#i will finish dannymay

[marzfartz]

Dannymay Day 19: No CTRL-Z/Backspace

Ahhh this was hard!! I slapped a bunch of different brushes and colours over it to try and hide some of the imperfections

[glassroo]

I DON'T CARE THAT MAY IS OVER I DON'T CARE I'M GONNA KEEP DOING DANNYMAY FUCK YOU I WANNA FINISH IT YOU CANT STOP ME FUCK YOU FUCK YOU

[angelic-ish-phantom]

Dannymay26

Overcome

Danny learns fast that his core has an idea of what his body is supposed to look like.

And because of this, Danny also learns that he doesn’t have to worry about any injuries he sustains while fighting ghosts. So long as it isn’t life threatening, so long as he can tough it out, it will heal, and it will be fine.

His core will rend flesh back into the state his body took before the accident. It’s like pulling back time; he regenerates it all. So long as he’s still alive, he can fix himself, so why not take a bullet for Amity. Why not take this bullet, and the next, and every wound after.

A little pain is nothing in the face Amity’s safety. So many people are at risk of being hurt every day, injury that won’t just sew itself back together, without even the barest scar for evidence.

If Danny breaks his arms, that’s one person that won’t have their own stuck in casts for weeks. If Danny breaks his arms, given a day or two, his core has worked it’s magic and it basically didn’t happen.

(He doesn’t think of the snapping sound as bones crunch and muscles tear. He doesn’t think of his own voice screaming in his ears, as he’s unable to silence it. He doesn’t think of pain beyond explanation, because it’s fine. It will be fine. He just has to endure and he’ll be better. He’ll always get better. He just has to live and everybody else can too!)

There’s no permanent damage. Its like it didn’t happen. It doesn’t matter.

oOo

“Oh my God.” Tucker said. “Oh my God.”

Sam hovered over Danny as he hyperventilated, holding his shaking hands down so he didn’t try to touch his eyes again.

(His eyes. his eyes. His fucking eyes are gone. She’d ripped them out, what the fuck.)

“What do we do?” Tucker asked sounding even more panicked, “Gods, his eyes, Sam. What are we supposed to-“

“We just have to wait and it’ll heal!” Sam snapped, as if she had any idea what she was doing. As if she wasn’t just as horrified, because one of them had to keep it together. She could curl up and scream later, right now she needed to be there.

Danny flinched at the sound of yelling, and Sam shouldn’t have looked at his face because now she couldn’t look away from the empty, uneven holes, leaking blood and ectoplasm like a Goddamn fountain.

“Keep your eyes closed, Danny!” She yelled, breaking composure. She wasn’t even sure if that was safe, but less blood loss would surely be bad, even in this situation, wouldn’t it be?

“I’m-“ Danny choked, “I’ll be fine.” He said ignoring her instructions and attempting to pull his hands out of hers.

“What have your- has this happened before?” Sam asked, holding onto him tighter.

“N-no. But my injuries heal. They- they always do. This will too.” He sounded so pained.

“You don’t know that.” Tucker nearly wailed, “What if your- your eyes do heal, and you’re-“ Tucker thankfully managed to cut himself off, but now Sam was thinking of the possibility. What if this did blind Danny? What would they do? How would they explain it away?

She shook her head. One terrible thing at a time. “Tucker get me a towel.” She ordered.

It seemed he was thankful for the reason to be away from all this even for a moment, because he bounded away immediately. Sam knew that he wouldn’t just leave no matter how bad it got. Even if this was a lot for him, he’d stay for Danny, same as she would.

He came back with two towels, having wet one of them, helpfully. As he handed them to her, Sam caught his eyes spasming over Danny’s face.

It was fair, he looked fucking horrifying right now. His blood-streak tears were something out of a horror movie, and as Sam wiped down his face and eye-holes, she wanted only to turn away from that nothing-stare and cry.

She stopped, dropping the towel, as Danny let out a pained howl. She resolved to burn the blood soaked cloths, as Danny yanked his hands back and over where his eyes should be.

Sam was so glad her parents were out, because there was no way they’d be able to hide the sound of Danny’s choked yelling as he started to heal.

Sam felt like she might be sick; they couldn’t see his eyes fixing themselves, but the sound echoed through her room. It was like someone was popping wet bubble wrap, a broken up swelling sound she couldn’t ignore.

