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warriorangel4god · 1 year

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does this suit come off?

DannyMay2023 Day 15: Full Hazmat AU

title: does this suit come off?

words: 1706

Summary: A fight goes sideways and Danny gets caught.

Warnings: None!

Other AU: No One Knows

Beta by: @probably-dead

~~~~~~

Danny quickly dropped down, narrowly avoiding the blast the creature shot at him. Even through the hazmat suit he had on, he could feel the heat of the projectile as it flew mere centimeters above his head.

He looked down, taking stock of the number of humans still beneath him. The animal ghost had attacked a random building and people were still trying to evacuate.

It was times like this he was grateful for the helmet of his suit, the way it entirely blocked his face - a face even he hadn’t seen before. At least, not in his ghost form, since the accident a year ago. But, assuming it was still human-ish, he was sure they would be able to see the panic and fatigue beginning to overwhelm him. He was exhausted. He hissed as his distraction cost him, the next blast digging into his arm and he felt cold ectoplasm begin to drip from the tear in the suit, falling in small droplets to the ground six stories below. He needed to get this fight over with and he needed to get it over with now.

Danny growled lowly then blasted as fast as he could towards the ghost, managing to wrap his good arm around its midsection and sending them both careening to the ground at the edge of the evacuation zone.

Well, good to know he wasn’t the only ghost who forgot he could go intangible. Their fight quickly turned into a down-and-dirty fist fight (or, claws, in the creature’s case), that Danny was at a major disadvantage for, considering his left arm was steadily growing more and more numb. His entire focus on the ghost he was wrestling with, he didn’t hear the squeal of tires as his parents arrived.

He pulled back his good hand, clenching it into a fist and was aiming for one of the ghost’s many eyes, confident he could get a good hit in and-

And then his world exploded into a swirling blue void and conscious thought felt like a heavy blanket. He could sense his body but he could not feel it, he could not think more than a couple of simple words before his train of thought evaporated into mist, leaving him in a state of perpetual confusion.

Memory returned to him as soon as the blue swirls began again, dissipating as quickly as they had formed. Was that what the ghosts felt like in the Fenton Thermos? Man, that was unpleasant. He was groggy, slow, heavy.

“Nyuh…” he groaned, sitting up and then tucking his head between his knees, the feeling of lightheadedness and nausea making the room spin.

“Oh, Phantom’s already coming to, dear,” a female voice said, slightly distorted as though far away. “Looks like the Thermos doesn’t keep ghosts sedated longer than about thirty seconds.”

“Huh?” Danny managed quietly, still with his head tucked and eyes closed.

“Smaller than I expected it to be,” a male said, his heavy footsteps almost as clear as his voice.

Some deep part of him knew something bad was happening and he needed to do something, but the fog continued to press into his brain. He managed to sit up some, eyes still firmly closed under his helmet. “Wha’s goin’ on?”

“It… sounds so young.” The woman said.

“Look at that hazmat. No way a kid dies in something like that. The template the ghost formed off of was probably just short.” The man said.

“I don’t know, Jack…”

The woman - Maddie - speaking Jack’s name pushed away the haze in his mind. His eyes flew open and he realized where he was. The harsh white light above him was dimmed slightly by the darkened visor covering his face but there was no denying this place - his parent’s lab, the green of the portal glowing and slowly swirling off to his side. He was in one of the clear ghost containment cubes, alone, and he was worried for the creature he’d been fighting. How long had he been in the Thermos? Was the other ghost okay?

Maddie and Jack both stood outside the ecto-proof glass encasing him on all sides, their hoods up, the goggles only adding to the demented scientist look. Danny felt his heart race in his chest, blood rushing in his ears as panic clawed into his heart. Words escaped him as fear consumed him, so he merely scrambled to his feet and began backing as far away from them as possible but when his back bumped into the glass behind him, electricity surged through him and he yelped, jumping away from the charged glass.

“Well, it’s really good at mimicking emotion. I almost believe it’s afraid.” Jack said, turning to a computer at his side.

Maddie, though, didn’t move, a small frown on her face as she studied him. He knew what she’d see - a black and white hazmat suit, entirely unremarkable if not for the glow it emitted, hanging a little too loosely from his frame, black helmet with darkened glass obscuring his face entirely. If she looked too closely, she may realize this was one of her full hazmats that he’d stolen when he went poking around in the lab.

