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clockwayswrites · 1 year

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Like Betta Fish Do - Part 11

Masterpost of ao3 link and all parts. wc 2942 (Chapter 8 when on ao3)

“So who’s Jason?” Sam asked without preamble after the rest of the topics had wrapped up.

“Jason?” Tucker echoed.

Danny winced.

He had been hoping Jason wouldn’t come back up. He’d know that was complete foolishness, this was Sam, but he’d still been hoping. Because… he didn’t know how to explain Jason.

Being a halfa was Jason’s secret, one that Danny could tell the other was still struggling with. As much as Danny trusted his friends, it wasn’t up to him if Jason should. It wasn’t his secret to tell (no matter how much it affected him too).

There was also the fact that a little part of Danny didn’t want to tell. Being a halfa might have been Jason’s secret, but Jason was his secret too; his bit of his new life in this new place. Sam and Val and Tucker already had whole piles of little things like that from leaving Amity, but Danny didn’t. Nothing for Danny had been new for so long.

And now there was Jason who was new and amazing and completely different—

“Danny?” Tucker prompted.

Danny was regretting giving them a call on the way back from his first lab class.

“Someone I met when I was just out exploring Gotham some,” Danny lied. There was a little bit of truth there. “We’ve eaten together a few times now.” Donuts and take out while Jason was ill but still. “And he’s been showing me some of Gotham.” Or at least telling him about the city for safety reasons.

There was silence on the other end of the call. Shit, did he not sell it well enough? He had thought without being on video he’d be able to get away with the lie.

Finally, suspiciously, Sam asked, “Is he cute?”

“Ancients Sam!”

“It’s a valid question, you’re weak for the cute ones.”

“This is true,” Val spoke from experience.

“It sorta is, dude,” Tucker agreed. His tone completely (and sympathetically) resigned.

“It’s— I don’t— okay, yes. Fine. He’s built like a brick house, okay? He could kill me with his thighs.”

“TMI, my dude,” Tucker teased.

“No, go on,” Val interjected.

“Oh fuck you all.”

Sam gave an amused scoff. “I don’t think it’s us you want to—”

“Okay!” Danny said loudly, talking over Sam which just made the others dissolve into laughter. “He’s just a friend, okay? He’s a Gotham native who’s been nice. He’s fun to hang out with.”

“Sure Danny,” Val said in a tone that made it clear none of them believed him. “Sam and I have to get going for dinner. Give us an update later on the not boyfriend—”

“And a picture.” Sam chimed in.

“And a last name!”

“I’m not letting you stalk him Tucker.”

“Not stalking, background check.” Danny could practically hear the finger guns Tucker must be doing.

“Bye,” Danny said, firmly, though he knew that they knew he was close to laughing, and ended the call before he fished out his keys to get his door open.

“You know,” Danny said as he started at the scene that greeted him. Jason sat on his couch, looking comically large on the small piece of furniture, messing with some wires. “I don’t remember giving you a key to my apartment.”

“You didn’t,” Jason said, words a little muffled by the screwdriver that he held in his mouth.

“Right.” Danny closed his door. He fumbled blindly with the locks, not taking his eyes off Jason. “So you, what, decided Tuesday was a great day for breaking and entering?”

“Yep. Which is why you need better security,” Jason grabbed the screwdriver and pointed it at Danny who’s eyes flicked between it and Jason’s mouth. “Which is what I’m doing. Setting up better security.”

“You remember the whole I’m half dead thing, right?” Danny drawled, but couldn’t help but smile at the absurdity of it all. The faint feeling he got off Jason’s forming core was a pleased rumble. Like the purring cat that got the canary. How could he be annoyed in the face of that?

“Don’t need you to end up all the way dead, kingya.”

“Okay…” Danny dropped his backpack (his new, tear free backpack) on the tiny island counter. He had adulted up and gotten a new one right before classes started that week and was glad for it. (It was nice to not have to worry about losing things out of the bottom.) He moved to perch on the clutter free edge of the coffee table. He tucked his knees up to his chest to stay out of the way. “What does kingya mean?”

“Pet goldfish in Japanese.”

Danny just started at him, knowing Jason would explain if he just gave it time. He was getting used to these stupid fish names. They were still weird, but he was getting used to them. (Maybe he liked them, a little.)

Jason glanced up from where he was tightening the screw on a plate and grinned. “’Cause you’re my sensei in all things ghost.”

“Ancients,” Danny groaned. “That is the—” No, he would not laugh. “—worst one yet. How am I both a sensei—” Okay so he was laughing, sue him. “—and a pet. That makes no sense! You are fucking ridiculous.”

Jason just smirked and focused on the electronics in his hand.

Once Danny’s laughter had finally calmed, he leaned in to get a look at everything that was covering his coffee table, part of the couch, and even some of Jason. He’d spent enough years with Tucker to know that it was all very custom and very high end; that meant expensive.

“You really didn’t have to do all this,” Danny said. He didn’t know if that was true though. What if Jason’s developing core made it feel like he did?

“Nah. You’re my teacher in ghost, I’m your teacher in Gotham. And rule one of Gotham is if you take precautions you do it. Have you gotten that gas mask yet?” Jason asked, snapping the back back on a camera.

“Jason.”

“Danny.”

“Again. Half dead. I don’t have breathe if I don’t want to.”

Jason blinked at Danny. “What.”

“What what? Like, sure, I have to in human form but I can still hold it for, like, upwards of twenty minutes? I figure that’s long enough to get out of most situations. You could too with practice.”

“Human form,” Jason echoed.

Danny froze. “Oh, shit. I, um, sorta thought that the two forms thing was given.”

Jason rubbed, wearily, at his face. “Fish.”

“I’m sorry!” Danny said, throwing his hands up. “I mean half ghost, half human! What did you think?”

“A mule is half horse half donkey but it doesn’t stop being a mule!”

“Did you know when the horse is the dad it’s called hinney instead?”

“I’m going to stab you with a screwdriver,” Jason grumbled wearily. “Explain, now.”

“Okay. Right. I really thought you knew? I mean I was forced to change when I died. But, right, so,” Danny placed his hands together and tried to gather his thoughts on how explain this. “Ghosts are just, fundamentally different beings than humans. As humans, we take in parts of the word around us— air, water, food— and those things keep us alive as they’re processed by our organs. Ghosts, on the other hand, are the world around them.

“The Infinite Realms—” Danny still struggled sometimes not to call it the Ghost Zone after years of doing so, but he wasn’t going to use a name made up by people who hated ghosts for their home. “—are made up of ectoplasm. Everything there— the structures, the land, the sky, the people— is ectoplasm. Ghosts are too. The closest thing to an organ that ghosts have is their core.”

“You’ve used that word before. When you said you had an ice core,” Jason said. He’d put down the parts he had been messing with and was giving Danny his full attention.

“Probably. Cores are everything for a ghost. If you’re being poetic, you could call it the heart but it’s a bit more like a brain? You have one, but it’s strangled by the corruption. I didn’t want to go too much into it yet when you couldn’t get. Most of it of it would mean nothing to you right now. It would like, I don’t know, trying to explain what a rose smelled like to someone who’s had a stuffed up nose all their life.”

“Right, so, something to come back to,” Jason grumbled.

“Basically. But the core is sort of the only… I guess tangible part of a ghost? But humans have their whole bodies so those two things really aren’t compatible. That’s what makes halfa’s so rare. Somehow the ectoplasm was able to bond with our DNA enough so that our human bodies can handle what our ghost bodies are. But it also made a ghost body for us. It’s a balance.”

Jason leaned back into the couch, arms crossed as he frowned at Danny. “And I’ll get one?”

“Every other halfa has one,” Danny said with a little shrug. “You just don’t have access to it yet I bet if you’ve never changed before. Like, there are some powers or effects that I have access to in this form, but they’re more powerful in my ghost form. So if the corruption are blocking the flow of your ectoplasm and your ability to generate it, you probably just don’t have enough power to change yet.”

Jason’s fingers tapped a restless staccato against his arms as he glare at the other side of the room. Danny tried hard not to fidget as he let Jason absorb the information. He really hadn’t meant to keep something like this from Jason. There were other things he was waiting to talk to Jason about, once they saw how he was developing, but Danny just really hadn’t thought about Jason might have never changed into his ghost form. May it was because he had been buried? Jason was the only half with an actual grave.

Coming out of the portal as Phantom had been everything for Danny. It had been the end of everything. It had also been the beginning of everything. His ghost form had been part of that from the start.

Jason looked back to Danny, who froze under the glacial gaze. “Will you show me?”

Danny’s heart stuttered in his chest.

He’d be revealing Phantom. For the first time, by his own choice, he would be showing someone.

“Hey, fish,” Jason said. He leaned forward and rested a hand on Danny’s knee. “You don’t have to.”

Danny made himself take a breath. He’d stopped breathing.

“Sorry, no, it’s fine.” What would someone in Gotham, home of the Batman, know about a small town hero like Phantom? “I’ve just… I’ve never shown anyone who didn’t already know? I guess it just got to me a for a moment. But, I mean, you do know, you just haven’t see it yet.”

Danny stood up, ‘going ghost’ running his head, as the familiar white rings appeared.

Jason dropped the arm he had raised to block the blinding white light and just stared. He hadn’t known what to expect from Danny changing to his ghost form, but the color change was not part of it. Or the clothing change.

Gone was the black and orange NASA sweater, well worn jeans, and collection of space themed earrings that Danny seemed to love. Instead, Danny wore a tight, long sleeve top that showed off that he was more than just a stick, something that looked a bit like black cargo pants, white combat boots, and white fingerless gloves. There was a white DP was emblazoned on his chest.

He glowed faintly of a blue green that didn’t hold a candle to his bright, bright eyes.

(Jason’s breath caught at the sight of those green eyes.)

“I didn’t know a costume change came as part of the package,” Jason’s mouth said without his permission while he was still trying to process the rest of the details. Like the way that Danny’s now white hair seemed to drift as if gravity had effect on it. It was almost mesmerizing. That was easier to focus on than the green eyes.

Danny rubbed nervously at the back of his neck. What Jason thought must have been a blush crawled up Danny’s cheeks, but it was oddly purple tinted, like this form had a different undertone than blood red.

“Um, yeah. Ghost things for the ghost form? I was stuck in the hazmat suit I had died in for years until I learned to control the ectoplasm that makes up the clothing in this form. It takes some effort to change it but… I didn’t want to be stuck in that any longer.”

Jason resisted the urge to shudder. He couldn’t imagine even being his old Robin outfit for even a moment.

He stood and cross the single step it took to be standing in front of Danny. Smirking, he reached out and flicked Danny’s right ear. “You look naked without your earrings.”

“Yeah, well,” Danny mumbled.

Yep, that purple, magentaish tint was definitely a blush. He felt a little bad for teasing Danny when the other was obviously nervous about this.

“The hair suits yo. It’s a good look,” Jason said. Without really thinking about it, he reached up to run his hands through Danny’s swoop of bangs. The soft strands shifted between his fingers as if they were under water. But his attention went back to the green eyes. “When you’re like this, there’s no…?”

“No what?”

Jason tapped next to his own eye. “Pit Rage. Anger.”

“Oh, no,” Danny said with a thoughtful little frown as he… drifted up?

Holy shit, Danny really was floating. His feet were drifting apart as if they were made of smoke as he rose a few inches up into the air.

“I guess now that I know about ghosts liking to brawl, I can see that a little? Like, I’m more willing to meet a fight if they start it, just like with you, but they also don’t mean any actual harm. Well, most of them don’t,” Danny explained. “The green really is just part of the color change. Some ghosts have red eyes or cyan or something else.”

“Is the white hair a constant?” Jason asked, thinking of his own white streak.

“For halfas it seems to be about being inverted? Like, frootloop has white hair as a human, but it’s black in his ghost form. And Danni matches me. But for full ghosts, lots of them have flaming hair in all sorts of colors. We think that maybe it’s our human half influencing the ghost half. Also maybe why I don’t have blue skin or something.”

“Blue skin?”

“Ghost coloring is weird and very bold,” Danny said with a little shrug. He reached down to grab the not all there foot he had lifted up and just folded his legs under him— sitting cross legged in the air like it was nothing.

“You’re really comfortable like this, aren’t you?”

Danny gave a little shrug. “I mean, yeah. This has been a part of me for eight years. I was a ghost before I was through puberty. But it was a learning curve for sure.”

Jason eyed Danny wearily. “So what haven’t you told me about now?”

“Well, so I mean part of that is that I was a teenager when I changed? So I was a mess in so many ways and we’re— Frostbite and I, I haven’t told anyone else but him about you, not you being a halfa I mean—but we don’t know if you’ll have have the same side effects since Danni didn’t really. But sometimes I would just suddenly go invisible or intangible. The intangibility was the worst because a few times I just… go stuck part way something?”

Jason gave him the flattest stare at that and Danny just grinned bashfully back.

“You don’t have to worry about that yet! You’re no where strong enough, even if those are things that every ghost can do. Frostbite doesn’t think that you’ll really start having any noticeable effects until your core snaps into place anyways. You just might be extra sneaky for a little bit?”

“So it’s just a big mystery?” Jason asked.

“Welcome to being a halfa. I’m sorry.”

He wanted to be mad. It would be so easy to be mad. Danny was keeping things from him. But… a lot of that seemed to be accidental or things they didn’t have a clear answer for or that maybe, actually, didn’t matter yet.

There was enough for him to deal as it was.

And Danny was just so very… Danny. Jason was learning that Danny was earnest, but pretty fucking awful at explaining things. Unless Jason asked specifically, or it came up in conversation, Danny just outright forgot to mention things. There were some problems with that: 1) there was so much to learn about 2) he didn’t know what he didn’t know 3) ghosts were fucking weird

“I promise,” Danny said, a nervous sort of pleading in his words. “I’ll be around for all of it. I’m not saying parts won’t be hard or confusing, but at least you’ll have me here to help?”

Danny was maybe horrible at explaining things and keep missing out details, but he was still trying. Danny was floating right there, offering something that he never had for himself— understanding.

Jason heaved a sigh, leaning into the dramatics of the sound a little. “Fine. Since you can float make yourself useful and help me mount some of the tech in the corners.”

“Sure thing, dead boy.”

Snorting, Jason gathered up one of the cameras. He paused, just briefly, before he turned back to Danny with smirk. “So, does this make you a flying fish?”

The groan he got was worth it.

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AN: Danny, raised in a small city in rural Illinois: “Hey I have a fun fact!” I love Danny being so bad at explaining things. He’s trying, he really is, he’s just not great at it. Jason not really mad, he’s just struggling with things a little and coping by making sure that ‘his’ people are safe. Luckily Danny has the friends he does and is used to the odd protectiveness like breaking and entering.

Fun (?) fact: Danny’s black and orange NASA sweater is from the mars rover line the Smithsonian did a few years back. It is very warm and comfy. Anyways, stay delightful darlings!

So, this should be the whole tag list. I’m sure there’s a limit. I’m not sure if I’m over it? So sorry if you’re at the end of the list and not getting pinged! (I removed anyone unabled to be tagged.)

#dp x dc #jason todd #danny fenton #dead on main #dead on main ship #deadonmain #like betta fish do

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silverheartlugia2000 · 1 year

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DCXDP prompt

Ok, so there's plenty of Danny laying low or freaking out about the no meta rule, but I have this CRAVING of someone for once just explaining it to him? Like whoever bird or birds he's talking to just leans in and whispers "Wanna know a secret? That's mostly just a mind control precaution. I mean would you want to see Supes jacked up on fear gas? If the league do come over he prefers to be called first so he's close if something happens."

Danny- "Oh... yeah that makes sense actually, that shit isn't fun to be under.."

"Wait is THAT why you have that string of robberies on your record?!"

"That and the time my whole town got possessed in order to make me look bad and get arrested.."

The bird then drags Danny into the cave to open Bruce's file on him, and they both sit down and fill in the gaps on the shadier spots of his record. Heck Danny eventually gives Bats a few thermoses and other less harmful but still disabling device blueprints to add to the contingency file cause even if Dan is in therapy and on probation he knows his shit luck will probably make it needed sooner rather than later and he knows how fast it will go bad.

It comes in very handy at the next gala when Vlad attempts to have a duplicate overshadow Bruce who refuses to take his business propositions. Vlad gets nosey before Danny pulls up his king rights and makes vlad take an Oath (the magic binding kind) to not mess with Bruce or his family or reveal any of their super identities to anyone at all. Constantine is there beforehand to read over the contract and outthink any loopholes before vlad can take advantage of them.

Danny gives them samples of ecto-dejecto for medical emergencies, the Bat's keep them refreshed and in stock especally after they meet Ellie and hear about her stability problems. With help from Frostbite and Danny's ok they start working on a more reliable formula just for Ellie's sake.

Yes Jason is calmer around the halfas and he is slowly stabilizing enough form a proper core from it, (not an instant fix this time!) whether hes becoming a true halfa, more towards a remnant, or both they arent sure. But one night when the phantoms arent around Jason is having a bad time, reacting from something he was hit with during a fight. Tim just grabs one of the ecto-pens on a whim and it just flushes out the toxin so fast Jay passes out. When he wakes up his core has had a good growth spurt, its still not complete yet but he's beginning to get some minor abilities, the Phantom sibs start coaching him before it gets strong enough for Jason to turn completely intangible and if Jay starts complaining? Clockwork whisks them ALL up to the tower for a home movie night of Danny's greatest fails. Grampa has a collection, good and bad XD. Yes Danny is cringing in shame while eating Clockwork's ecto cookies but Jason is slowly starting to understand the importance of getting the basics right cause he does NOT want to accidentally sink completely under the ground without being able to get back out no thank you!!

What core type would he get anyway? Shadow's like Johnny because of the stealth perks? Earth to prevent being buried again? Would he have literature as a secondary obsession cause obviously he's gonna follow Danny into the family/protection category but since Danny also has a space obsession why not?

He puts Jazz's name in the list of superhero safe therapists, the fact she's already making waves at Arkam is only boosting her reputation. Especially once they read her paper on ghost obsessions and how sometimes they are comparable to hyper-fixations in autistics in the way they both satisfy and promote healthy growth for a ghosts physical and mental state but also how being deprived of them or forced to go against them can be severely harmful to their literal health.

And that was one thing the birds kept tripping on to understand whenever they needed to bench one of the halfas but they would end up just hovering around NEEDING to be helpful no mater how much they are told to go back to bed. They also get a whole new understanding on what happened to Dan cause yeah his whole timeline is based on loosing his family and retaliating out of grief.

So from then on the halfas are allowed to help with little tasks as long as they do not strain their recovery at all. Whenever Danny gets sickly and depressed they take him up to the watch tower, Ellie gets lessons in different languages so she can interact more when they let her join them on international trips, Jason gets set loose in a newly discovered bookstore when the manor's or Bab's library isn't enough, and Dan.. they're still figuring him out but he seems to enjoy wrecking little play city set ups and games where you play as the monster like Godzilla or Rampage along with general ghost sibling rough housing. (Lilo and Stitch is his favorite movie but you'd be hard pressed to get him to admit it,)

As for ships, definitely anger management. Jason becomes an unofficial fourth Phantom sib. Platonic everlasting trio cause Danny loves his friends and they will pet him like a cat for hours while his tail coils around them possessively like a giant snake and still make memes of it when he's grumpy. Brain dead is fun also, especially if Danny or the others are capable of Little Baby Man form and Tim has to fight Damian for cuddle rights! Bats has his usual girls but hey superman isn't that bad to hang around either.

#dc x dp #dc x dp prompt #silverlugia's free prompts #danny phantom #batman #jason peter todd #danielle phantom #dan phantom #halfa jason #tag me if you use this #little baby man danny?

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extraordinari1y-ordinary-writer · 3 months

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Okay, sorry for the wait...I really wanted part 2 thought out. Okay, so dark danny, started to hang out with the female reader. But dark danny realize like (damn this girl is my dream girl) and he really really likes her. So he finally got the courage to ask her out. (With the help of jazz, supportive sister ☺️) and it worked out, the reader says yes to the date. When dark danny was going to the date, he got stopped by danny and his friends. Needing help with fighting a ghost. Dark danny declines and explains he has a date, but danny convinced him it'll be quick. So they went to fight the ghost, but it was longer than they thought. Making dark danny miss the date, on girl that he REALLY likes and started to blame danny for it. It's been days and dark danny was still upset about the whole thing so he went out to cool down but he sees the reader sitting under a tree, dark danny hesitant but finally got the courage to talk to the reader. But it turns out the reader didn't go to the date either because the reader had to babysit as she got done getting ready to leave to the date. Dark danny sighed in relief and asked if they could try again by asking her if she wanted to grab lunch at nasty burger. The reader nodded and started to head that way. While giving one another their numbers just to avoid another mishap again

Pairing: Dark Danny x Fem!Reader

Summary: The build up to your date with Dan.

Content Warning: Miscommunication; ghost problems; whatever else I failed to mention

Word Count: 1,425

Note: Was this requested? Yes! I'd like to thank @wereallmadhere666 for the request. This also serves as a sequel story. I hope you like it! I'll come back here and there to make some edits where it's necessary. Any gifs or pictures I use are not mine.

Gentle reminder that I am always open for feedback! 💕

It has been a few weeks since you and Dan bumped into each other. Since then, grabbing a drink has become a welcomed weekly routine. You looked forward to those days, as did he. He rarely spoke of himself, instead finding interest in you. He liked hearing about your interests; he comforted you when you had a bad day. He even laughed at your stupid jokes. His reservations didn't mask how kind and generous he was. He made you feel warm, leaving you craving his presence.

Dan found himself insatiable. He needed to see you more than just once a week. He craved your voice, your laugh. He yearned for your touch, the way you left him breathless when you hugged him. Dan wanted to know everything about you. It didn't matter how menial it was; it was about you.

"You heading out again?" Danny's voice snapped the older ghost out of his thoughts. He hummed in response. "Are you gonna ask her out?" Danny questioned.

Dan sighed. "I will," he responded, "when it's the right time."

The young halfa arched a brow. "When will that be?"

"Why are you still so interested in this?" Dan threw a dry look his younger self's way. "I was able to find her," he continued, "so you have no reason to be so…invested."

"She makes you happy. You're less grumpy after seeing her, and I think you should make it official already."

Dan huffed in annoyance. "When I ask her out is none of your concern," he stated firmly. He put on his shoes and opened the front door.

"I'm just saying," Danny called, "you can't keep her waiting forever!"

. . .

Dan waited outside the café. He always tried to get there a little early; that way, he could greet you before heading in. The only problem was Danny. The teen's words echoed in the older ghost's head, making him anxious. Was he waiting too long to make his move? Were you even interested in him? You were always so happy to see him, but that didn't equate to attraction. Did it?

Dan chewed on the inside of his cheek. He was reading too much into it. Maybe he could try today, test the waters, and see your reaction. Hopefully, it didn't mess things up between the two of you.

"Dan!" The older ghost turned in the direction of your voice. You hurried across the street, a smile on your face. He smiled, melting into you as you embraced. "Sorry I'm late," you sighed, pulling back. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long."

Dan shook his head. "You're fine," he said. You beamed up at him.

"My roommate needed help cleaning our place," you started. Dan held the door open for you. You gave him a warm thank you in response. "Her parents are visiting, so—"

The conversation flowed freely after that. Well, Dan let you do most of the talking. He listened intently, occasionally sipping his coffee. He noted how, sometimes, you used your hands while talking—especially if you were feeling particularly animated. Your roommate's parents had you feeling a bit worked up. You'd met them once, you explained, and it had been a tense experience. So after that, you opted to keep your distance whenever they came to town. Dan nodded and gave input where it was needed.

"God, I'm sorry," you huffed. "I'm rattling off again, aren't I? How have you been?"

Dan gave a hint of a smile. "I've been well," he replied. "Not much has been happening."

You hummed happily and sipped your drink. "That's good," you said, a hint of a smile gracing your lips. A silence fell between the two of you. Dan studied you for a moment. He took in your gentle features and etched your voice into his memory. You meant so much to Dan. He could handle a lot. He'd been through a lot. If he were to ask you now, he could work through a rejection. But if you cut him off as a friend, he wasn't sure what he'd do.

"I was wondering," Dan started, his words slow and almost apprehensive. You looked at him curiously. "Would you be willing to have dinner?" he asked. "With me."

Your face flushed. "Like a date?"

Dan cleared his throat, avoiding your gaze. "If you're comfortable," he said. "If not, then—"

"I'd love to." The older ghost was surprise. You giggled. "How does Saturday feel?" you asked. "I know this nice restaurant on the other side of town."

Dan smiled. "That sounds perfect."

. . .

By the time Saturday rolled around, Dan was both anxious and excited. You were giving him a chance! By mid-afternoon, the older ghost decided to start getting ready.

Only to be interrupted by Danny and Jazz.

"I'm busy," Dan started, barely glancing the kids' way.

"Dan, I know you have your date today," Danny said quickly, "and I'm sorry to be asking this—"

"We need your help," Jazz interrupted. "There's this one ghost, and—"

Dan looked at them with an arched brow. "I'm sure you can handle one ghost tonight," he remarked.

"This is stronger than the other ones we've faced!" Danny looked at his older self pleadingly. "Please, Dan! You'll be back in time for your date."

With a heavy sigh, the teen's older self gave a resigned look to the kids in front of him. Dan had to keep reminding himself how inexperienced Danny was in ghost hunting. Dan had years of experience fighting ghosts, but that had been for other reasons.

"Where is it?"

. . .

Danny and Jazz were right. The ghost was strong, even by Dan's standards. Even worse, it took longer to take down. By the time the ghost had been sucked into the thermos, Dan realized he was far too late for his date. He tried flying to the restaurant. He went invisible and searched for you, but you weren't at any of the tables. When he managed to fly back to the Fenton home, it was beginning to dawn on him.

Dan felt his heart drop. Then anger bubbled in him. Anger was a familiar reaction for the older ghost. He'd spent so much time drowning in the emotion. And while he could blame Danny and his friends for making him miss his date, he wasn't. He was mad at himself. He could have called you and asked to reschedule. He could have done a million things differently. And he didn't.

Dan allowed himself to simmer in that anger until he couldn't take it anymore. After nearly a week, he went out for a walk. He hadn't heard from you since the failed date. Dan needed this moment to work through his emotions. Was it over between you and him? Did he need to move on? He could try calling you again, but what were the chances of you answering?

Sighing, Dan ran his hands over his face. He was conflicted.

"Dan?" The older ghost stopped. He swore he'd heard your voice; it had to be his mind playing tricks on him. "Dan, over here!"

Dropping his hands, Dan looked around before seeing you sitting under a tree. You were looking at him with a small smile, waving your arm to catch his attention. Dan hesitantly approached you. You stood to greet him.

"How've you been?" you asked softly. You didn't hug him. "Haven't really heard from you since…" You trailed off.

"I was contemplating calling you," Dan murmured, lowering his gaze. "I know I missed our date, and it has been bothering me—"

"You missed our date?" you interrupted. You looked surprised. Dan looked at you in confusion.

"Yes," he said slowly. "I had an emergency come up. By the time everything was…good, it was—" He shook his head. "I wasn't sure how to let you know," he added.

"I missed our date, too." You sounded embarrassed. Your cheeks flushed as you avoided Dan's shocked gaze.

"You did?"

You nodded. "My sister needed a babysitter," you said. "I was the only one available, I guess. I wanted to call you, but I don't have your number, so…"

The two of you stood there for a while, basking in the shared embarrassment. Dan felt relieved. He'd been so certain he messed it all up. He thought you'd hate him.

"Would you like to try again?" Dan asked. "Maybe with lunch."

"How does the Nasty Burger sound?" you asked, smiling. Dan nodded.

"That sounds great."

"And I'll give you my number," you added, "so something like this doesn't happen again."

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#dark danny x reader #danny phantom x reader #dark danny #danny fenton #danny phantom fanfiction #danny phantom #fanfiction #requested #request

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sanchoyo · 3 years

Text

danny phantom episode 4-7 Thoughts: (under a readmore because, these got kinda long!)

-the outfit danny had to buy for dash's party. CLASSIC 2000S i cannot stop laughing. And also showing up to the party and everyone is dressed like the trio is hilarious. and further proof that everyone looks good dressed goth.

-dash has a closet full of cute lil bear plushies?? LOVE that. adorable. also his response to danny trashing his room fighting a ghost was SO valid if somone BROKE MY BED IN HALF ID BE PISSED TOO.

-technus being like 'oh smart, u should be a tutor!' then later being like 'forget tutor, be a teacher!' :) supportive king <3 I also really like his upgraded suit/design. AND SPOCK CAMEO??? HELLO??

-the music in this show is super. its so funky. I looked it up and the guy who does it, guy moon (awesome name) also did music for other cartoons like fairly odd parents, barnyard, chalkzone, billy & mandy, AND some actual movies like FIGHT CLUB??? the whiplash I got from reading that)

-sam being rich explains a lot about her, actually.

-I know the moral of the episode was supposed to be 'dont ditch your friends for popular people/spend a lot of money on clothes that arent You to Fit In'. but tbh. it wouldve been easy for danny to have been like 'well, okay, ill come but only if my friends can!' but I get. that hes 14. so. not a lot to say there.

-BOX GHOST IS BACK!!!!! also, danny sitting up and wearing the dress/wig/makeup. umm thats how I dress everyday LMFAO. unironically me. (hate the jokes that boil down to 'haha funney man in dress' tho. but this is a look)

-jazz being protective of her brother once again being like NOOO YOU GUYS BETTER NOT STAKE OUT HIS (actually haunted) LOCKER!! shes aware of how people perceive him and she wants to help :( which is also probably why she told dash to invite him to that party even tho she had no interest in going!! she wants to help him out :(

-gotta say im with tucker on the whole 'should danny use his powers to get back at bullies' debate. 100% yes. let him teach kids to fight back. making dash throw his food at paulina out of the blue? no. but when hes actually about to pick on someone? yeah! for self defense? YEAH! if dash and his friends just threw food at him, I think rather than. idk doing sneaky shit with frogs he couldve just threw it back and not pulled punches if they tried to fight. I kNOOWWW its a kids show so they are like 'if u fight back ur just as bad!! violence bad!!' but. theyre HIS POWERS. WHO CARES.

-like my only gripe is that dash really isnt LEARNING ANYTHING WHEN DANNY GETS BACK AT HIM IN THE MOST PETTY INDIRECT WAYS. whatever they had to add a bully psa episode I guess. I hate it and I hate the way cartoons usually handle it because these methods simply Do Not Work. 'aND YouRE USinG YOur poWErs FOR EVill???!' this is Not Evil. even when poindexter takes dannys body, theyre only being 'nice' bc hes stealing soda for them!! bitches deserve what they get (nothing too brutal bc theyre high schoolers but damn, if they pick on danny he doesnt need to be the 'bigger person' he needs to start biting people)

-SAM TRYING TO SMUGGLE FROGS OUT OF THE BIO LAB?? girl in middle school when we had to dissect frogs we could opt out, also, they came to us already dead and preserved...

-sidney's lingo and the fact hes in black and white is sending me. also, danny is a ghost celebrity apparently for being a halfa?? ok. thats interesting to know

-the DENTIST BEING EXCITED ABOUT THE COTTON CANDY FLOOD IS THE FUNNIEST THING SO FAR.

-I LOOOVE the trope of 'wishes gone wrong'. not crazy about the stereotypical genie, or the use of the dreamcatcher looking design. (also, I KNOW theyre scientists but the way theyre handling a cold...are the fentons ANTIVAX)

-the genie. she. whitewished paulina. JKASDFHKJ. (the ghost literally just being hello kitty???? im dying) 'why do i feel that im special and wonderful? because I AM! <3' paulina ilu self worth queen. felt bad for her also getting possessed by (2) boys later who were arguing INSIDE HER. WTF.

-imagine being the guy trapped in his now flying car. he thought danny and tucker were HALUCINATIONS. imagine being trapped in a flying car with two, what you think are imaginary arguing 14 year olds convinced ur gonna die. i WOULD say this dude is gonna need so much therapy, but he seemed totally fine and excited when they landed (I would be happy too if a chicken was on my head. chickens rule) stoner rights

-sam's bat slippers??? iconic. SO cute.

-I think desiree's backstory is so :( do all ghosts have messed up sad backstories?? poindexter's was sad too...cannot imagine box ghost has any kind of fucked up backstory. but what if. his mom got pushed off cliffs by boxes...........a la cruella... anyway her 'no man may lay a hand on me' iconic. ilu

-I know danny has no concept of how much bras cost but my god dont attack tucker with some girls bra. those are so expensive.

-its really. well its not a GOOD THING he went into the portal and got fucked up, but its good danny was the one to do it rather than sam or tucker. because even tho he was being influenced by desiree and kept getting more malicious and it prob wasnt 100% him...he sucked as a ghost like most the people he 'pranked' were innocent ppl just Chillin and he didnt want to help anyone at all. I think danny is the most responsible out of them but also, hes 14 and shouldnt HAVE to feel obligated to fight every ghost. hes a good kid and wants to, but I also feel like he feels like...responsible for the portal turning on?? because his parents did give it up,, but it was an accident and not his fault (if anything, why was the on switch on the inside. why was it that easy. why was there no safety measures. that seems like smth OSHA needs to hear about). like thats my son. hes a good boy. and hes never done anything wrong in his life, ever. if anyone hurts him im killing everyone in this room and then myself. etc.

-danny's curfew is 10PM????? DUDE. when I was 14...shit I couldn't be out that late, I had to be back at like, 8 at the latest, and my parents had to know exactly where and who I was going with, AND i had to call/text them regularly...is this a case of my parents being overbearing, or the fentons sucking??? the only time i could EVER be out that late was if I was at an overnight sleepover or smth...

-the vultures have lil fezes. why do they have fezes...theyre so fuckin funny 'ask him for directions' 'I KNOW WHERE IM GOING' these ghost vultures are my new grandpas. pick them up, put them in the adopt box.

-'I wonder why those guys were trying to waste dad!' THEYRE GHOSTS. YOUR DAD HUNTS GHOSTS. why is that not a conclusion you'd immediately jump to??

-*jazz voice, clearly disgusted* WISCONSIN???

-mrs fenton with the lab coat and leg warmers and PERM. YESSS STYLISH.

-was going to say 'ew billionaire' @vlad but. super valid he used his powers to assumedly steal and cheat to get that money, thats how all billionaires do it! but ew hes a SIMP. and spending your billions on FOOTBALL STUFF?? you are Not Valid overall. I DO respect the fact you have a castle instead of a mansion. in wisconsin. if youre going to be stupidly rich might as well go all out, torches on the wall and all. I DO like his ghost form's little kitty ears. catman. and his cape! every design can benefit from a cape. and how different his forms look, like danny looks the EXACT SAME IN BOTH FORMS ASIDE FROM COLOR CHANGES. vlad's is like,, I could believe they were different people!! also I love the drama. but dude you are fighting a 14 year old. lame. also he was like, telling danny he wanted his mom and him and like, wanted him to renounce his dad?? WHAT ABOUT JAZZ?? bitch. those r MY kids and they are both important and special. I do agree they need better parents but thats not u sir <3

-I thought vlad's 'little badger' nickname for danny came from the football mascot of the packers, but google says they have NO MASCOT?? so now I'm like?? is it because his hair is sometimes black and sometimes white?? I hate to give him props but thats a PERFECT NICKNAME. theyre also tiny and vicious!

