#hes from a timeline where ghost king danny exist

[schwarz-san]

A Revenant for The Red Knight

Your typical Dp x Dc Summoning AU, but with a twist.

Jason is having a bad time.

The most of the family to be honest.

Why? Cultist. In Gotham.

One that worship some kind of All Powerful Eldritch Death Outer God from Beyond and plans to summon the Thing to this plane of existence.

The worst part? Most of the bats are being use as sacrifice. Wait no, the worst part is that Jason is the main sacrifice.

They did contemplate whether to use Jason or the Demon child, but end up deciding to use Jason instead. Something about being having essence of Death and the Multiverse in his veins and you know what? He's not gonna touch that with a ten foot pole. Nope.

The demon child is lashing out like the unvaccinated feral racoon that he is, Dick is trying to escape and so does Bruce as well as trying to make sense of the Summoning circle that the cultist were using. The replacement is snoring, the asshole.

Hah. Thats what he get for drinking five mugs of expresso instead of sleeping then gatting tranq.

Also, fuck Bruce for not calling Constantine or Zattana the moment they smelled something supernatural.

God, he hates magic.

The cultist started chanting by then, speaking in a language that no one understood—huh? Well look at that. He could apparently. He could hear them chanting in that unknown language and english at the same time, its over lapping. Weird, its like it was being translated especially for him since the others didnt seems to show any recognition with the words the cultist was using.

Except maybe the demon child, but the others? Nada.

"—Ruler of the inbetween, Heed our call. Defeater of the Dark Tyrant. Master of Space, The bridge between Every Realms, The Great One, The Balance—"

Thats a fuck ton of titles.

The circle began glowing green and fucking Lazarus waters began to pour out and thats not fucking good.

Pillar of unnaturally Neon Red Fire emerge from the Circle and destroyed the ceiling and shook the entire ware house.

A tall armoured figure emerge as the pillar of fire began to settle out. It was floating above the circle, looming over everything in a terryfing manner. Temperature began to rise as the being's Unnayurally white gaze fell upon them.

It was… a knight? A knight cross over a biker??? It also had guns which is weird and is that a fucking Bat Insignia on its chest?

Pressure from all side crash over them as the beings gaze intensified before vanishing all together the moment its gaze fell on jason.

After what seems to be eternity, the being finally spoke.

"Huh. His majesty was right, I really was that stinky and fuck up before he find me."

???

The knight biker then remove his helmet to reveal his own face with a domino mask with his color pallete just inverted.

The doppelganger then pull out his gun and began shooting down the cultist all against the other bats protest. One by one the cultist vanished in to tin air as if they didn't exist all together.

He snapped his fingers and the rope that tying the burst in the same crimson flames and vanished all together.

"What the absolute fuck is going on here?!"

Or cultist used kidnap batfam and use jason as a sacrifice to the ghost king to summon him.

They summon Alternate version of jason who is a halfa and work as one of Danny's Fright knight: Red Knight.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 266

Back on my Danny & Ras frienemies/rivals/maybe-lovers-nobody-can-tell-their-signals-are-very-mixed train. 

See, Danny has gone through time a lot. Often. It comes with being Clockwork’s charge-son-thing and honestly he finds it fun. And several times he’s used this time travelling to get some training in. Enter Ras, stage left, also a teen at the time and also learning swordsmanship from the same person. 

And they… utterly despise each other. They would kill the other for an apple slice, if the other one would die! But also, only they can kill the other, as it is obviously their right! 

And well, they keep running into each other. It has been a hundred years, surely the other would die by now? But of course their rival would live through utter spite. Probably to spite them specifically. 

The amount of times they have ended up sparring- trying to kill each other or not- the moment they see the other is actually ridiculous. But time is also passing. And… Danny understands, not having another to talk about things people are forgetting, or have already forgotten. 

How they ended up actually talking without a murder attempt was a long story that included a demon, a dragon, a pair of fae, some bandits, and a lot of alcohol, but it happened. And then it happens again. And again, and now it’s just kind of normal to share a drink after their spars, talking about things that no longer exist, and things they miss. 

Sure Danny can go back in time again, but he knows better than to do it willy nilly. He’s matured, he’s been an adult for a hundred years now, he knows there’s consequences for messing with time, even with Clockwork’s blessings. 

The first time they got married was technically for an undercover assassination. Well, Ras was there to assassinate someone, Danny was there to grab an artifact that should Not be in the realm of the living. And they got divorced after, it was fine. 

They just, also got married again when they met a few years later, for another job. And… okay, so maybe they have gotten married over a dozen times now and only divorced like half of those times. Half of those were for the bit or while drunk! 

And even if technically they’re married or shared a bed, it’s not like they're exclusive! As Ras’ daughters’ existences attest to (adopted in one case or not). They don’t exactly have a label for their relationship, despite others asking for one or trying to put a name to it themselves. 

Now Danny knows Ras isn’t exactly a good dude, or at least on the side of ‘good’ as he’s a literal assassin. But he also knows that good? Bad? Rather relative. He had gotten labeled as a villain when he was just trying to help all that time ago after all, and really who was he to tell someone else how to live their life? 

Which brings him to now, where he’s run into his old frienemy-rival and his youngest daughter. Who has a braindead teenager and a small toddler. Which is fine, really- but also, Talia dear, why are you using a brain dead teenager to guard your three year old son? 

…

Okay, Talia dear, Ras (Derogatory), why are you using your brain dead son and grandson to guard your younger son and grandson? Do you not have the Pits, which you were soo proud about Ras? Yes, he will spar with you, but for Realms’ sake, heal, what’s his name? Ah yes, go heal Jason and he’ll actually stick around for a few years, deal? Good. 

[kaidatheghostdragon]

Standard 'cultists demand the ghost king destroy and remake the world,' but danny answers with:

"Been there, done that, its not nearly as satisfying as it sounds."

Because, canonically, he HAS. Multiple times.

Not only has he aborted the timeline that created dan, but he also had another alternate timeline adventure to try to stop vlad and cure the ecto acne.

He also used the reality guantlet to fix the changes that freakshow made.

If one is generous, you can also count any event in which a rogue was on the verge of 'taking over the world' and he stopped them just before they could get into the swing of things. This includes but isn't limited to: pariah dark, technus, ember, undergrowth, and nocturne.

And if you're being generous about that, you can count the infi-map adventure, where he repeatedly prevented vlad from taking over the world AND left his mark on history.

(But we're all just gonna ignore the disasteroid, unless we want to make it canon with a mindwipe that erases everyones memories, then it counts TWICE.)

And THEN, because this is already a ghost king au, you can imply any number of other events that are a consequence of the title. Maybe clockwork has used him a few times to deliberately alter some event for the better.

So danny just drops that bomb on the cultists, and they're just like, what? And danny just rambles on that the world is already the way he wants it and they're cultists that worship him so they shouldn't question his judgment, and the cultists are like, 'no we're binding you to us to do our bidding.'

Danny, because he already knows he's immune to binding spells and expected that answer anyways, just doubles down, 'do you really think I'd remake the world in a way that would allow someone to take away my agency? You should be grateful you even exist with the agency to come up with such stupid ideas.'

The justice league slash bats slash whoever crashed the summoning or got used as a sacrifice, have no idea how to handle all of this information. Danny is a 'capital G' God, and God is a snarky teenager who clearly doesn't get enough sleep. One of these days, he's gonna get summoned and just snap, and there's gonna be nothing they can do about it.

[tanglepelt]

Dp x dc idea 40

Quick summary: Danny finds Ellie in the basement strapped to a table. They book it after destroying portal. Fentons think Danny’s possessed and chase. They capture Ellie again with GIW. Danny pretends to be an ambassador to the infinite realm. They don’t need to know he’s the king. Threatens war. Batfam are near. They intervene.

The fentons find out about Ellie. The whole halfa thing not the clone thing. They decide obviously a ghost possessed a dead child and was using their body. That’s why she could transform back and forth.

Que the metal table and straps.

Danny was very concerned when Ellie didn’t show up to there monthly meet up. He tried to text her and call her to no response. Being the good older brother he is he went hunting.

Not able to find her, Danny is ready to beg frostbite for the infamap. He promised not to take it again. But no one said anything about begging.

When he goes to the basement he sees ellie. Thankfully before and vivisection or cutting began. She was just strapped down with a machine taking blood.

Que him freeing her. Destroying the record they had. Injecting her with a ecto-dejecto to get ectoplasma in her system to kick up the healing factor. He breaks the portal.

None of his rouges were out. They had a monthly agreement. No one was to interfere with his Ellie day. The box ghost tried it once. He had to deal with a feral Ellie. The rule is in place for there safety.

He knows he’ll be hearing the complaints for the rest of his afterlife. The fact jack and Maddie strapped what looks like a human down. Who knows what they’d do to his rouges. Those ones actively cause problems.

Danny and Ellie have a lovely road trip. Constantly running. Watching that back. Barley sleeping. One for the scrap book.

The end goal is to get to Gotham. Jazz goes to Gotham u. She’d hide them. She’d meet them if they had there phones. They got left behind in the panic. Getting to Jazz would be safe for them. She has a Fenton creep stick after all.

Upon getting to Gotham. They realize they both have no idea where the university is. So no idea how to get to jazz.

It’s late when they showed up. Like the middle of the night late. So they can’t even ask. Not to mention pay phones don’t really exist anymore. They didn’t have quarters regardless.

That’s when the Giw show up surrounding them. Jack and Maddie show up from nowhere grabbing Danny from behind. Yelling that he’s just possessed. He wouldn’t be helping the ghost girl if he wasn’t. He wouldn’t of destroyed there life’s work.

Danny. Thinking fast starts yelling at them asking if they really want a war. That he’s seen what they can do. It won’t even be a battle. They’d just close off access to the afterlifes. You have to travel through the realms to get to them. Leaving the dimension to suffer. No relief of death. Just pain and suffering.

Screaming how that she was the second in line for the throne. The princess.

Ellie just stares at him the whole time. Like wtf. She’s fought off a lot of the GIW agents. But they have blood bosoms that force her down.

Danny couldn’t get free from jack and Maddie. Going ghost would just force him to the ground as well.

Starts yelling how he hasn’t sided with his parents from the beginning. That he had tried to play ambassador. Freeing those taken. Making sure the realm didn’t fight back.

He lies about how he totally stopped the master of time itself from destroying the timeline. That pandora has not attacked because of him same as the mighty frostbite of the far frozen.

Basically he’s just spouting nonsense. Then threatens to summon frostbite. Frostbite taught him how after an incident where he very much hurt himself.

Just then people with grappling hooks show up. They end up detaining the GIW and jack and Maddie. Which is a good thing.

The bad thing was the bat furry wanted to ask questions.

Good thing the furries got rid of the blood blossoms.

Danny just gets through them. (They let him go to Ellie). The fight left Ellie injured. The blood blossoms had made the injured way word.

We’ll look like he was summoning frostbite.

Not to fight but because Ellie was hurt. The bat people barley reacted to the yeti appearing from a glowing green portal. But they did tense and take up new stances.

It’s quickly seen that frostbite is in fact a medic. Not a mighty warrior (from what they can tell).

They actually think Danny was actually the voice for the infinite realm. That was enough to get him dragged to space.

Who knows how’d they react if they knew he was the king. But hey the GIW got disbanded.

Now has a fic started. Feel free to steal this idea still!!!

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[starlight-eclipsed]

Rockets Pointed Up at the Stars (Pt 2/2)

Part I

Despite what Phantom had implied, tracking down Batman wasn’t done in an instant.

Sure, they’d be back seconds after when they left. But with time travel in the mix, that could be hours or days apart. They’d already followed him back to his initial landing time, when Neanderthals were still around (and wow, was there a difference between factually knowing some people had been around since the dawn of humanity and physically seeing Vandal Savage in the flesh as a caveman). According to the trail left by Clockwork, the ghostly guardian of the timestream, they were getting close.

Apparently Bruce couldn’t make things easy and was also making jumps through time, which if left unchecked would cause the timeline collapse that Clockwork had recruited Phantom for. Specifically Phantom, as it turns out the thief that liked messing with him on weekends was also the Master of Space and the King of everything.

(Phantom insisted it was just a title, and he was only king of the Ghost Zone. It just so happened that the Ghost Zone was also known as the Infinite Realms, which contained every reality of every universe in existence.

And he’d won that title by defeating the previous ruler in single combat.

The High King had to scramble to catch Tim when his knees gave out at the realization that he had unknowingly gone toe to toe with someone who made Darkseid look like a toddler in a sandbox. What the fuck, Phantom.) 

As of now, they were waiting for the actual Blackbeard’s ship to dock to investigate the fabled Black Pirate he supposedly fought a week ago, whose description matched Bruce’s. Phantom had gone to grab them something to eat while they waited in a tavern, leaving Tim to save his seat. If someone told him even a week ago that this was where he’d be, Tim would’ve interrogated them for hours to try to figure out what it meant.

But no, he was just sitting at a table in the 18th century, a medallion from the Master of Time hung around his neck, waiting for his hero-turned-king-gone-rogue to return with food while they waited for Blackbeard the legendary pirate to show up. Jason would probably kill to be here in his place.

Tim was broken out of his thoughts when Phantom returned, two bowls of soup in hand and balancing an additional plate of tough-looking bread on his forearm.

