I'll show you your room now, Daniel."

Danny took a look around as they walked down the hall. All the walls in this house seemed to be made of wood planks or logs. It was kind of cool, looking at all the knots and long swirls of the grain. The floors were also wood, but they were mostly covered by fuzzy red carpeting.

They turned a corner, and Danny was blown away by the number of doorframes he saw. This house seemed to have infinity rooms.

"You sure have a lot of spare rooms. I didn't think you'd have too many guests here."

"Oh no, besides for the all the ghost animals, I never have company. The ones who originally built this house likely did. I believe that they had a rather large family. Anyway, here we are."

Vlad stopped walking and opened a door to reveal a room that was pretty similar to the one Maddie was staying in. Danny stepped in and looked around. The colours of the bed spread were very pale. The whole bed looked very soft. And comfy. Just looking at the bed seemed to increase Danny's already pretty high levels of tiredness.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard a chittering sound somewhere behind him. A green squirrel seemed to fall from the ceiling and landed on Vlad's shoulder. Vlad did not seem particularly surprised by this.

"Much appreciated, Joe." he said, accepting something shiny from the squirrel's mouth. Vlad tossed the object to Danny.

"Figured you could use that." he said.

Danny looked at the object in his hand. It was a key. He inserted it into the Spectre Deflector and turned it. There was an audible click and the belt unstrapped itself and fell from Danny's waist.

"Thanks." he said, picking up the Deflector and stuffing it in his pocket with the key. "But how did you get it?"

"I simply asked my friend here." Vlad smiled, gesturing to the squirrel on his shoulder. "I would have retrieved it myself, but it seems my intangibility yet to return."

The squirrel chittered indignantly on Vlad's shoulder.

"Ah yes, of course." Vlad dug somewhere under his collar and pulled out an acorn. He held it out to the squirrel, who snatched it and scampered away.

"You'd think providing them sanctuary would be enough of a reward on it's own." He said, watching the squirrel dart down the hall. "Then again, I suppose this isn't my house. I just pay for it."

"Wait, the animals live here?"

"Yes. Many years ago, when Skulker used to terrorize the animals here, I found out that he would persist after them even when they'd already been killed. I suppose he was testing the effectiveness of his gear on ghosts as well as the living. It felt cruel to torment those creatures endlessly, and Skulker had learned very quickly not to mess with me, so I told the animals that they could hide in the house. Even after Skulker left most of them stuck around. I still see them going in and out of here every time I stop by."

"So it's a real animal house here." Danny said.

Vlad smiled a little at Danny's joke.

"Your powers haven't returned yet, have they?" he asked.

Danny looked down at his hand. He tried to turn it invisible, but nothing happened.

"Nope."

"Shame. I wonder how long this lasts." Vlad stared at his own hand for a few seconds. "It's strange. For quite a while I actually despised my ghostliness and would have done anything to get rid of it. Even today I don't know if I'd say I like it, but now that it's gone, I feel sort of..."

"Incomplete?"

"Yes, that's the word. Anyway, I'll leave you now. I'm sure you're anxious to get some sleep." Vlad gave Danny a wave as he walked away.

Danny stared at the door where Vlad had just been. He knew exactly what he meant. The first month after the accident he'd have done anything to undo it, but now, well, he wasn't so sure. He'd kind of grown to like his powers. He probably wouldn't have any problems with being half-ghost if he didn't have to keep it a secret from his family. That was kind of the only downside. That, and getting electrocuted by the Spectre Deflector.

Exhaustion began to overtake Danny. He gave in and faceplanted into the bed. He wanted to lay there forever, but after about thirty seconds his body reminded him what he had been doing before Skulker showed up.

He'd needed to pee two hours ago and he hadn't. Now he really needed to pee. Quietly grumbling, Danny pushed himself off of the bed and began searching the halls, on the hunt for a bathroom.

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

Danny was completely lost. He couldn't find a bathroom, or the way back to his room.

Having the ability to fly and turn intangible would have been really helpful right now, Danny thought bitterly to himself. After another few minutes of roaming, Danny suddenly noticed a rhythmic creaking noise.

Crrk

Crik

Crrk

Crik

Curious, Danny walked in the direction the noise was coming from. He turned a corner and saw a light coming from a nearby room. He walked closer and peeked past the doorframe.

At the back wall of the room, near a large window, Danny saw the source of the creaking: an ancient looking rocking chair was steadily rocking back and forth. Why Vlad hadn't mentioned someone was here. Wait, hadn't he said he never had people over?

Danny froze when he noticed the spectral green tail hanging over the edge of the seat, swaying along to the rocking of the chair.

His powers still hadn't returned, so he had no way to protect himself if the ghost was hostile.

Maybe the ghost wasn't hostile?

Danny figured he should go tell Vlad about the ghost just in case. Even if Vlad didn't have weapons, his mom certainly would.

"Is that you, Vladdie dearest?" a voice asked from the rocking chair. Shoot.

"Um...n-no. My name's Danny. I'm staying here with Vlad for the night. Um, do you know him?"

The ghost laughed. It wasn't a mean laugh.

"Of course I know him dearest. Come in, come in. It's a bit foolish carrying a conversation from the hallway."

Danny stepped into the room. There wasn't much in it. Just a dresser and a bookshelf filled with knick-knacks. There wasn't even a bed. The light he'd seen was coming from one of those old oil lamps on the dresser. The walls were made of the same unfinished wood as all the other walls in the house, but there were a few colourful flowers crudely painted on them low to the ground.

"Don't be shy now. Come over here where I can see you, dearest."

Danny gulped. The ghost seemed harmless, friendly even, but he couldn't help feeling vulnerable without his powers. How did Sam and Tucker face malicious ghosts like this all the time?

Danny took a few steps towards the window. He almost jumped when the rocking chair began to float a few inches off the ground. The chair turned 180 degrees and sank back down to the ground.

"That's better." The ghost smiled. She was quite tiny. Her glowing skin was the translucent green colour that ghosts often were. She was wearing a matching dress and bonnet that were a horrendously pink gaudy floral patterns. Danny might've barfed if he'd seen that pattern in any other context, but they strangely seemed to suit the ghost that was wearing them.

She peered at Danny through the thinnest wire glasses he'd ever seen. Her eyes, despite glowing a menacing red, were shaped into soft slits as if she was half drifting off to sleep.

"Hmmm, the first human guest Vlad's had in years and it's a child. Strange. Are you Vlad's son perhaps? He's never talked about you." "What? Oh, no. I'm just a friend. My mom's friends with Vlad, and she's here too and she brought me along." Danny wondered if the ghost could tell how nervous he was.

"No guests for nearly twenty years then suddenly two guests? My that Vlad is a strange one. Ah, but where are my manners? I know your name, but you don't know mine. Danny, my name is Bernadette. My friends call me Bernie, though." She paused and narrowed her eyes at him. "You can call me Bernie, you seem like the friendly sort."

"It's, um, nice to meet you Bernie." Danny felt his body relax. He was 99% sure Bernie wasn't going to attack him at this point. That did leave Danny with the awkward problem of not knowing what to say to an elderly ghost.

"So...are you friends with Vlad?"

"Ah, dearest Vlad." Bernie smiled fondly. "What a nice young man. He takes such good care of me. Well, I suppose I don't need much taking care of, being a ghost and all, but the sweet thing always comes to see me when he's up here. He doesn't come up too much, he's so busy with his big company. He runs it, you know. But when he does come he always visits me. Asks how I'm doing, if I need anything, just sits and listens to me gab away. What a doll." Bernie looked over at the bookshelf.

"You know he brought all my treasures down for me from the attic when he first found me. Being a ghost makes it awful hard to pick things up, let me tell you. I do love not having to cook anymore, though. Anyway, Vlad went and fetched all my things the seconds I told him about them. He said it was to apologize for infesting my house with all the wild life, even though I didn't mind one bit. I rather like the little critters. Even the bears and such don't cause trouble. I always wanted to see some live bears up close when I was alive. Ma and Pa never let me get to close to them though. Quite dangerous creatures, when you're alive anyway. Which I'm not, so there Ma and Pa!" Bernie chuckled.

Danny felt a yawn coming on. He tried to stifle it but it had been a strenuous night, and it was quite late.

"My goodness!" Bernie's eyes widened slightly, as though she were snapping out of a daze. "How rude of me! I do forget you humans still need sleep! And here I am rambling away when you're so clearly tuckered out, you poor thing. Off you get now!"

"Oh, yeah, thanks. Sorry, I am kind of tired."

"No need to apologize young man. You've been nothing but patient and polite with me. Don't you worry about hurting my feelings. I've got nothing but time, and I'll go on for forever if you let me. Now off to bed with you."

"You wouldn't happen to know where the bathroom is, would you?"

"Considering I've been living in this house for the last five hundred years, I would hope so." Bernie laughed. "It's down the hall at your first left turn."

"Thanks Bernie." Danny said as he headed out the door. "Goodnight."

"Such a polite young man. Goodnight Danny."

As Danny left Bernie's rocker floated into the air and turned to face the window again.

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

Danny sighed. He'd found the bathroom, but now he was having trouble finding his room again. Why did everywhere in this lodge look the same?

He stopped when he heard voices coming from a nearby room.

His mom and Vlad must've been in there talking. Danny stopped by the doorway and peeked inside. The two of them were standing by an unlit fireplace, a nearby lamp giving the room a soft yellow glow. Danny assumed this was some sort of sitting room.

"...couldn't get the ectoplasm out of the carpet for weeks!" Danny heard his mom say. "You can still see it glowing when it's really dark outside!"

They laughed for a bit and then there was a few seconds of silence.

"You could come back with us, you know." Maddie said. "Jack would be ecstatic to see you."

"Sadly, I can't Maddie. I've got a tight schedule to keep. I would love to come down, but I simply don't have the time to spare."

Maddie picked up an ornament from the mantle. She looked at it as she spoke.

"You know Vlad, it's alright. You can tell me the truth."

"What do you mean?"

"I know you're still mad at us about the accident."

Vlad blinked a few times before responding.

"What? Of course I'm not mad, that was all in the past. I've told you, I don't hold any resentment towards you or Jack. It was an accident, after all."

"Then why don't you want to see us?"

"What? Don't be ridiculous, of course I want to see you. You and Jack are my best friends!"

"You say that Vlad, but you never stop by. I've called you. Many times, and you never call back."

"I'm CEO of a very lucrative company Maddie. That keeps me rather-"

"Busy. I know. Too busy to fit a five minute phone call in over the course of three months."

Maddie put the ornament back on the mantle and faced Vlad.

"And then the few times we do get to see you, you seem anxious to leave as soon as possible. You barely seemed like you wanted to be at our house the one time you stopped by. And even when you invited us to your place, you disappeared five minutes after we arrived, and then we barely got to see you at the party. There was an actual ghost attack, and you missed it!"

Maddie took a calming breath.

"I want to spend time with you, Vlad. I miss you. Jack and I both do. It was so painful, not seeing you for the last twenty years, but when we do see you now it feels like it's just to tease us before you go right back to ghosting us."

Maddie probably didn't notice how Vlad tensed up at that wording, but Danny did.

"We want to be friends with you again, Vlad, but honestly it doesn't seem like you really want to be friends with us. You don't trust us and that hurts. I can't stand what you're doing to me. I want to stop re-opening the wound you left. The worst part of all of this is that you can't even be honest about it."

Vlad didn't say anything. He didn't even move. He just stood there with a stupefied look on his face.

"I should go to bed." Maddie turned away from him.

That seemed to break Vlad out of his stupor.

"Maddie, I-"

"Thanks again for letting us stay the night."

Danny began to panic as his mom approached the door. He managed to turn himself invisible just as she entered the hall.

He turned invisible? Nice, his powers were back!

He turned visible again as soon as his mom was out of sight.

Danny peeked around the doorframe into the sitting room. He wondered if he should go in and talk to Vlad.

He took a deep breath and entered the room. Vlad turned at the sound of his footsteps.

"Oh, Daniel." Vlad's ever-present smile nowhere to be found. "What are you doing?"

He didn't sound angry, just tired.

"Uh, my ghost powers are back."

"Oh, good." Vlad didn't seem that excited about that news.

"Also I, uh, kind of heard that last bit of your conversation." Danny rubbed the back of his neck.

"Oh."

Danny had no idea what to say. He wondered if maybe he should have just left.

"I'm...sorry for snapping at you earlier." Vlad said "That was uncalled for."

"Oh." Danny said awkwardly. "It's fine."

"No, it was completely inappropriate." Vlad sighed. "I suppose the things you were saying weren't completely untrue. You and Maddie both. I just...didn't want to face them. You were right. I've...I've just been awful to Jack and Maddie, haven't I? To all of you."

Vlad sat on the sofa and buried his face in his hands. Danny had no idea what to do.

"I want to see them, I really do. I just...I can't risk them finding out."

"I get what you mean, I really do, but it's not too hard a secret to hide from them.

I've done pretty well, so it shouldn't be a problem for y-"

"No, Daniel," Vlad put his hands down and leaned on his lap. "It's different for me. I just...on some deep level I just can't risk Jack and Maddie finding out. If...if they knew what I...what I really was...I can't lose Jack and Maddie, I just can't! Then I-I'd have nothing..."

"It kind of seems like you already have."

Vlad looked at Danny. The most deflated expression he'd ever seen flashed across Vlad's face, but it quickly replaced with a neutral expression.

"I think," Vlad said as he stood up. "That I should go to bed. It's late."

His tone was level. Too level. Expressionless, he proceeded to walked past Danny.

"Wait!" Vlad stopped at the doorway. "I'm sorry, Vlad. I-I didn't mean to-"

"You didn't do anything wrong Daniel. I'm just...tired. Very tired. This night has...given me a lot to think about."

With that he turned around and walked out into the hall, leaving Danny alone in the sitting room. He sighed to himself. If only Jazz had been here. She'd probably know how to fix things between Vlad and Mom.

Not that she'd be working with the full picture, but still, she'd probably have done a better job than Danny did.

Vlad wasn't the only one that was tired. Danny yawned before heading back out to the hall to continue searching for his room. At least it would be easier to find now that his powers were back.

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

Danny wasn't sure what time he woke up the next morning, but the sun had fully risen. He stretched and put on his clothes from yesterday (which felt pretty gross).

The lodge was slightly easier to navigate in the daytime, so Danny only wandered around the halls for a little bit until he found the kitchen. His mom was already there, fully dressed and cooking some eggs.

"Good morning Sweetie. Did you sleep alright?"

"Yeah, I did. Is Vlad up yet?"

"He left a note." Maddie turned back to the eggs. "He said he had to set out early to get some stuff done, so he won't be around to see us off."

"Oh." Danny picked up the note from the island. His mom had summed it up pretty well. "Wait, what's he saying about a helicopter?"

"Oh, we discussed it last night. Vlad keeps a helicopter out here for emergencies, and he's letting us take it to get home."

"Wait, you can pilot a helicopter?"

"Of course. Breakfast is ready!" Maddy scooped some scrambled eggs onto a plate and handed it to Danny. "There you go."

Danny noticed that his eggs looked paler than normal.

"You put milk in the eggs?" Danny said as he sat down.

"Is that a problem?" Maddie looked worried.

"No, no! That's actually the way I like them. Jazz thinks its weird, and she's usually the one that makes the eggs, so I haven't had them in a while. This is...really nice."

Maddie smiled and took a seat across from Danny.

"Your father hates it too."

"Really? Dad hates a food?"

"That's the one food he won't eat. Well, he'll eat it, but he'll tell me how weird I am the whole time."

"So for about two seconds?"

"Daniel!" his mom feigned offense.

Danny laughed at that. His mom laughed too.

They ate very quickly. Danny had been too tired last night to realize how hungry he was.

"Did you make your bed this morning?" Maddie asked as she collected Danny's empty plate.

"Ummmm, yes?" Danny smiled wide.

"Alright, you can go up and double check your bed while I was the dishes, and then we'll set off."

Danny rolled his eyes as he headed back to his bedroom.

After he finished actually making the bed (to the best of his ability), he decided to make a quick stop before heading back to the kitchen.

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

"Bernie? Hello?" Danny pushed open the door to Bernie's room. She was sitting in her rocker like last night, only now the curtains were closed and she was facing towards the door. Her eyes were shut and her hands were folded on her lap. She looked so peaceful.

Her eyes fluttered open.

"Oh, sorry." Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

"Oh don't be silly." Bernie waved a hand at him. "I was just resting my eyes."

"Oh. Well, anyway, my mom and I were about to leave, and I just wanted to say goodbye real quick. You're pretty much the only friendly ghost I've ever met."

"Well how nice of you Danny." Bernie beamed. "Come here, I have something for you."

"Oh, " Danny stepped into the room "Thanks, but you don't have to-"

"Oh nonsense! Now, hold out your hand."

Danny held out his hand. Bernie waved her hand over his palm. Three green (what Danny assumed were) wrapped candies appeared in the air and fell into his palm. They glowed faintly.

"Um, thanks Bernie." Danny hadn't expected that, but he guessed it made sense for an old lady to have hard candies.

Bernie closed Danny's fingers with her hand. Her touch was so gentle Danny barely even felt it. "Poor Vladdie. He's so good to me, but he never talks about his own friends. I can sense his loneliness. He reminds me of my own son in that way. It's good he has friends now, though. You share those with Vlad and your mother now."

"I will. See you Bernie" Danny smiled. He turned and began towards door.

"Goodbye Danny." Bernie began to relax back into her chair. "Do me a favour and take care of Vladdie for me. Won't you?"

"I will." Danny said as he walked out the door.

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

Getting ready to go was a very fast process when all your luggage had been lost in a plane crash. They were soon in the air heading back to Amity. "

Did you...ask Vlad if he wanted to come with us?" Danny asked. "To, like, maybe visit Dad?" He hoped his mom didn't notice how tacked on that last part was.

"I did. He said he was too busy."

"Oh."

Maddie's expression was neutral. Too neutral. She wasn't disappointed that Vlad wasn't coming, she'd accepted that fact. Maybe before she'd even invited him. It made Danny feel worse for his mom than he would have if she'd looked sad.

They flew in silence for a few minutes before Maddie sighed.

"Look, Danny, I'm sorry about this weekend."

"What do you mean? You're not the one who hijacked the plane."

"No, I meant that conversation by the fire."

Even after all the chaos, Danny hadn't forgotten about that night. He still felt terrible about it.

"Mom, it's okay."

"No Danny, it's not okay. You haven't been acting okay for a while, and I assumed I could just jump in and fix everything in a single weekend. If we're being honest though, I should've addressed this months ago. I shouldn't have let things go on for as long as they did. I told myself you needed some space, but maybe I was just too scared to face the fact that, even if it was unintentional, your father and I hurt you. A part of me was scared that if I brought this up, it'd just end up pushing you further away. But that was irresponsible of me, and not at all how a parent should act. You weren't getting better by not talking about it, but I was being too cowardly to help."

Maddie took a calming breath before continuing.

"I just want you to know that, if you hold any resentment towards me or your father, we understand. We messed up big time with the portal. And other things. But whatever you're going through, I want to be there to help. Your father and I both do. Even if it's something you think we won't want to hear, we can take it, I promise. I know you're getting older and you need to figure some things our yourself, but we want to be there for you in whatever way we can."

Maddie turned to face Danny.

"I love you Danny, and I want to be a part of your life. I'm sorry if I've been forgetting to show you that lately."

Danny didn't know what to say.

How long had she been thinking like this? How long had she assumed everything was her fault?