-why did I get so excited that Skulker is back!! its been like. 2-3 eps LMAO. AND THE DAIRY KING. ICONIC I LOVE HIM. hes the nicest guy ever :) more nice ghosts please. danny cannot be fighting alone everytime with no ghost buds like every ghost being hostile sucks :(

-mr. fenton knew vlad was controlling him, but a few episodes ago he had no clue danny was doing the same thing...is it something about how malicious the ghost is?? he just seemed to think his memory had gaps the first time, this time he was INSTANTLY LIKE 'GHOST'. then again in this ep when danny did it again he was just slightly confused but not immediately freaking out like he did with vlad possessing him!!

-'my parents will accept ME NO MATTER WHAT' so. so why haven't you come out to them yet, danny?? if you really think that?? if theres no harm, and you're sure??? if vlad is a real problem, wouldnt that make dealing with him easier, to expose him???? SO WHY HAVENT YOU COME OUT YET?? COULD IT BE,, MAYBE YOU HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT WHETHER YOUR PARENTS ACTUALLY WILL ACCEPT YOU??? 🤔 ... 🏳‍🌈 I get why people say He Is Trans. I totally totally get u danny.

-sorta unrelated, but it just occurred to me in one of these eps they go to casper HIGH not casper middle school??? theyre 14?? dont highschools usually do ages 15-18? (I didnt go to hs so I might be wrong, if I am ignore this...) freshmen are usually 14-15, could just be a case of them not turning 15 yet but they will sometime in the school year (I say they because tucker said he was 14 too)? I know the show has 3 seasons, so by the end of it will they be older? thatd be neat but usually cartoon characters stay the same age...I love shows where you can see the characters age and grow up, though...three seasons seems like a long time to spend on like, 1 year...

#sanchoyorambles #danny phantom #me on the first post:#its not a liveblog!#me this time: it kinda is. but not in the same format as my tmm one #i like doing one post for a handful of eps bc it saves time #and crowds my blog less #and also i just like talking abt what im watching lol #dp thoughts

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burning-clutch · 3 years

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Shielded From The Truth

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

-.-.-.-.-.-

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

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

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

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

Small mercies he supposed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That’ll work, right?

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

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

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

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

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

“Since when?” Sam argued incredulously.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-BREAK-

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

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

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

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

“No”

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

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

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

Joyous of joys.

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

“You were right about Vlad, Sam”

“Naturally,” She agreed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still maybe if he gets ahead of this…

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

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

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

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

“Daniel!” His mother exclaimed abashedly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Danny sputtered at that, “Wh-What?”

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

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

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

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

“O-oh hun....” Maddie sniffed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-.-.-.-.-.-

Total words: 4245 Complete

#phic phight 2021 #Phic Phight #Danny Phantom #danny fenton #lancer #ghost shields are a problem #kinfa fluffy #danny is so done

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mischiefandspirits · 3 years

Text

Doppelgänger (15/19)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

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

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Doctor's Disorders}

“Ugh, what is that smell?” Danny asked as he and Valerie approached Tucker.

“This,” Tucker held up a spray can. “It’s my new all-over body spray. I made it myself, I call it Foley by Tucker Foley. It combines with your natural odor to create a sweet, manly scent that smells different to everyone who sniffs it.”

Their noses scrunched up as Tucker started spraying himself.

“Tuck, you smell like a sweaty cookie.”

“By choice. The ladies will be swarming all over me.”

“Doubtful,” Valerie snorted. “You smell horrible.”

He pointed at her with the can. “You don’t count. You’re already dating Dan-”

The can slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground, spraying Valerie in the process.

She scowled as the smell of sports bra and sugar cookies washed over her. “You better hope this washes out,” she growled and shoved past him towards the locker room. Thankfully she had first period free so she could shower and drown her clothes in perfume. It didn’t completely help, but it was better. Maybe she should consider keeping a spare set of clothes in her locker. It’d help for the times she tears her clothes in a fight.

“Anyone in here?” Tetslaff called just as she finished fixing her hair.

“I’m here,” she said, tossing her mini curling iron into her locker. She grabbed her bag and walked towards the door to see Tetslaff eyeing her.

“You feeling okay, Gray? Any bug bites?”

“No. I’m fine. Why?”

“All students need to report to the gym. Anyone else here?”

She shook her head. “Bailey was in here, but she left a few minutes ago.

The PE teacher nodded and escorted her to the gym. She was surprised to see the entire student body either sitting or laying on the floor and bleachers, most of whom were glowing. The teachers were hovering over everyone as a man in a doctor’s uniform drifted through, occasionally stopping to talk to the students.

When he saw her, he came over. “And who do we have here?”

“Valerie Gray, what’s going on?”

“What symptoms is she showing?” he asked Tetslaff, ignoring Valerie’s question.

“None as far as I’ve seen,” she grunted and the doctor frowned behind his mask.

“Interesting. She’s the fourth one. Sit her with the others.” He gestured to the corner and Valerie smiled to see Danny, Sam, and Tucker waiting there.

They looked surprised when she joined them and Danny pulled her into a hug. “You okay?”

“Other than still smelling a little awful, I’m perfect. What’s going on?” she asked, pulling back but staying pressed into his side.

Sam gestured to the other students. “Some sort of ghost bug, literally. A whole swarm attacked the school and started phasing into people, resulting in that. You didn’t notice?”

“I’ve been in the showers.” She sent Tucker a look and he ducked behind Sam. “None of you got the bug?”

They shook their heads and Danny pointed off to the side, “Jazz did though.”

Valerie looked over to see Danny’s sister curled up on a mat, her body fuzzy at the edges. “Well, there goes the idea that prolonged exposure to ghost hunting equipment is what’s protecting us. Are your parents doing anything?”

Danny shrugged. “We’ve been in here the whole time. The doctor said he wanted us close since we’re the only ones showing signs of immunity. And they took our phones so I can’t call my parents.”

She smirked and took out her phone. “Looks like they forgot to take mine.”

Danny took it and the three crowded around him to keep him from sight.

“Do your parents have something that could fix this?” Sam asked as Danny dialed.

He thought about it for a second then smiled. “Mom, Dad… Yeah, I’m okay… Really? That’s weird. Why wouldn’t they tell you anything? Nevermind, I’ll explain everything, but can you guys grab the Ghost Catcher before you leave?”

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

“Is it just me or does Dr. Rand look really mad that his patients are being cured?” Valerie hummed.

Said doctor was currently standing off to the side as the teachers lead students through the ghost catcher, Danny’s parents sucking up the ghost bugs as they were pulled out.

Jazz took in his scowl with a frown. “Maybe it’s a pride thing? He was pretty much useless.”

“Or maybe he was part of a government conspiracy to experiment on us while we possessed ghost abilities,” Sam suggested.

“Sounds like something the Guys in White would do,” Danny muttered sleepily from his spot in Valerie’s lap.

“He’s a doctor. All doctors are evil,” Tucker agreed.

“What’s his problem?” Valerie whispered to her boyfriend.

“He’s afraid of doctors, nurses, hospitals, so on.”

“What’d you say his name was again?” Jazz asked, still staring at the man.

“Dr. Bert Rand.”

“Bertrand? Like Ms. Spectra’s gh-assistant?” Jazz stuttered.

The trio turned to her, then groaned, “Oh my god, we’re idiots.”

Valerie frowned as their voices nudged at her, but pushed it aside as Jazz asked, “What?”

“Spectra was a ghost, same for Bertrand. They must be behind the attack on the school,” Sam explained.

Valerie narrowed her eyes and moved Danny off of her. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

Jazz bit her lip as the girl left, then nudged Danny. “You three should go too. You, uh, don’t know when you might get another chance.”

They frowned, but agreed quickly and left.

Jazz smiled and leaned back. Those three could take care of the ghosts. Now she just needed an excuse for when Valerie got back.

{Pirate Radio}

Jazz sighed as she relaxed on her blanket, only to frown when someone started messing with the radio.

She sat up to glare at Tucker. “Knock it off!”

He held up his hands and backed up.

“Come on, Jazz. This music bites,” Danny said. “It’s our turn to pick something to listen to.”

“I like it. It relaxes me.”

“Well, we do outnumber you four to one,” Valerie pointed out.

Jazz grabbed the radio and held it close to her, scowling at the younger teens that she had joined on the Ops Center for stargazing.

Just then, the ground began to rumble and a pirate ship of all things burst intangibly out of the street.

Jazz jumped to her feet and gestured her brother back. “Danny, you, Sam, and Tucker need to go. Uh, go get our parents. Downstairs. Out of view.”

“R-right, we’ll go get them,” Tucker said and the trio ran off.

“I thought your parents were out,” Valerie said.

“Oops, I forgot.” Jazz turned to the girl and was surprised to see her pulling a ghost pistol out of her bag.

The girl froze. “Oh, uh, Danny gave it to me. For, you know, protection?”

As cute as it was that Danny was so worried about his girlfriend, Jazz would have to talk to him about handing out weapons of all things.

“Got anything else in there?”

Valerie tossed her a thermos just as a group of pirate ghosts landed on the Ops Center. The two girls went to work blasting and sucking up ghosts. Jazz saw a pair heading for the shield and pointed them out to Valerie, but Danny or one of his partners cut them off. She turned back to the main group of pirates and smiled when she saw the other two flying through the air.

She frowned when they seemed to fire on nothing. “What are they doing?”

Valerie looked up, then gave her an incredulous look. “Fighting the ghost captain.”

“I don’t see anything.”

“Weird,” she shot a headless pirate and Jazz sucked him in. “Can you hear him?”

“No.”

“Lucky you. He’s a brat. Maybe eight or nine years… Okay, so he’s eleven. Like that makes a big difference,” she snorted. Then her eyes widened and she barrelled into Jazz.

Something exploded behind them.

“You’ve never babysat, have you? Jazz asked as they picked themselves up. “Kids don’t like to be told they’re younger than they think they are.”

“I’ve only babysat actual babies. They don’t talk back,” Valerie said.

The ghost ship flickered then disappeared.

“What happened?”

“Doppelgänger caught the brat.”

The sound of a guitar-strumming echoed around them and two of Danny’s trio slammed into the ground in front of the girls.

“Ember’s back,” they said, rubbing their heads. “You guys might want to either get inside or put on Specter Deflectors before you get hypnotized.”

“M. Bersback? The guy who gave us that awful Vapor Drone? He’s a ghost?” Valerie asked.

They stared at her blankly, then one threw their hands in the air. “Oh come on! That's not a clue. That's a billboard! We really got to start paying more attention to these things!”

{Reign Storm, Part 1}

“Did you get the book report done?” Valerie asked as she passed Danny a water bottle.

“Mm-hm.” He took the bottle and tried to drink it.

“Lid Danny,” she chuckled.

He scowled and took the lid off. “I think you beat the ghost out of me.”

“Then I did my job,” she chuckled. “Seriously though, you’re doing really good.”

“Can I have my black belt then?”

“Not quite. Now come on, we’ve still got fifteen minutes before we need to clean up.”

He groaned, but pushed himself to his feet and followed her over to the wrestling mat. Jazz had somehow talked Tobias, the wrestling coach, into letting them use it for their sparring in the morning after Tuesday’s practice in return for cleaning up after. It was a lot better than sparring at home, even if it did mean getting up way too early.

Of course, being at school meant there were sometimes distractions.

“Think fast, Fentoni!”

Danny turned just as Valerie caught the football that was headed for him.

“Unless you’re here to spar, then get lost, Dash,” she huffed, tossing the ball to Kwan.

“Spar with Fenton?” Dash laughed and Kwan joined in.

“You’d snap him in half before he could even throw his first punch!”

“I thought I said to get lost,” Valerie growled stepping between them and Danny.

Dash leered at him. “You gonna let a girl fight your battles.”

Danny raised an eyebrow as Valerie stiffened. “Now you f-ed up.”

“And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean, Baxter?” she asked, cracking her knuckles.

Kwan grabbed Dash’s shoulder and whispered something that made Dash pale.

“J-just that Fenton’s too weak to fight his own battles, he has to rely on his girlfriend to do it for him. I did-din’t mean, you know, that a girl couldn’t kick butt.”

“Nice save,” Danny said and Dash gave him a death glare.

“Leave,” Valerie said.

They did.

“I’m definitely going to pay for that later,” Danny chuckled as he got into position on the mat.

“If you’re not going to fight back then stop antagonizing him,” she said.

“I’ve considered fighting back.”

“Then why don’t you.”

Danny raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t met Sidney Poindexter, then.”

“Who?”

“He’s the ghost who haunts my locker. He gets huffy with me if I try to get back at Dash. I was putting my annoyingness to full use on Dash when we first met and Sidney is paranoid I’ll do it again. According to him, I’m just as much of a bully as Dash if I do and he hates bullies.”

“Need me to take care of him?”

“Nah, we’ve got a truce. He’s not too bad. I just can’t pull anything on Dash without risking a lecture from him. And he’s still learning modern slang so a lecture from him is even worse than one of Lancer’s hip and funky fresh talks.”

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

“Do you guys know why Nathan’s been giving me evil eyes?” Danny asked as the trio walked home.

“He’s got a crush on Valerie. He’s ticked you and her are dating,” Tucker explained.

“He came up to me the other day and tried to tell me I needed to, Get your cheating boyfriend away from my Valerie! It took me fifteen minutes to get him to back off and I think he still believes you’re two-timing Valerie and I,” Sam said.

“We’re dating? Sam, why didn't you tell me? I'd have put my book down.”

Sam shoved him towards his stoop. “I want to break up. It’s not me, it’s you.”

“Okay, but I get Tucker in the divorce.”

Tucker shook his head and linked arms with Sam. “Sorry, Danny, but you knew I was a gold digger going into this.”

Sam shoved him away as well. “You can have him.”

“Changed my mind, he’s yours now.”

“You’re both awful,” Tucker fake whined and marched off.

“See you tomorrow,” the two yelled at his retreating back.

Danny turned to Sam. “Are you going to head out for patrol or do you want a snack first?”

“Depends, what’s the likelihood your food’s contaminated?”

“My mom and dad are partway through a new invention.”

“Pass.”

“You guys are ridiculous,” he called as she went to the nearest alleyway.

“Ectoplasm’s not a veggie,” she called back.

“Okay, fair,” he snorted and opened the door. “I’m home. Anything happen while -”

Danny cut off as he saw his family in the living room surrounding a certain fruit loop.

“Ah, hello, Daniel!”

“You!” he shouted, tossing his bag aside and marching up to the group. “What are you doing here?”

Some of his anger lifted as he saw his mom accidentally poor tea right onto Vlad’s lap. “Totally valid question.”

“Still steaming?” Vlad asked in his creepy stalker voice.

“You have no idea,” she growled.

Vlad turned his attention to Danny. “I was just, you know, passing through. And then I saw that marvelous battlesuit and thought, since I can't just destroy Jack and take it, I suppose I'll steal its secrets right out from under his nose!”

Danny’s fists clenched as Vlad met his dad’s eyes with a smile and the two started laughing.

“Oh I swear, I am such a josher,” he held his cup up to Danny’s mom. “More tea please.”

She poured it on his head.

“Not there! Ooh!”

Danny’s mom stomped off and his dad followed.

“I don't know what you're up to, Plasmius,” Danny started in a whisper, then blinked. “Actually, I do. You just told me.”

“That’s right! And say a word and I'll share your secret with your little friend.”

Danny stared at him blankly. “What friend?”

“Miss Gray.”

“How do you even -”

Danny was cut off when an alarm sounded through the house. His dad ran back into the room and hit a hidden button to bring up a radar system.

“Galloping goblets, it's the Ecto-Exodus Alarm!”

“The Ecto-whaty-what?” Jazz and Danny asked.

“The Ecto-Exodus Alarm! An alarm that only goes off when we're about to face a massive ghost invasion!”

Danny faked reaching into his pocket so he could grab the Fenton Phones out of his Space Fold. “I need to make a call!”

He felt Vlad’s eyes on his back as he ran upstairs, but ignored them.

“Sam, Tucker, please tell me one of you can hear me?” he said into the phones and through their link as he shut his door.

“What’s wrong?” Sam said.

“Ghost invasion. Big one. Coming right at us,” Danny said and transformed. “We need to get back here right now.”

Danny’s ghost sense went off.

“Too late.”

Danny flew out of the house as ghosts came pouring out of the portal and onto the street. His eyes landed on Johnny and Kitty and he flew towards them.

“Hey Thirteen, what’s going on?” he asked as he came level with the bike.

“You mean you haven’t heard?” Kitty said, turning to him. “Pariah Dark’s back.”

“Who?”

“If you don’t know, we’re not going to tell you,” Johnny snorted.

“Come on. We’ve been letting you mostly run wild as long as you don’t hurt anyone or destroy anything. Can’t you just tell us?”

Johnny growled and stopped the bike. “Look, we don’t know too much. He’s way, way before our time. All we know is that he’s called the King of All Ghosts and someone woke him up. Now he’s trashing the zone and looking for some ring that will give him ultimate power or something when paired with his crown. He’s powerful so everyone’s getting while the gettin’s good. Speaking of which.”

Johnny took off, but Danny didn’t bother to chase him. Instead, he turned to Sam as she joined him.

“This is bad. No kidding.”

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

Tucker flinched as his ghost sense went off for the fifteenth time. Where were all these ghosts coming from? He hoped he got into range of the mind link soon. Sam at least should be transformed so he should be getting close. Why did he have to choose today of all days to visit the gaming shop in Elmerton?

Someone blasted him and he groaned. He’d wanted to regroup with his partners before picking any fights. He turned to his opponent and groaned again. “What are you doing in town, fruit loop?”

“Haven’t we already been through this, Daniel?” Vlad asked flying closer and Tucker rolled his eyes.

So Danny or Sam have talked to him then. He hoped they were okay. “Refresh our memory.” Goosebumps swept over him and he gestured towards the ghost. “Are you the reason all these ghosts are around?”

“I’m flattered you think I could organize all this.”

“You’re right. We forgot you put everything into intelligence and strength. No way you could convince all these ghosts to listen with your charisma being a dump stat,” Tucker said, nodding. “Our bad.”

Vlad looked confused for a moment, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m not here to play games, Daniel.”

“Then you’ve got the wrong half-ghost.” If he didn’t want jokes, he should have gone with Sam.

Vlad scowled at him, then he was being grabbed from behind. He looked up to see another Vlad holding him. The older halfa pinned one of his arms behind his back and held the other out to the first Vlad.

“Let go of us, creep!”

“Calm down, Daniel. I’m not going to hurt you,” Vlad one said, flying closer and grabbing his wrist. “I simply need you to hold onto something for me.”

“And why would we ever help you?”

Vlad one disconnected his glove from the hazmat and pulled it off, revealing green skin and black nails.

Wow, Sam would like those.

“Because this is a powerful relic,” Vlad two explained as Vlad one slipped a green and black ring onto Tucker’s middle finger. “One which I’m sure you’d want to keep safe and out of the hands of dangerous ghosts.”

“Like you?”

Vlad one smirked and replaced his glove.

“If it’s so powerful, why would you give it up?” Tucker asked as the Vlads let him go and merged together.

“That is for you to discover on your own. Ta!” He teleported away.

“We need to get a restraining order or something,” Tucker muttered, rubbing his shoulder. He glanced down at his hand uncertainly. Vlad could certainly have been lying, but if he wasn’t, Tucker couldn’t just toss the ring and risk it ending up in the wrong hands.

With a sigh, he continued on his way. The trio could figure this out together. Thankfully he only had to fly for a few minutes before his mind connected to Sam and Danny.

#danny phantom #valerie gray #jazz fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #Doppelgänger au

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aenxiome · 3 years

Text

Chapter 5: inter-dimensional super spy

It doesn't take long for Jazz to get me signed out of school and on the way back to Fenton Works. All it took was a little bit of manipulation on Jazz's part. Or what she would rather call " a practical use of psychology," but either way, she got me out. All it took was for her to hall me up to the office and rattle on about how close I was to the last ghost fight and that I had suffered a shock. She played with the office staff as if they were a soft putty in the palm of her hand.

She can be rather scary when she gets an idea in her head. Unfortunately for her, in my opinion, she has to be back in the building in thirty minutes or less. If not, she will be counted as skipping, and that would tarnish her excellent record. So as soon as we both were buckled in the car, she started rushing as if she was a madwoman. It doesn't matter how many times I try to talk to her. That impenetrable focus of hers just won't budge. The only conversation I managed to have with her was right before we turned onto the street before our neighborhood.

" So what is the plan," she asks, interrogating me. I tap my fingers along the side of the window as I search for an answer. The silence that I created didn't bode well for me as soon after we pulled into the driveway. " So," she asks again, " the plan? How are you going to get to the FarFrozen?" Turning towards her with a mixture of pink and green shining through my cheeks, I admit, " I didn't think about that." Jazz leans back into her seat dramatically as she says, " Well, you were obviously thinking about something." she crosses her arms while glancing at my fingers, " you were tapping your fingers relentlessly the whole way here."

I couldn't help the look that came onto my face when I looked at her. How could one of the smartest people I know be so clueless sometimes? " I was more worried about how I'm going to manage to sneak down to the lab and into the Zone without either one of them noticing me. I know they aren't all that observant when it comes to either one of us, but I would think they would notice me unlocking the portal and skipping on through." I tell her sarcastically. As soon as the words left my mouth, she blanched a bit at the thought.

" I came up with a plan," being a bit disappointed with my usefulness, ``I can barely stop myself from grinding my teeth as I spit out, "but I'm going to need some help to pull it off." At the word help, Jazzs' complexion brightened considerably, showing herself to be eager at the thought of being useful. We talk for a minute, just getting the kinks of the plan out of the way before we notice the time. Jazz only has ten minutes to get back. With no hesitation, She forces me out of the car, practically pushing me out on my butt, and is rushing back down the street to school. Leaving me sitting alone in the middle of the driveway.

After sitting for a moment disconcerting at the situation, I get up, brush myself off, and head over towards the front door. Once I get to the door, I stick my head in intangible and look around the room, hoping it is empty, which doesn't make the top ten of my wisest decisions. Using my ability made a tightening sensation go through my core, causing it to throb, knocking the wind out of me. As soon as I confirm that no one is near the door, I slip inside and drop the intangibility. I then go to lean up against the door for a moment. I stay there for a bit to catch my breath and then continue to my bedroom. Getting there was a bit of a challenge as I maneuvered over the stairs' squeaky spots, hoping not to get caught.

As soon as I got to my room, I flopped down onto the bed in contempt wis-, getting a little bit of a reprieve, not that I expected the peace to last for long in the first place. So I spent a little time before the plan turned into action, getting ready for my voyage through the Zone. I rummaged through the room, looking for a spare bag that I wouldn't mind messing up, and started to pack. Among my supplies is a first aid kit, a bottle of Motrin, which I may or may not have taken a couple of beforehand, along with a sweatshirt and a change of clothes. You never know when you are going to need them. Then, leaving extra room in the bag for a few weapons I plan to take from the lab, I close it up and relax, waiting for the signal.

I started to zone out, and soon enough, I was beginning to nod off to sleep until I heard the echo of the phone ringing throughout the house. On the second ring, the phone stopped, and a voice echoed, calling, " MADDIE! GRAB THE FENTON ANTI-CREEP STICK; THERE IS A GHOST ATTACKING THE SCHOOL!" A few moments later, I could hear rushing echoing footsteps coming from below and the yell of, " NO GHOST CAN WIN AGAINST A FENTON!" then the slamming of the front door and the loud start of the GAV, or the Ghost Assault Vehicle as it is also known, leaving the driveway.

I wait a minute or two just to ensure they aren't coming back before I rush down the stairs and into the kitchen. I search the cabinets for anything I can take without it being noticeable. I end up groaning to myself in annoyance. The only things I can find are an old granola bar and a bruised apple. I would attempt to fight the food from inside the refrigerator, but I am short on time. There is only so much trouble that the Ectopi and Boxxy can make before my parents give up or capture them.

When I go down the stairs and into the lab, I immediately head towards the weapons rack. Hoping to find some type of non-lethal device. Usually, I would just stick to using a normal Fenton Thermos, but when Jazz left to go back to school, I handed it over so she could let the ghosts out. Thankfully Dad never throws things away and keeps all of the "Malfunctioning" inventions in the throwaway drawer. I found one soon enough and then moseyed on over to the currently closed Fenton Portal.

Once I flipped up the safety on the genetic lock and let it scan my thumb, the portal doors opened and encased me in the softly glowing green light of ectoplasmic radiation. The energy pouring out came straight towards me and started wrapping me up in it. The feeling is comforting, almost as if being snuggled up in a blanket or receiving a hug. Like my icy issue, this is also a new development, but not a concerning one. I tried to explain the feeling to my friends and sister, but none of them seem to understand how I feel. Since then, I have tried not to bother them too much about these types of things. I know they mean well, but sometimes the way they look at me when I tell them these kinds of things makes my core hurt.

One day after school, right before I left the building, Sidney Poindexter cornered me in a hall and tried to explain what had started happening. According to him, it was just an instinct that came with being a ghost. All ghosts, even halfas or something else in between, will feel the need to go back to the zone. The world of the living doesn't have enough ectoplasm to sustain us for long. We need ectoplasm just like humans need oxygen to breathe. It's what keeps us going.

Some ghosts end up feeding off human emotions to help sustain themselves and stay on this side for as long as they can. This is one of the reasons places like schools get attacked so much. With so many people around, a ghost can stay in one place for longer. Most ghosts feed off of darker emotions. Spectra, for example, likes to feed on depressing emotions and cause despair wherever she goes. Others may like to feed on other types of emotions like anger, happiness, or confusion. Unlike those who prefer to feed off of humans constantly, I need to get my ectoplasm from the zone; it's self. With the portal in the house and initially staying open almost continuously, I didn't feel the zone's pull. Now though, is an entirely different issue.

If I don't go in the zone periodically, I will unconsciously pull myself towards the closest portal, stable or unstable. It doesn't seem to matter to me in those moments, but the results of going in one of them could be catastrophic. I almost let myself be pulled into one without realizing it. The only reason I'm not a pile of goo in the middle of the earth is because of Clockwork dragging me away from it and into a portal of their own. According to them, it was a close call. Since then, I have tried to go in for a couple of hours every couple of weeks just because, sometimes more when I get the time to slip away. Though I still haven't figured out why it would start to affect me now when I am already stable. I am around ectoplasm a lot more than I used to be.

Shaking away my thoughts, I gaze into the swirling green pool and step into the Ghost Zone. Once my foot goes through the veil, the energy I didn't know I needed starts to flow through me, relieving some of the pain in my core.

Exiting the portal and going onto the small attached island, I can admire my surroundings. Greeting me is the swirling green atmosphere that can only be found in the zone and faraway purple doors, along with other various lairs and floating islands. I only stayed there for a small moment before taking a tentative step towards the edge of land beneath me. Without hesitation, I walk off the edge and drop off into the unknown. Instead of falling, the lack of gravity has me floating in place. I look behind me at the ledge as a lightbulb starts to go off in my head. I land back on the island and position myself on the shelf with my back facing the space. I bend my knees and propel myself towards the middle of the zone.

I position myself to float along on my back and let the ambient ectoplasm take me towards the Farfrozen. At first, the journey was incredibly peaceful, with nobody else being anywhere near me, but that didn't last for long. Once I got near the doors, it was like the start of a feeding frenzy. All types of animal ghosts took their chance to get at me. Trying to grab a piece of me to bite into and drag me off to who knows where. There is no way for me to suck all of them up into a single thermos with so many of them. My only hope is to somehow force my way through them.

I punch and kick at them, trying to get them to go away, but that only seems to make them more vicious in their attack. Then all of a sudden, I heard and felt the sharp, sudden crunch coming from my left shoulder. Without me noticing, a ghost in the shape of a bear managed to get behind me. They sunk their teeth into my shoulder, holding me in a ( kinda?) death grip. They shook its head, shaking my body all over the place. Blood and ectoplasm cascade down my chest and back, staining my now ripped clothing. With them attacking from behind, I am stuck, unable to dislodge myself from their mouth. The attack continues for a couple more moments, with other animal ghosts taking the opportunity to grab other parts of me. A cat here, and some kind of canine there, it wasn't long until I was indistinguishable from a chew toy.

All of a sudden, there was a blast of ectoplasm rushing by my head. The blast struck the bear in the head, and it immediately let me go. Soon there was another fired in my direction, along with a loud blast of energy. The energy attacks the animals and propels them off of me and tumbling into doors and each other. When one of the smaller ones came back for a second try, I attempted to set off an ectoblast of my own. However, instead of being a simple blast, it came off as a long-drawn-out beam and pelted into it. The action came with the after effect of my core feeling as if it had been pulled apart like string cheese, along with a weird feeling lingering in my hand. The hand that shot the beam started feeling like static as if it was being poked with pins and needles. The feeling didn't last long, though. It was as if the feeling was there for one moment but gone the next.

The mix of attacks sent all of the animals flying away, licking at their wounds, and me staring in a mixture of gratefulness and disbelief at my rescuers. Finally, at a nearby door floats Skulker and Ember looking just as confused at me as I am at them. "Babypop?" Ember exclaims, baffled. Rubbing at my wounds, I give her an embarrassed look before addressing them, " Hey guys, thanks for the save." The two of them, still looking confused at the situation, come closer towards me until they are just an arm's length away. " Welp," Skulker greets me, and before he can continue, Ember cuts him off " what's with the human look?" Ironically, Skulker and I both huff in tangent at her abrasive question. I ponder for a moment, wondering what I should tell them. While they both helped me out, they did it without knowing that it was me in the first place. Not to mention there is no guarantee that they won't attack if they think that I am unable to protect myself. On the other hand, though, while not exactly friends with Ember, we are still somewhat friendly to one another.

A semi-friend, maybe?

Skulker is more of an on-again, off-again frenemy, so there is no telling what he may do. In the end, I decided to go with a combination of the truth and a partial omission. Looking around before answering just to double-check for any eavesdroppers before leaning over towards Skulker, " You remember the ice thing from a couple of days ago?" He nods, " Yeah, but what does that have to do with this?" he asks, gesturing to me. I obvert my eyes as I admit, " It stayed," cocking his head to the side in confusion, I decided to elaborate, " I went late in the afternoon back over there, and it was just like how it was that morning." His eyes widened in understanding, " It didn't melt?" he asks astounded, " not even a little bit?" Getting up with a groan, I confirm, " not a single crystal of it." Looking gobsmacked, he places a hand on his chin muttering to himself while Ember looks between us, confused. Finally, getting sick of our conversation, she pries us, " What are you two going on about? What Ice? What's happening?"

Skulker waves her off, telling her, "it's a bro code thing, babe," while she sulks and turns away. She heads back to her door, but before she goes in, she calls out to us, " take your bromance somewhere else" turning to look at Skulker, she adds, "I'll see later," and with a wink, she is gone. He turns back to me with his arms crossed and prods some more, " and what does it have to do with the looking human thing?" Running my hand through my hair, I admit, " when I went back, I was able to get rid of it, but it messed me up. I can't do the "be a ghost" thing until I figure out what exactly I messed up."

Squinting his eyes at me, he questions, " and you are here to do what exactly?" I rub my eyes in annoyance and can't help but think that this is why he is stuck taking orders from Vlad; does he ever think for himself? Not having the guts to say so to his face, I reply with, " To get to the Farfrozen, of course." He hums in understanding before coming closer, grabbing me by the waist and throwing me over the shoulder. The impact came with throbbing pain. The bites of the animals had yet to heal, and the rough impact and chilled feeling of Skulkers isn't helping. " W-what are you doing!" I shout in shock, "let me go!" I continue to yell as I try to release myself. My moving about only made my discomfort increase and cause bodily fluids to drip onto him. " Would you stop all the squirming" he growls, " I'm just giving you a bit of a lift"

" A lift?" I interrogate, letting some skepticism slip into my voice. Finally, he makes a noise of agreement before rushing off towards the Farfrozen. We continue for a while before he slows his pace and eventually stops and heads towards a floating island. Then, letting me down, he announces, " this is where I leave you." I started to thank him, but right before, I couldn't help but notice where we stopped. " You're going to leave me here?!" I say accusingly, " Right in front of Walker's prison!"

" What is he more likely to notice? The both of us speeding past or one a welp crawling on by? I may want my prey in top condition for a hunt," he says, staring at me, " but I'm not willing to put myself in his path to get that. Getting past here is something you have to do on your own. Be thankful I took you this far in the first place." Feeling rightfully chastised, a sense of guilt starts to set in. After all, he didn't have to help me. He chose to. "I'm sorry," I say, trying to apologize for my behavior, but he dismisses my words, " Just try not to get caught welp. Once you're better, the fight for your pelt can resume." With a crooked smile, he flies off back towards his own lair and out of danger.

As soon as Skulker left my sight, I rushed off towards a large rock and took cover. With Walker and his goons being as slimy as they are, there is no telling if they will show up. Thankfully the island Skulker left me at is full of trees with heavy foliage, rocks, and other large objects. So there are plenty of places to hide behind. I start to hesitate right before I enter an open area. Good thing, too, because just as I was about to go across, a few of the prison guards were flying by checking the area. That was a close one ' come on, Danny, stop chickening out,' I tell myself. The safest way is just to act as if you are walking across the street: stop, look both ways, and rush across to safety.

INTERMISSION (Kids take note: it is unsafe to go across streets on your own. Please make sure to take a grown-up with you. Don't be reckless like Danny)

From the get-go getting from place to place was a nightmare, having to look over my shoulder constantly. The longer I wait in one place, the more paranoid I become. Some of the bite marks have already started to heal, but some of the more severe ones, like the shoulder, continue to bleed. If I'm not careful, I could leave a blood trail and lead Walker and his goons right to me.

When going from place to place, I stay on the tips of my toes, hoping to cause the least amount of noise possible. I go from a tree, to rock, to a bush, and then whatever else I can fit behind. At the moment, I am behind what looks to be a pile of old sheet metal. How it got here is anyone's clue. I look all around and listen for anyone nearby. Once I conclude that the area is clear, I hurriedly tip-toe across to a push while muttering, ' I'm an interdimensional super-spy, SUPER SPY' and continue on my way. I do so repeatedly as I go from place to place.

I got near the end of the island and was almost out of sight of the prison when I heard it. The whispering of orders coming not far behind me. I check over my shoulder, and hidden in the background were lingering figures in police uniforms doing a horrible job of blending in. They really need to take some tips from the ghost chameleons. I book it across the rest of the island, not even attempting to hide anymore. I'm about three-quarters of the way across when I hear one of the goons telling the others that I'm getting away. I end up uncontrollably laughing as I make my way to the other side as I recite in a singsong voice, " I'm an interdimensional super spy. SUPER SPY!" Unfortunately for them, they don't even get the chance to catch up. By the time they end up by the edge, I am already out in the open and outside of their lairs' area of control. All they can do is float there and watch as I fly away.

#danny phantom #jazz fenton #skulker #ember mclain #sidney poindexter #animal ghost #ghost core #specta #ectoplasm #portal #fanfiction #fanfic

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blackevermore · 3 years

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x Secrets of The Lake: The Company of Misery and Pain

{ Chapter 9 }

Summary: Vladimir Masters’ family tree has always been tainted by secrets swept under the rug. From generation to generation there have been countless reasons the Masters’ family had seemed to keep private from the public. Even to this day, Vladimir was no exception. But what was one to do when a restless spirit from the settlement years finally breaks free from restraints and demands you answer for your ancestor’s crimes? Vladimir doesn’t know. However, Clockworks does.

