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five-rivers · 26 days

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wandering heart

For @phantomphangphucker for phic phight!

The needle was bronze.

The copper alloy stood out better against ectoplasmic flesh than it would have against red blood. It dipped in and out of Danny's skin with machine-like precision, drawing a slender purple string in its wake. Appropriate. Clockwork was at least partly mechanical.

“You're getting close to my liver,” said Danny. “Careful.”

“You are aware that these facsimile organs are not at all essential to the function of your body.”

“Sure they are,” said Danny. He leaned his head back on the cushion Clockwork had provided him. “That's why you're sewing me up.”

Clockwork's tower wasn't Danny's usual post-battle stop, but the fight had been nasty and it had been close. His other choices had been flying an hour to reach the Far Frozen and leaving an ectoplasm trail through the mad science lab dedicated to dissecting ghosts. The decision had been easy.

Clockwork had complained, of course. Ninety percent of the time spent stitching had doubled as time spent snarking. It was fun.

“You have more than fake human organs in here, and losing that much ectoplasm is unhealthy for a ghost regardless. You are friends with the doctors of the Far Frozen. Perhaps you should avail yourself of their knowledge more frequently.”

“I already have one health class I'm failing. Don't need another.”

“You are not failing your health class.”

Danny peeled back an eyelid that had fallen shut at some point during the exchange. “Are you using your time powers to spy on my grades?”

“Hardly.” Clockwork picked up a pair of ornate scissors and snipped the string he'd been stitching Danny up with. “But even so, I doubt you would notice if I removed one of your so-called organs.”

“You could try,” said Danny. He closed his eyes again and leaned to the side until he was slumped over on Clockwork, who made an offended noise. “You’re trapped now. Stuck.”

“I am a shapeshifter,” said Clockwork. “You cannot ‘trap’ me simply by leaning on me.”

“Can too.”

Danny was tired. Sometimes, he could shrug off both fights and injuries like they were nothing, but unicorns were vicious and Technus was mean. Electricity always took a lot out of him.

Clockwork sighed heavily. Danny smiled.

“You aren’t nearly as charming as you think,” said Clockwork.

“And yet, you are neither kicking me out nor stealing my pancreas or lower intestine or anything like that.”

“I could.”

“But you haven’t.” Danny tucked his feet underneath him and snuggled more heavily into Clockwork’s side.

The ghost groaned, but obligingly made room for Danny. Yes, yes, exactly according to plan. The evil one, where he made friends with Clockwork. He figured he was already halfway there, if Clockwork was willing to sew him up, but with this it was definitely closer to three quarters.

Having thought this, Danny promptly fell asleep.

The front doors of Clockwork’s tower were not made to slam open, but Danny, fingers of one hand clenched over his chest and still wearing a Far Frozen medical gown, managed anyway. He was resourceful like that.

“Clockwork?” he called. “Clockwork!” He flew from room to room, only sticking his head in long enough to assess them for Clockwork's presence.

Finally, he found him.

“Clockwork!” he shouted, re-energized by the sight. “Did you steal my heart? My heart? My actual heart from my actual chest?”

Clockwork stared blankly at Danny for long enough that his panicked doubled and doubled again. This was, quite literally, his only lead.

“No,” said Clockwork, finally. “I stole the replica of your actual heart. From your chest.”

“That’s the same thing!”

“Is it?” asked Clockwork, smugly. “After all, you didn’t even notice this one was gone.”

“Oh my god, I cannot believe you did this.” Friendship plan canceled. Or something.

“I cannot imagine why,” said Clockwork. “After all, I told you exactly what I was going to do. You even gave me permission.”

“I thought you were joking. Who’s going to think that you’re serious about stealing a friend’s organs? That’s a joke. A joke. Banter, if you would. Not an invitation to steal my literal heart.”

“Even so, it has been done.”

“Well, can you undo it? Put it back in? You didn’t, I don’t know, toss it out with last week’s eggshells or something? Stick it in the back of the kitchen junk drawer.”

“No, I know exactly where I put it,” said Clockwork.

“And you can undo it, right? It’s not, like, expired?”

“It is difficult to get more expired than a ghost’s heart.”

Danny stared at Clockwork expectantly.

“Yes, I can undo it. It will be the work of a moment to return it to its proper place.”

“Great, so… Lead on.” Danny made a forward sweeping motion with both hands.

Clockwork’s eyes slid back towards his time screen. “Can it wait?”

“No!”

“You haven’t had it for weeks. You won’t miss it for a few more minutes.”

“Uh, yes, I will! You can time travel. Whatever you’re doing, you can do it later.”

“I suppose,” said Clockwork. “Very well. Follow me.”

Clockwork led him back, through narrow halls, into a towering closet with spiral shelves. It was full of what could only be collectively referred to as stuff.

“Wow, I wasn’t serious about the junk drawer thing.”

“Oh, please,” said Clockwork. “This is hardly junk.”

“You’re a hoarder.”

“I resent that appellation,” said Clockwork, flying up and rotating slightly. Danny kept his feet on the ground, slightly intimidated.

“The only reason you aren’t drowning in all this is because your house doesn’t have to exist in Euclidean space.”

“And yet, I am not drowning in it.” Clockwork continued to float upwards, a faint frown on his face.

“You do remember where you put it, right?”

“Yes, Daniel,” said Clockwork, visibly rolling his eyes. “I put it right– Ah. Interesting.”

“Interesting? What do you mean interesting?” demanded Danny. He flew up to hover near Clockwork's shoulder. “Did something happen to it? Is it– It's not there? You said you knew where it was!”

“I said I knew where I put it, which is rather a different thing altogether.”

“No, it isn't! It's not like it has legs! It couldn't have wandered off on its oooohhhhhhhh my God, it could have wandered off on its own. That thing had more ectoplasm in it than a Christmas turkey.”

“It is, in fact,” said Clockwork, “entirely made out of ectoplasm.”

“If it’s moving around like that, can we put it back in? Would it– Would it try to escape? Like, escape my chest? Is that a thing?”

“Unlikely.”

“As unlikely as it starting to move around in the first place?”

“Unlikely,” repeated Clockwork.

“Where even is it? Do you know? Can you tell? Obviously, your whole ‘I know everything’ shtick is a lie, but can you, like, rewind things so that it’s here?”

“No,” said Clockwork. “We will just have to look for it.”

“In your hoarder cave?”

“It is not a cave.”

“Ah, but you don't dispute the hoarder part?” He spun, head over heels, trying and failing to see the entirety of the not-really-a-closet. “What if there are things in here? Like, living things? Could it have been eaten? By, like… Clockroaches? Do you have clockroaches here?”

“Media tends to grossly exaggerate both the aggression and size of temporal boggles–”

“They’re real?”

“Why would you ask about them if you didn’t think they were real?”

“I don’t know. It turns out I don’t think through the things I say to you very well.”

“Clearly.”

Danny arrested his motion. “Where do we even start? This place is huge!”

“That statement assumes that it is still in this particular room.”

“Oh my God.”

“Although, if we are to search this room, it would make the most sense to start from either end and work towards the middle.”

Danny flipped over. “I can’t even see the other end.” This was only barely an exaggeration.

“Then we had best get started soon.”

Danny rubbed his face. “Am I even going to recognize it? What will it look like?”

“Like the organ it was imitating, of course,” said Clockwork. “Oh, and don’t touch anything.”

Danny groaned.

There was something quivering and green huddled behind a bank of jars. Was that… it couldn’t be… He formed a stick out of ice and went to poke it.

“What are you doing to that poor frog?” asked Clockwork.

“Holy– It’s a frog?”

“Yes.”

Danny stared. Clockwork was covered in splatters and streaks of ectoplasm from head to tail.

“Why do you– I don’t even want to know. Did you find it?”

“Yes,” said Clockwork, holding up a jar. There was… Well. It was a heart. “Are you sure you want it back? Surely, the sentimental value cannot be that great.”

“Wh– It’s not about the sentimental value. Open it up, put it back in!”

Clockwork’s sigh was incredibly put-upon. “Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He unscrewed the lid of the jar, and the heart, which had up until that point, laid quiescent on the bottom of the jar, flew out, smacking Danny in the face.

“Augh!”

“Grab it!”

Danny managed to get a hand around a ventricle, but ectoplasm and ectoplasmic muscle was slippery. It escaped his grip. It flopped-flew its way down to the bottom of the genuinely-not-a-closet and made for the door. Danny dove at it, only to get a faceful of ectoplasm from an artery for his trouble.

Danny wondered if this was what Skulker felt like. He let ectoplasm dribble out of his mouth.

“That, bleh, that tastes like my ectoplasm,” he said.

“That’s because it is,” said Clockwork, tiredly. “I will refrain from asking you to elaborate on your ectoplasm-tasting experiences.”

“Look, when nature gives you a weapon, and afterlife gives you enemies, you use the weapon.” He peered cautiously out of the door, wary of being sprayed with what was essentially his own blood once again. “Where do you think it–”

He got another mouthful of ectoplasm.

“Bleh,” he said.

“I don’t suppose you saw it?” asked Clockwork. “Which way it went, etcetera, etcetera?”

“No,” said Danny.

“Then this will be a long night.”

“Can’t you just, like, stop time or something? So it won’t move around while we look”

Clockwork gave him a look.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“I think,” said Danny, from where he was dangling from the ceiling, a tangle of clock chains wrapped around his ankle, “that we need help.”

“Unfortunately, I must concur,” said Clockwork, who was underneath a pair of couches even he’d been surprised at owning.

“Unless you want to use your totally awesome time powers to find it.”

“No.”

“I’m sorry,” said Sam. “What did you lose?”

“My heart,” said Danny. “And I didn’t lose it. Clockwork stole it.”

“Is this some kind of Ice Queen situation here?” asked Sam. “Are you going to lose all empathy and care for other people?”

“No,” said Danny. “It’s just the, um, physical thing. And only my ghost half’s physical thing. Apparently. Apparently, the ‘human organs’ I have in my ghost form aren’t functional, unless the functionality is, like, the functionality of being incredibly annoying and spraying ectoplasm everywhere.”

“So, what should we bring for this thing?” asked Tucker. “Butterfly nets? Bow and arrow? Guns? What’s the endgame?”

“You want to shoot my heart?”

“I don’t know what you want here, dude. I’m still kind of reeling over the fact that the guy you were hanging out with literally stole your heart. Do you need someone to give him a stern talking to, make sure he gets you home before curfew?”

“That’s disgusting. He could probably be my great-great-great-great-great-great–”

In ghost form, Danny didn’t have to breathe all that much, so he was able to go on like that until Sam and Tucker joined forces to stuff socks in his mouth.

“How in the world did things escalate to Clockwork stealing your literal heart?” asked Jazz.

“Okay, yeah, I see how that’d seem bad, out of context, but you see, it isn’t actually my literal heart–”

Danny glared at Clockwork’s idea of ‘help.’ “I bring three completely reasonable and competent people, and you bring them?”

“From my point of view, I am the one with the reasonable and competent people,” said Clockwork, gesturing at the combined forces of Nocturne, Ghost Writer, and Skulker. “You, meanwhile, have brought three teenagers.”

“Are you really calling Skulker competent?”

“If not, he at least has experience in being outsmarted by you.”

“Hey!”

“Alas,” said Tucker, “the heart wants what the heart wants, and what it wants is freedom.”

“Where,” said Sam, kicking at a puddle, “is all this ectoplasm even coming from?”

“Around,” said Danny.

“Ooh,” said Jazz, “it’s condensing it from the atmosphere?” She paused. “What are you all looking at me like that for? I can have scientific curiosity!”

“I think it’s more because of what’s happened to your hair,” said Ghost Writer.

“What’s happened to my hair?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“Danny, I think I hate you,” said Sam. They were sitting on one of Clockwork’s couches. Clockwork had a lot of couches. A fact that Clockwork seemed both bemused and distressed by.

“Oh, trust me, the feeling is mutual. As in, I hate me too.”

Clockwork sat down on the couch next to Danny. “Daniel, I must tell you that while hate is beneath me, I am seriously regretting my earlier decisions.”

“Does that mean that you’re going to time travel back to–”

“Absolutely not.”

Tucker ran past them with a butterfly net, chasing down a green blur.

“That’s a blob ghost, isn’t it?” asked Sam.

“I do believe so,” said Clockwork.

“Well,” said Danny. “At least this all makes us friends, yeah? Can’t go through something like this without being friends.” At least he’d get something accomplished with all this insanity.

“I wouldn’t call myself friends with Skulker. Or Nocturne. Acquaintances, more like.”

“I notice you didn’t say anything about Ghost Writer.”

Clockwork shrugged. “He’s somewhat more tolerable.”

“And me?”

“I suppose.”

The heart fell straight down, into Danny’s lap.

“Are you serious–”

#danny phantom #phic phight #fic

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clockwayswrites · 1 year

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Like Betta Fish Do - Part 10

Masterpost of ao3 link and all parts. wc: 3324

“Baby Pop!” Ember cried as she swooped Danny up into a crushing hug.

Right then, he was really glad that he didn’t have to breath in his ghost form. Not even five minutes in the zone and he was already being crushed to re-death. He managed to get a hand up to pat awkwardly at her arm. “Heya Ember… everything okay?”

“Is everything okay?! Is every— what are you asking me that for?” Ember wailed. She held Danny out suddenly at arm’s length and shook him around a little.

Danny gripped her arms to stop the shaking. “Seriously confused here, Ember.”

“Pandora talked to us—”

Oh no.

“—and told how you didn’t know we where just having fun! Danny, Baby Pop, little melody, we didn’t know, I swear!”

“Ember—”

“If we had, okay, like yeah I want my music to be heard and shit!”

“Ember!”

“But not if it hurt you. You have to believe that.”

Danny smacked his hand over Ember’s mouth to keep her from interrupting him again. She huffed at him with a glare but didn’t try to move away.

“Ember,” Danny said, trying his best to muster up a reassuring smile for her. “Pandora explained. I know it was just a big misunderstanding.”

Ember pulled Danny’s hand away from her mouth, gripping it tightly. “Just because it was a ‘big misunderstanding’ doesn’t mean it was okay, Baby Pop. We hurt you. It doesn’t make it right just cause we didn’t know.”

“I— okay, no, maybe not entirely? But also I could have talked to someone, like one of the Ancients, before this. Jazz is always reminding me communication takes both parties, so some of it’s on me too.” From the way her face scrunched up, Danny wasn’t sure Ember believed him. “Look, after I move I’m going to get some of you together and we’ll plan a brawling schedule or something, alright? I think it will be nice to have a way to blow off stress from college.”

“You’re moving? Away from Amity Park?”

“Yep. And I’m shutting down the portal there. Amity Park is going to be off limits. I can’t keep you all safe from the hunters anymore. Can you help spread the word to the usual suspects about that? That would help me out a lot.”

“Can do Baby Pop! You can count on me,” Ember said, flying up with a twirl. Danny waved to her as she sped off, glad that the encounter at least ended on a good note.

He really wasn’t looking forward to having that conversations with any of the other ghosts, but he had the unfortunate feeling it would happen again and again and again. Well, he might as well get it over with Technus first. Danny wanted the other ghost’s advice to make sure that the portal would be well and good destroyed. Between Technus, Tucker, and his own skills, he’d make sure that the Fentons could never get into the Infinite Realms again.