Why hadn't Mom said something earlier? Why did she hide this from him? Finding out she'd been keeping this information a secret from him for so long made Danny feel so hurt and guilty.

...Oh.

The knot that had been in Danny's stomach for the last fifteen hours began to loosen as he realized what he had to do. He put a hand on his mom's shoulder. Maddie seemed genuinely surprised by the physical contact.

"It's not your fault Mom." Danny said. "I've been...going through some stuff. It's nothing bad, it's just..." Danny struggled to find the words. How could he explain it without telling the truth? "I just...didn't think about how it would affect other people. I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm sorry." Danny looked at his feet in shame.

"You don't have to be sorry."

Dany looked up from the floor when he felt something touch his hand. He saw his mom's black gloved hand covering his own.

"You can always tell me about it, you know."

"I..."

Danny looked into his mother's eyes. They were so hopeful.

"Not...not today. But maybe someday."

Maddie was smiling, but Danny wasn't sure what kind of a smile it was.

He wasn't sure if he meant what he said. Maybe he did. The thought terrified him.

Danny didn't want to think about that right now though. He'd think about that later when he was alone. For now he needed a distraction.

Danny reached into his pocket.

"What have you got there?" Maddie asked.

Danny pulled out a tiny bottle filled with orange pop.

"I found a bunch of these in Vlad's kitchen fridge." He said, uncapping the bottle.

"And you took one? Without asking?"

"Vlad's a gazillionaire and he had like, a million more of these things." Danny took a swig. "Oh, wow that's nice."

"Daniel James Fenton, that is not the-"

"You want some?" Danny held the bottle out to her.

Maddie stopped speaking. Sharing pop had been a strange but special sort of tradition with her and Danny. One they hadn't done in years. Maddie thought Danny had forgotten about it.

"I- well...alright, hand it over." she accepted the bottle from Danny and took a drink. Her eyes went wide. "Holy moley, that stuff is good!"

"Right?"

"Seriously," Maddie turned the bottle around "What is in this?"

"Eyes on the road, Mom!"

"We're in the sky Danny." Maddie said.

THUMP!

Danny and Maddie nearly jumped out of their seats when a seagull crashed into the helicopter's windscreen. They both just stared at the surprised bird as it slid down the glass and out of sight.

"But, yeah, I'll just look at his when we get home." She said handing the bottle back to Danny.

Danny rolled his eyes affectionately.

This really was nice.

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

"You know Danny, I'm thinking maybe we shouldn't tell them what happened on the trip." Maddie said as they approached their house. "Your father will be so disappointed to hear he missed fighting ghosts and seeing Vlad."

"I'm okay with that."

"We're home!" Maddie announced as they opened the door.

Jack was sitting on the couch working on his embroidery while Jazz sat on the other end reading a very thick book.

"Hey, welcome back! How was the trip?"

"Oh, you know," Maddie said.

"Boring." Danny added.

"Nothing interesting."

"Snooze."

"Who even cares?"

"I'm gonna go call Sam and Tucker." Danny said. He made to leave, but then stopped and kissed his mom on the cheek. "I had fun though. We should spend more time together."

Danny went upstairs. Maddie watched with a smile on her face.

"So," She turned to Jack "Anything interesting happen here?"

"Oh, nothing really." Jack said.

"Same old same old." Jazz added.

"Boring."

"Ho hum."

"Yawn."

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

Danny had barely opened his bedroom door when he felt his ghost sense go off.

"Seriously? I haven't even been home for five minutes!"

Danny went over to his window and threw it open. He looked around. He didn't see any ghosts.

"Aaaaaaargh!" Came a war cry from below. Danny looked down. A giant green beaver ran out the front door, with Jazz on its back, her arms wrapped around it's neck.

"Dad execute maneuver nine!" she commanded.

"On it Jazzy-pants!"

Danny couldn't see his father from this angle, but he did see Jazz barrel roll off the beaver just in time for it to get tangled up in a bunch of metallic rope.

While the beaver struggled on the ground, Jack came into view and gave Jazz a high five. The two of them looked down at their handiwork with pride.

Danny stuck his head back inside and closed the window. Jazz ghost hunting? With their father?

That was the strangest thing he'd seen all weekend.

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

Epilogue --------------------------------------------------

"I don't know about you two," Tucker said as they sat down to lunch on Monday "But I'm ready to die after the test Lancer just gave us."

"It wasn't that bad if you actually read the book." Sam smirked. Tucker glared at her. "What'd you get Danny?"

Before Danny could answer, he felt the cold chill of his ghost sense. He looked up and saw something green whizz by the window.

"Guys, trouble!" he said, standing up from his seat.

Before anyone could do anything else, Danny saw something else out the window; a red figure floated in place on a hover board. They fired a few pink beams from an ecto blaster before zooming out of sight, presumably after the ghost.

"Did you guys see that?"

"Oh, yeah, we actually-" Tucker started to say.

Danny was running towards the door before he could finish his sentence.

He burst outside and stopped at the sight above him. The red Figure and the ghost were locked in battle high above him, the red person shooting furiously at the ghost who was weaving around, dodging their blasts.

The red person didn't seem to have great aim, but they eventually connected with the ghost who gave off a howl and shot off in the opposite direction of Casper High.

"And you'd better stay away you gooey creep!" The red person shouted after it.

Once it was clear the ghost wasn't coming back, the red person zoomed out of sight.

Danny blinked at the sky.

"Okay, who the heck was that?"

"The Red Huntress." Sam said. Danny hadn't even noticed that she and Tucker had arrived.

"Wait," he said "You know her?"

"Yeah, we saw her hunting some ghost Sam and I were about to go after while you were in Florida."

"Colorado." Danny corrected Tucker.

"Colorado." Tucker repeated.

"We didn't get to talk to her," Sam said "But she seems pretty driven. Shouted her name at the ghost she was chasing. Fancy tech, a lot of confidence, but not a lot of experience, I'm guessing."

"Yeah her aim's not great." Danny frowned.

"She doesn't seem to have a thermos or anything to contain the ghosts she hunts either. That costume's awesome though!"

"I can agree with you there." Sam nodded.

Danny put his head in his hands.

"I was only gone for ONE DAY!"

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

#danny phantom #dp #danny phantom fanfic #dp fanfic #friends in strange places #fisp #writing #fanfic

7 notes · View notes

impyssadobsessions · 2 years

Note

(YJ Anon!) Okay so as is usual for comics explaining the why and how is a bit too long for what it's worth but basically one of the yj teens (Anita Fite, AKA Empress. Probably tied with Slo-bo as my favorites) had her dead parents resurrected and given to her as babies. (What a way to become a teen mom...). Anyway as funny as a sitcom with that premise would be on it's own, can you imagine Danny and Jazz in that situation? Vlad noping right out the second it happens? Hilarious. I love comics.

LOL Danny and Jazz freaking out and also probably be good at it =w= Well Jazz be XD Oh gawd.. imagine Danny trying to get them to like phantom and just scaring them instead. Danny just internally crying because he knows he messed up T w T as they tell Jazz about the ghost they're going to blast. Jazz finding it humorous but same time pity Danny. Fixing the situation.. or attempts.. just makes it slightly worse.. as the kids affirm they're going to get rid of the ghost. ".......They'll... grow out of it?" Danny just screaming into a pillow. "Once they can understand its you, it'll be fine. owo;" The -I hope- was implied. Cause imagine right now(probably toddlers when it happens) even if Danny transform in front of them, they can't comprehend its the same person. Like peek a boo. anyway that the image that gave me XD Also Jazz would drag Vlad in and make him help, at least pay for it because they're technically his grandkids :I (since he's godfather of jazz and Danny) Gawd that be such a weird dynamic.. even funnier if bby Jack just constantly clinging to vlad LOL while bby maddie wants nothing to do with grandpa vlad. =w=

#danny phantom #danny fenton #jazz fenton #vlad masters #joke concept

55 notes · View notes

dannymayevent · 3 years

Note

Hi! Connected to DannyMay... I'm not really familiar with AU names/titles, either with AUs much. Could you help me out a bit? It sounds fun, but nothing comes to my mind if I think about those. Is there a list for those maybe? Maybe about the popular ones? What those mean? Thank you for your help! :)

If you don't want to submit any AU's, you don't have to! The poll is entirely optional, and many people are just submitting 3 general prompts. When the poll closes and the calendar is posted, any AUs we choose for the event will come with descriptions for people!

But if you want to browse them to submit, here's a bunch of popular DP AUs/HCs under the cut that I got off the top of my head.

Fangs: Self explanatory. Danny has fangs because ghost.

No One Knows AU: A "what if?" scenario exploring a universe where Danny was alone on the accident (aka no Sam and Tucker). As you can imagine, this has great potential for angst.

Corpse AU: A scenario where when halfas die, they leave behind a body. Usually the plot revolves around either the DP trio hiding/burying the body, or someone/cops finding the body in the woods somehow!

Dual Obsession AU: This is a scenario where Danny has two ghostly obsessions tying him down to Earth: an obsession with protection (or something similar) and a more innocent one about space. Typically, his space obsession involves a shift in his appearance and powers as well. Great potential for both fluff and angst with this one.

Monster Appearance: Honestly not quite sure what the actual name for this one is, but a lot of people like to play with a situation where Danny's ghostly form is a lot more inhuman looking.

Hazmat AU: Along the previous lines, this is a scenario where Danny's parents actually follow lab safety protocol and so Danny dies in a real hazmat suit, hood/mask and all.

Portal AU: This is a situation where Danny becomes the portal when he dies. He essentially throws up ghosts.

Ghost King: This is a headcannon where Danny becomes the ghost king after defeating Pariah Dark.

Season 4: Not really an AU, people more just like to picture/write about their take on what the future of Danny Phantom would be like (either including or ignoring the season 3 finale episode).

Field Trip: A headcannon where people like to have Danny and his class take a field trip, usually to the Ghost Zone, sometimes to other places too. Usually involves Danny's class getting stranded somewhere and Danny secretly (with varying levels of success) try to figure out how to get his class home without outing himself.

Full Ghost AU: Also self-explanatory. During the accident, Danny turns into a full ghost.

Human AU: An AU where Danny starts out a full ghost, and the portal accident turns him into a human/halfa (Half Human AU in this case).

Halfa Jack AU: A situation based off that episode of DP where Jack, not Vlad, gets in the initial accident. Usually involves Danny being raised by Vlad/Maddie.

Dissection: A headcannon where Danny gets dissected by either his parents or the Guys in White. I like to call these "dissecc" but that's just me.

Ghost Hunger AU: A dark and typically angsty scenario where Danny must consume ectoplasm to feed his core. Some people go a less-angsty route where ambient ectoplasm, or ecto-fruits/veggies will satisfy this. Others go a more cannibalistic route.

Reverse Trio AU: An AU which "reverses" the roles of the trio. Typically portrayed as Sam being the halfa, Danny being the geek, and Tucker being the goth.

Electric Core AU: A scenario where because Danny dies via electricity, instead of developing ice powers (and a 'cold core'), he's given electricity powers (aka an 'electric core).

Well, that's all I can think of right now. I might add more to this list if it comes to me. Lemme know if I forgot anything.

#danny phantom #headcannons and AUs #ask

56 notes · View notes

dannyphantom-justiceleauge · 3 years

Note

This may be a minor gripe but something that has kind of bothered me about discussions and depictions of Dan is how often people seem to forget that Dan isn't just an older evil Danny, he's a combination of Danny and Vlad's ghost sides. Like people always talk about him like Danny threw away his humanity and turned evil but that's not even true. Sure, we can say that Dan is the result of Danny's action but that's a little unfair. (1/2)

(2/2) Him cheating on a test, coincidentally putting his loved one's in a position where they could be killed, is absolutely not his fault. Letting Vlad take away his ghost powers with a strange contraption might not have been the smartest move, but we are talking about a grieving CHILD here, of course he isn't going to make the best decisions. If anything Vlad's the one to blame here, and even then, it's not like he could predict what happened

---

you aren't wrong, my friend. it really isn't entirely danny's fault and the whole 'if you cheat on a test, you'll loose everything you love' moral is confused at best. i think as fandom we find it more interesting to look at danny's potential evil and moral struggle with himself. so simplifying it to be dan is a worse case scenario of danny makes the conflict less abstract.

particularly because when it comes to self blame danny isn't going to go easy on himself just because it was excusable mistakes.

i think another talking point should be how danny is the target of the time assassination more than vlad is, even though vlad is part of the evil whole. you could argue that danny is the catalyst of his friends death and vlad inventing the claw things. but vlad invented the claw things. maybe because his human side survived and acted relatively harmless from then on? or maybe it's because the observants based on the available evidence recognized danny as more of a threat. i think that fits actually, for all vlad tried to be an evil mastermind, his achievements outside of terrorizing a teenager and theft isn't particularly impressive. danny was the one who got shit done. all his fights he finished one way or another and i could see how that would bleed into dan defeating everyone.

the real question is how to we fix this. ideally we could shape this idea so it's less confused, though i do honestly find the dynamic of half danny, half vlad interesting. if for not other reason. than two half ghosts make a whole. actually that's something else to be said about dan. his self-loathing is what led him to killing his human half, another negative aspect coming from danny.

i wonder if we could frame it like fusion, from su. obviously dan isn't stable or healthy, or based on love. he's most comparable to malichite. but with less internal debate. dan took the best and worst of both of them. danny's determination, danny's fighting ability, danny's anger, danny's sarcasm, vlad's anger, vlads lack of morals, vlads schemes, vlad's control. heck, vlads desire to rule the world. i don't think we ever got that from danny.

maybe if vlad was more involved in the fight with dan it could have been used as an opportunity to compare and contrast their characters. to go we're not so different you and i. danny gets to recognize that he has that dark potential. vlad gets to be humbled by the fact that what he wants isn't good for anyone, especially himself. and to be fair, we do see some of that humbling with future vlad, but none of that character growth is given to present vlad, so, really it's just another vehicle for danny angst. it also depends on what you want to do with vlad though. he's a fascinating character and could be given redemption under the right circumstances or be a character who has the opportunity for redemption but chooses not to be redeemed every time.

that fits him and makes him both a more pathetic and despicable villain. it's hard to pity someone who ignores the opportunities to heal and grow.

as for danny, he becomes far more aware of the consequences his actions, especially his selfish and cruel ones can have. because that potential was always there. he has a history of abusing his powers. perhaps for this specific incident him abusing his powers can be something less understandable than almost cheating on a test that he couldn't study for through no fault of his own. (maybe i just have flexible morals?). maybe it could be something more character relevant, like he did something particularly vlad like, maybe he set up a prank at the nasty burger to get dash but it set off the explosion that killed his family. or maybe he did something particularly cruel and manipulative. there are better catalysts than a test. either way he recognized that he should never go that far again and strive to avoid being actively cruel.

he also has the opportunity to recognize that vlad does have a human half, even the one he's fighting everyday. he can face some conflict in it's not entirely clear what trait belongs to vlad and what trait belongs to him. he can empathize with vlad and he can recognize that situations aren't always in black in white. those who fly the highest, fall the hardest, after all.

it can be a growing experience. and while making it solely a danny goes bad and learns not to do evil kind of story. maybe we could cut vlad from the equation and just have danny face himself, full evil refection. i think exploring both vlad and danny through this fusion is far more interesting. especially because we can build on what's revealed about vlad in these episodes, in later ones. danny sees a future where vlad chills and that maybe his vlad could get their. later he see vlads past and what he lost to become who he is.

and then there's vlads turning point episodes. i don't know when motherly instinct took place but maddie fully recognizing he's a bastard and rejection him, was a turning point for his sanity, and danny helped it along. then we have danny rejecting him repeatedly, then we the clone episode, which we can all agree was a desperate move on his part, that danny once again thwarted. and we can all agree that this was the cannon turning point for his character where he stopped fighting for a family and started trying to be danny's villain. in that episode, i think danny could potentially pity vlad enough to try and reach out. he's not going to justify what vlad did and he's not going to apologize for stopping him. he went too far. he hurt danny and dani, he crossed a moral line that can't be justified even with his desperation. but if he changes...

he lost this time but if he changes, maybe they'll reach the point where they're ready to accept him.

i think the same thing could be said about his relationship with jack and maddie. if he changes, if he reaches out. if acts like less of a crazy fruitloop, his friends would be there for him. jack is still trying to be there for him, even if he's being oblivious about vlad's faults. vlads the one driving wedges into his relationships and pushing everyone away.

and that's so freaking human and understandable.it would be such a cool thing to explore with his character.

i could also see a potential arc where after valerie finds out vlad and masters are the same person she tries to get close to him, both to sus out how evil he is and to understand him as a halfa. afterall danny got her to acknowledge dani as human enough, the same would apply to vlad/plasmius, right? only he's a bad person and the more she uncovers about vlad masters the man, the more she realizes it's not the ghost half that's evil. but this is a double edged sword because, vlad is getting attached to her and encouraging her to be more evil. he's encouraging her to go darker and darker in her fight against ghosts and her fight specifically against phantom. to the point where she finally draws the line and says, i'm not doing that! boom exploring the moral ambiguity of her character and getting her to take a hard stance on her morals, because there's a line too far for her.

and boom a further breakdown of vlads character because he finally had someone outside the fentons to redeem him. she could have helped pull him out of the hole he'd been digging himself into. she wanted to help him. he got attached to her, but he and his bad decisions decided to dig himself deeper instead. so once again he's 'abandoned and betrayed'.

from that point, i think it'd be time for him to finally face jack head on. not through manipulative schemes. not through veiled threats and insults. but the full confrontation of 'i always hated you. you ruined my life. you're the reason i lost everything'. which is really just his own self loathing speaking. and jack... empathetic jack can see that vlad desperately wants help. and jack would offer it to him. jack would try to hug it out and apologize and give vlad the love and friendship vlad's been fighting to steal this whole time.

and vlad would reject it.

he'd probably lash out a jack and go into a full breakdown/world destroying attack. could finally put the stolen crown to use and try declaring himself king and embracing his megalomaniac thing and actually be a threat this time. and THAT would be our series finally. everyone teaming up to fight 'king vlad'. danny probably finding out that he's technically king because he beat pariah dark but the matter being a bit confused because he had help. val and danny trying to find the ring of rage or at least find someone who can make one. secrets are out. i imagine vlad, upon revealing himself to jack would out danny to make danny as sad and alone as him. except nope, his family still loves him and val has had the character development to come around to him. (she's still gonna punch danny for lying for so long.) the ghosts will come and help because no one wants another tyrannical kind and vlads obviously off his rocker.

ah, the could have beens

anyway, i didn't mean for this to become a full vlad character analysis and rewrite when we were supposed to be talking about dan, but hey, i'm a simple creature. i like good writing, and i have to rewrite things myself, so be it. - Hestia

#dpjl #hestiawrites #danny phantom #vlad masters

202 notes · View notes

redrobin-detective · 4 years

Note

I am going to regret asking this and giving you another chance to drag me in this fandom... but what's the problem with Danny's parents? Is there something else than the fact they really really want to dissect a ghost?

For me, the issues with the Fenton parents boils down to two main issues: 1. their complete and dangerous obsession with ghosts and destroying them and 2. the negligence to their children. I think Jack and Maddie are good people who love their children and can be good parents. But the problem is their ghost hunting work was always the priority in the family which Jazz and Danny clearly suffer from.