Notes: We just having fun, rewriting some of the canon, new adventure new characters. I will apologize now for any grammar, spelling, weird sentence structuring in advance. My brain writes faster than my fingers and even when I go back through to reread it I still miss things. Sorry about that!

Word Count: 3725

P.s: I think it's best if I tell you now the flashbacks are out of order I should have said that earlier but never late than never for a long story owob

Vlad laid across the faint couch trying to recall all that had happened, the more he put everything in order the more he felt his brain about to melt. Danny took it upon himself to watch over Tayonna who was now being held captive in the guest room that had now been converted to a giant ghost trap. Vlad would have thrown her in the basement had it not been a complete mess. Honestly, he would have done a lot more had it not been for Danny playing hero, or Dani needing to be comforted.

This day had gone to complete shit and Vlad knew as soon as he stepped back into his workspace there would be questions. And for every question would be a white lie that covered up the whole water pipe story. Grumbling a butter biscuit or a fudge muffin, Vlad rolled his head to the side and stared mindlessly into the fireplace in front of him. He could still taste the plasma in the back of his throat even though the endless teeth brushing and mouthwash. He even tried to drown it down with a drink but all that did was make it worse. That also upset his stomach even more and he made way towards the nearest bathroom to another unpleasant round.

The mist had scared him. Vlad had never seen anything like it on Earth nor in the Ghost Zone. The way it slid off his body like heavy smoke felt unbelievably weird and made Vlad shiver. It felt almost like an essence of himself was pulling from his body and forming into a very upset vision. Vlad tried his best not to walk past mirrors when he wasn’t in a good mood. Anger was a face he had grown used to but sadness and misery were faint expressions he buried deep inside. The few times he couldn’t help but look he could only focus on how dark his blue eyes got and the way his face grew longer than it was. It was haunting to see or feel complete utter sadness, and that’s exactly what the mist looked like. ‘Like the day you got their wedding invitation’.

“She’s awake!” Dani shot through the door flying above Vlad, she still looked as if she would rather be somewhere else but the hero inside her pushed her to keep helping. Vlad secretly praised her as he slowly sat up and clenched his chest again. The shocks were long gone but he could still feel a sudden zap here and there, along with the sudden tighten and release around his human heart. He strongly hoped he would never have to do that again. It was already an awkward feeling shoving his own hand through his chest. Dani flew down to take his arm to help him up but Vlad held up a hand to stop her as he made it to his feet. He took a deep breath and took a small step, the shock made his energy a bit slow to regenerate, when he found a steady pace he followed Dani out the room and towards the bedroom hallways.

Vlad could call himself paranoid the way he boobytrapped his homes. He himself was a ghost but yet every door was equipped with anti-ghost bars that were turned on by command that could cut off any exit. The statues that decorated the walkways all had blasters installed in either the eyes or the base. Once he and Danny found their common ground he made sure to update the system so Danny wouldn’t be a target anymore.

But Vlad did enjoy that first week of Danny showing up and having to dance like a monkey when the signals were tripped. When he made it to the bedroom/cell he gave the system command to dismiss the bars and walked inside. Danny sat on the floor closer to the door watching Tayonna who now sat up in the corner of the bed against the wall. Her head hung low and she tried to curl into herself. However, when Vlad walked into the room her head shot up and she stared at him with pure hatred. Dani stayed outside and a few feet away from the door. She didn’t want to be anywhere near Tayonna.

Vlad only rolled his eyes and huffed before crossing his arms behind his back and clearing his throat to Danny.

“Any progress?” Vlad asked, never breaking eye contact with Tayonna. If she wished to insert her dominance in his home, he would have to show her who was really in charge.

“I wish, she just woke up and backed into the corner. But she is messing with my head a bit. I almost had a breakdown about a cookie I didn’t eat and threw away.” Danny got to his feet and stretched, hearing all of his bones crack at once. With a sudden heavy sigh, he turned to Vlad and tapped his foot. The older halfa eyed him confused and mouthed a ‘what is it?’. Danny’s face twisted to an annoyed eye roll before he caught himself and backed away a bit.

“Whoa, yeah, see she’s doing it again, I almost punched the hell out of you for breathing the wrong way.” Danny held his head and turned back towards Tayonna. The ghost was still shooting daggers at Vlad and even breathing heavily as if she was about to attack him. “Well if she can’t get to you she sure was gonna use me. Dude, you gotta fix whatever this is.”

“I’m well aware of that, Daniel, It’s not as if I asked to be in this situation in the first place.” Vlad hissed. The constant reminder that he had to fix this was starting to run him up a wall. Vlad took a moment to straighten himself out and breathe before he walked closer to Tayonna. The girl didn’t flinch or move from her spot as Vlad now stood at the edge of the large bed. He kept his hands behind his back to keep it cool and unbothered. Vlad knew he had authoritative energy that could make anyone cowardly at his feet. Tayonna would surely give in eventually and tuck her tail between her legs.

“Now, Miss Tayonna, won't you tell us all why you felt it was utterly necessary to invite yourself into my home and cause so much trouble?” Vlad tried to not sound pissed off, but every word that left his lips he threw like acid. Tayonna’s eyes grew wide then narrowed like a snake as she stayed quiet and continued their staring contest. “Or more importantly, how did you change from your ghost form to a human form.” Vlad pointed out, which seemed to catch Tayonna’s attention before she looked back towards him then away. Vlad huffed angrily and brought his arms forward to cross them.

“You think she’s one of us?” Danny called out. “I mean it would be very rare if she was. What were your ancestors getting up to?” Danny pushed off the wall he was leaning against and came up beside Vlad, he stayed somewhat behind the man hesitantly.

“I don’t believe halfas would exist during her time, she is very much a ghost that has the ability to mimic powers it seems. I figured she must have attached herself to my core and in turn, she mimics my energy. The reason why she could control my electric power so easily.” Vlad hummed, a mimicking ghost was a rather dangerous type especially if they had to latch on to you. For a moment Vlad felt his annoyance and frustration slip away as the science side of him became interested in what more Tayonna could do. With the cuffs still on her along with the anti-ghost rope she was pretty much defenseless to any poking and probing Vlad wanted to do. Those little activities would have to wait, a certain Phantom wouldn’t be too happy to know Vlad was back on his bullshit. Nor would the older halfa wish to explain to the youngest who would definitely tell the other.

“So if she’s not going to talk to either of us, what do we do?” Danny finally asked the big question Vlad had been avoiding. He had thought of just throwing her back into the Ghost Zone and making sure that secret space she came from she couldn’t get out of. Maybe even have Skulker keep an eye on her every so often to make sure she wouldn’t start screaming again or getting out. Or maybe Vlad could keep her here but somehow figure out a way to get rid of her himself. Clockwork did tell him to handle the situation. Vlad was knocked from his thoughts by the sound of paper hitting the ground. Both Danny and Vlad heard it and looked down towards their feet. A small sheet of paper laid at Vlad’s and he reached down to pick it up. He should have known who it was from before he flipped it over.

“Pieces in a puzzle with only two corners will always be bound together” - CW

“What does that mean?” Danny hovered over Vlad's shoulder causing the man to jump away from the sudden scare. Danny cracked a smile at how easy it was to make the man jump then pointed back towards the note.

Vlad rolled the card in his fingers a bit and sighed, “Clockwork sure likes his sayings. You know that more than I, I’m just as confused.” Vlad lazily handed Danny the card and told him to keep it. Vlad was once again looking towards Tayonna to make sure she hadn’t tried anything. She still huddled up in the corner but now she looked so sad, blinking slowly and staring down as if it was a void. Vlad felt his heart slow and grow heavy as he watched her.

There it was again, that feeling of wanting to reach out and hold her, and there it went as Vlad mentally screamed at himself to get it together. She was just using her emotional powers somehow despite having the handcuffs still on. Yet Vlad couldn’t pull himself away from her and whatever she was doing. Then Vlad saw it from the corner of his eye, the mist started to rise off his skin and droop to the floor before inching closer to the bed. Danny saw it too but didn’t say anything, all he could do was watch alongside Vlad as the mist formed an outstretched hand and reached out to Tayonna. When the hand touched her she pulled away and tried to fight it off.

“Leave me alone, you’ve already done enough, stop touching me.” Tayonna had finally spoken and she sounded so broken. Vlad felt a sting in his heart and unknowingly he wished for the hand to go away. The hand tried to touch her again but before it could it faded away with the rest of the mist.

“Um…?” Danny started and Vlad finally pulled himself away from looking at the ghost and turned away towards the door.

“I don’t know,” Vlad couldn’t even fake a sense of understanding as he felt his heartache and his mind become foggy with a sudden sadness. He quickly covered his face when he felt tears peak in the corners of his ears. He quickly wiped them away before Danny could ask what was going on and he straightened himself up. “I think it’s best if I keep her here for the night. It’s late and the both of you have school tomorrow.” Vlad looked at Danny then at the door as he saw Dani slowly poking her head in. He hoped she didn’t see the way he wiped his face, that would be embarrassing. “Daniel, why won't you stay the night and in the morning I’ll have Jackson come and drive both of you to school.” Danny looked back towards Tayonna and felt a sudden rush of sadness. He shivered and threw up his hands to protest.

“Thanks but I would rather not be around someone who's gonna make me have a mental breakdown at 2 am. I can do that in my own time with my special playlist. I’ll just fly home.” Danny turned ghost and started to hover off the ground. Vlad nodded and was ready to dismiss the boy till he remembered Dani at the door.

“You wouldn’t mind hosting Danielle until this is all over would you? I rather she is safe as well.” Vlad asked, feeling the father in him swell with the need to protect.

Danny turned around and cocked ahead to the side to see Dani but she ducked behind the frame, “You wanna go back home with me, short stack?”

“Don’t call me that!” Dani stuck her head through the wall and stuck her tongue out. She then took a moment to look around and take a glance at Tayonna before pulling her head back out. “Yeah, that would be nice.” Dani’s voice was low with anxiousness. Vlad let out a heavy sigh and nodded for Danny to go help Dani and hurry home. It would be best if he was alone with this problem. That was enough people in one night to be in danger.

When the kids were gone Vlad gently waved them away before closing the door and floating back up to the room Tayonna was in. He stood outside the anti-ghost bars peering in as Tayonna now laid on the bed. ‘What exactly is it that you want, Miss Tayonna?’ he thought to himself as he backed away from the door and haunted away towards his own bedroom.

Vladan knew better than to snoop around the house like some paranoid townsmen. There was enough of that when his family travelled into the town square since they were German. It seemed like the English still had a stick up their ass when it came to others joining them. Everyone was an outsider in one way or another but yet found a way to put each other in a ranking system for security. Vladan grunted at his wandering thoughts as he walked around the cottage. Settling in a few days ago was easy but it was still beyond him why they had to be so far away. Could his father not settle closer to the others for a quicker journey? Vladan knew better than to question his father’s mind, Vladan had learned early every man has a secret that only gets revealed with due time. Luckily for him, Luther had no secrets Vladan hadn’t already heard, and vice versa.

Vladan wasn’t really a nature person as he was a man who sat by the fire and read. But something pulled him from his bed that morning and told him to go out and look around. His parents were gone and took the house servants and Luther was still sick in bed so Vladan took his chance. As he rounded the back of the house he heard someone praying. Praying? On a Tuesday? Vladan would have laughed, he wasn’t much of a religious man like everyone else, but the sheer thought of someone praying by his house nerved him. He slowed his pace and peeked around the edge of the wood and saw Tayonna. She kneeled to the ground in a patch of grass surrounded by cups and bowls. Vladan narrowed his eyes confused as to why she would be outside and what she was doing. He couldn’t help but watch her as she bowed a few times and mumbled incoherent words. This must have been a thing her people did before being brought over, that was the only thing he could think of. But as he watched her it seemed like things only got weirder.

Tayonna stopped praying and frantically looked around herself for something. She then snapped her fingers and a basket that was placed behind her snapped open and a jar hovered out and to her hands. She then swirled her finger in the air and drops from the freshly rained grass rose to the air and formed balls. She waved for the biggest ball to fall into the bowl and she began to pour other things from the cups into the bowl. When she was finished mixing everything she placed the bowl in front of her and bowed face down into the grass. He could hear her mumbling again and then the bowl began to glow. Vladan felt his body shake in fear but also pure curiosity. He knew what he was seeing, the men at his university spoke of them like fairy tales, he even spoke of them like fairy tales. Tayonna was a witch. He hadn’t noticed he had walked out from his hiding place and walked closer to the girl until he heard her scream. Tayonna fell to her butt and tried to put space between them. She begged him not to hurt her and that’s when Vladan snapped fully out of his trance.

“I’m not going to hurt you, woman!” Vladan growled, holding out his hands to calm her so she didn’t wake Luther. Tayonna finally made it to her feet and gathered her dress, she looked between Vladan and the forest that stretched on behind them. Vladan looked then shook his head. “Don’t you dare!” He lunged and quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her against his body to hold her down. Tayonna was about to let out a scream which wouldn’t do any of them any good so he quickly covered her mouth. They stood there struggling with each other until Vladan brought them both to their knees.

“I’m not going to hurt you unless you give me a reason to. I will remove my hand and you will answer every question I have. Do you understand?” Vladan couldn’t explain why he was giving this servant a chance to explain herself. But he felt he needed to. Tayonna was still shaking but she calmed down just enough to shake her head slowly. Vladan removed his hand from her mouth and spun her around to face him, he never removed his hands from her arms just in case. “You are a witch and there is no denying it. Are you cursing my family, if you are I will have you dealt with.”

“I am not cursing your family, master Vladan, I was blessing the house.” Tayonna kept her head low and chose not to fight to get her arms away from him. She didn’t want to be hit or attacked.

“Blessing?” Vladan was taken back and it showed on his face.

“Everyone has been so kind to me and I do not wish to be sold again. I wish to stay until I die and can fly back home. Please do not sell me...I won't do it again...please do not sell me.” Tayonna began to cry and Vladan pulled away from her allowing her to fall to the ground. Witches are all bad, right? All the fairy tales he was told as a child and all the legends of witches only pointed to them being evil beings that caused only trouble.

“Witches are only bad things. Witches do not pray.” Vladan said abruptly and pointed at the girl. “You are trying to deceive me with lies. Are you the reason my brother has been sick the whole time? Do not lie to me!” Vladan hadn’t meant to raise his voice but it came out so fast.

“No! I have only done things to make him better. He was sicker before I arrived and he slowly gets better the more I help.” Tayonna was telling the truth, their mother had only good things to say when it came to Luther’s health recently. Luther had even offered to go to town for their father because he ‘felt up to it’. Vladan was still skeptical but he didn’t truly sense evil coming from the girl. And since he had seen how comfortable she made his brother feel he didn’t believe she would want to kill them so quickly.

“You’ve been helping him? How?” Vladan asked, kneeling slowly to face her. Tayonna raised her head and backed away before answering him.

“His baths, I put the herbs in his bath to calm his senses and ease the pain. It’s not much but it’s enough to help him through the day.”

“Will my brother become healthy again and be able to travel back home?” Vladan had to know, he had to know if his brother will grow old as he and live a fulfilled life. That was his best friend. “Please tell me.” Vladan reached out and took hold of Tayonna’s shoulders and shook her a bit and the girl stiffened before quickly shaking her head ‘no’.

“Your brother was not meant to live this life with you. He was only supposed to be here for a while until he left. I’ve tried to convince the earth to let him stay but it seems that even he is ready.” Tayonna lowered her head again and Vladan finally let go of her and rose to his feet. A heavy silence fell over them as Vladan tried to debunk her words. Surely his brother would live long, they had promised so long ago, but the feeling Vladan got from Tayonna that she only told him the truth. “He was so happy to have you here with him, Master Vladan. He speaks so highly of you, the best brother he could ever have, a best friend.” Tayonna slowly got up wiping her face with her hand and kept space between them, there was no telling how Vladan felt towards her after this. Vladan looked up towards the small window that led to Luther’s room then back down to the ground. He clenched his fist a couple of times trying to fight back tears and sighed.

“Do my parents know you are a witch?” Vladan asked, and Tayonna quickly shook her head ‘no’.

“Does he know you are a witch?” Vladan finally asked.

Tayonna looked up at him with her bright green eyes now tinted red from crying then towards the window, “He was the one that insisted on buying me.”

#📖Ghost Stories👻#vlad masters #Danny Phantom #dp fanfic #my writing #self ship community

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phantomphangphucker · 4 years

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Ectober Day 12: Betray - Sinners Are We Chap.4: The Golden Princess

Little Dove takes her first steps in walking beside mortals and a lot of people plot, particularly Orrin.

Leaving the Keep had been hardly difficult to do for Orrin, Dove hadn’t seemed to even understand what was going on. She also didn’t seem to mind the quaint brick house in one of the more deserted areas. Really it just seemed she wanted her plushie. Children. Though he certainly wasn’t like this in the slightest.

Setting up a proper food supply and figuring out how to get Dove some form of a social circle were the next tasks on the list. The first was pathetically easy, but he supposes it should be. If it was too difficult for the living to get food they died. As for the second, his only experience with socialising like a mortal was talking to passerby’s, speaking in lines, and the occasional concert. Those were not really well suited for a child. He does remember mother and father complaining about ‘school’ but sending her off to some building with other children on her own was actively asking to get found out. Very actively. That was precisely the risky move he’d expect out of brother, which of course means it would not be expected out of him. Which means that if this whole idea of his got sniffed out by mother and father then they would laugh at him doing something so far out of his expected behaviours. Which could save him from a more genuine shit-kicking. He rather didn’t feel like being holed up in bed for a week with all his bones broken and skinned. Besides, he could do that ‘volunteering’ thing to keep an eye on her.

Dove has very little clue what’s going on but the walls texture feels really cool and the eating stuff bro brings is weird and smelly, but shiny red and very round. Shiny is nice and It fits nicely in her hands, though it’s so squishy. She can tell it would take so little to smush it up.

Her hands also look weird, not like they usually did when they weren’t glowy. Bro looks weird too, so it must be alright. Oh, and her nails were pink, which is exactly why she licks them a little. Maybe they would taste different too. They don’t. But that’s okay.

Looking to bro and moving over when he makes that hand motion that means he wants her. Curious and hopeful. Maybe they were doing something fun again. She wouldn’t mind that. “Now listen close Dove, we’re around mortals. Yes the living kind. So it is rather imperative that you refrain from using your abilities. Understand?”. She tilts her head and hums, not sure what some of those words mean. But it sounds important and she wouldn’t want to make bro sad. So she nods a little.

Bro frowns slightly, Dove doesn’t really notice. “You didn’t understand what I just said, did you”, and sighs when she shakes her head a little. “No floating or anything. The living can’t do that and we’re pretending to be on of them”. Oh, they were playing pretend? That could be nice. So she nods softly. “You’ll even get to meet other girls your age”. Now that makes her curious. Maybe they were pretty and liked fluffy things. She liked fluffy things. And small things. And big things. And sharp things. She liked a lot of things. Littler bro liked dark things and smooth things. Bigger bro liked loud things that made messes. Pa liked funny things and surprising things. Ma liked metal that made things fly really fast.

So she nods again and happily walks after bro as they leave the small house place.

Orrin finds the volunteering to be rather lacklustre, but it serves his purpose. Watching Dove run around and play with the plastic animal things. At least children didn’t give a damn that she never spoke, even if one of the other ‘volunteers’ was certainly giving him an odd look over that. “She’s not much of a talker”, was all the explanation he had given, as if he even needed to explain in the first place. All in all, this ‘school’ thing seemed like it might just work out.

In fact, it might work out better than he could have foreseen. One of the other children’s mothers was part of one of those underground resistances. He personally liked to keep tabs on such things. If his parents ever got genuinely mad at him then he could simply nonchalantly expose one of the resistances to get back into their ‘good books’ again. But here and now he had a much better use for them. A much more interesting one to say the least. After all, he’s already encountered a few of its members and had a few choice conversations with them. He was likely already on their list as a ‘potential ally’ or even ‘potential member’. Resistances were always so eager to snag up new members. He can appreciate the tenacity. Even if most of them will likely die painful deaths sooner rather than later.

Dove likes the small lady, Remi, who likes birds the best, and she liked Dove’s name. Or the name bro said was her name, Robin. It wasn’t hers but it was a nice name and much easier than her bro’s. Bro also seems to like Remi, with how he was looking at her with a small grin and wrinkled eyes. That does make her a little cautious though, people usually got hurt when bro looked at them like that. Or he was just planning to scare them a little. Scaring was funny, but the other she doesn’t really like. The reds and greens were pretty and sweet; but the person was always gone after that. That’s the part she didn’t like. People were pretty and they couldn’t be pretty if they were gone. She hopes Ori doesn’t make Remi go.

So when the adult lady says it’s time to go, Dove goes over and pushes his face to stop smiling and turns his head to look away. That just makes him smile in the wide mean way, which she huffs and puffs her cheeks out over. Least he wasn’t looking at Remi that way. But it looks like he might know Remi’s ma, so maybe that’s why he was smiling. How sweet.

She pays more attention to making sure Remi’s hair scrunchie things are on the most perfectly than the two talking.

“I didn’t know you had a daughter, Lark”.

“What can I say, I’m a surprising guy”.

“What’s her name? Remi seems to like her. She seems... really gentle”, laughing a little, “Remi’s not so gentle”.

“Robin. And she’s always been like that, has quite the delicate touch I dare say”.

The lady laughs a little again, “does everyone in your family have bird-related names”.

“I have a sister named Raven. So you could say it’s a running theme”.

“Why am I not surprised. Anyway-”. The conversation got real quiet after that, not that Dove couldn’t easily hear. Even pa pointed out how much better halfa and ghost hearing was than mortal. And all these people were for sure mortal, smelled it. Which was cool and they were so soft and squishy. She thinks she likes these ones even more than the ones at home. “-interested in a play date of sorts”. Dove likes that idea, she likes playing, but the hair thingies still need her attention; sticking her tongue out a little.

“Oh? And where would be the location we would be gracing”. Glancing at bro shows he’s doing that smiling again. She doesn’t know what’s going on but whatever it is bro likes it. And she likes that he likes things, so long as those things don’t have to go goodbye. That makes her kind of... sad.

“No where special”. Even Dove knows that tone means it is somewhere special. Sweet, she likes special things. She knows bro does too, because special things are usually secret things and he loves finding secret things and having secret things. Just like them being here was supposed to be a secret thing. No ma and pa allowed.

“Well I certainly couldn’t turn down an offer like that, now could I”. Dove hums happily as she gets the hair things just right. Wiggling her fingers over them like she sprinkling sparkles, before pushing her gently over to her ma. Because look how pretty she is? She is very pretty.

The lady looks from bro to them, “my, Remi I don’t think I’ve seen your hair ever look so perfect”, and smiles. Dove and Remi smiling right back. Bro is just giving her that weird look that he sometimes does. The one that makes her think that he thinks that she’s weird. Like when she keeps her dollies from getting hurt or puts sprinkles on her food. Bro just doesn’t get it she thinks. Food tastes better when it’s pretty and her dollies might get sad if she didn’t save them.

“Yes it’s very... well done”. The lady looks at him like he’s the weird one so he shrugs, “I’m not the most versed in little girl things”.

The lady points at him, “that’s it, you’re definitely coming for a play date one way or another”.

Bro just raises an eyebrow, “I have already agreed you know”. Which the lady chuckles over. Pa would like her, she laughs a lot.

The lady looks to Remi, “would you like that sweetie? Having Robin here come over to play?”. Remi quickly nods and wraps her arms around Dove. Which Dove decides she really really likes. “Uh-huh uh-huh! Can she please!”. Dove’s never heard that word before. “Then I can put pretty things in her hair!”. Dove likes that idea very much and nods softly to show it.

The lady looks to bro, whispering, “look, their hugging. Or Remi’s hugging anyway”, before nodding at Remi, “of course sweetie”. Which Remi cheers over and squeezes her tighter.

Hugging. That’s what this is called? She likes it very much. She tries doing it back, no squeezing though; she wouldn’t want to break her. And grins, she likes hugging a lot.

Orrin hadn’t intended for this to make her even more gentle and soft, that or she was incredibly aware how breakable the living were. Why you could pick them up and they’d just snap in half. She really seems to enjoy the hugging thing though. Having hugged him repeatedly since. That was making Rio suspicious though, her glancing to him after they walk through a door in a tree and let the two girls run off, or in Dove’s cautiously prance would be a better word choice. “She seems to really like hugs. Excuse my rudeness but it didn’t seem like she knew what a hug was until just now”.

Orrin has two options presented before him right now. He could choose some level of honesty and claim that her father wasn’t exactly good and he only recently got her. Or he could just brush it off as her being unusual. But there rises the issue of the living being perceptive to that which is unlike them. While if he uses the first one then he will seem like a ‘sympathetic character’ which may prove more useful in the long run. Actions decided he sighs to make this seem more genuine, “family isn’t the kindest, let’s put it that way. She’s only with me here recently. Today actually”.

Rio’s eyebrows raise and he gets that sad smile he was aiming for, “oh I see”, then she actually looks a bit mad, “wait. So you didn’t even hug her when she showed up?”, and promptly slaps him. Which he seriously has to restrain from ripping her eyes out for.

And he does effectively keep the snarl out of his voice, the venom? not so much, “I’m not a hugger”.

“She’s a child”.

Orrin has never really appreciated Dove’s nativity before now as she runs over and basically halts the conversation. Her having a great many bow clips in her blonde -thanks to his glamour- hair. Is this really what regular little girls liked? Apparently yes, based on her bouncing on her toes faintly. At least she wasn’t trying to float.

Rio still throws him a glare as they take the girls to the ‘play den’ area. Meaning it was time to get down to business.

A few weeks go by, and it was becoming incredibly easy to tell who in this city knew about this particular resistance movement. Because suddenly he was some to be respected, which he can’t say he didn’t enjoy. To be treated like an important figure without that lingering fear in their eyes was certainly a new experience for Orrin. Does he prefer it? Not particularly. But he was a Gray-Phantom after all. Him not preferring fear and destruction would be strange. It was still interesting all the same. And it’s not like the group's plan and leadership was all that bad, it seemed better than most at least. Of course they had precisely zero hope of actually doing away with his family, but hey, the genuine effort was amusing. They weren’t even intending to bank everything on just one plan or one plan and a back up either. Oh no, they had a handful they wanted to enacted simultaneously. Which wasn’t actually a horrid plan. Mother could be quite narrow-minded and father easily distracted; and his brother of course was a fool. One of their plans even involved trying to blow up the Ghost Realm, and the bomb designs, that he invisibly sneaked a peek at, would actually be somewhat effective. Impressive actually. Russet would get a real kick out of it. But the group was banking a little too much on his father actually highly valuing his role as High Ghost King. Thinking he would defend the Ghost Realm just like that. His parents didn’t get their positions because they genuinely wanted them. No. They took them purely because they could. It also making them, especially father, stronger was a nice added bonus.

The rest of their plans were far less extreme and ranged from everything from: kidnapping the princess, which he had to resists murdering the lot of them for seriously suggesting, to reconstructing an ancient method of ghost mind control, not realising that that wouldn’t actually work on the high royal family. There had also been talks about turning the mortal knights that served his family, even claimed they already had turned one. But one look at him and it was obvious that was a load of crap and the guy was absolutely going to betray them. Which didn’t work so well for Orrin’s plans, which meant the knight had been promptly fed to a pack of wild bores. Then there was the plot to mind control the entire species of Drugandons and use them as an army to lay siege to the Keep. The sheer amount of chaos that would cause had him practically salivating. Oh yes, these mortals were fun.

Of course none of their plots would actually work on their own or even together. But it did have the highest possibility of any resistance group he’s encountered. And if they did go ahead like this, then plenty of ghosts would jump on board in a heartbeat. Which meant the chances of Russet getting himself destroyed would be incredibly high. And if Orrin himself were to back them, then it would be almost possible that his parents could genuinely maybe be taken out. Which would, of course, leave the throne to him.

Now he’s not particularly the power-hungry type. He doesn’t really give a damn about being High King. But it could be quite interesting. And if this group tried all this, managed to kill his elder brother, then his parents would rain-down absolute Hell. It would be nothing compared to the massacres of previous years or even their debut as monsters. It would be a sight to behold. Glorious even.

Orrin thinks he would rather like to see that. But he also knows exactly how that would go, which did take some of the fun out of it. Meanwhile, Dove becoming a figurehead for resistance was unprecedented. He could hardly predict the ways that could turn out. And Dove certainly enjoyed Remi’s company. Which was a bonus.

Another bonus was picking up on brother dearests ghostly aura a day back and successfully keeping both himself and Dove out of Russet’s awareness. Tricking that man was always a true pleasure. Regardless of how easy it generally was to do.

One thing he hadn’t accounted for though, was human stupidity.

But really? He shouldn’t have been surprised that things went to shit pretty rapidly. Gray-Phantom’s had horrid luck after all.

#ectober #ectober2020 #ectober 2020 #danny phantom #phandom #dan phantom #valerie gray #dark gray #dan/Valerie #oc's #references to murder #plotting agianst parents #Villain! Valerie #fan fic #phan phic #my writing #have a fic suck my dick #phantomphangphucker

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etherealseesaw · 4 years

Text

Dannymay 2020 -- Day 1: EYE

Title: Don’t keep a eye out.

Words: 2,991

Rating: T

AO3: LINK Tags: Hurt/Comfort , Not too detailed descriptions of pain, Fluff. Summary: With a white flash as if someone took a photograph, Danny changed his forms to the more human one. Nothing out of the ordinary, he did this almost every day. Going from human to ghost and from ghost to human. And sure, he's practically sure that at least some part of him died in the incident... but mentally accepting that was still something he wasn't prepared for. For now, "going ghost" could suffice. Fuck- so why is it that my eyes hurt so damn much!? Or Danny experiences eye pain. -Keep reading for the whole fanfic-

After one whole week of only sleeping 2 hours per day and maybe some minutes in class, to say that he was beyond tired is an understatement. Was there a conspiracy against him going around the Ghost Zone? That must be the cause, because from Saturday to Thursday almost all his time was spent on fighting some noisy ghost who can't take a hint and leave him alone. Really, it wasn't asking much!

It was unrealistic just how many ghosts were coming through the portal. Right... it wasn't as if anything in his life made any sense from the start. Maybe he could ask Tucker to see if the portal has an actual glitch or something. And yes, Tucker may not be any real engineer, but he was flawless when it came to tinkering with tech.

Anyways, it was a fresh new day and he was up before his alarm rang... which isn't necessarily a great thing since he didn't even get to enter bed yet. Yep, another great day ahead. Hurrah!

Danny could already tell how stressed he'd be by the end of this, it must have become some sort of routine at this point. Not really healthy, but what was health anyways. Ha.. Fortunately, all his NASA and Promotional Space Expedition posters, the glow in the dark stars and space themed stickers all around, helped him calm down enough to not have a mental breakdown on his bedroom floor.

With a white flash as if someone took a photograph, Danny changed his forms to the more human one. Nothing out of the ordinary, he did this almost every day. Going from human to ghost and from ghost to human. And sure, he's practically sure that at least some part of him died in the incident... but mentally accepting that was still something he wasn't prepared for. For now, "going ghost" could suffice.

Fuck- so why is it that my eyes hurt so damn much!?

As soon as his transformation ended, his eyes started to tingle with a hot pain that made having them open a struggle. Unconsciously, his hands made their way to his face and grabbed at the sides, his fingers dipped into the eyelids of the now semi closed eyes. Danny groaned loudly and practically threw himself at his bed, one leg touched the floor while the other bent with the pressure of his body, almost kneeling. His upper body reached the middle ground of the bed and he harshly pushed himself onto it. His head was the only thing not pressed against the bed as he used his elbows to propel himself up. Oh it hurt, it really really hurt.

He couldn't see straight with all the tears that managed to form. Everything was swimming and had a strange ectoplasmic-green glow that was almost unnoticeable. With a little more force than needed, he rubbed his eyes with closed fists. Doing painful and quick strokes as he started to shake and tremble more and more. His mind was buzzing with panic, his ears where ringing and his heart thumped loudly against his chest. He heard a sound, was that the alarm ringing? He couldn't tell, couldn't think. Just kept on rubbing.

How does one go from perfectly normal to -this- in a matter of seconds? What he was doing wasn't very smart, but can you blame him? As much as he'd like to be rational right now, it had taken him by surprise. He hadn't been ready for this.

Ok, stop, stop, stop. Danny commanded himself and abruptly threw his arms to each side on the bed.

His breath came out in short puffs and the skin near his eyes stung from the pure force he'd used on it. Gosh, can't he have any peace? First, the number of ghosts pestering him just keeps on growing. Second, he doesn't have time to spend with his friends and family. Third, his grades are a mess and everyone can see. And now what, this? There most be some logical way, what had he done other than fighting Technus moments prior?

His mental thoughts came to a stop as he noticed the sharp pain he'd felt wasn't there anymore. Sighing in victory, he loosened the pressure on his arms and gently rested his face against the mattress. What the fuck.

Is this some new power forming? He remembered almost freezing himself with his ice when it first appeared and when his intangibility acted up and he almost spilled his organs, literally, but it wasn't the same.. didn't feel the same. Sighing once more, Danny rolled to his back and cradled his arms on his chest.

Well, he definitely wasn't doing a good job Resting In Peace.

After the freak out, Danny shrugged off, for now, any deeper meaning behind the sudden pain he'd felt. It definitely wasn't something good, but he was ok now.

He sat up and fished the fresh clothes he was planning on dressing. It was the usual white with red details and oval in the center T-shirt, dark blue jeans and red vans but washed. The alarm had long ago stopped it's infernal high pitched beeping and was now only showing the current time.

Current time... Wait- It's already 8:20? Oh, he was going to be late. Not that he kept perfect record, not after all those times he had to sneak off to fight some random ghost intruder, or didn't even make it into the classroom. But it never felt good to actively go against his morals, especially if it was in his power to attend classes. As boring as they may be. He really wanted to take a bath, guess it needed to wait. Gross, but school was important.

The clothes were dressed in the time record, mostly because he used his powers to slip out of the old ones in an instant. But no time to dwell. With the school bag in hand, his feet almost flew with the speed he'd taken to dash across the house to the front door. A quick glance around made him realise that his parents were probably in the basement and that Jazz had already left. Can't blame her.

Another thing he was grateful for being that people in the morning were always most distracted, be it because they are going to work or because they are coming from work. He used that opportunity to slip into an alley and switch personas. The same white energy ring formed around him as his hair whitened and skin darkened. The comforting sensation of the hazmat suit pressing on his skin as he'd naturally taken to float a few inches from the ground. Again, no time to dwell. He got to be quick!

His feet shifted into his ghostly tail as he turned on invisibility and intangibility and flew straight through the brick wall. Truth be told, Danny was half expecting a ghost to show up mid way to school, but he guessed he was in luck since he arrived safe and sound.

Oh Ancients, Mr.Lancer was surely going to kill him someday. More than he already was. In his opinion Lancer was one of the best teachers, he tried his best that's for sure. Sometimes may come out as too strict or maybe uncaring, but Danny had grown fond of the behaviour and frankly missed having classes with him.

Thinking just about how many times he'd let Mr. Lancer down made him sad. He already disappointed his parents with the fact that he was what they most hated, disappointed Jazz for not trying enough to have good grades and disappointed his friends for always needing to leave them alone.

He carefully slipped into a janitorial closet, it was a small space with no light and a lot of tools to keep the school clean. There was only one door and it had a small opaque window in the middle. There was no fear of getting caught, as the corridors were bare of anyone so with that in mind, he quickly changed forms once more.