Evidently, that was Tucker’s straw, because he bent over her dustbin, retching. He’d definitely grown a tolerance to injury since the started “ghost hunting”, but Tucker was still definitely the most squeamish of all of them. She didn’t blame him for it, but the sound of him throwing up alongside whatever the fuck Danny’s eyes were doing was going to drive her to insane.

Soon, all that was left was the sound of Danny gagging as he tried to breathe. His hands dropped, bloody, but his eyes looked as blue as they ever been. Danny blinked as he calmed down eyes dragging across the room. It was a safe bet that he could see, and Sam really didn’t want to ask so she let it be.

“I’ll go get you some water.” Tucker said with a cough, before leaving to do so.

Danny murmured thanks as he slumped against Sam. “…I really hate Spectra.”

Sam held back a hysterical laugh, only nodding as she held him, masking her shaking with his own as she tried not to break.

oOo

Jazz didn’t know what to do. Nothing could have ever prepared her for one of her brother’s friends dragging an unconscious Danny into the house with one less arm.

She needed to call someone. Her parents, an ambulance. Screw Danny’s secret, his arm was gone!

“It’ll grow back.” Sam said tiredly. “All we have to do is wait.”

And Jazz hated the idea that they had done this before. That Danny might have regrown entire limbs with only his friends to notice what he’d gone through. Jazz cursed herself for not butting in sooner, but at the same time what could she have done. She was helping Danny now and she hadn’t been able to stop this.

She wondered how it happened, and immediately stopped, because if she kept thinking about it that vividly she was going to be sick.

She ran a hand through Danny hair as he grit out pained sounds, screeched and yelped, as the flesh and bone built up from his bleeding stub.

For the first time, Jazz couldn’t complain that the basement was soundproofed. Although this was a prime example of why it shouldn’t have been. Their parents couldn’t hear if one of them needed help or was hurt. Or was growing back their entire arm, what the Hell-

Jazz kept her body relaxed, murmured soft comfort, watching in morbid fascination as Danny’s muscles stretched and twisted over each other, as Danny’s bones built up a horrific baseline.

Sam was still in the room, breathing shaking as she leaned against the wall, eyes closed. She didn’t seem to be ignoring what was happening but she was definitely distancing herself from the moment. Jazz wondered how many times she had filled this roll of support, if she had had to watch flesh rend and bones snap as Danny lay in her arms.

It wasn’t fair. They were kids. They shouldn’t have to be the ones to do this.

Then, if the world were fair, Danny wouldn’t be dead in the first place.

So Jazz, stayed there, until Danny’s arm was back with off-shade skin, and his breathing had evened.

Stayed until Danny was awake and gasping and clinging to her the way he had when he’d scraped his knees when he was ten.

oOo

Tucker tried.

He tried, but he hated this so much. But then, he supposed this wasn’t about him.

Tucker pushed his blanket down on Danny’s wound as Danny hissed, doing his best to staunch the bleeding.

When was he going to start healing? When did his ghost powers think he was dying enough to start working? This was such bullshit.

He didn’t even noticed when Sam came in, vision tunneling.

“What the fuck happened?” She’d screamed as quietly as she could.

Heck if he knew. Danny had crashed into his room apologizing that he’d been closest, as though Tucker’s hemophobia was at all his fault.

“I got impaled.” Danny informed, cheerfully through a gasp as though there was anything funny about this. Tucker just kept pressing the blanket down; Gods, he was gonna have to wash this-

Sam gave Danny an unimpressed look, shutting the door and dropping herself at Danny’s side.

“Do you need anything?” She asked and Tucker tried to comprehend the meaning behind her words, but the initial shock of her being there had worn off and she was fading into the background.

“Tucker’s had it handled, b-but…”

“Right.”

And then Tucker’s hands were being gently pulled off of Danny. His head snapped up and his eyes met Sam’s.

“Take a break, Tuck. I’ve got it from here.” She reassured, putting pressure back on Danny wound, making his breath hitch.

Tucker didn’t know what he was taking a break from. All he’d done was press a blanket over the hole in Danny’s stomach. Danny’s the one who got a freaking hole punched through him! He was being overdramatic.

Regardless of that, Tucker nodded, slowly shambling to the bathroom, unable to focus on anything except the blood on his hands.