They’d been forced to ditch their masks when Puritans tried to have them hanged a century ago, now dressing in more accurate clothing to better blend in. Phantom had apologized for discovering Tim’s real name, going as far as to reveal his own secret identity: a black haired blue-eyed teen named Danny.

“Heads up, it’s gonna be either too salty or bland as wood. I’m pretty sure the cook wanted to strangle me for asking too many questions about the ingredients.”

Tim snorted, accepting his bowl, “Is that why we don’t get spoons?”

“Nah, the owner doesn’t trust customers to return the utensils. Drink from the bowl, though you might want to soak your bread if you don’t wanna pull a muscle chewing it.”

“Noted.” Tim dared to take a sip, mulling over the taste. It wasn’t anywhere near Alfred’s level, but a step above his own adventures in the kitchen before getting a hard ban post-pancake incident. It tasted closer to brine than soup, but it went surprisingly well with the bread.

Phantom hummed in pleasure, proving yet again that his standards for food consisted of ‘isn’t actively resisting consumption’. Tim could hardly judge him for it, seeing as his own bar wasn't much higher.

“So, I’d say we have an hour or two until our man arrives. Want to go over the plan again?”

Tim shrugged. “Unless it’s changed from ‘confirm Bruce was already here before following the nearest skip in time’, I think we’re good.”

Phantom nodded, silence falling over them as they ate their way through dinner. Tim kept an ear out for trouble, but the tavern was quite peaceful this time in the evening. It was likely to change once the Queen Anne's Revenge finished docking, but for now he’d savor the ambiance.

“Wanna play twenty questions?”

He blinked, refocusing on Phantom sitting across from him. “Huh?”

“I just figured it might pass the time. Twenty questions, no lies, though you can reject them if you don’t want to answer.”

Tim considered it before nodding, “Sure. How old are you?”

Phantom grinned, “Seventeen, same as you. Why Robin?”

“I wanted to help Batman after the previous one died. Nobody else would intervene, so I stepped in. Why Phantom?”

“Okay, hear me out…it’s a pun.”

Tim paused, gesturing for him to elaborate.

“Before I was half-ghost, my last name was Fenton. So as a ghost, Danny Fenton became—”

“Danny Phantom,” Tim groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I can’t believe I ever thought you were subtle.”

“Hey, nobody expects the dead guy to moonlight as a living person. Sunlight? Whatever. Favorite hobbies?”

“Photography and skateboarding. Favorite power?”

“Ooh, that’s a hard one. I’d have to say flight. Nothing beats flying at night. Sexuality?”

Tim spluttered, making Phantom laugh as he blushed. “What the heck?!”

“Hey, you can always skip,” the asshole offered.

“No, it just caught me off guard. I’m bi. You?”

“Pan. And trans, while we’re at it. Ghosts can shapeshift, so I got a perfect transition at the low cost of death.”

Tim snorted, “Death is an ally.”

“Absolutely, it comes for us all,” he winked. “If you had a single power, what would it be?”

“Something so I wouldn’t need to sleep. I can manage otherwise. What determines the things you take?”

Phantom grinned, “Once a detective. But seriously, I just aim for things that look cool and won’t be missed too much. Some people will kick up a fuss over their trash if they think it’s worth stealing. Thoughts on soulmates?”

He stopped, some part of him catching on how serious the otherwise silly sounding question was phrased. As if the way he answered this could mean life or death. “You mean, a couple acting like they’re made for each other?”

“Ah, I wasn’t sure whether you had them in your universe. On my Earth, everyone is born with some kind of connection to at least one other person. Shared thoughts, a timer countdown to the time they first meet, stuff like that. Platonic or romantic, they were called soulmates.”

“So…someone you’re destined to meet and get along with? Is it magic based?”

A nod. “Humanity’s done research but they haven’t concluded on that yet. I asked an Ancient whose domain was centered around it, and they said it was determined by a soul’s resonance. I don’t know the specifics, but something about how all souls that resonate a certain way are born with soulmarks, so that they have an easier time finding each other. There are studies about how soulmates tend to understand each other easier, but other than that there’s no empirical proof that they’re different from any other relationship.”

Tim considered it. What it might’ve been like, to be told the second he met Dick that fateful night at the circus, ‘this boy will permanently alter the course of your life’. To have been able to approach Batman that first time, point to his wrist, and automatically be listened to instead of resorting to blackmail. How much easier it would have been to avoid the misunderstandings that defined their whole family.

Then again, it would be just his luck to have been born in that world and not have any soul connections to the Wayne family, making him work twice as hard for the same level of trust. Or to be born without resonance at all, and be left knowing that he was truly beyond reach. What would that do to him, in a society where people could point at the worst criminals and say ‘even that monster has someone they love’? To be soulmates with a genuinely terrible person?

“It sounds like a mixed blessing,” Tim said, meeting Danny’s gaze directly. “I would love to have someone like that by my side, and I’d be terrified of being defined by it.”

Danny leaned back, wearing a self-deprecating smile that Tim was quickly learning to recognize. “Yeah, that’s fair. Your turn.”

“What…what is your personal experience with soulmates? If I’m allowed to ask.”

He hissed out a breath through his teeth. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought you’d say.”

“I can ask something else?”

Danny waved a hand in dismissal. “I’ll answer, just lemme figure out how to put it.”

“I’ll return our dishes while you think through what you want to say.” Tim stood with his empty bowl, easily accepting the other bowl and plate as they were handed to him.

Walking back, Tim cataloged the people hanging around the tavern. A group of friends huddled around a dozen plates, decked out in gear that made it look like they just finished having some grand adventure. The bartender, a sly smile on her face as a drunken man clumsily flirted with his own wife. The cook instructing a boy to retrieve the dishes from Tim, sending a calculating glance in Danny’s direction before nodding at Tim and turning back to the fire.

Tim didn’t spend a lot of time in public anymore. His fame attracted far too much attention now that the press could consistently recognize him. But maybe once things settled back down again, he’d try civilian life again. There was something different about living alongside the people he worked to save, instead of far above looking down.

By the time he returned to his seat, Danny looked ready to talk.

“My soulmate rejected me when we were little.”

Tim blinked. “You can do that?”

“Ah…sorta? Depending on the connection, one side can choose to shut it down. Mine let us exchange messages. I was a dumb kid, and sent out a ton every day to try and get any kind of response that they were out there. They got sick of it and blocked me.” Danny laughed, but it wasn't very funny.

“I’m sorry. That sounds awful.”

“Don’t be. I annoy everyone—it was only a matter of time before I did something to chase them away.”

“Would you stop doing that?”

Danny blinked, tilting his head in silent question.

“Look, I get that you went through a lot of shit before coming to Gotham. But you keep acting like it’s a given that everyone you meet will be awful to you, and it sucks to hear you talk like that when I’m having fun with you. It wasn't your fault, so stop claiming credit for it. If I can’t justify losing Robin, you can’t justify being abandoned.”

“...alright then.” Danny huffed, folding his arms and pouting. “Neither of us can talk shit about ourselves.”

The twinkle in his eyes was enough for Tim to know he got through to him.

— - —

Tim leaned up against a fence in the Wild West, shifting uncomfortably in his dust coated clothes. Danny was perched beside him, smugly radiating a cool breeze that may very well have been the only thing keeping Tim upright in the summer sun.

“There’s too much sunlight here, it’s unnatural.”

“That’s just your Gothamite showing, city-boy.”

“Fuck off.”

Danny’s laughter had become a staple of the past few days spent traveling through history. In turn, Tim found himself happier than he’d been in ages, making sarcastic comments about anything that caught his eye in an attempt to get Danny to laugh more.

So far, he’d yet to fail to bring at least a smile to the other’s face.

Right now they were in the late 19th century, following rumors that Bruce had somehow crossed paths with Vandal Savage again. It was bordering on ridiculous, and a part of Tim wondered if this was why the legendary criminal stayed well away from Gotham waters. He was going to have to ask Bruce what was up with that after this whole mess was over.

“So,” Danny started, leaning closer to him. “Have any plans for when we’re back in modern day?”

Tim shrugged, “I see a lengthy report to Batman, hours spent explaining everything he missed while he was gone. I swear I’ll be up all week helping him catch up.”

A snort. “I meant about Robin. No offense, but you looked miserable in your new costume.”

He paused. He hadn’t quite processed the knowledge that bringing Bruce back wouldn’t also bring back his role as Robin. It was obvious whenever he actually thought about it, but to him Bruce coming home was still synonymous to going back to how things were before he was lost in time.

“I don’t know…Red Robin was just supposed to be temporary. It was one of Red Hood’s old aliases, not really mine.”

Danny turned to him. “Do you want a new one? If you decide now, we can lay the basis for some local legend to act as future inspiration for the new title.”

Tim elbowed him, “We aren’t messing with the timeline to establish lore for my new identity.”

“C’mon, it’ll be fun! I did it back in my original world, there’s ancient frescos of me winning chariot races and everything.”

“How are you and Clockwork still on speaking terms?”

“Oh, he totally finds it as funny as I do. He just has to pretend to be serious all the time so the Observants don’t crack down on him for shirking his duties.”

“You’re a bad influence on the embodiment of time,” Tim concluded with wide eyes.

A wide grin stretched across Danny’s face as he lied through his teeth. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“How did you even—he’s millennia older than you!”

“Counterparts, remember? It’s not a soul bond, but it’s easy to see ourselves in each other. Besides, time is relative; he's like a weird grandpa-uncle-cousin.”

Tim shook his head, but couldn’t quite force down the laughter in his lungs.

“Hey, I know for a fact I’m not the only bad influence here. No matter how much you claim that sleep is for the dead, I’m physical proof against that.”

“Whatever. You know when the next jump is?”

Danny tilted his head, as if listening for something only meant for his ears. “If Bats already came through here, there’s only two big timesinks left he could be in. Either sometime in the 20th century, or in a designated Vanishing Point.”

“Vanishing Point?”

“Yeah, it’s something of a collaboration between the Observants, Clockwork, and Ghost Writer. Each universe has an archive set right around its eventual heat death. It’s like an empty room in a video game with props the devs left in to keep the system running after inadvertently designing the whole code in reference to a lemon.”

“I…never mind. Why would Batman be there?”

“Oh, ‘cause he’s traveling through time without one of these,” Danny tapped Tim’s chest, right where his Time Medallion lay under his shirt. “They’re designed to safely disperse the energy gained each time we make a jump, among other things. Otherwise we’d just be building up enough to wipe the timeline from existence. Or something like that, I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Tim suddenly realized that this was what his former teammates meant when they complained about him executing strategies without explaining his thought process first. He still stood by his stance that it was more effective to explain things as they happened, but he was developing a new sense of empathy for them.

“Okay. Batman is a time-charged universe level bomb threat, and is getting funneled into the Backrooms so he blows up with everything else in existence. What can we do to stop that?”

Danny blinked. “Sorry, I thought it was obvious. I already carry a medallion with me wherever I go, so I was just gonna have you put the spare Clocky gave me on him to filter it out.”

Yep. This was karma for never giving people the full story behind any of his plans.

“I’m going to need you to go over everything we need to do when we get to this Vanishing Point. Twice.”

“Okie doke! So I’m gonna leave you with my spare medallion to help Bats while I throw down with Darkseid’s hyper-dimensional mind slave he sent after him to ensure his demise—”

Gift baskets. Tim owed so many people gift baskets for putting up with his bullshit.

— - —

When Tim found him, Danny was perched on the same apartment building they’d last met on.

His hood was down, freeing his flaming white hair to burn without heat in the night. His face was turned towards the sky, looking for all like he was somehow stargazing in spite of the thick smog that blanketed the city. It would’ve made for a stunning picture, if not for how soul crushingly lonely the scene felt.

Danny startled when Tim’s grappling hook latched onto the rooftop beside him. The halfa was quick to brighten upon seeing Tim down below, scooting over to make room for him as he reeled in the line and pulled himself up.

“Fancy meeting you here, Detective.”

Tim huffed, readjusting his utility belt. “The others won’t stop pestering me about how Batman was brought back when I shouldn’t have access to any time travel devices. It’s a miracle I was even able to get out of the Batcave without getting smothered.”

“You didn’t tell them about me?”

“You didn’t want them to know.”

Danny looked stunned. He physically shook himself out of it, a glowing green blush rising to his cheeks as he turned away. “Thanks.”

Tim absentmindedly nodded as he smoothly slipped a black marker from his belt while Danny was distracted. This had the potential to either go very smoothly or backfire completely, but it had to be done to sate his curiosity. Now that Bruce was home and he’d gotten the time to think over their conversations, pieces had started to align in his head. It was just a matter of taking the leap and confirming it for himself.

Reaching up to his own cheek, Tim wrote in practiced motions, focusing on the thought of sending it through to whoever was on the other side.

Danny jumped, hand slapping to his own cheek as he whipped his head around to stare at Tim in open shock. He shrugged sheepishly.

“Your description of soulmates was familiar. Between that and the cloak, I really should’ve put it together sooner.”

“You’re…not mad?”

Tim shifted, stashing the marker back in its rightful place. “I wish I knew sooner. I never meant to hurt you—Batman was getting on my case about the writing on my arms being recognizable in costume, and I never thought to wonder why it was happening in the first place.”

