#amity park is now part of the ghost zone just an outside part

[sleepy-writes-stuff]

DP X DC PROMPT #28

(#) = Notes at the end of post

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Chartreuse

Due to the high levels of ambient ectoplasm, all the citizens of Amity Park gained a permanent change in eye color. They don't glow or flare in response to rampant emotions like true ghosts or the halfas though. They're just an unnaturally bright yellow-green.

The thing is, nobody else on Earth has this eye color, and it's never been seen in the human race until the recently graduated Amity Parkers started branching out to other cities to find jobs.

Nobody paid this any mind at first, though. Many just thought the individuals liked strangely colored contacts or it was a trick of the light. It's not until Danny and Tucker are both hired for positions in Wayne Enterprises that questions start popping up.

At first, the other employees thought the two might be related. It could happen, it's not that strange. However, when both of them said they're nowhere near related, just childhood best friends, it left everyone confused. If they aren't related and they aren't wearing colored contacts, then what are the odds of too completely unrelated people having the exact same strange and unseen eye color?

After a while, everyone just stops asking questions. After all, both men are easy to get along with and are excellent at their jobs, so a strange eye color isn't really something to complain about. Their stares were just a bit more intense than most people, and honestly, they've seen stranger things.

It helps that they've started seeing other people with the same eye color popping up in celebrity, sports, and activist circles. (1)

However, It's not until the power goes out during a late meeting/presentation, and Tim Drake accidentally turns on and shines his cell phone light into Tuckers eyes, that he starts seriously digging.

Needless to say, the animal-like green shine of his pupils scared the shit out of him and got him wondering if two of his new employees were part of a previously unknown alien race that'd recently settled on Earth without anyone noticing. When he looks into the middle of nowhere town they came from, this idea is even further cemented when he sees every person he finds a photo of have the exact same shade of chartreuse eyes. Ignoring the ghost rumors and "sightings" as just a strange tourist trap for the strange little town to make extra income, he brings the info he found to the other bats and birds.

They aren't exactly welcomed when they go snooping around Amity Park, unfortunately... (2 & 3)

✦

Now. To make this a bit more cracky, when confronted, do Danny and Tucker just come clean or do they milk the idea of them being aliens for all it's worth? (4) Add in a few strange, but perfectly normal for them, things they do that have people scratching their heads and make the assumption even worse/more irrefutable. This includes the unexplainable eye shine Tim discovered.

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(1) Paulina became a supermodel and is coveted for her striking eye color and beautiful complexion. Dash became a coach for a well known college in Metropolis, while Kwan became a fitness trainer and sponsor for health related items that actually work, also partnered with the college Dash coaches at. Sam became a notorious environmental activist and is the enemy of many companys who are determined to turn the world into a toxic wasteland. With the help of Danny's parents, she's found many eco-friendly chemical compounds that dissolve many of the toxic substances damaging ecosystems around the world. Etc, etc.

(2) Ectoplasm exposure has made everyone a bit more territorial over the town, including their protectors. They don't need outside heroes/organizations interfering with their work and don't/won't take kindly to the sudden interest hero organizations gain over them and their strange little town. That hasn't worked out too well with other government sanctioned organizations in the past and they don't want a repeat, thank you.

(3) Maybe Team Phantom even established themselves right around the same time or even before the Justice League was formed and they just flew under the radar until now. Maybe Amity Parkers feel a bit superior due to their seniority in having an excellent team in the know about the supernatural/non-human side of the world/universe? Who knows? You pick! Amity Park has been through a lot by themselves, so it's no shocker if they have an extreme amount of solidarity towards those they call their own.

(3 cont'd) Also! Since Amity Park has become so rich and saturated in ectoplasm over the years, they were eventually annexed/became an outside part of the Ghost Zone. Jack and Maddy are border patrol and any ghosts coming through need a passport now. Amity Park is basically a vacation hub for ghosts? Ghosts can freely roam the streets, they just don't wreak havoc anymore. That'd basically be terrorizing their fellow citizens at this point anyway and that's a no no. That means jail time with Walker. Amity Parkers also aren't afraid anymore and in fact CAN hit back now. This does not stop the Bat Clan and eventually the Justice League from thinking they're a town full of aliens tho. Some are just more human looking than others. Or they've been on Earth and procreating long enough with humans that their hybrid offspring have also started looking more human, is the ongoing conclusion.