If Danny wasn’t still bleeding out in the other room, he might have stayed there longer, letting water run over his stained hands, but Danny was his friend. Even if Tucker wasn’t especially helpful when this stuff happened he still wanted to be there for him.

So he did his best to ignore the itch in his hands. Tried to focus on Danny’s face, holding his hand as his torso knitted itself back together. Helped him stay upright as his breathing steadied. And hoped to all Hell that this wouldn’t happen again.

(He knew it would.)

oOo

He couldn’t see. He could barely breathe.

For an agonizing while, all Danny knew was a seething pain on every inch of his skin, that would spike with the barest movements. It was so much that he almost couldn’t process it, but he still could and it hurt.

All he could do was lie as still as was possible and pray that he would just pass out.

He couldn’t even be tired; he was too overwhelmed. He wondered if he was screaming. He wondered if he was crying.

Then, he wondered if he was having a nightmare, because even if dreams didn’t feel so vivid as this, the way hands pressed into his burnt-bloody skin and made the pain impossibly worse. It hurt too much to be real, and all Danny could do was endure as he was pulled along and readjusted.

Time stretched on and the only thing Danny had to ground him in that whirlwind of paralyzing agony was the feel of his own skin peeling away against well-meaning hands like too-wet dough.

Eventually, thankfully, his skin began to blister and twist and stretch. Danny panted and wheezed as his healing factor began overworking itself. Muscles began to shift and swell and Danny could actually hear himself, could hear someone else, “God, your going to be okay. Just hang in there.” Sam(?) murmured in his ears.

It hurt so much, but he just had to endure. He just had to keep going.

But it hurt. It hurt. It hurt so much, please he just wanted it to stop-

Danny almost screamed, but someone was there clamping a quivering hand over his mouth, shakily shushing him.

“Shit.” Sam muttered sounding downright nauseous, and Danny wanted so badly to comfort her. Instead, he writhed for some long minutes as his crisp-blackened eyes blew up like flesh balloons inside his head.

He opened his eyes, blurry and wet, to see Sam and Tucker at his side. He tried to raise an arm, pushing through the throbbing sensation. As he reached to move Tucker’s hand, still gently clamped over his mouth, he caught sight of the fresh skin that covered every inch of him, pink like a newborn’s.

His hand landed on Tucker’s wrist, unable to flex far enough to wrap around it. Immediately the hand snapped back and Danny let out an sobbing, keening sound at the way his skin peeled with it.

“I can’t- I’m going to be sick.” Tucker said and then that blob in his vision was backed up against the wall, breathing deeply.

Danny wished they never had to see him like this. Wished that he couldn’t just tough it out on his own, but a selfish part of him never wanted them to stop, even if they could only be there.

He felt hair push from his regrown scalp in horribly itchy chunks, and felt his throat contract around nothing a few times, before he finally spit up bile and dead cells.

Danny rolled off his side, stumbling to his knees as he coughed and choked.

Eventually, all that was left were his heaving breathes in the silence of the—his—room.

A hand touched his shoulder and he couldn’t stop himself from flinching. Sam pulled back as though she’d been bit.

Danny offered her a shaky smile, “Sorry about that. I’m good, I just… need a minute.” He reassured, trying not to rasp.

Sam gave him a harsh look, “Danny you got electrocuted!” She whisper-shouted, voice tight with unshed tears.

Danny felt something heavy in his head, felt like he himself was about to break down crying and never stop. But he kept his breathing steady and held those feelings away. If he didn’t think about it, it was like it never happened.

“But I’m fine now, honest. I’m all healed up!” He tried to say the words with cheer or at least nonchalance, but it all sounded so artificial. It was true though; he felt a little raw, but he was fully healed up. Surely they could see that. They would realize it too.

(They never did. That’s why he loved them.)

“No you’re not.” Tucker said, sounding vaguely sick. Despite still being shaken, his friend moved to his side, wrapping him in a hug. His skin was sensitive, but as his walls crumbled he couldn’t bring himself to care, melting into the embrace. Sam joined and Danny found himself relaxing further, tears falling as he returned the hug.

It had hurt. It had hurt so much, but it was over now. For now.