Danny shook his head, a wet chuckle escaping his lips. “You couldn’t have known. It would’ve freaked anyone out, getting messages from a different universe on their skin.”

“Neither did you. Know, I mean. Me blocking the connection was never on you.”

“Well…”

“I mean it.”

“Fine, fine. So…does that mean…?”

Tim carefully reached out his hands to grasp onto his soulmate’s, intertwining their fingers. It was remarkable how easily they fit together. “I don’t know if it’s romantic or not, but I’m willing to give it a try if you are.”

Danny collapsed forward into Tim’s arms. He could hardly make out the muffled affirmative, but the message was crystal clear. Leaning down to set his chin on the top of Danny’s head, he let himself savor this moment.

Tomorrow, he could beg Danny to experiment with the extent of their bond. They could talk about new ideas for his hero name, and Danny could get another shot at convincing him to go on a worldwide anti-multi-billionaire tour. The two of them had potentially forever to work out this newfound aspect of their relationship.

For the time being, Tim relaxed back against a chain link fence with his soulmate in his arms, the word ‘BOO’ scribbled in black marker across both their faces.

— - —

And that's a wrap! There's definitely room for more, but these were the all the scenes I wanted to cover ^-^

I think in this universe, Danny and Tim end up working as a slightly morally grey hero duo. They go global for a bit, Tim wanting to train under more people to better keep up with Danny (who follows along invisibly as backup). This eventually gets the attention of Ra's, and you can imagine how that goes XD

They're a bit overly attached; neither of them really have a healthy sense of boundaries, which causes a bit of conflict here and there. Tim is the one that insists on taking breaks to avoid becoming too codependent, which only really results in them deepening the soul bond to a ridiculous degree. Ironically it's during this that Tim discovers how he can send pressure marks through to Danny, who immediately converts it to morse code (oops).

Thanks for reading!

Tag list:

@skulld3mort-1fan @profoundsoulsong @daemonlogical @bobred18 @ashoutinthedarkness @hilariousseagoat @undead-essence @ekatkit @wolfjackle @awkwardmaiden @vehan-tikkun-olam-and-stuff

[elizabethemerald]

The Son of the Red Hood

The Weight of the Time Stream

Clockwork intervenes in Danny’s life so that he can learn all needs to be the King of the Infinite Realms. Hopefully this time he can be loved and cared for like he deserves. 

The weight of monitoring the Time Stream was one Clockwork would never wish on another being. He had bared witness to horrors that were truly beyond the comprehension of a lesser ghost. He has seen Pariah Dark slaughter his way across the universe. He had seen Darkseid complete the Anti-Life equation and unmake existence. He had seen a rampaging Doomsday wipe out all intelligent life. All in alternate timelines where a hero had failed 

While his power was not absolute, Clockwork's purpose was to guide the Time Stream away from such calamitous endings. A small nudge of a bullet’s path here, a bomb disarmed at the last second there, a villain taking just a moment longer to monologue somewhere in the middle. Whatever it took to keep the Time Stream on the proper path. 

More important than protecting the Mortal Realms, Clockwork focused most of his attention on the Time Stream of the Infinite Realms. The so-called Ghost Zone was connected to an infinite number of dimensions and alternate realities and if the Zone were to collapse, or the Time Stream become marred it would lead to the catastrophic collapse of all other realities until all of existence was unmade. 

It was for the preservation of the Time Stream that Clockwork aided the other Ancients in entombing Pariah Dark. The Tyrant Ghost King would never have been happy with his subjects in the Realms. Eventually he would have wanted to conquer the universe to add all of existence to his control. Even if he somehow managed to slaughter every living thing that existed across all the infinite dimensions and realities he then would have turned his gaze back to the Zone and set about slaughtering and shattering his own citizens. 

Since the fall of Pariah Dark, no single being has had as much of an impact on the security of the Realms and the Time Stream. That was until a single boy, in action so unlikely that in all the infinite timelines Clockwork had witnessed it had only happened once. Daniel Fenton, known to the ghosts as Phantom, became the second ever Halfa. Half ghost, half alive. The moment echoes across the new timeline, carving and reshaping the possible futures from this one radiating moment. 

At first there had been numerous timelines where it was Danny who broke the Time Stream,  or who slaughtered his way across the cosmos. Maybe he went back in time and had accidentally unwritten his own birth causing the timeline to collapse into a singularity or a paradox. Maybe he was tortured into insanity by the Ghost Investigation Ward or his parents and in his madness brought about the end of all things. Maybe he cheated on a test and then watched his family die in front of him and then killed almost all life on the planet. 

However unlike others with this amount of potential for harm, it only took a single instance of Daniel facing his own dark potential future for those possibilities to vanish. Again the boy had the bizarre ability to simply will timelines into or out of existence. There were no longer any timelines where he would harm the Time Stream, or threaten the realities. 

Daniel believed in his own personal rules for himself so strongly that they could rewrite all manner of possible alternate realities. He told himself he had to protect and so he did so. He told himself he couldn’t become Dan, so he didn’t. It was an ability, a belief in himself that Clockwork had rarely seen before, no matter how many timelines he observed. 

When Daniel faced Pariah Dark, unknowingly challenging the Tyrant for the throne of the Infinite Realms, Clockwork could see the future of the Time Stream brighten with every blow he landed against him. When he successfully defeated Pariah in single combat Clockwork watched the numerous time lines wherein High King Phantom led the Infinite Realms into a golden age of peace and prosperity. 

However, even Daniel wasn’t perfect. He was untrained in many areas, self taught in others. There were beings, ghosts or mortals who were better fighters than him and if they challenged him could unmake the good work he could do. He needed to be trained, to be taught all he needed to know about how to fight, how to lead, how to govern, how to negotiate. All of that training would take time, and for once, Clockwork the god of time, who had witnessed timelines and futures beyond count, didn’t have enough time. 

Clockwork had managed to convince Daniel that he would not officially have to take the crown until he was ready. Daniel interpreted that as he had until his eighteenth birthday, only a few short months away now. Clockwork could not see any timeline where the boy did not take up the crown upon his birthday. So Clockwork, who had watched eons pass, was suddenly on a time crunch, to infuse Daniel’s mind with what some ghosts spent centuries learning and perfecting. 

So he had stumbled upon a solution. He needed to push back Daniel’s birthday. But how to do it? If he did the simplest solution and just held Daniel in his clocktower lair, outside of the Time Stream, it would be a matter of hours of instruction before the boy grew bored and left. Any other solutions would end up breaking Daniel’s very shallow trust in Clockwork which could lead to catastrophes in the futures. 

Daniel either had to choose to delay his own birthday, which he would never do because with his birthday also came with freedom from his parents, or he couldn’t know that Clockwork had delayed the day. It was fortunate then that Clockwork had the ability to manipulate a being’s place in the Time Stream. In the common vernacular he could make things age forward or in reverse at any rate he desired. It would be a simple affair to regress Daniel to a younger age, restrict his memories, locked behind certain aging milestones. But what to do with the boy then?

Clock could certainly train Daniel himself, or have one of the other powerful and trustworthy ghosts watch over the deaged boy king. There were however two flaws with that idea. Even before he officially accepts the crown, Daniel could still be challenged by other ghosts, so he would have to be hidden away from the ghosts that would threaten him. The other flaw was that Daniel was only half a ghost. His human half had needs that couldn’t be seen to in the Infinite Realms. He would need to be watched over in the Mortal Realms. 

Where to place a young boy, who would inevitably develop his ghostly powers and his heroic tendencies? Where could he learn to fight or to lead so that he could not be bested in combat and instead lead the Infinite Realms to the brighter future Clockwork had seen? If only there were heroes in the world that could guide the child king. Oh wait. 

There were numerous heroes in the Mortal Realm, many of whom would be delighted to care for, raise, and train a young hero. The Kryptonian, the Amazon, the Atlantean. All of them have things they could teach the boy, their moral codes: incorruptible iron. However, being Master of Time meant weighing all sides to try and gain the most benefits from a decision. While these power houses would be able to teach Daniel much before he took up the crown, they would benefit little from their tutelage. 

Searching for someone who had the skills Daniel needed to learn, the connections to fill in any gaps, and would benefit from raising a lonely and broken child led Clockwork to the Bats of Gotham. The Bat himself wouldn’t do, he had too many children already, and Daniel did not need another absentee or emotionally stunted parent. The children of the Cowl however… there were many options there. Cassandra to learn the way of Shadows, Damian to learn the way of Blades, Richard to learn how to fly even before his powers develop. Daniel would benefit equally from any of the Knights of Gotham, as the siblings would always, in every timeline, reach out to each other to ensure the best possible care. 

There was one that would benefit the most. The one who’s compassion had been drowned in the rage of corrupted ectoplasm. Yet still, fought every day for control, fought to protect. The one who would without question care for a hurt child, who would be calmed by the child king’s aura of pure ectoplasm. And with the network of heroes he would have access to all the help he could ever ask for in the training of his ghost child. 

Decision made, Clockwork turned to look at the floating gears around his head. In one a hero wearing a red helmet was being called to a source of ectoplasm that called to the Pit inside him. Danny had bled on Clockwork’s floor after the last time his parents had caught him in his Phantom form. Clockwork simply kept the blood and then poured it out onto a Gotham rooftop in order to bring his hero of choice into the proper position. 

In another, a tired Daniel flew back to the portal to the Mortal Realms. He had been through a long day. Multiple fights in Amity Park, then a long lesson in Clockwork’s lair. In the last gear, Daniel’s parents descended into their basement with Vlad Masters, the first halfa, otherwise known as Plasmius. Clockwork could have shortened the conversation with Daniel to prevent the coming confrontation, or he could have held him there in the Infinite Realms longer, but this needed to happen. 

He watched as Daniel stepped out of the swirling portal, transforming into his human form mid yawn. The Fentons reacted at once, his mother pulling and firing a blaster in the blink of an eye. Daniel lept back, flight taking over in an instant, one hand clamped over the blaster wound on his side. A flash of light again started to travel up Daniel’s body as his father levied his, much larger, ecto bazooka and fired. A sneer gleaming in Masters’ eyes at Daniel’s misfortune. 

“Time Out.” Clockwork said. The images in the gears froze. The hero and his brother were almost at the rooftop. Daniel was frozen mid transformation. A powerful beam of ecto energy was stationary, stopped on its course towards Daniel’s body. 

Clockwork willed himself to Daniel’s side. If he didn’t involve himself now this would be the worst of Daniel’s tortures at his parent’s hands, almost enough to drive him to a world ending madness. However even this wasn’t enough to overcome Daniel’s strength of character. Instead Daniel would withdraw from the world, turn his back on the humans. It would break him in a different way. 

He tapped Daniel with his staff and watched as the boy regressed, the consequences of puberty undoing themselves before his eyes. He stopped when Daniel was just short of five years old. Daniel would be old enough to learn from his new mentor without being an undue burden on someone not expecting to be caring for a child. And he would have 13 years to learn as much as he could from the heroes. 

Clockwork grabbed the deaged child in his arms then glanced around at the scene he was leaving. Anger and hatred radiating off the faces of Daniel’s parents. Cruel glee on the face of Plasmius. If the Fentons were allowed to live they would never stop hunting Phantom, the ghost they assumed had killed their son. They would keep escalating their attacks until war between the Realms was inevitable. 

Their hatred and rage would only be fueled by the man standing behind them. If Vlad Masters learned that Daniel was in a vulnerable state, he would not hesitate to try and manipulate control over him or to challenge a toddler for the crown of the High King. Under the rule of Plasmius the Infinite Realms would rot away in his constant search for more and greater power. Removing Masters at least temporarily and Daniel’s parents permanently could only be good for realms, at least if Daniel eventually could bring himself to forgive Clockwork for it. 

He tapped a panel of the portal with his staff and watched as the screws holding the panel in place corroded and rusted, aging decades before his eyes. When the screws finally crumpled to dust the panel fell to the ground exposing wires and charged ectoplasm that powered the portal. The ecto blast was directly lined up with the exposed components now that Daniel wasn’t in the way. 

It was the perfect time for an explosion. Daniel’s two companions were at their homes. Tucker Foley and Samantha Manson wouldn’t find out about the explosion until the following morning. His sister, Jasmine Fenton wouldn’t find out about it for a week. He had thought about trying to prevent her from reconnecting with her brother, but the girl was tenacious. It was a family trait. Trying to stop her from finding her brother was like trying to stop the very flow of time. When she inevitably found him, it would do nothing but help the boy’s emotional growth. 

Clockwork pulled Daniel away, changing his clothes from those fit for a teenager to those of a toddler. Daniel might be angry at him later, but Clockwork couldn’t resist the star themed footie pajamas. Bearing the weight of the Time Stream was a lot. He had to take his small moments of enjoyment where he could. 

The two of them appeared on the rooftop in Gotham. Clockwork knew the heroes were only a few roofs away. He set Daniel down on the rooftop next to the small puddle of his blood. Next to the boy, who had during his transformation to a child had fallen asleep, Clockwork placed his gifts. A red beanie saturated with Foley’s ecto signature. A pair of black, fingerless gloves saturated with Manson’s. And finally a teddy bear dressed up as an astronaut. The bear not only contained Jasmine’s ecto signature, but smelled like her favorite shampoo, a mix of her namesake and apple blossoms. Inside he had recorded a final gift from Jasmine to Daniel that the boy would discover later. The last thing he wanted was for Daniel to forget completely about the people who had loved him, even if his memories of them would be restrained for now. 