The anxiety was making him feel weak, as if his bones decided to become play-doh all of a sudden. Danny didn't need to look at the time to know classes had started a long time ago. And, of course, he was more than late.

As he left the closet, a small hiss escaped his lips as a product of his frustrations. A habit he'd attracted along the years of ghost hunting, of being a ghost, of dying.

Nausea hit him at full force as the bright light of the corridor fully seeped into his vision. The halfa wasn't happy when the same familiar pain crept behind his eyes and, as if someone blew air against his eyeballs or slightly scratched them, he impulsively closed his eyes in an aggressive matter.

Clenching his teeth and angrily grabbing his T-shirt, he slowly walked without a real direction to what he assumed was his classroom door. The vertigo didn't help his walking as he slightly stumbled and almost tripped.

He was determined to have at least one class today, and this wasn't going to stop him. It simply wasn't. Not today, not the day the ghosts decided merely not to show up.

He didn't feel his upper face, or better explaining, it was as if a cold liquid had drenched the insides of his eyes. His eyelids were on a state of coldness and hotness and the skin around furiously itched. The need scratch it was aggravating, but he maintained his control. The imaginary liquid pooled behind his eyes and dripped from his nose, to his cheeks and finally to his lips. He shivered mildly as his face continued to dance around the sensations of cold and hot at the same time, making him feel as if something had paralysed it. When he opened and closed his mouth, it didn't feel real, but as he did the same with his hands, something more alarming made his way into his mind. He also didn't feel it.

He immediately stopped in his tracks. Where was he even going? He didn't know where his class was. Did he even want to go inside.. like this?

It doesn't matter, he needed Sam and Tucker. He knew they were inside, they all shared this period. Danny just needed to breath, open his eyes slowly and act normal. Yes, that's all.

...

Doing just that, he slightly crouched down and stroked his temple with his shaky hands. What a coward he was. He experienced things worse, so why was he like this?

Taking longs breaths and concentrating on the feeling of touching, hearing, smelling something, anything. Time passed rather slow for him as his eyes strained, almost as if touched with acid. But with effort came the reward, as slowly but certainly he lazily opened his sky-blue eyes. They were unfocused and clouded. He could see where he was, could see his class not so far away. That's a relief.

Pushing aside the weird feeling still all over his face and the burning sensation still in his eyesight, he rushed to the door without paying attention to lingering nausea.

The door opened strenuously and he hurried himself inside. His vision swam less that it was seconds ago, but from the looks Mr. Lancer and other kids were giving him, something must still be off.

"Well, look who decided to show up. Tardiness is not accepted, Fenton." Concluded the teacher, Mr. Lancer, not looking the slightest happiest.

"Sorry, something came up." Danny replied halfheartedly, still feeling weak in the knees. Sam eyed him up from across the room, Tucker doing basically the same, but pausing to copy whatever was on the board.

"Go ahead then, sit down." Lancer gestured to Danny's usual and empty seat, only giving him a short and concerned glace before turning again to the used board.

With a slight nod, the halfa did as he was told and hastened to his seat. The school bag flew on top of his table as he removed the books necessary for this class and sat down with a relieved sigh. Unfortunately, he almost directly started to doze off and only stayed awake because Sam decided to elbow Danny in the shoulder, making him yelp in surprise but not loud enough to alert anybody else.

A comeback was at the tip of his tongue, but died out as he remembered that he was needed urgently to talk with his friends.

"Excuse us, sleepy princess, but we practically haven't seen each other in 3 days or more." Said Tucker with a smug but concerned undertone.

"Sorry, you know how it is... Fighting evil doers and all that jazz." Apologised Danny, blinking the tiredness out of his mind.

He stared at his table, going into a trance of thought. He needed to tell them.

"I-" Started Danny off, but was interrupted by Sam shushing him.

"Whatever you're going to say, save it. Let's talk after class." She nodded to herself as she spoke. "Try to sleep a little now, you look like hell."

And that was it, he'd tell them and they'd probably have to go to the Far Frozen or something of the likes. He didn't want to think about what if the problem was something... human. Something close to his origins, that maybe not even the ghosts could help. It was scary thinking of something so realistic as maybe going blind. He studied a lot of books about NASA and what the astronauts needed to go on a mission. They needed to be healthy, have good grades, exercise. He was far from reaching one of those things.. didn't want that to turn two.

Worries filled Danny as he drifted into the dreamland. Dreams didn't await him on the other side, but it was peaceful and relaxed him enough.

"Sleeping in class?" Jokingly lectured Tucker as he shook Danny awake.

"Come on, it already ended." Continued Sam, already ready to leave.

Getting up and gathering all his not even used supplies into the school bag, Danny walked into their side and let out a little groan. They walked in silence until they've reached a small corner where most students don't stop at. The halfa wasn't sure why they weren't talking as they'd normally do, he himself wasn't just as energised but he did think this was weird. To his surprise, however, Jazz was already waiting for them there. Pacing around the small space, she stopped when seeing the trio approach and smiled.

"Jazz? Why are you here." Asked Danny confused, but not against the situation. It was his sister after all.

"That's the thing, Danny. We're concer-" With a nasty scream, he interrupted the middle of her sentence. The eye-thing came back, with full blown pain. It felt like the first time, if not worst. As if a butter knife tapped against his eye with scorching temperatures and left behind a trail of molten metal. Without hesitation, they all ran to Danny's side and supported him with their arms.

Small crystal clean tears dripped from the halfa's face and he tried to hold back the vertigo that was trying to settle in, he didn't want this to happen He wanted to talk to them normally, fuck.

"Danny? Danny!?" Called out Sam in a frantic manner. They already knew he was pushing himself, but not this much.

"Ok, deep breaths, deep breaths. Tell me what's wrong." Jazz bent down to look better at her brothers face.

Doing as he was told, he'd push air in and out slowly and excruciating. Keeping his mind concentrated in only the task at the time and nothing else. The tingle behind his eye and the strange sensation of being hyper aware of his eyelashes, wasn't helping but, with he was determined.

"Eh-Eye-" A shaky finger pointed at his eye, he wanted them to look at whatever was doing this to him.

With a silent nod, Jazz cupped his face and elevated it to have a better look. Tucker and Sam shuffled to her sides to see too. A gasp passed around them and he felt lightheaded and reminded that he was in school, he couldn't bring so much attention to himself, or them.

"Oh Danny, if we knew you were this bad.." She sighed and gently passed a hand down his hair in a comforting manner.

"What is it-?" His voice trembled as he forced out his voice. He didn't want to hear bad news, not something irreplaceable, please, not that.

"You just seem awfully sleep deprived." Responded Tucker when hearing the panic in the others voice. "There isn't anything sticking out or pools of blood.."

"Wh- Really? But it hurts like a bitch-" As if on cue, he'd let out a small groan and scrunch his eyes for a few seconds before opening them again.

"And, And, I see everything in a weird green tint-" He continued ignoring the interruption.

"Language." Jazz said strictly, before continuing. "Hmm.. I'm not a ghost expert, but It might just be your ghost side acting up, because you aren't reacting well enough with your human one." She speculated, hoping it could calm him down as much as it could calm her down.

"I can't just rest, ghosts keep appearing everywhere! I need to- I need to-" Before he could finish, Sam pushed a finger in his lips direction and said with an exciting smile.

"Are you forgetting us? We can keep up." Sam scoffed, gesturing to herself, Jazz and Tucker.

"Yeah. We learned a lot from watching and helping in your fights!" Nodded along Tucker.

"Why don't you take this weekend off while we work, ok?" Finish Jazz, giving Danny's forehead a little kiss.

His eyes still stung, a whole damn lot, but we was feeling better mentally. Giving them a small smile, he nodded in agreement. "Ok, I'll try to do that."

#Danny Phantom #dannymay2020 #dannymay #No eye gore chill out #I took 10 hours to write this #don't sue me

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kinglazrus · 5 years

Text

Ectober Week 2019 Day One – Fangs & Shatter

Crossposted on Ao3 and ffn at Unlucky Alis

Danny ran his tongue over his teeth. Probing his gums, he felt the little slit above his canines. He leaned toward the mirror, stuck his bottom jaw out, and peeled down his lip. He could barely see the small gap, down where his gums and lip met.

Pushing himself up on the counter, he pressed so close to the mirror his nose brushed the glass. For a second, Danny just stared. Then, he stretched his mouth wide and snarled, baring his fangs.

A ghostly growl exploded from his throat. He gnashed his teeth and flashed his toxic green eyes, making the fiercest expression he could think of.

The bathroom door slammed open.

Danny whipped around to face the intruder, or he tried to. The heel of his palm slipped off the edge of the counter and he tumbled, smacking his chin on rim of the sink on his way down.

"Jazz," Danny whined, cupping his mouth and glaring up at his sister. "What the hell was that for? I could have been going to the bathroom!"

"You're here," Jazz said. Her hand slipped down the doorframe and she hugged herself. "Why are you here?"

"Look, look, it's so cool!" Danny clambered to his feet and leaned up into Jazz's face. He bared his teeth again and pointed to his canines.

"Watch!" he said. He flexed a muscle in his jaw, one that hadn't existed a few weeks ago, and sharp, crooked fangs slipped over his canines. It pinched a little but didn't really hurt. Wiggling his eyebrows, he flexed the new muscle again and the fangs retracted. He kept doing it.

Fangs, no fangs. Fangs, no fangs. In and out. Just the top. Now the bottom. Now both.

"I have fangs." Danny beamed, showing off his new shiny teeth. He couldn't really close his mouth all the way, because of how the bottom fangs knocked against his top teeth. Hopefully his body would just fix that on its own as they finished growing in.

"You're... bleeding," Jazz said.

Danny blinked. That wasn't the response he expected. It took him a moment to process it, his smile dropping, and he asked, "What?"

"Your lip is bleeding," Jazz clarified. Poking Danny's cheek, she turned his head toward the mirror.

His lip was, indeed, bleeding. A neat slice beneath one of his upper fangs. He must have accidentally bit it when he hit the sink.

"Oh," Danny said. He wiped the ectoplasm trickling down his chin on the back of his hand and poked the cut. He didn't feel it when it happened, but now it stung a little. "Whoops. Didn't even notice."

In the mirror, he caught Jazz's grimace.

"Just be careful, okay?" she said.

"Why?" he asked. He was plenty careful about a lot of things: his powers, his identity, potential injuries. The risk of getting captured and dissected by his own parents. The list went on, and Jazz already knew that.

"Just..." Her frown deepened until she got that little crease between her eyebrows, the one that made her whole face look pinched.

Danny looked away from her reflection, back toward his fangs. Sticking out his jaw again, he clenched his teeth and giggled. It looked a bit silly, like he had tusks instead of fangs, but it was more comfortable to close his mouth this way. His teeth gave a satisfying click as he snapped his jaw shut, over and over.

"Just don't become too ghostly, okay?" Jazz said. She touched Danny's shoulder.

"Well, that's stupid." Danny rolled his eyes. "I'm already a halfa. But sure, whatever you say."

He didn't look at her as she walked away.

She glanced over her shoulder the whole way until she was out of sight.

...

Danny dragged Tucker and Sam into the boys' locker room as soon as he got to school, just before first period.

He thought they, or at least Sam, would protest more about their choice location—it was the first place he could think of. Instead they kept exchanging glances. Tucker's hand hovered over his pocket and Sam fiddled with a silver tube of lipstick.

Weird. Danny thought all her lipstick came in the same black and grey tubes. Maybe this was a new colour.

"Watch this," Danny said. He turned around, covered his mouth, and let out his fangs. Then spun around and threw his arms out. "Ta-da!"

Danny was practically vibrating, his gaze jumping back and forth between his two best friends, and bounced on his toes. Jazz's reaction had been a little disappointing, but Sam and Tucker would totally get it. He had fangs, how cool was that?

Apparently not cool at all.

"Dude!" Tucker lurched forward and slapped a hand over Danny's mouth, covering his fangs, while Sam pulled Danny's arms down. They shoved him into a shower stall, piled in after him, and slammed the door. Sam slid the lock shut and waved the boys back until all three of them were pressed against the wall.

Danny scowled at them and quirked an eyebrow. He opened his mouth, his fangs brushing the skin of Tucker's palm. Tucker flinched, earning a smack from Sam, and hissed, "Shush!" at Danny.

A second later, Danny heard the voices.

"Do you think... do you think he'll be back again today?" That sounded like Kwan. There must have been an early morning football practice.

“I don’t know, man.” Dash, definitely Dash. His voice wavered, though. Danny couldn’t remember ever hearing him like that. The only time Dash’s voice shook was with anger, right before pummelling Danny into the ground. Right now he sounded afraid.

“So what if he is?” That was Dale. Danny didn’t like Dale. He really didn’t like Dale. That guy cornered Danny in the parking lot more times than Dash ever did, and at least Dash stopped beating Danny up once they became seniors.

But Dale didn’t.

Danny stood up on his toes, straining to see over the shower door. He could, but only enough to see the tops of the jocks’ heads. His bare feet lifted off the tiles as he rose up. Sam grabbed his shoulders and yanked him back down. Danny turned a sharp glare on her.

He just wanted to see, what was wrong with that? They spied on the A-listers all the time. Usually to laugh at them, but still.

Sam shook her head. Not at Danny, but at Tucker, who was pulling something out of his pocket.

Danny’s focused jumped to Tucker’s hand. He saw a flash of something blue before Tucker shoved it back in his pocket. Danny lifted his gaze to Tucker’s face.

Tucker shrugged and gave him a shaky smile.

Whatever.

Danny walked right through Sam and Tucker, ignoring the way they shivered violently, their whole bodies jerking and their eyes going wide. He stuck his head through the door, about to ask the football team what the hell they were talking about, but was met with an empty room.

Their equipment bags sat on the far bench. No practice, then. They were just dropping off their stuff for later.

Staring at the bags, Danny kind of wanted to mess with them. Sure, Dash hadn’t bullied him since junior year, but Danny was still pretty peeved about all the years of gut punches and locker time before that. He deserved a little revenge.

The rest of his body passed through the door and he approached Dale’s bag first. How could he prank it without opening it? He knew how badly those bags reeked. Dale and Dash stuffed him in one before the homecoming game last year. He could do without smelling the inside of a football bag ever again.

The shower stall door slammed open and Sam and Tucker darted out.

“Danny, you need to go,” Sam said.

“Yeah, I know, the bell’s about to ring. But come on, when are we going to have such a golden opportunity again?” Danny asked. Sam didn’t budge, so he looked to Tucker. “You’ve got to agree with me, right, Tuck?”

“Um, Tetslaff gets pretty pisssed if anyone messes with the football players, I don’t know,” Tucker said.

Danny groaned. Tucker was right, why did he have to be right? Valerie was the last person to mess with the team. She dosed Dash’s water with a mild ghost tranquilizer, which has a very euphoric effect on humans. When Tetslaff found out, she made the entire class run suicide drills all class, back and forth across the gym floor.

Danny did okay, thanks to his extra stamina, but Tucker nearly collapsed halfway through the class, and even Sam was ready to quit.

“Fine,” he relented with a dejected sigh

“Good, now let’s get you o—” The sound of footsteps cut Sam off. She tried to usher Danny back toward the showers, but it was too late.

Dash rounded the corner and froze when his eyes settled on Danny.

“Uh, F-fenturd, you’re here.” Dash paled and swallowed thickly. “Forget I said anything, okay? Sorry.”

He turned around and bolted out of the locker room.

“Geez, you’d think he’d seen a ghost or something.” Danny cracked a grin, looking to Sam for her customary groan, and Tucker for his stifled chuckles.

They stayed silent.

…

Danny stood in his doorway and frowned. Someone had been in his room, although he couldn’t explain how he knew. It was just a feeling. The kind of feeling you get when you haven’t been home for a while, and you know someone was there while you were gone but can’t see the evidence.

He leaned back and shouted down the hall, “Hey, Jazz! Were you in my room?”

No answer.

“Jazz!”

Still nothing.

“Rude,” Danny muttered. He trudged forward and flopped onto his bed, frowning when it made a crinkling noise. Shimmying over to the edge, he lifted the comforter. The mattress was wrapped in plastic.

Tucker’s little sister had a plastic wrapped mattress, because of her allergies. Danny picked at the plastic, stabbing it with his nail and scratching it.

His mom got him tested for allergies a few weeks ago, after he got a bad rash while cleaning out the shed. He knew it was from some old anti-ghost serum he spilled on his shirt, but there’s no way he’d tell his mom that. As far as he knew, they hadn’t gotten the results yet. She was probably just being cautious.

He rolled onto his back, sat up, and looked around. There was something else giving him the weird feeling. He scanned the shelf above his desk, which was full of astronomy textbooks and a few NASA manuals—some of which he printed off and stapled together himself.

Something was missing. Between a book on Einstein's theoretical physics and an anthology of essays, there was a gap. A model of the Opportunity Rover was supposed to be there.

Danny leapt off his bed and floated up to the shelf. Sometimes his parents moved his stuff around when they dusted and forgot to put things back exactly where they were supposed to go. But the shelf was coated in dust, with a clean, sharply defined circle where the model used to sit.

Spinning his head around, he scrutinized the bookcase beside his bed. His model solar system was gone.

Now that he knew what to look for, he could see a bunch of his models were missing. The Challenger rocket, the Curiosity rover, and the Apollo lunar module. All gone.

Danny tore through his room looking for them. He flung his dresser drawers open, digging through his clothes and throwing them across the floor. Under his bed, he yanked out the plastic bins, ripped their lids off, and dumped their contents out.

Lego sets, old Gameboys, and childhood toys scattered everywhere. He couldn't find the models.

"Where are they? Where are they!" Danny crawled frantically across the floor, shoving everything aside, and wrenched his closet door off its hinges. It crashed to the ground behind him.

There, at the back of the closet, hidden behind his shirts and sweaters, was a stack of boxes labelled Danny — space models — storage.

Prying the box open, he found all the models. He stared at them, confused. Someone had put them away. Someone had taken his models, moved them, and hidden them away. The edges of the box crumpled in his grip. They weren't supposed to be away, they belonged exactly where Danny had put them, they weren't supposed to be away.

His vision went black and the temperature dropped.

When it cleared, the box was nothing but ashes; the models were untouched. He wiped his hands on his pants, picked up the models, and carefully put each one back where it belonged. It took him a good ten minutes to make sure they were exactly where they were supposed to be. The lines in the dust helped.

Danny had just finished setting the Opportunity rover in place when he heard the front door open. He grinned. Finally, they were home.

He bolted from his room and leaned over the balcony railing. Jack came in first, in a jumpsuit as always, but it was all black instead of orange. Maddie, walking in after him, wore a modest black dress. Coming in last, Jazz wore black slacks and a dress shirt.

Their eyes were red and their mood somber.

Pressing his cheek to the bannister, Danny scowled in disappointment. They had gone out without him and didn't even tell him they were leaving. That wasn't very nice. He sighed, loudly.

Jazz's head jerked up. She looked started.

Danny waved, giggled, and darted back into his room. He sat down behind his door, bending his knees to his chest and hugging his shins. He heard Jazz whisper something to their parents, and her soft footsteps as she started up the stairs. She always wore flats in the house, a decision she made after stepping in puddles of ectoplasm one too many times.

Danny wiggled his bare toes, tapping his feet on the hardwood floor and leaving muddy prints. His parents wouldn't like that. Oh, well.

"Danny?" Jazz softly called.

It was like playing hide and seek. His spot wasn't very good, but maybe the mess all around his room would distract Jazz. She wasn't a fan of big messes.

"Danny, please." Jazz's voice cracked.

Danny giggled, clapping his hands over his mouth. The door creaked as Jazz slowly pulled it back. Danny stared up at her, eyes glowing with mirth.

"You found me," he said in a sing-song voice.

"Danny, you can't be here," Jazz said.

"Why not? Why can't I?" Danny uncurled. He grabbed the doorknob, laying his hand over Jazz's. She flinched when his ragged nails dug into her skin. "It's my room, Jazz."

"I... I know it's your room," Jazz said. She grabbed her wrist and yanked her hand away, stumbling back. She tripped on one of the plastic bins and fell hard, landing on a pile of Legos. Biting down a gasp of pain, she propped herself up on her eblow and focused on Danny.

"Why can't I be here?" Danny asked. He pulled himself up and stomped forward. This was his room. This was his house. He was allowed to be here, he was supposed to be here.

"Mom and Dad—" Jazz started.

"Were you in my room?"

"Danny, please, don't shout, they'll—"

"Get out of my room."

"Please—"

"Get out of my room! Get out of my room, get out of my room, get out of my room!" Danny roared. He grabbed Jazz's arm and threw her out the door. She crashed into the railing, the posts cracking under the impact.

"Danny," Jazz pleaded, crawling forward.

The door slammed shut in her face, hard enough to crack the frame. Danny ignored Jazz's yelp of pain. He needed to get out of here, clear his head, take a flight. Turning toward the window, he took off into the sky.

...

Danny's room was bare when he returned. The shelves were empty, his bed was stripped, and there was nothing in his dresser. Carefully packed boxes filled the closet.

This was all wrong. He felt violated.

"Who did this?" Danny howled, his voice echoing through the house. It filled the air like static, crackling down the halls.

Ectoplasm arced up and down his arms. It swirled in his eyes, sparked around his head, dripped down his body and splattered against the floor.

He let out a wordless scream.

A piercing alarm shrieked, loud enough to echo down the street, and snapped Danny out of his rage. That was the Fenton Proximity Alarm. It only went off when an ecto-entity level five or higher released a power surge within a three-block radius.

The volume of the alarm signalled the power of the ghost.

Right now, it was deafening. Danny couldn't even hear his own lingering shout of fury. The only time he heard it this loud was when Pariah Dark invaded.

He didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay and find out who had done this to him, who had desecrated his place, assaulted his vary being with such vandalism, but he couldn't let a ghost that powerful run free.

He was gone before Maddie and Jack burst into his bedroom, ecto-blasters in hand.

...

It was nearly four in the morning. Danny didn't find the ghost. It nagged at him. His whole job was to find the ghost, fend it off, and save the day. How could he keep Amity safe if he couldn't even find the ghost? It could be anywhere, wreaking havoc. The worst part was that his ghost sense didn't even react. He couldn't think of any ghost capable of hiding from his ghost sense.

Not even Pariah Dark.

Danny sat in the kitchen, at the dining table. He picked at the dirt on his feet. They always seemed to be dirty lately, and no matter how much he washed them, it wouldn't come off. It was getting annoying.

He rubbed his eyes and pushed his hair back. With how damp it was, it kept sticking to his forehead and tickling his eyelashes. He thumped his head on the table, again, and again, and again.

Overhead, something creaked.

Danny froze with his head against the table. Slowly, he rose and turned his face toward the noise. It came from his parent's room. The creaking moved toward the stairs. He knew, without seeing, that it was his dad.

Jack's immense, musclebound girth meant he weighed a considerable amount. Over the years, he'd worn various paths around the house. From the door, to the couch, to the kitchen, down to the lab, and up to the master bedroom. The floorboards were weakest there and creaked for everyone, but it was always loudest when Jack tromped over them. Even when he was trying to be quiet.

A glow in the corner of Danny's eye caught his attention. He whipped around to face it, ready to attack, ectoplasm already swirling in his palm.

It was just his reflection in the toaster. Bruised eyes, bloody nose, split lip. Nothing unusual.

He wiped the blood off on his knuckles. Its soft green glow contrasted Danny's own silvery aura. Mesmerized, he stared at the smear of ectoplasm. His fangs slid out—whether it was a conscious act or not, he couldn't say—and he stuck out his tongue.

The forked end darted over the ectoplasm. He licked it up and smacked his lips.

A pained gasp sounded to his left.

Danny's gaze snapped over to the source.

His dad stood in the doorway, clutching a Jack-o-nine-tails in one hand, and a bazooka in the other.

"I'm giving you one chance to get out," he said, thrusting the nine-tails forward.

Danny pulled his tongue back in. "What?"

"Get out. You—you putrid ball of consciousness. You ectoplasmic fiend, you don't belong here!" Jack started forward.

Danny scrambled back, hurrying to get away from his dad and the furious despair in his eyes. He slipped out of his chair, crashed to the floor and scrambled away. His dad had never looked at him like that before. At least, not Danny Danny. Phantom, maybe, but not Fenton.

Danny looked at his reflection in the aluminum garbage can.

Bruised eyes. Bloody nose. Split lip.

Fenton.

"Dad, what are you—"

"I'm not your father, you're not my son! Get out! I won’t say it again!" Jack tossed the nine-tails aside and levered and bazooka at Danny. He pulled back the bolt, auto-loading a cartridge, and shoved the gun in Danny's face.

"Dad." Danny sobbed. The tears burned, leaving rivulets through the dirt and grime smeared across his cheeks.

"Don't," his dad said.

It was such a loaded word. Pleading and hateful. Desperate and loathing. Danny didn't realize there could be so much emotion in a single word until now.

"Okay," came his quiet reply, just as heavy as Jack's.

He slipped through the wall, tumbling out of the house and onto the front lawn. He didn't know how, or when, but somehow his dad must have learned the truth. Danny Fenton was Danny Phantom, and Jack hated him for it.

Danny supposed he should at least be thankful his dad gave him a chance to leave. He could have strapped Danny down and dissected him right there on the kitchen table.

Hugging himself, Danny drifted down the sidewalk, streetlights popping as he passed.

...

In his hopeful heart of hearts, Danny thought maybe he could just give his parents time. They would see. He was still Danny, he was always Danny. Being Phantom didn’t change that. Even if it did, maybe they didn't need him, but Danny needed his home.

He didn't go far, lingering on the rooftop across the street. Every minute he was away it got harder and harder to think straight. All day he stood there, watching.

Sometimes he would see someone in window. It was mostly Jazz. She had a bandage across her nose. They never noticed him. He wasn’t sure if he wanted them to.

He just wanted to go home. And he tried. He really did. If not to stay, then at least to take a little piece of home with him.

Once everyone was gone for the day, Jazz to school, Maddie and Jack to chase after the Box Ghost, he tried to sneak back inside. He made it to the end of the front path before he felt it. Like a dozen static shocks all at once, sparking up and down his body.

He ignored it.

The shocks grew to a tingling buzz halfway up the path.

Danny pushed through. He needed this. He needed to go home.

He reached the front step and fell to the ground screaming in pain. Electricity coursed through his body, attacking his core. He convulsed on the front step, thrashing and crying as the anti-ecto energy tore through his body.

Danny dug his fingers into the cracks in the concrete and dragged himself back toward the street, whimpering and holding back sobs. It was like the portal all over again. His limbs twitched. He felt singed, jittery, and exhausted.

Curling up on the sidewalk, Danny hugged his knees and cried into his jeans. They had adjusted the shields. Changed them to affect halfas. He couldn't go home. He could never go home.

...

With nowhere else to go, Danny went to Sam's house. Fenton Works was closer to the richer part of Amity Park than the more suburban areas. He didn't make eye contact with anyone, not that it mattered. Everyone he passed skirted far around him, sometimes even skittering into the street to avoid him.

Danny stomped up Sam's front steps and knocked weakly.

The chances of anyone besides Sam answering the door were usually slim. Ida, stuck in her scooter, wasn't as mobile as she used to be. Jeremy spent long hours at work, or brought work home and stayed tucked away in his office for the night. Pamela was usually occupied with her latest social cause.

Sometimes the similarities between Sam and her mom astounded Danny.

But one thing he failed to consider was that today was a school day. He didn't think about stuff like that anymore, so it was easy to forget.

Pamela opened the door. She took one look at Danny and slammed the door shut.

"Please, Mrs. Manson!" Danny called.

"Go away," she said. Her voice trembled.

"I know you don't like me, but please, I have nowhere to go. I got kicked out." He banged his fist on the door.

"If you don't leave right now, I'm going to call the G.I.W."

Dread shot through Danny like lightning. The G.I.W. Pamela knew his secret, too. Did his parents tell Sam's? Who else did they tell?

He turned around and pressed his back to the door. No one would look at him. Actually, some people glanced in his direction, then quickly looked away and hurried down the street. They knew. Everybody knew.

Sliding down to the ground, he slapped the Manson's front door. "Mrs. Manson, please. I just want to talk to Sam."

Pamela yanked the door open.

Danny fell back and stared up at her.

"Stay away from my daughter," Pamela hissed. "If you go anywhere near her today, or any other day, you won't exist tomorrow."

She threw the door closed. Danny phased right through it. Pamela reached for her phone. Sam once told him Pamela had the G.I.W. on speed dial, thanks to company connections.

Danny's vision went black.

...

At the Foley's apartment, Tucker answered the front door.

"Hi, Tuck!" Danny smiled.

"No," Tucker said.

Danny, still smiling, cocked his head. "No?"

"I-I mean..." Tucker back away from the door, his hand going to his pocket. "Why are you here?"

"I don't... know," Danny said. He looked around the front hall. The Foley's decorated modestly. A couple family photos, a coat rack, a simple bench. It was cozy. He liked being at the Foley's. It was homey. His gaze returned to Tucker and he smiled again. "Hi, Tuck!"

Tucker worried his lip.

"It's kind of cold out here, can you let me in?" Danny asked.

Tucker peered over Danny's shoulder and eyed the sunny blue skies. "Um... I don't think I can do that, dude."

Danny frowned and stepped forward, his toes stopping just before the threshold. "Why not? Aren't we friends?"

"Yeah, we were—are, we are." Tucker fumbled over his words, rushing to correct himself.

Danny's eyes narrowed. He stepped forward.

"You can't come in," Tucker said, leaning away from Danny. His shoulder's tensed, arms shaking as he backed away. "You can't come in, you can't come in, you can't come in!"

Danny strained. It felt like something was pushing him back, trying to keep him from entering the house. He wouldn't let it. Tucker was his best friend. Tucker was his brother. He was family.

He was home.

Danny wanted to go home.

"Let me in," he said.

Tucker shook his head sharply. "No."

"Let me in."

"No!"

"Let me in!" Danny pounded his fists against the invisible wall. "Tucker! Tucker! Let me in, Tucker! Let. Me. In!"

A blast of ectoplasm punctuated each word, scorching the walls and floor. Tucker cowered away, jumping at each blast. He wrapped his arms around his head, crouched down to the floor and screamed.

"God damn it, Danny, No! No, no, no! Go away!"

"TUCKER!"

Tucker shot forward, pulling something from his pocket, and tackled Danny. They tumbled into the street and something cold and metal snapped around Danny's wrist. He bellowed and clawed at his skin, trying to pry the bracelet off.

It burned, searing his flesh. He tried to stand but the pain was too great. He crumpled to the asphalt, clutching his wrist and shrieking until his throat felt raw. He bit down on the bracelet, trying to tear it apart with his fangs, but all that did was burn his mouth. He started gnawing at his wrist instead.

He wanted this thing off, now. How could Tucker do this to him? How could he ever hurt him like this? They were brothers!

"I'm sorry, Danny," Tucker sobbed, kneeled on the edge of the sidewalk. "I didn't want to, I'm sorry."

Danny bared his fangs at Tucker, hissing and spitting. Ectoplasm spewed across the road. He inched forward, nails scraping on the pavement, dragging himself toward Tucker.

Tucker just cried, hiding his face in his arms and begging Danny to go away.

Danny creeped closer and grabbed Tucker by the ankle.

...

Danny was caught in a haze. Everything hurt. His right arm was completely numb, his skin streaked black around the bracelet. In spite of his efforts, he couldn't get it off. He clawed, scratched, and bit at both the bracelet and his own wrist. All that did was make him bleed, ectoplasm slipping down his hand and dripping from his fingers.

His arms hung limp by his sides. A trail of bright green dots marked his path to the outskirts of the city, where the richest of the rich lived. In his other hand, he clutched a pair of broken glasses.

Danny stared at the glasses, then opened his fist and let them fall to the ground. He stomped on them, shattering the lenses. He didn't need them.

Dragging his feet, he turned into a cul de sac and paused. Vlad Master's house lay at the very end.

Vlad would understand. Danny knew he would. In spite of all their rivalry, their petty battles and personal wars, they were the only two people in the world who could understand each other. He would know what to do. He had to.

Danny flickered out of sight, reappearing in the middle of Vlad's foyer. Maybe Vlad wouldn't notice all the ectoplasm Danny was dripping on the carpet. It matched the Packer's paraphernalia, for the most part.

"Vlaaad," Danny moaned, the name slurred on his tongue. He dropped to his knees and pressed his forehead into the carpet. It felt nice and soft.

He wasn't sure how long waited. A few minutes, an hour, maybe more. But eventually he heard Vlad's voice called from the stairs. "Little Badger."

Danny lay on his side. Titling his head back, he looked up at Vlad.

He looked terrible. There were bags under his eyes, stray hairs slipped out of his ponytail. His tie hung loose, and his collar was crinkled.

"You look like shit." Danny laughed.

"I'm sorry."

"I said you look like shit."

"No, Daniel." Vlad walked down the stairs and stopped at the bottom. He folded his hands in front of him and nervously twiddled his thumbs. "I'm sorry. This never should have happened to you."

"You can help me," Danny said.

"You know I can't, I'm sorry. All this time, I never thought..." Vlad trailed off, shaking his head.

"What are you doing?" Danny asked. He pushed himself up, cradling his weak arm against his chest.

Vlad sat down on the last step and buried his head in his hands. "I'm sorry."

"Stop saying that."

"I should have seen."

"Stop it!" Danny lurched to his feet and stumbled toward Vlad.

"You should have fought back."

Danny froze. "What?"

Vlad peeked over his hands. His weary eyes refused to settle on Danny. "You could have stopped it."

"What did you do?" Danny asked. It suddenly dawned on him why all this was happening—even if he could barely remember what this was. It was Vlad. It was always Vlad; but, somehow, he hadn't thought of it until now. Vlad broke their pact. Vlad told his parents about Danny being a halfa. Vlad told everyone.

Vlad ruined his life.

"I can't go home because of you!"

"Daniel, no, you don't under—"

Danny threw himself at Vlad. Grabbing him around the neck, he throttled the man, shaking him back and forth with burning hands, and screaming in his face.

Vlad shoved him off but didn't transform.

With a feral snarl, Danny attacked again. He pushed Vlad into the stairs, kneeled on top of him, and leaned down on his throat.

"You! Ruined! My! Liiiiiiiii—" He broke off into a wail.

Vlad pressed his hands against Danny’s face, forcing his head to turn. The ghostly moan destroyed the adjacent wall and shook the very foundations of the house. All around them, the building started falling apart as Danny pushed all his pain and anguish into his voice.

Things were never supposed to end up this way. But now, it was too late.

…

A fork of lightning split the sky. Thunder cracked, its deafening boom rolling over Amity Park. With it came Danny. He soared through the storm, his tears lost to the rain. The wind howled with him. He was lost and alone and had nowhere to go. So he went to the place where all ghosts without a home end up.

Huddled against the rain, Danny touched down just outside the Amity Park cemetery. He hadn’t been here for a while. Sometimes, he visited the new spirits and helped them on their way to the Ghost Zone. But lately just the thought of the cemetery sent a shiver down his spine. A foreboding chill that made him turn around and head back the way he came.

But not tonight.

Danny passed through the gate, the chain and padlock jingling as he walked through them, and stalked up the walkway. His bare feet slipped on the pebbles. He was still dirty.

Even with all the rain, he could feel the grime coating his skin. His mouth tasted like mud, gritty and bitter. When he bites down, gravel grinds between his teeth. His fangs slid in and out and he jutted his bottom jaw forward so his teeth didn’t clash so much.