(4) The Anti-Ecto Acts are not an issue here! Team Phantom already dismantled and annihilated the GIW years before they even thought of leaving Amity Park on its own. Before graduating highschool even. Yes, Team Phantom is perfectly self-sufficient and able to handle their own problems and have kept the city-wide ghost infestation pretty isolated outside a few events that were handled quickly and with the world none the wiser. So the world is still pretty ignorant of the existence of ghosts/the Ghost Zone. Would Team Phantom and Amity Park prefer to keep it that way though?

#dp x dc #dc x dp #everyone in amity park's eye color changed to chartreuse/yellow-green #the rest of the world finds this strange but it's whatever #weird things happen all the time in the dcu #tim thinks danny and tucker are part of an alien race #amity parkers are territorial over amity park because of radioactive green juice in the air #amity park is now part of the ghost zone just an outside part #competent team phantom #retired team phantom sorta #they're still on call if a new ghost shows up and gets any ideas but other than that they hung up the capes and ghost hunter gear #amity parkers are also feral enough to handle their own problems now #team phantom might as well be retired heroes turned annual trainers for new ghost hunters/liminal police recruits #danny phantom is NOT ghost king #danny phantom crossover #dp x dc crossover #dp x dc prompt #dpxdc #writing prompt #prompt

[often-daydreaming]

I will have ORDER

You know the thing about ghosts and their obsessions, well what about Walker's obsession? He'd have to be going crazy with so many villains breaking into, breaking out of or just attacking supposedly state of the art prisons like Belle Reve and Arkham. From what I've seen and read the majority of the supervillains treat any kind of sentence longer than a week like a joke so I can imagine Walker growing more and more angry about it until he finally snaps. His obsession forces him to do something and he does. His first step is forcing some of the other ghost to help him improve things. He's learned his lesson after dealing with Danny so he gives them no other option but to help him and they do cause they can tell his obsession is controlling him and right now Walker wants a prison that can hold anything and everything. It doesn't matter who it is, he wants a prison capable of restoring order and with all of the different ghosts currently under his control or still on the run after Danny's jailbreak he knows who to get in order to make it happen.

Next is the easier part where he grows as big as possible, probably even a little eldritch cause he's beyond furious with so many rule breakers getting away with anything they feel like and he simply drags every major prison holding supervillains through a portal deep into his part of the Ghost Zone. He's not playing around this time. His men are raiding hideouts and hitting bases all over the country. Nobody sees it coming, the heroes aren't given any time to react and the villains never even get a chance to get away from their 'rightfully deserved judgement' since Walker is doing what he did in Amity Park but on a much larger scale. He will restore order by any means necessary.

Danny is kind of on the fence about the whole issue while everyone outside of Amity Park is freaking out about Arkham getting dragged into hell (from their perspective).

#dc x dp #dp x dc #dp x dc prompt #danny phantom

[bet-on-me-13]

Dp X Injustice AU's

So, we have seen the frankly insane about of Dp x Dc AU's that have been spawned over the years. But I never really see any Injustice AU's

And then I thought, which Dp x Dc AU would you actually use for an Injustice AU?

Let me give some examples:

Justice League Member Danny: Danny is a part of the Justice League by the time Superman goes insane. He decides to step in when Shazam is nearly killed by Superman, but gets hurt himself in the process and is thrown in jail. This causes some of Superman's supporters to doubt him, since Danny is just a 16 yr old kid and Clark nearly killed him.

Danny is sill a Solo Hero: Danny is still just a Solo Hero from Amity Park in this. When Superman takes over the world, he goes to Amity to try and recruit Phantom. Danny refuses, and they butt heads. Danny eventually promises that he will continue to just act as a small time Vigilante in return for not joining Batman's side. This changes years later, when Superman is responsible for the death of Jazz Fenton.