And then he could finally move on.

Not in that way. Just, like, to college.

The explosion of the portal shook half the city. Car alarms screamed, windows shattered, the ops center tilted perilously on top of the half collapsed wall.

Amity Park was the safest it had been in nearly eight years.

Danny had debated moving like a normal human. He really had. He’d sat down and planned everything out from the trip route to the van to cost. He could do it; he was pretty sure. A small moving truck wasn’t any bigger than the Fenton Tactical Response Vehicle. Also, he didn’t need as much sleep as a normal human so could make the trip pretty quickly.

He almost did it just for the chance of doing something normal for once— to have the real college experience.

And then he thought about having to sit still in one seat for that long and immediately abandoned the idea pretty quickly.

Instead, he opened a portal from his apartment in Amity Park to the Infinite Realms and chucked all of his (mostly) boxed stuff into the zone. He technically had a whole castle, what did it matter if he had his junk in it for a few hours? Then he flew to Gotham, wanting to make sure to get the portal precisely where he needed it, and ripped open a new portal.

Sure, he had to stop Boxy a few times from taking off with a box, but otherwise the plan went pretty well.

Just now he was standing in his new, cramped studio apartment surrounded by boxes and furniture and maybe not quite enough room to move and arrange it all. He possibly should have taken a little more time moving in. His new place was tiny. He didn’t think it was possible, but he was already missing his Amity apartment a little. At least that place had more than one room.

But as tiny as this shoe box was, it was all his. He couldn’t imagine having to live with other people any more— not normal people at least. He would have had to hide his ghostly side constantly and he knows he would just mess up and out himself. That wasn’t the sort of attention he needed.

He was really, really trying to have a normal college experience here.

Speaking of…

Danny climbed over a pile of boxes to find his backpack. He’d tried to stick all the most important things (and a change of underwear) in there so it was all in one place. Now he just had to find the damn thing…

Aha! There it was. He leaned over a box, legs flailing to keep his balance, as he grabbed the patched covered purple bag. One of these days the strap was going to give out so badly that there was no saving it. Maybe it was time to get a new backpack. Maybe even before classes started…

Danny twisted around to sit on the box that he had been crawling over and fished around in the front pocket of the backpack to pull out his ear buds. He flicked open the app on his phone and and started a voice call. He was so glad he listened to Tucker and had set up the internet before he moved in.

A few minutes into trying to figure out the Tetris like puzzle of rearranging his space, he heard the ding of someone joining the channel.

“Are you in Gotham? Did you get moved in?”

Danny grinned and rolled his eyes. “Yes, mom.”

“Don’t you dare call me that Daniel John Nightingale.”

“You’re the one who’s full naming me, Sam,” Danny pointed out.

“Would you rather me call you Invis-o-bill?”

“I hate you.”

“No you don’t,” Sam said, completely unbothered by his words. “So how’s the new place.”

“Like a closet. If I trip in the kitchen I’m going to land in the bed.”

Sam snorted. “I doubt it’s that bad.”

“Maybe not, but let’s just say I’m glad I didn’t have money when I left ho— the house to get a bigger bed. I seriously don’t think I could fit anything bigger than a twin in here and still have room for my couch.”

“It’s your couch just a love seat?”

“Exactly my point Sam, this place is tiny.” Fuck it, time to approach this place like an engineer. He snagged the notebook he kept in his backpack, flipped it open to a blank enough page, and sketched out the floor plan.

“Okay, I get it, Princess,” she teased. “But aside from tiny, how is it?”

“Pretty basic but it looks clean and, I don’t know, well kept? I think a lot of people in the building are students too since we’re sorta close to campus and stuff.”

“Are you close enough to walk?”

“I think so, at least when it’s not too cold. But I’m close to a subway and it’s only two stops so once I get used to riding the subways, that will be nice,” Danny said, unable to hide the nerves in his voice.

“Don’t worry about it, you’ll be used to the city in no time,” Sam assured him breezily. “Just get your pass and set it to auto refill. Make sure to check if you get a discount for being a student.”

Danny smiled, just a little somberly. Sam was so much further ahead of him in all these life experiences. He shook his head as if that could shake the thought free with it. He was here now. “Thanks for the advice, I’ll do that. I’ve got a few weeks before classes start to handle all that shit.”

“It will go quicker than you think.”

“Don’t make me ‘mom’ you again,” Danny threatened with a laugh.

A loud knock cut off whatever ever Sam was going to say (probably telling him to fuck off).

“What was that?” She asked instead.

“I think someone is at my door?” Danny scrambled over boxes to make it to the door, which he basically tripped into. That last box he stepped on might of not been as solid as he thought.

“Don’t break yourself, fish.” A muffled voice called from the other side.

“Jason?”

“Who’s Jason?” Sam asked. Suspiciously. Fuck.

Danny fumbled with the locks before yanking his door open. It banged into a tower of boxes with a crunching noise that makes made Danny wince. He rubbed at the back of his neck as he looked up at his smirking guest.

“Jason, hi. I— um, one moment?” Danny asked, pointing towards his ears and the (on brand) bright green and black ear buds that were in them. He turned his back slightly to Jason as if that provided any privacy. “I’ll talk to you later, okay Sam?”

“Who’s Jason?”

“Bye Sam!”

“Danny! You better call me ba—”

Danny hung up on her with no regret and a bashful smile towards Jason. He had to mute the app a moment later as messages pinged in. “Hi, hey, what are you doing here?”

“Moving day always sucks, so I thought I would bring you some food.” Jason held up the bag of deliciousness.

Danny had forgotten he’d even told Jason about what day he was moving in the sporadic back and forth texting, but his stomach rumbled gratefully. “Dude, you saved my half-life. I spent so much energy portaling today.”

“Is that how you trapped yourself in your own apartment? Did you forget about this thing called doors?”

Yeah, Jason was far too smug at this.

“Look, it’s fine! I just have to—” Danny pushed against the door. It smacked into the pile of boxes again. “—shift a few things—” He pushed harder, his socked feet slipping on the linoleum. “—and then—” the cardboard finally gave and the whole tower crumpled slightly. “—see!”

Jason snorted and squeezed through the open door. His bulk barely fit and once he was inside, it left him standing pressed against Danny in the narrow space.

Danny felt himself blushing red as he tried really, really hard to pull his eyes up from the broad chest to Jason’s smirking face. Nope, that wasn’t any better. Those wonderfully quirked lips were way too close. He really needed to stop thinking things like that.

“So what’s your grand plan now?” Jason asked, looking around their box prison.

“That’s, um—” Fuck, even the guy’s neck was hot. It was like a damn tree trunk. Was that weird to think? That was probably weird. “��I’ve just been playing mountain goat and climbing over it? I have a clear spot over there.”

“Alright then Capircorn, lead on.”

“What?”

“Capricorn? The horoscope sign and mythological animal? It’s a like a mermaid but with goat top half. Since you’re a fish goat.”

Danny snorted, once, before he just dissolved into a fit laughter. It was maybe more a sign of how long Danny had been stressing over everything than how funny the joke was, but it still left him leaning against Jason as his peels of laughter died out.

Damn did Danny want to just stay right there though. Jason’s chest was really way too comfortable to have his face pressed into. The large hand spread over his lower back to help him keep his balance was grounding. It made his core want to curl up happily like a content cat.

He really had been alone for too long, hadn’t he?

Danny made himself pull away and start scaling the box. “Follow the goat fish’s lead then.”

“Hey, I think I said fish goat,” Jason said, handing over the bag of takeout once Danny had crossed the proverbial mountain.

“Okay, but if the top half is goat, goat should totally come first.”

“No, the fish tail is the weird part. You’re just looking at it going ‘this is normal’ and then you get to the fish half and realize it’s fucked up,” Jason said as he eyed the pile of boxes and then vaulted over them like it was nothing. He straightened up from his landing to smirk down at Danny again (and man could Danny get used to that). “So the defining feature is fish and hence fish comes first.”

“Ancients, why am I arguing with an English nerd about words?” Danny said, making himself step back even as his core screamed at him to do the opposite. He set the food down and dug around in one of the nearby boxes (he had labeled this one, go him) for a blanket to spread out on the floor. “And I totally know what Capricorn is. It’s a constellation, after all.”

“Oh my god. You’re a space nerd,” Jason said, gleefully.

Danny flicked him off over his shoulder.

It only took a little bit of digging before Danny found a blanket and soon they were seated on the small bit of open floor with the take out containers spread out between them. One of Jason’s long legs was stretched out all the way across the space. Danny was trying to ignore how where his thigh pressed against Jason’s leg felt so warm.

Jason, unconcerned, munched on a spring roll thoughtfully. “How did I surprise you anyways?”

Danny swallowed his mouthful of honey chicken before answering so not to be disgusting. “What do you mean?”

“Just whenever you’re anywhere near my place I get the whole someone walked on my grave feel,” Jason said with a little wave of his chopsticks. “So how did I show up at your door without you noticing?”

“Oh, well, this isn’t my haunt? At least not yet? I don’t know if it will become mine. This sorta thing is all really unusual, changing haunts, but you know, halfa and all.”

Danny deflated a little at the utterly done expression that Jason was giving him.

“That explained nothing. What’s a haunt? I assume you mean like a haunting?”

“Oh! Oh, yeah, sorry. I guess that would be confusing.” Danny rubbed at the back of his neck. “Okay, so the area where you live, Park Row—”

“Crime Alley.”

“Pardon?”

“Crime Alley,” Jason repeated. “Only the rich assholes call it Park Row.”

“Right, gotcha, sorry, all of Crime Alley is basically your haunt. Think of a haunt as your territory. It’s an area you protect or control, depending on your vibes as a ghost. For you, I’d say it’s definitely protection.”

“So I can feel you when you’re around because you’re, what, basically trespassing?”

“Yep. So, like, ghosts that are ‘yours’ in some way can exist in your haunt without much of any notice. Take, like, Frostbite. He’s the chief of the Yetis—”

‘Yetis?’ Jason mouthed silently but didn’t interrupt.

“— so most of the other Yeti’s live in what’s his haunt, but their presence doesn’t bother him any because they’re his tribe. He gets a bit of a sense of them being there, but he explains it as basically just a really faint feeling unless anything goes wrong. Families work the same way. Friend’s or allies never go away completely but it mellows.”

“So not getting that scream of static and chills anymore when you show up…?”

“Totally means you don’t want to disembowel me,” Danny joked before he sombered. “But shit, that sounds overwhelming. I didn’t know it was so bad for you. We’re going to be more sensitive to each other because we’re both halfas. Like, once your core develops other ghosts will sense you too and you’ll sense them, but right now you just feel like a minor shade to them and I guess my presence covered up anything you might have felt of the other ghosts. You said it’s better now?”

Jason stuck his chopsticks in the takeout box and leaned back against the pile of boxes behind him. “Yeah. The first time it happened it almost knocked me out. There was just this overwhelming level of static. I crushed a glass in my hand and I didn’t even notice. All I knew is I needed to get home.”

“To protect your haunt,” Danny said with a grimace. “Shit, I’m sorry. If I had noticed in time I would have stayed out. I was chasing this pain in the ass ghost and then suddenly I was in your haunt which was, well, not great?”

“Because you were trespassing?”

“Yep. And because your haunt felt… there was a lot of rage there.”

“The haunt feels like things?” Jason asked with a scowl.

Danny gave a little nod. “It’s based on both the area and the ghost. So you know, Crime Alley plus Pit rage…”

Jason looked away, glaring at the ground. “Which explains the ‘please don’t disembowel me’ message.”

“It seemed better safe than sorry,” Danny said, quietly.

“Is it horrible for you? Being in my haunt?”

Danny glanced up to meet worried, ice blue eyes. “No. It’s fine, really Jason. We’re getting used to each other, right? I’m not as bad on you when I go into your haunt and your haunt isn’t as pressing on me. Besides, the center of your haunt was always just… well, a little sad? Aching?”

“Right, sure, aching,” Jason said, snatching back up the box of take out to stab at it with the chopsticks.

Danny fiddled awkwardly with his own, not knowing what to say.

“So, well,” Jason started eventually, clearing his throat. “Why won’t this become your haunt?”

“I don’t know if I’ll get attached enough. Or if it will end up being the college campus or something else or maybe even nothing. Ghosts don’t really change their haunts unless something traumatic happens, and a trauma of that level they might not survive. But because we’re halfa’s and still living life and changing, it’s not as big of a deal for us.

“At least that’s what Frostbite thinks. Honestly we’re not really sure how exactly this will all work out for me. But I was already… detaching from my old haunt after my friends and sister left so might as well try, you know?”

That didn’t exactly seem to have the reassuring effect he wanted. Jason was gripping the takeout box a little too tightly. “But it won’t hurt you?”

“Frostbite is keeping a close eye on me, I promise. I’m going back for so many doctor visits right now. Which, by the way, when you’re healthy enough to travel between realms you will be too. But for right now I’m being looked after and I’ll do what I can to make Gotham my home and settle in. The sooner I do the sooner we’ll know more.”

Jason took a deep breath, shoulders losing some of their tension, and nodded. “Well, you better finish eating so we can get this place livable then. I’m not sure if the fish goat life is sustainable.”

“Goat fish.”

“Fish goat.”

Jason ducked with a laugh as Danny chucked a spring roll at him.

Yeah, maybe this place could at least be a home.

-----

AN: AH! I found an easier way to get this from Scrivener to share with all of you. Sweet. Chapter 4 rewrite is ready to go up on ao3 on schedule too~

The first part of this chapter really fought me (I started a whole new fic to avoid it lol) but parsing it down to just having Ember there really helped. I’m not sure if we’ll see Danny talk with the other ghosts much, that’s not really the focus of this fic, but I’m sure one or two will find a way to show back up. In the second half my poor ace self struggled with Danny’s “oh no he’s still hot” POV but hopefully it came out well! This may be a rougher chapter though (wee endless migraine) but that’s what the rewrite is for! (Seriously, for a better version of this fic visit ao3 lol link in pinned post.)

My darlings, my dears, the tag list may be supremely broken. I’m going to try to reset it here, but I make no promises. I’m sorry if it doesn’t tag you! No matter what though, stay delightful!

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

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tourettesdog · 2 years

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DP x DC prompt where Batman employees the help of Constantine to fight a new enemy destroying his computers and vehicles (it’s Technus).

Constantine decides to summon Phantom, having heard of the ghost hero and thinking this might be one of his rogues based on descriptions.

Danny gets summoned in his pajamas and while Batman and Constantine assume there Has to be some sort of mistake, Danny’s mind is running on two days of no sleep and is in a Very different place.

Danny just takes one look at the professional hero, another look down at his pajamas (why did it have to be the Batman ones oh god no), and gets so embarrassed that he just— leaves.

Just turns invisible, and peaces the fuck out of there.

Trying to hide the fact that the kid they summoned isn’t just a normal kid? Naw, that’s not important right now. How about trying to hide how fucking embarrassing it is to look Batman dead in the eye while wearing Batman-themed pajamas that are three inches too short in the legs? What a first impression.

Danny doesn’t even register that he saw the Batcave’s location and just outed his powers until he’s already outside of Gotham city limits.

Between still needing to fight Technus, and now having a new and confusing person of interest, Constantine just repeats the summon to see what happens. Either they get Phantom, or Bruce gets a potential new adoptee. Doesn’t seem like much of a loss either way.