Danny could pretend the the nightmares wouldn’t come, could pretend that it didn’t happen, that it didn’t matter. Because his friends were here. He was healed. And for now, he really was fine, because with them by his side, he could overcome any injury.

[fan-dot]

Danny Fenton is dead. He died in his parents’ basement, electrocuted, in agony, until the space between worlds literally tore him apart. That is the one thing everyone can agree upon.

Except, one problem: Danny isn't dead. Or, at least, not completely.

DannyMay 2023, Day 18: Grave

[chimaeray]

It’s not uncommon for me to just hang around on itch or gamejolt to find a random indie game to spend time on for a while, but it isn’t that often that I watch a let’s player go through a visual novel and actively seek it out to continue following development and hope for more endings :U

[ghostly-penumbra]

my work is exhausting and i barely have time to write, but i will finish dannymay just for the fact that it brings me joy

[3motionally3xhausted]

I wanted to participate in all of DannyMay, but a lot of stuff popped up out of nowhere, so I was only able to finish one of the prompts, Day 3: Blizzard

Despite this being the only one I actually finished, I'm really happy with how it turned out

I really like his glowing eye & the breath/ ghost sense, I remember it was really hard to get the red/blue 3d effect, but I'm glad I stuck with it bc it looks rlly cool. & just a subtle detail but I think the way I did his ghostly glow looks really good on this piece. I might end up doing more of the prompts and just post them randomly whenever I finish them

[ovytia-art]

I got very distracted by making cookies today, so I’m late haha. I’m really happy with the comp for this one though, and I hope to finish it in the future. If anyone wants to colour it, then go for it! (dm me if you want the transparent version)

DannyMay Masterlist

[long-live-astronerd-ghost-king]

Dannymay 2023. Day 7. Weapon. DPXDC.

The Justice League is trying to figure out Danny’s identity, and he’s not happy about it.

~Words hurt more than weapons~

~~~

Wonder Woman: You’re bound by the Lasso of Truth. No more chance of hiding secrets, ghost.

Danny: Are you kidding me?

Batman: Who are you, Phantom?

Danny: "I am a 400-foot tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings."

Captain Marvel: Wow, you don’t see many Fire Nation princesses these days.

Danny: Hm, at least someone with good taste here.

Danny: Have you even read the Fenton articles? Batman? Anyone? No? Remember. Ghosts will always find a way to lie. Your ribbon has no power over me.

~~~

Danny: ..I have a few words for you too, Batsy. Martha says hi. And she wants you to know that " ..if I see a damn clown in the immediate vicinity of one of my grandchildren or if I find out that you or any of the family are on patrol with broken bones, I’ll spank you as soon as I meet you on the other side. Obey Alfred. With love, Mother."

Flash:..Batman, why are you so pale?

Batman: Someone sprayed the fear toxin. Check the ventilation.

Flash:..

~~~

Superman: Stop it! Listen..

Phantom: I liked you when I was a kid, you know? They say it’s better to never meet your idols. Now I see it's truth.

Superman: You shouldn't be doing this alone. We can help you.

Danny: What makes you think I need your help? Don’t be a hypocrite. Why don’t you take off your glasses at the Daily Planet office? And why do you think that you can tell me what to do with my secret identity?

Danny: Don’t worry, I’m dead but my family is fine. I’m not like you, Big Blue. I will not sacrifice the people I love for my murderous secret.

Superman: What are you talking about?

Phantom: Don’t play dumb. In the land of the dead, people like to talk about the past, you know. You told Jonathan he wasn’t your father, and then you didn’t even try to save him. It’s cruel. But you can be happy, Jonathan doesn’t blame you for his death. I do.

The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees.

Superman: I.. I listened to what he said. He was trying to protect me.

Danny: So, how does it feel? Letting him die in front of you, knowing you could have saved him? Do you blame youself?

Superman: How dare you.

Danny: Of course, you do. Because no matter how many lives Superman saves, the most important one to you..You’ll never got it back. Afraid of being a lab rat? Superman is not special. I am not special too. 

Danny: Don’t look down at me just because you have more experience behind you. Revealing my identity should be my choice, not yours.

~~~~

Danny: Stay out of my grave. *turns to Batman* You should stay away from your son’s grave too. Leave the past behind.

~Hairstyle. Sharp tongue. Physique. This Insolence.~

Batman: Jason?