Clockwork glanced around to make sure that everything was how he wanted it, then appeared back in his haunt in the Infinite Realms. The two gears again showed their frozen scenes, just as he had left them. 

“Time In.” 

Out of the corner of his eye he could see one gear suddenly light up with green light as the portal overloaded and exploded, wiping out the Fenton home. He flicked his wrist and banished the gear away from his sight as he focused on the last. He watched as the Red Hood swung up and onto the rooftop. He watched as the hero came to a sudden stop at the scene before him. And even though he couldn’t see the man’ face through the helmet, he knew his eyes had widened in surprise. 

Clockwork just hoped he had done enough for Daniel to grow up, happy this time, and to have the skills needed to be the best king the Infinite Realms had ever had, or would ever have.

[theglamorousferal]

So if you’re new to the Danny Phantom fandom whether that be because you have joined us via a crossover, the new graphic novel coming out or just somehow got hooked into this fandom there are a few things you should know.

90% of content you will see is purely fanon lore.

I’m gonna divide this into two different sections, going over what is canon and then the most common things from fanon.

So if you go by the show, we have at least three different kinds of ghosts. We have ones like the Fright Knight who is a spirit formed from the feelings and beliefs of people surrounding the thoughts of Halloween and we have ones who were once humans like Sidney Poindexter and Desiree. There are also some who are the product of two different ghosts like Box Lunch. We technically also have the Ancients, but we don’t know anything about them except that they existed many years ago and then they enclosed Pariah Dark in the Sarcophagus of Forever sleep.

We know that a high concentration of ectoplasm introduced very quickly can causes human to turn into a half ghost. This happened with Danny at least 3 times, and the accident Vlad had (as well as Jack in an alternate timeline). Danny was changed twice by the portal and then once by being blasted by a bunch of ectoplasm.

In canon, the Fenton parents are very loving parents with just a bit of absent mindedness to them that leads to them missing the obvious signs that something is up with Danny. Every time in the show that he is exposed to them, he is accepted by them entirely. Even when in an alternate timeline where his parents never got together, he is accepted by them.

In canon, Jazz started out not knowing how to help Danny, Tucker and Sam, but it is shown in the show that she trains to be better later on. She still calls the ghosts by things she designated them as though, not how they would like to be called.

In canon, Vlad is awful. He regularly tries to Hamlet the main character. He tried to ruin/kill Jack to get with Maddie and make their kids his kids many, many times. He cloned a child, gaslit the clones into thinking he cared for them and then planned to melt them down to have his “perfect son”. In canon of the show, Vlad is not redeemable. (This sorta changes a bit in the graphic novel, but it’s a toss up whether that is actually considered active canon or if it’s its own canon now.)

In canon, Tucker is a genius after he was forced to sit through 12 hours of study programming. In canon, he is the reincarnation of a Pharaoh. He can speak a made-up language, Esperanto, and can hack into nearly every piece of tech he comes across.

In canon, Sam is obsessed with all things goth and so has tomes about magical beings and artifacts. She is athletic and is always ready to throw down. She only has plant powers in the episode “Urban Jungle”.

Now onto the Fanon, at least the most popular headcanons that I have come across.

The most common thing among the fandom is that Danny is half-dead. Some have him a ghost possessing his own corpse. Some have him be Schrodinger’s boy. Some have him have lower vitals or just no vital signs altogether. He is said to have died and not come back all the way or right. Common things have him be cold to the touch, a lower heart rate, and him forgetting to breathe entirely.

Probably the second most common headcanon is that Danny is the Ghost King after having fought and defeated Pariah Dark in single combat. Ways he takes the throne are varied, everything from him being forcibly put onto the throne and unable to go to the human world, to having to name Jazz or Maddie as regent until he reaches either human or ghostly majority, to him taking the throne but it being more of a figurehead thing. Most stories will have him have a plethora of titles and names he goes by. Along with this he now has a lair inside the Zone, most have him taking over Pariah’s Keep and some do have him have his own new lair.

Another popular headcanon is Ancient of Space or the Balance Danny (going with AGIT, the balance actually is now canon). These lead to things like Danny having an eldritch form. Something that is obviously “other” and hurts to perceive.

Both of these result in an OP Danny and probably around half of them will have him stuck at 14 and/or functionally immortal.

Another very common DP headcanon is Bad Fenton Parents and that their research caused the GIW’s formation. Alongside that come the most common type of fic you will come across which is where Danny has been captured by either the GIW or his parents and then is vivisected. Majority of them will have him vivisected by his own parents. Many of them will have them be varying levels of neglectful, from just not noticing things about their kids to straight up forgetting they were there and Jazz having to take care of them both.

In most fanon, the GIW are actively trying to genocide an entire species. This is closest to a canon thing considering that they did try to nuke the GZ, which would have resulted in their universe also collapsing. The things that some people write/draw for the atrocities the GIW and Bad!Fentons are things that I bring up to my therapist frequently. Be prepared for descriptive gore.

There are a few characters that have spawned in fanon that are widely accepted as canon characters now. The main one is Wes Weston along with his brother Kyle. Wes Weston was a background character that we see for about 3 frames in one episode, but he looked similar to Danny and had green eyes and the fandom latched onto that. It started out with someone claiming the A-listers would think that Wes is Phantom because he’s athletic, had the same build and green eyes. From there, the fandom has decided that he also is the only person to figure out that Danny was Phantom and tries frequently to expose him. Kyle Weston is Wes’ older brother, in the same class as Jazz and he doesn’t believe that ghosts are real and is played for gags a lot.

Another major piece of fanon lore is ghost cores. This stems from a remark Frostbite said talking about Danny’s core temperature and the fans took it and ran with it. In fanon there’s all kinds of different types of ghost cores, usually an element or an aspect of existence. Many have Danny possess an ice core, in some he has a space core. Others take his “death” into consideration and believe him to have an electric core. Commonly people have Vlad have a fire core. Usually cores are an orb that a ghost can retreat into to heal. If the core is shattered, the ghost is ended and no longer exists in any capacity.

Similar to cores is obsessions. These are essentially the purpose of the ghost, their drive and purpose. Skulker’s is hunting, Ember’s is recognition etc. Most give Danny a protection obsession, but will sometimes give him a space obsession.

Something that has gained traction in the last few years (to my knowledge mostly since the pandemic) is liminality. Liminality is where people are contaminated with ectoplasm due to overexposure or ingestion of it and it gives them ghostly abilities. Different people have liminality give people different abilities. Some have glowing eyes, lengthened canines and pointed ears. Some have enhanced senses, strength and speed as well as extra durability. Some have eyes that reflect like a cats and night vision. Some even go so far as give them at least one of the major ghostly abilities.

How someone becomes liminal differ depending on if the writer wishes to have it just be main characters or if it’s the entire town. If it’s just main characters then usually their frequent exposure to ghostly things as well as close proximity to it makes them liminal. For the whole town people will usually have the portal give off essentially radiation or when the town was pulled into the GZ be the cause.

Frequently Sam, Tucker and to a lesser extent Jazz are given extra abilities. Sam usually has residual powers from her time possessed by Undergrowth, Tucker usually has some form of techno Nancy and Jazz usually has some sort of empathetic ability, if not that she get’s the basic extra strength, speed, durability and senses.

There are some lesser known ones that should at least be mentioned in case you come across them. One of those being ghost hunger. This is where ghosts or liminals thirst for ectoplasm similar to how vampires thirst for blood. Another common thing is that ghosts socialize by fighting. That most of the fights are ghosts greeting the baby ghost. The last thing is that the main characters are known as Team Phantom.

I’m probably going to think of more later and I’ll post when I do, but this is the basics that I could remember on the fly. I hope this helps people!!

[beesbiteandwillowrites]

DP x DC Prompt: "City of Ghosts"

Gotham is a part of the Infinite Realms.

It's a bit of a mythical place really. Ghosts don't go there, and Gotham ghosts don't venture out of their city haunt. Everyone in the Infinite Realms knows that Gotham is a lawless place. They avoid it like the plague. Skulker doesn't hunt there. Walker ignores all the violations of the rules and laws of the Infinite Realms that happen within city limits. Pariah Dark didn't touch that area with a ten-foot pole, in spite of being king of everything within the Infinite Realms. Even Dan hadn't bothered with that place in his own timeline, its inhabitants too twisted and feral for him to fight (he had scars from when he fought some fucked up guy with a shadowcore that somehow powered bright flaming swords bc what's the logic in that?). Gotham is its own brand of crazy not even the bravest and most power-hungry ghosts touched.

Unfortunately, nobody thought to tell Danny this.

Now, you can go so many ways with this. Danny could catch the attention by everyone's favourite serial adopter who sees a baby ghost in need of training and make him a ghost-bat. You can have shipping fics between Danny and any of the bats. You can have Gotham's insane rogues set their sights on the new halfa and enter Amity Park through the portal.

I'm a ho for Jason Todd and I love to ship him with just about anyone, so what if when Danny enters Gotham, he meets a ghost boy by the name Robin, who talks about reading books and protecting people and who saves Danny from a mob of feral city ghosts and is just generally really cute and oh shit, Danny might have a crush.

And then Robin's existence is wiped away by a crazy clown who tortures the boy and shatters his core into so many shards he fades away, and Danny believes the love of his life death is truly gone

Jason's resurrection would be fascinating to explore bc what kind of bullshit could damage a core so beyond repair and what cosmic fuckery actually pulls all those shards back together? (my shipping heart says "Danny accepting the crown caused a power surge and brought Jason back" for drama)

Or maybe Red Hood already exists, and you can pair him with Dan, do an enemies-to-lovers kinda fic, where they were at each other's throat in the initial timeline, but end up falling for each other in the second timeline

Or explore the first timeline and write a tragedy in which Jason has to watch how his partner gets more twisted and warped as time goes on and ends up becoming his enemy

Just Gotham as a ghost town. Literally.

(I may be hyperfixating on this a little at the moment)

[asleep-in-the-keep-sideblog]

Chapter 27: I’m Undefeatable! I’m Thriving!

Summary: Danny is a magnet for trouble, but unfortunately for trouble, he needs to blow off some steam.

Word count: 6419

The night air had always healed something in Danny. Being close to the stars, no matter how visible they were, was comforting to him. When he was younger he wanted to get lost in the stars, to reach his fingers out and touch the galaxy. Now that Danny can, he wishes he was back in his room still dreaming about it instead. 

Still, when people fail you, the stars are always there.

He flew around without any purpose, letting the clouds run through his fingertips. He was weightless and had no more burdens. He was his own person up here and no one could take that away unless they shot him down. This is how things should be.

He didn’t know what to do now. Apparently, this ‘commission,’ whatever they were, knew where he stayed so he couldn’t go back. He didn’t need to sleep but it was nice having a place that he could pretend was his. Fortunately, he didn’t leave much behind except for the rabbit cookies (may they rest in peace). 

In another world, it could’ve been nice staying with Ma. Maybe. He had really wanted to trust him, but how could he after he lied to him, that he pretended to accept Danny? After he tore apart the cafe, there was no judgment or disgust in Ma's eyes, only concern. It hurt knowing that was fake. It was Vlad all over again. Danny was so hungry for a mentor that he let himself get manipulated. Nothing has changed since then. Danny didn’t want to get hurt anymore.

God he was so stupid! Adults are always like that. They don’t care unless it benefits them. Danny didn’t even feel sad, he just felt angry. The man acted like he knew Danny– knew what he’s been through. For a second Danny almost believed him. They had the same eyes. But now? Now Danny knows he’s alone. Maybe this was always meant to be. 

Ghosts have a loneliness about them. It made sense. If they were ever happy or at peace they would be able to move on. Danny didn’t like to think about the world Dan created, but he remembers that the Lunch Lady and the Box Ghost weren’t there. He has a theory that they passed away, their remaining ectoplasm swirling together to create Lunch Box. She still existed in time somewhere, being raised by the yetis in the Far Frozen. He knows her parents visit her, even if they weren’t the same ones she was formed from. They were all still around to his knowledge. They may love each other, but even love can’t fully heal you, it just helps you pick up some pieces. Someday he hopes all three of them will be able to move on together. Maybe that already happened. 

Time existed all together in the Ghost Zone. Maybe he should start calling it by its true name; the Infinite Realms. The more he learned about it, the more ghosts seemed like such a small part. There were so many worlds within worlds and you never knew where a portal could take you. It could be to a time lost long ago or a future not yet imagined. Danny has had his fill of those worlds, fighting Vlad and hoping timelines to do it. He just wants one of them to lead him back home, whatever it may look like now. 

And there was that feeling again, the smallness of himself in comparison to all of reality. It would all be okay because he didn’t matter. He had completed his purpose in life by defeating the Ghost King. Now he was free to do whatever he wanted. He had all of infinity to feel bad for himself or eventually even happy. If that's true, there was no reason for him to hold back from his feelings. He could feel whatever he wanted, however violently he wanted, and know that it will eventually be in the past. 