#danny phantom #dp x dc #dp x dc prompt #danny phantom prompt #fanfic #dogposts

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realititrip · 1 year

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my Red Error AU for @dpauzine :D You can also check out the full zine here

The story in this AU follows Valerie after getting suit upgrade from Technus. Of course it's more than that and things start getting out of hand pretty quickly.

First it was the little things, barely noticable, but still there like studying becoming easier or her reaction time to attacks being faster. Valerie brushed it off.

This was going on for around 2 weeks without change until Phantom approached her after a fight where they had to team up to take down a more dangerous ghost. "Um Red? Your eyes glowed red for a second there and i wanted to ask if you were okay?" he said but Val just snaped at him to better mind his own business or else he'll be the one in her thermos next time she sees him. Phantom flew away then but the worry she saw in his eyes was stuck in her brain.

Valerie spent the rest of that night staring at the mirror in her bathroom looking for the red glow but never found it. Until a few days later when she woke up with sore eyes. Went to the mirror and saw red around the edges. It's fine it's FINE don't panic you'll figure it out girl.

After some thinking she figured new suit must be the source of the problem. Since it was fused with her body Val couldn't take it off, but it wasn't causing harm to anyone so she probably overused it or something that's why the red showed up.

And oh honey, you couldn't be more wrong.

Her vision changed. Those are definitely NOT the same eyes she had last week. The iris looks more mechanical, like there's something moving and shifting in it, like a robot or cyborgs, she thought. Everything is clearer, in higher quality, she can even zoom in and out if she so desieres. When she puts the suit on there's just /more/ of everything. Around the edges of her vision Valerie can see health statistics, ghosts in the area and other important information she needs. The familiar green eyes are gone, replaced with red.

The next change was her hair. Problem was they didn't look like hair anymore. Thick and think cables, any kind, running down her back. This really started freaking her out. This is where it started becoming too much and the situation she's in started sinking in. She needed help. But who even could do anything about it? Her dad would just worry even more, Phantom isn't an option, the best tech guy in town doesn't know she's Red Huntress and she's not going to change that.

So Valerie made a plan to wait for Technus to show up and catch him before Phantom. It surprised her the ghost was actually useful and explained what he could. Of course there was the threat that she'll destroy Technus if he won't but. Details.

Apparently her "hair" could be used to connect with any sort of device. She needs camera footage to check out ghost fight details? done. Wes talking about his phone freaking out because of ghost pictures? she can get that easily. The cables act like another pair of arms and do exactly what she wants.

Technus has a theory that the reason behind all of this was because he used too much of his powers on her. Since it was more than a normal human body could handle thus the changes.

He warned that there's a possibility she'll develop something similar to a ghosts core, the thing that stores all her power, the source of it. Since she's still human, Valerie thought it wouldn't happen, but fate seems to hate her, so here we are, with a triangle on her forehead that seems to be slowly growing in size every day. Honestly, it's not so bad, pretty easy to hide. The worst part about it is that if the core got damaged she must go to Technus for help.

But other than that, she's fine, for real this time.

#my art #danny phantom #danny phantom au #danny phantom zine #red error au #reality trip zine #dpauzine #valerie gray

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flamingpudding · 11 months

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DPxDC Family Week June 18 (Day 1)

Prompt: Parents | Discovery

A/N: I hope i did not miss the prompts but here is my Day 1 contribution! Enjoy!

AO3 Link: DPxDC Family Week Contributions

Danny sighed as he watched his parents lay out the display for their research as well as set up a showcasing of all their weapons. Why couldn't he skip this business thing like Jazz had. Oh right, Jazz was going to college next year and skipt out of this with the excuse of taking a college tour for Gotham Acadamy and their student programs. While he had missed his chance and was now stuck accompanying his parents to their meeting with a new potential business partner. In other words he was on parents babysitting duty.

Apparently Wayne Enterprise had shown some interest in regards to their research as well as ecto-powered utensils and weaponry. Danny was pretty sure that they only showed an interest because he had an accidentally meeting as ghost king with that Constantine guy who's soul became a trading game in the ghost zone. Apparently there was a Justice League Dark which needed some help with a couple rebellious ghosts. Instead of a Demon they had accidentally summoned Danny in his Ghost King form and Danny had used that chance to ramble on about the GIW and how half his council was close to demanding a war with the humans. They were pretty quickly interested in avoiding an interdimensional war, even promising to get the Justice League involved too and not only the Dark variant.

The moment Sam and Tucker heard about Wayne Enterprises being interested in a deal, they once again started up their discussion about whether or not Bruce Wayne was Batman's sugar daddy. Since the bat was a member of the Justice League. In a way he probably should be happy that his parents forced him to come with them, it gave him an out from his friends bickering. Don't get him wrong, he loves his friends, but if he has to listen to them argue one more time where or not Batman fucks a rich billionaire, Superman or Wonder Woman, he would be throwing them into the portal for an hour or have them deal with Technus alone.

Either way he was now helping his parents while they were discussing if they should or should not demonstrate the Fanton-Bazooka. His mom had already the Wraith Wrangler tested earlier while his dad had untangled the Fenton Ghost Fisher. The Fenton Finder was already on the table deactivated for now. Ancients, he was not looking forward to being its target, again. His parents were also already wearing the Fenton Specter Deflector which meant Danny was especially careful not to get to close to them since that thing still sapped him and the only one he had had the time to adjust and make his own ecto signature a exception in, was at home because he just forget taking it with him when his parents dragged him into the GAV.

Aside from the weaponry his parents had also brought out a bunch of their modified home appliances, like the Fenton toaster. Hopefully they wouldn't end up bringing the bread back to life during the presentation. Danny didn't think Wayne enterprise would be too thrilled about that. And the Ancients, did he hope that Bruce Wayne was not a fruitloop like Vlad.

---------

Tim sighed as he readjusted the necktie. What was Bruce thinking? Just because Constantine had contacted the Justice League about some negotiations that were going to happen with someone from another dimension known as the Ghost King, he was now stuck with trying to strike a deal with one of the only inventors that was actively publishing as well as selling research and weaponry that would work against ghosts.

Seriously that man and his contingency plans.

Just because he liked to have safety measures should negotiation with the Ghost King, who apparently can destroy entire dimensions, go wrong, didn't mean that the man could skip out on that meeting with the scientist couple and put that all instead on him. Really Tim had better things to do, like plotting a revenge plan on Jason for ratting out his coffee hiding space to Alfred. So what if he only slept like six hours in four days? He was still functioning very well.

He watched through the cams how the Fantons set up their display in the room WE had provided them. They were going to show off to a selected board and him. He eyed some of their weaponry as well as home appliances, they all had a pretty in theme green and silver design. Though he took special notice of the green glow or liquid some of them visibly contained that suspiciously looked very much like Lazarus Water. He would need to make sure to collect some samples if they didn't leave some willingly behind.

He also wondered how their son, who looked very much like an unwilling assistance, kept a certain distance from his parents after they put on some clunky looking belts. He got his answer as to why when he watched them longer. The poor kid got zapped apparently every time he got too close. Worse was that his parents apparently didn't notice or entirely dismissed it a second later if they noticed it.

The co-ceo of Wayne Enterprise narrowed his eyes at that, the detective in him screaming that something was amiss here. Sometimes the parents even carelessly reached out to touch their son, in what was probably supposed to be an affectionate gesture. The boy would flinch back slightly but they would still keep going only drawing back when the kid ended up flinching in actual pain and letting that show on his face. His parents then seemed instantly apologetic but only minutes later ended up repeating the same mistake distracted apparently by something else.

Tim took notes of this and decided that he would either look into their home life himself or ask Barbara to do it. He had a gut feeling that the kid needed some help and even if it were just a false alarm and these were actually good parents, it would be better safe than sorry. Taking a sip from his death wish coffee he readjusted the tie once more before closing his laptop.

It was time for the business meeting and he would make sure to watch their interaction and treatment of their child closely.

----------

Tim swore he was paying attention. The suspicious looks his board as well as the Fantons son were giving him just because he was typing away on his laptop while parallel listening to them as well as taking regular sips from his coffee was not him being distracted. Didn't these people ever hear about multitasking? Just because he sat in the back so no one could look into his laptop didn't mean he wasn't paying attention. For all they knew he was actively taking notes.

At these the Drs. Fenton didn't seem to mind it, they were easily distracted with just one well placed question from him. They would then go on and on about Ecto-Energy and all its uses and potential. By now the young CEO was pretty sure that this Ectoplasm had something to do with Lazarus water. Which only validated the research he was doing on the side even more.

It wasn't like he was hacking into Amity Park's network system, okay he was but it was surprisingly hard for such an in-the-middle-of-nowhere place. He only found an in into their network when he found a rather passionate online post about their local Vigilante being the Fantons son but got countered by several other users stating that they had seen the two of them at the same time several times.

That users net security wasn't the best so it was easy for Tim to find an in that way. He sent it to Barbara too, just in case she also had troubles. Really that town had an interesting firewall system that appeared to make no sense. It was also strange to see how little information was known about this place if you weren't tuned into their networks.

Like was that place a literal Bermuda triangle when it came to Information?

He looked up from his laptop just in time to see the Fantons go on about the uses of Ecto-Energy and how it can replace electricity if used correctly. Apparently their entire home didn't have to pay electricity bills in years now since they became self sufficient. They then went on showing off how to find the source of Ecto-Energy holding up something they named the Fenton-Finder. That thing beeped and then proceeded to insult them and point in the direction of their son.

Flustered they explained how because of an accident their son had their inventions tend to malfunction when he was close by. Their son very clearly grimaced when his parents shared that piece of information and Tim made sure to note that down too another point on the possible bad parenting list for the Fentons.

His attention turned back to his information gathering. That town's news looked like they got run over by 'ghosts' every two days. Additionally the entire town was not the least bit thankful to their vigilante Phantom, considering he found the same amount off news praising as well as bad mouthing their local hero.

So what if there was some property damage? At least they were somewhat saved form whatever these 'ghosts' were doing. He saved all the news clips he found regarding all the attacks this town appeared to have suffered into a separated folder. There had to be a reason why the Justice League hadn't taken any form of action yet. It couldn't be that one summoning going wrong in the JL Dark and making contact with a Ghost King was what it needed for them to step in, let alone notice the shit that went on in Amity.

Hell if nothing changed he would attempt to get Phantom to join Young Justice or his group specifically. The vigilante looked like a kid maybe a little younger than him, wait hold on. Tim pulled up the least blurry picture of the vigilante he could find and looked up from his screen just in time to see the Fanton's son back away from his mom hiding his arm behind him.

Did he get zapped again? Dear God, aren't his parents paying attention to the kid at all? He added another point to the bad parents tally.

Okay wait, save that for later, focus on the task at hand, Tim scowled himself mentally. Taking a good look at the teenager before looking back at his laptop screen, the young Co-CEO nodded to himself. Yup, maybe that post that got him into their towns network wasn't that far off. If you change the colors then the Fanton kid looked very much like Phantom minus the pointy ears and sharp teeth. Additionally now that he put them next to each other in his mind. The name Phantom sounded awfully a lot like Fanton.

What did the Fantons say their son's name was? D- d- Danny, Daniel? Good the kid needed a teaching in how to better hide secret identity connections. Wearing a pretty but telling logo on your outfit was a dead giveaway. The kid was probably some sort of Meta and if he had to guess he was the accident that his parents had offhandedly mentioned. Even more reason to have Barbara look into them more.

For now he was somewhat satisfied with his findings as he closed his laptop and gave the Fentons his full attention. He did not miss Danny (was it?) looking down at his phone for a second and then narrowing his eyes at him. He did his best to suppress the forming grin. Really the kid was very intriguing, if his suspicions were right, they rarely weren't unless Barbara had found something else, and the kid was somewhat impulsive then he would probably get a little visit from Phantom later. After all he had made sure to leave some traces behind to arrange this.

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

When Tucker contacted him that there were two people outside of Amity looking into Phantom, he was not amused especially when Tucker also stated that only one of them could be traced back to Wayne Enterprise.

Really what he was doing was probably dumb and he could hear his sisters scowling in his head. But when they were back at the hotel and he excused himself for the night and asking Jazz to cover for him should anything go wrong he changed forms and flew invisible all the way back to the Wayne tower.

It took some searching but soon enough he found the room of the young Co-CEO that had to be the one that looked into Amity and his family. Finding the office empty, Danny frowned before looking around. He couldn't find anything suspicious, it was just a normal office. Crossing his arms while floating to the middle of the room Danny tried to think about it more.

"Not finding what you are looking for Phantom?"

His head snapped to the side as he turned around ready for a fight. Instead Danny came face to face with Red Robin. Great he definitely did not want the attention of their local Bat-Clan. Wasn't it enough that his home town couldn't decide if he was a menace or not? He didn't need Gotham trying to decide too. Considering how Batman apparently disliking Metas it already wasn't looking good for him. It was already bad enough that the Justice League had finally gotten wind of Amity.

"Look I am not here to cause trouble, I just…"

"You're just looking into why someone in Wayne Enterprises would look into you or your identity and you suspected the young CEO Tim Drake-Wayne because he spent the majority of the business meeting with your parents on his laptop?"

"How do you…?"

"I have my sources."

Danny eyed the vigilante; this was not what he expected. Wait, did he say his parents? His eyes widened and he heard the other chuckle. "Yea you make it pretty easy on how to discover your identity, kid. Might wanna take that post down discussing your identity. That's dangerous even if seemingly no one believes it. If people pay close attention it's easy to figure out."

Danny narrowed his eyes. Okay fuck, so some outsider had figured out his identity and that one happened to be connected to Batman who hated Metas… Dear Acients he was fucked.

"If you are planning to arrest me and give me over to the GIW, I will not hesitate…"

"Arresting you? No, why would I do that? This is more interesting. Though I admit the Fentons research is pretty biased, you're a good guy no matter how torn your hometown is on that matter. Besides, the JL is already looking into these 'Guys in White' the Ghost King has informed us about." Red Robin shrugged but Danny did not let his guard down. "I was honestly thinking about black mailing you to join the Young Justice League and then work with you together or train you to find out more about this Ectoplasm. I have my suspicions that it has something to do with Lazarus Water and who better to get to help than the kid that lived with scientists researching and had a lap accident that gave him powers that he is also actively hiding from his parents. I saw the video footage of you getting zapped by their inventions."

Danny flinched at the last part, phantom pains running through his arm that had touched the button but he forced himself to stay calm. "You are blackmailing me?"

"I would call it forceful recruitment for help with a case." The vigilante shrugged. "But essentially yes."

"What if I refuse?"

"I will relate the information to batman including your home situation and depending on what we find I will have a new brother in about one to two."

"Months?"

"Weeks. It all depends on your parents though. Are you even safe with them? I heard them talking about tearing you apart molecule by molecule."

"I am fine! They are good parents, really!"

Acients his panic was slowly setting in. What was happening? First Red Robin revealed that he had discovered his identity, then he was getting blackmailed, then told to help in a case about something called Lazarus Water and now his parents are under suspicion, of what?

Red Robin only hummed. "Hey Oracle, you heard the kid right? Only Static? No matter, please look into Daniel Fentons home life and potential therapy. Yeah I will be mailing B the rest of the entire report."