He didn’t know where he was going. On nights like this, even spirits liked to stay inside if they could. The moaning wind sounded lonely to dead ears.

Squinting into the rain, he saw someone. He thought it was a ghost at first, pale and white, but when he got closer he realized it was Dash, in a t-shirt and jeans, hunched over a freshly dug plot.

A few small patches of grass sprung up from the dirt, so it the grave wasn’t that new. That didn’t matter to Danny. The sight of any new graves made him said.

Danny stopped behind Dash’s shoulder.

“You’ll get sick out here,” he croaked.

Dash flinched and turned. “You’re here.”

“That’s what you said before,” Danny muttered. It felt weird to talk to Dash like this. Neither of them were mad. Dash didn’t call him names or spit insults, and Danny didn’t feel the usually petty fury. He just felt lonely.

“What?”

“At school the other day,” Danny clarified.

“That wasn’t… it’s been…” Dash looked away. “You stopped coming to school.”

“Oh.” Danny didn’t notice. Actually, now that he thought about, he didn’t even know what day it was. It kept slipping his mind, like so many things. He plucked at the collar of his shirt. Guess it was finally getting that wash it needed.

“I’m sorry.”

“Do you want to know what happened to the last person who said that to me?” Danny asked.

“Mrs. Manson…”

Danny furrowed his brow. “What about her?”

“She’s in the hospital, isn’t she?”

“I don’t know.” Danny shrugged. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Sam’s mom. Although he wanted to talk to Sam. He should do that soon. School should be out right now, if Dash is here—and it’s probably nearly midnight.

“I’m still sorry,” Dash said. He curled his fingers in the grass and ducked his head. The rain plastered his hair to his forehead. “About Dale.”

Danny’s confusion mounted.

“We—Kwan and I—we always said he might go too far one day. He’s a rough guy, you know? I tried to get him to stop, but he doesn’t really listen to anyone.”

Suddenly, Danny wanted Dash to stop talking. He wanted Dash to shut up and go away and never come back.

“I don’t think, I mean, he didn’t mean to hit you that hard. He didn’t see the rock. It was an accident.” Dash ripped the grass from the ground. “But he shouldn’t have tried to hide you like that.”

Danny stared down at his dirty bare feet. He felt the stiffness in his jeans and saw the mud on his clothes. For a second, he wasn’t standing here with Dash. He was lying on his back, staring up at the stars through the trees as someone yanked him forward in fits and starts.

A bitter taste coated his tongue. Tears pricked the corner of his eyes. It felt like someone struck a match inside his lungs, burning brighter and stronger as he slowly ran out of air, scratching frantically at planks of wood, tearing his nails ragged, unable to escape.

“Did you know,” Danny said as his surroundings returned to him, “that Rowan wood has a lot of Apotropaic properties? Sam taught me that.”

He ran his thumb over his fingertips, feeling the splinters beneath his nails.

“It’s related to magic. It means it wards away evil influences, like ghosts. Ghosts can’t pass through Rowan wood. Ectoplasm doesn’t burn it. My parents have never been able to figure out the science behind it.” Danny’s arms went limp. “I don’t think there’s any science at all.”

“You could have fought back,” Dash whispered.

Danny stepped forward and read the gravestone. Danny Fenton. Son, Brother, Hero.

“I could have fought back,” he said.

...

Jazz stared outside at the first snowfall of the season. It had been a hard fall. Losing Danny, and then getting him back, only to lose him again. She wasn’t sure who took it worse. Maybe Pamela, since she was the one who ended up in critical care.

Tucker got off lucky, from what Jazz could tell.

She hadn’t seen Danny for a while, almost a full month. The last thing she heard of him was from Dash Baxter of all people. Following the last thunderstorm of the season, Dash came stumbling up to Fenton Work’s door and only said four words before hobbling away.

“I think he’s okay.”

Jazz hoped it was true.

Parked in front of the house, her parents were loading boxes onto the RV. They held all of Danny’s things. Some of it would be donated, like his clothes and books. Other, more personal things, such as old toys and his favourite models, would go away into storage. They couldn’t bear to part with those, even if they couldn’t keep them in the house.

Jazz had slipped the Opportunity model out of the box and placed it in her room. It was always Danny’s favourite.

It was her dad’s fault they were only taking care of this stuff now, despite having it packed away for months, not that anyone could blame him. It hurt them all to clear out Danny’s room. Packing it only took a few days, but actually taking the boxes out of the house?

That was permanent. That meant he was really gone.

It felt more appropriate now with him at rest.

She turned away from the window and headed upstairs. There was only one more box left, full of his old school stuff if she remembered right. She pushed open his door and paused for a solemn moment. She only let her grief overwhelm her for a few seconds. It was the only way she knew how to cope.

If she gave herself anymore time, she might just breakdown and cry, and she couldn’t afford that. She closed her eyes, took a deep, shaky breath, then went and grabbed the box.

Jazz was just about to close the door when she heard a thunk behind her.

Her grip on the doorknob tightened. Slowly, she turned her heard.

There, in the middle of the room, was Danny. He sat cross-legged, curling the toes of his bare feet. His hair was wispy, like fire, and streaked black and white. The blood and mud was gone, but there were still bruises around his eyes. His skin was pale blue.

Danny raised his right arm, then dropped it. The thick bracelet covering his wrist thunked against the floor. Up to his elbow, the skin was black and cracked. He raised his arm again. Dropped it. Thunk.

Thunk.

He paused, holding his arm before him, and looked up. He stared at Jazz with pure green eyes and blue pupils the size of a pinprick. His arm started flaking, the black skinning falling away.

Before her eyes, the limb shifting, twisting grotesquely, the flesh peeling away from the bracelet, letting it sink through before joining back up with the skin of his wrist. The bracelet dropped to the floor. Thunk.

Danny smiled and bared his fangs.

“Hey, Jazz,” he crooned. “Were you in my room?”

#the shatter is your heart breaking to pieces as you read this #danny phantom #phicc #ectoberweek19 #lazwrites #unlucky alis #🙌 shout out to Nicky for helping me edit #you're a godsend #it's 4 am and I'm exhausted but I fucking did it #hell yeah #angst

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blu-eh · 4 years

Text

when kingdom comes calling

Words: 7,545 | Chapters: 1/1 | AO3 | Fanfiction

Summary: the Ghost Zone population assumes that Phantom took the crown with dignity. What they don’t know is fifteen year old Danny Fenton just wants to graduate high school, is constantly ready to throw hands with an army of eyeballs, and absolutely will not be crowned the Ghost King without a fight.

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

Danny is fifteen when the first Observant appears to completely ruin his life.

He wakes up with the feeling on the sun on his face and the birds chirping from outside his window. It’s peaceful, really, with his blankets being warm and his pillow soft. He feels more than a little well rested, which is a first considering his usual night-time activities, and thinks that maybe (just maybe) he can make it to school before the first period bell rings.

Belatedly, his ghost sense goes off.

Danny’s expecting it, really. It doesn’t stop the swirling aggravation as his good luck comes to an end. The day started out abnormal simply due to the fact that he had not once woken up at some ungodly hour in the morning to beat up a wandering ghost and send it back to the ghost zone. As per Fenton luck, his morning is ruined before it even has the chance to begin.

He groans, rubs sleep from his eyes, and comes face to face with the giant floating eyeball.

“Holy shit—” Danny turns intangible out of sheer surprise, falls through his bed, and is left grasping the sheets in order to pull himself as far as he possibly can away from the wayward Observant that is conveniently floating in his room. The Observant looks at him without blinking and its long cape flutters around its pencil-thin figure.

For a moment, they simply stare at each other. Danny, on the floor in his space pajamas, and the Observant hovering a few feet from the ground with its weird, unblinking, green eye.

“What are you doing in my room?” Danny says, slowly, and picks himself off the ground. He settles into a familiar fight stance and readies himself for a confrontation; space pajamas, bed head and all.

His previous encounters with the Observants and their weird time-council have not always been pleasant.

The Observant blinks at him, once, and says, “I have come to collect you for your coronation.”

“My what?”

“Your coronation, Daniel,” the Observant says with a sigh (which is really weird considering they don’t have mouths or, well, anything other than their eyes and hands). “It is time for you to take the throne and rule the Infinite Realms.”

Danny stares at him, his mouth opening and closing but no words coming out.

The Observant sighs again, “Please, come. There is much to do before you are crowned.”

Danny rubs his eyes just to make sure he’s not in some weird hallucination. He doesn’t think he’s fought any ghosts that could trap him in some freak alternate dimension or some sort of weird dream, but one can never be too careful. It would explain the situation more than whatever the Observant is trying to tell him, at least.

The Observants hate him. As if his own self-loathing isn’t enough to cover that base already. They’ve made it perfectly clear that should he ever mess up, should he ever become anything like Dan again, he would be destroyed and the council would not spare him pity for being a fifteen year old halfa.

Danny doesn’t remember doing anything bad or anything that could potentially cause his evil-future-self to come about and reign destruction and carnage on the earth, but then again Danny doesn’t have temporal clairvoyance like Clockwork and the rest of the Observants. Maybe he slept through one too many classes? Maybe he shoved the wrong ghost in his thermos?

Not like it matters, anyways. It doesn’t change the fact that Danny promised he wouldn’t turn into that and he isn’t just going to take whatever scheme the Observants dished out for him without a fight.

Danny holds up his hands, “Alright, okay. Listen, you had me going there for a little bit. I gotta admit that I was pretty surprised and kudos for the creativity but if you’re going to come up with a plan to kill me, at least make it believable.”

The Observant narrows its beady eye, “The council does not like it any more than you, child, but even we cannot directly disobey the Ancient Code of Rights.”

“The what?”

“Do you really not know?”

Danny’s irritation bubbles to the surface and he throws up his hands, “Its not exactly like any of you hand out Being a Ghost for Dummies book! Ghosts don’t tell me anything unless they’re trying to post-mortem murder me!”

The Observant blinks at him again, “You bested the previous king and his army in single combat thus earing the rights to the throne, the Ring of Rage, the Crown of Fire and the position of King of all Ghosts. I am to lead you into the Infinite Realms where we shall hold your coronation and crown you king. From there, you shall lead the Realms as did Pariah Dark in his prime.”

“King of all Ghosts—” Danny spluttered out before taking a deep breath and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Alright, ignoring literally all of that for a second—why didn’t I get this position, oh, wow, I dunno, right after I defeated Pariah? It’s been a year now.”

“You did not even know about your own core,” the ghost says, sounding miffed. Danny thinks if anyone should be sounding aggravated right now, its him. “A ghost—rather, a halfa in your case—that does not know his own power cannot take the throne. The council made a decision to wait until your powers were under your control and you have learned more about the Infinite Realms and the power you possess before taking your rightful place.”

Irritation bubbles to the surface as Danny tries to ignore the painful fact that he knows very little about ghost culture and ghost politics. He doesn’t dare tell the observant this, though, because he doesn’t want the power and he certainly doesn’t want to be king of some stupid dimension. His parents shoot at him enough thinking he's a normal ghost. There’s no telling what they would do if they ever were to find out he’s the ghost king.

Ectoplasm sparks to life in his hands as he tries to keep his emotions in check. He’s angry and confused and worried because why couldn’t things just stay simple?

Notwithstanding, it still doesn’t change the fact the Observants have tried to do something worse than kill him on several different occasions.

“You tried to have me obliterated.”

“Yes,” the Observant says simply. “That still would have been the preferable outcome to this entire situation.”

Danny blasts the floating eyeball out of his room and doesn’t once feel bad about it.

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

There’s an eyeball in his locker.

Danny glances around at the nearly empty halls and hisses out, “What are you doing here? Go away before I make you!”

The Observant hardly looks rattled at the threat. If anything, the thing seems even more determined to get Danny to go through with this absolute bullshit plan to make him, someone who is half human, king of the ghosts. “Follow me to the Infinite Realms for your coronation. You are under obligation to meet the council at Pariah’s Keep where you shall receive the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage.”

“No,” Danny snaps. “I have an English test next period with Mr. Lancer.”

“This is no time for your silly human games—"

Danny slams the locker in its eye. He turns to look at his friends, feeling deader inside currently than when he’s in ghost form.

“Huh,” Sam says and blinks in surprise. “When you told us this morning, I thought you were kidding.”

The locker rattles behind him and Danny casually leads against it when people start looking his way. The Observant could easily use intangibility to escape, but, for some reason, doesn’t. Danny’s not going to question it. “I wish I was.”

“Kinda cool that we’re friends with royalty,” Tucker says.

“You’re not,” Danny says. “Because I’m not taking some stupid crown and I’m not ruling the Ghost Zone where I am constantly in danger because ghosts hate me. I’m perfectly fine out here, with my family, and away from all of them.”

“Frostbite doesn’t hate you,” Sam says. Danny shoots her a look but she continues on like she hadn’t seen him. “Neither does Dora or Pandora, I think. And Cujo and Wulf.”

“You gotta admit, dude,” Tucker says and slings an arm around him before meandering away from the rattling locker. “The whole Ghost King thing is pretty cool.”

Danny’s so tired.

“Tucker, honestly, I just want to get to college and maybe not fail at life,” Danny says. He has a horrible feeling in his gut that this is only the start of what might be the end of his entire future. “And I have a very bad feeling that my future is not going to be as normal as I want it to be.”

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

Jazz figures out the entire situation by the end of the first night when she sees a floating eyeball hovering in front of Danny’s bedroom door. She ends up yanking him in her room and forcing him to tell her everything. He tells her, albeit reluctantly, but he does have to admit it feels pretty good to get it off his chest.

It still isn’t a fun conversation for any of them considering Danny’s future hanging by nothing more than a flimsy string.

Life still goes on. Mr. Lancer assigns him an absurd amount of homework. The school gets shut down at least twice a day because of Observant sightings. Unfortunately for Danny, school doesn’t stop just because a bunch of ghostly eyeballs have taken to haunting the school corridors.

Besides, by the third day and seventh missed class, Danny makes it exceptionally clear that the Observants should not—under any circumstance—enter his school and disrupt his classes. If they do, then Danny hasn’t been scared to use force in the past and definitely isn’t scared to punch a giant eyeball in the face should he see them wandering the halls or loitering in the windows.

The Observants learn very quickly. So, instead of bothering him in the halls, they wait outside in the parking lot until he’s let out of class at the end of the day. From there, they float around him (along with an unwilling Sam and Tucker) and try to convince Danny to enter the Ghost Zone and become a king of a realm he doesn’t even totally belong to.

“—Your coronation ceremony awaits you in the Infinite Realms. The council has requested your presence.”

Danny breaths through his nose, shares a sideways look with his friends, and tries not to do anything drastic. The Observant is just lucky that the streets are currently empty because, otherwise, Danny would not be putting up with the constant pestering. “Do you have anything new to say?”

“Should you not come then the council will be forced to do things outside of prior tradition.”

At least it said something new, Danny thinks even though he doesn’t necessarily like the tone the Observant is using. Out loud, he says, “Does that mean you’ll leave me alone and find a new king?”

“No,” the Observant says.

“Damn,” Danny says. “Anything else profound?”

“The Infinite Realms is in need of a ruler—"

“I said anything profound?”

The Observant actually looks a little offended by that. Tucker hides his laugh behind a cough while Sam doesn’t try to hide hers at all. He gives them a wry grin when he thinks the Observant isn’t looking and all three of them burst into laughter.

The Observant narrows its eyes at the group and says, stiffly, “Very well. If this is your choice.”

It disappears in a puff of smoke. Danny glances at the spot where the Observant once floated and shrugs because, well, it’s not like he can do anything about it now. It doesn’t stop the sudden feeling of apprehension that washes over him.

“Do you think they’re actually going to leave Danny alone?” Tucker asks.

“No,” Danny says. “I think it’s just going to get worse from here.”

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

“I’m not coming to the stupid coronation,” Danny snaps the moment he sees the eyeball in his bedroom. It’s a new one, of course, because the council apparently never sends the same Observant twice.

This one is definitely different, though. It's holding something close it its chest in its green, clawed hand. Every couple seconds, Danny catches sight of a flickering green light despite not being able to make out the object’s shape.

“Since you have made your refusal to enter the Infinite Realms for your coronation, then we are forced to bring the coronation to you,” the Observant answers. It opens its hands and presents the object; small, black and flickering in a eerie green flame with a smooth bottom and tiny points at its top. He can’t help the small sense of familiarity as he takes the object in.

Danny feels his heart stop.

“Wait, what—this that the CROWN?”

“Bow your head, child,” the Observant says. “And we shall get this over with.”

Danny backs up so fast he hits the opposite wall before the Observant can move a single step closer. He drops into a fight stance. “Yeah, uh, no. I’m good, thanks. Please go back to the Ghost Zone and literally never come back here again.”

“You do not yet hold power over the council.”

Danny shifts to into his ghost form and charges up an ectoblast. The combination of its flashing light and the fire from the crown cast an eerie green glow on the walls of his room. “Wanna bet?”

The Observant takes a step forward. “This is cumbersome—"

“Oh, wow, I’m sorry,” Danny snaps and spots his thermos right behind the giant, floating eyeball. He mentally makes a quick plan in his head. “Next time you try and make my life a living hell I’ll make it easier for you!”

The Observant makes a move as if it were going to place the crown on Danny's head but Danny's faster. He dodges, rolls out of the way, and blasts the stupid ghost in the side. It doesn’t make a sound, but it does narrow its eye further.

“If you put that thing on my head so help me—HEY, I said don’t. I don’t want your stupid crown or your stupid throne!” Danny tries to keep his frustration under control as the observant moves to place the damn thing on his head again. He lunges to the other side of his room, fingers curling around the familiar metal of his thermos. “Find someone else and leave me alone.”

The Observant slinks back, crown still in hand. It glances at the object before meeting Danny’s eyes. “I see this will not be easy.”

Danny doesn’t give it a chance to move. Before the Observant can even react, he opens the thermos and sucks the thing up (crown and all). The green glow of the room vanishes and Danny is left standing, alone, in the lightly damaged remains of his once-clean bedroom.

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

He finds a new Observant in his fridge with a certain flaming crown in its hand. He slams the fridge door shut without a single word.

Unfortunately, Observants are ghosts which means they have ghost powers and this one is much smarter than the locker-Observant. It phases through the fridge and attempts to place the crown on his head without a single word.

At least they were past formalities now.

“I’d say give it to Plasmius but we all know how that would end,” Danny says and dodges the hands that attempts to pin him down. He’s stuck in human form for the time being seeing as his parents are just a room over and he doubts they would be happy to find Phantom floating in their kitchen with Fenton missing. “Don’t—hey! If you don’t stop, I’m going to blast you, I swear to the ancients—"

“We are the ancients, Daniel—"

“Oh my god, shut up. Please, stop talking.”

“This is your destiny—”

“Has it ever occurred to you or your council that forcing a fifteen year old to become a king is really fucked? Like, seriously, I haven’t even graduated high school yet. I’m barley passing history, I don’t know anything about politics, I can’t even vote in human elections and you want me to become a king?”

Footsteps come from the room next to him. Danny meets the Observant’s eyes as he realizes the fact that there is a ghost in a ghost hunter’s house. There is absolutely nothing good that will come from this.

“Danny?” His mom’s voice calls out. Danny slams a pillow over the Observant and sits on it just as his mom rounds the corner. She looks around the room, once, and doesn’t seem to notice how Danny’s awkwardly sprawled out on the couch in a desperate attempt to keep her from seeing the Observant. “I thought I heard yelling. Is everything all right?”

Underneath him, the Observant squirms in clear discomfort. Danny hopes he elbows it in the eye.

Danny laughs nervously and plasters on a smile that’s just a bit too wide. “Nope, no yelling. I didn’t hear yelling. Everything is fine, mom. Nothing to see here.”

He feels a hand creeping up his back and he whips around to grab the clawed green appendage before it can force the crown on his head. Unfortunately, in his effort to resist being crowned, he forgets all about his ghost-hunting mom who has definitely saw the ghost beneath the pillow.

Danny likes to think that his life is just one string of disasters after another with absolutely no end in sight.

“Is that a ghost?!” Mom says and, oh boy, her gun is already out and pointed at the Observant.

Danny shares a slightly panicked look with the Observant, still holding it’s hand with the crown away from his own head. It might be the stupid eyeball’s fault in the first place, but Danny doesn’t think anyone really deserves to get handed over to his mom. Or get ripped apart molecule by molecule. That would almost be as bad as Skulker skinning him and hanging his pelt on the wall.

Danny scrambles off the couch, “Okay, this is all just a big misunderstanding—"

Mom’s not listening to him, though. Her gun whirls with power and she takes a step forward. “Step away from my son, you ectoplasmic fiend!”

The Observant either wants to die again or is stupidly brave because it stands up, billowing cape and all. “He is to bear the crown and the ring as seen by the council and take his place as the rightful ruler of the Infinite Realms in order to—”

Mom blasts the Observant before it can say another word. Danny has never been so grateful for his mom’s trigger happy finger in his life.

His mom turns to look him over and Danny shrinks back and says, weakly, “I think they have me confused with a ghost.”

The Observant floats back into a standing position, the crown flickering in his hand. Unfortunately, one blast is never enough to force an Observant to leave. Danny should know. He’s blasted them enough times to figure it out.

Danny hates floating eyeballs with his entire being.

“Daniel James Fenton,” the Observant says and dodges the next shot by his mom. It tries to approach him, yet again, with the crown outstretched. “You must take the crown and the ring in order to rule the Infinite Realms as it is your right—"

“Shut up,” Danny throws a couch pillow at it. The pillow bounces harmlessly off the ghost but his mom shoots it a second later so he feels rightfully validated.

“Don’t touch my son!” his mom snaps.

She blasts the ghost enough to send it backward, into the kitchen. The crown goes skidding out of its hands and rolls right to Danny’s feet. Danny meets the Observant’s eye. Then, out of pure spite, he kicks the thing as far away from him as possible. The Observant narrows its eye.

Mom has a ectogun to the Observant’s face before it can protest. Danny tries to hide his smile, but doesn’t do a fantastic job if the look the Observant is giving him is anything to go by.

“Listen here, you odd manifestation of ectoplasmic energy and post-human consciousness,” Mom says and leans a bit closer. “You are going to tell me exactly why you are here and exactly what you were trying to do to my son.”

The Observant doesn't even look at her.

“Another time, then,” the Observant says but it’s glaringly obvious that it is not talking to Danny’s mom. It stares at him with its weird, beady eye.

Mom notices and shakes the thing with her fists. She looks a second away from decking it and, if it had been any other situation, Danny might have let her. He probably would’ve even laughed. This situation, however, is not one Danny finds much humor in.

The Observant gives him one more look before both it and the crown disappear in a puff of green smoke. His mom’s face twists into one of furious frustration but she doesn’t seem wholly surprised. The house plunges into a irreversible quiet and, sitting on the floor of the living room, Danny feels a familiar twinge of apprehension in his gut.

It’s incredibly apparent that the Observants have no qualms about secret identities.

Not a second later, his dad bursts into the room with a gun in hand. “GHOST?”

“You just missed it, honey,” Mom says, fuming, before dropping to her knees and pulling Danny into a hug. “Oh, Danny, I’m so sorry. That must have been so terrifying for you. I know how much those nasty ghosts scare you. I promise that we'll work on the ghost shield and nothing like that will ever happen again.”

Luckily, his mom seems more concerned about the fact that a ghost got into their house and tried to attack their son than to pay close attention to the words the ghost has spoken. It doesn’t stop the rush of guilt that holds his very core.

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

“Take the crown, Daniel.”

“Can’t,” Danny says, tightly. “I have an algebra test tomorrow that I haven’t studied for because someone keeps trying to put a crown on my head when I’m sleeping so, as you can see, I’m trying not to be stressed about that. Can we please schedule this for another time?”

The Observant gives him a look. For a floating eyeball, the thing is shockingly expressive.

Danny shifts into a fighting stance. “Right, of course. I forgot nothing is easy with any of you.”

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

Jazz catches him shuffling down the stairs to the basement at four o’clock in the morning.

“Danny,” she says slowly, “How many of those eyeball ghosts are in that thermos?”

“Twenty seven,” Danny answers and tries not to fall down the stairs in pure exhaustion.

It’s more of a game at this point—try and get as close to the ghost kid as possible to put on the crown and the ring before he blasts them. Danny thinks the game sucks and he wants out.

“You don’t look very good.”

Danny narrows his eyes. “Thanks, Jazz. I hadn’t realized.”

Danny can tell from her face that she’s trying to psychoanalyze him but he likes to think that he’s actually doing pretty well considering the sheer number of Observants that try to force a crown or ring on him. It’s been almost a week and, well, he’s still not the Ghost King so that has to count for something. Danny is holding off hope that the council will get the message and fuck off.

“Don’t be sarcastic, Danny, I’m just worried,” Jazz says and follows him down the stairs. “How are you holding up?”

“My life is a nightmare,” Danny answers. “And my nightmares manifest in the form of lots of floating green eyeballs.”

He takes the last couple steps into the basement and places the thermos in the release shoot. There’s no point in keeping them in there—Danny knows because he’s already tried. No matter what he does or where he keeps them, both the Observants that he’s captured and the crown vanish from the thermos. Then, they show up the very next day and the cycle begins all over again.

“That’s very specific,” Jazz tells him. Then, “If they keep popping up like they have, it’s going to be very hard to keep your secret from mom and dad for much longer.”

“Jazz,” Danny says and tries to keep the worry out of his voice (even if he knows it's a losing battle). “If this keeps going then I’m not going to have a secret to hide from anyone anymore.”

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

There’s yelling on the streets and an ectoblast whizzes past his ears.

Danny’s in ghost form, fresh out of a battle from a rogue ghost, flying high above the streets with his parents following behind him in their assault vehicle. They’re yelling at him, like normal, and trying to blast him out of the air. Had it been any other day, Danny could’ve lost them in mere minutes but he’s exhausted from the fifteen observants he’s been avoiding and the two ghosts that he’s fought just this afternoon.

Another blast comes dangerously close to hitting him.

His ghostly tail flicks in irritation and he turns, just for a moment, to yell out, “Stop blasting me!”

He almost gets an ectoblast to the face in reply.

“Hold it, ghost kid! Listen to me when I’m talking to you!”

Danny races through the streets, the RV curving dangerously on the road behind him. A shot fizzes by his ear and he drives to the right, towards the school. He makes it a good thousand feet when an Observant pops, literally, right in front of him with the crown in his hand.

Danny shoots the Observant on principal.

Unfortunately, Observants are freakishly strong for only being a giant floating eyeball and, sure enough, he had a grand total of three different pursuers behind him. The only thing that could make his day better is if Valerie shows up to join the party.

(He really, really hopes Valerie does not show up to join the party. Danny doesn’t think he can handle his parents, the Observants and Valerie well enough to keep the crown off his head and his secret intact.)

Too add to Danny’s extreme luck, he can only take so many ectoblasts before even he needs to land lest he be forced to transform back into a human. He lost the Observant someone a couple blocks back, but, sadly, his parents will not be bound by important things like traffic laws and speed limits. His parents end up cornering him in some wayward back alley where they stand at the mouth, blocking the entrance. Both guns are trained on his grounded form.

His dad aims his ectogun right at Danny’s face and shouts, “Freeze, spook!”

Danny really, really doesn’t want to fight his parents but he also doesn’t want to be caught and dissected, so he powers up his ectoblasts anyways and waits for a good enough opening to fly away without being shot out of the sky for a second time today. His mom watches him with a wary caution that he matches. Out of the two, she’s definitely the more dangerous one.

“Come quietly, Phantom. You’re trapped,” his mom says.

It’s then that the Observant decides to make its appearance directly next to his parents at the mouth of the alley, holding out the crown. His parents jump at the sudden arrival of yet another ghost but the Observant pays them no mind.

“GHOST!” Jack yells and hoists his gun to the newest arrival.

“You’re the ghost that was in our house the other day,” his mom says with a sort of venom in her voice. She looks mad—like, actually pissed off—which is something Danny’s glad he’s never been on the receiving end of (yet). She seems almost conflicted, like she wants to aim at the new ghost but cant't since her gun is currently trained on Danny's chest.

The Observant hardly reacts, holding the crown out further. It meets Danny’s eyes and Danny has half a mind to blast the thing, despite his parents being there.

“Please do not make this more difficult than it already is,” it says.

There’s a split second in Danny’s mind where he almost considers turning himself over to his parents. Surely, it would be better than whatever awaited him should the Observant actually manage to crown him.

“Listen, guys,” Danny says and backs away. He holds up his hands, placating. “This has been fun and all but I’m very tired and I don’t actually want to deal with this so if I could, like, leave, that would be great.”

His mom’s eyes snap back over to him and she lifts her gun from where she had lowered in during her surprise. “You aren’t going anywhere, spook!”

The order actually got a rise out of the Observant. It turns to his parents with its single eye narrowed. “You have no jurisdiction over Phantom.”

“Phantom is in our town,” his mom snaps right back. The gun unwittingly moves more towards the Observant and less towards Danny. "Therefore we decide what is and is not fit!”

“He is the rightful king—"

“King?!”

"Ghosts don't have kings—"

Through the bickering, no one notices as Danny sinks into the floor, slips out of the alley and vanishes.

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

“Please, don’t,” Danny says.

He’s in ghost form, hovering about two hundred feet off the ground. It had been a normal morning for him so far despite the distinct lack of Observant appearances. Now, with a sick feeling in his stomach, Danny understands why.

In front of him, the Fright Knight stands in all his terrifying, ten foot tall glory. “You must bear the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage in order to take your place on the throne."

"Cant we talk about this, maybe?" Danny says, a little leery and more than a little pissed off. It's one thing to deal with a bunch of annoying, flying eyeballs but it's another thing entirely for said flying eyeballs to recruit the ghost of nightmares.

"I apologize, my prince, but there is no option here.”

Behind the Fright Knight, ten or so Observants loiter in the air. The one in the middle holds the familiar flaming crown and another holds the ring. They surround him in a semicircle, looking expectantly at the Fright Knight.

Danny’s life really just sucks.

“Oh, there’s an option alright,” Danny snaps. If there's one thing he hates, it's not being given a choice and while this is going to hurt (it’s so going to hurt), Danny is not going to let the Observants or the Fright Knight get that god-awful crown on his head. “I beat you once and I can do it again!”

The Fright Knight tilts his head in recognition and draws his sword. “Perhaps, but I am not playing to win.”

Has Danny ever mentioned that his life sucks? Because his life sucks.

“Should we help him?” Tucker asks Sam from where they stand below. Danny can just barely make out the words they’re saying with humming of his core and the rush of adrenaline that shoots through his system.

“I don’t think they’re planning on hurting him?” Sam answers back. “Besides do you have anything to go up against the Fright Knight?”

“Point,” Tucker says.

(Danny has great friends.)

“We would rather have done this the easy way,” one of the Observants says. The others bob their eyeballs in agreement.

Danny whirls on them, eyes narrowed. “You forfeited your right to have opinions on what's easy when you brought the Fright Knight into this!”

“It’s for your own good,” the same Observant answers. “The Fright Knight serves the king and the king alone.”

“For your own good,” Danny grumbles under his breath, mockingly. His hands light up with ectoplasm. “We’ll see about that.”

The fight doesn’t take long.

It’s as the Fright Knight said; he is not fighting to win. The knight is not below a few dirty tricks to hold Danny down for just a few seconds. Danny puts up a good fight but he's running on three shots of espresso and maybe a sum total of six hours of sleep the entire week thanks to the constant threat of observants trying to put the crown on his head or ring on his finger. Safe to say, he's not in his prime condition.

The Fright Knight ends up pinning him down in the middle of the destroyed street. His friends rush forward to help, but two Observants hold them back. Danny thrashes from where he’s pinned but he can’t do much more than move his head around. The Fright Knight and his horse are, unsurprisingly, very heavy and apparently very well trained in holding down slippery, intangible ghost-teenagers.

The Observant holding the crown approaches him slowly. Danny tries to bite it’s long, claw like hands out of spite but the Observant goes intangible before he can make contact. It slowly lowers the crown towards his head.

Danny’s eyes flash a dangerous green. “I swear, if you put that crown on my head I’ll—are you kidding me?!”

The Observant drops the crown on his head. It hovers just a few centimeters above his hair and Danny immediately feels a heavy sort of energy expanding throughout his body. The crown flares to life, changing from a small flicking fire to a roaring flame as power gathers in his very core.

“You could have come to your own coronation, however, we were forced to make drastic measures,” the Observant that crowned him says.

Boy, doesn't that just set Danny off.

With a snarl, Danny uses the new energy to twist and blast the Fright Knight off his back. The crown follows his movement, flaring brightly whenever he uses his powers. Instead of fighting back, the knight merely bows and disappears. Danny waits a couple moments, tense and ready to fight, but it seems the Fright Knight has done what he came here to do.

The crown feels heavy on his head.

He blasts the two Observants holding Sam and Tucker, too, just because they’re annoying. They rush over to him, but he holds up a hand and motions for them to wait. There are, after all, still ten ghosts and a ring that Danny needs to avoid.

Danny turns to the Observants, fights clenched and eyes narrowed. “Okay, congrats! You win. The crown is on my head. Please get rid of it now.”

“The Crown of Fire is your right,” one Observant says. “It belongs to you alone.”

An idea suddenly comes to mind.

“Cool,” Danny says, slowly. He takes the crown off and is surprised how little it resist. The fire doesn’t even burn his hand as he holds it by the rim. “Then you won’t mind if I do this.”

He throws the crown as far as he can, watching it sail above the homes. It flies for a hot minute before flicking out of sight. Danny feels strangely satisfied when he turns to the Observants with a grin on his face. However, the Observants don’t look nearly as worried as Danny expects them to. In fact, they look unbearably smug for what is, functionally, a giant floating eyeball.

The looks he's getting ring as very bad in his mind.

Something heavy settles back on his head. Danny’s smile drops and feels a sinking alarm in his gut when he reaches up to touch the flaming crown that he had, just mere seconds ago, thrown across the entire town. The same power settles in his core once again.

“No,” Danny whispers, horrified.

“Holy shit,” Tucker says from across the street.

Danny turns and catches Sam’s eye. She mouths what is going on? at him. Danny wishes he knew anything about what’s happening but, as always, he’s clueless and confused and no small part of him is very, very angry.

The Observants merely stare at him. One steps forward and says, “The crown is yours by right. Hold out your hand and we will bestow upon you the Ring of Rage. Then your coronation will be completed and we shall leave you and return to the Infinite Realms to continue our temporal duties.”

Danny’s flare a brighter green. Ectoplasm pools in his hands and he readies for another fight. He doesn’t know it at the time, but his crown flickers to life. Suddenly uneasy, the Observants back away slowly.

“If you try and put that ring on my hand I will cut off my fingers,” Danny says.

“You won’t,” another Observant says.

“Wanna bet?”

They get the ring on his finger but, by god, Danny doesn’t go down without blasting all ten of them into the ground first. They pin him just like before, in yet another crater in the middle of a street with the crown on his head, the ring on his finger and unimaginable power flowing through his veins.

Apparently satisfied, the Observants let him up and quickly retreat. Danny stands, grumbling all the while, brushes off the remainder of dust on his suit and turns to the Observants. He's staring at the group, wondering just how he should get rid of them after they ruin more lives when all ten of then fall to their knees.

Danny takes a step back in alarm.

“All hail King Phantom,” the Observants say together. Their voices echo across the quiet streets of Amity Park. “Defeater of Pariah Dark and ruler of the Infinite Realms.”