But that didn’t help at all. He could overthink and try to rationalize it, but it didn’t stop the hurt Danny had now. The truth is he wanted to hold onto it, he wanted it to curl inside him and make him feel alive again. He was so sick of this intangible in-between that he had made himself act out. 

He had no idea what he was even doing. Getting a job? Making connections? Look how that turned out. Those will never bring back his old self again, no matter how much he wanted it to. Danny had thought that he had accepted that he was dead, but turns out he was just avoiding it. Was that what the other ghosts were doing? Kitty and Johnny always had a habit of pulling others into their relationship drama. Maybe that was their way of being real, of pretending they had friends they could vent to rather than the obvious truth. It’s not very common that two souls are bonded like theirs, but even that isn’t enough to make you feel alive again. Ember was probably the best example of this. Her whole obsession was for people to simply remember her, no matter what it took. At first Danny thought she was just a big headed ex pop-star, but now he sees what it truly was. 

There will be a time in history when your name is spoken for the last time. When that happens you truly are dead. 

Having someone, a living someone, say your name was like proof of your existence. It said someone loved me enough to give it to me and used to call me that everyday. As a ghost, that's as close as you can get to someone touching you and you feeling it. It had been so long since Danny even heard his name that he didn’t know if he could recognize it if called. Being called Danny would be like being called back home. But he was Phantom now, now and until forever. As much as ghosts wanted to be called by their name, they never shared it with anyone. Even Ember’s name was an epithet. As great as it was to be called by your name, it was only the high before the numbness set in. 

Danny wants to be a human again so badly. He wants to have people call his name with no hesitation and look at him with care and glee. He wants to be caught falling asleep during class and his name getting yelled out in front of everyone. He wants his sister and friends to ask him if he’s okay while using his name. They say that everyone uses your name but you, but that wasn’t true anymore. His name would only be used by him in the dark cold corners of solitude. 

“Danny…” He whispered, but the air blew it away as he flew. He had to make sure he could even pronounce it still.

Danny settled on a ledge somewhere. The sun had completely set by now but people still walked below him carrying on with their lives. Danny let himself become real again and let go of his invisibility and intangibility. He wanted to be seen, he wanted to be touched. Instead, he only felt the coldness of himself, and even then he had to concentrate to feel it. 

He had flown off most of his anger and pain, but he could still feel it in his core. He left it there to smooth and polish like a pearl. Danny reached under his hazmat suit where he stored the folder and card. He looked at the card first, the only name on it being ‘Eraserhead’. That was probably Ma's hero name. Danny had no clue what that meant. Maybe he could put his forehead down to paper and use it as an eraser. Maybe it was supposed to be a threat saying that he’ll ‘erase’ people with his power. 

Neither of those things fit him but Danny though the former was the funniest. A small smile stretched the corners of his mouth despite himself. He forced them back down. 

The only other things written on that was an address and a phone number. The number was of no use to him since his phone was on his corpse. Danny stared at the address. He had gotten used to some of the street names by now and he thinks he’s even flown by there before. 

Danny had nowhere to go now. It was like those nights he didn’t want to go home, but didn’t want to bother Sam or Tucker either. He no longer needed a place, the only reason he stayed at the shack was to play house. 

Danny looked at the card again, a bitter feeling twisting inside him. He held it over the ledge and slowly burned it with his ectoplasm. The green flame traveled up the card, curling the paper under the heat and turning it to ash. It crumpled between his two fingers and blew away like his name on the air. He didn’t need anything now.

He should do the same to the folder, but curiosity got the better of him. Danny started to flick through the pages. The hero was big, possibly rivaling his own dad. His costume looked cool, but with his face he looked more like a villain. Bearded flames hid half his face from view and he had a very sour impression as if challenging the photographer. In a way he looked like Dan.

Danny glared at the profile, already deciding his distaste. Ma also left some personality notes on the man which did not help further his appeal. Hot headed and arrogant with enough ambition to make up for it. He had held the number 2 spot for the last 20 years. He was fixed at that spot even as the #1 was seen less and less. #1 must’ve been powerful. 

In a brief paragraph it mentioned Endeavor's family. His wife had been in a psych ward for the last few years leaving their 3 kids alone with that man. There used to be 4, but the eldest died before she was admitted. There wasn’t a lot of information on the kids themselves except the youngest. It just stated that he was in school to become a hero.

‘Wonder if he knows Deku,’ Danny idly thought. He skimmed a few pages looking at his gear and quirk. His quirk, while not that interesting in the grand scheme of things, was very versatile. In one of the notes he apparently used it to melt the side of a building and run on the walls. That was an image. 

He was a fast and heavy hitter and used his strength to overwhelm whatever was standing in his way. Danny’s met a few ghosts like that and he was sure some of them would describe him the same way. 

He got bored of the file not long after and was pent up again. Danny crumpled it up and burned it too, tossing it over the side before it became ash. Displayed on the building across from his was a bright advertisement of a hero selling shampoo. All around him were heroes, and yet Danny rather be as far away as possible. This world kind of sucked. 

His mind went back to Ma and the commission. Anger and frustration started coiling in his core again and it was electrified when he thought back to the other heroes in the alley. Flying wouldn’t cool him off again, it barely had last time he was just avoiding the problem. And what was the problem? That answer was simple. 

Danny was the problem. He had been the problem. In a world of heroes, he was the only freak among them. Even in his own world he was a freak, even before he died. Everywhere he went it was like people had an instinct to hate him. 

No, that wasn’t completely true. There had been a few who accepted him for what he was. Jazz, Sam and Tucker had always been there for him. He should’ve been there for them more, it was just at the time he thought he had until forever to do so. Now it was all gone. 

He missed them. He needed them. He was so lonely in this world. Deku was nice, but there was only so much he could tell him. Not only that but he doesn’t want to drag him into Danny’s problems. He knew that if he went back to the boy’s house, both him and his mother would open their arms to him and let him stay. He couldn’t do that to them though, not soon after would he be hunted down and hurt them in the process. 

If he had gone with Ma, he might have had a fighting chance. But how could he trust him? Even worse, how could Danny trust himself? Even as the man was twisting the knife, Danny wanted to accept his offer. 

Danny could only think about home, like a bull seeing red. He needed to get back there. It was the only place he felt safe. He flew back to the portal like a jet. He didn’t care who was there, he would fight them off. He just wanted to go home. 

Danny landed on one of the buildings over the alley. Even from here he could taste the ectoplasm in the air. His core humming and harmonizing with it, making him almost dizzy. An orange light illuminated the alley below and Danny recognized the figure. Rage surged through him and Danny grabbed the edging. 

Below him was Endeavor. 

How dare any hero, let alone the #2 hero be anywhere near his portal. Hadn’t they hunted him enough today? The hero just stood there, not knowing his very presence was an insult to the ground on which he stood. Danny gripped the side harder, causing rubble to fall down. 

The hero looked up and made eye contact with Danny, a brief look of fear took over his features before anger and determination washed it off. Danny wouldn’t have a repeat of last time.

Danny pounced before the other got the chance. 

🔥~

Endeavor was enraged. How dare those punks at the commission tell him what to do. Phantom was a villain. Endeavor took care of villains. It was just one measly kid, not the gang that the public thought him to be. Endeavor had probably fought villains far stronger than Phantom, and was out numbered too. It was nothing he wasn’t able to handle. 

Makoto and her assistant tried to take the tracker from him and remove him from the case. It was easy to call their bluff. He threatened to crush the device right in front of them. He wouldn’t let something as useless as that get in the way of him and Phantom. Makoto tried to stare him down but failed just as she had the other times. She let him through. She had no real control of him, just another office lackey barking up a tree. 

Endeavor first went straight to the shack. Supposedly, Phantom had been living here since Hosu, but all traces were scrubbed clean. Hosu. Just thinking about it made Endeavor’s blood boil. 

Hosu had been a complete failure. Endeavor may have gotten the credit for taking down Stain, but it twisted a knife in his pride knowing the truth. He had gone to Hosu to bring that villain to justice, but had that ribbed away from him, let alone by a child no less. It was salt in the wound. Not to mention that he was the only thing Shoto talked about after the incident. That and that Midoriya boy. 

There was something else there that Endeavor couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge and that was fear. It wasn’t towards Phantom’s skill in of itself, but rather his aura when he took down the Nomu. It kept Endeavor rooted to the spot in a way nothing else had before. It was like death itself.

No, worse than that. It was everything he hated. He saw all his shortcomings wrapped into one being. His lack of power, his inability to save Shoto, his failure as a hero. In the monster's white hair he even saw Toya. 

That was why he had to capture Phantom. His resolve wavered that day but it wouldn’t now. He had to prove to himself that he would be unrelenting.

In the meeting, they had mentioned the possibility that Phantom had been looking for something. Endeavor thinks he’s figured out where it was. The what was of no importance to him, not unless it could help Endeavor defeat him. When the heroes encountered Phantom last night, he was doing something in the alley. They had no way of telling what, but there had to be a reason he lingered and fought so hard when all the other times he ran away. 

After he was done with the shack, he went there to investigate. The alley was just as shrubbed as the shack, but there lingered a strange sensation in the air where it wasn’t present before. Endeavor put on a protective mask that he got from one of his other suits to keep out the radiation. He wasn’t planning on staying long. He suspected Phantom might be around the air, protecting whatever it was he was hiding, but the chance of seeing him here was slim. Not even 24 hours ago he had his head blown off right where Endeavor stood. He would stay away for a few days if he knew what's good for him. 

Nothing stood out to Endeavor in that tight space. Whatever Phantom was looking for was well hidden or small. It could be disguised as something as insignificant as a rock. Endeavor knows Phantom didn’t have it, otherwise he would’ve left as soon as the heroes showed up. There was also the possibility that it wasn’t a thing but a code or some other piece of a puzzle. Endeavor checked the graffiti or anything else that could have been such a thing.

He crouched down to inspect the small crater Phantom left before he was attacked by the heroes when he heard something above him. Small pebbles hit his head and when Endeavor looked up all he could see were two green eyes in the darkness. 

That same overwhelming feeling overwhelmed and attacked him. It was like he was being taken back in time to when humans were being hunted by their food. He tried to wipe it off but he could still feel it shake in his bones like a cold wet day. 

Suddenly, the thing leapt from the ledge and was coming right toward Endeavor. All thought left him as he stared into the thing’s hollow green eyes, he couldn’t tear his gaze away. Despite his flames, he couldn’t see the thing’s body, just the green surrounded by a void of inky darkness. Endeavor’s feet were rooted to the spot and he watched in slow motion as the thing lit up its fists in the same green and punched him. Hard. 

Endeavor had no time to react as the force threw him several feet, flinging him to the otherside of the alley. His back hit the wall and he could hear something crack. He wasn’t sure if that was his body or the wall behind him. 

Now, all light was sucked from the alley, the only light being the things eye’s and fists. Even Endeavor’s flames cowered before the threat, although he still felt their heat inside him. He knew those eyes, in a manner of speaking. He had spent hours reading about them in reports, going over every bit of information and detail to find the villains weaknesses. 

So this was Phantom? He had only seen him one time before, but not like this. Back then, he didn’t play this dirty trick. He let himself be seen. A part of Endeavor trembled at the memory looking into the villains eyes. It wasn’t different now except that it was solely concentrated on Endeavor. He felt like an ant under a magnifying glass getting burned. 

Endeavor had to get up. He wouldn’t let this brat best him. Not again. With less ease then he would’ve liked, he stood up, bracing his back to the wall. Endeavor put on his most menacing face and he glared up at Phantom, the villain floating above him like at Hosu. ‘Come down and face me like a man,’ a small part of thought. 

He leaned away from the wall, trusting his feet to support him, and settled into a fighting stance. He rotated his neck, popping a few bones back into place.

“Thanks for revealing yourself,” Endeavor put all of his might into his words, “Saved me the trouble of hunting you down.” He pressed his thumb to the side of one of his nostrils and blew out a wad of blood. He couldn’t even see it land but it made a wet sound on the ground. “Now I can take you out here and now, Phantom.” He said the name like a slur. 