Danny: Wrong ghost, old man.

Batman: ...You’re the one who said a ghost would always find a way to lie.

Danny: Pride and prejudice! *shit, I’m starting to swear like Mr.Lancer, It’s time to finish my english essay.*  I’m not your Robin. Sorry bout that.

~Jane Austen? No hint more obvious. Jay doesn’t want to deal with the League? Well, Bruce doesn’t mind playing along.~

Batman: I understand.

Danny: Thank Ancients! Anyway, I’m leaving. Don’t look for me.

~~~

Tucker: Wow, Danny, when we told you to take care about the League, we thought you’d do it, like, without turning all of them against you.

Danny: Not all of them. And I didn’t do anything wrong. We talked.

Jazz: Danny, believe me, sometimes a conversation with you can cause more damage to your enemies than your ectoblasts.

Sam: Not just to them. Sometimes I also feel like his ideas are melting my brain.

Danny: Hey! Actually, you should be on my side.

Sam: We should?

Danny: Never mind. But if JL set foot in Amity Park I will sic on Wonder Woman her grandfather.

Tucker: But her Grandfather is Kronos. He’s a creep, trying to eat all his kids. Where do you even know such a monster from?

Clockwork *puts a cup of tea on the table and coughs to attract attention*.

Tucker: Wait a minute...

Tucker: Oh mY GOd, Mr. CLocKWoRk I’m sO SorRy, please don’t kill me.

Sam: Now you’ve changed your mind about importance of a healthy vegan diet, Tucker?

Tucker: ..No, I’m not that desperate.

~~~

~At the same time,somewhere in Ghost Zone~

 Martha *teaches Jason to do a choke hold*.

~~~

~At the same time, in one of Amity Park’s alleys.~

Maddie and Jack *discuss ways to capture the Phantom*

Batman *appears behind them*:DoN’t toUcH my the сHiLd.

~~~

Jazz: Don't you think that mentioning Superman's father was too much?

Danny: Maybe.But..when I think about you, mom or dad in dander I can't imagine what would make me freeze and.. It just doesn't make sense, okey?

Jazz: You're still thinking about Dan, right?

Danny: Every.damn.time.

[sykloni]

Dannymay 2023

18. Grave & 19. No Backspace/Ctrl+Z (or in this case "no erasing challenge")

This was one of the challenges that sounded pretty fun. I decided to simply do it traditionally and use things that I couldn't erase even if I wanted to.

I started by doing a sketch with green watercolor pencil. The plan was for it to blend with regular watercolors later on.

Then I did lines with black micron pen (which doesn't smudge regardless of how much I add water).

First layer of watercolor.

More watercolor.

Strengthening the lines + finishing touches.

[whereonceiwasfire]

Am I ever gonna finish my Day 9 Dannymay prompt? wHo kNoWs, cErTaInLy nOt I, tHe CrEaToR oF tHe wOrK?!?!

Pretty jazzed about how it's turning out, but somehow, also, motivation eldudes me *shrugs helplessly.* Ask me how fun it is being a fickle creative lol

(Also defs wrote a short fic for day 9 too because Ghost King Danny is just *clenches fist* so good).

[chasingrabbits-art]

DannyMay day 6: eclipse

Literally after finishing day 5 I hurt a finger breaking a barnacle I had laying around, making it extremely painful to draw with my right hand and someone on the DannyMay server suggested I try with my left hand. SO I MADE THIS ENTIRE THING WITH MY LEFT HAND!!!!!

I would've never thought I was ambidextrous!!!! even if my twin sister being one should have been clue enough Definitely going to practice more, it was a lot of fun!

[glassroo]

btw this was from DannyMay day 8, u know the DannyMay I said id finish but didnt (i got depressed again)

very upset at yall for not remembering to include a mentor to replace Frostbite in your electric core AUs 😔

[abrielarnold]

finally finally finished my dannymay piece. (a little bit of lab safety, a little bit of no-one-knows au, a little bit of hazmat redesign (i just think it would be cool if he had goggle lenses that glowed completely green okay.) (his gloves are duct taped to his sleeves). a lot of inspo was taken from tunnel drills.

[oceankat8]

oooofffff Okay I FINALLY finished this piece. Its TECHNICALLY for DannyMay tho I didn’t make it in time.