Point 1. The Ghost Obsession

I don’t know what happened to Jack and Maddie that caused them to develop an all consuming obsession with ghosts and, moreover, the need to destroy them. Fandom has pointed out that while they claim to be scientists, they clearly are more interested in weapons to hurt and destroy ghosts than anything even resembling normal scientific study. Amity Park has a high number of violent ghosts (mostly there to play fight Danny) but most ghosts everywhere else are just vibing. The ghost obsession hurt Danny long before he became part ghost (but I’ll save that for Point Two) but it went from an annoyance to an actual threat to his life.

First off, as many others have pointed out, having a dangerous lab in the basement with untested equipment/weaponry that your kids not only have ready access to BUT also have to go down there for assigned chores? Not great, Jan. I’ll give the Fentons the benefit of the doubt, we see clearly that Danny/Jazz know how to work the equipment in their house so they obviously have been drilled in usage and safety. Danny gets his ghost powers by being dumb and 14 and messing around with his friends like any normal kid would. Danny is now the very thing his parents want to hunt and destroy and a mainstay of the series is he is so scared of their reaction that he hides his powers/identity from his parents but not his ghostly enemies. Can you imagine being that uncertain that your parents love for you outweighs their obsession that you hide such a fundamental part of your life? What a miserable reality for a young kid.

Jack and Maddie spend the entire series going off about their hatred of ghosts. Danny has to sit there and listen to them talk in extreme detail how they’ll dissect and obliterate any ghost they come across. They’ll be making deadly weaponry made to kill beings like him at the kitchen table, weapons that do respond to his ghostly signature. They especially hate Danny’s alter ego, Phantom, because of his supposed trickery by pretending to be a hero. The canon things said in the show would certainly make me nervous about sleeping in the room next to them. They are capable of working with Phantom when push comes to shove but it never lasts long and they go back with guns blazing. Danny and the show mostly play these threats off for laughs but the fact that Danny straight up doesn’t tell them is telling enough on how it effects him.

Point 2. The Negligence

‘Hur Dur parents are bad’ is a well known cartoon trope but the Fentons take it to an extreme. Jack and Maddie are obsessive with their work, absentminded and reckless, none of which create a safe and stable home for children. I love Jazz and Danny but they clearly are not entirely normal children (even before the whole ghost thing) from growing up in such a home. Jazz develops a reactionary personality, delving into psychology and being right as a way to kind of understand/get back at her parents (source? I do this exact thing with my mom) and Danny was quiet, overlooked and not given the attention to really flourish, instead being a sort of ghost in that house before he ever became one.

Jack and Maddie 110% love their kids but do they encourage them in a meaningful way? Support their interests? Be available to help? Not really. I hate The Fright Before Christmas bc Danny gets blamed for being a “scrooge” instead of acknowledging he hates the holiday for his parents destructive fighting every year. (source? Again fucking me. I hate Xmas bc mom and I scream every year)

This issue only exacerbates once Danny gets ghost powers. His whole life is affected by his ghost fighting: he’s getting injured in fights from human bullies and ghosts, his grades are dropping from lack of studying/sleep, he’s absent from the house more often than not, he’s sullen and depressed and scared and anxious all the time. It’s a radical change and yet Jack and Maddie kind of brush over it, focusing instead how Danny’s changes affect them (IE Danny not being around to do his chores). This boy comes home, beaten from fights, stressed and feeling alone only to get yelled at because his parents miss all the signs he’s practically radiating that he is Not Okay. He eventually becomes a good enough fighter and actor to skip over but it’s truly heartbreaking that he can’t confide in the people supposed to support him the most. But it’s not just the ghost obsession, even without all the powers like if Danny was doing drugs or in a gang, his parents barely notice and, when they do, they don’t really do anything other than blame him.

Now I’m going to end this long rant by saying that I love Jack and Maddie, I think they are fascinating people and want to see them developed. The situation as it is for most of the series is not okay in the least but I do believe they have the potential to be good, supportive parents. There’s a couple of eps where they DO find out about danny’s powers and instantly all the negligence and hostility is gone, its all acceptance of his powers and apologies for their behavior. Its not a perfect situation and could be borderline abuse apologism if done wrong. But I’d like to think that once they got over the shock and did some serious priority and soul searching, they would learn to correct themselves. Growth isn’t just saved for the teen protagonists, everyone has the chance to be better. Danny clearly doesn’t hold his parents behavior against them and would be nothing but ecstatic if they loved and accepted him. I do believe in a happy, functional if abnormal, Fenton family dynamic and I’m all for it.

#danny phantom #this also got long #get out with your 'jack and maddie wont love danny as a ghost'#'jack and maddie realizing they fucked up MASSIVELY and working to be better people and parents is in'#but the situation through most of the series is y i k e s #anyway watch DP gentry #you'll cry so much for this sad ghost teen you could fill a bathtub #Izuku reminds me a lot of him #gentrychild

420 notes · View notes

datawyrms · 3 years

Text

Ghostly Mystery Tour

For Phic Fight 2021! dey’s lovely prompt c:

On Ao3

Maddie and Jack had fully prepared for their adventure into the Ghost Zone—or so they thought. The fuel on Specter Speeder had fizzled out about a mile in. They're stuck. At least, until Phantom comes by, offering help.

“I just don’t understand it Maddie, I swear I charged it just this morning!” Jack’s voice managed to be louder than his frantic jabbing at the fuel gauge in the enclosed space, the sickly green glow outside making him look ill instead of agitated.

“I’m sure you did honey, but we need to think of a plan.” Maddie was already trying to think of what they could use. They weren’t too far away from the portal home, with how quickly the Speeder ran out of power. They had plenty of gear and weaponry packed in for their research trip, but the Specter Speeder wasn’t powered with something they could just toss in a gas can and bring along. “Maybe we can hook some of the ropes to the floating land masses and tow it?”

“Oh! Great idea!” Jack brightened, shoving the previous problem aside, hands now occupied with measuring the distance of the nearby rocks. “The sooner we get moving, the sooner we can get back to work!”

The problem about how safe it actually was to breathe in the air when in the realm of the dead had been accounted for, but if they had to waste the air tanks just to get back- well they wouldn’t get to have nearly the amount of time to actually explore on foot, let alone gathering samples. They could learn so much about the ectoplasmic terrors from the world they clawed out of, weaknesses they didn’t need to fear on Earth even! So to have their expedition, a trip that had been months in the making derailed like this in mere moments hurt. At least Jack could keep his eyes forward, his positive attitude the only thing keeping her from screaming from the absolute unfairness of it all. “Just run the best options past me before you open the hatch, okay darling?”

“You betcha!”

She was still going to enable the Fenton Child Safety Lock as a precaution, he could get a little over eager when he saw an opportunity. It was just a matter of what tools could be repurposed into a makeshift claw or skewer to actually keep hold of the rocks. What would be the smallest loss?

The sound of something hitting the roof of the speeder halted her thoughts, turning to look out of the windows, drawing up her hood in case they’d be fighting so soon. Even Jack had stopped with his mental calculations, pulling a weapon from under the seat. “Company already? Guess we’ll show em what for, eh honey?”

“Well it is the Ghost Zone, they’re probably braver here. Not that it’ll be any problem.” A little boasting could help keep morale up, even if the situation was less than ideal. Stranded with a ghost already trying to take advantage, typical.

“Well one little zap with this baby and it’ll scoot right on back!”

If the ghost could hear them, maybe it would be frightened off just by their voices. Whatever had hit them hadn’t shown itself near the window, or hit their vehicle again. It didn’t feel right. There might be no evidence for whatever it was lurking around, but sometimes you had to follow your intuition. Jack was inquisitive, but didn’t ask out loud as his wife stood to knock the ceiling herself.

“Sooo are we doing knock knock jokes, or do you need a tow?”

She should have known. Of all the ghosts, it would have to be the one that always managed to get her hackles up, pretending to be helpful so people trusted him. A ghost that even tried to have a human name to fit in, not that she’d ever call this thing ‘Danny’. It was an insult to her baby boy, quite frankly. “What are you up to now?”

“Asking you if you need this thing moved. Duh,” the ghost snorted, the metal clanking as he knocked it again. “Talking at you from the roof feels dumb, you gonna shoot if I go to the front?”

“Depends on what you do, ghost scum!” Jack had looked pensive for a moment, but spoke up quickly on spotting Maddie reaching for a notebook. He just had to give her time to think it over, and he was great at distractions.

“Is scum what you call all people who help you out, or am I just your favourite?” A white haired head appeared at the top of their window, looking down with an amused smirk at the pair. Still playing innocent when they were at a disadvantage.

“You’re a ghost ‘claiming’ to want to help.”

That earned a frown, though the ghost stopped half hiding to float in front of their stranded speeder. “Riiiight. Put it that way, whatever,” he paused, as if studying their faces. His green eyes lingered on the weapon, notably so even as he went back to jabbering. “I’ve got some stuff to do, but I can drag the s-that thing back to the portal. So?”

The hunters shared a glance, unsure how to handle it. Phantom liked to claim he liked humans and protecting them, but he was a ghost. There had to be something he wanted out of them in return. Or might get violent if refused in the wrong way. At least he shouldn’t be able to see the quickly scrawled message to Jack. ‘You play the doubtful one, I’ll pretend to trust him- it’ll underestimate us’

“As if, spooky! Jack Fenton doesn’t need any ghost’s help!”

The ghost bought the open hostility without a second thought, eyes rolling to a sky that wasn’t here. “Really? I heard tow trucks were expensive out of state! Can’t imagine the out of dimension costs.”

It was going to be difficult to stay civil when it would be so much easier to just demand the ghost stop playing around. “We’re listening. So what do you want?”

“Awwww Mads, we don’t need this punk’s help! He doesn’t even have toes!”

The passion Jack had put into his moping managed to baffle the ghost. “Wait, what? Of course I do! No, stop, why does that matter? I know tows and toes are different things! I’m not that bad of a student, sheesh.” He seemed quite thrown, which was good. If the ghost forgot what the plan had been he might just get lost.

“Yeah, and you don’t have either Phantom!” Her husband managed to keep from laughing, but the shake in his shoulders showed it was a near thing.

Phantom glanced down at the black wispy tail that made up his legs, muttering something. “Well okay I don’t right now, but I normally do!”

It was a bit fascinating that Jack had distracted the ghost from his goal so completely. They’d have to think about an invention that could replicate the effect. “Can we focus please? I already said I’d listen to what you wanted.”

“Oh! Right, sorry,” he coughed, a strangely human expression of embarrassment. “I don’t actually need anything? I just have some stuff to do so you’d need to wait a bit.”

Oh right. Sure, the most dangerous ghost in town wanted to help the ghost hunters that wanted to destroy him ‘just because’. Just wait here while he goes to get some friends to attack them! Honestly, did ghosts think they were stupid? “Then why not tell us when you’re done? We’re not moving very quickly.”

“Cus he wants to make us think we’re safe before WHAM! Outnumbered by cowardly ghosts!” Jack expressed her true feelings effortlessly. “Not that it’d help em!”

“No way, you think I’d leave you guys here where anyone can try something?” The ghost still seemed confused, eyebrows raised and arms crossed. “You guys are here to study or whatever anyway, right? So you can look around while I get my errands done. And you know, you don’t get attacked. Most of the little guys leave me alone.”

As if that was a surprise! A ghost of Phantom’s strength could destroy smaller and weaker entities without effort. Perhaps it was a subtle threat slipping through his mask of ‘helpful child’. The idea of going deeper into the Ghost Zone, completely at his mercy was...well absolutely idiotic. Even if they could probably overcome him...being able to still get some studies done would make it not a complete waste of a trip. “So you think it’s likely we’ll be attacked here, so close to the portal?”

“Yeah, by him!” Jack looked tempted to grab his weapon, but refrained. “So what if we say no, huh?”

“Then I guess you can float here? Up to you, I guess.”

It was strange, to see the cocky ghost a bit hesitant. Even if there was an obvious threat he wasn’t mentioning. “Well if you could pull the Speeder, you could take it even if we don’t want you to.”

“I think that’s called kidnapping.” Phantom’s cocky smirk returned “Which is weird, you’re not kids! Adultnapping? Nah, that sounds dumb.”

“Ah cut the innocent act, we’re not falling for it!”

“Hey, I said it’s up to you! Either you agree to come along and I get you back home, or I just leave you guys to do whatever you plan to do. Even if yes, I could totally just drag the ship anyway. I’m not, because I’m trying to help, remember?” A hint of frustration slid past the confidence at ‘remember’, but the ghost folding his arms behind his head as if kicking back to relax did defang most of the threat. “I don’t have all day here.”

“We don’t have all day either Phantom. We have family to get back to, and no idea how long you plan to be ‘on errands’.” Maddie pointed out, still unsure what they should do. Trusting him was stupid, but he had showed his hand. Refusal might be met with the same result anyway, but ‘agreeing’ might trick the ghost into thinking they fell for his ‘trustworthy’ act.

“Like an hour or two? Not too long.”

“Well I’d use my Fenton Stopwatch! So don’t think you can pretend it’s a shorter time than it is, ghost!”

“Yeah yeah, you do that D-Jack,” he stumbled over the ghost hunter’s name, but otherwise didn’t move from relaxing. “It’s not gonna kill you to trust me for a bit.”

Even though it very much could kill them. He really was a smug bit of ectoplasm, thinking he blended in with humans well enough to be considered one. “So only a few hours, and you won’t stop us from researching or taking samples? Or lead us to a trap?”

“If I wanted people to get threatened by ghosts, I could just take some days off. No trouble, cross my heart. I’d swear to die but I got the jump on that bit,” he snorted at his own joke, but otherwise left the family to consider.

It was just safer to say ‘yes’ so the ghost thought they were fools. It had nothing to do with wanting to salvage something out of this disaster of an expedition. “Yes. We’ll accept your help, this time.”

“And you aren’t getting any thanks until we’re home, got it?” Good, ghost hunter, bad ghost hunter. An easy enough trick. Even if she wished Jack was the ‘trusting’ one. Yelling would feel nice.

“Yeeeah, kinda expected that too. Rude.” The ghost only shrugged before flying up and out of sight. She half expected to hear the ghost grab the Speeder, but they only really noticed when they started moving. Moving very, very quickly.

She couldn’t help it, her curiosity tamped down some of the fear she should be feeling, pointing out interesting landmasses as they passed, Jack just as enthusiastic to discuss what caused them, if the ghost built them or they were simply generated when a ghost squirmed into existence. A great castle that seemed familiar, an island with some sort of skull as a decoration and thousands of doors. Most ghosts they only could get sparing glimpses at, even when carrying an entire vehicle the ghost boy was fast. Ridiculously so. She thought it was his small figure that contributed to how quickly the pest could move- how the ghost could just vanish out of range in moments. That most of the power behind his physical attacks came from the speed they were delivered with instead of raw strength. Clearly that was an incorrect hypothesis, moving this quickly and carrying so much extra weight without any real difficulty. They slowed near what seemed to be another castle, though it was much less foreboding looking then the other one.

That sinking dread returned after they landed. She had some landmarks, but this much distance would be a big ask to get back. That, and this castle seemed more...occupied, judging by some humanoid ghosts loitering near the gates. One even waved. To them, or the ghost carrying them?

“Okayyy so. Ground rules? Don’t shoot anyone. None of these guys even go through the portal, they’re not the fighting type. Other than that? Have fun, I guess?” He’d stopped floating, standing on the ground beside their stalled craft. He didn’t look as if preparing to fight, which is what she’d assumed the ghost meant by ‘errands’. So what was he up to?

“We won’t do anything if they don’t.” A lie, honestly, but the ghost nodded.

“Wait, what’s that stuff for?” White gloves pointed at the masks the ghost hunters were pulling from under the seats. “Like you can hear me, there’s air out here.”

“It might be safe for ghosts, but we aren’t ghosts.”

Phantom opened his mouth as if to protest before shutting it with a frown. Strange, it was hard to get him to shut up most of the time.

“Nice try, we’re not gonna choke on ghost air today, Phantom!” Jack chuckled, adjusting his mask before popping open the hatch.

“I wasn’t expecting you to- oh whatever. Just don’t embarrass me,” he sounded like a sulking kid, only glancing at them for a moment before kicking off the ground to fly closer to the castle. Off to fight whoever ‘owned’ this area, perhaps?

“Well look at that! Regular plants!” Jack shook her from her pondering, crouched over what looked like a tended to flower bed near the walls. “Well, ghost plants that aren’t trying to attack. Think we should sketch em for the kids?”

“Well Jazz has been more interested in ghosts lately, I suppose.” It was interesting, but she was more curious about the ghost meandering past the walls. They seemed docile, almost like people just walking and apparently talking with one another. Not attempting to fight for territory or resources. Perhaps they were just repeating the memories of their lives over and over? Yet none of them had reacted badly to Phantom zipping past either. A different breed of ghost, perhaps? Or ghosts often had ‘kings’ that kept the lesser ones from squabbling. The large brute of a ghost that stole the town had claimed to be a king of sorts, and this was another castle...but she didn’t want to test anything by getting their attention. They might only act savagely towards humans, being jealous of those still alive after all.

“Yeah, she has! Danno might not like em, but that goth chick he’s eyeing might like em too!” He was already sketching away, quickly getting the basics. He’d fill in the details from memory back home. “You want to try seeing if those ones talk? Not sure how the ghost kid thinks we could embarrass him, ha!”

“Oh he was probably just trying to insult us. He likes to pretend to be a teenager,” she waved that question away, double checking her weapon was easy to reach in case of an emergency. No reason to make their predicament worse by being unprepared. While still considering to go near those ghosts instead of safely observing from a distance. Jack’s enthusiasm was too infectious, really, but that’s how they made so many discoveries!

The ghosts didn’t object to her moving closer, but she kept off the busier paths to be safe. So many stalls of what seemed to be goods, clothing and paintings, rugs and nick knacks. Well, the ghosts didn’t need anything to live, so it would make sense for them to prioritize other items first, but the art was strange. What did the dead know of creativity? Were these all recreations of something found in life? No, some of the paintings had the green skies of the Ghost Zone, implying at least some ‘new’ thought. They were strange, very unlike the wild animals that often attacked the town, or the showy inhuman mimics that tried to claim world domination. They just looked like greener, more transparent people. Barely any of them even floated much. They’d need new categories, they broke too many rules that stayed true on Earth.

“Oh that’s a lovely shade of blue! I wish I could make something like it.” The voice echoed, but it wasn’t growling or mocking. In fact, the ghost woman who had paused beside the hunter was smiling warmly, despite the dead red eyes. “Are you just visiting for a bit?”

“We’re mostly stuck going wherever the ghost boy is taking us, our ship broke down,” Maddie struggled not to frown, her natural inclination to get away from the still potentially dangerous ghost strong with so many fights. She could tell it the truth, in a sense. Phantom was far more likely to be dangerous then this waif of a woman. How she could move in so many ruffles was baffling.

“Oh dear! Well if he’s any trouble you can let Dorthea know, she’s a caring ruler. A human helped her get her rightful throne back, so I’m sure she’d be happy to help!” The ghost tittered a little, as if expecting that to be obvious.

So the ghost did know she was human? Far more alarming was the idea some other human had been dragged this far from home, possibly trapped. Maybe this would turn into a rescue mission. Unless it was too late for them, a distinct possibility. “Oh really? How did that happen?”

“Oh I don’t really know the details, but it was a human that inspired our good Queen that she didn’t need to fear that tyrant and she could fight back. I wish I’d seen it!”

It was disquieting how human the ghost sounded, a friendly sort of gossip. If only she had a way to record it. “The human got back home after helping, right?”