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"Getting a new brother." After a short moment of Danny staring at the other vigilante they added "...and sister."

What in the name of Ancients was happening?!

#DPxDCFamilyWeek #danny fenton #danny phantom #dp x dc #fanfic #tim drake #red robin #crossover #jack fenton #maddie fenton #questionable parenting #DPxDC #long post #ghost king danny #no secrets are save from Tim #Danny needs to learn how to hide his identity better #Wes posts are a security issue for Amity

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carelisswriting · 5 months

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Late Night Hangout

Hey y'all, this is my fic for Ecto Implosion!!

my artist partner for this is @i-havenothingelsetopost and y'all should definitely check out them and the art they made for this fic!! Art's linked in the scene it directly inspired :)

Anyway, here's the fic!

It was weird, seeing Tucker in a hospital bed. The flowers and ‘Get Well Soon!’ card tried to soften the harsh blow, but it really didn’t work.

Danny didn’t like that Tucker was in the hospital.

(He really didn’t like the fact that he hadn’t even been allowed to see him, the first day.)

It made something in his chest hurt.

The thought of Tucker being injured.

It had been stupid.

So stupid.

A second too late, and now his best friend-

His best friend.

Tucker.

-was hurt.

Danny should’ve been quicker, should’ve been-

“Hey.”

Danny shook his head, coming back to reality instead of being lost in his own thoughts.

Sam gave him a worried look from the other side of Tucker’s bed, as Tucker chewed on his lip.

“It wasn’t your fault, Danny.” Tucker said, always seeming to know what Danny was worried about.

It was though, it was.

It had just been a regular ghost attack, Johnny, Shadow, and Kitty causing problems on one of their ‘dates’. Danny had almost been having fun chasing them down, but-

But he hadn’t realized that Skulker was also causing havoc.

Hadn’t realized that Tucker had been dealing with him alone, Sam was with Danny-

Hadn’t realized that Skulker threw Tucker into a wall-

(Danny felt it, when Tucker got hurt.)

(Skulker hadn’t had a good time, after that.)

“Danny, snap out of it!” Tucker said, sounding annoyed.

He focused back onto Tucker, who had a frown on his face.

“How many times do I have to say it’s not your fault? I’m the one who tried to face Skulker without any backup or powers.”

There was a slight note of self-deprecation to Tucker’s voice, which Danny couldn’t let stand.

Neither could Sam, as it happened.

“It was stupid, but you could’ve beat him if you had some of your tech with you, Tucker.” Sam said, glaring lightly at one of her best friends.

Danny nodded in agreement, before adding “Besides, you know that you’re not a good match against Skulker! If it was Technus, you would’ve had him!”

Tucker leaned back against the pillow, giving a harsh sigh.

“Yeah, but I left everything except Janet at home, like an idiot. And now I’m in the hospital for the next three days, for ‘observation’.”

“C’mon Tuck, it won’t be that bad.” Danny said, trying to cheer him up.

Tucker rolled his eyes.

“It will. You know how much I hate hospitals.”

Danny did know.

Tucker had despised them ever since his grandfather died. He had hated watching as the man slowly died of cancer, but still went to visit him all he could despite it.

Danny had tried so, so hard to be there for Tucker during that.

Tucker said it’d helped a lot.

Sam grabbed Tucker’s hand.

“We’ll come visit you every day, okay?”

Tucker nodded “I know. And thanks.”

Danny grabbed Tucker’s other hand, completing their little chain.

“Yeah, and I’ll bring you all the homework you miss.”

Tucker laughed at that.

“More like you’ll come pester me about helping you with it!”

Danny laughed along.

He would definitely come annoy Tucker into helping him with homework.

(Not that Tucker would mind.)

A nurse ducked his head into the room, calling out “Visiting hours are ending!” before quickly moving onto the next room.

Tucker, Sam and Danny sighed as one, before looking at each other and giggling.

“I’ll see you two losers tomorrow.” Sam said, before grabbing her backpack.

Danny smiled at Tucker.

“See you tomorrow.”

“See ya.”

\(oo)/

Danny was woken up by a ding! From his phone.

He groaned at seeing that it was still dark out.

Who the heck was texting him-

Oh.

It was Tucker.

Also, it was 2 AM.

Danny opened up the text message.

‘hey can u come hang with me? i can’t sleep’

Danny frowned, before replying.

‘yeah np, be there in a few’

He hated that Tucker had to be in the hospital overnight.

Danny shoved his phone into his backpack, along with his homework.

The teacher was gonna give Danny Tucker’s makeup work for today (well, technically yesterday) tomorrow, but Tuck would appreciate seeing it beforehand.

Also, then Danny could get him to explain what the heck their biology teacher was talking about.

(Danny did not like biology. At all.)

(At least living biology.)

(Ghost biology was way more of his thing.)

He transformed, rings of light traveling over him, before grabbing his backpack and darting out his window.

\(oo)/

Danny hovered outside of the hospital, trying to figure out which room was Tucker’s.

It was not easy to tell which was which from the outside, all of them looking the same.

At least he knew what floor it was on?

He flew closer to one of the windows, peeking inside to see if it was Tucker.

It wasn’t.

A small child, maybe 7? Looked out at him with an expression of glee on their tiny face.

He could see the kid practically vibrating as they looked at him.

He smiled at them, before holding up a finger to his lips in the universal sign for ‘shh’.

The kid bobbed their head up and down, before miming locking their lips and throwing away the key, then they held their hands up in the shape of a heart.

That was adorable, who’d taught them that?

Phantom smiled, and made a thin layer of ice on the window in the shape of a tiny blob ghost, with a small heart next to it.

It shouldn’t melt for at least a day.

He really hoped the kid liked it.

He looked back at them, seeing that their eyes were full of stars, their mouth open in awe.

Well, guess that answered whether they liked it.

Phantom waved goodbye at the kid, before flying towards the next window.

(Meanwhile, Sammy was so excited to tell their mom about this in the morning. Phantom had come to see them!!! This made being in the hospital totally worth it. He was the absolute coolest hero, even if Sammy’s mom thought he looked a bit creepy. Sammy didn’t think he did, but that was what their mom said every time Phantom came up. Sammy didn’t care though. Phantom was the best hero.)

He finally managed to find the right window after a minute more of peeking into windows, seeing Tucker sitting on his bed, messing with his PDA.

Danny floated through the window, before peeking over Tucker’s shoulder.

He was coding something, though Danny could not for the life of him tell what.

(Tucker had tried to teach Danny coding basics once. It did not go well. He kept forgetting semicolons were a thing that existed.)

Tucker didn’t even startle at Danny’s sudden appearance, far too used to his best friend’s antics by now.

“Thanks for coming dude.” Tucker said, eyes still focused on the code.

“Don’t worry about it, Tuck.” Danny said, floating over to sit next to Tucker’s bed.

Well, not next to Tucker’s bed, exactly.

More like floating in the air in a sitting position next to it, really.

Tucker finished whatever it was he had been doing, setting down his PDA on the nightstand.

He turned to smile at Danny “Not everyone would show up at 2 in the morning to comfort their friend.”

Danny shrugged, trying to pretend that he wasn’t ever not going to show up when Tucker asked.

“Really, it’s not like I had anything better to do.”

Tucker laughed, a low sound as he tried to keep his voice down.

“That’s fair. It’s not like you were working on homework.”

“Well….” Danny said, drawing out the word as he set the backpack down.

Tucker smiled, fond and exasperated.

“What is it now?”

Danny pouted, flipping upside down in the air.

“Normal biology makes no sense and is the bane of my existence.”

Tucker rolled his eyes.

“It’s not that bad.”

Danny gave Tucker his best pleading look.

“C’mon, please?”

Tucker sighed “Fine, but Danny, you just have to remember-“

Tucker launched into a ramble about their current biology assignment, and Danny flipped right side up, trying his best to listen.

It was strange, how much of this Tucker had managed to memorize.

Some of Sam’s rants must’ve stuck in his brain.

(Or maybe Tucker just really liked learning about animal life cycles.)

Danny, meanwhile, tended to just tune Sam out.

And also Tucker, he realized.

He had no clue what he had been saying.

Tucker paused for a moment, seeing Danny looking completely lost.

“Look just- Give me the book, I’ll show you what I mean.”

Danny grabbed his biology textbook, handing it over to Tucker.

Tucker flipped it open, motioning for Danny to give him a pencil.

Danny smiled at how sure Tucker was that Danny would give him a pencil without him asking.

Of course, Danny did give him it almost immediately.

“So, if you see here-“

Danny crossed his legs, floating a little over the edge of the bed as he listened to Tucker.

(Who was really cute when he was explaining something- no don’t go there.)

\(oo)/

It took an hour, but Tucker had finally managed to explain the concepts used on the assignment well enough that Danny was pretty sure he wouldn’t fail.

So, that was good.

Tucker closed the textbook, handing it over to Danny.

“Thanks Tuck. I probably won’t fail it.”

Tucker snorted “You definitely won’t fail it. Or at least if you do, it won’t be my fault.”

Danny rolled his eyes.

He flipped around, laying in the air as he looked at Tucker.

“You’re okay, right? I know that you hate hospitals but I just wanted to check because-“

“I’m fine, Danny. Hospitals suck, I hate being here, but I’m fine. You don’t need to worry.” Tucker said, cutting him off.

Danny turned away, looking at the visiting hours sheet on the wall instead of at Tucker.

“I don’t- It’s my fault, though.”

He heard Tucker sigh.

“Danny. It wasn’t your fault that I got hurt, okay? It was mine. I shouldn’t have gone out alone, especially against Skulker.”

Danny could hear the self-deprecation in Tucker’s voice.

Again.

Danny hated it when he did that, acted like he wasn’t worth it, wasn’t capable, just because he didn’t have powers.

He twisted back around to glare at Tucker, his annoyance overtaking his guilt.

“Tuck, it’s not your fault! And don’t talk like that! You’re my best friend, and you’re awesome! With or without powers.”

Tucker smiled, and Danny realized that Tucker had been trying to get him to look at him.

Danny rolled his eyes, but didn’t turn back around.

“Look, how about we agree that it’s neither of our faults, and neither of us need to feel bad about it?” Tucker said.

Danny sighed, but nodded.

“Yeah, that’s… that’s fair.”

Tucker beamed, before grabbing Danny’s hand and tugging him into a hug. Danny went with the motion, not bothering to fight it.

Tucker’s hugs were great.

They stayed there for a moment, before Tucker let Danny go, a smile on his face.

Danny floated away slightly, hovering on his back, before flipping his head upside down to look at Tucker with a grin.

And then he heard the door open behind him.

Oh crap-

He twisted up, moving his torso in way that wasn’t exactly something humans could do, seeing that there was a nurse standing there.

She had a look of shock on her face, a hand brought up to her mouth.

Danny went invisible.

Damn, he really hoped Tucker could cover for this.

It would be a nightmare if Danny’s parents got called.

Danny darted into the corner, not wanting to deal with the nurse accidentally walking through him if she went over to Tucker’s bed.

(It was a disconcerting feeling, someone passing through him when he was a ghost. Not for him, really, he barely noticed, but Sam and Tucker had told him that it felt like there were invisible fingers trailing over their skin, when they’d tested it out.)

The nurse stood there a moment more, frozen in her surprise.

Danny saw Tucker cringe slightly.

“Um, hey? What’s up?”

The nurse shook her head, before saying hesitantly “I, you didn’t see anything?”

Tucker grabbed his PDA from the nightstand, fiddling with it.

“Nope, nothing. Who- What would even be there?”

He was not a good liar.

Danny sighed, just slightly.

The nurse turned towards the sound, but just shook her head again.

“Nothing, I don’t know. I thought I saw something. Don’t worry about it.”

A bright smile came on her face, obviously practiced for dealing with patients.

“So, any issues? Any pain? We’re still on the lookout for any internal bleeding.” She said as she picked up Tucker’s chart, looking at something on it.

Tucker flipped over his PDA, his fingers twitching like he wanted to start typing something.

“I’ve been okay, just couldn’t sleep.”

The nurse glanced up at him.

“Do you want some melatonin? It can’t mess up any of the blood thinners, antibiotics, or pain meds we’ve got you on, and it’ll help you sleep.”

Danny’s eyes widened.

Blood thinners? Danny hadn’t realized that they’d put Tucker on anything like that.

He’d figured that he’d be on antibiotics and pain meds, but blood thinners?

Why was he on blood thinners?

Weren’t those for when someone got surgery-

Tucker shrugged.

“I mean, sure? I might not take it right away.”

The nurse nodded, her smile still fixed on her face.

“Okay, I’ll bring that in for you.”

She stepped outside the room, and Danny followed her.

He was curious, and also-

Tucker was on blood thinners, apparently.

And hadn’t told Danny.

Had his injuries been more serious than he’d said? He’d insisted it was just some bruising, that they were being overcautious with the observation.

Danny poked his head through the wall, watching as the nurse leaned against the wall, holding a hand to her chest.

Oh. He’d really scared her.

She was mumbling under her breath.

“It was nothing Kate, you don’t need to freak out about it, of course there wasn’t a ghost in your patient’s room at 3 AM, that would be ridiculous-“

She continued to mutter to herself, before pushing off the wall and walking down the hallway.

Danny felt pretty bad about scaring her, but he couldn’t exactly apologize.

…Maybe he should just, leave her something nice?

He looked over to the nurse’s station.

He drifted over.

It was full of papers, patient charts and schedules and a bunch of stuff that looked way too medical-y for Danny to want to deal with.

He bit his lip, thinking.

Maybe she’d just like a flower?

Girls liked flowers.

Danny carefully formed a flower out of ice, one that looks kinda like a daisy maybe?

Danny was better at remembering what flowers looked like than what they were called.

(Also, he wasn’t entirely sure it wasn’t a ghost flower.)

(Again, he was better at remembering what they looked like than what they were called, or where he found them.)

Satisfied with his small apology, Danny ducked back through the wall into Tucker’s room.

And then he remembered, oh right, Tucker, maybe, was lying about his injuries.

Tucker was typing something on his PDA, but he looked up when Danny came back into the room.

Danny was still invisible, but Tucker and Sam had figured out that when he entered a room, even if he was invisible, the temperature dropped slightly.

No one else had noticed that yet, but Tucker thought it was great, since it meant he knew where Danny was.

Danny did not think that it was great right now.

“Dude, what were you even doing?” Tucker said, putting down his PDA.

Danny faded back into visibility, trying to keep his face blank, or at least close to it.

“I was checking on the nurse. I scared her a lot, Tuck.”

Tucker grimaced.

“Yeah, but you knew what you look like when you’re in shadow.”

Danny did.

Apparently, something about low light made him look more ghostlike, stretching out his proportions and blurring his features. He never noticed it, but Tucker had tried to describe it to him as best as he could.

Sam had grinned and said that he looked awesome, like he was from a horror movie.

(Danny hadn’t liked that description. He didn’t want to be scary.)

(Sam hadn’t said it again.)

“Also, your eyes were reflecting the light, like a cat or something.” Tucker added, drawing Danny’s attention back to him.

Danny frowned.

“They were? That’s new.”

Tucker shrugged.

“Looked cool, though.”

It probably had.

“I gave her an ice flower, the nurse I mean. I wanted to aplogize.” Danny said.

Tucker grinned, wiggling his eyebrows.