Danny is a "Villain": Danny is seen as a Villain because he is a Ghost. At least, that's what the outside world thinks, but the situation in Amity is different. Danny has been seen as a Hero for years now, it's just the rest of the world that doesn't want to accept that fact. So when Superman takes over the world, and tries to execute every Villain, he goes after Phantom. Only for the Entire Town to try and stop him.

@little-pondhead Everlasting Trio Villain AU: So, take Little Pondhead's Villain AU and put it in the Injustice Universe. Danny can be the insane megalomaniac Villain he always wanted to be and not feel guilty because this is a Dictatorship. (Although it does remind him of Dan before his parole). He just has fun, messing with Superman, building insane crazy inventions, messing with Superman, enacting fun Villain plots, messing with Superman, and of course messing with Superman. Meanwhile Superman is just having a horrible time because there is just this random Villain, doesn't even seem to have powers, and he Just. Can't. Catch Him! Batman is looking for Fenton to recruit, meanwhile Fenton is literally here to Not be a Hero. It gets even worse when he brings in his Friends and Ellie.

Danny is the Ghost King: Danny is the Ghost King by now, and Batman's side try to Summon Him to deal with Superman during the whole "Super Pills" event. He shows up just in time to save Green Arrow, but isn't trong enough to kill Superman. He himself gets extremely injured in the process and gets forcibly summoned back to the Ghost Zone to be healed. Now the entire Dimension is gearing up to attack the Living World as revenge for their King being so hurt.

Old Man Danny AU: My own AU. Danny is still an Old Man just living in Gotham when Superman takes over. At one of his rally's to try and garner support and stop the rebellions, Danny stands up in the middle of the crowd and calls him out on all his Bullshit. This causes the whole crowd to start yelling at Superman, which in turn causes Superman to have a Homelander Moment. He kills Danny, who just laughs as he falls to the floor, and causes a riot. What Superman doesn't know, is that Danny was slated to ascend to Godhood at the moment of his Death, so now he has a God of Death chasing him to fulfill his "need to be avenged" urges (its like hunger pangs for ghosts)

Danny as a Medium: Danny is a Traveling Ghost Speaker, like the guy you pay $5 to pretend to speak to your dead loved ones, but he can actually speak to them. Superman is patrolling the world, just making the rounds now that he had conquered the Earth, and comes across Danny's Tent. He stops by in curiosity and asks to speak to his dead Wife. Danny asks if he really wants to put himself through that, but Superman insists. So Danny, instead of just speaking for the Ghost like normal, actually Summons Lois Lanes Ghost to talk to Superman. They have a heartfelt conversation about how it wasn't his fault, and how he shouldn't blame himself, but eventually they get to the topic of Clark talking over the world. She isn't proud, but understands if this is what it takes for him to be happy. She leaves, and Superman is left finally second-guessing himself for the first time in years. Because it doesn't make him happy. (*ahem* Danny still wants to be payed, soooo......)

#Dp x dc #Dpxdc #Danny phantom #Dc #Dcu #Injustice #Injustice AU #A bunch of Injustice AU's #Villain Danny Phantom #Villain Fenton #Everlasting Trio Villain AU #Superman #Batman #Medium Danny Phantom #Ghost King Danny Phantom #Ghost King AU

[itshype]

Kingmaker, Kingbreaker, Crowntaker, Realmshaker (DC x DP)

Idk how many people who follow me know but I love my notfics so here...

A Kingmaker Danny Phantom where he's not (technically) king after defeating Pariah Dark because he's still uhm… a child (who is untrained in diplomacy and barely knows anything about Ghost Culture), but whoever replaces Pariah is fully aware than Danny could at any time beat them up and install someone else in their place. Maybe it's not even explicit and Danny doesn't know.