“Well I assume so, she had no intentions of staying here very long, that’s for sure!” She laughed easily, apparently blind to Maddie’s confusion and apprehension, or just unable to see it past the mask and goggles. “I’m fairly sure Sir Phantom took her back, you could ask him.”

Sir? That town terrorizing scoundrel was respected around here? And had been taking humans out of the ghost zone? Probably because he made whoever it was get here in the first place, just to rescue them. Was that why he was here? To stage some new act with this ghost queen? “Right, I might do that.” Would she? This morning she hadn’t expected to talk to ghosts, let alone multiple.

“Oh! If you see any of those angry blobs you can just run back towards the guards and they’ll deal with it. It’s their job, and they’re quite good at it. I actually considered doing that job for a bit, but I like looking after the plants more. Maybe I’ll switch in a decade or two!” The ghost kept talking, apparently taking Maddie’s lack of further questions as permission to keep chattering.

“Can’t you deal with them yourself?” Attacking ghost blobs was something she knew about, and if this ghost was strong enough to mimic humans, shouldn’t it be able to deal with the much less sophisticated tactics of blobs?

“Me? Oh no, I’m not not trained. Do you still have lions on the other side? It would be like trying to fight one of those with a stick!” She laughed, but not unkindly.

“You’re both ghosts though, aren’t you?” Perhaps they differentiated themselves by name in the Ghost Zone? It would lend some evidence to the ‘different breeds’ of ghost hypothesis she was rapidly stringing together.

She tapped at her chin for a moment at the question. “I suppose we are, but they’re more like animals. They might have always been animals, or never alive at all! It’s perfectly safe here though, they usually fight more among themselves.”

Well that was fascinating. Some ghosts didn’t instinctively know how to fight and had to be taught? Yet didn’t consider themselves completely separated from the more animalistic ectoplasmic terrors. Perhaps the more ‘domestic’ setting here made the ghosts less feral and more reliant on their previous memories. Well, the ghost could be lying, but she couldn’t see the benefit she’d gain from deception here. “So you’re kind of stuck here then? We saw a lot of those outside of this place.”

“No no, we’ve got safer ways to travel than just flying around! Not all of us are that brave, dear. Though I don’t think I’d want to stay somewhere else very long anyway. Here it’s safe, all my friends are here and we have one of the largest markets in the whole Ghost Zone. Other ghosts come to us!” There was a hint of pride as she spoke about her ‘home’, gesturing over to some of the stalls Maddie hadn't had time to look at before getting interrupted. “I was really hoping to get something from the seven armed bloke over there, but he’s not very interested in my clothing. Maybe next time.”

Said ‘bloke’ had far too many eyes to go with the arms, and a collection of honestly terrifying little statues with strange designs that made her head hurt if she looked at it too long. A clear outsider to the more human ones, but not causing a stir. So much for constantly fighting out groups, but they barely had anything in common either! Not to mention engaging in some kind of simplistic trading. “So this happens often?”

“Pretty much. It’s fun to make new things, but you get bored of just your own stuff after a few centuries you know? So we swap and find new things.”

Well of course, it’s not like the ghosts needed to trade for something vital to existence. Swapping ‘things’ made more sense in that context. So why weren’t any trying to trade strength or favours? Or simply taking what they wanted? Was it related to having a queen? She had so many questions that knowing what ones needed to be asked was next to impossible. “I suppose you would. How can you tell if a ghost that comes is peaceful?”

“Asking!” She laughed again, apparently finding the question funny. So they didn’t deal with constant attacks from spectres like Phantom trying to ‘take over?’ Why?

“Oh geeze, I’m so sorry if she said anything about trying to-” Phantom’s voice interrupted her thoughts, the ghost suddenly floating beside the other ghost and sputtering.

“Sorry? She’s been perfectly lovely! Haven’t you- oh I’m so rude, I didn’t even get your name!” the ghost tisked at herself, once again strangely apologetic.

“Wait, she has?” His doubtful tone made the ghost hunter scowl. As if he had any room to judge them.

“We’re scientists, not uncontrollable monsters.” Like him. She was fairly sure he caught the implication when the boy muttered something she couldn’t hear.

“Cool. Anyway, got another stop, then I’ll get you two back home.” He still hovered, glancing between the two of them a few times. “Oh. Maddie, that’s her name.”

“Lovely speaking with you Maddie! Had a good trip back, I’m Guenivier if you’re ever in the area again,” she smiled and gave another wave before somehow drifting back into the crowd without displacing even a bit of that dress.

“Who said you can give out my name?” Maddie hissed, once certain the other ghost was out of earshot.

He leaned back on teenager mannerisms, scoffing and heading away. “Because she wanted to know and thinks you aren’t a total ghost hater? It’s not gonna hurt anything.”

“How can I know you don’t have a way to locate people by name?”

He was rolling his eyes again as if she was being ridiculous. “You live in a house with a giant glowing sign. Not exactly subtle.”

“That isn’t in the ghost zone.”

“It’s attached to the ghost zone, it totally counts.”

It really was like arguing with a teenager when he bantered on like this. “Just don’t do it again.”

“Yes ma’am. Sheesh.” He hopped on top of the speeder, kicking his heels against the side. “Hey Jack, you coming?”

“Coming!” he bellowed back, jogging over from the patch of plants she’d left him at. However, he wasn’t just carrying his notebook, but a folded glowing bit of cloth. Some sort of tapestry judging by all the stitching? “Just wanted to get a few more lines done-” he broke off after spotting his wife, apparently reminded that he shouldn’t be so chummy with the ghost. “I mean I leave when I want to, you can’t boss Fentons around!”

“Oh come onnn, can you pretend you don’t hate me for like five minutes? I’m not even doing anything!” Phantom complained, flopping backwards onto the Speeder. “You were totally having a good time”.

“How did you get that, dear?” Maddie chose to ignore their sulking captor and instead look at what Jack managed to gather besides sketches.

“Oh, one of the ghosties liked my pictures and asked to trade for one! So I gave em a page for this! We can study how they made it back home, neat huh?”

Apparently he hadn’t been too worried about it being a trap, but a picture he’d just sketched wasn’t a big ask for something that could teach them a lot about the ghosts in here, so it was a good trade nonetheless. “You did great sweetie. Just make sure to store it safely, just in case.”

“Already on it sweet cheeks!” He was indeed, already pulling out a large sample bag to store their find before opening the hatch again.

“Ew. I changed my mind, go back to threatening me. Sappy is worse.”

Well, at least the ghost regretted his actions a bit. He’d be more sorry if he tried anything, but this did just seem to be something to sooth that hero complex it had. So far, anyway. She was tempted to ask the ghost what it had been up to at the castle, but it didn’t really matter. He’d just lie anyway, he clearly wasn’t the same sort of ghost as the weaker ones back there.

“Ha, he crumples in the face of our love Madds!” Jack laughed, hugging his wife and they got comfortable back in the speeder. “You think he’d take us back home if I said how much I love ya?”

“I so don’t need to hear this.” He was muffled, apparently still flopped on the speeder. He didn’t add anything before the Speeder lifted from the ground and resumed speeding through the strange green expanse.

“Clearly he buys his own teenager delusion.” Maddie mused, content to rest against Jack and look through his sketches. “Did they seem strangely lifelike to you too?”

“Oh sure! They just talked and didn’t even seem interested in going to the human world! Even though one was very jealous of how bright my jumpsuit is.” He leaned a bit to flick a few pages forward. “I sketched a couple and got their names, so we can see if we can look em up. See if they’re similar to their old selves according to history and all.”

“That’s a good idea. I didn’t get a complete name, but apparently they have jobs? Not like the wilder ghosts, and they do have a queen…” she paused, remembering the ‘human’ Phantom apparently ‘helped home. “Hey! You did help someone home from the ghost zone before, did you?”

“Huh? Oh! Yeah, she’s back safe. Wasn’t even a whole day.” He sounded distracted, or at least surprised by the question.

It could be a valuable lead. That, and the human might need help after such an experience. Who knew how ecto contaminated they might be! “Who was it?”

“How should I know? Just because I’m in town a lot doesn’t mean I know everyone’s name.”

She frowned, glancing at Jack who only shrugged. So he hadn’t heard that story, only her. “You know ours.”

“Because you shout them at me and shoot at me a lot? Pretty easy to remember!”

“Ghost kid’s got a point.” Jack admitted, patting her on the shoulder. “We’ll just find who it is ourselves! Just an extra project.”

“What, and just make their life weird again by bringing up ghost stuff? Leave em alone.”

Well now they absolutely had to look into it, if Phantom wasn’t keen on the idea. Better to let him think they agreed though. “True, it could just lead you back to them.”

“Hey! This is all you, not me!”

Jack chuckled. “You’re really good at riling him up. Almost sounds like our Danny like that, getting all touchy about fun family activities!”

“Well he probably copies behaviour from local teenagers,” she didn't like that comparison though. Their children were nothing like life destroying ghosts. It was better to turn her attention to the passing green and how the amount of doors seemed to dwindle as masses of ice started to become the most prominent detail. That made more sense, actually. Phantom had started using ice in addition to ectoblasts, if he came from somewhere with this sort of climate it seemed less out of place with his other abilities. Even if he was otherwise ill suited to snow and ice with how he insisted on looking like a kid.

The next stop felt more like a mistake, with only hills of untouched white powder and ice to see, but the crunch of snow below confirmed they were no longer moving. Good thing they came prepared with heated coats!

“Not a whole lot around here! If it wasn’t for all the green we could pretend we were in Alaska.” Jack chattered as he shrugged a coat on, still apparently too excited to look around to keep his suspicion up. “They don’t all like castles, or maybe it’s a hidden one!”

He better not be thinking Santa had an ice castle. That was probably what he was thinking of, but she didn’t really want to bring up their annual argument at the moment. He could be wrong today, there were more important things to do. “You do realize it’s a frozen wasteland you’ve stranded us on?”

“It’s not that cold.” Phantom objected, circling the Speeder idly.

“Easy for a ghost to say, you’re always cold ghost kid!”

He stopped at that, glancing back at Jack. “It's not that bad, is it?”

“Only because we brought warm clothing. Jumpsuits aren’t enough for the living.” Maddie huffed, looking at the snowfields to find anything worth looking at. The structures of ice were somewhat interesting, but not inherently ghostly.

“Well you guys can stay here, I guess.” The ghost bit at his lip, playing up the concern now that they pointed out a frozen wasteland was cold. Honestly, how did anyone fall for Phantom’s act if he made mistakes like this? “I don’t think Frostbite’s people come out this far…”

“Oh, are they dangerous? We can take any of your little ghostly pals!”

Phantom looked as if Jack suggested exploding a building. “No! Don’t fight any of them! They just look scary, okay? Just ignore them, if any show up.” He didn’t wait for a response before flying off this time, apparently in much more of a hurry this time.

“Sounds like he’s worried about what we can do to his little pals, huh?” Jack elbowed his wife with a grin. “Well, maybe we can find something weird about the ice here!”

It was better to try getting some of the ghost ice instead of doing nothing, though she doubted it would be very different from regular ice, beyond the ectocontamination. Now what would a ghost think is ‘scary looking’? He hadn’t given such a warning when close to all of the other ghosts, after all. It was a bit of a mystery, and none of the ice here had any identifying marks or hints of another odd little ghost ‘civilization’. ‘Frostbite’ wasn’t much of a name either, perhaps they were more like the wild sort that came to Amity?

“Oh hoh! Look at this!” Jack yelled out, pointing to something below him as he waved her over.

A large, clawed footprint left in the snow, and fairly deep. So something monstrous after all, as expected. “Maybe we can get a cast of it?” They had supplies for it, but she wasn’t certain if it would work in the ice correctly. The tracks didn’t go for long, but following them wasn’t a very tantalizing idea. Better to keep a distance and be well armed if they wanted to tangle with whatever left this. It wasn’t as distracting as the previous stop, but the sound of crunches increasing in volume had the couple back on edge and wary.

“Seriously, we should just go-”

It sounded like the ghost boy was near wherever the crunches were coming from, which didn’t improve her mood one iota.

“Nonsense! I have been asking to meet them for how long?” A deep, growling and carrying voice came in response as Maddie readied a weapon.

“Yeah, that’s the problem. You don’t want to, trust me.”

“Seems he doesn’t have a very high opinion of ghost hunters, eh Mads?” Jack was less noticeably readied, still half crouched near the footprint, but his hand hovered where a weapon was concealed. She focused on her breathing as the sound grew louder, eyes narrowed as she spotted a large figure cresting the nearby hill. With the little white haired ghost boy completely at ease near it. Nothing like his regular behaviour, let alone the talking. Why would this huge beast know of them?

“What did I say about not shooting people?” Phantom actually seemed to blush on seeing her holding the weapon, smacking his face. “Okay, you saw them, bye now!”

The large furred creature ignored how the smaller ghost pushed at their shoulder, instead waving with a horrific ice claw, bones gleaming from within as it seemed to rip at the very air. “Well our first meeting was hardly perfect either, I can manage.”

“Yeah but I can’t just pull a ‘won’t shoot a big yeti’ icicle out of their jumpsuits!”

For a human loving ghost, Phantom was certainly very concerned about this giant horned monster being harmed by ‘mere humans’. More proof of his act, at least. Though the large creature did have a cloak of some sort and clothing. He spoke well, if you ignored the fanged mouth and growls. A strange contradiction of appearance and intent. That wasn’t a normal thing for ghosts either, you could gather a decent amount about one by how they looked. So why was this one chatting and apparently interested in seeing two humans? “So, you’re the ‘Frostbite’ he mentioned?” She hazarded a guess, but wasn’t going to put the gun away.

It showed its fangs, maw wide and unnerving. “Yes, I am! It is an honour to meet you” The furry head bowed slightly, as if trying a sort of nod of respect. “Your work assisted the Great One in vanquishing Pariah Dark, we all owe you a debt of gratitude.”

“Please don’t call me that. Especially in front of them!” the green eyed ghost practically squawked, somehow flushing even harder when he didn’t even have blood.

Maddie’s mind almost flipped over from the sheer confusion of what this terrifying ghost said. They had ‘helped’ vanquish something? More likely, Phantom had stolen something. So why did this ghost still give them credit? That wasn’t even starting to touch why the ghost boy would be considered great in any aspect. “Assisted him? Do you mean with that ghost who took our town into the Ghost Zone?” She wasn’t sure if that was what the ‘king’ ghost was called, but it made more sense than anything else she could think of.

“Indeed. The King of All Ghosts would have sent the infinite realms into chaos and conflict. Of course we are grateful for your help in preventing that.”

“That’s when you stole the Ecto Skeleton!” Jack spoke up, no longer tense. “You never brought it back.”

“That’s not my fault, that thing almost wasted me! It was gone once I woke up!” The boy objected, but seemed to settle down when the larger ghost ruffled his hair. “I wanted to bring it back.”

“I’m sure now they understand how vitally important that technology was, for your world and ours.” The ghost’s yellow eyes watched them expectantly, the unnerving void of pointed daggers thankfully closed now.

“Well it did get Amity back where it belonged.” Losing the Ecto Skeleton had been a blow, but an acceptable one to get back to normal. The fact that more ghosts seemed to know and care about their part of it was somewhat unnerving. She very much doubted Phantom just ‘lost’ it either. Jack suffered from the demands of the suit, but the ghost was just ectoplasm and electricity. Quite unlikely he could be drained that much, it wasn’t meant for ghosts to use in the first place.

“Your world? Doesn’t the kid live here?” Jack asked, making his wife blink. She hadn’t noticed that odd phrasing.

“No, no. The Great One prefers the human world and his friends. How are they doing?”

He froze up, eyes flicking to the hunters and back to the yeti. “Fine. They’re great.” He darted closer to the two hunters, gesturing at them to move. “Okay let’s go.”

How much interacting was this ghost doing with humans to have ‘friends’ it told other ghosts about? They could be in danger, or used as targets! “No no, we’d love to hear about your friends.”

“Nope, you don’t, gotta get home right? Big hurry, don’t trust me, remember?” He was practically pleading with them.

Frostbite’s ears twitched as he tilted his head. “Don’t trust you? Surely they’re the ones who taught your friends how to drive that craft of yours?”

Phantom had the gall to turn invisible.

“We were unaware anyone other than us was using it, actually.” Maddie didn’t bother to keep the frost from her voice.

“Ah, well at least the good news is I already knew how to make a replacement battery for it when the Great One came asking for help.” His tail twitched, as one of the great claws scratched at his furry chest. “It should be good as new once you can install it.”

So not only was this ghost stealing technology and bringing humans to the ghost zone, it was teaching other ghosts how it worked! The second that ghost was in their grasp, he’d have some serious answering to do. “Do all of you call him that?” It was the only question she could ask without wishing to spit acid, quite frankly.

“All of the Far Frozen recognize him as such, but not all ghosts are the same. He should be proud of the title, a savour of two worlds.”

“Frostbite I’m begging you, stop! It’s embarrassing!” The ghost dropped his invisibility, still looking more like a flustered kid instead of the heroics seeking fame junkie he was.

“Well if it helps your relationship with these ghost hunters, I think it is important that they know.”

“Yeah no. Let’s not.”

It felt like there was something the two ghosts weren’t saying. That, and the fact Phantom didn’t seem to like being hailed as a hero here in the Ghost Zone didn’t make sense. Why all the grandstanding in Amity then?

“Well we’ll be glad for the lift home. You shouldn’t steal from us, kid.” Jack tried a stern approach, and the ghost actually flinched from the rebuke.

“You’re not the only ones who want to map this place out, that’s all,” he didn’t really seem to be answering them, more talking to himself before launching himself at the Speeder again. “You can shoot at me about it back home or whatever.”

“Travel safely! Do try and explore your other half more often, Great one. You’re always welcome here.” His great furry head watched them all easily, seeking out the ghost hunters eyes as well. "I understand you are less interested, but you are welcome to see the realities of my home as well. It may surprise you, in a good way."

She desperately wanted to ask what that monster of a ghost meant by that, but managed to hold her tongue. If all the ghosts here saw Phantom as some sort of godlike hero, chewing him out here wasn’t safe. Jack’s small nod of agreement and warm hug helped, but it couldn’t stop her mind churning. They’d seen and hurt so much, and none of it made any sense! This Frostbite just threw in several more wrenches in the works with only a few sentences, but with how agitated Phantom was getting now wasn’t the time to push their luck. Perhaps when the shoe was on the other foot, and the boy needed their assistance.

He didn’t speak up or grumble this time as they left the frozen land behind. Though that might be them as well,m sitting close together and considering the notes and samples they had taken. That and the huge list of questions Jack had scrawled down in the margins of a sketch of Frostbite. How could a ghost like Phantom truly manage to stay in the human world most of the time? Did it have to do with this ‘other half’ that ghost had mentioned? Would knowing what it was reveal a weakness in the ghost? So many questions, but no answers. Why had Phantom even let them speak to any ghosts, considering how badly he’d reacted to some of the information given? He couldn’t genuinely be wanting to help.

The inviting glow of the portal appeared sooner than either of them could expect, the ghost dropping the ship on the lab floor with a loud clunk.

“See? Home. No ‘evil plan’” he floated into view, and she was fairly sure he only did so to make those air quotes with his hands.

“So you say, ghost kid. Don’t think we won’t be checking for tricks!”

“Yeah sure,” he shrugged, grinning after a moment. “Oh hey, by the way, you do know what the Speeder is powered with, right?”

Maddie didn’t actually know how to take that question. “Of course we do, we built it!”

“Uh huh.” His grin widened as he kicked back, legs vanishing into that strange tail. “All you had to do was take the cover off. It’s the Ghost Zone! There’s ectoplasm everywhere! I just had Frostbite make a backup.”