“̶̛͓̂͛I̸̗̪̊̾̕ ̷̧͛̈́w̴̼͆͒̉̔à̷̯͠n̷͓͕̰͕̾͂́̎ţ̸͒́̂ ̶̮̻̿̈́ỳ̵̭̬̬̈͆̈́ŏ̴͎̺͈̏͆u̶̢̦͍̜͂̅ ̷̝̮̘͂̋́t̴̢͇̽̈́o̸͙̘̯̍̽̋͊.̸͓͔̤͉̈́̌̄ ̵̙͇͌̇̅̀Į̴̃̔́ ̷̭͉̈̓́w̶̤͈͉̑͐̓̈́a̶̡̨̲͐n̷͚͗͐̄t̴̂̈́͋̌ͅ ̶̖̟͖̲̓̀ÿ̸͖́o̵̜͉͊͂̑ͅu̴͖͖̟͌͝ ̵̥̗̳͋͂͘͘t̵͎̮̫̃͌̔̕o̵̹̹̺͛̀͝͝ ̸̤̓̅̃̊g̶̨̨̿̀̓͝ͅḙ̵̣̦͕̃ṯ̷̣̒ ̸̥͔̌̌̎a̷̳̜̬̽̔ș̶̡̡̿͆̚͜ ̶̱͊̉͠c̴̩̭̬̜͗͘l̶̢͚̯͌͘ò̸͙s̸̹̺̰̘̅̇̆̚e̴̩͔͉̓ ̶̡̛̯͓͓̅͂́a̴͇̦͖̫̓s̴͎̦͍̖̋͂̑̓ ̶̳͘y̵̡͌̊͘ọ̶̔̔̇ű̵͕̃͒ ̴̳̮̹̈́̈́̓̅c̴̹̼̫̅́͒ȧ̸͍́̋̀n̵͕͚͍͕̐͛͝.̵̯͉͔́͑̀ ̶̯̙̥̼͌̓̋̒I̸͎̯̿ ̵̲͙̞̂̐̄̚w̸̪̯̽a̸͕̓́̈̕ṉ̵̪͊̀̎t̵͎̲͓̀͌̒͂ ̸͈̹̿͑̚y̴̩͐̎͗́o̸̧͖͓͊́̆u̴̡̲͆̏͝ ̶͇̃̇͆̈t̴̪͉̱̒̚o̸̮̥̖͖̿̔͝ ̶͍̻͐t̸̳͓͚̀͐̆̇r̷͓̂ȳ̸̯̲̠.̵͔͎̼͇̓̾”̶̜̼͚͗͌͜

The voice made Endeavor’s ears ring. It was worse than nails on a chalkboard and more distorted than static. It left a dry metallic taste in his mouth like lightning was about to strike.

He had to strike now before the thing moved. He felt his flames burn hotter, but even that wasn’t enough to illuminate the alley. He plunges it in the direction of Phantom’s body with a battle-cry. His fists make contact, but the villain's body feels strange. It was more like punching into wet concrete than solid flesh. He finally saw his flames but they were different. Upon contact, they turned green, matching the same toxic color as the villains eyes and fists. What was he? Such a thing could no longer be called human. 

He tried to find the outline of Phantom’s body, but the longer he stared the more dizzy he felt. Endeavor's eyes started playing tricks on him as the corner of his sight began to swirl and spiral like shapes haunted his periphery. 

An ickiness overtook his body as he stared at the shapes. It was like spiders were crawling under his skin trying to get out. Endeavor tried to move his arm back from Phantom’s body, but something wet gripped him, holding him in. Phantom’s face moved closer to his and Endeavor was stuck looking into the villains eyes unable to look away. They looked like they were smiling. 

Suddenly, Phantom’s body started to move and writhe around Endeavor’s fist, the sensation like if his hand was stuck in a pool of eels. He would’ve screamed or yelled if he had any air left in his throat.  

Endeavor's heart beat heavily in his chest, each thud feeling like an earthquake. Since the activation of his quirk he felt cold for the first time. The sensation passed and Phantom was on the other side of him, that look still in his eyes. He liked to see Endeavor squirm. 

For the first time since the opening attack, Phantom raised one of his arms, the sickly green glowing brighter and in the direction of Endeavor. Endeavor didn’t even have time to inhale before the plasma blast hit him in the chest and sent him rolling again, his body sliding and scraping on the concrete. 

No where in the reports did it mention Phantom having these quirks. Had he been hiding them all this time? Why not use them until now? In a fight, regardless of if you were a hero or villain, you had to use anything at your disposal, no matter how dirty. Of course, heroes were judged on if they used too much force or damaged too much property, but villains weren’t held back by such rules. 

A swell of pride entered Endeavor’s chest. As much as he may have feared Phantom, Phantom was just as scared of him. Even when the other heroes blew off his head he did not use these quirks. Only Endeavor and Endeavor alone was a threat enough for Phantom. 

Confidence swelled in his chest and melted the ice. He stopped shaking and Endeavor finally had control over his limbs. He could win.  

He got up and charged Phantom before he could shoot another blast. His fist hit the villain's strange body and his flames changed color again. Endeavor didn’t stop hitting him, pulling his fist to strike again before it could latch onto him. Phantom’s body shook back and forth with each strike, his eyes getting a blur effect from the movement and speed. Endeavor could even see his past strikes still light up Phantom’s torso due to the friction. 

This was strangely familiar. Despite all his hits, Phantom didn’t seem to be taking any damage. It was like the Nomu’s back in Hosu. Was he really one of them? They had both escaped from the same time and they had learned more about those things since then. He was right, Phantom wasn’t human anymore. 

Still, with those Nomu’s all he had to do was hit them harder! 

“Flashfire Fist Hell Spider!” Endeavor yelled out his attack, this time aiming for Phantom’s head like the heroes before him. Phantom has a regeneration quirk, but what he read is that when hit on the head with extreme force it causes him to become disoriented before he recovers. 

Sure enough, glowing green erupted from where Phantom’s eyes once sat. Endeavor used that to get closer to the villain and he began his barrage once again, pushing Phantom out of the alley. Phantom was strong but everything has it’s limits, Endeavor knew that better than anybody. 

Light returned to the world and it almost blinded Endeavor. He could finally see his own flames again and he basked in the glow and power of them. He looked down at Phantom a few feet away from him, the goo returning back to his head. He didn’t look real and it was hard to believe such a thing could exist. 

Phantom had recovered now but his floating hair covered his face. Endeavor took a moment to study the villain. He was unlike any foe he had fought if by mere virtue of his physicality. Like all the others, Endeavor would take him down. 

Something caught his eye. Instead of the plain black and white hazmat suit, he donned a Fat Gum sweatshirt. The front had been burned to bits, but the design was clearly one and the same. It had to have been the same one that was tied around his waist in the reports. There was also a report of a strange boy in the area wearing the same one, although that had no leads as of yet. It was such an unimportant detail, but yet it sparked more anger in Endeavor. It was like a mockery of them, a trophy of the hero that he had encountered before and so terrified.

Endeavor charged Phantom again with flame at his fingertips, letting out the heat from his last attack. It was a shame no one was around to witness him defeat Phantom, but it was probably safer that way. It was hard to rein in damage when Endeavor burned like this. 

Endeavor smiled. This would be his finishing blow. He aimed it at Phantom and felt it connect. He yelled as he pushed it harder and harder into him. He knew it wouldn’t be enough to kill the villain, but it would certainly knock him out.

Endeavor felt a hand wrap around his, his flames turning green from the touch. Fear once again landed in Endeavor’s bones as his flames burned brighter. He pushed harder but no matter how hot he burned the hand wouldn’t let go. 

A distorted face appeared in the flame and he got closer to Endeavors. It was like a creature coming out of hell with a halo of green flames at his back. A surge of cold overwhelms him and his flames start to lose their intensity. Finally the face is fully shown and Endeavor can see Phantom clearly. 

He was smiling. 

★~

Endeavor’s attacks were forceful and unrelenting. For the first time Danny was able to feel something other than his own chill. He felt warm, and it felt nice. Each hit that Endeavor landed was like a fresh reminder that he was still real. This is what he had been looking for all this time. He wanted more. 

He couldn’t deny the man was powerful too. He clearly earned his spot as the #2 hero. Had Danny been any less of a freak they might have hurt. A thought clouded his mind as the hero punched him again and again. Was this all they had to offer?

Before him was the near pinnacle of their strength in this world, yet it hardly affected Danny. Was he getting punked? Was this really what he was so afraid of when he came into this world? He thought his luck had finally turned but he could not be more mistaken. He was wrong when he called Stain weak. He wasn’t weak. They all were weak. 

The only reason he was afraid of the heroes before was because they reminded him how much of a freak he was and scared him with his own body.

Danny smiled at the hero, a sick feeling of satisfaction twisted in him when he saw how scared he was. Good. That was what Danny had been feeling for so long now. 

He still wanted to get it out. He wanted to get everything out. He knew there was no way in hell that the hero before him could win or even pose much of a threat to him. Still, he wanted to feel what he was able to do. He wanted to see if he could hurt Danny. 

Endeavor stepped back after the last of his flames sizzled out. His face was pale and his eyes had lost their spark. On his face was no longer the confident or angry expression that he wore instead replaced by one of pure regret.

“Come on,” Danny teased, “I thought I told you to try? Is this all you can do?” 

Danny stepped closer to him and the hero backed up again. He felt like a wolf cornering a deer. He closed the distance and grabbed the hero’s fist. He tried to pull it away but Danny wouldn’t let him. He placed the fist on his torso and looked back up at Endeavor, a smile stretching his face.

“Try again,” he whispered. 

Endeavor pulled back and Danny laughed. He hadn’t laughed in so long. He could almost get addicted to it. He watched Endeavor swallow hard and his face change again from that same fear to desperate rage. 

He raised a fist and set it alight. Excitement filled Danny about what was going to happen. He let Endeavor hit him, but returned it with a hit of his own. He was careful not to go too hard on the hero. It must’ve been too much since it knocked the hero back.

“I really thought you would be stronger than this,” Disappointment was clear in his voice. 

Anger filled the hero’s eyes and he aimed another hit at Danny. It was heavier than the last one and Danny let himself feel the full force of it. The feeling of warmth returned to his chest. 

Danny playfully hit back, not enough to knock him over but hard enough to earn a groan from the hero. It reminded him of his spar with Deku, although he thinks the boy might stand a better chance than Endeavor. If anything, Danny could use this as stress relief. 

He let Endeavor hit him over and over again. By this point Danny’s hoodie had been completely burned away. The man started sweating and it was clear that his body was no longer able to handle the heat of his own quirk. Danny just needed to cool him down. He started returning hits again, this time with ice below his fingers. The hero stopped sweating a little but he was starting to pant. 

Danny punched Endeavor’s stomach trying to get him to cough up more of his fire. Instead the only thing that came out was vomit. Danny jumped back, giving the hero room to breathe. 

After a second he stood up, determination on his face. It was clear he hadn’t given up yet. That’s good. Danny wasn’t finished yet. He watched him slowly start to recover and his breathing even out.

“Do you really think I’d let you win?!” He pointed at Danny, “No, no. I may not be as strong as the #1 hero, but even I could beat scum like you! Even if you do defeat me, you can’t go against all of us!”

He reached to his side and pulled out a walkie-talkie. He showed it off like a gun at Danny. 

“It is cold outside!” Endeavor yelled into the communicator. 

Danny rolled his eyes. He heard that phrase before with the other heroes. That means reinforcements would be coming soon. Maybe this could be a lesson to get them to back off. Danny had to end this quickly… 

Everything went black.

★~

When Danny came too, Endeavor was on the ground with Danny on top of him. He hit the hero over and over again, pushing him deeper into the cracked street. Danny couldn’t stop himself and became lost in the rhythm. He wanted him to get back up so he could do it again. 

“Phantom, stop!” Something pulled on his arm. Reflexives took over and Danny twisted around and punched something in the face. He felt bone crack underneath his fist. He realized all too late who it was and pulled his fist away as if it burned him. Horror and regret spread through his body. 

“He’s down... Just stop.” The voice was muffled and tired. 

“Ma?” Danny forced the words out of his throat. They were as thick as bile and he wanted to swallow it back down. He started trembling, realizing what he had just done and what was around him. 

Ma’s eyes widened and a shocked smile spread across his face. “Yeah,” he said, “Ma.”

His senses finally returned and pain like no other shot inside him. He really was a monster. Thoughts crashed and coursed through Danny’s head like a riptide and complicated emotions rose up to the surface. He looked down at the hero before him. He didn’t look like an enemy, he just looked like a man.

“I thought I said not to call me Phantom,” He tried to say it like a joke, something for them to laugh at rather than the tense air between them right now. Instead he sounded like a kid disappointed for the first time. 

The hero was clutching his nose and blood dripped onto the concrete. Danny wanted to look away but some unknown force kept his head in place. He started shaking even harder. He had done that. He looked at Endeavor on the ground, beaten into submission. Was he really capable of this kind of brutality? 

“You know I can't do that,” Ma huffed. He was on one of his knees, but pushed himself up to face Danny. His arms lowered to his sides to show he was empty handed, he didn’t even have the scarf around his neck. A gentle smile spread across his face despite the blood. 

“I can still help you,” Ma said. There was no judgment in his voice. Danny wanted to break down in front of him, but all around them more heroes were showing up. Gazes full of murder all honed in on Danny. He deserved it too. 

“How?” Danny gestured at the crowd around them. He really fucked up this time. Why did he go so overboard? He knew Endeavor wasn’t a threat to him, he just couldn’t stop. He even hurt Ma. The man may have hurt Danny, but he didn’t deserve that. 

Danny looked at his hands, the white gloves stained with red. He wasn’t sure if it was from Ma or the hero beneath him. He just wanted everything to stop. He looked back at Ma. Blood was oozing down his face and he looked unstable. Danny reached out to him when something shot at him. It was an inch from his fingertips. It was a warning shot but rage filled him that they would shoot in the direction of one of their own. Danny looked around for the culprit, his eyes zeroing in on a cowboy in a mask. Danny felt anger rise in his throat again. 

“Come with me,” Ma’s voice brought him back. He tried to keep his tone steady but his eyes betrayed him, showing ill hidden desperation. “I can talk them down. They’re just scared.”