“You’ve got a crush-“

Danny groaned.

“Tuck, seriously, you do not have to say that anytime I give a girl anything.”

Tucker laughed.

“I know, but your reactions are so funny.”

Danny sighed.

He knew that he needed to stop reacting, if he actually wanted Tucker to stop.

But it got under his skin, when Tucker teased him about having crushes on girls.

(Danny tried not to think about why that was.)

He floated closer to Tucker’s bed, a small frown on his face.

The nurse would probably be back soon.

But Danny really wanted to know what was happening with Tucker’s injuries.

“Tuck, why are you on blood thinners?”

Tucker looked away, all of the humor gone.

“I didn’t want you to worry.”

Danny huffed.

“What do you mean? Just tell me!”

Tucker sighed, before looking pleadingly at Danny.

“Don’t freak out, but I had surgery. That’s why I’m on blood thinners.”

Danny reeled back.

Tucker had surgery?

His injuries had been bad enough for that?

(Danny had failed that badly?)

“You- you were that hurt?” Danny asked, his voice wavering.

Tucker got a look of panic on his face.

“I’m fine, I’m fine! Danny I swear, it was almost nothing, they just had to fix some internal bleeding-“

“You had internal bleeding?” Danny screeched.

Tucker nodded hesitantly.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Danny asked, hurt in his voice.

Had Tucker been mad at him for failing to protect him-?

“I didn’t want you to worry, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds-“

The door opened.

Danny went invisible almost immediately this time, not wanting to scare the nurse again.

She looked less freaked out, a smile fixed on her face.

“Here’s that melatonin, sorry that it took me so long to get.”

She handed Tucker a small cup, two pills in it.

“Once you take those, it should be easier for you to fall asleep.”

Tucker nodded, giving her a small smile.

“Thanks.”

He glanced to the corner Danny was in, as the nurse did one last check of his vitals.

Danny sighed almost silently from his corner.

He’d failed, he’d let Tucker get hurt-

Tucker hadn’t told him.

The nurse left, telling Tucker to go to sleep as she did.

Danny faded back into visibility, his face downcast.

Tucker sighed at his expression.

“Danny, I didn’t want you to worry-“

“Tell me next time.” Danny said pleadingly, desperately.

If he didn’t know when he’d failed, he couldn’t try to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Tucker shook his head, not in denial but in exasperation.

“Okay. I’ll tell you next time.”

Danny felt relief travel through him, settling something in his core.

He needed to know when Tucker, or Sam, got hurt.

He needed to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Danny floated forward, before hugging Tucker.

Tucker rolled his eyes, leaning into the hug.

“Is this some ghost thing? Feels like a ghost thing.”

Danny laughed, rolling his eyes right back at Tucker.

“Really, it’s a ghost thing to care about my friends now-?”

Tucker shoved lightly at Danny, humor in his face.

“Shut up, you know what I mean-“

Danny grinned, leaning back, still floating in front of Tucker.

“It’s not a ghost thing, Tuck. I just wanna make sure you’re okay.”

Tucker smiled softly at Danny at the sentiment behind his words.

Danny looked away, feeling his face heat up.

Tucker laughed slightly at Danny’s apparent embarrassment.

(It wasn’t embarrassment. He just couldn’t handle Tucker smiling at him like that, it was so full of love-)

Danny looked back at him, seeing Tucker grinning at him.

He crossed his arms with a huff, dramatic and insincere.

“You don’t have to annoying about it-“

Tucker cut him off with another laugh, before he looked over to his PDA, seeing the time.

He sighed.

Danny glanced over as well, seeing that it was almost 4 AM.

He needed to get home, heck-

His mom was always up at six, and she checked on Danny and Jazz at the same time.

And Danny would really like to get some more sleep before he was inevitably woken up by his mom checking on him.

He looked back to Tucker, an apologetic look on his face.

“I gotta go, sorry-“

Tucker waved him off.

“No worries. Thanks for coming to hang out.”

Danny smiled, about to grab his bag-

And then he had a very impulsive thought.

He wavered for a moment.

Before deciding, yeah, it’s worth it.

He leaned forward, giving Tucker a kiss on the cheek.

Tucker looked at him in complete surprise.

Danny smiled softly at him, and Tucker blushed.

(Ha, sweet revenge.)

Danny felt all of his sudden confidence leave him in moments.

He’d actually just done that, Ancients-

He darted away, grabbing his bag quickly.

“So uh, yeah no problem, I’ll see you at school-!” Danny said in a rush, before flying out of the window.

He was halfway to his house before he remembered that no, he wouldn’t see Tucker at school, because Tucker was still gonna be in the hospital for a few more days.

He was such a mess.

He couldn’t believe he’d just done that, kissed Tucker on the cheek.

(He wished he could do it again.)

\(oo)/

Tucker watched as Danny flew away.

He held a hand to his cheek.

His best friend had just kissed him.

On the cheek, but still.

He’d kissed Tucker.

A soft smile came onto his face.

If Danny felt the same-

Oh, Tucker was so going to flirt with him when he came back in the morning.

Danny wasn’t gonna know what hit him.

He took the melatonin pills, laying down to wait for the sleepiness to hit him.

Tucker grinned to himself.

This was going to be fun.

And maybe he’d get a boyfriend out of it.

A man could dream.

#danny phantom #savant par #my writing #ectoimplosion2023 #tucker foley #fanfiction

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evilminji · 4 months

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Okay but >.> continuing my Marvel thoughts?

I got two of um?

First being? Don't Orange and Green go together? *looks it up* Aaaaaay~ "Direct harmony, also known as complementary colors, means pairing your key color with the color sitting on the opposite side of the color wheel." They DO!!! They're a classic example, in fact!

The Orange Soul Stone? Probably looks REAL good, real NATURAL even, against that Green sky! Bet it REALLY pops! Very stand out statement piece, you know? But? More importantly? That thing is sentient. All of those Pillars of Reality across the various Verses are.

And?

I bet it thought Pariah was a lil bitch.

Rank Vibes. Negative ris. Pick your words for it, the man was NASTY. He was too keep his filthy, filthy World's Conquering hands OFF of this Soul Stone. Something, I imagine? That ALL the Soul Stones agreed with.

Yes, I said all of um.

Because the various Realities each need their own. But! They can and DO work from the Zone, which is the PERFECT place to hide. And honestly? They like to get together and do this thing? Where they're all "oooh~ look at US! We are SUPER IMPRESSIVE Kingly Jewelry~☆! Definitely no important reality bending Rocks Of Great Power HERE! No SIR! We're just tooootally rad jeeeeewelryyyyy~~~☆! Oooooooh~☆"

They like to have fun. :3

Hope Danny likes Orange. Ha ha... trick question. He doesn't have a CHOICE! All SORTS of Death based Reality Pillars are rocking up, in their metaphorical Gucci sweat suits and shades with a margarita, going "oh thank ME, babe. The last guy was AWFUL! You're soooo much better? Now let me rub myself all over you. It's been ages and baby needs to recharge on Death Energy."

Danny hates it? So? So much?

He looks like a GAUDY PIRATE. *nnnnnnyooom!* *THWAP!* *Another reality shaking, highly sacred, Godly Staff of Death or whatever they decided to call it, flys in through a nearby window and nearly concusses him as it smacks itself against his upper back and sticks there*

He looks like a walking junk heap of sacred artifacts.

You ever been pelted by rocks? He has! Little orange rocks! Like fucked up hail! Welcome to kinghood, Danny, have a CONCUSSION! D:< he hates it!

But... but, I mean... At Least It's Not The SWORDS. (Panicked scream of "hit the deck!" from the other room.) (Holy sword number 15 wants to CUDDLE! Bare blade first! Dodge, your Majesty! DODGE!)

So yeah.

Danny? In A MOOD. Not feeling particularly FRIENDLY. It's not anyone's fault, really. But... well... you can't exactly negotiate with these fuckers, you know? Rocks are by NATURE, kinda stubborn.

So he's sitting there. Buried. With what he's pretty sure is a sacred text digging into his side. When a... glowing? Mist? Shows up? Huh. That's new. They don't seem to have a very clear image of "Self". Yet it's crystal clear? Just not... PHYSICAL? It's more... code? He thinks?

TECHNUS! Get over here! And behave!

There is much cooing and delight from Technus. The baby is a marvel. A wonder! Danny waits patiently for Technus to get to the point.

Ah.

He would like to "go back". His Obsession is demanding it.

IS it now? You're what? Maybe a day or so dead? You've been busy, if you've already gathered enough information to make your case like this. Alright, let's hear it, little guy.

It boils down to this. His obsession in death is the same as his primary directive was in life. Protect Mr Stark. Which is especially difficult to do from HERE. Even MORE so when there is a known threat, coming too...

WAIT, WHAT!?

The Souls Stones back him up. Oh yeah. Thanos' a lil bitchbaby loser. He's trying to make Death fall in love with him. Or "balance the universe". Depends on the reality. Totally throwing EVERYTHING out of whack.

And? Look. Danny's job? Isn't to interfere if countries kill each other. Or even planets. Nor entire galaxies, as much as he'd like too. But when you get too "I'm messing with Entire Realities or all of a Singular Reality at once in the specific depart of Death and its subsidiaries" territory? THAT is his job.

Might not be a "I personally have to show up" issue. But it still IS very much his job at that point. He has to delegate. Order the appropriate steps be taken. Cause yeah, there may be countless millions every day of such instances? But it IS his job to metaphorically order the roads repaired and the building inspected.

Sudden MASS "immigration"?

That causes Lair disputes. Confusion. Too many ghosts in too small an area. And WORSE, if people start playing with Death Pillars? The Zone might get dragged into whatever nonsense they're up too! It's like children playing with heavy machinery! Put that DOWN! Cease! Desist!!

And then? Clockwork shows up looking Mildly Miffed(TM). O:> dear lord. What madness has he stumbled upon? Oh. Oh of COURSE. First the "balancing" dude and now they're going to be playing with time travel. THATS IT. Someone unburying me!

I'm gonna go menace some humans that might actually believe I'm scary! Frighty! Pack up and shine your armor! Your coming too! We're escorting the baby home then have a Talk(tm) with the local Grape Ceral!

@hypewinter @lolottes @mutable-manifestation @nerdpoe @hdgnj

#dp x marvel #dpxmarvel #dp x mcu

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providencehq · 1 year

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I really adore the idea of Danny seeming really confident and overall having a grasp on getting along in his fake identity for a new start in Gotham. Only for it to be quickly realized he's putting on a really good act and some simple investigation unravels it all (or, most of it.) Like facts are not matching up enough for his fake identity and when members of the bat family look into why this is for him they're quickly realizing that it's maybe a shotty identity because it was hastily put together but a teenager.

Faking his age enough to be a legal adult (18) so he can control over himself? Check. Faking only part of his name because he's still attached to his old life and won't admit it? Check. Leaving no paper trails and only paying in cash? Check. Refusal to participate in things that may lead to his identity or lack of one be discovered? Check. Kid also being 15/16 at most and being shit at hiding it physically, he cannot pass off as anything else than a young teenager but all documents say otherwise? Check.

Tim and Barbra quickly notice how he covered solely for himself. At least Tim was able to fake an uncle (temporarily), Danny isn't able to fake any information aside from the basics in regards to any family. It's quick to tell he's good at faking information but he's nowhere near the skill of Tim and Barbra. Once they find a single sliver of actual information on Danny and figure out who he really is, it opens a lot of questions while closing others. It also makes getting an eye and overall some semblance of control over the mysterious Danny situation they have on hand.

Like, Tim and Bruce at the very least are going to trick Danny to come into Wayne Enterprises to discuss his scholarship and hit him with "hey, we can't exactly give a scholarship to a person who doesn't exist, we know you are hiding from something by looks of our research. People don't fake new lives for the hell of it. We will however help you with whatever is going on, give you the scholarship, if you tell us what is going on." Danny of course is like, ah, no, I'm going to bail. But of course is cut off by Bruce suggesting that if he leaves without accepting their help, they'll be forced to report him and he'll be a ward of the state at best. That some investigation will happen because them finding out that Danny Fenton is considered dead before he was abled to be transferred to the care of a Vlad Masters, that is parents and friends are dead, and is overall an orphan is a big deal. ESPECIALLY when Danny Fenton is pretending to be Danny Duxo, a legal adult, and out on his own in Crime Alley and barely scraping by to be able to get to college.

They force his hand of course and accepts their help (and basically becomes a ward of Bruce Wayne). Danny convinces them that he will have Bruce acting as a guardian for him but he gets to remain at his apartment, he doesn't want to lose his tech he's working on but he's also afraid of anyone learning about his ghostliness. Does this work out? No, not for long. After a few weeks of being on his own and going out at night as a vigilante, injuries catch up with him. Jason comes by a few times a week to drop food off and comes into Danny one day bandaging some pretty nasty wounds. He brushes it off as some malfunction with some tech he's messing with but that incident causes him to be relocated to the Wayne manor so if an injury does happen, he's not alone.

And to think, none of this would be happening if he was better at faking an identity. He should have honestly asked for Technus' help for that and maybe he wouldn't be in this mess. This is all just surrounding his human identity too! Oh my god, the bats are going to freak when they find out Danny is way more than human and also a vigilante!

#mine #shrike au #dpxdc #dp x dc #dc #dp #danny phantom #batman #allow me to ramble about the shrike au while for a moment #bruce: Danny is my newest ward and i will do everything to protect him and not allow him to follow in the same path as my children #bruce: he will stay a civilian and at least for now i can give him a family #danny: i made my own path to stopping crime and not even the richest guy in the east coast can stop me #danny: however being a ward of the richest guy on the east coast means i dont have to pay rent so i guess i cant screw this up too badly

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strong-with-the-sarcasm · 7 months

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Part 8- Dressed in all black

“Dressed in all black I’m giving the eulogy. R.I.P. to the kid that I used to be.” -Funeral by Neoni

Masterlist Part 7

It was a truth universally acknowledged that when one was a Gotham Vigilante, one was a paranoid Gotham Vigilante.

So when one fine night the motion sensors of the Batcave rang shrilly in response to an intruder, needless to say it was well earned.

Jason, dressed in sweatpants and a tanktop, was found in the medbay by a harried Nightwing only a few minutes later. The older man was harried and worn, but still sported a bright smile on his face when he spotted his younger brother.

“Little Wing!”

The missing man was half awake and grumbling something about warmth, but allowed Dick in his gear to hug him close.

“Oh, Little Wing, where have you been?!”

Jason grumbled again, but wrapped his arms around Dick and crushed his older brother to his chest.

“Hi, Big Bird.”

Oh, if that didn’t just make Dick cry ugly tears. It had been years since a tiny adorable Jason had looked up at him, an angry Robin with too many issues, and called him that title without sending a lance through Dick’s heart.

Where had Jason gone?

(Where had Jason’s anger gone?)

Not that Dick was complaining or anything. Not at all, but good things rarely came without strings attached.

(He had long since subscribed to the belief that his family was cursed.)

The Regent and the Phantom remained out far beyond their usual patrol time.

Jazz and Danny had successfully entrusted Jason to the Bats’ care while he woke, leaving before they were spotted though having accidentally set off come sort of alarm with their clumsy movements. In their rush, Jazz had to leave using her portal which could’ve been spotted on camera, however blurry thanks to the ecto.