...Had they really- They had. They’d been dragged around by a ghost for no reason at all! “Why you little-”

He kept laughing before turning and getting out of the way. “Thanks for flying with Phantom Zone Tours! I’m out.” A jaunty wave and he was gone, leaving two baffled ghost hunters behind.

“I think some fudge is in order after that!”

She couldn’t say he was wrong. Maybe fudge could make sense of that whole affair. All that for a prank? It didn’t add up. They’d have a lot of work to do.

#Danny Phantom #phic fight 2021 #Maddie Fenton #jack fenton #hey look a fun one!#tho they are kinda mean about poor danny-boy #but hey minimal angst! woo!#Team Ghost

249 notes · View notes

nocturna-starr · 3 years

Text

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.

#phic phight 2021 #danny phantom #danny fenton #au

83 notes · View notes

nastyburger · 4 years

Note

if you want to talk a bit more about cores, do you have any ideas about what determines the type of core a ghost has?

i talked a bit about that here! the element of a core can be as loosely based on your final thoughts in any way that seems fit to the person whether that be literal or metaphorical. like it can be really random and stuff at times and wholly based on your thoughts and how you think of things. like if youre for some reason you’re thinking about apples in your final moments and vaguely associate apples with water or thinking about apple juice then you’ll probably end up with a water core! again it can be very random and stuff

i guess another good example to talk about the metaphorical aspect would be vlad’s fire core. i like to imagine vlad did not become a halfa at the scene of when the proto-portal blasted him, he instead became one while in the hospital recovering from the ecto acne (or whatever i decide to replace that with lol).

somewhere deep in my dannyverse au tag, i talked a bit about how i imagine ghosts and a core forming only upon death and halfas are VERY specific and special situations where something in that process of forming fucks up and the ghost ends up “sticking” or staying with the body, inadvertently keeping it alive in a weird symbiotic way. basically i imagine vlad was dying in the hospital slowly (contrasting danny being instant), so he spent a lot of type stewing in anger and hatred. i hc that he hates jack not just because of the whole maddie thing but also because they never visited him while he was sick. he had so much anger and rage building up within him up until death, so his ghost core manifested as fire.

#ghost core theory #nasty reboot #seance #Anonymous

49 notes · View notes

ladylynse · 5 years

Text

The Trouble with Ghosts - Part X [FF | AO3]

Lancer hadn’t realized how closely young Mr. Fenton’s school troubles–and the secrets he surely wasn’t telling his parents–were tied to ghosts until after that encounter with Phantom.

<< < Part X >

-|-

The Picture of Dorian Gray, he didn’t think he could stand much more of this.

“Vlad’s like you,” Lancer repeated, and Danny squirmed. “Vlad Masters. The mayor.”

“How many other Vlads do you know?” Danny mumbled, not looking at him.

Lancer didn’t bother to answer that. “He shares your, ah, affliction, and he’s actively hunting you down?” Were there others? Lancer wasn’t sure he wanted to ask right now—Danny would surely latch onto that and turn the conversation in an entirely different direction—but the thought was…disquieting. A human with ghostly abilities…. The potential abuse of power alone was a terrifying prospect, but the number of people who might attempt to gain these powers, were the truth known that such a thing was possible….

Danny pulled a face but looked up. “I dunno if you can call it an affliction. We’re not sick. I mean, Vlad had the ecto-acne, but that was just because he got blasted in the face. I think. Maybe the pop did way more than just make the proto-portal malfunction. It’s just…. This is more a state of being. We just are this way. It’s easier not to question it.”

Easier for him, no doubt. Lancer wanted to press for details about whatever accident Danny was alluding to—he could guess what the proto-portal must have been, given the installation in the Fentons’ basement, though he was at a loss for everything else—but he didn’t want to allow young Mr. Fenton to lead him on a merry chase away from the subject at hand. Which he was clearly trying to do. Again.

Fortunately, it sounded like the circumstances that led to the creation of these ghostly abilities in humans were rare. Danny hadn’t given any details about his own accident, but if Vlad’s had involved a proto-portal—

No. He wasn’t going to ask now. The dubious safety of the FentonWorks lab could be addressed later. At least…. At least it wasn’t as bad as Lancer had first feared. At least Danny was still alive. He and Vlad both displayed too many signs of life for that not to be the case, particularly if Vlad’s accident had happened in his college years.

“So why, for David Copperfield’s sake, would Mr. Masters be hunting you instead of helping you?” If Vlad’s experience was remotely similar, and surely there must be similarity enough if the effects were the same, he could be helping Danny. Guiding him through this. Rebuilding an old friendship with Jack and Maddie while getting to know their kids. If he fancied Danny as the son he’d never had—

“Hunting me down isn’t the best way of putting it, either,” Danny said instead of answering what Lancer thought was a perfectly reasonable question. “He’s not like Skulker. He doesn’t want my pelt at the foot of his bed or on his mantle or anything gross like that.”

Lancer barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Danny was trying to sprinkle in little details that he hoped Lancer would follow up on instead of the more pressing matters at hand. The bait was blatantly obvious.

And harder not to take than it was to spot.

“You said he wishes you were his son. That he’s obsessed, to the point that he’s been conducting genetic experiments. If he wishes to be a mentor to you, why does he seem so set on trying to destroy you?”

“Uh. That’s not really important. I mean, it’s Vlad. It’s hard to say anyway.”

Sometimes, it was very hard to remember that he’d signed up to help his students, not strangle them.

“I rather think I know enough that telling me a few more supposedly unimportant details won’t make a significant difference to my health, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Danny winced. “Can we just change the subject for now and circle back later?”

Fine. If Danny didn’t want to talk about it right now, they didn’t have to talk about it right now. There was more than enough time for him to tell Lancer exactly which ghost was associated with the mayor—though he had an awful feeling that he might already know, if he allowed himself to think about it for any length of time. In the meantime, there were a number of other matters they should talk about sooner rather than later.

“Would you rather discuss exactly what you should tell Miss Gray?”

“…No?”

“Because you aren’t going to continue to let her do this,” Lancer continued. It wasn’t a question, and from the look on Danny’s face, he knew that. “You can’t. However skilled a ghost hunter she is, however skilled at evading her you usually are, you cannot allow her to continue to hunt you down simply because you feel that it is easier to be hurt and bear that pain and these secrets than to hurt her by telling her the truth.”

“Would you still be saying that if she shot me in the face with her ecto-gun once I told her?”

“Mr. Fenton. Do you honestly believe that would be her reaction?”

Danny was quiet for a moment. Then, “I guess not. But it’s still a possibility.”

“A more distant one than I’m sure you imagine,” Lancer said dryly. “Miss Gray is merely seeking to protect this town, much as you are. If neither of you will stop, you can at the very least share the burden and not make things worse for yourselves.” Danny looked like he was trying to come up with something he could use as a decent protest to this point, so Lancer added, “And if you do not tell her now, you will only invite more trouble for yourself. She is surely suspicious of us both, and if she does go to the mayor with her concerns….”

“Vlad’s going to be a problem either way.” Lancer just looked at Danny, and Danny relented. “But, yeah, you’re right, if Val mentions seeing me, he’ll know exactly where I am. I just…. Do I really have to tell her?”

That was a concession, whether or not Danny had realized it. “You do know her secret.”

“That’s, um, part of the problem.”

“Which will only grow into a greater problem unless you actively do something to resolve it. Contrary to what we all wish, most problems do not go away when ignored. It is high time you stopped ignoring this one. And once you tell Miss Gray, you will have a better idea of how to tackle the issue when you tell your parents.”

“But I don’t….” Danny trailed off. Lancer didn’t need to have as many years teaching under his belt as he did to recognize the unhappy expression on Danny’s face. He didn’t want to do this. He had no desire to do this now.

But he also knew he should, and that was one of the many reasons Lancer was going to win this particular argument.

Really, he already had.

“Are you ready to discuss Mr. Masters candidly, then?” Danny shook his head, so Lancer sighed and got to his feet. “Very well. I’ll see if I can catch Miss Gray—or the Red Huntress. Please, for the love of Robinson Crusoe, stay here. You won’t be doing anyone any favours if you try to sneak off, least of all yourself.” In a softer tone, he added, “You aren’t out of the woods quite yet.”

“Vlad doesn’t want me dead,” was all Danny said. He didn’t promise to stay put, and Lancer wasn’t keen on the idea of trusting in young Mr. Fenton’s common sense, but between what Danny had confided and what Lancer had guessed, he hoped there was enough trust between them for Danny to trust him, too.

And trust him enough to listen to him.

He didn’t know if he’d be able to find Valerie, but he knew that if he didn’t leave now, he had no hope until after school was let out. The lunch break would be over soon. If she truly intended to observe that, she couldn’t stay in his neighbourhood for long, even if she was looking for clues to Phantom’s whereabouts. Furthermore, if he were able to find her, convincing her to come back with him would take more time. If Danny truly wanted to run, he’d have ample opportunity.

But trust must go both ways.

Still, it was hard not to regret leaving Danny alone.

XXXXXXXX

Danny wanted to bolt. He stayed in bed, holding his breath and listening as Lancer locked the front door behind him. And then he wanted to jump up and transform and fly away and hide.

Except he still couldn’t fly, and even if he just walked out the front door and left it unlocked behind him, invisibility was still out. And he didn’t know what he could tell his parents about what had happened to him when they inevitably found him. If he walked out as Fenton, someone could call them, if only so they could get some peace and quiet. If he walked out as Phantom, well….

Danny sighed and slumped back.

Despite what he’d implied when talking about Sam and Tucker borrowing the Spectre Speeder, getting into the Ghost Zone was easier said than done right now, if only because getting home undetected seemed nearly impossible. It offered no guarantee of sanctuary, anyway—at least not from Vlad. Even if there were somewhere safe he could go, running wouldn’t solve his problems. Lancer wasn’t going to let this go. He wouldn’t just forget about this. He wouldn’t just ignore it. Danny had no way to reset the situation.

He wasn’t sure he’d do that even if he had the chance.

He hadn’t thought anyone would react like this. Jazz was concerned, sure, but she’d never tried to stop him from doing what he was. She opposed Vlad when she could, they all did, but he knew she wasn’t doing as much as she might because protecting his secret meant protecting Vlad’s, too.

Except Lancer had figured out his secret, and Danny had told him about Vlad, and even if Vlad could get Lancer fired or worse, Lancer was willing to take the risk.

Or, more accurately, Lancer was willing to face the consequences.

Because there would be consequences.

There had to be consequences.

Even Valerie…. What would Valerie say to this? What would Lancer say to her when he found her? How much was he going to tell her before he expected Danny to admit to everything he’d kept secret for so long? Would Valerie even be able to look him in the eye after this? Would she warm to Phantom because it was him or scorn Fenton because of what he was?

“I need to not worry about this,” Danny muttered. That was easier said than done, of course. Just because he couldn’t control how anyone else would react didn’t mean he wouldn’t rather keep them in the dark forever.

But Lancer was right.

Sooner or later, that ignorance would put them in danger. He might not be able to protect them. And…and not telling them was as much for selfish reasons as any excuse he told himself to justify putting off telling the truth. He really was protecting himself more than he was protecting them.

It was just…hard.

Even just thinking about telling them everything. Valerie, his parents…. So much had happened. Maybe too much. He knew it was easy to put it off, he knew that would only make telling them later harder, but he still….

He still wished he had more time. That he could do this on his own terms. That he didn’t feel forced into it, between Vlad’s actions and Lancer’s decrees.

If he was being honest with himself, though, he knew that he might never tell anyone unless he had to.

It was too easy to focus on the possible negatives than dare to hope for any of the positives.

Danny lost track of time. He didn’t notice the door open, but he heard voices, and a sudden terror seized in his chest. Lancer had found Valerie. Whatever he’d told her, he’d brought her back, and—

“Danny?” That was Valerie, knocking on the door frame of Lancer’s spare room. Danny blinked and tried to focus. Judging by the confusion on her face, Lancer hadn’t told her much. “Mr. Lancer said you needed to talk to me?”

She didn’t ask why it couldn’t wait, why he hadn’t said anything when she’d been there earlier, or what would so important that Lancer had gone after her and would be perfectly okay with her skipping school for this.

She didn’t really need to, though.

“Yeah.” His voice was weak. Danny swallowed, unsuccessfully trying to push down his fear, and said, “Sit down, Val.”

She looked over her shoulder, but Lancer hadn’t followed her. She moved to the foot of the bed and sat. As the silence stretched between them, Danny could hear a kettle beginning to boil.

Tea—or whatever Lancer offered them—wouldn’t fix this.

Danny wasn’t even sure it would smooth things over.

But it would give him something to hide behind, and Danny was grateful for that.

“What’s going on?” Valerie finally asked.

“I….” How was he supposed to go about this? He never intended to tell Valerie like this. He wasn’t even sure he’d ever intended to tell her. “It’s, um…. It’s kinda complicated.”

She waited, raising her eyebrows in a prompt to continue when he didn’t.

“It’s just….” Asking her to promise not to freak out wouldn’t do any good. “Look, recently Mr. Lancer, um, kinda found out a few things.”

“About?”

Everything. “Some, uh, ghost stuff. It’s…. I’m sorry. This isn’t easy to explain.”

Valerie frowned. “Danny, if this is about something your parents invented, why not talk to Sam and Tucker? They know more about that stuff than I do.”

“It’s…not exactly that? It’s, uh….”

“Look, just why did you want to talk to me? It’s not that I don’t want to be your friend, but this doesn’t really seem like it involves me. I should be in school. You should probably be sleeping if you won’t go to a hospital. Y’know, to regain your strength.”

There was no easy way to say any of this. “I know your secret.”

She froze for a split second before forcing a smile. “It’s not really a secret anymore. Besides, I hardly have to do the mascot job now. I’ve got enough seniority that I’m usually on cash or in the back.”

“I don’t mean your job at the Nasty Burger.” He should just come out and say it. He should—

“I made you two some hot chocolate,” Lancer said, coming into the room with two steaming mugs topped with little marshmallows. He set them on the dresser. “I’ll be in the kitchen doing some marking if you need anything.”

They watched as he left, neither moving to grab the hot chocolate. Danny was tempted, but—

“This is weird,” Valerie said. “I mean, Mr. Lancer’s being nice and all, but it’s still weird. I’m just going to head back to school, okay? Call me after if you actually need something, and—”

“I know you’re the Red Huntress,” Danny said.

Valerie couldn’t school her expression quickly enough, but she still poured the incredulity into her voice as she asked, “Are you kidding? You think I’m the Red Huntress? I mean, I’m flattered, she’s awesome, but I barely have time to do my homework as it is.”

“You got your new suit from Technus,” Danny continued, “but Vlad still supplies all your weapons. And I’m assuming he empties your thermos, too. He’s got a ghost portal in his secret lab.”

Valerie stared at him. “Vlad. As in Vlad Masters? You think he has a secret lab with a ghost portal? Your parents are the ghost hunters, Danny, not him.”

“They worked together in college,” Danny said. “They thought Vlad gave it up after his accident, but he didn’t. He just focused on some other stuff for a while.” He took a slow breath and then chickened out rather than take this opportunity to spill everything. “I know the whole story, Valerie. Including why you started doing this in the first place. You don’t need to keep pretending.”

Valerie studied him in silence, maybe trying to figure out if she could convince him he was wrong. In the end, all she said was, “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help when you got caught in that ghost fight.”

You were. “It, ah, wasn’t the kind of ghost fight that you’re thinking. Look, I know this is a lot to take in. I’ve known for a long time. Pretty much right from the start.”

“How? Who told you?”

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. “No one really needed to tell me. And, uh, you should know that Lancer figured it out, too. When you came by this afternoon.”

Now her eyes were narrowed. “And what gave him that idea? That I’m the Red Huntress just because I dropped by to do some fundraising?”

Danny swallowed. “Because he knows—we both know—that that’s not why you really came. You’re looking for Phantom.”

Valerie straightened up, the last vestiges of her pretense dropping away completely. “He’s here, isn’t he? I knew it. My tracker’s never been that far off. He’s the one who told you two, isn’t he?” Perhaps catching the look on Danny’s face, she hastened to add, “It’s nothing personal, I swear. I know you think he’s a good ghost, but—”

“Valerie, the whole reason you’re hunting ghosts is because it’s personal. You think Phantom’s the reason your dad lost his job, and—”

“You don’t know the whole story,” Valerie interrupted. “You can’t, so don’t pretend you do. And it’s not just about Phantom. He’s not the only ghost in this town. He’s just the only one that’s convinced everyone else except your parents and Mr. Masters that he’s good.”

“Actually,” Danny said slowly, “you’re the one who doesn’t know the whole story.”

He wished he had the hot chocolate to hide behind now, but it was a good thing Valerie was empty-handed; she might be tempted to throw it on him otherwise. It wouldn’t stop her from calling up her suit and trying to shoot him, but hopefully the fact that this was Lancer’s house would if nothing else did. Maybe she’d just settle for screaming at him?

“What are you talking about? Of course I—”

“The thing is,” interrupted Danny, “you never let me tell it.”

“Just now?”

“Pretty much any time you saw me.” She was confused. He could see that easily enough. Confused and ready to protest. Again. And he…. He just had to say it. Say it and show her. “Cujo’s not my dog, and I never meant to ruin your life. I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“I’m….” He’d come too far not to say it, but he found himself staring at his hands and unable to meet her eyes. “I’m Danny Phantom.”

Silence.

He risked looking up, only to see her staring at him. “I’m, uh, not kidding. I really am Phantom.”

Her expression gave away nothing, so he risked transforming.

It was the only thing he could do to show her, anyway. To prove that he was telling the truth. About everything.

Valerie’s expression tightened, her hands balling into fists, but she didn’t call out her suit. She didn’t try to shoot him.

She blinked.

Blinked again.

Abruptly stood up and left—fled—without a word.

Danny didn’t try to follow her. He just sat there, hoping she’d come back. When he heard Mr. Lancer down the hall, he knew she wasn’t. He got up, closed the bedroom door, and grabbed the two mugs of hot chocolate from the dresser. He kept one as he crawled back into bed and set the other on the bedside table, hoping the drinks would be distraction enough from what had happened.

The mug was lukewarm in his hands, but his insides were cold. He wasn’t particularly hungry anymore, but maybe this would warm him up. He just felt… He just needed something. Jazz would probably hug him, talk to him, but he wasn’t about to go out there and chase Valerie down. He’d rather ask for her forgiveness later. Sometime when he’d worked up the nerve to see her again and she’d actually want to see him again.

Danny took a sip of the hot chocolate. The marshmallows had melted into a sweet foam on top. Ordinarily, he’d like it, but now….

It was hard to keep his stomach from turning, given Val’s reaction.

After how Lancer had taken it, he’d hoped…. He’d hoped it wouldn’t be this bad. He’d hoped she’d at least talk to him, even if that talk had started with yelling.

But just leaving….

It was too easy to remember Spectra’s words. Too easy to be tempted to believe them.

Not a ghost, not a boy. A freak. Just some creepy little boy with creepy little powers.

Valerie must see him that way, and if she took it like this…. He’d have to do the damage control he could. Convince Lancer to give it up. Not keep pursuing this, wanting him to tell his parents or do something about Vlad. Things didn’t have to change. He didn’t…. He couldn’t….

The first tear dripped off his chin and into his hot chocolate.

By the time the last one fell, the drink in his hands was cold.