It was Day 11 Underwater btw, because instead of drawing something nice and fun like IDK a Mermaid AU or something for MERMAY I drew this based off a half remembered conversation in the Dark Ages server (a few years ago I think???) about Nocturne hiding CW away to “heal his mind” or something anyways

Here it is!! Here it is.

Buy a Print!

[friendly-neighborhood-imbecille]

Dannymay Day 26: Art/Fic Switch!

I usually draw, so here’s a reveal fic with Danny and a very concerned Lancer.

He really should have stayed home today. It would have been so easy to just fly back home after being dropped off at school and sleep for the next twelve hours. His parents wouldn’t notice, they were too busy working on making ghost shields for the elementary schools. And even if they did notice, he could just say he was feeling sick. His mom would definitely believe him and even her fawning over him all day would be better than this. 

It was getting hard to keep his eyes open. Seven medium powered animal ghosts had attacked last night and by the time he finished capturing them all it was already time for him to get ready for school. The only sleep he had been able to get in was the thirty minutes he had spent passed out under the bleachers in gym class. And the (so far unused) gym clothes in the front pocket of his backpack turned it into such a comfortable pillow. Especially now with the white noise of Lancer droning on about murderous rabbits of all things.

Sam was in Peru with her parents for the week and Tucker was on a field trip with his computer programming class. So if he just fell asleep there wouldn’t be anyone to shake him awake or worry about why he was so tired. He could just relax and drift away into unconsciousness. 

Until the alarms started blaring.

His head was pulsing in time with the electronic whining. People were yelling and rushing around the room, but he couldn’t make out any specific words or voices. The thumping in his head and blaring from everywhere at once drowned it out. Somebody grabbed his upper arm and guided him up from his chair, out the door, and down the hallway. People were running, he was running with them. He wasn’t sure what they were running from, he couldn’t think. His head hurt. The hand was still on his arm. He just kept running until he ran into something hard and painful. It stung his skin like fire, ice, and electricity at the same time. All feelings of tiredness were forcibly expelled from his body by the sheer amount of pain pumping through him. He screamed and fell to the ground.

“Are you okay Mr. Fenton?”

Danny controlled his breathing and blinked away the shock of the impact before he looked around and took in his surroundings, shocked awake by the impact. There was a shield around the school. A shield he couldn’t go through. And Lancer had seen it. 

“Are you hurt?” Lancer asked, offering out a hand to Danny. Danny shook his head and took it, letting himself be lifted up by his teacher.

“We need to go through the shield. The ghost will be able to get to us if we don’t.” So that’s what was happening. There was a ghost attack. But why didn’t he sense it before?

“Daniel, we need to go. Now.” Despite his words, Lancer didn’t move towards the shield. He just looked around frantically as if searching for another way out.

“No, I can’t. It won’t let me through.” Danny took a step back from the glowing green barrier. Just being close to it made his hair stand on end. 

“We can’t just stay here. This is dangerous.” 

“Just go ahead without me, I’ll be fine. I promise.” He would have a hard enough time fighting that ghost off himself with how tired he was. He really didn’t want to have to protect Lancer too. “I deal with stuff like this all the time. My parents are the Fentons. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Lancer looked at him with what he could only describe as horror. Whether it was from the idea of him fighting ghosts, or the idea of running to safety while leaving him to fend for himself Danny didn’t know. “Daniel, in my time as a teacher in this town, I have not lost a single student. I’m not going to lose one now. I’m staying with you and we’re going to find a way out of this.”

There was no way around this then. Lancer was stuck with him until this was over.

They walked back down the hallway towards the center of the building. “The Fentons, I mean, your parents were alerted when the ghost entered the building. Let’s hope they come soon. The shield can’t be deactivated until the ghost is captured, so we should probably find a place to hide until then.” 

Danny led them into an empty classroom and closed the door behind them. “Here, we can hide behind Mr. Mallard’s desk.”

“Wouldn’t the basement be better?” Lancer asked.

“No time. Besides, I’m not entirely sure it would.”

They sat behind the desk, silent for what felt like hours, though it couldn’t have been more than 20 minutes. Danny focused on the booming sounds of footsteps from a giant creature overhead and the inhuman screeches that would send shivers down any normal person’s spine while he picked at the fraying sleeve of his jacket and tried to think of some way out of this. Tried to come up with a plan to stop the ghost and keep Lancer safe without compromising his identity. Lancer broke the silence. 