People come out of their houses, peeking and staring up at him in horrified awe. Children point to his crown and laugh while the eyes of the adults reflect unseen amounts of terror. Danny can already see whatever good reputation he had dying like a snuffed out flame due to a single announcement. Danny meets Sam and Tucker’s eyes and wishes for nothing more than to flicker out of existence at that very moment.

Instead, Danny is forced to stand there, arms crossed and pissed off, with a burning crown floating on his head, a heavy ring on his finger and the weight of the entire Ghost Zone on his shoulders.

It’s quite possibly the worst day he’s ever had in his entire half-life.

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

The ghosts coming out of the portal over the next couple days to congratulate him almost make the situation worse.

It’s Johnny 13 who comes out first, gives him an exaggerated bow with a grin and says, “Hope you have a fun time being king, kiddo. I don’t envy you.”

Danny, who has had the worst two weeks of his life, simply rolls his eyes and mutters a sarcastic, “Thanks.”

“Kitty sends her regards as well," Johnny flashes him a lopsided grin and gets on his bike. He raves the engine before suddenly looking back. "Don’t expect the current peace to last.”

Danny watches him go, hands in his head. The crown flickers in the dim light and ring glows. He’s still not quite sure what a normal king is supposed to do; much less king of the Ghost Zone.

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

“The crown looks good on you, dipstick,” Ember says, later, when he’s out flying and trying to clear his head. No matter what he’s tried, the crown and ring simply won’t go away. He's been forced to wear an assortment of hats and gloves in order to keep his parents from finding out. They're pissed enough that Phantom was crowned the Ghost King as it already is.

“I hate this,” Danny tells her. “I want the crown and the ring gone.”

The other ghosts are definitely enjoying his absolute misery, even if they were all on somewhat friendly terms. As it turns out, a lot ghosts tend to play suck-up when confronted with unimaginable power.

Ember's smile widens and she says, “Well they’re your crown and ring. You can do what you want with them.”

Danny wants them gone. Then, he realizes something and stares at her in surprise.

“Was that advice?” Danny asks. "Did you just give me advice?”

“Did I?”

“I thought you hated me.”

“Right now, I pity you more than anything,” Ember tells him. “It’s whatever, babypop. You’re the king now and you’re no Pariah Dark so even if you do get in the way of my plans, I’d rather have you be king than go back to his rule.”

“That’s a very low bar to set,” Danny mutters under his breath. He stands, the crown flaring as he does so. He tries to hide his scowl. “Don’t cause trouble or, I dunno, try and brainwash the entire human population, and you can stay.”

He disappears into the air, content to head home for the night. Behind him, Ember calls out, “Think about what I said, dipstick! It’s your own power. You just have to learn how to use it.”

Later that night, he floats on his bed an concentrates. His own power bubbles to the surface and, in a fit on control, he wills his ring and crown to disappear. The objects flicker once, twice, before vanishing entirely. They’re not completely gone, of course, because he can still feel the power in his body but hidden is better than nothing.

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

Technus gives him some weird ghost device as a congratulations present. Danny’s pretty sure it’s not going to explode and/or capture him, but he can never be certain with a ghost like Technus. He ends up quietly shuffling it to Tucker when the technology-themed ghost isn’t looking.

Youngblood, Spectra, the Box Ghost, Lunch Lady, Desiree and even Vlad (holy shit) come and give him (begrudging) congratulations. Half of them think it's hilarious that he’s the poor sucker who gets the bear the burden of the crown while the other half think it’s too much power for his tiny halfa body to handle. Luckily, Danny now has a much easier time sending them back to the Ghost Zone if they get too rowdy.

Vlad gives him an especially vindictive look when he corners Danny in their human forms. Danny returns his look by secretly flipping him off since he can’t exactly shoot the mayor with an ectoblast in public.

Vlad leers over him in what's supposed to be intimidating. “I doubt you can hold on to that crown forever, boy.”

Danny might not want to be king but there’s absolutely no way that he would ever let the crown or the ring fall into Vlad’s hand.

He pushes Vlad away and clenches his fists, eyes narrowed. “Are you going to try and take it from me, fruitloop?”

“Perhaps another time,” Vlad says with a smile. Danny holds his fists to his side to keep from punching him in the face. “After all, a crown is a heavy burden for a child to bear.”

Danny grits his teeth. “I think I’ll manage.”

“We will see, little badger,” Vlad says and turns to leave.

Danny glances around, just to make sure no one is looking, before creating a tiny ice patch right in front of Vlad. He tries to keep his laughter muffled (but definitely takes pride) when the billionaire-asshole slips and sends him a particularly nasty glare. He gives Vlad the most innocent wave he can muster despite the grin on his face.

Danny thinks he probably needed that meeting with Vlad. While he still doesn’t want the crown, Danny finds that spite is one hell of a motivator to keep the crown as far away from Vlad as possible.

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

Skulker comes last. To Danny’s horrified surprise, he bows low and says, “Congratulations.”

Danny stands in his pajamas at three o’clock in the morning and feeling slightly overwhelmed. “Alright, this is more than a little weird.”

“It’s custom to greet the new king,” Skulker says and straightens back out. Danny’s half waiting for a gotcha! and some missiles but Skulker doesn’t do much more than observe him.

Danny narrows his eyes and crosses his arms. “Do you have to be weird about it?”

“Don’t get me wrong, whelp,” Skulker says as he turns to leave. “This will not last. I hope you realize that just because you are king does not mean I will stop hunting you. Your crown just makes you that much more valuable to mount on my wall.”

Danny shifts between feeling touched and a little relived at the normalcy of the situation and the normal disgust that comes with Skulker threatening to skin him because, really, it’s just gross. Despite his words, he still hears the silent message Skulker is trying to convey.

Just because your king doesn’t mean anything will change.

And that? That’s more than a little relief off his shoulders. For the first time since he was crowned, Danny lets out a genuine bark of laughter and a grateful smile comes to his face.

“Thanks,” Danny says. “I don’t think I’d have it any other way.

#i wrote all 7k of this in one day so Thats Neat #anyways theres too much angsty in the danny phantom fandom so im making it my lifes mission to write not-angst #danny phantom #phic #phicc #i think thats what this fandom calls fanfiction uuuhhhhhhh #danny fenton #danny phantom fanfiction #my fics #phandom #idk what else to tag this as so just take it #do readmores even work on mobile or is tumblr like. broken.

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darks-ink · 5 years

Text

Disinterred CH.14

Vlad Masters considered himself a patient man. He had, after all, waited a long 20 years before he ever acted on his plans of vengeance. He had spend the last 2 years carefully manipulating Daniel to become his son and half-ghost apprentice.

And he had waited a full week for Valerie Gray to catch her bounty.

(Tumblr hates links and I want this to appear in the tags so… for author notes/full fic summary/links to the other chapters/mirror links to AO3 and FFnet, click here)

Valerie hesitated briefly on the doorstep of FentonWorks. The day before had been her first time visiting the house, but she didn’t think it really counted. She had only been there to drop off Danielle, and she hadn’t even used the front door! Hell, she hadn’t even entered the damn house!

Finally she pressed the doorbell. A veritable explosion of noise came from the house, briefly startling Valerie. What was going on in there?

But before she could really think of anything the door swung open. The thundering footsteps she heard before stopped somewhere further in the house.

In the opening of the door stood a teenage boy. His hair was black as the night and his eyes icy blue. Just who she was looking for.

“Hey Val,” Danny greeted, stepping aside to let her in. “I hope dad didn’t startle you – he’s waiting for Jazz to arrive.”

“She’s coming over for the Summer vacation then?” she asked as she entered. Jack was lingering in the doorway to the living room, deflating a little when he saw her. Valerie tried not to feel offended.

Then the man seemed to realize that he didn’t know her, as he frowned at her.

Danny must’ve noticed too, because he promptly introduced her. “Dad, this is Valerie Gray. She’s a friend from school.”

Valerie smiled at the older man, offering him her hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Fenton.”

He opened his mouth to answer, but the sound of an explosion cut him off. He glanced in the direction of the kitchen for a moment before turning back to face them. “Right, nice to meet you too. Why…” He seemed to be struggling for a polite way to ask her why she was here. Or, more likely, why she was here now.

“I asked her to come over, dad.” Danny took mercy on his dad, and on her, too. She wasn’t exactly scrambling to explain that she already knew about Dani’s presence at FentonWorks. That, in turn, likely would force her to reveal her status as the Red Huntress. And besides the obvious fact that it was a secret identity for a reason, it was no secret that Red hated Phantom. She really didn’t want Jack Fenton to unleash his protective nature on her for threatening his son. Never mind that he had done the same. She highly doubted that he would listen to such reasoning.

Danny had grabbed her arm and started guiding her towards the stairs. “We’ll be in my room. Call if you need anything,” he yelled over his shoulder at his dad.

“Right,” Jack said, blinking somewhat surprised.

And then before she knew it she was standing in Danny’s bedroom. She considered looking around for a moment, but restrained herself to a quick glance. The room was almost entirely blue, with space-themed decoration scattered around the room. Quite fitting for a boy who had expressed an interest in space and becoming an astronaut.

But for now she needed to focus on the reason why she was here in the first place. After all, yesterday Danny had promised to tell her everything. And this morning he had texted her, telling her to come over so they could talk in private. Without the risk of anybody overhearing.

“Sooo,” she finally said when she felt like the silence had lingered too long, making sure to draw out to ‘o’. “You were going to tell me the whole story?”

“Right.” Danny glanced around the room before offering her a chair. She sat down while he sank down onto his bed. “It’s… a long story. And complicated.”

“I’ve got time.” She shot him a reassuring smile, and Danny visibly relaxed. His posture eased up, muscles unclenching. Valerie had a pretty good idea of how he felt. She had gone through her fair share of awkward conversations with her dad since she had become a ghost hunter.

“Okay, so… This whole mess started some 20 years ago, when my parents were in college.” Danny leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees. “They were part of this ghost hunting club. The two of them… and Vlad.”

Valerie nodded to show that she was following. Danny sighed and continued speaking.

“All three of them were close, I guess. I don’t know much. None of them like to talk about it. Anyway, the three of them somehow figured out that there was an alternate dimension where ghosts resided. They built a machine trying to get there. A Portal. A small one, especially compared to the one in the basement, but a Portal nonetheless.”

“And it didn’t work?” Valerie asked, now also leaning forward, intrigued. She figured that if that Portal had worked, ghosts would’ve been known way sooner. At the very least Danny’s parents would’ve been far more prepared for them – and Vlad Masters likely wouldn’t have hidden his ghost hunting past.

“Nope. It exploded in Vlad’s face. He got a horrible case of Ecto-Acne, and…” Danny paused for a moment before sighing again. “And he became the first known half-ghost. 20 years before I got my powers.”

“Oh,” she said. That was… unexpected. But then Danny had never told her how he had become half-ghost, either. Had he gone through something similar? “But wait. If you left behind a body when you became half-ghost, why didn’t Vlad?”

“I don’t know,” Danny admitted with a shrug. “I guess it might’ve been because he didn’t instantly become half-ghost. He suffered through that whole slow Ecto-Acne thing.”

“And I’m guessing that you become a half-ghost in a similar way?” she mused.

“Uh, yeah.” He made a face. “I never told you? When my parents first tried to turn on the Fenton Portal downstairs it didn’t work. Sam and Tucker talked me into checking it out, I tripped over a cable, and accidentally turned it on.”

Yeesh, that didn’t sound pleasant. She hissed through her teeth. “While you were still inside it huh?”

“Yup.” He shrugged. “It was only like a bazillion volts of electricity and ectoplasm, no biggie. It only hurt for a few infinitely long seconds.”

Then he shifted slightly before starting to talk again, clearly eager to change the topic. “Anyway, to get back to what we were talking about. Vlad became the first halfa. Then he cut all contact with my parents, and now blames them, saying that they cut him out of their lives. On top of that he still blames my dad for the accident and wants to kill him. And he wants my mom as his wife because he has been in love with her since college.”

“Jesus.” That was… a lot. And here she was, thinking that she was overwhelmed by all of this ghost business. She had nothing on Danny! No wonder that he always seemed so tired and exhausted in school. “And he wants you as his son, right? Because you’re half-ghost too.”

Danny nodded. “He’s been badgering me since he found out, which was a few months after the Accident. I told him off, since he kept asking me to renounce my dad and all that. I mean, he straight-up told me he wanted to kill my dad, and then asked me to join him!” He hissed something under his breath, which sounded somewhat like “fruitloop”. Then he spoke again in his previous volume. “I guess when that failed he went to acquire some other pawns instead.”

A pawn like… “Like me?”

Danny said nothing, he just nodded again. The grimace on his face told her enough, though.

“Of course.” She pressed her hands against her face and groaned. “I can’t believe I fell for that! Why didn’t I question someone who send a fucking 14-year old ghost hunting equipment! Of course there was something shady going on!” The best ghost hunter he knew, her ass! The most naive, maybe.

“Valerie, it’s okay. I don’t blame you.” His voice was soft, soothing. It reminded her of how badly she could’ve hurt him. Of what she wanted to do to him.

“That doesn’t make it okay, Danny!” she snapped, dragging her hands off of her face again. “He manipulated me. He wanted me to hunt you, knowing that you were… that you are human!”

She was breathing quickly, heavily. She wasn’t just upset, she was angry. She couldn’t believe what that slime of a human being had almost made her do!

“And then he asked me to track down your clone! Which he made! Who is, without a doubt, just as human as you!” she exclaimed with a growl.

And then she stopped in her track. She suddenly remembered the girl she had brought to the Fentons just the day before. The girl who looked like she had been on the verge of collapsing, of dying.

“Oh god, Danielle. I completely forgot about her!” She started to scramble up out of her chair, half-raised before Danny spoke.

“Shh,” Danny soothed, raising his hands placatingly. “She’s fine. We managed to stabilize her.”

“Good.” Valerie slumped back into the seat with a sigh. “What’s… What’s she gonna do next?”

“Well, mom and dad are really excited about the prospect of a new daughter.” He grinned, smile widening at her incredulous expression. “So we’re going to have to sort all of that out, but… She’s gonna stay with us.”

“Good, that’s… That’s good.” Valerie let herself relax into the chair a little further. “What… are we going to do about Vlad?”

“I don’t know,” Danny admitted. “I never really figured out how to deal with him, to be honest. For now Dani is more important.”

“But he’s going to want to know why I didn’t capture her,” Valerie pressed. “What am I supposed to tell him?” A little bit of frustration slipped through in her tone. But she had gotten herself into this mess, so she wouldn’t let Danny suffer for it. Not this time.

“Well,” Danny said with a bit of smirk. “Why don’t you tell him–”

And he had waited a full week for Valerie Gray to catch her bounty.

Yet no ghost huntress came. Despite her previous successes, the girl had apparently failed to capture the pathetic should-be clone. It was rather disappointing, especially since she hadn’t even bothered to let him know. That’s what he got for relying on teenagers, he supposed.

He sneered and hit the call button. He would have to ask her about her failure in person.

Soon enough the teenage huntress appeared, retracting her board and landing on the floor in front of his desk. Her helmet retracted, her face neutral for once.

“Mr. Masters,” she greeted, voice rather emotionless.

“Miss Gray,” he allowed with a slight nod of his head. “I must inquire on the status of your hunt of the little Phantom. I’m afraid that I don’t quite feel safe, knowing that she might still be out there somewhere.”

“Right.” Valerie grimaced a little, apparently displeased by her lack of success. She turned away, looking at one of his walls instead of him. “Sorry, Mr. Masters. I… I failed.”

It was rather unlike her to admit failure. No, Valerie was persistent. She didn’t give up. So why had she?

“What happened, my dear girl?” he asked, voice smooth and purring.

“I, uh. I tracked her down, but she got away.” She turned to face him again, an apologetic look on her face. Frustration laced her voice, however. “Somehow Phantom, the regular Phantom, found out. He interfered before I could catch the girl ghost and escaped with her.” She shrugged. “I don’t know what happened after that, I haven’t seen either of them since then. I haven’t been able to pick them up on the scanner, either.”

Her being unable to find them made sense. If they shifted into their human forms Valerie’s scanners would fail to pick up on them. Even if their ghostly cores stayed in human form, they were dormant. Weak enough to avoid detection.

But importantly… How did Daniel find out about Danielle’s presence in the city? It made no sense. But Valerie wouldn’t lie to him, not about this. Her anger towards Daniel’s ghost form would blind her. She wouldn’t work together with him, not to save another ghost.

“How… unfortunate,” he told her. “You might understand, dear girl, that I can’t reward you for this?”

“No,” she sighed. “I understand, Mr. Masters.”

“Well, you better get going then, my dear.” He smiled at her, his smooth politician smile. He couldn’t afford to cast her out. Who knew when she might come in handy as pawn, even if she had failed this time. “And next time, please tell me sooner.”

“Yes Mr. Masters,” she said as her hoverboard reformed again. Her expression was stern, focused. Determined. “It won’t happen again.”

No, he was sure it wouldn’t. Next time he would take care of it himself, rather than trust a teenager like little miss Gray to take care of something this important. Or maybe he would send one of his ghostly pawns. Even if his vultures or Skulker weren’t much more successful in the past, at least they informed him when they failed.

For now though, he had another teenage ghost hunter to bother. If Daniel had interfered and grabbed Danielle like Valerie suggested, he still had her hidden somewhere. But he couldn’t have disappeared, not like she had suggested. He still had his human life, his family to fool.

So what Vlad needed to do was pay the boy a little visit. A quick stop by FentonWorks to speak with him. Yes, and either the boy would admit where Danielle was on his own… or Vlad could just stick a tracker on him.

Another infallible plan, truly.

The door to FentonWorks opened, and Vlad let loose one of his few heart-felt smiles. Because standing there in front of him is the ever-beautiful Maddie. Her clothes left something to wish for, that dreadful jumpsuit that Jack forced on her, but still. She was as gorgeous as always.

“Ah, Madeline–” he started to say, but she held up her hand and cut him off.

“Vlad.” Her tone was hard. Unfriendly. “Come in.”

He had to admit… he was confused. She didn’t seem very welcoming, perhaps something was going on? But then why would she let him come in? Unless it was him that she was annoyed with, but surely not? What could he have done to have angered her?

She walked into the living room, and Vlad trailed in right after her. The sight that greeted him, however, stopped him dead in his tracks.

Maddie did continue moving, however, as she sat down on the closest edge of the sectional couch. Next to her sat Jack, his large orange bulk taking up most of the remaining couch. He immediately laid his arm around Maddie’s shoulders, in a rather possessive manner. Vlad would’ve felt more angered at the display if it weren’t for the fact that the rest of the group was distracting him.

Next to Jack sat Jasmine. Her aqua eyes were set on him, cold and cutting. She had one of her arms wrapped around the person sitting next to her. Another girl, with sky-blue eyes and black hair bound back in a ponytail. Danielle. The girl had her arms wrapped around herself, looking uncertain but hopeful. What did she have to look hopeful about? What was she even doing here, among the rest of Daniel’s family?

On the furthest end sat Daniel himself, who also had an arm wrapped around the failed clone. His gaze was hard like his mother’s, but determined. For once the boy didn’t try to intimidate him with his ‘scary eyes’. Vlad would’ve complimented him, but he was sure that the boy was only refraining because he didn’t want the rest of his family to see.

“What’s this?” he finally uttered, turning to look at his should-be wife.

“This,” Daniel said, standing up from the couch and gesturing at it, “is a message, Vlad. You’ve gone too far. And we’re not gonna stand for it any longer.”

“’We’?” he repeated, quirking an eyebrow. Surely the boy hadn’t… He wouldn’t, right? Yes, he hadn’t been fantastic at upholding his end of their truce, but Daniel had been too afraid to reveal his secret. So, surely not?

“Yes, we,” the boy reiterated. “They know, Vlad. They know everything. Everything you’ve said, everything you’ve done, and…” Daniel grinned, a cocky smile usually seen on Phantom. “Everything we are.”

“You didn’t,” he hissed, a snarl forming. Ectoplasm surged, his core thrumming to life. But he repressed it. He had no need for flashy eyes, not like Daniel. The boy was bluffing, and he didn’t need to provide unnecessary evidence. He would be playing right into Daniel’s hand.

“He did.” Vlad turned to face Maddie again, watching as she uncrossed her arms and frowned at him. “And you, Vlad Masters, are a fucked-up mess of a human being.”

He flinched back at the harsh words of his love. Surely she didn’t mean it? Perhaps Daniel had lied, had embellished his stories a little?

“Maddie–”

“No!” she snapped. “You listen to me! You mess with me, fine! You act like a pathetic little man who can’t accept ‘no’ for an answer? Fine! But you know what you don’t do?” She pushed herself off of the couch, jabbing him in the chest with a finger. “You don’t mess with my children! Any of them!”

Then she leaned in even closer, teeth bared like an animal. “And you definitely don’t come here, pretending none of it ever happened!”

He flinched back another step. Maddie relaxed slightly, moving back as well. The rest of her family, including the pathetic clone, rose up as well. They grouped together, all staring down Vlad.

“Now listen here, V-Man.” Jack crossed his arms, an unusually serious look on his face. “I apologize for the accident in college, alright? And I’m sorry that we never knew how much we hurt you. It shouldn’t have happened, even if we weren’t the ones who cut the contact with you.”

“But that’s no excuse to hurt our children,” Maddie added, also crossing her arms. “To hurt us. If you had just talked to us, we would’ve apologized. Would’ve told you we were sorry. Because we are sorry about what happened to you in college.”

“Carrying a grudge like this isn’t healthy,” Jasmine contributed, speaking up for the first time since he had entered. “It’s not okay. Not for us, but definitely not for you. It’ll kill you, sooner or later.”

“But we’re willing to forgive you.” Daniel stared him down, a flicker of… hope, perhaps?… in his eyes. Vlad couldn’t quite place it, it didn’t make sense. Not in this situation. “Everybody deserves a second chance, even you.”

And then finally the little failure joined in. “But you gotta work for it. You have to apologize to everyone and correct your mistakes.”

He snarled, ectoplasm boiling up in answer to his emotions. His vision faded red, a clear sign of his eyes changing color. “The only mistake I’m correcting is you!” Pink ectoplasmic energy sparked around his hands.

The whole group, in answer, shifted into battle positions. The fists of both Daniel and Danielle lit up, coiling flares of ectoplasm, ready to be fired. The other three all pulled out various pieces of ecto-weaponry, hidden heavens know where.

“We’ve given you a choice, Vlad.” Daniel’s eyes lit up green. “Either you take it and apologize, or you get out.” The last words were growled, the threat more than clear.

Vlad took another look at the group assembled in front of him. Then he huffed, his eyes fading back to their normal blue. There was nothing to be won by fighting them. No, what he needed now was time to plan.

“Fine,” he drawled, flapping his hand in a faux casual gesture. “I will see all of you another time, then.”

And he turned around and walked off, not once looking at the people he was leaving behind.

#danny phantom #dp fanfic #phanfic #phanfiction #dp fanfiction #dark writes #disinterred #next week is the final chapter!#[excited dark noises]

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balshumetsbaragouin · 7 years

Text

Bittersweet Future: Chapter Fourteen

Summary:

The whole truth and nothing but the truth...

If It’s Answers You’re Seeking…

For a full five seconds, nothing could be heard except the steady drip drop of water from the cave ceiling to the floor. In the stunned silence, Danny had just enough time to regret having ever opened his mouth, before the eldest Masters sibling found her wits.

“You-you’re what?” Jasmine stammered out. Of all the things she’d expected to come out of his mouth, another apology, more lies, definitely more curse words, that statement hadn’t been anywhere on her radar.

“I, I um-”

“Oh, oh good God, he’s insane! Completely delusional, totally One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest gone. What institution did you escape from? Did you leave the rest of your common sense there too?” Daniel said before moving to stand next to his sister.

“I’m not crazy! I-what’s the point? I can’t tell you anyway.” Danny crossed his arms before leaning tiredly against one of the many stalagmites reaching towards the sky. Well, it’s not like I was going to avoid a smiting at this rate. Still, my dad is their mortal enemy and well…I doubt they’re going to be any more willing to let me stay if I explain how Jack Fenton is my father.

“Can’t tell us? Oh come on now, don’t leave us hanging! You just got to the good stuff. You’re from an alternate reality that got destroyed so that we can exist? Man that’s good, maybe I should write that down, I can use it in the fictionalization of my life for Hollywood or something.”

“Knock it off Daniel, this is serious, I mean this is the first remotely honest thing we’ve gotten out of him. So your last name is Fenton right?” Jasmine fixed her most neutral look onto her face. Calling Danny “skittish” was typically an understatement, and if her parents had taught her anything, it was feigning neutrality could fix all types of problems.

“Yeah it is.” Danny huffed and looked away from his sister’s penetrating gaze. He’d just admitted as much a minute ago, not like repeating it was going to get him into any more trouble. Although, he’d have to be sure not to let anything else out until he could think of a good reason for the outburst from earlier.

“Ok, so you are Danny Fenton. If you aren’t from ‘here’” the red head paused and actually unfolded her arms make the air quotes, “then where-when-are you from?”

“Well-”

“Why are you indulging his fantasies? He’s obviously some plant from the GSU. Sugar cookies, he’s done his job twice already. Once in Wisconsin, and just a few minutes ago at Camp, well what used to be Camp anyway. It doesn’t matter what false hypno-memories they’ve implanted in his brain, we need to tell Mom and-”

“Woah! Wait! You can’t just-I mean, I don’t have any false memories. These are all real, and I’m not a plant or spy or something. They were just trying to kill me; you can’t honestly believe I work for people who were trying to kill me?”

“The GSU hates all ghosts, and they still have captured ghosts on leashes doing their bidding. What are you some type of shape shifting ghost? Thought you could just slither in here and rat us out to your psychotic ‘Father’ and his little followers, and oh well if you died, no big deal! You’d love to die in service to your human overlords.” Daniel shot back.

“No. None of that is true. I’m not a ghost; I’m a halfa just like you or Vlad.” At their increasingly skeptical looks, he put his hands up. “I swear. I’m serious. I’m not lying.”

“Right, just like you weren’t lying about how you couldn’t remember what day it was, or that your mother was Harriet Chin.”

“I really did lose days, and ok, that part was a lie, but the rest of what I’ve told you wasn’t! Vlad really is an old family friend, that’s not a lie. He’s really is a family friend of my mother too, so-”

“So who’s your mother?” the elder girl asked.

“Um, she’s…” he trailed off grasping for a good lie. He’d already admitted Harriet wasn’t his mother, and with Vlad so universally hated, that left him with no real options. A little truth never killed anyone right? Well as far as I know. “Well, we have the same mom.”

The two Masters siblings shared a look before glancing behind them to the softly glowing section of the cave near the back. Their mother had been working diligently for at least an hour now, and they could still hear the soft whirl of the generator working to keep their father in ghost form, and possibly alive.

“You expect us to believe that we have the same mother? Are you seriously suggesting that we didn’t notice her-”

“Now, now Jasmine,” Daniel interrupted, “you’re forgetting he’s from alternate reality. So he totally could have been incubating in an alternate version of our mother who is apparently still on good terms with Jack Fenton or something. Is that about right?” When Danny didn’t answer, he rolled his eyes and squared off to face his doppelganger again. Taking a better look at the other boy, he could see parts of his face that eerily matched his own. If he didn’t know for sure there was no way they were related, he would think they were twins. As if I need anything else weird to happen in my life.

“Listen, I’m being as honest about this as I can. I don’t know how much I can tell you without causing more problems.”

“I don’t see how. If you really are from an alternate reality, then it’s an alternate version that no longer exists, and so, telling us about it isn’t going to affect this one in any way. That is, unless you are from the past or future of this universe instead of a different one entirely. In that case any information you tell us, especially about the future, could adversely affect the present to the point the entire timeline becomes unstable and shifts. But if that were the case, it’s likely you’d be unable to relay to us any information we wouldn’t be able to discern ourselves, thus avoid violating causality. Ergo, spill the beans.” Daniel said with a confident smile on his lips.

“I-you-what?” Danny scrunched his brows and blinked a few times before continuing, “is it physically impossible for you to use simple explanations or…? The point is, I can’t tell you anything, any details, about the alternate reality where I’m from. I shouldn’t have even told you I was from an alternate reality or something, but I just can’t stop running my big mouth.”

“Well get your mouth back into gear, because you aren’t staying in this cave with us until you explain who you are clearly for once. I don’t care if we have to march you back through the cave rubble and leave you outside with a ‘please pick up your trash GSU’ sign.” She walked over to one of the make-shift tables near the RV and picked up a weapon. It was one of the few that still held a charge, and she intended to use it if she had to.

“Hold on, you can’t just start pointing guns at me and threatening to kick me out! I mean if you don’t trust me, Vlad does and-”

“And doing so could have gotten him killed! He’s bleeding with poisoned metal burrowing itself deeper into his body every second because either you can’t follow simple instructions, or you are delusional brainwashed spy risking my family’s safety every moment you continue to draw breath. Personally, I’m no longer in the mood to find out which,” Jasmine said while clicking the mini-bazooka up a few notches. “Your options are, come clean about whatever it is you think you know, or get a hole blasted in you, and your body dumped a few feet in front of the cave entrance.”

“Are you really going to threaten me with that when I’m the only one with working ghost powers around?” Danny could feel his eyes already beginning to burn green from frustration and anger. “I don’t want to hurt you, or Daniel, or anyone here, but if you make me fight, you’ll regret it. I’m on your side here, so put down that gun before I have to blow it up.” He raised a green ecto-energy covered hand towards the general direction of the eldest Masters sibling.

The air in the anterior chamber grew increasingly tense as Daniel moved besides his sister to grab another weapon and his otherworldly twin lifted another green swathed hand to match. A cold sweat trickled down the back of his neck. In any other situation, he’d be more than capable of handling a fight, but after the day he’d had a stiff breeze could knock him over. They had to be mindful of the GSU as well. Even though they had likely already headed back to their headquarters in DC with their remaining men, they had satellites everywhere watching for their spectral energy. Even under all these tons of rock, there was no guarantee that they couldn’t sense even the small amount of energy the other dark haired teen had summoned. Just the same, he wasn’t about to back down from a fight with a likely ghost plant.

“What the hell is going on out here?” Maddie growled as she walked from the entrance to the posterior chamber into the room proper. She frowned as none of the teens involved in a poorly thought out Mexican standoff answered her. “Jasmine, Daniel, where are the twins and Lizzie?”

“Inside the RV, playing some tedious board game or watching a video.” When her mother only frowned further she continued, “I don’t know what they’re doing in there. They aren’t messing around with any systems, and they aren’t fooling around out here.”

“Fine. What are you and your brother doing with those guns pointed at Danny?”

“Our favorite fudge-up was just explaining how he’s from an alternate reality, Jack Fenton is his father, and he’s not a brainwashed ghost spy. Personally I don’t believe any of it but-”

“It’s true.” Maddie stated matter-of-factly before taking two large steps and grabbing the weapons from her now stunned children’s hands. “What I mean is, he’s managed to convince your father and me that that is the truth. I believed him, for the most part, and was going to finish questioning him tomorrow morning. However, I think due to the circumstances it warrants a revisiting of the subject right now.” She set the guns back onto the table and turned to face Danny with her children to her right. “Now, let’s see, you never did answer how you knew my husband in your original timeline, so let’s start there.”

Even though Maddie had set down the guns the teenagers had picked up, he could see her tapping her foot and palming another smaller weapon on her hip. That’s not a rhetorical question is it? “Um, it’s kinda a long story?” He offered with a chuckle. When it failed to get even the smallest smirk onto anyone’s lips, his laughter faded into a cough. “Well, you know you, Jack, and Vlad all went to the University of Wisconsin together? Well, when you and Jack were first married you just uh, never got divorced or whatever. You had Jazz,” he resisted the urge to sigh when he saw his sister scrunch up her face at the nickname, “and me.” The boy out of time paused to look for something to lean against now that the adrenaline crash was leaving his muscles even more tired and sore than before the hectic drive up the mountain.

“Well?” The auburn hair scientist prompted and watched him slink over to sit on top of one of the flatter stalagmites.

“Well uh, I grew up in Amity Park, and on the 20th anniversary of your college graduation, you went to a college reunion hosted at Vlad’s house-er well closer to a mansion really-in Wisconsin. That’s the first time I met him. He was, well it doesn’t really matter.”

“I beg to differ. I’ll decide what is and isn’t important information. Vlad told me you came back into the past so that the two of you would no longer be enemies. Obviously your first impressions of him are important for me to understand what would possess you to try something so completely ill advised.” She softened her stance and leaned back against the table behind her to take some pressure off of her aching feet. She’d been up for what felt like years, and while she was sure Vlad would pull through with little problem-bless his determination-it’d probably be touch and go for the rest of the night.

“Well he hosted the reunion so he’d have a chance to kill my dad and convince you to marry him, so I’d say my first impression of him was shitty. That answer your question? Oh, and after he realized I had ghost powers, he decided to pull a Darth Vader and ask me to join the dark side. So yeah, we weren’t best buds where I’m from.”

Daniel let out a rude snort at the other boy’s story. “You expect us to actually believe our dad wants to kill yours in your ‘timeline’? For what? When he can’t even do that now?”

“Don’t interrupt him Daniel; I want to hear everything he has to say without your more colorful commentary. So, Vlad and you met at this reunion, and he tried to murder Jack Fenton. I assume he failed.”

“Yeah, I stopped him, with some quick thinking and some luck. After that we’ve been at each other’s throats ever since. I mean, he placed a bounty on my head-”

“I thought he wanted you to be his new Sith apprentice?”

“Wuh, oh he did.” Danny stopped before scrunching his face up in thought and continuing, “I think it was just to make my dad look bad. What with him trying and failing to capture the million dollar ghost with the entire ‘professional’ ghost community around also trying to catch me. I think it was also a distraction for something. I don’t know what, everything he does has at least three different reasons and a plan F.”

“The next most pressing question is of course where you got ghost powers.”

“In a lab accident.” Danny replied.

“A lab accident where? The more specific you are the better.”

“It was my parents-your lab. You have a lab right underneath our house in the basement. You were building a working model of a man-made ghost portal. It didn’t work when you first plugged it in, even though this was like the fifth time you’d brought Jazz and me down to watch it get turned on and probably the 50th time you’d tried to make it work. Anyway, you left all defeated and me and my friends-”

“You and your friends were downstairs in a dangerous lab unsupervised?”

“Uh, well…yes. You left to go upstairs. We weren’t really thinking about it working. I mean you didn’t have any weapons just lying around or anything, it was just the portal and one of the lame Fenton jumpsuits.”

“Jumpsuits? Like that tacky ensemble you have going on in your ghost form?” It was Jasmine’s turn to interrupt.

“Yes. Exactly like that.” Danny grumbled under his breath before continuing, “my friends convinced me to go take a look inside the portal, just to snap a picture.”

“Why would you-”

“We thought it would cool ok? It had nev- we didn’t think it would even work. No one did. No one had even really seen a ghost back in my timeline. I hadn’t, and despite what my parents said, I don’t think they had either. It was just a stupid joke, it wasn’t supposed to work. I-” Danny took a deep breath to stop his rambling before it got out of hand. It had been almost a year since the accident and it still both boggled and upset him. Even though he, and several of the people standing around, were living proof that half-ghosts were real, when he thought about the accident, it was still hard to wrap his mind around it. “I put on one of my parents dorky jumpsuits and stepped inside the portal. One of my friends was angling for a better shot and asked me to back up. I did and leaned my hand against the wall inside the portal. I turned it on. It gave me ghost powers. That’s the end of that story.”