XXXXXX

Lancer had made a point of leaving the kids to themselves. He didn’t think he’d be a mediating force as much as an interference; the fact that he’d arranged everything, that this meeting was taking place on his terms at his house, should be mediation enough. If he gave them the time to sort this out for themselves, they could work through whatever needed to be worked through. Then, he could help them when they were ready for his help.

He only got halfway through the first essay before Miss Gray appeared at his side. A few tears tracked down her cheeks; most still gathered in her eyes, no doubt blurring her vision as she looked down at him. “Did you know?” she whispered.

He had perhaps misjudged the situation after all. Lancer gestured for Valerie to pull out a chair, and she did, barely looking as she flopped down. “I learned about your, ah, extracurricular activities less than an hour ago.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I’m afraid I only found out about Mr. Fenton’s condition this morning as well.” In truth, it hadn’t been long before Miss Gray had turned up on his doorstep, but it felt much longer.

Maybe he had pushed too hard, rushed this, but given the circumstances his students were facing, he couldn’t bring himself to regret it.

It was better that the truth came out now rather than in worse circumstances. Whatever Danny thought, he couldn’t keep his secret forever. From the rest of the world, sure, but those he interacted with so often? Particularly when he’d said his ghostly enemies were well aware of the situation? Not all the ghosts he faced would be so honourable as to respect his wishes. Sooner or later, one would come along which would use his secrecy against him.

As far as Lancer was concerned, Vlad Masters already was.

“Then you….” Valerie sniffed and wiped at her nose with the back of one hand. “Then you know what I’ve done. What I’ve been doing. I…I thought…. Why wouldn’t he just tell me? Explain? I wouldn’t have…. I wouldn’t….”

“I expect he was afraid,” Lancer murmured. He reached over to the counter for a box of tissues and passed them to Valerie. She took one and almost immediately needed another. “Not of you, Miss Gray. Not exactly. He was afraid to hope for the best. This means that he feared not being believed, that the misunderstandings would grow, or perhaps that people would be angry at him for keeping his secret as long as he did and not try to understand why he would make that choice. Perhaps most of all, he feared the consequences of hoping the truth would be well received and finding that hope misplaced.”

Valerie sniffled but said nothing.

“Some of his reasons for keeping his secrets,” added Lancer quietly, “might well align with yours.”

She stiffened but didn’t deny it, which confirmed his suspicion that very few people knew the identity of the Red Huntress.

“Another reason for wanting to keep his secret is that he didn’t want to hurt you with the truth.”

“That’s stupid,” Valerie said immediately. “I mean, I could’ve…. I almost….” She shook her head. “I need to tell my benefactor. He’ll…. He’ll be able to fix my stuff. Make sure it doesn’t hurt Danny. So I don’t do this again by mistake. I don’t…. I can’t hurt him. Not again.”

Lancer blinked. Danny hadn’t told her that Vlad—? “I’m afraid Mr. Masters is already aware of the situation.”

“What?” The news seemed to have shocked away her tears. “No, he can’t be. He’s only after ghosts. Danny’s human.” She hesitated. “Isn’t he?”

“He’s still human,” Lancer assured her. He didn’t know the details, but if nothing else, Danny was human in every way that mattered.

At least Valerie wasn’t trying to deny Vlad’s involvement. She no doubt correctly suspected that Danny had filled him in on that little tidbit after he’d deduced her identity. That was for the best; he’d like her cooperation moving forward.

“Then he can’t know. He wouldn’t…. He asked me to go after Phantom!”

“From what Danny tells me,” Lancer said quietly, “he is not the most scrupulous of people.” Cloning. Experimentation. He’d spare Valerie the details for now; she’d no doubt have questions he couldn’t answer. “You would have to ask Danny to explain what he can to you. In the grand scheme of things, I fear he’s told me very little.”

Valerie said nothing, focusing instead on stuffing the mound of damp tissues on her lap into a dry one, which she promptly shoved into her pocket.

At least it wasn’t another denial.

“I know this is a lot to take in.” Treasure Island, he knew. “It may be little comfort, but I called the school after you went in to talk to Danny. Your absence this afternoon is excused. I know you would likely prefer to clear your head, but if you’re willing, Danny could use our help.”

Her mouth twisted. “Right. Because he’s still recovering. From being in a ghost fight. Where he was the ghost.” She took a shuddering breath and wiped at her eyes. “Yeah. I’ll do whatever I can.”

-|-

see more fics | tip me for a snippet of your choice | next

@cosmic-melodies

#danny phantom #danny fenton #valerie gray #mr lancer #dp fanfiction #phanfiction #phanfic #phic #fanfiction #my writing #ladylynse #dp snippet #snippets

140 notes · View notes

starlightshore · 6 years

Note

I love your au! It's so precious! I was wondering how you imagine Dan fits into it?

so like, i don’t have a Dan design yet cause I haven’t thought that far ahead yet, I really want to have a solid footing before i tackle the big guy

but basically, the origin story is different. instead of his family/friends dying, danny’s secret comes out to his parents. and they don’t handle it well at all. they jump to conclusions, stay in denial and freak out, causing danny to run away. he Nopes out of there before they can come to any understanding.

sam and tuck try to comfort him, but they end up saying the wrong things because it’s a stressful situation and they don’t know how to handle it (hell, adults wouldn’t know how to handle this, how can 14 year olds?) i think jazz offers the best help but ultimately let’s danny move in w/ vlad because of financial issues.

vlad is both overjoyed to take in danny, but... knowing how maddie and jack turned their back on their son stings, and his forlorn love breaks and he’s heartbroken and betrayed on danny’s behalf. it’s a mix of “she could never love me as what i am” and “ok so she’s actually not that cool of a person to abandon her son like that so actually Yikes” (again, danny left before they could properly talk things out)

anyway, idk how exactly it builds up to Dan, but it does, and It Sucks For Everyone.

#danny phantom #dan phantom #danny fenton #vlad masters #dp fanart #fanart tag #cluelessintheusa

335 notes · View notes

purpleillusn · 5 years

Text

Returning After the Reveal

Phic Phight attack 3

Prompt: “A post Phantom-Planet (or post reveal, if you hate PP that much) fic in which Danny is getting used to his new fame and recognition as a superhero. His teachers, classmates, and even former bullies are all suddenly treating him differently, and Danny’s not quite sure what to do with that.” - @love-ly-ish

Words: 7143

Danny pushed his crutches down again, supporting his weight as he made his way over to the X-Ray room. He was pretty sure that he could have walked, but doctor’s orders said he couldn’t, hence the crutches.

Whispers erupted as he traversed the labyrinth of corridors. Onlookers either appeared to be in awe, admirers and fans of his Phantom persona, while others scowled, moving out the way, many fearful of the teen in front of them, or rather his powers. He supposed he hadn’t been expecting anything different, the world probably hadn’t been ready for the existence of halfas, but had been introduced to them anyway.

A mother pulled her child away and close to her chest just as he’d tried to go up to Danny, attempting to shield the boy from him. Danny sighed and his mom placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

They entered the room, and Danny lay on the table as per the previous X-Ray, while Maddie joined the radiologist further away. If there was one thing Danny was grateful for in this great big mess of a situation, it was his parents’ unwavering support. Without them kicking up a fuss it would have been entirely possible for the GIW to cart him off to their labs, labelled as an ecto-based threat, while he was unconscious and wounded. Danny suppressed a shudder at that idea.

“Danny, you can come over here now,” called the doctor, a kindly old man who looked somewhat like a walrus.

On the computer screen was Danny’s leg, his tibia and fibula completely intact, just as expected. “Jeez you heal fast, kid. Most people would take months to recover from that,” commented the doctor, clicking into the image to zoom in. “Not even a hairline fracture anymore.”

Danny cringed - he’d had one hell of a compound fracture. On top of that apparently they had to pick fragments of bone out of his leg. Nope, he was not going to imagine that. The surgeons had been slightly freaked out even after he came around post-surgery, his healing factor having caused problems with treating his injuries.

“Does this mean I don’t need crutches now?” Danny asked hopefully, lightly kicking the leg in its brace.

“Yes, you’re free to go. Just don’t go breaking more bones on us,” the doctor chuckled, his belly shaking as he did so.

“No promises,” Danny responded, flashing him a smile before sitting down to phase the cast off his leg. “Uh, so, what do I do with this?” He waved it in the air. This was nice, being able to use his powers around others without having to fear exposure.

Maddie took the cast from him and placed it in the appropriate bin as they left the hospital. “Well, that went well,” she said, trying to maintain an optimistic mood despite the countless pairs of eyes on them, passing their own individual judgement.

Danny muttered something under his breath and Maddie asked him to speak up.

“I’d have preferred for none of this to happen in the first place,” he said barely loud enough for her to hear properly. “I should’ve handled the attack better.”

Maddie sighed. “You can’t be perfect, Danny. I wish you hadn’t got hurt like that, but it’s all we can do to move on from it now. You saved a lot of lives that day, and anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.”

“So I’ve heard,” Danny said spitefully, immediately resenting himself for taking that tone with his mom. “Sorry, I just-” He trailed off.

“It’s been a stressful few days, hasn’t it?” she said, unlocking the car and opening the door.

Danny mirrored her in opening the door on the passenger side, slipping into his seat. “Yeah.”

They backed out of the parking lot, the sound of tacky pop music coming from the radio while Danny picked at the fabric of his jeans. “Mom? Do you ever have times when you feel you could have done better?”

“Of course I do. Regrets are part of life, and no matter what you do, there’ll always be that nagging voice in your head,” Maddie said as she turned onto the highway.

“How do you deal with it?” Danny enquired.

Maddie glanced at Danny, then cast her eyes back to the road. “I remind myself that my mistakes are in the past, and I can’t change them. Plus focusing on the positives helps, like people you helped and ways you can do better in the future.”

Danny contemplated her words for a few seconds. “Thanks, mom.”

They were now approaching Amity Park, which did not have its own hospital due to the risk of ghost attacks. Craters, Danny-shaped and otherwise, marred the landscape and they passed a sign reading ‘Amity Park: A nice place to-’ The rest of the sign having been destroyed by ectoblasts, leaving it illegible.

Maddie cleared her throat. “But even I have regrets I can’t forgive myself for.”

“Oh,” Danny said, knowing full well where this conversation was heading. They’d had this conversation once already, in which Danny adamantly defended them, though admittedly he had been pretty drugged up then, so he couldn’t blame her for talking about it again. “I still don’t blame you for anything. I chose to lie to you- I shouldn’t have, and there was no way you could’ve guessed that your living son was a ghost.” He breathed before continuing. “You can’t change the past.”

Maddie conceded and continued the drive without bringing it up again, instead choosing to talk about space and recent developments in astronomy and astrophysics.

They stopped in the driveway of the Fenton house, now with a metal fence to fend off rabid reporters, fans and those who despised Danny and his entire family. They’d probably have to upgrade the security system at some point soon, but for now it would do.

The house was a lot cleaner than the night of the ghost attack, but was still somewhat disheveled, albeit without fragments of glass around the place now. “Good to see you Danny-boy!” Jack engulfed Danny in a one armed hug, his left arm being covered in bandages. “Can’t keep you down, eh?”

Danny chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Speaking of which, Danny, we’ll need to do a check up on your core,” Maddie interjected, catching Danny off guard with how naturally the words came from her mouth. They seemed to be adjusting about as well as one could to the revelation that their son’s half ghost, going so far as to lock up their most powerful weapons and program all of the inventions they could to ignore Danny’s ectosignature, including the ghost gabber, much to Danny’s delight. Sam and Tucker had managed to convince the Fenton parents that separating Danny’s ghost and human halves would be a terrible idea by explaining the Fenton ghost catcher incident, that and it didn’t take a scientist to know that ripping away part of someone’s body wasn’t good for them. If Danny was healthy and happy, that’s all that mattered to them.

The core check-up went similarly to an X-Ray, just in the lab, and with a different machine.

Danny pulled his t-shirt over his head, ignoring the fact that his hair was now even more messy than usual, and walked over to the computer screen displaying the scan.

A look at the display wouldn't mean much to someone without knowledge of ectobiology, but both the Fenton parents and Danny could see that it had thousands of tiny marks of damage, like the tears that form in a muscle after excess exertion.

“It looks like it’s healing. See? Snowfang was right,” said Danny.

Snowfang, the head doctor in the Far Frozen, had assured them that it would heal with time, as long as Danny did not overexert himself again.. Naturally the Fenton parents had still been worried, and coming up with ways to aid healing.

His dad grinned at him, while his mom had an unreadable expression of thought.

“You’ll still have to drink ectoplasm until you’re better,” she ordered, before quickly adding, “but maybe don’t bring it to school tomorrow.”

Crud. School. Danny cringed at the thought of his phan club following him around. “I’m not sure if I want to go back there. I mean, what if people…”

Maddie crouched slightly to be eye to eye with Danny. “It’ll be fine, just give it a try, okay? And if it’s too much for you, or you get bullied, we can always look into home education.”

Danny nodded, eyes downcast.

The ring of the doorbell pierced through the quiet and momentarily drowned out the whir of machines from every angle of the basement.

Jack was the first to reach the door, opening it only to remember that there was also a tall metal fence and gate between the street and the living room. “Jazzypants! Elle!” he bellowed as he opened the gate, letting two girls in. Elle gave him as much of a hug as her short arms could manage, channelling some ghost powers to jump up. Jack patted Danielle’s back and closed the gate. Danny’s face lit up at the sight of his adoptive sister, now dubbed ‘Elle’ both to avoid confusion and due to her sense of individuality, still clinging onto their dad as he came back into the house. The adoption would be going through quickly after they’d ‘convinced’ Vlad that it was best to let them adopt her and for him to leave her alone. It hardly seemed like she’d only lived with them for less than a week, yet that was undeniably the truth.

Elle, grinning broadly, dropped to the floor. “Hey, Danny, you’re all better?”

Danny made a more or less gesture with his hand. “Pretty much.”

Jazz announced her presence by dumping a large bag of books on the floor with a thud. “Well, that’s book shopping done.”

Danny glanced at the bag, stunned. “Did you buy the entire bookstore?”

“Ha, ha,” Jazz deadpanned. “Elle’s starting Middle School in September, that’s only five months away, so she’ll need to catch up on any material she missed out on by then.”

Elle was less excited by the idea of school, and instead pulled out a book titled ‘How much poo does an elephant do?’. “I got to choose some books I wanted too.”

• • •

Sweat poured from Danny’s brow as he tried his best to hold up the beams of a near-collapsed building while the last inhabitants ran for safety. After the last person escaped, guided away by Maddie and Jack Fenton, he intangibly passed through the building, letting it collapse through him, and turned his attention to the gruesome ghost currently being shot at while trying to chase down the Red Huntress. She looked worse for wear, her suit not repairing the scratches in it like it typically did. The fight had been drawn out for too long, and everyone knew it, but the ghost just didn’t seem to have a weak spot, all shots ricocheting off its armored skin. And worst of all it had a fire core, leaving the pavement melted under it with each step it made.

“Oi! Ugly!” Danny shrieked, a lot more shrilly than he than he originally intended. The taunt had the exact effect Danny wanted, all of the dozen or so eyes of the beast turning towards him and narrowing. Its nostrils flared, and it made a beeline for Danny, stomping down anything that stood in its way.

Calling on the power of his own core, Danny sent out a blast of ice, which encased the ghost for mere seconds before melting under the extreme heat of its flaming breath. Danny created an energy shield, doing his best to block the attack, his palms burning as the fire was redirected around him and into the building, exciting the embers floating in the air and on the ground.

The flames stopped abruptly as yet another fighter flew into the fray, blasting the beast in the side. “Leave my cousin alone!” Elle yelled, unleashing another energy ball, which knocked the creature back.

It was then that Danny saw something, a weakness, an opening. The ghost opened its mouth and Danny took this opportunity to shoot a beam on ice into it, giving the ghost the worst possible case of brain freeze experienced by any being. Without hesitation, Danny tackled the ghost to the ground, glancing up at Valerie who was pulling out her thermos.

Unfortunately, Danny really should have kept his attention on the ghost, as it grabbed him by the leg in its vice-like grip and hurled him into the rubble of the building he’d been trying to hold up just a minute earlier. A sickening crunch of bone shattering could be heard as Danny’s body crashed against the hot concrete and brick. He tried to climb to his feet, only to realise that one of his legs was practically snapped in two, and instead hovering weakly. Elle flew over to him like a rocket, putting an arm under his shoulder to support him, seeing his exhaustion.

Danny evaluated the situation, noting that the ghost appeared to be much more sluggish, cracks showing in its skin, revealing what looked to be swirling magma underneath.

“Cover your ears! Now!” he shouted and unleashed an unearthly wail, rippling through the air, peeling through the armor of the ghost with each wave that came its way.

Danny collapsed, ears ringing, desperately fighting back white rings while Elle held him just above the ground.

A blue light engulfed the magma ghost in front of them, and the Red Huntress landed, hoverboard retracting into the soles of her shoes, now-full thermos in her hand. “Phantom? I just wanted to say thank you, both of you. I couldn’t have done this without you.”

Danny offered her a tired smile before falling into the black, a ring of light passing over his head as he dropped like a rock.

Danny awoke with a start, glancing at the time on his alarm clock: 6:45 am. Could be worse. Of course he’d just had to have that dream, that memory again the night before school. The universe was simply unkind to halfas - not even permitting them to sleep until their alarm would have gone off.

He dropped out of bed and headed to the bathroom, figuring that if he was going to face his possible doom today, he might as well be presentable while doing so. The cold shower was nice - just another reminder that he was weird. Jazz always complained that he’d left it on the cold temperature when she went to shower.

Speaking of Jazz, she was already downstairs when Danny entered the kitchen. “Ready to go back to school, little brother?”

“No, not really” Danny sighed as he poured a bowl of cereal for himself, reminding him of the day when he’d almost told his parents his secret early on after being picked up by the ghost detector.

“I’ll be with you when we go there,” Jazz comforted. “Take deep breaths and try to focus on what could go well today.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “I know, I know. Thanks.”

The Fenton parents came into the kitchen soon after, one from downstairs, and the other with a very grumpy looking Elle - apparently she was not a morning person. Maddie guided the sleep deprived halfa to the table, and she immediately brightened up at the prospect of breakfast, inhaling a bowl of Cookie Crisp.

“Remember your ectoplasm,” Maddie said to the half ghosts, placing a glass of the glowing green liquid in front of each of them, much to Danny’s chagrin. It wasn’t that it tasted bad, it was just weird, like sweet tasting batteries that prickled his tongue with its energy.

Elle seemed not to have inherited Danny’s dislike of the sensation, and downed her glass like orange juice. This was just one of the many differences between them that she had embraced, along with her love of toast.

Danny sipped his ectoplasm, reminding himself that it was just filtered from the atmosphere of the zone.

“What does it taste like?” Jack asked, like a curious puppy. He knew better than to try and drink some himself - ectoplasm was decidedly not suitable for human consumption. The only reason halfas could drink it was because their biology was different to a human’s on the molecular level.

“Kinda like honey charged with electricity,” Danny answered before taking another gulp of it.

“It’s nice,” Elle chimed in. “Danny’s just not used to it - that’s why he’s scared of drinking it.”

Danny shot her a playful glare and glugged the rest of the glass, which she cackled at.

The energy rippled through his core, like a concentrated energy drink, which wasn’t actually far off the mark as a description of it.

Jack hummed, and began tinkering with an invention he’d been working on on the side for the time Danny had been hospitalised. It was a small plastic wristband, with a glowing green light and small amounts of exposed circuitry where he’d unscrewed a panel on it. It was slightly rough looking, but for something thrown together over just a few days, it was impressive.