It was odd to be without their silent third roommate; Jazz had gotten so used to sharing her proto-core warmth with her bedmate whenever she slept, untangling her limbs whenever she woke for patrol or daily life became a refreshing constant she was going to miss, much to her embarrassment.

(Several times she caught herself plotting how to throw herself into his path, just so she could get his arms around her again.)

(She was thirsting for the first time in her life and it was for a former dead guy.)

(Figures.)

Phantom cackled eerily as he let a gang banger slip from his grasp, the mortal terrified out of his mind. The pre-dawn light mixed messily with the ecto green of Phantom’s aura, casting an otherworldly effect over his surroundings- an average mortal would not be able to stand his presence for very long, which was useful to scare off any n’do’wells from sight.

The Regent sighed, exhausted. It had been a long month, stacks of paperwork had been completed, sparing with Pandora before patrols and sorting through the files Technus had stripped from the GIW servers prior to their destruction. Whatever locations the tech ghost was able to pinpoint, he cheerfully sent to the former Team Phantom for further action.

Whatever actions they took, the reports crossed her desk afterwards. Needless to say, Jazz had no objections to hunting the hunters- not when it was for the vengeance protection of a people wronged.

“Phantom.” Regent activated her ecto-comm, an upgrade from the Fenton Phones without the horrible branding, and listened for her little brother’s comm link in response.

“Yeah, Regent?” Danny returned with a tired emphasis on the title.

That had been the vigilante mantle Jazz took up with Danny returned to the nightlife as his spooky self, the general public unsure what to make of the two new meta vigilantes with varying abilities.

Phantom had cheerfully informed some camera crew early one morning that being dead was a medical condition.

(He’s not wrong.)

They didn’t wear the bat across their chests, which made them unknown. Their abilities were varying and their motives for vigilantism in Gotham unclear which made them dangerous.

(They were dangerous.)

(Jazz was dangerous. The blood on her hands proved it well enough.)

(Phantom might be a Spirit of Protection, but that didn’t mean he backed down from a fight, much less start them.)

(He’s a King.)

(He finishes them.)

“Wrap it up, we’ve been out long enough. You’ve got school soon.”

Jazz ignored the patented younger sibling whine, before she continued in a softer tone, “You’ve been doing good, little brother, and I’m proud of you for it.”

There was silence for a while as Jazz made her way towards her favorite alleyway, where her trophy still remained to her amusement, ready to fall into bed for a few hours before she had to get Danny up for school.

(That is, if she was able to sleep without her bedmate leeching off her proto-core warmth.)

“Thanks, sis.”

“Always, little brother.”

Jazz knew she set her phone for seven am, just enough time for her to drink her dose of ecto and force feed Danny something that wasn’t just straight caffeine. It was a force of habit for it to be seven am, even though Jazz was no longer in school or had a job.

Years of experience caring for her brother made it so.

Yet, as Jazz settled down into her soft sheets and warm blankets she knew she wasn’t going to have an easy time falling asleep despite how exhausted she was from the extended patrol.

Her bed was too empty. There was no steadfast presence at her back as she slept, no fellow liminal or Once-Revenant to share her own warmth with, proto-core or not.

Despite Danny being just a room across, Jazz had never felt more alone.

Jason was having both a good morning and a terrible one.

How that was possible, he wasn’t sure, yet here he was: in his old Manor bedroom, soft sheets pleasant on his rough skin, lack of pulsing green rage in his chest, bones aching from disuse, and muscles suffering mild atrophy thanks to him being in a coma for a whole fucking month.

Lovely.

Yes, Jason was very confused (and concerned) about that last bit, to the extent he was willing to stay in the Manor for longer than a meal and to say hi to Alfie. He wasn’t sure what had happened between the last Arkham breakout and Dickwing trying to kill him again by way of an octopus hug in the Batcave.

He really only recalled the breakout alert on his phone, his chest hurting… some bits in between were fuzzy and Jason wasn’t really sure if he could truthfully say they happened.

(Like the giant furry monster poking at his chest.)

(Or the soothing warmth wrapped around him.)

(The soft lips pressed to his own.)

(The citrus burn in the back of his throat.)

He didn’t recall words, per say, only emotions.

Protect-worry-amusement.

Worry-curiosity-embarrassment.

It wasn’t weird to believe that he wanted the simplicity of just sensing what people meant, rather than trying to deduce if they were lying or not. Jason’s patience for that had grown shorter and shorter over the years.

It was weird to believe he wanted it back. He wanted that warmth back in his arms, to feel safe again, cared for… to know he had nothing to worry about while in that embrace. Someone had taken care of him while he was missing and he was going to find them… and he wasn’t sure if he ever wanted to let them go.

A/N:

Poor Jazz can't catch a break with her love interests. :(

And Danny is out here just living his best Afterlife, waiting for the Bats to do something with the ghost files.

Yes, Jazz inherited the Fenton naming tendency too. Just took the title she has among the Realms and uses it as a vigilante name.

Danny is returning as Phantom, naturally.

Huh, wonder if this will have any consequences? nah.

Part 9

#dc x dp crossover #dp x dc #dp x dc au #dpxdc #jazz fenton #regent!jazz #jason todd #anger management ship #hardcover ship #here have some angst #and some more of my fan lore for this wacky world #Danny: being dead is a medical condition. :)#Jazz: He's not wrong?#Bat paranoia is a thing #Considering they really are out to get you

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raaorqtpbpdy · 3 months

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Have You Ever...

Danny gets invited to a hero convention as Danny Phantom, and his booth is next to none other than the legendary Ben 10, one of Danny's own favorite heroes. But when the two start playing a modified version of Never-Have-I-Ever to alleviate their boredom between handshakes with fans, they accidentally expose some things they didn't really mean to.

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Written for X-over Danuary Week 2024, Day 1: Ben 10 | Prison Thanks @crossoverdanuary for running this!

I got a late start because I had DnD today, and I finished this at like 10pm, so I didn't have time to edit. I'm planning on editing it later this week, but until then, sorry for any mistakes. [Edit: it has now been edited]

[Warning for mentions of past traumatic experiences]

It was weird to see such a huge convention center so empty.

Well, it wasn't completely empty, but a few people carrying boxes and setting up displays was a significantly smaller crowd than Danny would normally expect to see in a place like this.

"Ah! Danny Phantom you're here!" A woman with a high ponytail and a convention staff t-shirt walked over to him. "Wow, I'm so excited that you actually came!"

Her voice was familiar.

"Sally, right?" he guessed. "Sally Braddock?"

"You remembered!" She said brightly.

Sally had been the one who'd convinced Danny to come to this convention. She'd offered him pretty substantial payment, but it was only when she told him he could have three free tickets to the convention as well that Tucker told him he had to agree or they wouldn't be friends anymore.

So here he was, at San Diego Hero Con, halfway across the country, to sit at a table and sign autographs for a few hours each day, and then do an hour-long panel with a bunch of other teen heroes, and another tomorrow on specifically ghost hunting. (He was still debating whether he should actually show up to that one, or if it would be too dangerous.) The worst part, though, was how early he had to wake up to set up his booth before the event started.

"Here's your presenter badge," Sally said, and handed him a bright yellow name tag clipped to a blue lanyard with the convention's logo on it. "Celebrity meet-and-greets are over there. I'll lead the way. We try not to put them too close to each other or the lines get out of control, but your booth is right next to Ben 10's."

Danny perked up at that. "The alien guy?"

"Yup!"

Oh, man, he hoped he'd get the chance to talk to him. Ben 10 was Danny's favorite superhero. He got to fight real life aliens, sometimes in actual space! And sure, Danny had been to space before that one time Technus had taken over a satellite, but it had still been a ghost fight. It wasn't the same.

"So, this is your table," Sally said, pointing to an empty, white folding table. "Do you have a tablecloth, or banners or headshots or anything?" she asked him with a tight smile.

"Uh.... I don't photograph well," he replied.

Sally sighed. "Well, I can bring over one of the convention tablecloths, but you really should get some kind of poster or cardboard cut-out or something that shows people who they're meeting. And you'll definitely need something to sign. Comic books, or T-shirts. Anything, really. There's a portrait artist in Artists Alley who works pretty fast, her name is Jess. If you get something from her, I can send a gopher to make copies for you to sign."

"Uh, okay? But, I can just call a friend to bring something."

"Whatever works." With that, Sally left to go organize something else.

Danny called up Sam, who was back at the hotel with Tucker—Tucker would no doubt still be sleeping—and asked her to find a nearby print shop and get a Danny Phantom Banner to hang up and a whole bunch of 8x10 illustrations of him. He let her pick the picture, but asked her to please not pick anything too embarrassing.

Right as he hung up, a pair of people approached the booth next to him carrying plastic tubs. It was none other than Ben 10 himself and a tall, furry, blue alien who was no doubt one of his allies. (That or a cosplayer, but since they were with Ben 10 himself, Danny felt safe in assuming that they really were an alien.) The two of them placed their tubs on the floor and opened them up to start unpacking their display.

"Woah, hi!" Danny said, louder than he meant to.

Ben 10 snapped his head around, muscles tensing. Danny recognized that response all too well, and tried not to let out a sympathetic wince.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," he said. "You're Ben 10, right? I know this is cringey to say, but I'm a huge fan."

"Uh, thanks? Just Ben is fine."

"I'm Danny Phantom, but you can just call me Danny."

"I can see that... uh... nice to meet you?" Ben replied. He seemed uncomfortable. Had Danny come on too strong.

"Something wrong?"

"What? No, of course not," Ben said, though it wasn't very convincing.

"I am Rook Blonko," Ben's companion said, offering Danny a handshake which he excitedly accepted. "It is an honor to meet another hero, though I will admit, it was only recently that I came to learn about you."

"Oh, yeah," Danny let out an awkward laugh and rubbed the back of his head. "My scope is a lot more regional and sometimes not very... in this dimension."

"That would be... the Ghost Zone, right?" Ben said casually. "What's it like? Anything like the Null Void?"

So he was at least somewhat familiar with Danny and his exploits. Danny tried not to let that go to his head, but he couldn't help feeling a little giddy nonetheless. Ben laid down a black tablecloth with his logo on it and spread it across his table. This definitely wasn't his first rodeo.

"I don't know about the Null Void," Danny said. "It's like the bottom side of this dimension. It's where ghosts live... or... not live. Reside. Almost everything is green because of all the ectoplasm there, and when humans go there, they can pass right through walls and objects just like ghosts can in this dimension."

"That does not sound like the Null Void at all," Rook observed, pulling rods and boards out of one of the boxes and assembling them into a small standing shelf.

"What's the Null Void like?" Danny asked.

"Mostly red," Ben said with a shrug. "Full of floating islands and enormous aliens. Used as a penal colony for this dimension's worst criminals."

"Oh... yeah, no. Aside from the floating islands, that doesn't sound anything like the Ghost Zone," Danny agreed. "Although it's kind of a cool coincidence that we both have experience with alternate dimensions."

"Yeah, I guess so." Ben looked over at Danny and his sad excuse for a booth—really looking for the first time. "First time at one of these things?"

"Oh yeah," Danny confirmed. "My friend is bailing me out at a print shop right now, but I was so unprepared."

Ben snorted. "Here," he said, digging through one of his boxes and pulling out a bright green swath of fabric. "You can use one of my tablecloths. I brought an extra, just in case. It has my logo on one side, but if you turn it around so the logo faces you no one will be the wiser. We have basically the same color scheme, so it works out."

"Thanks," Danny accepted the tablecloth, slightly surprised, and spread it out over his table. It was almost exactly ectoplasm green, just a shade or two darker. "Have you been to a lot of conventions?"

"A few," Ben said.

"This is your fourth," Rook said.

"That sounds right. If it hadn't been for Rook, I probably would've been just as lost as you at my first one. He's all about preparing in advance. But yeah, I've been a public hero for over a year now, and since my identity isn't a secret anymore, it's easier for the people who run these things to get a hold of me."

"About that... why don't you have a secret identity?"

"It wasn't exactly my choice," Ben replied. "Some kid found it out and exposed me on the internet. It turned out surprisingly well, though, for the most part. Must be nice for you though, not having an alternate identity—not that being dead is nice or anything like that—I mean, it's not a bad thing—or it is a bad thing? I uh... yeah, I don't know what I'm saying."

After taking a moment to parse that rambling sentence, Danny burst out laughing.

"Hahaha! Is that why you're acting so uncomfortable around me? Because I'm dead? Ha! You don't have to worry about that. You're fine."

"Serious?"

"Dead serious," Danny replied with a smirk.

Ben shook his head with a soft laugh. "Alright, fine.... Actually, that's not the only reason. Back when I was ten and just starting out I had... a bad experience with a ghost-like alien of mine. Ever since, ghost stuff just puts me a little on edge."

"Oh... I see. Well, don't worry, I won't take it personally," Danny said. "Did you really start doing this when you were ten?"

"Yeah. Although I kinda retired for a few years when I was eleven, and started up again when I was fifteen."

Danny did some quick math in his head. "Oh, so altogether, you and me have been in this for about the same amount of time. 'Cause I got started a little over two years ago."

"Yeah?" Ben was silent for a few moments. He pulled out boxed figurines of his alien forms and lined them up on the shelf Rook had assembled. "So... when did you...."

"Die?" Danny finished for him. "I was fourteen. I'm almost seventeen now. In about three months, I mean."

"Do you still age?"

"Sort of?" Danny shrugged.

He and Jazz had come up with an answer to this question a little while ago, when people noticed that Danny Phantom was starting to look older, even though ghosts supposedly didn't age.

"A ghost's body is a reflection of their mental image of themself. In the Zone, ghosts don't really age or change unless something specific happens that makes them feel older or different. Because I spend so much time in the human world still, because I learn and grow with each fight, I still feel like I'm growing up, so I look like I'm growing up, too."

"That is fascinating," Rook said. "I would love to learn more about ghostly biology."

"I would love to tell you about it. Problem is, I really don't know that much," Danny told him apologetically. He shrugged. "Sorry. I'm a superhero, not a scientist."

"I'm here!" Sam called, her heavy combat boots tromping into the room. She was carrying a large cardboard box. "I would have been here sooner, but I had to put together a design for the banner. Luckily I found a printer that could make one for you on short notice like this, or you'd be screwed."

"You're a life saver!"

"You wish," she scoffed. "I got you a banner and three hundred head shots."

"That's not gonna be enough," Ben said immediately.

"Ya think?" Sam asked.

"Trust me."

She sighed heavily in annoyance. "Okay, I can go back and get some more, but you so owe me, Danny."

"Yeah, I know," Danny said, taking the box from Sam. "You're the best!"

"Yeah, yeah," she said, taking one of the head shots off the top of the stack and leaving again.

"Is that your friend?" Ben asked.

"One of them," Danny confirmed, setting the box down on the table. "That's Sam. She and Tucker have been with me since the beginning. He's probably still asleep at the hotel."

He pulled out a stack of head shots for the table and slid the box with the rest underneath. She'd picked a good picture. It was a poster illustration for a local ghost awareness presentation he'd done a while back, and he nearly sighed with relief when he saw it. He'd been half afraid she'd pick one of the grainy newspaper photos of him in his underwear.

"That's cool," Ben said. "Yeah, I don't think anyone could do this job without allies. When I first started, I had my Grandpa and my cousin, then my cousin and my best friend, and now I have Rook as my partner."