And that was it. Scared. Danny had given them every reason to be afraid. Every time they attacked him, he hit them harder. Didn’t they think he was just scared too? He was just a kid but they looked at him as if he were a monster. 

‘You are a monster,’ a voice sang in his ear, ‘look what you’ve done. You stopped being a kid a long time ago.’

“I can’t.” His voice sounded pathetic and like a child’s, “Just give me some time. I-” Danny paused not knowing what to say. Another shot rang out and missed him. It wasn’t safe here, for him or Ma. So long as he was here they would keep shooting.

“You were right,” Ma breathed out. He looked to be on the edge of consciousness, “I don’t know you, but I would like to. I’m sorry...”

“I just need some time,” Danny looked into Ma’s eyes for what felt like the first and final time. Ma didn’t look surprised and simply nodded, his head tipping back a little before he regained his balance again. Once again Danny tried to reach out but another shot fired. 

“No,” Danny stated, “I’m sorry,” Danny felt the sensation of tears in his eyes and he flew away from Ma and the heroes. 

He was such a coward.

[stealingyourbones]

‘tis me again, the anon from the JL time-travelers/Booster Gold prompt. This kept cooking in my brain even after I posted it last time, so here goes (I’m so sorry if this goes long and or ramble-y) —

So I was trying to think of different timeline variants of the TUE event there could be to trip up the JL, by having them act on base-different facts. Bc let’s face it, if Danny had failed to beat Dan? Instant worse outcome then what was already going to happen, bc Dan is a full adult with ten years of escalating violence under his belt in an unsuspecting, unready world, and without a Red Huntress that power-scaled with him to counterbalance. This is all getting compounded by the fact that, due to Dan literally destroying everything, no complete set of un-redacted records exist in any timeline, and what they can scavenge needs more context than they have.

So how a time-traveler from that even-worse-verse would react to Phantom first-contact would be vastly different to how someone would from the main timeline, where Danny succeeded and there was no catastrophe. Conflict is that they don’t know who’s timeline they’re in and what they should do. Added to all that, TUE takes place after Reign Storm and Danny defeats Pariah. Huh that might be why the Observants were looking into his destiny specifically. A guerrilla ghost war between Dan the Ghost King and the Observants with the Earth caught in the middle sounds like a Bad Time™️. Like, bad enough of a time that the JL time-traveler from that world full-stop wants to go with the Kill-Baby-Hitler route on Phantom, even. This can be amplified by how much or how little humanity has recovered from Dan at that point.

I still don’t know who all has time travelled in the JL, or if it’s just Bart and Booster. But then it occurred to me. It’s not just the heroes that time travel. From meme-education, I know that Reverse Flash’s whole schtick is that he’s time traveling specifically to ruin Barry Allen’s life. Which of these TUE divergent timelines is he from? How does that effect his approach to Phantom? Does he try and corrupt Danny, young and impressionable, to the dark side with the mentorship he lacks? Do other villains hear about a boy who becomes the next Big Bad, but has an open window of malleability? Do they decide to get rid of Phantom, deciding a danger to the world is a danger to themselves and their plans?

Do heroes and villains, starting with the time travelers, break rank and cross the aisle based on how they think Phantom should be handled? Who is Switzerland in this? Are the Observants not satisfied and mobilizing against Danny again? JL:D I imagine are in crisis-mitigation mode after the first time someone said ‘High King of the Infinite Realms’ in the same breath as ‘within ten years’ and can no longer be reached. Going a step further, is Danny or Amity at all aware of any of this or is it business as usual? Or, is something/someone preventing the chaos from reaching them after first contact?

TL;DR, time travelers from different TUE timelines accidentally spark a DC (civil?) war after first contact with Phantom, either wanting to pull him to the side of good or evil, kill him or spare him. Once janitor, attempted glory-hound, reluctant time-cop Booster Gold gets shepherd-hooked by Clockwork, Master of Time, to fix it.

Prev

[spectacled-renegade-writes]

An Early Start - Chapter 25 - Final Chapter - Danny Phantom

Ao3: Here | Masterpost: Here

Ao3 Description: The accident that turns Danny half-ghost happens when he is four years old and leaves him trapped in the Ghost Zone. Clockwork finds him and takes him in to raise. But what happens when Clockwork sends Danny back to the human-world ten years later when a permanent portal appears?

Chapter 25: Epilogue

Danny learned the following day that Clockwork did not perish. He was in his room, still recovering, playing a game of chess with Vlad. He only noticed time stop because of a fly, which abruptly stopped buzzing around his room. Moments later Clockwork appeared and placed a time medallion around Vlad’s neck.

Danny choked on his breath and ignored the way his recovering body screamed at him as he jumped off his bed to hug Clockwork, knocking over the chess board in the process. Clockwork’s familiar chill and scent of oil filled his senses, and Danny just stood there and hugged him, and didn’t let go for many moments. Clockwork did not resist but instead hugged him back.

Danny had to wipe away a tear when he finally let go. “I thought… I thought you were…”

“I know.” Clockwork replied gently and Danny couldn’t help but laugh, because of course he knew.

“Where were you?” Danny demanded, but not a hint of spite in his voice.

“You were correct.” Clockwork explained, while Vlad watched on in fascination. “I was captured. But I needed to get a few affairs in order after you defeated the ghost king, which is why I could not see you right away. For that I am sorry.” Clockwork turned to look at Vlad approvingly but when he spoke again, it was clearly still directed at Danny. “Congratulations. Your mission was a success.” He turned back at Danny. “I am so very proud of you.”

Danny smiled, sitting back down at the edge of his bed. “Did you know the whole time? That Pariah would be released?”

“I did,” Clockwork confirmed, something of a hum. “It was one of the more probable timelines. But defeating Pariah Dark wasn’t your mission.”

Danny tilted his head and glanced at Vlad, like maybe he knew what Clockwork was talking about, but Vlad only shrugged so Danny turned his attention back. “Then… what was my mission?”

Something of a bemused smile crossed Clockwork’s lips as he changed from an old man to a baby. He pointed to Vlad. “He was.”

Vlad sputtered. “Me?”

Clockwork nodded. “Indeed.” Clockwork set his scepter on the floor and balanced it upright like the laws of physics shouldn’t allow, and sat atop it. “A timeline existed-“

“Existed?" Vlad interrupted despite himself. "As in past tense?”

Clockwork merely nodded again ever patiently. “Very few timelines can be erased completely but this particular timeline you erased, Danny, it was very special.”

“What happened?” Vlad couldn’t help but ask, hungry for knowledge.

Clockwork finally turned to Vlad and said, quite bluntly, “You destroy the world.”

Danny watched as Vlad paled.

“…I what?”

Clockwork casually worked on winding one of the many watches on his wrist as he spoke. “There was a timeline, the most probable timeline back then, in which Danny received his powers at fourteen. In that timeline, the most probable outcome was that he would save the world you nearly destroy. But in this timeline, as all things that change, it was different, because Danny is different.” He finished winding his watch and moved on to the next one.

“Does that mean…” Danny spoke slowly, a devastating realization dawning on him. It was quite rare for Clockwork to speak of other timelines, whether they have come to pass or have yet to be. “That if I wasn’t different, or if I couldn’t save the world, you wouldn’t have taken me in?” The realization was crushing and he felt something like betrayal. He looked down at the scattered chess pieces. “Was I just a pawn this whole time?”

Danny couldn’t bring himself to look at Clockwork but when Clockwork spoke, it was still in that same smooth, patient tone he always had. “We become close in every timeline you’re born into. You are not a pawn, Danny, and though it may not feel like it, I had nothing to do with the choices you made that led to this timeline.” He reached out and placed a hand on Danny’s shoulder as he shifted to a young man. “This timeline, the one where you received your powers when you were four, it was one of the most unlikely timelines to occur. But, it still happened, because your choices have always been yours, and you have always had your free will.”

Danny felt his shoulders relax and he looked back up at the ghost he considered his father. He knew Clockwork has never lied to him. “I’m sorry.” Danny whispered.

“Apologies are unnecessary. Time is a fickle thing and it can lead to doubt.”

“Since his mission is over,” Vlad spoke up, and they both turned their attention to him. “Does that mean Daniel must return to the Ghost Zone?” Danny couldn’t help but hear the apprehension in Vlad’s tone when he spoke.

Clockwork merely smiled, floating off his seat to get close to Danny. “That all depends on Danny.” He said. “You will always have your free will and should you choose to return to your home in the Ghost Zone, you can.”

“You mean,” Danny breathed. “I can come home?”

“You can.” Clockwork confirmed, floating back again.

A million and one thoughts flooded Danny’s mind. On one hand, a spark of excitement and longing grew for the home he missed so dearly. On the other hand... he looked at Vlad. He thought about the friends he’s made, the family he’s made, the sister he returned to. Danny didn’t know if he could leave them behind. His heart ached at the thought of each choice but he realized it really wasn’t a choice at all. “I’ll visit you,” he whispered, staring at the floor. Then stronger, he looked up at Clockwork. “All the time. I’ll visit you.” Danny watched as a gentle but proud smile cross Clockwork’s face, and Danny continued. “I’ll introduce you to Jazz and my friends. We can still have our lessons, too. But… I can’t leave the dear people I’ve gained in this world.”

“I always suspected as much,” Clockwork replied. “Even if a choice such as this has always been fifty-fifty. Still, it’ll always be difficult for a father to watch his child go out on his own.”

Danny felt himself choke up and tears sting his eyes.

Clockwork turned to Vlad. “You take good care of each other. I’ll be watching.”

“I will.” Vlad promised.

So, Clockwork took his scepter, and the medallion off Vlad’s neck, and smiled at Danny. “Until next time.”

Danny watched, while waving goodbye to his dad, as time restarted with a wave of the scepter.

A moment of silence past and Danny and Vlad looked at each other. Then, with an air of incredulity, they picked up the chess pieces off the floor, and restarted their game.

-

Life got better after that. Many changes happened and all of them were good. First, Vlad bought a mansion in Amity Park “so he could be closer to family”. They hung out often and learned much from each other. It also felt nice to finally have another person who understands you like no one else does.

Second, Danny introduced the two people who raised him to each other. Danny brought Jazz to the Ghost Zone and when she met Clockwork, she grew very emotional. She thanked him for taking care of her brother when she could not and asked many questions. They talked for hours, late into the night by standards of the human world, and shared many stories. Danny would later learn that Jazz would then on visit Clockwork on her own from time to time. It made him so happy that they got along so well. But he always knew they would.

Third, and most life changing, most of the humans and most of the ghosts grew to like Danny. Though his human parents weren't two of the people who saw Phantom in a new light. But Danny realized he was okay with that. They didn't matter enough to him to care, and he knew who his real parents are.

Also, of course, his human half was still mostly an outcast in the human world too, simply because he has been deemed as weird. But that didn’t bother Danny like it used to. Not everything can be fixed, something he has since learned to accept. No life was perfect, but that didn't mean it still couldn't be good.

In the Ghost Zone, for the first time ever, the other ghosts actually acknowledged him, greeted him even, as he resumed his explorations. It was a happiness Danny never thought he could achieve.

For the first time in his life ever, Danny finally felt like he belonged in both worlds, and when he closed his eyes at night, he could feel peace hum in his chest.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ao3 Notes: I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am to each and every one of you. Whether you've left comments, kudos, bookmarks, or even simply read each chapter without any interaction, I am so, so grateful to each and every one of you.

During the last third of this story a lot of stressful things began happening in my life and my mental health took a decline, but this story kept me going. You all kept me going. I didn't want to disappoint you and now here we are, and I truly hope you enjoyed it to the end.

Even though I don't often reply to comments, just know I have read each and every one of them, and each and every one of them has meant so much to me. They're like little doses of serotonin for my brain.

So thank you, dear readers, so very much for reading my little story.

For one last time, thank you so much for reading, for your support/continued support, and I truly hope you have the most lovely day/night. <3

[goliath-de-senfina-sango]

Order and Chaos

Ectober Haunt 2022, Order and Chaos, ao3

“Wait, ok, I need you to explain a few things to me again, slowly, alright?”

“Of course, Danny.  Take all the time you need.”

Danny snorted at the pun and crossed his arms, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes to order his thoughts.   When he breathed out, he stared at Clockwork, ignoring the observants for now.

“You’re telling me that when I beat Pariah Dark and destroyed his ring, it jettisoned Amity Park into another timeline and made me the new king?”

“That is correct.  The Infinite Realm both does and does not exist at every feasible and non-feasible point in time, space, and thought.  Meaning no matter where or when you are in the Ghost Zone you are everywhere and when because it all exists at once, while not existing.  What this means for you, Danny, is that when the same thing is pulled into the Infinite Realm from multiple points in the omniverse, it might get shuffled around with other variants.”

“So there’s a whole bunch of alternate timelines and the ghost zone is a hat that multiple Amity Parks got tossed into and the wrong timelines pulled them back?”

“Exactly.”

Clockwork presented Danny with a cookie and he narrowed his eyes at the toddler that was the Master of Time.  He took the cookie and tried a bite, eyes widening when the flavor hit him.

“This is delicious!”

“Thank you.  Your Amity Park is now on a different Earth, within a whole different multiverse, this one referred to by those outside of it as DC, though I won’t tell you why.”

“Wait, wait, hold the fuck up!  Clockwork, am I in comic book land?  Do I now share a planet with Gotham and Central City and Middletown?”