“Why can’t you go through the shields?”

Danny jumped, broken out of his focus, before turning his eyes to the ground and scratching his neck. A small part of him had been clinging onto the idea of Lancer somehow forgetting about that, as impossible as it seemed. “It’s complicated. You probably won’t believe me.” He hoped that this would be enough to get Lancer to drop it, but wasn’t too optimistic. 

“I might be surprised by it, but I think I’d be able to believe whatever it is.” Lancer smiled and looked at Danny expectantly.

“I, um,” He didn’t have enough time to come up with a full fledged lie, so a half truth would have to do. “In September last year I got a little shock from one of my parents' inventions and now some of their ghost tech works on me. It’s nothing serious, but it does cause some problems.” 

It was silent for a bit more. The sounds of stomping and screaming died down. The ghost had probably moved to the other side of the school. After around five more minutes, Lancer started the conversation back up. 

“Do your parents know?”

Danny hesitated, not sure what to say. He didn’t want to make his parents look bad, but what could he say to achieve that? “Yes. I mean, no. I think? They might know about some of it, but not a lot. I mean, if they knew about all of it, they probably would have made some adjustments to the shield. Right?” He held his breath, waiting for Lancer’s reaction. Lancer took a second to consider the information, then relented. 

“I suppose that is right.” Danny relaxed and went back to listening for the ghost. He heard talking, and faint bellows before the room started to tint green. 

“Oh thank goodness, your parents are here.” A strange smell filled the room, seeping from the vents and sinking to the ground. It made his skin tingle and made it hard for him to move. It was like all his limbs were falling asleep.

“We need to get out of here.”

“What?” 

“We need to go upstairs, I can’t stay here.” He tried to stand up, but his legs wobbled. His head was starting to feel really heavy and his eyes were getting droopier than normal. His face felt numb, like he had gotten fifteen shots at the dentist in preparation for a cavity removal.

“Daniel, what’s going on?”

“The gas, I,” It was getting hard to breathe, hard to talk, hard to think. “I can’t.” He started to sway. He wanted to go to bed, but he was picked up and carried upstairs, away from the gas.

He was set down on the floor of the third floor hallway. He started to cough so hard he wouldn’t be surprised if he had a sore throat tomorrow. He sounded like a dying goose, but at least he felt a bit better now. The gas was heavy and wouldn’t travel much up here. As long as he stayed upstairs he was safe from it. But once the threat was dealt with, how was he going to get out? It wasn’t like he could just transform and fly away. Lancer would probably be keeping close attention to him. Especially after this.

Lancer was breathing hard like he had just ran a marathon. Danny didn’t blame him. The guy was trapped in a building with a dangerous ghost, was probably scared out of his mind for his and Danny’s safety, and just had to run up two flights of stairs while carrying 98 pounds of injured teenager. “How often do things like this happen?”

“What?” Danny’s throat was raspy, and it slightly hurt to talk.

“The gas, the shield, is this common?” Lancer looked worried. Danny didn’t like that look. He didn’t like how often it was paired with talk about his parents or their inventions. He wished Lancer would just leave that topic alone.

Danny bit the inside of his lip. If he lied about this, it would be super obvious. “Yes, but-”

“You need to tell your parents about this.” Lancer cut him off.

“I can’t.” He really couldn’t. What if they didn’t take it well? What if they thought he was an imposter? Or he was faking still being himself after the accident?

“Why not? If you did, you’d be safer. I’m worried about you Daniel.” He didn’t have to be worried. His job was to teach and sometimes give out detentions, not to get worried. Why couldn’t he just stick with that like all the others instead of always being worried about something or other? That would make everything so much easier.

“I know but-” He really didn’t want to talk about this right now.

“This is dangerous.”

“So are they!”

He wasn’t supposed to say that. Lancer didn’t know the situation, he couldn’t know the situation. If Lancer wasn’t suspicious of them before, he definitely was now. 

“Daniel?” He tried to avoid Lancer’s gaze, but failed. Lancer looked surprised and worried, but he couldn’t do anything to fix it. Couldn’t reassure him that everything was fine, that he didn't have to worry. Anything he could say would just make everything worse. Danny pulled himself to his feet and started walking down the hallway.