Pandora tells him: "Oh, we got a new king of the ghost zone, nah, you don't know her but she's tight with me and Frostbite. But we're not really having her use the crown and ring, they're going to be for emergencies only." and Danny is like "oh cool, my buddies approve of the new king, I don't need to be further involved!" but because of this assumption, he doesn't go to the coronation, and it turns into a huge source of tension because like:

"Why should we be concerned about any decrees given by the new king, when at literally any moment, Danny Phantom, the BAMF, the myth, the legend, is probably going to show up and give a legendary smackdown and make this ghost Pariah's new roomie?" Then some of Danny's long-time foes start to play very nice with him, in the hopes that when (not if) Danny decides to replace the new king that they might be in the running for a minor barony or something under the new regime. Danny does not think this about-face through, just thinking 'oh this is neat! how convenient that everyone wants to be my friend now!' Ghosts often refer to him as 'ghost child' and I love the idea of him being the little brother of the entirety of the amity park-adjacent section of the infinity realms. Johnny could teach him how to ride a motorbike, skulker could teach him some ghost engineering (assuming he is involved in the construction of his own suit) etc. These rumours of the upcoming 'next king' who doesn't even exist, of course gets back to the new king and she's like

"idk what I have done to anger Kingbreaker Danny, he hasn't even given me a chance!" SO!!! She decides to reach out to some humans she knows for advice on how to win over a little boy (her creepy insinuation very much unintended on her part). Here are some options of varying hilarity for how she could go because I couldn't pick just one!

Vlad!: Your standard, non-crossover option. I personally love redeemed Vlad content (maybe Maddy crosses a line and his Obsession with her snaps), and this could be amusing if the king doesn't give many details so he doesn't realise it's Danny, and then when he does realise, freaks out about having adoptive parent competition.

Constantine/Zatanna: Both magic-y people, they could have summoned her at one point before or after her coronation.

Wonder Woman!!: If the king knows Pandora maybe Pandora referred her as an old buddy of some of the gods or other amazons. The king could just say they need to talk to a human expert not connected to Danny without giving more detail and pandora could say "oh yeah, the gods who created me have some human-ish relatives and one of them even lives with other humans. she's basically my cousin!" meanwhile Diana has never met pandora and doesn't know anything about her outside of the OG myth.

Superman: Danny shares a lot of superman's powers, plus they both have that OP vibe, PLUS share the "one foot in each world" type of thing that could lead the king to think he was the best option. Unsure why they would've met so reaching out as a stranger would add a different vibe.

The Flash: his speed powers canonically come from another dimension that he calls the speed force. do you know what is also another dimension? the ghost zone. The flash is that annoying neighbour who occasionally dangles an extension cord over your fence to use your electricity, and will not stop using your Wi-Fi because it runs faster than his. The king figures he owes her and if he won't then she'll change the speed force Wi-Fi password...metaphorically.

Actually, you know what, ghost king threatening all speedsters on Earth if they don't help her woo a teenager is the funniest option. So, we’re continuing with that. Obviously, the flash doesn't want to lose his abilities! But also, this smacks of a creepy grooming situation. The flash then has to awkwardly explain to the entire justice league that his speed is being held hostage by a dead cougar who wants to seduce a human teenage boy for reasons that may be illicit but are jenky at the very least. There are hundreds of Danny joins the batfam fics so I don't think this story needs to go in that direction, but batman would probably have to be involved at this point just to figure out who the "teenage victim" is. That is how Danny Fenton meets most of the main justice league with them not even having an inkling he's dead/secretly a ghost hero. Most batpham fics I've read where the batclan figures out Phantom's identity, they see him fight ghosts and look up ghost experts, find his parents, see a family photo and then make the visual connection. Like superman, Danny's identity is mostly in the clear because no one would think that a ghost would even have a secret identity - he's dead (and thanks to the time travel he's done appears to have been dead for centuries), who would he need to be protecting?? But this time, the ghosts are all playing buddy-buddy with Danny so phantom hasn't necessarily had any super public fights recently that would make investigating protections against ghost attacks a priority for the bats that would lead them to holding up a picture of Danny next to a picture of phantom. Mostly, Danny goes ghost to play with cujo (I love cujo), or visit the ghost zone. Casper high students are BAFFLED at Fenton's eclectic friend group btw, though considering his parents the ghost dog totally tracks for them. *GASP* service dog Cujo....but that's another post for another time. Jasmine Fenton is not impressed. This could also be Sam or Tucker, or any of Danny's newest ghost buddies if you like but as an oldest sibling I have OPINIONS. She thinks Danny is safest taking this perv ghost on himself and not risking a possessed/overshadowed justice league or even just the justice league themselves. That's right kids, the justice league is often in canon closely associated with the USA government - the same government who put the anti-ecto acts into place. NOW! a lot of crossover fics have the justice league completely clueless about the anti-ecto laws and GIW. I don't always find that realistic. The entirety of the justice league dark is pretty closely involved with the dead and ghosts (deadman IS a ghost), clark is an investigative journalist married/dating/besties with another, award winning investigative journalist, Bruce is the most paranoid and well informed man alive with two sons plus one batgirl who have died and been brought back through mystical or scientific means, Diana is (in some canons) meant to be an ambassador representing her people to the entirety of mankind. So, none of them even being vaguely aware of this new law does NOT track for me. I think a few possibilities are...possible: - They know about the laws, read a few scientific papers on ecto-entities written by "experts" which would include the Fenton parents and pre-redemption Vlad, and think 'yeah that checks out no reason to fight this' - They know but as they rarely deal with the national justice system as a team, and therefore don't think about it as a positive or negative thing. It doesn't apply to their lives. Think about how much you know about your local laws, let alone obscure federal ones (in some parts of Australia it’s illegal to be holding more than 50kg of potatoes, just as a random example!). - Some of them agree with the "experts" or don't even know about the laws, whereas Batman, John Constantine and Martian Manhunter know they're a crock of shit but themselves lack the political capital to fight them without leverage and can't justify it without an emergency.