Maddie tapped her chin with one finger as she took in Danny’s tale. It was, as far as she could tell, entirely the truth. There was still some details missing, like who his friends were and why, why, why no one came running when that portal activated and discovered his powers right then. Just the same, it would suffice for the moment.

“Next question, you told me before that the ghost hunting community in Amity Park was in shambles. In fact, you said they needed your help to catch ghosts, despite having professional ghost hunters around.” She paused to hop onto the table behind her, forgoing a better position for offense in favor of her comfort. If I stand up any longer, I don’t think I’ll ever feel my lower limbs again. “If you were fighting ghosts on the regular, how did your parents not notice?”

“Notice?” Danny squeaked, not liking where this line of questioning was going.

“Surly, someone must have figured out you were fighting. At the very least, you wouldn’t have been proficient in either martial arts or your ghost powers when you first started. If ghosts were enough of a problem that two professionals couldn’t stem the tide, then you’d have to have taken some injuries from fighting. How did you continue to go to school while ghost hunting? The physical changes resulting from a-an integration of ghost powers into a fully formed human body are incredibly noticeable. Didn’t their equipment ever pick you up?”

“Well, um, yes?” Danny offered sheepishly.

“Yes to what Danny?” Maddie clicked her tongue in distaste before shifting on the hard table beneath her.

“Yes their equipment picked me up, but they just thought the equipment wasn’t working. No one knew halfas existed so, they just assumed the readings were borked. As for the other questions, my friends helped me out with ghost hunting, but I wasn’t doing the best in school when I left. I was tired from the fights even though I’d gotten better and uh, well you know half ghosts heal fast so…” Danny trailed off and scuffed a foot against the side of the stalagmite.

“Alright, I suppose that’s good enough, although the last, and most important question is, how you got here. How did you time travel at all?”

Danny suppressed the urge the wince. That was the one question he really didn’t want to answer. “I thought I already answered that question?”

“Hardly. You told me you got the time traveling Medallion from a powerful ghost whose name you couldn’t tell me. While that basically answers the question in the general “how” the time traveling itself took place, that doesn’t explain why that ghost let you have the Medallion at all. You’ve said it was for unabashedly selfish purposes, don’t make that face it’s true, so I’m wondering what was in it for this ghost. If they were powerful enough to create this relic, then they likely have time traveling powers of their own, and would be well aware of the delicate the nature of time. My question is really how did you convince this ghost to allow you free reign of the time line? Certainly they would have foreseen that you’d cause trouble-”

“-Er well Cl-he said something about me being outside the time stream and the consequences being my own. He’s a friend of mine, and I’ve been responsible,” well sort of, “with the Medallion in the past, so he figured I could handle this.”

Maddie took a breath to start another round of questioning, when she heard a loud groan echo from the back of the cave. She glanced behind her and mouthed ‘stay put’ to the teens, before getting up.

The teenagers spent a few minutes staring at each other across the distance before Jasmine broke the silence.

“So you’re telling me not a single person outside of the friends who saw the accident, and my dad, figured out you have ghost powers? The other ghosts you fought-”

“-Knew I had ghost powers and was human at the same time.” Danny answered with a shrug.

“And they never said anything to any of the humans around you? On top of that, I mean it’s not like your ghost form looks different from your human half, no hybrid’s does. I’m just having a hard time wrapping my head around this.” Jasmine sighed as the vague picture of the other teen’s timeline struggled to coalesce in her mind. Nothing about the reality he inhabited sounded anything like her own. Why was it so different? Does that even matter at this point? It isn’t like Danny can get back to it. She thought, coming to the same conclusion her younger brother had only half an hour ago. It was like the more he cleared up, the more numerous the questions became. “Why couldn’t you tell us any of this before?”

Danny huffed and crossed his arms in front of him. “Would you have really believed me?” He watched as the Masters siblings’ faces scrunched up in thought. “You didn’t believe me when I told you a few minutes ago, why would you have believed me in Wisconsin or on the flight over in that beetle thing? I know you might not believe me, but I’m not stupid.”

“That remains debatable.” Daniel quirked his lips and sighed. “Well, if you fought ghosts all the time that explains why you could hold your own against the GSU earlier. Although, I’m still a little confused about how you’d get all of that fighting experience in the first place. I mean how many ghosts could possibly squeeze through temporary portals, even in someplace as active as Amity Park?”

Danny scuffed his feet awkwardly against the damp stone floor of the cave before answering, “well they didn’t just have temporary portals to work with. For a while, the Fenton portal-”

“Oh you’re joking-”

“-Stop interrupting sheesh! Anyway, the man-made portal didn’t have a good lock on it. And it’s not very hidden in the ghost zone either. So ghosts were uh, slipping through the portal in my parents’ basement and escaping.” Danny shrugged at the mildly amazed looks the other teens were giving him.

“So you’re telling me not only was the portal not locked up tight and hidden on the ghost side, but ghost were regularly slipping past your parents defenses and equipment to escape and wreck havoc?” Jasmine felt her face screwing up in disbelief the longer she thought about it. A man-made portal in the basement of two ghost hunters and ghosts just snuck through their house and out into the open. No way either of them were that incompetent.

“Hey, I know that sounds kind of…impossible, but it’s the truth! Ghosts just aren’t taken as seriously back in my timeline as they here. I mean, up until about a year ago, no one was even sure they existed. They haven’t had a lot of time to adjust.” Danny shrugged and shifted on the top of his stone seat. Admittedly, the absolute reach and power the GSU had in this future was something he’d never thought was possible. The Guys in White back home were a cursory curiosity, barely funded and poorly trained. His friends could out fight them on half a night’s sleep and no food. And those ridiculous all white suits! I’ve seen them put in more forms for dry cleaning than ghost catching. Just the same, the agency here was run by…his father. He’d been avoiding really thinking about it. The man he knew, and the unhinged ghost slaying commander he’d met an hour back was like night and day.

Jack Fenton couldn’t remember to solder half of his own circuits, let alone run an agency, yet here he was the most serious threat to ghost kind on the planet. Danny took a deep breath, preparing to finally ask the other teens about some of their history, when a crash came from the back of the cave.

A shrill voice echoed from the chamber where Vlad was recovering, “I can’t believe you hid the fact he had ghost powers from me! Did you not think it was important? Has the ability to reveal our location to the people trying to murder us suddenly become a non-issue!? You promised me he wasn’t a threat, and here we are, in a cave, with none of our equipment.”

“I instructed him specifically not to use his powers. It’s not like I didn’t know how dangerous this could be, give me some credit. And no I didn’t tell you, because that was his information to tell not mine.” Vlad, clearly awoken from his injury induced slumber, half stomped half limped into the antechamber of the cave. He made it to a cluster of stalagmites a few feet into the make-shift room before leaning against them. Despite the hand on his stomach, he had a ferocious glare on his face. He breathed heavily into the growing silence, breath ragged, before standing straighter and continuing, “I had no reason to assume he’d disobey. Genuinely, I’d never put this family in danger, you know that.” He hissed out the last few words through pain clinched teeth and slumped back against the tallest stalagmite.

“Just because I know you wouldn’t do it on purpose, doesn’t mean it was alright to lie to me,” Maddie held her hand up before he could get a word in, “lying by omission is still lying Vladimir. I understand that you wanted to-”

“-I’m sure you do.” The sarcastic bite in the interruption could have peeled paint. “You know exactly why he’d want to work up to telling you about his ghost powers. I mean, it’s not like everyone has threatened to throw him out if they got a hint of a reason he was dangerous.”

“You’re deflecting! The problem isn’t him it’s you.” Maddie hissed.

“I’m not going to betray his good faith and privacy by telling you something he should have the right to-”

“Oh my God, this isn’t about privacy it’s about safety. Our safety is more important than his bashful whatever the hell it is preventing him from actually communicating with-”

“It’s not shyness, it’s prudence! When he last spoke to you, you thought he was a ghost plant sent to kill us. He doesn’t have any more reason to trust us than we do him. You’re being unreasonable.”

“You’re unreasonable…”

The married couple continued to bicker back in forth, oblivious to the awkward teenage audience shuffling their feet not a meter away. Jasmine and Daniel locked eyes and silently came to a conclusion. They waved a hand to get Danny’s attention, and silently the trio slipped farther away into another part of the cave.

Danny winced as the sound of continued arguments echoed away into the dark. Still, wherever the other two teens were headed, it had to be better than listening to them fight about him.

Jasmine reached into her pocket palming the cool silver disk inside. This far away from the heaters and generators of the larger chamber, the air was cool and clammy, like walking through an especially thick fog. She didn’t particularly dislike the cold, but after the unnatural heat of the rest of the cave, the change left her fighting back shivers. The disk felt like one of those ice packs placed in lunch boxes. It was cool, but nothing like an actual ice cube. She sighed when the argument behind her finally faded away into the plaintive plinks creating the ambient cave noise. Her right hand still ached like she’d twisted it wrong and slammed it into a wall at the same time. In the increasing gloom, it was hard to get a good look at her younger brother, but she didn’t need ghost enhanced night vision to tell he was just as exhausted. The scrapping shuffle of his sneakers against the hard stone combined with his slumped shoulders said enough. “Ok, that’s far enough I think.” She pulled the disk out of her pocket and gave it a shake. Slowly, the chemicals inside reacted to one another, becoming luminescent as she agitated them. The disk was artificially cooled so the light would slowly fade over the course of an hour or two until it was re-shaken.

Danny stopped just inside the sudden pool of light. He leaned against a wall with his arms crossed, keeping as much distance between him and the hostile siblings as he could manage. The ghost powered teen thought they had calmed down, but he didn’t put it past them to pull a gun on him. Their default solution to problems seemed to be shooting it until it wasn’t one anymore. Considering what happened earlier today, it’s not such a bad solution in general. “So...” He trailed off into the cool tense space between the three of them. They must have brought me out here for something.

“So, I think we should trade stories, life stories I mean. Since you actually managed to be truthful for once, I realize you have no idea how serious-how different this world is from your own. I mean, giant battle aside, do you have any idea what the GSU are like?” Jasmine let the question hang in the air for a second longer before continuing. “I think, to really understand where we are coming from, we need to tell you about the history of the GSU and a little bit about ourselves.”

“Even though I don’t like you, if you’re going to stop being a walking liability, we need to get you up to speed. Naturally, I still think this is a waste of our time and we’d all be better off leaving you on some back road to fend for yourself,” Daniel paused and stared at a spot in between Jasmine and Danny. “However, that’s not going to actually happen, much to my deep displeasure, so we need to mitigate damages.” He shrugged and pressed himself back against the wall opposite Danny.

The eldest Masters’ sibling frowned over at her brother before addressing Danny. “The first thing you need to know is that Jack Fenton’s only life goal is the eradication of the ghost species. He’ll stop at absolutely nothing to get that goal accomplished. You saw the mansion in Wisconsin?”

“Yeah sure-oh that’s probably rhetorical isn’t it?” Danny stuttered when he saw the annoyed look on the red haired girl’s face. “My bad.”

“Anyway, that’s where we lived before we moved to Amity Park. When I was almost six, the GSU, or well they were called the ‘Guys in White’ then, attacked the mansion. We barely escaped with our lives. Our father used the last of his assets, before they were frozen and relinquished to the government as the holdings of a ‘non-entity’, to craft new identities for us. We disappeared into the United States background. This was a long time ago, I don’t really remember much about it other than the fight at the mansion, and always running.” Jasmine stopped to rub at her sore wrist before locking eyes with Danny, “eventually, we settled in Amity Park.”

“Can I at least ask why? I mean when I was there, it was ghost hunter central. Was it different then or…?” Danny left the explanation open ended and rolled his shoulders. He was feeling a couple of landings from earlier and he’d much rather be sleeping than exploring the wacky past of this reality from Hell.

“It was a pretty active base for ghost hunters back then too. Our parents’ reasoning was that it would be easier to blend in right under the enemies’ noses. They were right for the most part.” Jasmine stopped to give her brother a quick glance. His face was as impassive as it had been since the conversation started. She nodded over at him to pick up where she left off. Talking about their time in Amity Park always left him skittish.

“We dyed our hair, wore colored contacts, and got our first set of spectral bracelets.” Daniel stopped to hold up his wrist, jingling the techno-jewelry with relish before lowering his arm. “We lived in Amity Park for nearly six years. We…made friends, went to school, blended in. It was unsafe at times, but relatively normal.” Daniel sat up straighter before leaning away from the wall. “We lived in ghost hunters’ HQ during the entire War. I’m sure the Head Commander,” he paused to sneer, “threw fits about that when he realized how long we’d been there.”

“War?” This time Danny had no idea what they were talking about. How did an entire war happen without anybody talking about it?

The eldest Masters’ boy smiled; it didn’t reach his eyes. “When Jack Fenton couldn’t get to us anymore, he convinced the GSU, they were called that now after the attack in Wisconsin, to wage war against the entire Ghost Zone. It…went well for them. Between my sixth birthday and my ninth, they captured, executed, or otherwise destroyed every piece of ghost civilization in the Zone. The last ghosts alive are either hidden deep inside the Ghost Zone, or held in the many, many experimental labs of the GSU. Most ghosts are either used as slaves or tortured and experimented on. We’re some of the last free sentient ghost-like being around, hybrids or not.” He leaned back against the clammy wall, shoulders tensed, a frown slowly deepening on his face. “In any case,” he started before loosening up once more, “we were eventually discovered.” Daniel stared off into the darkness back towards the front of the cave. He crossed his arms, his hands clenched involuntarily at his sides.

“Jack Fenton somehow discovered our secret identities.” She started sparing another surreptitious glance in her sibling’s direction. “He captured my brother, and our parents, mostly our dad actually, had to fight the whole ghost hunter collective in Amity Park to get him back. We escaped, obviously, and we’ve been on the run ever since.” Jasmine paused and stared down at her hand, swirling the disk in it unnecessarily. “That was almost five years ago, or it will be in a couple weeks. It’s been difficult to put it mildly.” Jasmine pinned their living headache with a look before continuing, “apparently, what we needed was for things to be shaken up. The Universe must have thought we’d become complacent, what with no major incidents in the last two years.” She tossed the disk to Daniel, to give her aching arm and wrist a break.

“Living on the run, it’s required us to be both paranoid and resourceful, something I imagine you’re familiar with considering you interesting life choices these last few months.” He stopped and swirled the disk another few times, thinking his words through. It had been a long day and without any adrenaline left, things were getting fuzzy at the edges. “So, you’ll understand where I’m coming from when I say this: your presence here is like a bucket of flies in the middle of an excrement sandwich. Sure, the sandwich on its own was terrible, but the flies improved nothing with their presence.” The ghost powered teen added with a glare. “Unfortunately, I don’t get a vote on whether you stay, and my father can be unhelpfully stubborn about helping other people. Chances are, you’re stuck here for an indeterminable duration, but at least after that last battle you have some idea of how dangerous the GSU are.” He snorted and tossed the light back to his sister, “or well one could only hope, I have my doubts about your cognitive abilities. I mean you did just walk up to ghost hunter HQ in Amity Park. But I’m sure something will eventually penetrate the thick veil of ignorance you’re carting around inside your skull.”

“I’m sure he gets it.” She stopped to switch the light into the hand that didn’t feel like it was going to fall off. “I’m almost as sure about that as I am about the fact you’re going to mention how much you hate him being here every time you get a chance.”

“Oh no, not every time, that would be redundant.” He passed a sardonic smile in his sister’s direction. “Just every time I can mention it in a new context.” The dark haired teen stood straighter and stretched, the crackling pops of his spine echoing in the absurdly quiet space in the small antechamber. “Do you think they’ve stopped arguing by now?”

Jasmine pursed her lips in thought before replying, “Maybe? If not, we can just sneak into the RV or the Hover. In any case, I don’t want to stand here in the damp and cold anymore.” With that, she pushed away from the hard rocky wall and started off down the path back to the main part of the cave.

Danny carefully slunk behind her. They hadn’t exactly been super forthcoming, but they’d given him a lot more information than he had volunteered on his own. Information that wasn’t strictly necessary to wrapping his head around the situation and reality he found himself in. To be frank, he wanted to ask more about their time in Amity Park. They’d lived there for a good while, made friends they’d claimed. It was entirely selfish, but maybe they knew something about Sam and Tucker? As if they remembered the names of people they’d left behind years ago in a panic. Oh yeah, they would definitely care about some random kids they probably never met in a town filled with people trying to kill them. Get real Fenton. He scuffed his feet as he listened to the subdued plinks and plunks of water dripping from the ceiling.

Even if Vlad and his mom had come to an agreement about him or just set aside their argument to figure out what to do next, he had no interest in walking back into the larger chamber. The churning feeling of guilt and hot burn of shame was eating at his mind. I really should have said something…or at least not used my powers like I had been asked. The damage had already been done, but that didn’t make him feel any better. In fact, it made him feel worse. Sure, they had already been planning to move, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that they’d left some nice equipment and maybe even important sentimental things back in the disaster zone that was the valley below. Danny was well aware kicking himself in the teeth about this wasn’t helping anyone, but stuck shuffling between the two exhausted Masters’ siblings; he was having a hard time doing anything else. If he had never blundered into their lives, they’d probably be perfectly fine right now. If I had never blundered into their lives, they wouldn’t exist either. The thought brought up another flare of frustration.

Clockwork clearly stated his intentions not to interfere unless he completely destroyed Reality or Time something, but in his opinion, this spiraling dystopia with the entire Ghost Zone dead definitely counted as a serious fuck up worth intervention. Just as the three of them rounded the last corner to make it back to the main part of the cave, Danny felt a wave of nausea with cold tingles down his back. What if Clockwork was one of the many ghosts killed during that War thing they were talking about before? He hadn’t considered the idea before now. Clockwork was the most powerful ghost he knew, or at least of the ghosts he interacted with even occasionally. But it was possible the reason he hadn’t come and done anything about this increasing clusterfuck of a universe was because he couldn’t. He could be already… The thought was too sickening to contemplate. He had no idea how to work the Medallion currently phased near his core. Even if they got him back into the Ghost Zone and he went into the Realm Beyond Time, if Clockwork wasn’t there, he had no way to get back into his own timeline, or to go back and attempt to fix what he’d broken so badly. Danny skidded to a stop right at the entrance to the antechamber with the RV before the other ghost powered teen shoved him from behind.

“Come on, there’s no use putting this off. It’s not like delaying the inevitable is going to save you from being tossed out on your butt.”

“Our parents aren’t going to toss him-”

“Shush, let me dream.” Daniel closed his eyes while a serene smile took over his expression.

“You are a terrible person. You know if you throw me out of here, the GSU will literally kill me.”

“And you have to know that I don’t give one solitary fudge covered strawberry about that fact.”

“Oh yeah, keep working for the psychopath of the year award Daniel, I’m sure the GSU needs competition.” Jasmine frowned over her shoulder at her younger brother. “You don’t have to like him, God knows I don’t, but could you stop wishing for his demise…at least out loud?” She watched as his amused smirk dropped back into a flat expression.

“Don’t have enough room left to care about people who nearly get my family killed. Sorry, oh saintly sister of mine.”

“Empathy is important.”

“You’d think after Austin, you’d learn to be more selective with your charitable views of other people.” He scowled and pressed a hand into the other boy’s back. “Come on, move it already.” He’d have simply gone around, if he wasn’t determined to keep him in his sight at all times. Finally, the other teen scuffled the rest of the way into the main chamber. A quick glance about the space revealed neither of his parents. There was also a lack of yelling or accusations. At least it’s quiet.

Jasmine sighed as she set the still glowing disk down on one of the tables. “I’m heading back to the RV to sit down on something that isn’t stone. You two can stay here and continue to stare each other down, or you can join me. Personally, my feet feel like lead weights, but if you two want to tough it out for some reason, be my guest.” With that, she started towards the vehicle at a slow pace. Moving at anything above ‘granny shuffle’ was impossible, everything felt like it’d been through a meat grinder, or pounded and tenderized. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure the two boys were following here, before walking the rest of the way to the RV door. She could hear muted conversation from inside. Nothing that sounded like yelling, but it was still impassioned discussion. I guess they moved the conversation to somewhere with soft cushions. A great idea in her opinion. She opened the door and stomped up the steps, fatigue instead of emotion leaving her footfalls heavy.

“I completely understand your position here hun…but can you at least see…why undermining his trust on this issue…so soon after he arrived…would have only made things worse?” Vlad had to stop every couple of words to take another shallow breath.

“I can, I just still think it’s stupid.” Maddie griped from her seat across from Vlad in the middle section of the RV. They’d moved into the space at her insistence, worried that he’d make his injuries worse by stubbornly standing and stomping around in frustration while talking to her. She turned slightly to watch the three teens clomp up the stairs back into the vehicle. They could table this discussion for later, there were more pressing issues. “Glad to see you’re all still alive, I was worried you’d drug Danny away to try and leave him outside the cave.”

“I’ve suggested it twice, but everyone seems to think it’s a bad idea.”

“Because it’s immoral, jerkface.” Jasmine rolled her eyes at her brother this time. He was mostly saying it to complain at this point.

Daniel smiled as he settled onto one of the soft cushioned seats, “a difference in perspective then.”

“Should I sleep with one eye open or something? Should I sleep at all? You seriously need to re-examine your decision making processes man. If you were in my position-”

“-I wouldn’t be anywhere near as stupid or useless or a danger to others.” The other dark haired teen said with a shrug. “Truly, the ‘attempted murder by stupidity’ level of social interaction is not a high bar to exceed here.”

“Enough,” Vlad started when he saw Danny open his mouth to reply. He took a shallow breath from where he was half-reclined on one of the long form seats. Breathing hurt. Sitting up hurt. Consciousness was a battle that he was currently losing, and he didn’t want to listen to more pointless bickering. “Save the snarky remarks for a day when we aren’t…about to pass out from…blood loss and exhaustion.” He said been pained gasps. “I’m sure there will be plenty of time for you all to glare at each other later.” He winced at the stretching burn he felt from having taken a breath deep enough to say that all at once.

“Your father is right. What we need to do now is decide where we are going next. We may be able to salvage some equipment that wasn’t stolen or destroyed from the valley below over the next two days, but after that, we have to leave the caves, and we need a destination.” She stopped and sighed, placing another pillow behind her aching back. “Usually, Vlad and I would just pick a place, but I think Jasmine and Daniel are old enough to have some good tactical input on where we should go next.” She frowned when she heard her younger children moving around farther back in the RV. No point in keeping them out of the conversation. “And you all can stop pretending to be asleep or ignoring us now.” She called towards the final third of the RV.

The twins and Lizzie quickly bounded out of the back section of the RV, excited to be included in a conversation on where they should set up Camp next for once.

“So mom, can we go to The Falls next?” Nate asked while bouncing into a seat.

“Nu-uh Nate, we were just there like two month ago that’s too soon.” He snickered when his brother stuck out his tongue at him.

“I think it’s a good place to hide, and it’s close to here, but hard to find.”

“Well I think that that’s stupid because it’s too close to where we are now and also because we’d have to fly half of the stuff out to it and that’d be a bad idea cause they are surveying the area with like satellites or whatever.” His twin opened his mouth to respond, when his baby sister spoke up.

“Can’t we just stay in the caves? They can’t get to us because of the cave-in and um, two days isn’t a long time to get all our stuff. I don’t want to move again so fast.”

“This is all great, but you all don’t get a vote. You get to listen and not talk, which is exactly what the child of Magnus the Red gets to do.”

“That’s not even a fair analogy Daniel, you can do better.” Vlad suppressed the urge to chuckle. “Oh don’t explain it.” He stopped to sit up a little straighter, “I mean, that only makes sense if Danny were you…and then you were actually a traitor…and I was actually an immortal god human thing or something…Should have called him a daemon of Tzeentch.”

“The Head Commander is Magnus.”

“That doesn’t-oh, ok but this is…off track. We’re supposed to be talking about…new Camp locations.” He’d finally worked himself back into an upright sitting position. His middle still hurt like someone had poured coals covered in lighter fluid on it, but he could tell it was healing. Slowly. Far too slowly for his tastes, but to be expected after how much ghost energy he’d expended.

“My suggestion is for Forge Rocks. I know it’s the farthest location in our rotation, but it’s the most fortified, and it has the most provisions. It also has the distinction of being far away from civilization, which will give this enough time to blow over without us being spotted. Otherwise, my second suggestion is Dawn’s Bridge.”

“Are any of these places actually named that, or is it all code names for the spy bugs living in the walls of the cave rocks?” Danny frowned when no one seemed inclined to actually talk about real places or areas of the United States. He had to bite back a growl when his alternate reality twin rolled his eyes at him.

“No, those aren’t the ‘real names’, they are just designations that make it easier to remember. Which one would you remember ‘Brownsville’ or ‘Flight’s Fall?” He felt a bubble of warm satisfaction when the other teen agreed with a shrug. “Back on topic, those are my top two choices, Jasmine, any other suggestions?”

“Well, I agree with Forge Rocks, but not Dawn’s Bridge. I know Dawn is closer, but there was just a ghost incident with one of the GSU handlers losing control there a week back. That has nothing to do with us, but everyone in the area will be on edge, and paranoid people like to call the cops for little or no reason at all. We don’t need that kind of exposure.”

“It is harder to escape from Dawn than Forge, especially since they started check points recently.” Daniel shrugged when his parents looked in his direction. “Ok, not recently, heard about it the last time I was in town, so maybe four months ago. Long enough that they’ve become routine and they’ll be harder to bypass in a rush.”

“Forge Rocks is a good location, but we planned on mentioning that it’s going to be on the inactive cache list, and off rotation. Let me explain,” Maddie held up her hand, “they just added a new ghost hunter HQ during the last expansion of the network there. It used to make up one of the areas that was part of the ‘Great Holes’ in their network in the mountain west, but that changed about six months back. We’ll be able to strip it during a supply run, but that’s about it.” She rubbed her temple at the headache forming behind her eyes. “And, Flight’s Fall was going to be the next stop, that was the plan, but obviously that’s not going to work.”

“Obviously?” Danny chanced asking.

“Yeah genius, we’d need a bunch of supplies left in the valley. Fake IDs, different hair, clothing, you name it. Doesn’t one of our personas have a fake rebellious tattoo or something for the area?” Daniel shrugged before staring out the RV window facing towards the path out of the cave. “We can’t just show up there without it, and we can’t make new personas without more supplies either. So, we’re stuck looking at somewhere without a whole lot of civilization, that doesn’t ask questions, and won’t think it’s weird when a whole family in an RV shows up on a family vacation using only cash in the middle of the school year. So, Heber City, Utah, or Forge Rocks…before the ghost hunters decided to set up shop.”

“Ok, well, what about some place from the older rotations? We haven’t been there for a while, so maybe one of the remote locations farther north? Ice Canyon, or Snow Peaks? Or mayb-”

“-The Meadow.” Vlad locked eyes with his wife sitting across the RV. “It’s well ahead of schedule…but we need the break. We’d have time to actually replenish our equipment supplies and make safe raids of caches without having to worry about the lack of shields. Naturally, shields are the first priority, if we can’t salvage something from the valley but, until then, it’s our best option. And unlike any of the northern options from the last rotation, we don’t have try and run the border without ID.”

“We’d have to cross the mountains west, and the last time we were there, we were worried that the fluctuations weren’t strong enough-”

“I know Maddie, but it’s nearing summer, and the last readings we got from the probes showed everything was setting up for a solid summer pattern. Do you disagree?” He leaned forward some to stretch his back, his insides felt let a balancing act between the bruises on his spine and the healing cuts in his middle.

“No. It’s just a little more chance than I like.”

“Fortune favors the bold.”

“And the people who are actually clear about their plans.” Danny grumbled, more than tired of being out of the loop.

“The Meadow is a naturally occurring nullification zone in the western edge of the Rockies near the state line of Washington and Oregon. It was the first place we set up a temporary base, and over the years, it’s become our most fortified campsite.”

If it does what the shields do, why not create a permanent base there and just dig in? Vlad explained to him why they hadn’t without being asked. The nullification strength changed seasonally and even in some place well fortified, it’s not like they could fight off a coordinated siege from a well funded government agency he’d said. It was still some place they’d never been spotted though, and with summer approaching the strength of the nullification field, he had no idea how it worked, would be at its strongest, more powerful than even their man-made shields. Unfortunately, that pattern diminished and reversed towards the winter time, so even if they wanted to just dig in, it would be obvious where they were when the winter high of ambient spectral energy didn’t show up.

Danny settled deeper into his seat as everyone around him agreed that was the best spot for a new Camp site, and swallowed his ambivalence and helplessness. He had more questions than ever, but whether Clockwork was alive and he could ever get out of this spiraling hell hole of a universe would have to wait until he could even get into the Zone. Never mind how…He heard Jazz mention distractedly that it would take until the end of summer to replace the equipment. And at least that long before they’d be in a position to get me into the Ghost Zone if not longer. Danny thought morose. It was going to be a long summer.

…then you better ask the right questions.

#Danny Phantom #Danny Phantom Fanfiction #Phandom #Bittersweet Future #Balshumet's Fanfiction #Balshumet's Baragouin #Chapter Fourteen

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mischiefandspirits · 3 years

Text

Doppelgänger (16/19)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Reign Storm, Part 2}

Valerie rushed up the stairs to Danny’s house. She had to try to contact Doppelgänger and find out as much as she could about this invasion, but first, she needed to check in on her boyfriend.

“Ah, Miss Gray.”

She paused at the door and turned to see a man walking up. “Do I know you?”

“I’m Vlad Masters, my dear. It is good to finally meet you in person.”

Her eyes widened at the name. “You’re…”

“The one who has been supplying you with your gear, yes. How has it been faring you?”

“It’s been great, especially with the help my b-”

“Ugh, you again?”

They both looked down to see Doppelgänger’s head poking out of the ground.

They gave Mr. Masters an annoyed look as they floated up with crossed arms. “You know, if you keep bothering teenagers like this people are going to get ideas.”

“Ah, you must be the Doppelgänger I’ve been hearing so much about,” Mr. Masters said, looking them over. His eyes caught on their hand with a frown.

“You know him?” Valerie asked, glancing between the two.

“We’ve cleaned up after his messes a few times. He’s a ghost hunter like the Fenton’s, but worse.”

“Because he’s good at catching ghosts or bad at it?”

“Because he’s corrupt,” Doppelgänger snorted.

“That’s quite the accusation,” Mr. Masters tutted.

“But true.”

Valerie spun around to see Danny glaring at the man. He quickly turned his gaze to Valerie with a smile. “Hey, Val. Come on, we can head up to my room. Mom will keep the creep at bay.”

“Now Daniel, Miss Gray and I were having a pleasant conversation before this ghost interrupted.”

“Which means my work here is done.” Doppelgänger sent Mr. Masters one last look then dove back into the ground.

“Isn’t she a little young for you, V-man?” Danny said, wrapping his arm around Valerie’s waist. Mr. Masters eyed the arm, but before he could say anything, Danny yelled back into his house. “Mom, Val and I are heading upstairs. I think Vlad wants more tea.”

He tugged her inside as Mrs. Fenton appeared in the entry to the kitchen, giving a fierce look to the man that followed them in. She turned a kinder smile on Valerie. “Hello, Valerie. Are you alright? Do you want any snacks?”

“No thank you, Mrs. Fenton. I’m fine.”

“Alright. You two have fun.”

“But not too much fun,” Mr. Fenton added from the kitchen, causing the teens to blush and flee upstairs.

Valerie felt Mr. Masters' eyes on her the whole way.

“You alright? He didn’t say anything weird to you, did he?” Danny asked once they were out of sight.

“No, we were just talking. How do you know him?” Valerie asked.

“He went to college with my parents. Long story.” He turned to her with a frown. “Why? What did he say?”

“Nothing really, but he’s the one who gave me my gear.”

Danny shook his head. “Of course he is. I don’t know why I’m even surprised.”

“Why don’t you like him?”

He paused, hand on the doorknob to his room. “Vlad’s… not a good person. My mom and I got tricked by ghosts a short time ago and ended up lost in the woods near Vlad’s chalet in Colorado. He used it as an excuse to creep on my mom and not so subtly implied she’d have been better off if she had married him instead. He had a thing for her back in school I guess. We ended up having to figure out our own way home.”

“That’s…”

“Yeah. Be careful around him, please.”

She nodded.

He opened the door to find Doppelgänger floating inside.

Valerie raised an eyebrow. “Is it really safe for you to be in the home of a family of ghost hunters? Especially with so many extra hunters around.”

“The Fenton’s won’t notice, Masters probably already knows and doesn’t care, and we’re hoping you’ll lend us another truce. We’ve got a problem.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“We’ve got a bigger problem than the invasion.”

“What do you mean?” Danny asked.

“Hold on, we’re almost there. We’ll start explaining though. See, all the ghosts are coming here because a ghost called Pariah Dark -- who’s the self-proclaimed king of the zone -- is tearing the place up in search of this ring that will give him ultimate power.”

“What will he do when he finds it?” Valerie asked.

“No idea. Bad things, we assume, given how scared all the other ghosts are.”

“If they know about him, shouldn’t you?”

“We’re a lot younger than most ghosts. We’re still learning. And apparently, Dark’s been locked away for a long time.”

“So we need to find this ring before he can,” Danny said.

“Which might be easier than it sounds,” Doppelgänger said as another of them flew through the wall. The new one pulled off their glove to show a black and green ring. “Plasmius forced this on us. We think it's the ring Dark’s looking for.”

“So you have ultimate power now?” Valerie said with a frown.

“The ring has to be paired with Dark’s crown. Which is why we think Plasmius stole the ring and woke Dark. Now he’s given it to us to protect while he plots how to get the crown.”

“Then he’ll steal the ring back from you and have ultimate power,” Danny finished

“Not if we can stop it,” Valerie said. “Can we just destroy the ring? No ring, no ultimate power. For anyone.”

The ghosts tilted their heads to the side as Danny slowly nodded. “That actually makes sense.”

“Why didn’t we think of that?”

Danny kissed her cheek. “Take it up to the roof. I’ll make sure my parents and Vlad are distracted.”

The ghosts grabbed her after being sure it was okay and brought her to the roof of the Ops Center intangibly. She called up her suit and Doppelgänger removed the ring. They replaced their glove before sending the ring floating between them, the jewelry giving a purple glow.

“So we just blast it?” they asked as a third -- Danny checked that the adults were in the lab, then locked them in, distracting them as he’d said -- Doppelgänger appeared.

The three raised their hands and fired ecto-beams at the ring. When nothing happened, they slowly poured more and more energy into the beams. Finally, it started to shake and crack, giving off black sparks, but the ghost was pushing their limits. Valerie saw their strain and drew her rifle.

Her shot met the beams and the ring exploded.

All four were knocked unconscious by the blast and the remains of the ring clattered to the floor before dissolving away.

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

Pariah raised his head and stood from his throne. He plucked his crown off his head and watched as the green fire died away. With a roar, he threw the useless black metal aside.

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

Dora looked up from the card game Sidney was showing her how to play. “What was that?”

“Doppelgänger’s just up to their usual nonsense,” the nerd said. “You know, your card is actually pretty powerful. You should play it.”

“I just don’t understand why I would be a powerful character in this game. My brother is the one who holds all the power.”

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

Ember burst onto the roof where Skulker was sharpening his knife. “Skulker, holy crow!”

“You’d think those children would just let me mount their pelts on my wall with the death wish they’ve got,” he muttered under his breath.