“Releasing the gas.” Jack said, toggling a button on the computer he was at. With a hiss, the air pressure in the cube began to rise and Danny could feel the effects of whatever it was almost immediately.

“No!” He cried out, the tear in his suit from earlier rendering the hazmat’s protective abilities useless as it hadn’t time to patch itself up yet. “Stop, please!” Weakness in his limbs brought him to his knees as the gas seemed to absorb through his skin, his mouth, his nose, burning his lungs. It surrounded him and he responded the same way he had when he’d been learning how to swim and started to sink. “Mom!” He screamed, terrified tears beginning to streak down his hidden face.

“Jack, stop!” Maddie yelled, jerking open the door before the words were even out of her mouth.

“Mads, don’t! Shit!” Jack yelled back, quickly turning the gas off and hurrying in after her.

Maddie ignored Jack, pulling her hood off - some part of Danny hoped this gas was safe for humans - and dropping to her knees beside him and pulling him against her.

“Don’t hurt me!” He pleaded, initially thinking the worst until he realized his mother was gently rocking him and softly shushing him, quietly reassuring him that she wasn’t going to.

“Mads?” Jack asked, stopping a few steps back.

“He’s just a kid, Jack.” Maddie answered. “Did you hear him?”

“It’s a ploy, Maddie, it knows you’re a mother!” Jack insisted, though hesitation tinged his words. Regardless, at his words, Danny curled up tighter, burying himself closely against his mother’s chest and ducking his head under her chin, a position she’d comforted him before, after nightmares. Her arms tightened around him as he did so, but instead of being scary, it was an old comfort.

“Do you remember your mother, Phantom?” Maddie asked softly, rubbing circles against his back.

“Yeah.” He answered, his words slightly muffled between the helmet and the way he was hiding against his mother. This can’t have been comfortable for her, especially not with the helmet, but she didn’t try to push him away.

“Why’d you call for her just now?” Jack asked, kneeling down beside him hesitantly.

“Scared.” He said simply.

“Phantom… how old were you?” Even as he asked it, guilt rose in his eyes.

“Fourteen.”

“You’re in a hazmat suit. What happened to you?”

“Accident,” Danny answered, beginning to unclench his muscles as his mother remained silent. Honestly, he was surprised. His parents didn’t even know it was him. They’d just heard a terrified child (he was a teen, though, thank you) and stopped.

Silence stretched between them, Danny’s heart still too loud in his ears. Was it really this easy?

“You’re hurt.” Maddie eventually said, gesturing to his arm, the injury somehow looking worse instead of better. “Does this suit come off? So we can take a look?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never tried.”

“Here,” Maddie said, pulling away from him for the first time since she’d ran in. “Let’s see, okay? It’ll be easier to see how bad the injury is. Want to start with the helmet?”

“I don’t know what I look like… what if it’s bad?” He admitted, the reason he’d never looked. He was afraid he would look like the charred corpse he should have become.

“Then ghosts can adjust their image if they want to, based on what we’ve seen. If it’s bad and you don’t want it, you can change it.”

“And we’ll help however we can,” Jack finally gave in, settling onto his knees. “C’mon, kiddo.”

Hesitation stayed Danny’s hand only momentarily. If it was bad… then he could change it?

Danny had been assuming the worst ever since his accident - with everything. With his friends, his family, his face. He’d lied and hid the truth from everyone he’d ever known. But his family had just proved him wrong, the worst outcome isn’t necessarily the only outcome. Danny reached for the helmet, disconnecting it from the suit quickly, before he had time to doubt his decision. Cool air touched this half of him’s face for the first time.

Maddie and Jack both gave him encouraging smiles, neither looking on in horror. Did he look okay? Oh crap, did he look like his human self?

“You look fine.” Maddie said, fishing a compact out of her pocket and opening it, aiming the mirror at him. A tanned, human face with no sign of scarring gazed back at him, bright green eyes and pure white hair glowing slightly. “I don’t think you need to change anything.”

Relief settled deep within Danny and he just reached back for his mother, curling up against her and resting his head under her chin again, much more comfortably this time. She only wrapped her arms back around him, stroking his hair gently.

Maybe… maybe he shouldn’t always assume the worst of the people he knew. Maybe he should give them a chance.

And maybe he should stop assuming the worst about himself, too.

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