Danny's ghost buddies are told that apparently some ghost is threatening the justice league to get to Danny and go back into the zone to investigate. I genuinely think once their obsessions are no longer at cross purposes, Danny could totally help ghosts to fulfil their obsessions in ways they hadn't considered, and they could be buddies for real now. Think Tucker setting Ember up with a YouTube or streaming account, playing paintball with Skulker, introducing Walker to one of those uber-elaborate RPG or tabletop games with massive amounts of rules and letting him be like Matt Mercer in the Rules Lawyer round of Um, Actually. There’s an entire separate fic here I swear.

Either way! Jazz is trying to warn her brother away from the justice league while he and probably Tucker are all 🤩. Danny knows it's dangerous for him personally but his Obsession with protecting the town knows that Amity has never been safer with all these heroes milling about so it's hard for him not to be over eager and relaxed. The flash is explaining how his powers could be removed if he doesn’t comply and Danny says, “oh then just tell her?” and the league is like “oh no, not another self-sacrificing teen.” Unfortunately for everyone involved, Superman has super hearing. He heard Jazz telling Danny to kick the Justice League to the curb. Now the Justice League thinks there's something foul in the Fenton household, but they think it's Jazz instead of Danny.

#dc x dp #dp x dc #danny phantom #danny fenton #justice league #not fic #mine #the flash #barry allen #batman #pandora #tucker foley #jazz fenton #LISTEN TO ME!!!! #SERVICE ANIMAL CUJO

[forest-reblogs]

Update

I've finally finished the first chapter for Loving You Is A Losing Game! Here is the link to AO3, and I've also posted the first chapter under the cut.

@fisticuffsatapplebees @im-totally-not-an-alien-2 @space-dreams-world @omnicrafts @butterflypeachgrove you guys get the credit!

Tag List:

@taniaundertaleau @whitecrowbane @xye-chan @my-perfect-storybook-love @meira-3919 @bubblemixer @wackyattack

Danny stared at the portal, his finger merely one inch away from the self-destruct button. His hands shook as he stared down the portal.

Am I really doing this?

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and releasing the tension from his body. It felt like this was the only way, but . . . It couldn’t be. There had to be something else he could do.

But he knew there wasn’t. Things had changed. He couldn’t stand being here, alone in Amity Park, where nobody cared about him unless it was to shove him into a locker and where his parents were planning to kill him. He was tired of waiting for someone to see him, tired of waiting for something to change.

Because nothing would.

He’d destroyed Vlad’s portal to the Ghost Zone and stolen his blueprints so he wouldn’t be able to make another one, and he’d planned on doing the same for his parents portal, too, but now . . .

He couldn’t do it.