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

Vlad froze as a wave of energy passed over him, his eyes slowly drifting from Maddie’s bent over form to the ceiling as alarms started blaring through the lab.

What did that boy just do?

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

Jazz rushed up the stairs as the alarms continued to announce the massive ecto-energy spike that just occurred over the house. She heard her parents banging at the door to the lab, but ignored them as whatever was going on couldn’t be down there if they wanted out. She checked Danny’s room and saw it was empty then ran up to the Ops Center.

She gasped at the sight of her brother and his partners unconscious on the roof. She glanced worriedly at Red Huntress then knelt down next to her brother.

“Danny?” she said softly, rubbing his arms. “Come on. Wake up.”

He whined and his eyes fluttered open.

She forced her jaw not to drop at the sight of the glowing red eyes staring up at her and said, “Are you okay, little brother? What happened?”

He blinked then looked down at himself.

She helped him sit up as he clutched his head. “Danny?”

“Ghost relic. Powerful. Evil ghost who made all the others flee the zone wanted it. Red Huntress and Doppelgänger came here to destroy it. We must have gotten knocked out in the blast when we came to check on them.”

“Are you alright?”

“I think so. Just feel a little jittery.”

A groan came from across the way and they turned to see Tucker sitting up and rubbing his face. “Alright, probably should have expected the thing to explode.”

He opened his eyes and Jazz’s breath caught at their neon purple color. Both boys choked as they spotted each other's eyes and glanced at her. She could see them coming up with lies in their heads and considered making a joke about them trying out some of Sam’s colored contacts.

Instead, she sighed. “It’s okay, I know.”

“Know?” they asked.

She gestured at them and Sam. “That you’re ghosts? Or can turn into ghosts? Part-ghosts? Ghost or ghosts? I know that you’re Doppelgänger is what I’m trying to say. Have known, for a while.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Danny said.

“I didn't want to tell you until you wanted to tell me. It's your secret.”

He smiled and she smiled back, then looked over at the huntress.

“You two should grab Sam and get downstairs before she wakes up. I’ll make sure she’s okay.”

“I’ll do it,” Danny said and slowly got to his feet, Jazz following. “She knows me -- Danny me -- and knows I knew she was here. You might just make her nervous.”

“Your eyes,” she reminded him.

He concentrated for a moment then the red slowly bled back to his usual blue. He smiled. “I’ll be okay. I think we’re just feeling a little buzzed from the energy the ring gave out when it was destroyed.”

She bit her lip and looked to Tucker, who had already pulled Sam into his lap and was sinking through the floor. “Alright, but let me get the first aid kit from the Ops Center for you. You remember all the procedures for ecto-contamination.”

“Yes, Mom.”

She gave his ear a tug as she passed.

Danny knelt next to his girlfriend and made sure she was breathing alright and checked her pulse, but waited until he heard Jazz set down the first aid kit and leave before retracting her suit. “Val, can you hear me?”

She gave a small moan, but didn’t otherwise react.

He grabbed the kit and started checking her over. He frowned when she registered a 0.87er. Not dangerous, but a drastic spike.

Deciding it was better safe than sorry, he dove through the house and grabbed the Ghost Catcher. He set it on its side then carefully passed her through it. A black haze came off her, vaporizing seconds after it touched the air. He checked her levels again and was relieved to see it had dropped down to a 0.21er. He replaced the medkit and catcher then brought Valerie down to lay in the guest room.

Once he was sure she was comfortable, he joined the others in his room to see Jazz looking over a now awake Sam. “She’s alright. Her ecto-rad levels were a little high, but not dangerous and I put her through the Ghost Catcher just in case. She’s gone.”

“Should we be worried about you three?” Jazz said.

“I don’t think we can get any more contaminated by ectoplasm,” Tucker pointed out with a chuckle.

“KIDS!” The four jumped as the Fenton parents came barreling in, nearly knocking into Danny. His mom looked around the room, gun in hand. “Are you all okay?”

“We’re fine, mom,” Jazz answered.

“There was an ecto-spike!” their dad said.

“Yeah, it was Red Huntress and Doppelgänger. You just missed them,” Danny said and his dad deflated.

“Oh.”

His mom patted his dad on the back. “Well, as long as you kids are okay. Wasn’t Valerie here?”

“Uh yeah, she was tired so I told her she could take a nap in the spare room next to Jazz’s. The alarm’s broken in there so she probably slept through it.”

“Alright. Let us know if you need anything.”

His parents left, revealing Vlad had been hiding in their shadows. “A word, Daniel?”

Without giving the boy a chance to answer, he grabbed Danny and dragged him into the guest room next door. He shoved Danny against the wall as soon as the door was closed.

“What did you do?”

“We don’t know what you’re talking about, Plasmius,” Danny said, opening his mind fully to the link so the others could keep watch through his eyes.

“Ah, the scary eyes and use of plural again. It won’t work, Daniel. I -- like what I assume is every ghost within a hundred miles of here on both our side and the zone’s -- felt the destruction of the ring.”

Danny hummed. “Sounds to us like you already know what we did.”

“This is serious, Daniel.

“Look, you literally handed us the key to ultimate power. We don’t know what you were expecting… Well, we do, but it’s not our fault you thought we’d just go along with your stupid plan.”

“You do realize that Pariah will soon know the ring has been destroyed, if he doesn’t know already.”

“You say that like we didn’t resign ourselves to the fact we’ll have to fight him the moment we heard his name,” Danny scoffed.

“This isn’t one of your petty squabbles with Skulker, Daniel.”

“I wouldn’t call him trying to hunt us to the death a petty squabble,” Danny muttered. “We spent over a week locked in a cage because of him.”

“Pariah,” Vlad said louder, ignoring him, “is far more powerful than anything you’ve ever faced. Myself included.”

“Uh-huh, okay, and destroying the ring changes that how?”

“You’ve made him angry.”

“Pretty sure he would have been angry as soon as he realized we had the ring and we weren’t giving it back.”

“That -”

“Save it, Vlad.” Danny pushed past the man. “We all know the only reason you’re mad is that now you can’t use the ring.”

“You’re going to regret this, Daniel.”

“Save it for someone who cares,” he said then slipped out of the room.

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

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were leaning against each other drowsily when Valerie met them in line for lunch.

“Late night?”

“You could say that,” Sam huffed.

An ecotpus floated up from the ground and moved to grab Danny’s half-filled lunch tray before locking eyes with him and darting off with a shriek.

“That’s been happening to you too?” Valerie asked.

“Mm-hm. Think it’s got something to do with being in close proximity to the ring when it was destroyed,” he said leaning his head on her shoulder. “It’s like they all expect Dark to show up out of nowhere and waste us at any second. The weak ones run. The strong ones almost seem amused. Skulker congratulated me on my imminent destruction on my way to school.”

“Ugh, he’s out and about too.”

“Everyone’s out and about,” Tucker snorted.

She kissed Danny on the cheek and walked off with, “I promised to sit with Star, but I’ll see you later.”

“See you.”

“Which brings us to the question,” Sam said once Val was out of sight. “What are we going to do about Dark?”

“I -”

“Hey Fenturd!” the trio turned to see Dash and Kwan standing behind them. “No teachers around to protect you, no girlfriend around to hide you.”

“Dash, take a hike, will ya? I'm way too tired to put up with you. Besides, shouldn't you be failing a test, kicking a puppy, or beating up somebody weaker than you now?”

“Come to think of it, yeah!”

Dash was reeling his fist back when suddenly all the lunch trays waiting at the end of the line rose up and began to surround the two jocks in a spinning wall. Two separated from the wall and snapped together in front of Dash’s face. Both boys stumbled back with a scream then ran off, the wall opening to let them out.

The trio chuckled and Danny said, “Thanks, Sidney.”

The trays flew back where they came from and Sidney appeared next to the three. “No prob, Bob. From the looks of things, you’ve got enough problems on your plates without those two dogging your pails.”

“I’m too tired to tell if that’s an old saying or if he’s messing up a modern one,” Tucker mumbled after the ghost left.

“Honestly, I think he’s just making stuff up now to annoy us,” Sam said.

After lunch, they all headed to their fifth-period classes.

They didn’t make it ten minutes in until an alarm was going off and everyone was told to evacuate.

Danny left the room with the rest of his class and was looking for a place to slip away when an unholy screeching echoed through the hall. He turned to see a skeleton dressed like a Viking pointing at him, its buddies drawing their weapons.

“Well, someone clearly needs a new funny bone,” he chuckled, then ran for it down a less crowded hallway.

On the floor below, Sam ducked under her desk as soon as the alarm sounded and was therefore missed when the teacher checked that everyone made it out of the class. She smirked and transformed then flew out of the school, only to nearly be skewered by an arrow fired by a samurai skeleton.

She gave him a blank look and had the nearby tree scoop up him and his buddies.

On the other side of the school, Valerie ducked away from her class into the girl’s bathroom, only to come face to face with skeletons in plate armor.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!” she growled, summoning her suit.

Beneath her, Tucker’s class hadn’t even had a chance to react to the alarm before the door to the room was slamming open and Gladiator skeletons marched in. Their eye sockets landed on Tucker and he didn’t hesitate. He sent up a quick thanks that they were on the first floor as he threw open the nearest window and jumped through it, the skeletons hot on his tail.

“Mrs. Wickham, I need to use the bathroom,” he shouted over his shoulder with a laugh.

#danny phantom #valerie gray #sam manson #tucker foley #jazz fenton #Doppelgänger au

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phantomphangphucker · 5 years

Text

Ectober Day 23: Soul- This Is A Little Bit Much Chap. 2 - Even Plains Of Reality Need Souls

Danny’s one part impossible, one part too powerful for his own good, and one part a series of existential crises.

Jack shrugging as Maddie speaks, “well it shouldn’t do anything. We never tested it out in such a way. If a ghost had any reaction they’d probably look human. Which would probably cause them to go into some form of ghost shock”, Maddie’s eyes widen, “wait, sweetie did, did someone get Phantom to use it?”.

Jack looks excited and bounces in his seat slightly, while Danny nods, “yeah and then a little after seeing him Technus apparently tried to flee. And a bunch of people were commenting that his ecto-blast was way brighter and stronger. Also, this”, Danny shoves his phone into the centre of the table. His parents giving it the single most confused expression he’s ever seen on their faces.

His moms muttering about how ‘ghosts can’t even glow like this’ and how ‘strength increasing isn’t even a possible function’. While his dad stares, thinking face on. Before speaking up, “maybe it’s showing the Ghost Zone”.

Danny blinks, mumbling around the spoon in his mouth, “what?”. Maddie also seems confused, as she raises an eyebrow at her husband.

Jack taps his chin and nods, “think about it. The Ghost Mirroring Key was designed to show a persons base ghost. And what makes up a base ghost is a persons true self, their soul. A reflection of what really makes them, well, them. The Ghost Zone makes ghosts, gives them their ectoplasm. So at their very base they’d be the Ghost Zone?”.

Maddie shakes her head, “ghosts at their base would still have to be separate otherwise they wouldn’t have a form at all. And being in a base state, if that affected strength at all, should have made Phantom weaker”.

“Well, maybe he’s more connected to the Ghost Zone like this?”.

“Being more connected with the Ghost Zone should logically just make him look more ghostly”, gesturing to the phone, “not this”.

“Maybe it just hyper-concentrated his ectoplasm?”.

“Then his skin would be green, not black”.

Danny looks down at his phone and blinks, thinking of how, exactly, he became a halfa. “What if, what if Phantom was created closer to the core or epicentre of the Zone? Had more pure ectoplasm?”.

Maddie scrunches up her eyebrows, “I’m not sure if that’s even possible sweetie”.

Jack slams his fist into his hand, “wait! Phantom’s weird, we know this. This is another example of that. Maybe Danny-boy is on to something here. Maybe Phantom isn’t a ghost in the traditional sense. A dead being that was once living”, Danny’s officially feeling nervous and regrets speaking. Then his dad throws him through a loop, “what if instead, Phantom is a ghost of the Ghost Zone itself. A personification and culmination of the Ghost Zone. It would explain him trying to keep ghosts in the Ghost Zone. That’s where the Ghost Zone would want them to be. Why he finds and rounds up ghosts, the Ghost Zone’s way of keeping an eye on and effectively leading ghosts. Why he can be outside of the Ghost Zone indefinitely, because he is it. Why he always seems to know where ghosts are, the Ghost Zone should be able to sense the location of any ghost. Maybe our sensors and barriers and weapons don’t always work on him because they’re made for regular ghosts, not an embodiment of the Ghost Zone. Why he’s so strong, he has the whole Ghost Zone at his disposal”.

Both Danny and Maddie are gaping at him. Before Maddie nods, “yes that, that would make sense. It would also mean that all laws and norms generally assigned to ghosts might not necessarily apply to Phantom. Which we already know many do not. It would also explain why he’s so human-seeming. The Ghost Zone is the other side to our world. If we were to take that further, that would make Phantom the ghost of humanity itself as well. And that would explain why he’s protective of humans”.

Meanwhile, Danny’s attempting to not have a complete existential crisis. Combining what his folks said with what Danny knew of how he half died. He was literally infused and half offed by the entirety of the Ghost Zone. His parents, they could be right. Excluding the never alive/human bit. Because really? His obsession didn’t make any sense for him to have as his obsession. He’d never been all that protective before? Or a fighter? Oh fuck, was he literally the will of the Ghost Zone? And being the High Ghost King, he literally ruled over all other ghosts. His word was basically law. So was Phantom, was Phantom literally a combination of Danny’s ghost before he became a halfa -because let’s be real, becoming a halfa changed his base ghost - and the Ghost Zone itself? Looking down at himself, if it wasn’t for Phantom, would his base ghost even look anything like he did now? Oh Ancients he needs to stop thinking. Deciding instead to blurt out, “so what you’re saying is, Phantom’s basically ghost god”, which honestly just gives him another crisis. Because what was a god? An immortal being that watched over their world, or in Danny’s case, world’s? Who possessed massive, seldom rivalled, and unheard-of power? Who leads and guided the people of their world(s)? Who could see everything from a wildly different point of view and existed in a state that was nearly unique? Because fuck, that was Danny. He was just lacking the whole omniscient and omnipresent thing....Which ClockWork did have....and he was Danny’s advisor and mentor. Danny...Danny is not sleeping tonight.

Maddie and Jack blink at Danny before exchanging a look and nodding. Maddie speaking into her hands while staring at the screen, “it would seem so. It’s the only thing that makes sense. But I wouldn’t say he’s anything like the way gods are written about in books and I wouldn’t say he truly knows”.

Danny can’t help but think, no fucking shit.

Jack nods again, “it would explain his growing too. If he was really just a teenager when he showed up. The Ghost Zone itself would only have human ageing to go off of, so it moulded its personified self after that”.

Maddie looks at Danny, smiling a bit softly, which he honestly can’t comprehend right now. He’s too busy having one crisis after another, while she talks, “teens often don’t know who they are or what their role in life is. So it only makes sense that he wouldn’t know just what he was. I suspect the other, normal, ghosts don’t know exactly either”, Maddie goes wide-eyed and asks Danny, “wait, you said Technus fled from him right?”.

Danny just nods numbly.

“What if that’s because he could see or sense that Phantom was the Ghost Zone?”.

Now Jack looks worried, “so we may have inadvertently revealed Phantom in a sense? Mads, you don’t think that could be bad?”.

Danny can instantly see both of them worrying now and looking guilty. So Danny decides he should be the only one have a mental freak out tonight, “um actually, none of the ghosts seem to view Phantom as a normal ghost. Skulker literally screams about him being unique. And people have seen Spectra mock him by calling him an unnatural freak. And-”, Danny blinks realising he was literally worshiped, like a god, “-and, I’ve heard there are ghosts who...who worship him. Call him the Great One and Saviour”. Danny’s basically whispering by the end. He’d always just passed off the Far Frozen's people’s words as fanciful compliments and shows of respect. Never giving them much thought other than the fact that it was a bit embarrassing and seemed unnecessary.

Maddie nods, looking a bit more relaxed, “that’s good then, we didn’t mess things up. I hope. But that, that just confirms it. There’s no way he’s a normal ghost at all. He’s something more. The Ghost Zone itself”, while Danny tries to not look like his brain stopped working, Maddie frowns, “but why would ghosts treat him unkindly then? Call him such things?”. Maddie sighs, giving herself the answer, “maybe he wasn’t supposed to exist. Maybe something horrible happened, something went wrong, and he came to exist. That if he didn’t exist something bad would have happened...”.

Jack rubs his temples, “maybe they resent his power or affection for humans and simply take whatever cheap shots they can?”.

Danny blinks, technically they were both right. All ghosts insulted each other. That was just a ghost thing. But his mom, well, the answer was yes. Regardless of him existing or not, Pariah would have happened. The G.I.W. would have tried to blow up the Ghost Zone. OverGrowth would have awakened. Hotep-ra would have been summoned. Nephitius would have tried to remove gravity. Phantom was needed in every situation. And when he was the one who needed to be stopped, and needed to be protected; ClockWork showed up. The world(s) were literally dependent on him, he could either destroy it all or keep protecting it. You know, after the whole ‘King of the entire Ghost Zone and ghost species’ thing, you’d think nothing could really shock him anymore. But Ancients, he was a goddamn god. The embodiment of the Ghost Zone. Personification of the afterlife. Death given form. The very soul of the underworld. But he was also alive, a person, a teenager, and perpetually in over his head. Oh, and tired. Really damn tired. And not just physically.

Danny looks at the kitchen clock before getting up and putting away his plate, “well I’m going to go to bed and pointedly not think about how our local teenage town hero, who sometimes faceplants into buildings or forgets to dodge. Is probably a godly embodiment of an entire realm and it’s will”.

Halfway up the stairs, his mom calls out, “you forgot your phone sweetie”.

Danny mutters, “oh, right”, before grabbing it and heading back upstairs.

Danny flops onto his bed and calls Sam and Tucker.

“What’s up dude? Ghosts?”-T

“What’d your parents say about sorta ghost you? Mine rolled their eyes and complained about it not being girly enough”-S

“Oh shit yeah. Mine complimented me but made me promise not to die. Three times”-T

“Come to think of it, mine didn’t ask me about that at all”-S

“Is that really surprising though? Your parents are the most selfish people ever”-T

Groaning, “tell me about it”-S

There’s a pause for a while.

“Uh dude? You’re being awfully quiet”-T

“Should we be worried?”-S

“Ugh”-D

“Okay that was more ‘I hate my existence’ than ‘my half life’s in danger’”-S

“I’m, like, eighty percent mental crisis right now”-D

“Dare I ask, why?”-T

“Did they say they’ll love and accept you if you ever became a ghost? ‘Cause yeah that is exactly the kind of thing that would give you, of all people, a crisis”-S

Danny blinks up at the ceiling a couple of times, “uh, oh yeah right. That did happen. Forgot about that”-D

“You...the guy who constantly worries about their folks not accepting them, forgot your parents accepted you? Well sorta at least?”-T

“What else happened Danny”-S

“Ugh, just belgerfuncklederck”-D

Tucker wheezes in laughter some, “care to try again dude?”-T

“Uh, in between my folks blatantly stating they expect me to become a ghost and actively wanting me to be powerful. Which just, like, what? I mean yes. Just, like, yes please. I honestly cried. Then there’s them going to call a truce with Phantom, which yay. But then it’s all ‘should I tell them?’, ‘would they feel the same?’, and...and oh Ancients they asked me not to die”-D

Tucker snorts, “little late”-T

“Were they manly tears or did you blubber like an idiot?”-S

There’s another pause in the conversation before Danny barely whispers, “is it really? Am I dead or just, like, the Zone?”-D

“Dude what? You’re supposed to say ‘hey that’s my line’. Your question doesn’t even make sense. And you ignored Sam’s jab”-T

“I thought we were already past the whole “I’M NOT DEAD!!!’ thing?”-S

“I showed my folks the photo. A photo. Image. Thing that captures our likeness to suspend it forever in existence to show off to whom ever’s willing to look at our mugs. Thingys we look at with our eyeballs, whatever the fuck. Of Phantom me all fucked up glow bug-”-D

“Uh, you know I’m not one to question your mental state. But do we need Jazz?”-T

“Tuck, goddamn fuck. Ancients and shit. Just no, fuck. Just fuck no. Ugh. Fuuuuucck. Hebergebber nerugh”-D

“This seems like an overreaction and definitely a call Jazz thing”-S

“Please don’t. I mean, fuck, uh, I’d say I’d hang up if you did but, like, fuck, how do fingers work?”-D

“I mean yours have ectoplasm in them so they probably work a little differently”-T

Danny points aggressively at the phone, though internally grateful for the slight distraction, “you. Shut the fuck up. I, uh...what? Fuck, I forgot what I was going to say. Why was I even calling?”-D

An exaggerated sigh, “Ancients Danny”-S

“Something to do with your parents, mental crisis, and you questioning your deadness. Which yeah, you were over that”-T

Danny blinks up at the ceiling, “Uuuuuuugh. Fuck yeah. That. My brain don’t feel like workin’ no more”-D

“Then stop thinking! You’re really good at that”-S

“Not good enough apparently. Look, like, fuck. So, like... fuck. The picture right. My phone and shit-”-D

Tucker cuts him off, “don’t think you actually mentioned your phone yet, so that’s progress”-T

Danny’s screws up his face and starts laughing; and he just sort of keeps laughing.

“Dude, it’s not that funny”-T

After a while, with Danny still laughing, “Uh... you okay?”-T

“You broke him Tucker”-S

Danny wheezes and flops his hand/phone down onto the bed. “Ancients fuck, holy shit. Good goddamn”, snorting and wheezing some more while his friends muffled concerned voices come through the speaker. Shaking his head, “how the fuck does mash potatoes and peas change the universe”.

Lifting the phone back to his ear, “Alright, I’m back. Not fully dead. Still fuck and, like, never going to look at mash potatoes the same again”-D

“Dude don’t do that. You know we do actually worry about you”-T

“Yeah Danny. Stitch and ditch is another thing we’ve established is bad to do”-S

“Heh. Yeah, well, you’re conversing with the equivalent of a puddle that apparently decided to eat a shift in reality for supper”-D

Sounding unimpressed, “what happened with your phone Danny”-T

“Okay fair enough on the shortness. I did kind of, uh, ghost? you there”-D

“You being awkward about puns is honestly more worrying”-S

Danny takes a deep breath and wheezes, words coming out in a rush and firmly reminding everyone that he doesn’t actually need to breathe, “my parents decided Phantom’s a literal god the embodiment of the Ghost Zone and It’s will. That he was created from the very essence of the Ghost Zone after something horrible happened. That he captures and sends home ghosts because that’s where the Ghost Zone wants them. That he’s protective of humans but earth is the other side of the coin and will become ghosts. That he’s so strong because he has access to the entirety of the Ghost Zone. That he knows where ghosts are because of course the damn Ghost Zone knows where ghosts are. And Ancients holy jerzerbelerbed. It, fuck, it accounts for everything. Except the half alive shit. But like fuck guys, I was zapped by the entirety of the Ghost Zone. Would I even look like Phantom if I had died normally? I mean fuck, you two make it clear all this ghostly crap changes how our ghosts would look. And my obsession? Where the fuck does that even come from? Why am I such a protective son of a corpse? And I don’t know if I’m just really fucking confused, weirded out, or fucking terrified. Because just what the fuck even am I? Like dead yeah sure, fucking dead. Partly. But like fuck am I really? My folks officially don’t even think so. Cause created from the Zone apparently doesn’t count as dead. And I’m literally worshiped and if I wasn’t Phantom and shit, you know how fucked we’d all be? Pariah and OverGrowth and goddamn Nephitius. Fucking Nephitius. No fucking gravity. Hurgerflebergederhurg. And, and the fucking King thing. I literally rule the whole damn place and a guy with fucking omnipresence and omniscience is my fucking advisor. I am a god. I. Am. A. Fucking. God. Like the Zone just got all up in me and decided ‘oh yeah this looks like a great place to push my will and being into!’. And I’m sitting here like what the fuck did my ghost originally look like? Did I even have one? Was I just some shell? Waiting to be filled by the void of death? Oh god that mental image! I did not need that! Oh Ancients. Aregerflagerdertic-“-D

“Danny shut the fuck up”-S

“-The Zone, fuck, it’s like the body of death and shit. So am I like the fucking grim reaper now? And oh fuck right, the, like, first fucking thing they said was ghost of the Ghost Zone. So am I even my own ghost at all? Or did like my ghost and the Zones ghost like fucking fuse. Or did the Zone fucking yeet my ghost back into me thusly making me alive again but then like, fuck, insert it’s ghost where my ghost should have been? Or did it-”-D

“Danny be quite”-S

“-make my ghost extra ghost to the point where it couldn’t possibly be fully ghost. Or maybe made my ghost so extra ghost that it literally became the Zone itself. I am I just, like, super ectoplasm absorbent to the point of just yanking it all into my very being? What the fuck am I? Like, what the fuck is up with half my shit? I highly fucking doubt Vlad half died looking like a vampire twat. But then what the fucks up with Vortex and Nocturne? The fuck are they? What the absolute fuck?!? And I am literally the strongest ghost there is. WHYYYYYY??? I’m only half one! And my core? The fuck is it ice for? Because the Ghost Zone is cold, that’s fucking why. And my obsession, my goddamn obsession! I’m not a protective person! Wait no, UGH! I uh ugh. Yes I am. I really fucking am. But just fuck, ugh. GAH! I DIDN’T USED TO BE SUCH A PROTECTIVE WEIRDASS! WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH ME! WHAT AM I!?! WHAT IS PHANTOM!?! WHO THE FUCK AM I!?! FENTON!?! PHANTOM!?! FENTON!?! PHANTOM!?! ARE THEY THE SAME FUCKING PERSON!?! AM I THE SAME PERSON AS MYSELF!?! AM I ME!?!-”-D

“DANNY!”-S & T

Deciding he really should probably just shut up,“I, um, FUUUUUUCK!”-D

“Dude it’s okay. You just unloaded a lot of shit. But dude, we’ve been over this. You are Phantom. He is you. You are yourself. And that’s fucking awesome. We all know this secret identity shit messes with you sometimes. But that’s not what this is, is it?”-T

Being a little pissy and hating himself for it just a little bit, “no Tuck, no it’s fucking not. I’m not even sure how to put it beyond, just what am I? Like ugh”, taking a deep breath, “halfa yes, obviously. Half human, half...ghost. But is the ghost half actually a ghost? Like my dead half? Or the Ghost Zone itself given form through me and thus changing me as a person in the process. I wasn’t protective guys. I wasn’t fucking protective”-D

“Alright, I’m going to try and unravel your word vomit from earlier. Your folks deciding something about Phantom doesn’t count for shit, they literally have only half the picture. They are constantly wrong about ghosts, Danny. They have made hundreds of incorrect assumptions about them that we know for a fact are wrong. So on this, what they think means nothing. It doesn’t matter. Now the idea of you, more specifically your ghost half, being the manifestation of the Ghost Zone; would make sense if you weren’t a halfa. But I’ll give you that the idea that your ghost form is a combination of both your natural ghost and the Ghost Zone’s essence makes sense-”-S

Danny cuts her off, “that doesn’t exactly make me feel better Sam”-D

“It wasn’t supposed to. Like you said, all this ghost stuff has affected our natural ghosts. Valerie’s probably isn’t the same either. But so what? That’s normal. For life to affect who we are as people. It’s just more extreme for us because it’s ghost stuff that’s happened in our lives”-S

“I think it just bothers you more because you notice it. Because you changed so suddenly. ‘Cause yeah, you never used to be such a protective bastard”-T

“Still not helping”-D

“Dude, we’re your friends and sidekicks. Not your therapist. That’s Jazz’s job”-T

Rubbing his eyes, “ass. But yeah, I know. But I couldn’t just sit on all of that and I definitively can not deal with Jazz’s psychoanalysing”-D

“That is incredibly obvious. And Danny, out of everything, your obsession is the only one that yeah, this is probably the only explanation for. Vlad’s powerful too, sure he’s weaker than you but just how much does he even use his powers? Hardly ever. Sure you could be right, but it’s not a sure thing on that. Your core is a major stretch, they don’t seem to have much of a reason to them ever”-S

“And Danny dude, so what? Even if the Zone fused itself to you and changed who you were, it made you the you you are now. So really, you wouldn’t be you if it didn’t fuse with you. And come on dude, you love who you are now. We ALL do”-T

Snickering, “shit Tucker, have you been going to slam poetry without me?”-S

“I, fuck, you’ve got a point there. But like guys, my protectiveness is, like, at least twenty-five percent of who I am now. And like the other shit? Feeling the need to send ghosts back without interfering with their ability to get back here? And come on, did I ever seem like I’d be the leader type? At all? I guess you’re right, it’s doesn’t really matter. I do love it, but it is quite literally impossible for me to have a remotely normalish life. Like, ever. You guys have that option. And okay point to you too Sam. I was being dramatic”-D

“Thank you for accepting your role as the teams drama queen”-S

“Pfft, you stage riots over what kind of oven brands stores sell”-D

“Ahh there he is. The wise cracking idiot has returned. Glad to have you back”-T

“I’m still fucked up”-D

“You, by your very impossible nature, always are. But that just makes you fit in better with us. We’re all fucked up. And dude, do you seriously think normal society could handle either of us either? And do you seriously think we’d drop this shit for normal lives? Naw man, you’re fucking stuck with us. We’ll be ninety years old, half blind and deaf; and will still be helping your ass. And then we’ll join the Zone and still help your ass. And Danny, you’ve always been the leader of our group. You’ve always fit in with and lead weird. So maybe the Zone just straight up sensed that shit in you. Knew you’d do it right and do right by it”-T

“Why, out of everything, is that comforting. Being deemed worthy by a dimension to get to become Its personification”-D

“If you blame it on your ghost pride, I will come over there and kick you”-S

Feeling the healthy amount of genuine fear that statement requires, “uh... it’s not because of my ghost pride”-D

“Good half ghost Zone god”-S

“I’m not sure if I should be saying too soon”-D

“Dude, you made dead jokes within an hour of half dying. You literally made a ectoplasm absorbent paper towel joke during your mild mental break down. If there is one thing in the entire universe that is definitively you, it’s a dark sense of humour with zero sense of sensitivity”-T

“You are on a fucking roll today Tucker”-S

“Oh shit, I totally did”-D, which just makes Danny start laughing again.

“Laughing in the face of everything is what you do”-S

There’s another pause in the conversation, as Danny mulls things over in his head.

“So just so we’re clear, my ghost half, Phantom, is at least partly the entirety of the Ghost Zone. That my obsession is a direct result of the Ghost Zone part of me wanting to keep all the ghosts inside of it aka the Ghost Zone and the Ghost Zone’s desire to stop mortals from becoming ghost prematurely. Oh, and the Ghost Zone’s desire to not be destroyed or for any of its ghosts to be destroyed. And that, due to all of this, combined with my immortality, absurd power -which is possibly because of being partly the Ghost Zone-, being High Ghost King, and how my ghost forms base ghost looked; that I am Ghost God. And that we’re all just okay with this?”-D

“Yup”-S

“Sounds about right dude”-T

“That’s really fucked up”-D

“You’re an impossible paradox and basically an entire dimension. I think being fucked up would be a requirement”-T

“Ass”-D

“You feeling less freaked out by your own self now”-S

Sighing, “yeah. Still not keen with the fact that this definitely changed who I am as a person and not just giving me some quirks”-D

“You’re still you dude. Same as you’ve always been. Just more ghostly in an extreme and very saturated way. I think the way Phantom looked kind of proved and currently proves that”-T

Scrunching up his eyebrows, “oh?”-D

“Yeah that makes sense, your ghost self looks like you Danny. If Phantom was just straight up the Zone you’d probably look wildly different. Even all, I can’t believe I’m saying this, Mega evolved, you still looked like Danny”-S

Grumbling, “could have just imprinted off my form”, defeatedly, “but yeah fused with my ghost self makes more sense”-D

“No shit. So there, no more ‘am I me’ crisis”-S

Snorting, “yeah right. Danny never really stops having his crises. They just hide away for a while”-T

“Ouch, but true. I’ll probably flip shit and turn into a mental puddle again the next time I’m being pushingly or overwhelmingly protective. Or the next time I go to the Zone and can’t help but notice how comfortable I feel. And oh fuck, how did I never think that was weird?”-D

“I thought that was just a ghost thing?”-T

“No, fuck. I got eyed-balled funny three of the times I mentioned it around ghosts. Vlad being one of them. Come to think of it, CW’s the only one to not eyeball me funny about it”-D

“Guess that says a lot about all of us that we don’t even notice weird anymore”-S

“Well weirdness sensitivity level check aside, y’all should sleep. And I should stare at my ceilings glow-in-the-dark stars until I self actualise fully”-D

“Does that include accepting and loving yourself as being a dimension and your purpose as Its defender and lord?”-T

“Pretty sure he already accepted that last bit after becoming King”-S

“But now it’s on the god level Sam. That’s different”-T

Motioning his hands around wildly, “it’s different. It’s so fucking different. And fuck you Tuck....ah goddamnit it. Ain’t I fucking, like, lording over and ruling myself then? If I’m the fucking Zone or some shit, the Zone’s soul, and ruling the Zone. Fuck, Tuck you goddamn fuck”-D

Laughter, “dude yes, yes you are”-T

“You’ve actually achieved the highest possible level of individuality and self-sufficiency then”-S

“That's our Danny, taking ‘I am my own king’ to its absolute conclusion”-T

Facepalming, “how is that not supposed to be terrifying? Fuck y’all. I’m hanging up before y’all give yet another existential crisis”-D

Danny hangs up to laughter and tosses his phone onto the corner of his bed, before turning over and growling into his pillow. Turning back onto his back to stare at his ceiling. Jabbing his thumb into his chest, “me, I am a fucking mess and I’m a fucking entire different realm of reality”. Snorting and barking out a laugh after a while, smirking, “wow the Zone really drew the short stick on Its personal meat suit”.

Staring at the ceiling till his eyes begin to unfocus and burn. Shaking his head with a slight chuckle, “but I guess I have been doing pretty well. And it infused itself into my being so easily that I wasn’t even aware for years”, shaking his head again, “Hell, I still wouldn’t be aware if it weren’t for my parents coming up with the weirdest theories. And I guess, I guess that means it really must be okay. For me not to notice. But still, it changed me into someone I wouldn’t have been. My very being, my soul, my ghost. Irrevocably bound and one with the Realm of the dead”. Raising an eyebrow before wheezing in a way that sounds almost like a laugh, “oh Ancients! I’m only half ghosts but technically I’m more ghost than any other ghost can ever be”. And oh god, ghosts are partly created by the Zone. So technically him. Does that make literally every ghost his child in a way? Ah fuck. And then, if he wants to be really dramatic about it, all living beings have their base ghost right? Technically that couldn’t exist without the Zone creating that as well. So then, every single living and dead thing was sorta the Zone’s child. His child...No wonder he was so fucking protective, goddamn. Everything was a child of his soul or part of his ghost. Or was a child of the thing, Realm, that he was the soul or ghost of. Ancients this was all so fucked up.

Shaking his head and roughly putting an arm over his eyes. Him, Danny, was just one big cluster fuck of escalations. A boy. A hunter. A halfa. A hero. A saviour. A king. A god. A universe. Was there no end to his existences surprises? He really fucking hopes so, because this? This bullshit was getting a little much. But hey, at least he was less ‘this is utterly horrifying’ and more ‘not this shit again’ now.

End.

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