“Would another cookie help?”

Danny nodded and scarfed down a whole plate of cookies, trying to wrap his head around the cosmic intersection between his world and a network of fictional works.   He decided not to dwell on the metaphysical implications and turned back to his own corner of nonsense.

“So, this whole king business… is that a good idea?  I feel like after that whole evil future me thing I don’t wanna put on something called the Ring of Rage, in case there are backups.  I broke it for a reason.”

“You destroyed the Ring in order to set free the victims of Pariah’s war raged across the infinite cosmos, releasing even Pacon from his status as the Fright Knight.  Responsibility for nightmares falls back to Nocturne, which I’m sure he’s oh so happy about.”

“Still…”

“The ‘evil’ variant of your future and Pariah Dark are actually much the same, Danny.”

“You cannot-“

“Quiet.  You were saying, Clockwork?”

“Very good use of a royal power, the sugar and energy infusion in the cookies must be working.   Pariah Dark was originally a liminal spirit like yourself, half living half dead.   The Observants ripped ghost and mortal, chaos and order, apart from one another, and crowned the ghost.   Things went about as well as they did when your grieving, angry ghost was ripped from your mortal body, no longer regulated by the brain you’d been adapted to have.”

“So do I have to be completely dead to rule?  Can’t you just wait then?!”

The observants began to wring their hands and shift their weight from side to side, drifting backward slowly.  Danny narrowed his eyes.

“Well… you don’t have to be a full ghost but…”

“It’s tradition!”

“…… What stops me from shooting them both in the eye?”

“Absolutely nothing, your majesty.  We haven’t even discussed the artifacts of power but we have time.”

“Artifacts?  Do I have to wear the crown?”

“As well as something else to balance it out.  Shall we?”

[tachvintlogic]

Which DP Ghost do u want to rewrite the most in. And why?

Oh man where to start?

For ones we've already talked about, definitely Sidney and Klemper are up there. Klemper goes without saying, and Sidney could've been a semi-regular presence at the school as a friendly ghost Danny's age, but he wasn't, and that's a shame. Desiree would absolutely need a rework before it was okay to have her in a show again.

Then there are 2 that I think need the rework the most.

There's the ghost king Pariah Dark, whose existence brings up so many questions.

The questions include: Why does his name mean outcast? Isn't that a weird thing to call a king? What is the ghost king and what duties do they have? Did he rule all of the ghost zone or some of it? What's the ghost zone government like? Is the ghost king an important role? It sounds like it should be? But if it's important, why didn't anyone try to find a successor who could take the role? What is the crown of fire and ring of rage and why do they exist?

(My solution for the king being paradoxically important and unimportant is that they're at the top of a bureaucracy of alliances so layered and complicated that only the most dire issues reach them, which is so rare you could replace them with a potted plant and it would take centuries for anyone to notice. Other people go the Fisher King route where the king existing is more important than them doing stuff.)

He's also the reason for Ghost King Danny, a phandom AU I've never really liked that much even if there are lots of good stories that use it. I'm more of an astronaut Danny person.

But I think the ghost that needs a rework the most is Dan.

I find Dan very hard to take seriously. For one, the circumstances that led to him are very contrived, being both ridiculous and being ridiculously easy to prevent at every step. Secondly, Dan is part Plasmius so it's impossible to imagine that our Danny could turn evil because obviously, the evil came from Plasmius, not Danny. So I can't take the idea that Danny could turn evil seriously.

He says "I'm inevitable" but he's just not convincing me.

A good future plot would show a future that felt like a natural progression of where the characters are heading. Ben 10's future episode was like this. Ben loved being a hero, so we see a future where older Ben is a hero full-time, and he's so focused on hero work that he doesn't spend much time with his family anymore. That felt natural for the character. It was easy to see how present Ben could turn into future Ben. The audience didn't need to see future Ben's life story to understand how we got here.

The future with Dan came completely out of left field. So much so that how Dan came to be needed to be explained and again, the events were incredibly contrived. It wasn't a natural progression at all.

A good setup was already there for a future Danny episode. He wants to be an astronaut, but leaving town and going off-planet could leave the town in danger. And of course the astronaut job market is incredibly competitive. He's already worried about what his future is going to look like on that front, so they should've focused on that.

I've already gone over my ideas for Dan in another thread. But I wanna do it again here with more detail.

Danny has come under fire because surprise! in the future he's responsible for the apocalypse! So begins the time traveling adventure, where Danny and friends must find the future where Danny becomes evil.

Along the way, they travel to other timelines and meet other Dannys.

They meet Hero Danny, who never left Amity Park and is dedicated to protecting it. His life is full of pain, suffering, and no sleep. He's abandoned all his passions and hates his life. He tries not to show how much he resents being a hero to the civilians. It's been years since he last stargazed.

They meet CEO Danny, who left for college to pursue his dreams, ghosts attacks be damned. This resulted in the deaths of his entire family and Vlad. Vlad had made him his heir and now he's the CEO of Vlad's company and FentonWorks. However, he does nothing but hide away in his mansion, mourning the deaths he didn't prevent. His can't enjoy his passion for space anymore because it only reminds him that his family died because he pursued those passions.

Finally, they find "evil" Danny. Well, not "evil," but corrupted. In Corrupted Danny's timeline, the worst case scenario occurred: Danny was captured and experimented on by ghost hunters. No one knows what happened exactly. Just that, one day a few years after Phantom disappeared, a GIW building exploded and out came a giant withering black mass that destroyed everything in its path. If you've seen the last part of Princess Mononoke, that's basically Corrupted Danny.

The gist is that the GIW tried to turn him into a living weapon and, of course, couldn't control him. We don't need to be directly told that. We can infer it just from knowing who owned the building Corrupted Danny emerged from.

Now present Danny, his friends, and maybe his other future selves, have to stop Corrupted Danny and save what's left of humanity in this timeline.

Eventually, they realize that Corrupted Danny isn't really aware of what he is or what's happening. He's just lashing out at whatever's causing him pain, which is everything. Digging to the center of the black and green mass of death and destruction, they find Corrupted Danny's real body hooked up to GIW machines that are making him writhe in agony. Once he's separated from them, the black mass goes away, and Corrupted Danny dies soon after, spending his last moments lucid for the first time in years.

All three futures are far superior to Dan narratively. Two feel like natural progressions of the character. They're the two paths Danny could take, and it's easy to see how those paths would result in those futures. They're unpleasant enough for Danny to want to avoid them while realistic enough that doing so seems hard.

The third is a very realistic fear he has thrown at his face. There's no sauce explosion. There's no Vlad half to explain away being evil. Danny can't tell himself "that chain of events is so unlikely I don't need to worry about it." No. Corrupted Danny will haunt his nightmares and will be all he can think about every time he interacts with the GIW from that point forward.

The lesson of Dan's episode is don't cheat on a test, even if it will massively improve your odds of getting into college. Danny doesn't really need to change how he operates day-to-day. Meanwhile, in my idea for the episode, the lesson is about the dangers of both completely forsaking your wants for your responsibilities and completely forsaking your responsibilities for your wants.

Danny realizes he needs to radically change strategies for how to approach ghost hunting and school to avoid all 3 futures. That's where Jazz comes in.

[ectoamerican]

/// mixed (mostly abt older Danny) headcanon stuff: again we get the read more.

So, i'm gonna start with some stuff I've briefly mentioned for Danny when he's older.

It takes Danny a while to age physically. He has a growth spurt in his mid twenties. If he takes the throne as the ghost king officially too early, then this won't happen. It locks him into whatever age he was at the time. But I have a few verses where he puts it off long enough so as a result I have at least 2 different ghost king verses.

I think Danny would be okay with growing out and cutting his hair. He might have longer hair than normal or the shorter style, either or. Cause you know, ppl get haircuts occasionally. occasionally he might pull it back if he needs to, but personally I don't think he would regularly put his hair in a ponytail. Because it reminds him one 2 specific people that he associates with past trauma. 8')

Once he's old enough, in my main verse, Danny moves out of his family's place and into the abandoned house from the Fright Knight episode. He fixes the place up and mostly does odd jobs and a couple part time jobs. (thank you, duplication ability) He mostly lives on his own but encourages Danielle to live with him or at least stay with him when she wants to.

Danny treats Danielle like his daughter, regardless of whatever title they give each other. For my blogs canon, Dani doesn't ever live with the Fentons at any point. The fact that they're ghost hunters makes her too uncomfortable and regardless of how nice they are, she just doesn't feel safe there.

Danny gets attached to people very quickly and Danielle being his clone, is technically his baby. Their age difference doesn't really do much to stop this dynamic as even siblings with the same age gap can be more parental in behavior. (i mean LOOK at Jazz. She's more like a 2nd mom to Danny than a sister at times)

((( also, side tangent; maybe I don't really have a problem with Danny behaving in a parental way towards someone younger than him, because my own mother was 15 when I was born? Sure that's not something I would actively wish for or advocate for, but it is realistic to say that parental behavior isn't excluded from teenagers. Besides-- Danielle is a clone. And Danny had to do a bit of growing up before Dani ever existed anyway, due to the accident and the way his family is. Additionally, even if Danny is seemingly forever 14 in the show, in my timeline he is not. I'm just want you to consider all of these things. )))

Here's some old doodles I've done of an older design for Danny. dunno what I'd change abt them, but idk maybe I'll revise them at some point. (the green marks on Phantom are poorly drawn scars.)

[redrobin-detective]

Danny always enters the ghost portal.

If he didn’t enter it when egged on by Sam and Tucker, he would have snuck down to the lab later that night or after school the next day. From the moment his parents finished the invention felt drawn to it. He’s always been politely curious, if still horribly embarrassed, about his parents’ work but the portal attracts him in a way their other tools don’t. He tells himself its because they’ve worked for so long on it, because he’s interested in the idea of exploring a strange new world.

 How is a 14 year old, C average student supposed to know what the fingertips of fate feel like, nudging him forward? He doesn’t know that his accident is a fixed point in time. That the few timelines that exist where he remains completely human invariably unravel after a few years. The creation of Phantom is a major turning point in ghost history, whether he becomes a King, a Tyrant, a Hero or a Villain, his presence changes everything. He is necessary, inevitable. 

As Danny pulls on the jumpsuit, he can’t know that all roads lead to this moment, that he never really had any choice at all. As he wanders inside the portal, his eyes alight with wonder, he can’t feel the universe tightening around the significance of the next few moments. As he hits the on switch and screams his way to a new existence, how can he know that he is just a pawn in time’s eternal game. Another martyr who looped the noose around their own neck not knowing larger forces were guiding his hands.

[aikoiya]

DP - Broken Future AU

I have a confession to make.

One of my favorite pairings is DanxOlder!PlantSam. Like, I imagine that there is an alternate timeline where Danny didn’t manage to beat Undergrowth & died. In my thoughts, Sam eventually immunized to Undergrowth’s control & destroyed him by taking all of his power for herself & becoming a Halfa herself. However, the only reason it worked is because Vlad had infected her with ecto-acne, which I feel would act in a similar way to cancer, meaning once you’ve gotten it then even if you’re in remission, you can get it again. I've heard it be compared to ecto-herpies. Getting taken over by Undergrowth just restarted the process. Anyway, by then, like, half the human race has been used as fertilizer for Undergrowth’s plants.

In cases where defeating Pariah Dark causes Danny to become the next Ghost King, Undergrowth killing Danny transfers the crown to him & then Sam destroying Undergrowth gives it to her. Now, she's in-line to become Ghost Queen. She becomes the Queen of Thorns & has named herself Nightshade. When placed on her head, the crown & ring changes to take on the appearance of blood blossom wreaths, the crown having a dark, shadowy aura. Blood blossoms, from the perspective of ghosts, would be pretty threatening.

She takes Danny’s place as a protector of Earth even though she’s scorned by the rest of humanity for what she’d participated in, though against her will.

She turns 24 & Clockwork, like, fuses Dan’s broken timeline with her broken timeline, then sorta dumps Dan in the new product, sealing him to it.

Anybody who existed in both timelines sort of merge. So, the 2 Vlads merge & the product has memories from both timelines. Also, because Dan is half-Plasmius, he also gets the memories of the Vlad from Sam's timeline.

Sam ends up being the only one able to go toe-to-toe with Dan because of her unique ability to control blood blossoms & create weapons with them. Her preferred choice is to turn them into either a blood blossom whip or thorn rapier.

When they meet each other, it causes a lot of drama.

It’s friends-to-enemies-to-lovers & the idea is that he fights her for years, trying to destroy this new timeline like he destroyed his old one, but extended contact with his old friend & crush slowly brings out the parts of him that used to be Danny.

Or, who knows, maybe the parts of Dan that were Plasmius leads to him developing an obsession (not a ghost Obsession, just a regular human obsession) with her?

I see it becoming spicy, sexy, & maybe a little creepy. This is my guilty pleasure ship & I know that it’s wrong, but I can’t help it! Sue me!

I know that DanxSam is called both Evil Goth & Amethyst Blood, but DanxPlant!Sam has only Blood Blossoms for reference & that gets confusing. So, I feel like there needs to be a different name for the ship. Like, Evil Rose or Blood Rose.

DP Character HC Masterlist