“Daniel, where are you going?” Lancer followed not too far behind him.

“There’s a Fenton thermos in the ceiling in C305.” He walked down the hall, trailing his fingers along the wall, suppressing his urge to lean against it for support. He reached room C305 and grabbed a chair to bring to the center of the room.

“Why is there a thermos in the ceiling?” Lancer looked up at the ceiling in confusion.

Danny grabbed another chair and put it in front of the first one, fronts facing each other before grabbing a barstool seat from the corner. “Because nobody ever goes in here.” He put the barstool seat on top of and inbetween the two chairs before grabbing a wooden box and putting it on top of the barstool.

He climbed up the stack of items and popped up one of the ceiling tiles to search for the thermos. “Mr. Fenton, you shouldn’t be-”

“I’m fine,” Danny cut him off. “I recover from that gas quickly. It doesn’t work as well on me as it does…” He trailed off and froze for a second before shaking the weird feeling away and grabbing the thermos. “I’m fine, you don’t need to worry about me. What we do need to worry about though, is the ghost.” He tossed the thermos to Lancer who fumbled before catching it, then jumped down from the tower of furniture and landed in a squat on his hands and feet as the tower tumbled down behind him.

“The gas is denser than the air, so it’s gonna stay on the lower floors. That ghost was on the second floor when the gas started appearing, so it won’t be super affected by it. But still, it’s probably gonna try to come up here. So we need to be ready for when it does.” Dany looked at Mr. Lancer. He didn’t look to be doing too well and there wasn’t any reason for him to be here putting himself in danger.

“Mr. Lancer, I would feel a lot better if you hid in one of the classrooms downstairs or on the other side of the shield.” Lancer looked at him in horror. It was getting kind of funny how often he was able to cause that expression on his teacher’s face, in a weird sad way. It made him feel kind of guilty, but there wasn’t really any way around it. 

“Daniel, I am not going to leave you to fend for yourself against a ghost.” He sounded completely resolute, but Danny didn’t back down.

“I won’t go looking for it, I’ll hide in one of these classrooms, or the janitor’s closet. Maybe even one of the lockers. I’ll be fine, I promise. I have the fenton thermos on me and years of ghost safety knowledge. Even if it does find me, I can handle it. But I’m worried you won't be able to.”

Lancer’s face softened. “Daniel, you are a child. You shouldn’t have to be able to handle it, and I’m not going to leave you alone.”

Danny opened his mouth to respond, but froze. A wisp of fog escaped from his lips and a shudder crept down his spine. The ground beneath them rumbled and shook, then went still.

“What was that?”

A low bellow shook the building and a shrill scraping sound like nails on a chalkboard rang out from every possible direction. The ground dipped under their feet before shooting up and crumbling.

A feathery draconic figure with the face of a boar burst through the ground and scrambled towards them like its afterlife depended on it. Teeth gnashing and tail thrashing out, bashing holes in the wall. They quickly ran out of the classroom and down the hall, the creature hot on their heels, running on six stocky, clawed, rhinoceros-like limbs. It slipped on the tiles and crashed into the walls, howling in rage at every turn. Squealing in delight the closer it got to its prey.

They needed to outrun this monster, they needed to hide, but they soon found themselves at a dead end. The doorway to the stairwell locked, the monster barreling towards them, and no time to think of a way out. Lancer closed his eyes, not wanting to see what the ghost was going to do to them, But just before it could reach them, a green barrier separated it from them. The beast ran to them at full force, but they felt no impact. 

Lancer slowly and hesitantly opened his eyes, shocked that he was still alive. But when he turned his eyes to his companion, rather than the student he was expecting to see, he came face to face with Amity Park’s most famous ghost.

“Well, I guess you of all people were bound to find out sooner or later.” Danny grinned sheepishly.

“You’re… but I…” Lancer was speechless, the all too common expression of horror painted across his face.

“Yeah, that shock I mentioned wasn’t as little as I made it out to be.” Danny chuckled, trying to make light of the morbidity of the situation.

The ghost circled around the protective dome, clawing at it and attempting to chew at it, before eventually giving up and slinking away.

“So,” Danny turned to Lancer with a mix of a sheepish grin and a grimace on his face. “What was that about not losing a single student?”