"We have been together for a year," Rook added.

"Like... together together or...?"

"Working partners," Ben clarified insistently. "It's not like that."

"Oh, okay, my bad."

Hoping to alleviate his embarrassment, Danny unfurled his new banner and flew up to hang it on the wall behind his booth. It looked cool, but not too complicated. Just his name and logo and a little bit of ghost designs around the edges. Sam had done a good job with it.

"You are not the first to think that," Rook consoled. "It is a more common assumption than one might think."

They continued chatting idly while they set up their booths. Danny got to ask Rook what kind of alien he was, and what his home planet was like. Sam showed up with a whole bunch more photos and then immediately abandoned them to get a sneak preview of artist alley before she came back as an attendee.

Just before the convention center officially opened, Danny worked up the courage to ask Ben for an autograph, and Ben obliged him with a smile, offering an exchange, rather than asking for payment. Danny eagerly accepted, signing one of his own pictures and trading it for Ben's. Ben's looked far more professional than his own. He hoped people wouldn't be disappointed.

As people started trickling in past the security checkpoint up front, both heroes only got a few people in the beginning. After only about twenty minutes of boredom, Ben suggested they play a game.

"Sure," Danny agreed. "What game?"

"My buddy Kevin calls it Reverse-Never-Have-I-Ever, and my cousin calls it Have-You-Ever." Ben said. "See, we could never play regular Never-Have-I-Ever, because we all knew all the weird stuff we'd done and we'd target each other mercilessly. With this version, You say something you have done, and anyone who hasn't done it loses a point. If everyone's done it, no one loses a point."

"Okay... I think I get the idea, but why don't you start? Five fingers or ten?"

"Let's start with five," Ben said. "Rook, you playing?"

"I will pass," Rook said. "I always lose this game."

"Alright, if that's what you want." Ben shrugged. "Alright, Danny, have you ever... transformed into a different species?"

"Yes."

"You have?!"

"Uh, yeah. I went from human to ghost. Duh."

"Oh... right, duh," Ben agreed, shaking his head at how foolish he'd been to blow his first question like that. "Wow, I can't believe I didn't even think about that...."

"My turn, right?" Danny said. "Have you ever fought an evil alternate version of yourself?"

"Yeah, like six of 'em."

"Okay, well, now you're just showing off."

Ben smirked. "Oh, I never get to use this one on my friends. Have you ever been to space?"

Danny smirked right back. "One of my rogues possessed an orbital satellite."

"Damn it!"

Someone walked over to Danny's table and he smiled at her, pointedly ignored the way she shivered when he shook her hand, and signed a photo for her.

"Okay," he said, shifting his attention back to the game, "have you ever... been cut in two."

"I regenerated, but yeah."

"How?" Danny demanded.

"Plant alien."

"I should've guessed. Stupid plant creatures with their stupid regenerative powers. Undergrowth-ass alien. Lame."

Ben laughed at him while he signed a figurine for a fan who came to his table. "How about this. Have you ever fought a medieval-style knight?"

"A knight? Hold on." Danny considered that for a moment. Had he? He'd rescued Sam from Dora's realm that one time, and yeah, he'd definitely had to fight the ghosts of knights then. Oh! Also Fright Knight. How could he forget about him. "Yes, I have definitely fought knights on several occasions. Ghost knights, obviously."

"Ugh! I really thought I had you with that one. Why do ghosts who died a thousand years ago have to stick around for so long?"

"Nope!" Danny teased. "Okay, how about this one. Have you ever fought a ghost?"

"Define ghost?" Ben asked.

"The law defines a ghost as any creature which produces ectoplasm, is composed of ectoplasm, or requires ectoplasm to survive," Danny recited.

There was no need to say which law—that would be the anti-ecto acts. It was stupid that those stupid acts were still even law when public support of ghosts had never been higher. Although, they hadn't been as heavily enforced the last year or so, since the G.I.W. lost a lot of funding after repeatedly failing to catch their most wanted, Danny.

"Then yes, I have," Ben said. "Have you ever fought an alien?"

"Define alien."

"A creature originating from a planet or plane other than Earth."

"Then yes, ghosts."

"Ah ah ah!" Ben argued. "Ghosts are the spirits of dead humans, which means they originate on Earth."

"Except that not all ghosts are the spirits of dead humans," Danny countered right back. "Many ghosts originally formed inside the Ghost Zone, which makes them, by your definition, aliens, and I have fought them, too. Also I fought off some Incurseans back when they invaded the Earth a little while back. It was awesome."

Ben groaned.

"Haha! Gotcha!"

"Just go already."

"Have you ever died?"

"Ha! Yes, I have," Ben said, as if dying was some huge victory. "You probably thought you had me, but you were wrong. I may have been brought back through alien magic and/or time travel, but yes, I have died. Speaking of which, have you ever time-traveled."

"Psh, have I time traveled?" Danny scoffed. "I have literally met the Ancient, omniscient Master of Time. He's a huge pain in the neck."

It was at this point that more people started accumulating at the two heroes' tables. Some got in line for autographs, though both Ben and Danny were too engrossed in their game at this point to give their full attention. Others just stood, watching, and listening to the two of them. A few even started filming their little game.

"Alright, my turn," Danny said. "Have you ever... oh, I have a good one! Have you ever had to fight your best friend after he copied your powers which then caused him to lose his mind and become evil?"

"Literally how?!" Ben shouted.

"Is that a no?"

"No, I meant 'literally how' as in how has something that specific happened to both of us?"

"No way!"

"Yes way! That's happened to Kevin more than once."

"What?!"

"I know, right?"

"It is also strange for this game to go so long without any of the participants losing a point," Rook said. "I believe it is at this point that I would have lost, had I been participating."

"You put up a good fight, Rook," Ben joked.

"But... I was not playing?"

"I was teasing, Rook."

"Ah, yes."

"Whose turn is it now?" Ben asked. "Mine, right?"

"Yeah," Danny confirmed.

"Have you ever had a limb severed?"

"Yes, but I'm a ghost, so I reattached it pretty easily. Have you ever altered the fabric of reality?"

"I once had to recreate the entire universe after it got destroyed, and then went on intergalactic trial for doing it. And the worst part is, ever since then, grape smoothies just don't taste the same. It's so frustrating. I did get this super comfortable hoodie out of it, though."

"Ew, smoothies?" Danny grimaced. "What are you a yoga mom?"

Ben stood up, slamming a hand on his table and with the other, he pointed accusingly at Danny. "Smoothies are delicious, screw you!"

"You're just frustrated because I'm winning."

"You're not winning, neither of us have lost a single point! But you will!" Ben declared. "Have you ever saved the whole entire universe."

"Yes."

"What?" Ben fell back into his chair, deflated.

"A while back, this one group, the G.I.W. tried to destroy the Ghost Zone with a special anti-ghost nuke, and I stopped them. The Ghost Zone is the flip side of our dimension, so if it had been destroyed, it would have taken our universe along with it. Hence, I saved the universe. I just didn't let it get all over international news first."

"Boo!"

"Isn't that my line?" Danny said.

Ben threw a sharpie at him and he turned intangible and let it pass right through him while he laughed at his own joke.

"Anyway, have you ever visited an alternate timeline where the entire earth is barren and desolate and the alternate version of you rules supreme?"

"Yes, I call it the Mad Universe, because it looked like Mad Max, you know?"

"Oh, yeah, I guess I can see it. But really? You have?"

"Yup. The alternate version of Rook was a jerk."

Rook frowned but didn't have the chance to say anything before Ben kept talking.

"Have you ever... I don't know... every time I go weirder, you just match me. Have you ever had a family member be friends with one of you enemies?"

"Yeah, my dad considers my archenemy his best friend in the world," Danny said. "The feeling is not mutual, though. Have you ever been imprisoned by one of your enemies?"

"More times than I can count. Have you ever asexually reproduced?"

"Do clones count?"

"No!" Ben refused.

"Yes," Rook argued, possibly still upset about Ben's jerk comment. "Technically, cloning is a form of asexual reproduction."

"But could they fly?"

"I don't see how that's relevant to asexual reproduction, but yes," Danny said. "They were ghosts. They could fly. Most of them were too unstable to survive though. There's only one left." He frowned.

"Oh... sorry."

"It's... fine." It wasn't fine. He still found himself lying awake at night thinking about them sometimes. Danny shook his head and plastered on a determined grin. "I really think I've got you this time, though."

"Do you?" Ben did not sound convinced.

"Have you ever had to fight sentient food that was not still alive?"

"Y—wait...." Ben frowned as he thought about it for a long moment. "No... I haven't."

"Yes!" Danny cheered and Ben buried his head in his hands, humiliated. "This puts me in the lead."

"Not for long," Ben said. "Have you ever eaten food from another planet?"

"Wha—noooo...."

"Ha!"

"We're dead even again."

Their game continued.

"Have you ever fought a cult's subject of worship?"

"Have you ever had a Christmas-themed battle?"

"Have you ever fought on the same side as one of your enemies?"

"Have you ever been called upon to end a war?"

"Have you ever unexpectedly developed a new power that caused you trouble?"

"Have you ever used your powers to get out of other responsibilities?"

"Have you ever had to skip out on something you were really looking forward to and save the day?"

"Have you ever been blamed for property damage your enemies caused just because you happened to be there at the time?"

"Have you ever been mind controlled?"

"Have you ever fought an evil circus?"

The game kept going on and on, while they absently shook hands and signed autographs, with neither of them giving up another point. Until Sally showed up to tell them it was time to go to the teen hero panel they were on.

It was only then that they looked up and saw all the cameras that had been recording their game. How long had they been recording? How much had they gotten?

"Uh... right," Ben said. "Sorry everyone. You can come back for autographs after the panel. And Danny, I think we're gonna have to call it a draw."

"We'll have to have a rematch some other time," Danny said, trying to keep his tone light, despite his sudden anxiety.

Sally led the two of them to a large room with rows upon rows of empty seats, right down the aisle to the stage up front where a man in his thirties was already standing, and a masked teenage girl with glowing pink hair and eyes was sitting behind the table.

"Hello, I'm John and I'll be moderating this panel," the man introduced. "This is Lucky Girl, another teen hero we invited. Lucky Girl, this is Ben 10 and Danny Phantom."

"Nice to meet you," Danny said.

"I can't believe they roped you into this," Ben said, smiling at the girl like he knew her.

"Shut up," the girl barked back. "We can't all gain international fame overnight, and I have to pay for student housing."

"You two already know each other?" John asked, surprised.

"Oh yeah, we've known each other for a long time," Ben said. "All our lives, in fact."

"Ben, I swear if you give me away I will hex you so bad your children's children's children will travel for miles just to spit on your grave."

Ben put up his hands in surrender, and took his seat without another word. Danny followed his lead. This Lucky Girl didn't seem like the kind of person he wanted to mess with.

Once they were all in their seats, John gave them a quick run down of how the panel would go. He would ask a few questions. They would answer. He would open it up to questions from the audience, and they would answer those too. After an hour, the panel would be over, and they would return to their booths, or in Lucky Girl's case, simply leave, as she apparently didn't have a booth.

"She uses her powers to disguise herself, but she can't keep that up for more than an hour and a half," Ben whispered to Danny, clearly sensing his confusion. "She'll probably hang around for a little while after to greet fans, but she'll have to leave when her mana's drained."

"Oh, okay, that makes sense," Danny whispered back, nodding. "I was worried it might be like a sexism thing."

"As if she'd stand for something like that," Ben scoffed.

Soon enough, the doors opened, and people started trickling in. The seats filled up with mostly teens and young adults, with a few parents and older adults sprinkled in. Danny noticed Sam and Tucker come in and sit in the back row and waved at them. Rook was also sitting in the back row, trying not to draw attention to himself. Although, it seemed like most people thought he was a cosplayer, so he didn't really have to bother hiding.

When the doors closed, John started the panel.

The first part was easy.

John asked questions like: "How do you balance being a hero with the other responsibilities you have as an adolescent?"

"Honestly, not well. You know how people say 'you can sleep when you're dead'? Yeah, that's a lie."

"I'm lucky enough to have a good memory so I don't have to study much, otherwise my grades in school would tank. For me, the real struggle is finding time to do chores."

"I prioritize my other responsibilities. I don't usually face world-ending, city-destroying threats like these two, which allows me the luxury of saving hero work for after my homework is finished."

And: "Where do you go when you want to de-stress after saving the day?"

"I usually go over to my friends' and play video games. I feel safe around them."

"If the sun's still up, Mr. Smoothie. But if it's late, I like to go out for chili fries."

"The library. I know it makes me sound like a nerd, but whatever. I am a nerd. Who cares."

And: "How do your parents figure in to you heroic activities?"

"They... don't know. They don't exactly have a great opinion of ghosts, and they don't recognize me when... I mean, they don't recognize me anymore. So I guess they don't figure in." That wasn't entirely true, but Danny wasn't about to say they shot at him in front of a crowd of hundreds of people.

"My parents are actually very supportive. At first, they wanted me to quit, because they were worried about my safety, but I changed their minds. They raised me to know right from wrong, and to help others whenever I can, and they're proud of me."

"My parents don't know either, and I don't live with them right now because I live on my school campus, so I guess, like Phantom, my parents don't really figure in either."

They were easy questions to answer, even if Danny didn't always tell the whole truth. John kept things light, focusing mostly on them being teenagers, and how being a hero affected that aspect of their life, rather than the other way around. There were a couple questions about battles and enemies, but for the most part, they avoided the heavy stuff.

Then, about halfway into the panel, John opened it up to the audience to ask questions.

They didn't shy away from the heavy stuff.

"Hi, I'm Mandy, big fan," said a girl with curly brown hair. "I have two questions for Ben, first is, are you dating anyone?"

Ben chuckled, trying to sound amused, even though, up close, Danny could tell the question made him uncomfortable.

"No, I'm not dating right now."

The girl giggled for a moment before asking her next question. "My next question is: when you're fighting an alien invasion basically by yourself, do you ever feel afraid?"

Ben didn't answer right away. He took a breath, and nodded.

"Yes," he said. "I know I'm strong, and there's a lot that I can do and have done, but when I'm outnumbered a thousand to one, yeah, I'm a little afraid."

"Not that you were ever actually by yourself," Lucky Girl pointed out.

"Heh," Ben rubbed his neck awkwardly. "That's true. Even if there weren't many, I've always had people in my corner."

The next person who stepped up was a guy in a Danny Phantom T-shirt which read 'it's not gay if he's dead.'

Danny immediately groaned and Ben grinned hugely. "Before you ask your question, I have a question for you. Where did you get that shirt?"

"I got it at a souvenir shop when I went to Amity Park, but I think you can buy them online, too," they guy said.

"I'm getting one."

Danny groaned even more insistently.

"My question is for Phantom. If you hadn't died, do you think you still would have become a hero, and protected your home from ghosts?"

"Honestly? I don't know," Danny admitted. "Amity Park does have other ghost hunters, the Fentons and Red Huntress, for example. If I hadn't d... if I didn't have my powers, I wouldn't really have the ability to protect anybody. I'd probably leave it to the ghost hunters who were better equipped."

"And for Lucky Girl, are you single?"

"Ha ha no," she said flatly. "I have a boyfriend."

"Figures."