The band was a failsafe, in case the school had concerns about him harming other students that could not be remedied by their word - it suppressed Danny’s powers, namely his ectoblasts. It wasn’t great, but if worst came to worst it at least wouldn’t hurt Danny.

Pocketing the band, Jack and the rest of his family, including Elle, who was still worried that Vlad might come for her, clambered into the Fenton family RV (Maddie was driving as it was decided that property damage would not make a good impression).

They reached the school too early for Danny’s liking, and he wiped his clammy palms on his jeans before exiting the vehicle.

Mr Lancer was waiting outside, visibly surprised that nothing had been destroyed while parking until he noticed that Maddie had been driving. He shook the Fenton parents’ hands, and guided the family into the building.

Danny noticed the news van was parked in the road by the school, evidently not allowed onto school property, but figured it was best to ignore it - he’d honestly expected far more people following him around, but apparently he’d passed out of the news with the next big thing.

The early students gawked as the group passed them through the corridors on their way to Mr Lancer’s office, but Danny once again did his best to ignore it.

The office door was agape, and Principal Ishiyama was sat in a small plastic chair next to Mr Lancer’s desk. Mr Lancer closed the door after the group, sitting down in his worn padded chair and indicating to the plastic chairs arranged by the entrance. He surveyed the odd group as they lowered themselves to their chairs, eyes lingering momentarily on Elle, taking in the unfamiliar, yet familiar face.

“As I’m sure you’re aware, there has been protesting against Daniel returning to school,” Mr Lancer began, voice steady and calm, as if talking about any other issue at school, “however, we, as a school, and as people, will not discriminate against an individual based on their, biology. I am glad to see you healthy Daniel, and would like to make it very clear that you are welcome at this school.

“Your teachers, myself included are prepared to give you leeway and accommodate your ghost hunting. We do expect that you work hard to keep up with class work, and attend extra sessions if necessary, but you will not be punished for leaving lessons to deal with ghost attacks. I’m well aware that you are capable of doing well, and all you need to do if ask for help whenever you feel that you’re falling behind.”

Danny was ectatic. This was too good to be true! “Thank you Mr Lancer! I will.”

Ishiyama took this moment to interject. “But, we do have some restrictions we would like you to follow.”

Of course. There was always a catch.

“You are not allowed to abuse your privileges, and if it is found that you have been skipping class without a good reason there will be appropriate punishment. Additionally, you are not allowed to use your abilities to cheat or harm others. We do not take this lightly, and doing this could get you expelled from the school.”

Danny flinched imperceptibly at the mention of cheating.

“We will not stop you from using your powers altogether though. You may use what non-destructive or harmful powers you have as you feel comfortable with, we trust that you can use your judgement as to what is appropriate.”

“That sounds reasonable,” said Danny, relaxing slightly. “I promise I won’t hurt others, and I definitely won’t cheat.”

This seemed to satisfy the Principle, who smiled at the family. “Well then, enjoy your day. I believe lessons will be starting in fifteen minutes. Please ask myself or Mister Lancer if you have any questions.”

And with that Ishiyama pardoned herself from the room, leaving the family with just Mr Lancer, who shuffled a small stack of papers.

“One last thing, Daniel,” Mr Lancer called out to Danny as he went to stand up from his chair. “My door is always open if you need to talk about anything.”

“Thanks Mr Lancer!” Danny smiled up at his teacher, and left the office with the rest of his family.

“That went well,” commented Maddie, and Jack nodded enthusiastically. “We should really go home now. See you later, you two. I know you both find kisses embarrassing, so have a good day.”

“Bye,” both Danny and Jazz chorused.

“Enjoy your day of hell!” Elle shouted after them, a grin splitting her face from ear to ear.

“Same to you!” Danny yelled back as she rounded the corner and out of view.

Jazz and Danny said their goodbyes and went off to their respective lessons early. Waiting outside the science lab, Danny couldn’t help but keep an eye on every face that passed in the mass of students getting to class. His face lit up when he saw Sam and Tucker approach him through the crowd, their faces brightening an equal amount at the sight of their friend healthy and happy.

“Yo, how are you?” Tucker greeted, giving Danny a high five.

“Good. I’m all healed, and the school seems to be okay with me being here,“Danny replied. “What about you?”

“Pretty good. How’re your folks taking the reveal?”

“Great. They’re happy I’m going into ghost hunting, and they seem to have accepted my ghost half. They even adopted Elle!” Danny was practically bursting with joy, and it warmed the others through.

“Oh yeah, we saw her with your parents on the way in. She looks really happy - I guess she’s settling in well,” said Sam, smiling far too brightly for her goth aesthetic.

“Excuse me,” a small voice came from the right, and the trio turned to see Mikey, a small red haired boy, standing there timidly, with his nerdy friends behind him. “I, uh, I wanted to say thank you - for all the times you’ve saved us.”

Danny was dumbfounded. People knowing his not-so-secret identity was going to take some getting used to. “Um, no problem. I just did what anyone would do.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“So, how do your ghost powers work?” Mikey asked rapidly. “Are you a ghost? Does this mean you’re dead? You’re not dead, right?” He looked slightly horrified.

“Of course he’s not dead!” Sam said abruptly, the guilt of the accident gnawing at the back of her mind. The nerds flinched.

“What Sam said, I’m not dead, or at least I don’t think I am,” Danny spoke. “I’m not entirely sure how my powers work, we think I’m half ghost - um, when I got my powers, I think ectoplasm got bonded to my DNA or something.” Danny didn’t want to go into specifics of how he got his ghost powers. The memory was slightly traumatic, and he really didn’t want to risk others attempting to repeat it - that was dangerous, and painful.

“Woah, that’s so cool! Is it like a comic book origin story?”

“That’s enough.” Sam cut Mikey off, and he shrunk back.

The teacher soon emerged from the classroom to shepard the students to their seats. Mrs Bray, the strict, rule-abiding chemistry teacher, with a glare that could melt concrete, sat in her chair, back straight as the pole that was probably stuck up her butt. She read out the register, each student replying with a ‘yes miss’, until she reached Danny’s name and mutters broke out among the students. Her eye twitched, but she continued the register after Danny confirmed his presence

Once the register was over, she stood before the board, and took a breath before her lecture.

“As I’m sure you’re aware, Mr Fenton has been revealed to be somewhat of a celebrity, however, I would like you to respect his privacy, and there will be no discussion of him or anything of the sort in my classroom. I expect you to focus on your work, and nothing else while you’re here. Am I understood?”

“Yes miss,” came the drone of thirty or so students brought an odd sense of relief to Danny. In her own way, his teacher was showing her support, preventing others from pestering him during class. Unfortunately, she could not stop the glances that were sent his way throughout the lesson. Dash in particular seemed to be staring the most, a guilty expression on his face. Oh, Danny was probably going to have an awkward conversation after class, unless he turned invisible to escape, but that would probably just draw more attention to him.

Valerie, on the other hand, appeared to have a swirl on emotions passing behind her eyes as she occasionally glanced at Danny, as though wanting to talk to him, which she of course did. Okay, so that was going to be two awkward conversations after the lesson.

As the teacher told people to pack up, Danny psyched himself up for what awaited him out of Mrs Bray’s classroom. Valerie was aggressively stuffing her bag, and Danny feared what she’d do once they were out of the classroom. Scenarios passed through his head, each of them involving a way in which Danny’s life, or rather the next few minutes of his life, could go wrong.

The instant they were out the classroom a hand grabbed Danny’s arm and dragged him to the janitor’s closet. Valerie stood there, somehow seeming sad, worried and majorly pissed off, all the while managing not to scream. Sam and Tucker burst in, quickly tailing after the ghost boy. “Hey, Valerie, don’t do anything rash,” Sam implored, “wait, are you crying?”

Pearlescent tears were trailing down from Valerie’s eyes, and she wiped them away with her arm. “Tell anyone I’ve cried and you’re dead!” Valerie snapped.

“I wouldn’t think of it,” placated Sam. “Do you want us to leave so you can talk to Danny?”

Valerie shook her head. “No, stay, please.” She almost pleaded towards the end, the emotional strain from the past week bubbling to the surface.

“I’m sorry. For everything. For hunting you, for blaming you for everything that went wrong in my life,” Valerie cried quietly.

“It’s fine, Val I’m sorry for lying to you for all this time.” She looked up to see Danny putting a hand on her shoulder, ice blue eyes radiating comfort. Valerie shook her head again, a lot more violently than she intended to.

“I didn’t exactly give you much choice, did I?”

Danny just shrugged. The bell telling them lessons were starting chose that moment to go off, and panic quickly spread through the group before they conceded themselves to their fate of being late to English.

“Y’know, now would be a great time for a ghost attack we can blame for us being late to class.” Danny tried to lighten the mood, but quickly regretted it when his ghost sense went off - his face falling as the blue mist swirled into the air in front of him at the same time as Valerie’s ghost detector going off. “Okay, I was kidding, but I should probably take care of this.” He suddenly looked nervous. “Want to team up on this one, Val?”

Valerie looked taken aback. “What? You trust me just like that?”

“Well, yeah. You are my friend - our friend.” Danny corrected himself seeing Sam and Tucker opening their mouths to correct him on that point. “Danny’s right,” Tucker said, leaning against the closet door to listen out for the ghost attack.

Sam continued, “as much as I may have been reluctant to admit it, you have become a friend over this time. And by the way, we’ve known about your ghost hunting since the beginning - at the park. You might want to consider getting something to mask your voice if you want to keep a secret identity.”

Valerie felt a blush flush into the cheeks. “You got it,” she said, checking the radar on her ghost detector as she did so. “It’s by the sports hall. I’m new to this teamwork stuff, what do you three do about ghost attacks?”

“Uh, do you two want to handle this one?” Tucker’s hand clasped the door handle. “We can go tell Mr Lancer why you’re late.”

“I’m guessing you want us to keep your ghost hunting a secret Valerie,” Sam asked rhetorically. “We can just tell Mr Lancer that you’re helping Danny out or something and leave it at that.”

“Sounds good to me,” Valerie said, activating her suit, covering her face last. Tucker gave a low whistle at the show of electronics, and glanced to Danny, who seemed unfazed by her suit. Of course he was, this kid had seen it all before.

Seeing that Valerie was comfortable enough in his presence to activate her suit, Danny went ghost, rings of blinding white travelling across his body. Valerie’s mouth was practically on the floor - this much was evident even with her mask. Danny Phantom floated opposite her, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously.

“Ta-da,” he quipped, and Valerie collected herself enough to notice that Sam and Tucker were snickering at her reaction. They quickly scampered off to Mr Lancer’s lesson, and Danny extended his hand to Valerie.

“Wanna try navigating like a ghost?” he asked, eyes twinkling like stars.

She took his gloved hand, and screamed as she was whisked along through the wall. A feeling like being submerged in icy water sent a shiver down Valerie’s spine. Noticing her reaction, Danny landed on the other side of the wall in an empty classroom. “Sorry, I really should have warned you about that.”

“No, it’s fine - just felt cold,” Valerie tried to quell the expression of guilt that had wormed its way into Danny’s face. It was still weird seeing Phantom as Danny, even if his reveal had been caught on camera and broadcast on live TV. There was something innately wrong about seeing your friend as a ghost, and the odd glow he had to his skin didn’t help make him look like the human Danny Fenton she’d known., illuminating his features oddly and making him appear almost as a completely different person.

“Oh, yeah.” Danny fiddled with the hair on the back of his neck. “I kinda forgot - Sam and Tucker are both used to it, and I don’t normally make others intangible.”

“Really, it’s fine. Let’s go find that ghost before it hurts someone,” Valerie insisted.

Danny nodded with renewed determination, and took her hand again tentatively before turning them intangible again and speeding off towards the gym.”

This was certainly different to flying on a hoverboard, Valerie thought to herself. A hoverboard at least somewhat obeyed gravity - ghost flight, not at all. She could somehow feel the movement while at the same time not feeling anything at all, but it was fun nonetheless.

They arrived at the gym’s storage room in a matter of seconds, and another plume of blue mist emerged from Danny’s mouth, indicating that the ghost was near.

“BEWARE!”

The Box Ghost was levitating a crate full of footballs in the air, features alight with menacing glee. He hurled the contents of the crate at the pair of ghost hunters, not realising that Danny had yet to drop his intangibility. Valerie flinched, Danny grinned, and the balls flew right through them. “Want to do the favors?” Danny indicated to the chubby ghost in front of them, now lifting a box of rackets.

“With pleasure.” Valerie activated a moderately sized gun that materialised in her hand, hitting the Box Ghost square in the butt.

He yowled and spun around just in time to be caught in the beam of the Fenton Thermos. He looked like a fat spider being sucked down the plughole, and the onlookers were torn between pity and entertainment at the sight.

“Well, that was anticlimactic,”Danny stated, landing firmly next to Valerie on the floor of the storage room, avoiding the balls scattered across it. “Should we tidy up the mess?”

Valerie looked surprised, recalling the copious amounts of property damage and mess both of them had created in the past.

Reading her expression, Danny explained. “I’ve been wanting to test out a new power, and this is a small enough scale that it should be fine.”

“You have a tidying-up power?” Valerie asked, eyebrow cocked, not that Danny could see it all that easily with her visor.

Danny chuckled, picking up on the heavy sarcasm laced in her tone, and his aura seemed to spark, every one of the balls in the vicinity gaining a bright green aura of their own and lifting into the air. He concentrated, eyebrows knitting together as the footballs drifted into the crate, all but one landing neatly inside it, which then lifted up as well and placed itself in its usual spot on the floor.

“Woah,” Valerie stood next to him stunned while he panted. “Was that telekinesis?”

Danny’s breathing went back to a more normal pace, still considerably deeper than usual. “Yeah. It’s something that most ghosts can do, but I only learnt it recently. As you can see…” He picked up the remaining football with his hand. “I need more practice, but it could be really useful.”

Valerie hummed. “You could use it to get people out of the way of debris, or stop the debris in midair.”

“That’s exactly why I want to perfect this skill.”

Valerie’s mind flashed back to Danny supporting the collapsing building, and she understood fully how important learning this new power was to him.

The two entered the classroom after a somewhat leisurely flight in the direction of the classroom and a stop in a closet to change out of their suit, and into their human form respectively. Mr Lancer stopped his lecture as the door opened, and every head in the room swiveled round to face the late duo.

“Mr Foley and Miss Manson already explained,” Mr Lancer said. “You can speak to me after class if there’s anything you need to catch up on that you missed in your absence.”

“Thanks Mr Lancer.” Danny kept his head down as he made his way over to his seat, which of course had to be practically in the middle of the classroom. He could feel almost every eye in the room boring into his head as he settled down and brought out his books and pencil case. Chatter erupted amongst the students, and Mr Lancer sighed in defeat, knowing that having a ghost hunting ghost as a classmate had not lost its novelty with all the news coverage.

“How’d it go?” Sam asked, leaning over from her seat, taking advantage of the sudden stop to the lesson.

“Fine, it was just the Box Ghost,” Danny dismissed.

“And Valerie was fine?” she hissed, barely over a whisper.

“Yeah, she seems fine with the whole Phantom thing,” Danny replied in a very slightly louder voice, if only so Sam could hear him (she didn’t have the luxury of super-hearing). “She was kinda shocked by the feeling of intangibility, but it’s not a big deal.”

Sam shivered involuntarily. “I can understand that,” she said, still wary of the ghost hunting girl but willing to put aside her hostility and protectiveness for now.

The lesson continued as per usual after Mr Lancer managed to get control of the class again with a cry of “The Adventures of Huck Finn” and continued with his lecture. They didn’t actually finish all the work from that lesson before lunch, but it was good going considering the circumstances.

Lunch was a whole other challenge for Team Phantom, and the trio chose to bag lunch it outside out of fear of being mobbed.

“Dead Teacher 2 is still the best,” Danny said, leaning against the tree they were sat under, mouth half full.

Sam quickly chastised him for talking with his mouth full, before arguing to the contrary, saying that the 1st movie was the best without a doubt.

“I’m with Danny,” Tucker contributed to the conversation, “the second movie was really where they perfected it. Oh, hey Valerie!”

“Hi,” greeted Valerie, walking towards the group, lunch bag clasped close to her body. “Is it okay if I sit with you?”

Sam and Tucker shuffled around to allow her into their circle, and she seated herself on the grass. “So, uh, what’re you guys talking about?”

“Which Dead Teacher movie’s the best,” Sam supplied. “These two think that the second’s the best, even though the first’s obviously better.”

“I haven’t watched the latest ones, but the first one is definitely better than the second.” Valerie opened her bag and fished out a sandwich.

“Betrayal!” Tucker exclaimed, mock fainting with his arm to his forehead.

Sam punched him lightly on his lowered arm, which prompted a cry from the boy. He rubbed his arm and shot her a playful glare, which she returned, complete with a grin.

Valerie observed their antics, somehow feeling like there was more of a sense of unity between her and the trio now that their secrets were out in the open.

“Oh, yeah, Val,” Danny said, sitting up straight. “How’d you like to join Team Phantom?”

“That’s your team name?” She raised an eyebrow and Danny just shrugged. “Sure, but that’ll take some explaining as to why I’m working with you.”

Danny waved off her concerns. “It’ll be fine. We can just say we talked if anyone asks.”

Valerie shook her head mockingly. “How the hell did you keep your secret for as long as you did?”

“We’re pretty sure it was just dumb luck,” interjected Tucker, “emphasis on dumb.”

“What was dumb luck?” an obnoxiously loud voice came from the direction of the school building, and Dash Baxter and his cronies approached them.

The trio tensed, ready for a confrontation, only for Dash to raise his hands in a sign of peace. He suddenly looked a lot smaller, nerves showing through his veneer of toughness.

“I’m sorry, for everything I’ve done to you. If I’d known I was bullying my hero…” Dash’s eyes remained fixed on the ground, inspecting the blades of grass with a pitiful expression, like they’d personally killed his family, which in Amity Park wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that’d happened.

“We’re all sorry, dude. We couldn’t’ve known that you were-” one of the cronies was cut off by Danny.

“I forgive you, but you should bully anyone in the first place.” Danny folded his arms, looking at each of them in turn with a forced hard expression. It really looked odd on his baby face, but Dash and co seemed intimidated nonetheless.

They muttered between each other, before turning to face Danny again with guilty expressions. “We’ll try not to,” Dash said, and Danny unfolded his arms.

“Can you leave us alone?” Valerie demanded, not even trying to hide her hostility.

The bully gang exchanged glances before returning to the main building.

“I can’t believe you’d forgive them just like that. You know they only apologised because you’re Phantom, right?” Val scolded, and Danny looked like a wounded puppy at her words.

“I know, but I don’t want to be a douche,” Danny shrunk back from her.

Sam snorted. “What he’s trying to say is that he doesn’t hold grudges, even when he should, and forgives far to easily, like he’d trying to be some sort of paragon.” Danny scowled.

The rest of the day passed largely uneventfully, if you ignored the frequent whispers, nervous faces and admirers coming to apologise to Danny, thank him, or ask how he got superpowers - something that he declined to answer fully, leading to word quickly spreading that people should stop asking about that because it was rude to ask how a ghost died, which wasn’t entirely wrong, just not the whole reason for why it was a touchy subject for Danny.

All in all, it wasn’t half as bad as Danny had been expecting. It was actually somewhat anticlimactic in his opinion.

He sent a brief text, saying that he was going to talk to Mr Lancer because he missed some of the lesson, to his parents and knocked on the classroom door.

Mr Lancer answered the door, smiling at the halfa. “Daniel. Can I help you?”

Danny shuffled his feet. “Uh, I kinda wanted to catch up on the stuff I missed at the start of your lesson. Why did Arthur Conan Doyle have a recap at the start of the chapter?”

His teacher smiled, and invited him into the classroom, where Danny seated himself at the front of the empty classroom. “The Sherlock Holmes stories were initially serialized in magazines, each chapter in a different magazine, before they were compiled into complete books, so he would frequently recap the story for the sake of readers who may have forgotten the events of the previous chapters.”

Danny nodded, and took notes in his workbook.

“Is there anything else you wanted to ask?” Mr Lancer continued as Danny put his book back in his bag.

“No thanks,” Danny said, zipping up his bag. “Thank you.”

“It’s no problem at all, Danny,” Mr Lancer replied. “How was your first day back at school?”

“A lot better than I expected. I think I’ll be fine here.”

“That’s certainly good to hear.”

Danny made for the door, only to stop when Lancer called out to him. “And remember, my door’s always open if you need to talk.”

“Thanks Mr Lancer.” Danny radiated a cool warmth from his beaming features. “Bye, see you tomorrow.”

#phic phight #phic phight 19 #danny phantom #my writing #i'm planning to do at least 1 more short fic and 1 really long one before the end of the phight

92 notes · View notes

mabel-but-slytherin · 6 years

Text

Christmas Truce 2018

I know this is so very late, but like Danny I too can forget to prepare all of my Christmas gifts in time. I hope this is still on time for the Truce.

First a thank you to @monocheshaa for her wonderful gift for me, and a thank you/apology to @letswonderspirit for their patience! Based on the specific scene they asked for I think they were expecting art, but as I am a writer and cannot produce pictures with a fraction the beauty they can, you get this 3700 word fic instead. Enjoy!

Letswonderspirit asked for “Danny and Dani opening a present with Cujo inside. (If this is too specific than you can just do something with Cujo, I just really like dogs. thank you.)“

December 1st,

Danny Fenton walked through the Amity Park mall with a smile on his face for the first time in the month of December. He’d always hated the holiday spirit (spirits in general tended to haunt him or set his parents off, and Christmastime was no exception), but after being shown the Christmas Truce by Ghostwriter last year, Danny was determined to learn his lesson.

That wasn’t to say he didn’t come around to having a good holiday last year, but this time he was determined to get a head start on the season and do all the things he didn’t have the time and preparation to do. Namely, this year he wanted to be sure to get presents.

Being a first-time Christmas shopper, Danny was worried he’d have a hard time finding the time to sneak away from everyone and buy fitting gifts behind their backs. Yet it was not even 3pm on the first of the month and Danny already had half of his shopping done. New steel-toed black boots for Sam, a kit to build the first custom PDA-compatible laptop for Tucker, and most recently a memoir by the head of Harvard’s psychology department for Jazz.

Even making time wasn’t so hard. All Danny had to do was tell his friends that he wanted to catch up on homework before the next ghost attack and they gave him pleased but dubious looks and sent him home. Once there, Danny had no problem: he was a pro at sneaking out of the house under his parents’ noses. Slip one small hint of a Santa sighting at the mall two towns over and Maddie was dashing to her bazooka awhile Jack ran for his Fenton™ Wish List.

Speaking of lists, Danny pulled out his list of people left to shop for and crossed Jazz’s name off. Looking down he knocked off Mom and Dad while he was at it. Mom did most of the family shopping and would definitely prefer something home-made and deadlier than what he could buy at 16 years old, so he’d just spend some time in the lab putting together some gadget throughout the month. Dad was probably the easiest of all: he’d pulled his mom aside last week while he helped serve Thanksgiving dinner and asked if they could work together to make double fudge this year. The squeal and hug his mom gave was almost another gift itself.

That just left some of his other classmates, and honestly, although Danny was trying to make up for years of missing the Christmas spirit even he admitted they were probably optional. Dash definitely wasn’t getting anything from Fenton, as the only thing Danny could think he’d like is 20 minutes to wail on Fenturd with no chance of Lancer catching him (and telling him to save his arm strength for the big game Friday).

Sam told Danny that under no circumstances should he buy a present for Paulina, but Danny couldn’t help himself, and felt pretty proud to have found a Danny Phantom compact mirror in the makeup section of the mall and then transformed briefly in the changing room to autograph it in green sharpie. (He later told Sam he found the present while looking in the make-up section for an eyeliner for Sam’s Goth look. He still doesn’t understand why Sam tested her new steel toes on his shins when he told her his first thought was that Paulina would love it.)

And of course getting a gift for Paulina meant he had to pull something together for at least a couple other people or else risk coming across as creepy. Star just needed something fashionable and shiny, and given that Danny knew nothing about fashion he just went for shiny earrings and hoped she wouldn’t hit him. He probably didn’t need to get anything for Wes, but let’s just say a whole day walking through Amity Park mall revealed so many potential gag t-shirts that Danny couldn’t resist.

Valerie would be both the easiest and hardest to shop for. She was extremely practical ever since her dad lost her job, and would happily accept any homecooked treat or mall store gift card, but Danny also wanted to give her something more meaningful without being frivolous. Danny wanted to give her a box of tree-shaped sugar cookies and a matching Christmas tree sweater, but when the ecto-oven brought the cookies to life and Danny took them out with the closed Fenton™ pistol, the teen settled for giving her the sweater and the pistol instead.

A bead of sweat ran down Danny’s face as he imagined what her reaction would be to that…

With all the humans crossed off his list, Danny was ready to call it a day. Over a year of being a halfa had taught him better than to guess at ghost traditions, so his plan was to fly over to Ghostwriter’s next week to ask for advice on presents for the Truce before the scribe was too deep into the holiday rush. There were a bunch of things Danny wanted to ask, from prospective gifts to whether he should be getting something for just his allies or his nemeses, and how a good hit or faux pas might impact his survival in the coming year. No matter what, Danny had already swore he would take a hard pass on getting a gift for Vlad. Half-ghost he may be, that man was a full-blooded fruitloop and would inevitably read way into anything from Danny.

The young hero already started to fold the list to put in his pocket when his eyes froze on one last name scrawled at the bottom of his list with a question mark. It was no question that Danny cared about the last name and wanted to give her a nice Christmas, the only question was whether she would be there to receive it.

After all, Dani had stopped by every couple of months ever since she was stabilized and free to travel the world, but it was purposefully near-impossible to contact the young girl on the run, and Danny had no clue if she even knew of the holiday. Even if she did, there was the question of whether she would come visit him or celebrate abroad.

Either way, it was Dani’s first Christmas and she was Danny’s clone, which meant it was Danny’s responsibility to find her the perfect present just in case she stopped by, right? Well, ghost etiquette was one thing, but Danny had no idea who to ask on clone etiquette so as the older clone/brother in this situation he was going to call himself the expert and go with that.

That just left one major problem: what could a sixteen-year-old teenager from the Midwest who already burned half his allowance on other presents get for a half-ghost pickpocket whose already flown halfway around the world?

Two laps around the mall later and Danny was still stumped. Flashy clothes from most of the girly stores were flimsy and would only make her stand out. Anything bigger than a bag was too bulky to carry, any electronic device Danny would have to make sure she could use and charge it, and also pray there was no tracking to put her on someone’s radar. Money or gift cards was impractical and would probably look to her like a moral lecture, and while Danny briefly considered a souvenir from Amity Park as a good gag, the teen was embarrassed by how they probably paled in comparison to all the ones she’s probably seen.

Danny sighed and just decided to make his way home. The homework/mall Santa distractions would only buy him so much time and he still had a few weeks to finalize ideas, so there was no need to rush.

A piercing scream burst out throughout the mall and the cry of “GHOST!” made Danny groan and wonder where he could possibly stash his latest purchases before the next fight, as he highly doubted the Truce extended all the way to early bird shopping. Then a bark followed and Danny gave a sigh of relief. “Cujo! Get out of there!”

Maybe there wouldn’t be a fight after all.

December 24th,

Danny had been wondering how far the Christmas Truce stretched. Apparently, the answer was not until the stroke of midnight Christmas Day.

Or at least that’s what Skulker thought, coming after Danny shouting that his pelt would make such a nice gift to Ember that she’d have to accept his proposal. Danny wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that, and was currently trying to either wrestle him into the Thermos or run out the clock.

Of course, Danny also didn’t want to risk getting on the bad side of the entire Ghost Zone by violating the Truce and continuing to fight on Christmas morning. Skulker had the advantage of a mechanical exoskeleton featuring a timepiece, but Danny had to try to keep him somewhere that he had a view of the Amity Times clocktower.

That and the desire to minimize property damage on Christmas Eve left Danny stuck in the wide open space of the park. Which makes hiding and dodging Skulker’s myriad of bombs and nets a challenge.

“Seriously Skulker, you haven’t been able to catch me in over two years! Did you really think you would be able to capture me in under an hour?” Danny taunted as he evaded yet another cannon blast that expanded into a taser net shortly after passing over his shoulder.

“Quiet, welp! The best hunter knows how to claim victory under pressure!”

Danny paused before firing an ectoblast at Skulkers torso. “I thought the saying was ‘a great hunter knows how to bide his time…’”

“…And seize an opportunity.” Skulker finished as he took advantage of Danny’s distraction to pull out a small pistol and shoot the Fenton thermos out of his left hand. Danny cursed and rubbed his burnt hand as he watched the thermos fly halfway across the park.

“Yes, I quite like the saying.” Skulker continued. “Speaking of like, I also must admit I am enjoying this new pistol! You see, Ember and I have started this family tradition where we open one small present each on Christmas Eve, and I just happened to get this little thing. I can’t wait until tomorrow to open the other present under the tree, it’s shaped like a blaster and bigger than the tree itself!”

Danny shivered. “Okay, first off, I guess that explains the sudden Christmas Eve manhunt. Second, please never talk to me about you and Ember’s ‘family traditions’ ever again. Already imagined one messed up ghost couple future, don’t need another one.

“Third,” Danny said as he glanced between where his thermos went flying and Skulker preparing another round from the net launcher, “I don’t really want to be Christmas dinner. Let’s go back to the original plan of Christmas duck-duck-goose!”

Danny made a break in the direction of the thermos, then banked into a sharp curve as Skulker fired the net right behind him. The net again sailed past him as Skulker fell for the feint and carried on in the direction of the open field near the thermos.

Until a small green blur dashed across the grass towards where the thermos was lying.

Recognizing the ghostly green glow but too far to see the shape, Danny could only wonder either who would show up in the human world this close to Christmas Day or when Skulker got a hunting partner.

The figure’s identity was made apparent when it finished trotting over to the thermos, picked it up in its mouth, and let out a happy bark.

“Cujo!” Danny called. The small ghost dog wagged his tail and looked over in Danny’s direction.

“Oh wow, you must want to play fetch. Good boy, Cujo, bring the thermos over here!” Danny turned his spectral tail back into human (ghostly?) legs and patted them to further call Cujo over. The dog started trotting happily until it yelped as a third net flew by and tangled it in the grass.

“Phantom has a puppy?” Skulker wondered aloud. “And one that is fearless in the face of battle? You will make the finest gift to Ember this holiday! She will cement you as one of her cutest fans and I will train you into the Ghost Zone’s Greatest Hunting Dog! Skulker shouted as he flew over towards Cujo.

Cujo just ignored Skulker and started trying to drag the net towards where Danny was running to him. Skulker shook his head at the sight and reached towards his controls for the taser net. “First, to teach you some obedience.”

As soon as he turned the dial to its lowest setting, the net turned on and started to zap Cujo lightly. This caused the dog to yelp, and then grow angry.

And then to just grow.

Within seconds, Cujo stood tall in his full, monstrous height. The net snapped off of the dog now twice its size, and the freed prey turned his eyes directly onto Skulker.

“Oh no.” The hunter muttered.

Cujo charged towards Skulker as the mechanical ghost tried to fly away, and managed to close the distance in time to grab on to one of Skulker’s jet boots and pull it off like a 20-foot puppy stealing a stranger’s shoe. The ghost dog had just finished shaking the lone boot and turned to the sky to growl and the figure trying to balance with one-sided rocket propulsion when the clocktower struck midnight.

In a flash, Cujo shrunk back down to his puppy size and panted up at Skulker, tossing the boot around for a second before lying down and gnawing it like the advanced ghostly technology was his latest chew toy.

Skulker, realizing it was safe to land, crashed back down to the grass and tried to approach Cujo to retrieve his boot. Cujo remained in puppy form, but instantly grabbed the shoe and backed away, growling menacingly that the shoe was his.

“Oh, come now!” Skulker shouted. “It’s Christmas.”

“And that is his toy your trying to take, Grinch.” Danny smiled as he walked over and scratched Cujo behind the ears. Seeing Skulker’s frown, Danny sighed and slowly pulled the metal boot out of Cujo’s mouth before throwing the thermos to distract him. The dog happily ran after the thermos, leaving Danny to shake the pool of saliva off the boot before handing it back to Skulker.

“Just this once, because it’s Christmas.” Danny said.

Skulker grabbed the boot and shoved it on his foot before grimacing and the squelching sound it made. “Ugh. Fine, I accept your gift and will be prepared to make an honorable exchange for this gift at the Truce this evening. Merry Christmas, Whel- I mean, Danny.”

Danny smiled. “You’re welcome Skulker.” The teen nodded before grimacing himself. “Wait… gift exchange… Danny… I totally forgot to get a present for Dani!”

Skulker tilted his head. “You exchange presents between your two halves? That is… an odd halfa tradition I was not aware of.”

“No!” Danny shouted. “Not for me, other Dani! Man, I was planning on getting her something all month, but time totally flies.”

Danny turned around to see that Skulker had already flew back towards FentonWorks and the Ghost Portal while his back was turned. “Guess that’s not the only thing that flew by. And I gotta fly home myself.”

“Woof!” Danny looked down to see Cujo triumphantly wagging his tail over the Fenton Thermos lying at Danny’s feet. Looking around and seeing no other ghosts to take him back to the Ghost Zone, Danny scooped the little dog into his arms and start flying back towards home.

“You travel all over the place, Cujo, maybe you can help me? What present can I get for my clone/cousin who’s been all around the world and just grabs whatever she wants?”

December 25th,

Danny woke up the next morning to see a pair of nearly identical blue eyes perched over him, shining with a burst of holiday joy that Danny himself had never felt until this month.

“Good morning, Danny!” Dani cried out, “Guess what day it is?!”

“I don’t know,” Danny bit out teasingly as he laughed at her excitement, “Christmas?”

“Yeah!” Dani shouted, causing her original to just laugh at her even more. “Hey, I have a right to be excited, this is my first one!”

Danny just smiled. “In a way, this is my first one too.

“I’m glad you’re here and all, but what are you doing in my room?” Danny asked his clone.

Dani shrugged. “Well, everywhere I’ve been people are saying Christmas is time to spend with your family. And given that the rest of my family doesn’t know I exist, I can’t really go downstairs.”

Danny frowned at that, before seeing the matching expression on his younger clone’s face and realizing that his job for today is to make her smile. “I guess that just means we have to do the present exchange up here then before Mom and Dad wake up, and you can hang around the rest of the day invisibly. Let me go get Jazz so she can join us.”

That worked, and Dani’s face stretched into a grin for a moment before she paused. “Wait,” Dani said, “present exchange?”

At Danny’s nod she groaned. “Oh no! I forgot to get you guys anything!”

To her surprise, Danny just laughed. “Don’t sweat it!” He consoled her, “this is actually the first year I’ve been able to get everyone a present. We’ll just have you open your presents, and then you can tell Jazz and I all the cool stories about places you’ve been!”

Dani smiled again at this, missing Danny reaching under his bed to grab her present box before he slipped out the door to wake Jazz. He had just a couple finishing touches to put on her gift before he returned.

The three teens sat tightly together on Danny’s bed as both Fentons passed their wrapped presents over to Dani.

“Oooh, ooh, open mine first!” Jazz exclaimed, still able to get childishly excited about every holiday.

Dani obliged and started ripping the tape off of the elaborately wrapped package, before watching Jazz wince at the destruction of her wrapping perfection and attempting to pry to tape open without damaging the paper. A second later had the young clone groaning in frustration before slapping her head and phasing the paper right off.

Once the paper was gone, Dani awed over the beautiful ribbon in her hand. It perfectly matched the one Jazz wore in her hair with the exception of its dark red color that was the exact shade of Dani’s sweatshirt. Dani held it up to her hair and giggled and Jazz leaned across her lap to tie it, the young clone’s arms reaching out to pull Jazz into a hug when the older girl was done.

“Thank you so much Jazz! I love it!” Dani squealed as she squeezed tighter.

“You’re welcome!” Jazz replied. “I’m so glad you love it! I figured it would fit under your hood when you wanted to hide away somewhere, and that no matter where you are in this world or the Ghost Zone, we’ll match!”

Dani reached up to feel the ribbon and her grin stretched even wider. “I’ll just have to figure out a way to get it to stay on in my ghost form.”

Jazz smiled, and then let her expression shift into a smirk. “Or… you could just wear this one.” She said coyly, reaching into her pajama pocket to pull out another ribbon, this one ghostly green.

The two girls squealed and hugged yet again, and Danny hoped his gift would be just as well received. “Well Dani,” he said, passing over a wrapped box.

“Here’s your gift from me. I would just untie the bow and open the box rather than phase it out.”

Dani took that as permission to rip right into it and within seconds was raising the lid and getting ready to look inside. She was interrupted by a small yip.

“Danny!” Jazz shouted, aghast. “There were no air holes on there!”

Danny smirked, “Her gift doesn’t need it.”

Dani froze as she looked down into the box, further deepening Jazz’s puzzled expression. A second later Dani reached both hands into the box and pulled out a playfully panting Cujo.

“Oh my god Danny, this is amazing!”

“His name’s Cujo,” Danny told his clone as she cuddled Cujo up to her face and laughed when Cujo licked her. “He’s run through Amity Park a couple of times looking to play, but is always just going from place to place. I figured with each other you both might be less lonely.”

Cujo seemed to take that cue to look up and down Danielle, see the big red bow tied in her hair, and happily bark like he had just received his own half-human for Christmas.

Dani smiled so wide she nearly cried and had to place Cujo on the floor in order to make room for the giant hug she gave her clone/cousin. Cujo of course objected to the sudden lack of warmth and made it known by growing to his full size, prompting Dani to shout “Awesome!” and hug Danny even harder.

Danny just grinned and basked in Dani’s happiness. Yeah, sometimes the only thing to give someone who has the world is someone to share it with, and he was so glad that the two looked like they would be happy together.

They were so happy, that that very afternoon the Red Huntress came out chasing complaints of a giant green ghost dog roaming Amity Park, hoping to finally get revenge on the ghost boy for ruining her life. She was stunned to instead find Danielle riding in the ghost dog’s fur, laughing and hollering and shouting that this was the best Christmas ever.

For once in her career Valerie decided to let a ghost go, figuring that out of everyone, the ghost girl deserved to be happy on Christmas day. She was sure Mayor Masters would forgive her for taking a day off to spend with the her family. Even if the ghost dog pooped on his front lawn.

That was the moment Dani swore she and Cujo would be friends for life. The had a whole world to travel together, and a whole afterlifetime of Christmases to do it.

#danny phantom #christmas truce #christmas truce 2018 #letswonderspirit #dani phantom #cujo

26 notes · View notes