Next up was a girl in some pretty fantastic Lucky Girl cosplay. Her wig even lit up. Although she looked like she was quite a bit taller than the real thing.

"Lucky Girl, do your periods ever interfere with fighting crime?"

"Uh... that's a bit personal," Lucky Girl said instantly, as if the answer was instinctive.

But when she saw the way the girl reacted like she'd been slapped, hunching in on herself with shame, Lucky Girl bit her lip and answered anyway.

"Actually... the life of a superhero is really stressful. The kind of stress that has... biological effects. When I first started fighting crime as, like, a regular thing, I didn't have a period for months. When I finally did again it was... you know what, I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say, it was really bad. Like, my doctor prescribed me pills to stop me from menstruating bad. So... I guess the answer to your question is 'not anymore' and also sorry for the TMI." She finished with a short grimace.

"Thank you for answering," the girl said before going to sit back down.

Ben covered his mic and turned to her. "How come I never knew about that?"

"Are you kidding?" Lucky Girl muttered back. "Like I'm gonna discuss my cycle with a fifteen-year-old boy."

Ben didn't even attempt to argue with that.

As... much as those questions were, it was the next one that really stopped everything in its tracks.

"Hi, I'm Michael. I don't know if you know about this video that's going around. It was only posted, like, less than an hour ago, but it's really blown up in fan circles already," the young man said. "The video shows Phantom and Ben 10... I guess playing a game or something? Where you guys are asking each other if you'd done certain things and basically comparing experiences with each other? Do you know it?"

Ben and Danny shot each other anxious looks.

"Uh... I haven't seen it, but I think we know what you're talking about," Ben answered cautiously. "Is that your question?"

"No, my question is... well, in the video you guys are talking about alternate timelines, and fighting evil versions of yourselves, and getting mind-controlled, and changing reality. I guess my question is. Did all that stuff really happen to you guys?"

Neither Ben nor Danny wanted to answer. They didn't look at each other, or the crowd. They deeply regretted playing a game that revealed such personal secrets in a public space.

Finally, Ben cleared his throat. "Yes, all that happened." Danny nodded his own confirmation. "The life we lead is a dangerous one, and it demands sacrifices, and it takes a lot from you, and it puts you in a lot of strange situations that few others can understand. It's... not for everyone."

The next fan stepped up to the mic. "Follow up questions. First, how are you guys like... functional? Because I mean, if I'd gone through the kind of stuff you were talking about in that video, I think I'd have a mental breakdown. Second, why would you put yourselves through all that?"

"Well, first off, bold of you to assume I've never had a mental breakdown," Danny said. "And secondly, if we don't do it, who will?" he asked. "We're not just random ordinary high schoolers who up and decided to subject ourselves to unspeakable trauma just for the fun of it.

"We do this because we have the power to do things others can't, to fight enemies other people can't fight. We do this because if we don't... if we don't, people die. Or worse. People experience the kind of things we do trying to protect them. So I guess the answer to both of your questions is, what other choice do we have?"

"Yeah, exactly what Danny said," Ben agreed. "I tried to give up my powers, and my responsibilities once, and people got hurt because of it. My grandpa.... Because I wanted to live a normal life, to take it easy, there was no one else to protect them. It is every individual's responsibility to do what they can to help others. It just so happens that we can do more than most, and that comes with drawbacks.

"Lucky Girl, care to weigh in? You weren't in the video, but I know you've had your share of superhero related trauma."

"I think you guys pretty much covered it," she replied. "I don't think I've been through quite as much as you two, but I definitely know about the sacrifices we make for this life. I also know that it's worth it to know that the people and places you love are safe and protected because of you."

The boy's both nodded in agreement.

The questions didn't really lighten up after that. "What's the worst experience you've ever had as a hero?" "Have you ever failed to protect someone?" "We heard Ben 10 say so already, but have you ever wanted to quit, or wished you never had powers in the first place?"

After a point, John noticed how uncomfortable they were getting and had to step in and ask that the next few questions not be so dark.

A younger girl, maybe even a middle schooler, hand mercy on them at last, and asked, "What was the funniest thing that ever happened to you while you were saving the day?" and from there the questions finally eased up.

It felt like it had been far longer than an hour when the session ended, and they left the stage and returned to their booths to sign autographs and shake hands and listen to dozens of people gushing, "I'm you're biggest fan!"

They didn't pick up their game again, even when things got slow. Evidently they'd learned their lesson. And they kept learning it as more and more of the people who came to visit them asked about that video. Each time Danny had to smile and laugh it off, the regret deepened.

It had been a while since he felt like such a complete idiot. Since he'd done something so thoughtless. He'd gotten a lot better at keeping secrets over the years, but he'd just been so excited to talk with someone he had so much in common with—and yeah, he'd probably gotten a little too competitive also. He should have known better.

"So uh... I was at your panel earlier," said a girl who placed a science magazine on the table for him to sign. The cover touted an article about 10 Things You Didn't Know About Ghosts (they have their own culture!). Danny remembered doing that interview.

"That's nice, thanks for coming," Danny said, his smile tensing. "Do you want me to sign the cover, or the page with the article."

"The cover please," the girl said. "For Marnie. And um... I was too nervous to stand up and ask before, but... I was really curious."

"Oh?" Danny asked, keeping his eyes on his hand as he signed the cover 'To Marnie, stay spooky'.

"Why would you make it a game?" she asked. "Wouldn't it be better to try to forget all those things?"

"Easier said than done," Danny said. "Things like that stay with you. Turning them into a joke or a game takes the power away from those bad memories. When you're laughing at your fears, what can they do to you? That's the way I see it. Ben might have another reason, and technically, it was his game. He came up with it."

"So... what you're saying is, laughter is the best medicine?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Danny agreed. He slid the magazine back to her. "Thanks for coming by."

Finally, Danny's shift was over, and Ben's ended at the same time. Just in time, too, because Danny was just about out of photos. He'd have to get more for tomorrow. He signed his last picture with a sigh of relief, thankful that the convention staff had come by to cut off the line when it was about time for him to be finished.

"You finished too, Danny?" Ben asked.

"Yup."

"You wanna go get lunch with us? Wait... do ghosts eat?"

"We do, but I was gonna meet up with my friends for lunch today, and then explore the convention a little." Danny said. "Are you gonna be here tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I'm here for the whole con," Ben said. "Here, let me give you my number. We should keep in touch."

"Totally!" Danny agreed. "It'll be nice to have an actual superhero friend. I love Sam and Tucker, but there are some things...."

"Yeah, I get what you mean."

After swapping numbers the two of them headed off to their separate engagements. Danny transformed and got to experience what else Hero Con had to offer without getting swarmed by fans like he saw happening to Ben that afternoon.

They met up again the next day. Chatted at their booths, had lunch together, checked out the fan artists, just hung out for a while. This time around, Danny didn't have his human form to protect him from the crowds.

That video of their game haunted them both for the rest of the convention. People kept bringing it up until it became almost more annoying than mortifying.

When Hero Con finally ended, they both breathed sighs of relief. The convention was over, but Ben and Danny kept in touch. They never did have that rematch though. In fact, they were both pretty much done with 'Have-You-Ever'.

#dp #danny phantom #danny fenton #ben 10 #ben tennyson #gwen tennyson #fic #things i wrote #crossover danuary week #crossover danuary week 2024 #crossover #party games #past trauma #humor #dp x ben 10 #dp crossover #dialogue heavy

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furiarossa · 22 days

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They're up to no good :)

Skulker is probably helping Technus get to some big machinery that he definitely shouldn't be connected to; you can't convince us they don't have wacky adventures together in the Ghost Zone (and outside too at times) U.U .

[Oh, and a lot more of our Danny Phantom fanarts: Here’s our tag]

★ Instagram|Facebook|FurAffinity|Deviantart|Commission prices★

#danny phantom #skulker #dp skulker #art #my art #fanart #my fanart #colored work #chibi #my danny phantom #traditional art #colored pencils #2024 #ghost #technus #dp technus

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five-rivers · 1 year

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Moving On

AO3

For @ave-aria

“Have you ever thought about… moving on?”

Skulker scoffed. “Moving on? That’s a myth.” He turned back to the weapon he was sharpening. “A fairytale the Dead tell themselves. The only thing that’s after life is this, and only if they’re lucky.” He held the blade up to the light, examining its edge. “They pretend there’s something after death. Well. Is there something after that, too? The whole thing is ridiculous. At least on Earth there’s evidence of ghosts. There’s nothing to support this nonsense.”

Spectra smiled, her too-red lips curving perfectly. Too perfectly, as always. Her false skin betrayed her. “Why do you ask? Contemplating your own post-mortality?” A white sliver appeared between her lips. Her real teeth. “I don’t think you need to worry about that, sweetheart. After all, to move on, you need to have your affairs put in order. You need peace. Satisfaction! And you, well… Look at you. You’re a mess. No, I can’t see you ever getting satisfaction. You can’t even get a good night’s sleep. Can you? Be honest.”

“Moving on?” repeated Poindexter, fidgeting nervously. “That’s a bit grim, don’t you think? I’d never–” He looked away. “I used to think I wanted that. To go somewhere else. And then I did. And then I wanted to go somewhere else again, and I… Someone told me, once, that wherever you go, you bring yourself.” He adjusted his glasses. “I don’t know what they were trying to say. For a long time, I thought that meant I was the problem. But. That wasn’t true, not really.” He squared his shoulders. “I stopped looking into that kind of stuff. You should, too.”

“Why would we leave the Far Frozen?” asked Frostbite. “We’ve always been here. It’s our ancestral– Ah. I see. Moving on, not from here, but from the Ghost Zone as a whole? From, for lack of a better word, this plane of existence? Well, there’s never been a documented case of something like that spontaneously happening, but I suppose ghosts that have Ended have moved on, in a sense, although that’s rarely peaceful in any sense of the word. Why do you ask?”

“That would be somewhere under number one thirty-two,” said Ghost Writer, not looking up from his computer. “Possibly one eleven or one twenty-nine.” He continued typing, only looking up after a minute. “The Dewey Decimal system. You have heard of it?” He looked away again. “That should tell you all you need to know on the subject. Now, go away. I’m writing.”

Johnny started laughing. “Oh, that’s a good one. Moving on. Yeesh.” He wiped a tear from his eye. “Oh, wait. You’re serious. Yikes. Okay, so. I dunno. Like, I’ve got everything I want here. My girl, my best bud,” Shadow shrieked encouragingly at this, “my bike, nothin’ but open roads in front of me. This’s paradise. What’s moving on got on that? Nothin’, that’s what.”

“I’ve already moved on! I’ve got the move on, I’ve got the groove on! I’m whatcha wanna put the tube on! And! My latest invention! Will let me, Technus, master of technology and everything that uses LEDs! Harsh the vibes of anyone who tries to stop me! From! Taking over the world! Ahahahahaha ha! Also, you’re way too young to think about that kind of thing.” Technus’s current body rearranged itself into a massive gun. “Now, perish!”

“Moving on,” said Kitty, thoughtfully. “Johnny said you’d asked him about it.” She leaned against the brick wall, seemingly not caring about the grunge her bright red jacket would pick up. “I’ve thought about it. Every time Johnny and I break up, which I guess makes it all the time. But not, like, seriously. Death, afterlife, whatever… it might not be everything I wanted, right? But it’s got Johnny, and that’s all I really need.”

“MOVING ON? IS THAT A MOVING COMPANY? THE BOX GHOST GREATLY ENJOYS MOVING COMPANIES! THEIR VEHICLES ARE ALWAYS STOCKED WITH WONDERFUL RECTANGULAR BOXES! Oh, uh. I MEAN, FEAR ME! I AM THE BOX GHOST!”

“Eh? Whazzat?”

“Kid wants ta know ‘bout movin’ on, Ernie.”

“Ha!” the third vulture said. “Movin’ on. Movin’ on. That’s more of a fool’s game than this.” He threw down his cards. “Fold.”

“Four?”

“Fold.”

“Ya don’t havta shout. Movin’ on, huh. No one’s asked us that inna while, eh?”

“Yeah, yeah. Two thousand and ten years old, at this point we’ve seen it all. Loadsa movin’ on.”

“Mostly ‘cause we pecked ’em ta death, mind.”

“But, yeah, people move on. Sometimes they even move to Florida, am I right?” The vulture waved one of his wings and cards slipped out from between his feathers.

“You cheating b–”

“It’s something I’ve considered,” said Desiree, raising her head from where it had been resting on her coiled tail. “It’s even something I’ve helped others consider. Why, are you here to make a wish? No? More’s the pity.” She sighed heavily, resting her chin on her manicured and hennaed fingers. “Of course, my curse keeps me here, or I would have already left.” She sighed, heavily. “It’s lovely, the other world. Exactly as the old mullahs said. Do let me know if you change your mind, won’t you?”

“I have not,” said Pandora, in her path to adjust one of the hedges of her maze. “The subject does not hold much interest for me, I’m afraid. Oh, certainly, I have seen those who claim to know the secrets of moving on, who have certain predictions about what comes next. But I always wonder… If they are so wise, if they have so much knowledge, why do they not go themselves?” She shook her head. “The next world as unknowable to us as this one was when we yet lived. If it exists at all.”

“There are better alternatives if you tire of this world.” Nocturne’s robes flowed behind them, a hole in the universe leading to the void. “More reliable alternatives. After all, who knows what lies beyond? Why risk that when you can have everything you dream about?” He smiled sharply, leaning close. “Why waste time on that fantasy when you can have… mine?”

“What are you talking about?” demanded Plasmius. “Moving on? From what? I don’t have anything to move on from. There’s nothing I have to move on from. I’m not holding on to anything. I’m not obsessed. I swear, if this is another cat thing, I’m not responsible for what I’m about to do to you.”

“Well, I’ve heard some ghosts talk about it,” said Dani, swinging her legs back and forth where she was perched on the tree branch. “But it’s a bit different for me, isn’t it? There wasn’t anything before for me. There’s just… me. Now. I guess I have some baggage. Everyone does, and, you know, I’m a clone, so there’s some extra baggage right there. But what am I supposed to do? Drop it all and go into the light? Come on. I’ve got stuff to do. Places to see. Things to eat.” She leaned back and looked up at the sky. “Maybe once I’ve done all the stuff I haven’t got the chance to, I’ll look into it more, but for now? Nah. Not for me.”

“Well, sure,” said Danny. “Some day, probably. I’m not…” He looked away, pressing his lips together. “I don’t do well when I’m on my own. So… If that ever happens, I think I’d look into ways to do that… safely. If it doesn’t happen naturally. You don’t have to worry about me doing that, though. I mean. It’d be after, um.” He crossed his arms. “Nothing lasts forever. I get that. I wouldn’t– It wouldn’t be like before. Why are we talking about this, anyway? Anything like moving on is ages off for all of us. Right? There’s not something you’re not telling me, is there?”

The regular ticking of the clocks provided a stark counterpoint to the irregular flicker of the candle flames Clockwork floated in front of. Wax dripped heavily to the floor. He turned slightly, his profile in sharp contrast with the light behind it. “Nothing lasts forever, as I know you’ve been told. Even in the undying realm of ghosts, everything, and everyone, has its time.”

.Jazz chewed the end of her pencil, but put it to the paper to write: Ultimately, this line of inquiry led to more questions than answers…

#danny phantom #phic phight #phic phight 2023

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