Danny fled upstairs, away from the portal, away from the basement, away from the place he’d died three years ago and no one had noticed.

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

Danny could safely say that today was the worst day of his life.

His friends hadn’t spoken to him since they’d started hanging out with Gregor two months ago. Since they’d replaced him with Gregor two months ago. Danny didn’t hold out much hope that they’d talk to him today. He hadn’t had hope for the past week now.

He hadn’t been planning on going to school today, but he knew that if Principal Ishiyama sent another call to his parents he’d be grounded. And since ghost attacks had decreased after he’d destroyed Vlad’s portal three weeks ago, getting grounded meant incessant boredom. Or having to listen to his parents talking about the experiments they planned on doing to Phantom. The thought of that alone made him feel faint - actually having to experience it would be ten times worse. Which was why Danny snuck into class halfway through first period, using his invisibility and intangibility to pretend he’d been there the whole time. Not that he thought it would work on Lancer. He had a sneaking suspicion that Lancer was the only person besides Wes who knew he was Phantom.

Danny held in a bitter laugh. Somehow, his friend circle had gone from Sam, Tucker and Valerie to Wes. And Wes had spent the better part of two years attempting to reveal his identity.

The period ended, and Danny just walked straight through the wall next to his desk and into the corridor outside, not caring if anyone saw him. He knew no one would believe that he was Phantom. After all, Wes had tried to tell the town for years and had failed, at least until the GIW attack seven months ago when he’d realized exactly what was waiting for Danny if his identity was revealed. Wes had gotten a lot cooler since then, slowly entering his friend group.

Until Gregor. Until everything had happened and Sam and Tucker had decided to kick him to the curb. Valerie had already done so two years ago, when he’d first revealed to her that he was Phantom. She hadn’t taken it well.

Danny still had a scar from when she’d stabbed him with a knife made from ecto-ranium.

He reached his locker, not even bothering to act surprised when Wes was standing leaning on the wall right next to it. He knew Wes would have been watching him through the bugs he’d placed in Fentonworks. 

Wes was always watching Fentonworks.

Danny opened up his locker, pulling out a random textbook. “I couldn’t do it.”

“I saw,” Wes said, not unkindly. He paused for a moment, before asking, “Wanna talk about it?”

“No.”

Wes stared at him for a few seconds before nodding. “You planning on doing it tonight?”

“I was thinking I’d spend the night at yours, actually.” Danny slammed his locker shut and turned to face Wes. “My parents have an idea for a new invention.”

Wes clenched his fist. “All the more reason to do it tonight.”

Danny took a deep breath. “I can��t, Wes. Not tonight. I can’t go down there again. I died there, Wes, and no one noticed and I can’t go back to the basement and stand in front of the portal and push that button, I just can’t.”

Wes hesitated. "All right." He pushed Danny to the side and opened up his locker. Danny was about to protest when Wes took the books from his hand and gave him a different set of books.

“You have English now, idiot.” Wes shook his head. “Not Chemistry.”

Danny blinked, taking the books. “Thanks.”

Wes grinned at him, slinging an arm over his shoulder. “No problem, dumbass.”

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Danny wasn’t entirely sure how it had happened, but somehow, his parents had captured a shade.

Humans couldn’t even see shades.

Danny would have to figure out a way to get his parents to spill the beans on how they’d caught the poor thing, but right now he needed to come up with a plan to sneak in and return the shade to the Ghost Zone, where it belonged.

It wouldn’t be particularly difficult. All he’d have to do would be to make sure that his parents were sufficiently distracted, and then he could open the portal and get the shade through to the other side. Which was why he was currently standing invisibly outside the basement door, waiting for the call Wes would make with one of his burner phones to Fentonworks, and when his family inevitably answered it, they’d be told that there was a ghost attack in progress at the park. The pair would immediately rush to the GAV, leaving Danny free to go down and save the shade.

Danny pressed himself further into the wall as the house phone rang and Mom walked out of the basement, muttering about bothersome people interrupting their work , a scowl on her face. The scowl, however, immediately vanished as she heard what was being said by the person on the other end. He watched as the call ended and she rushed downstairs, excitement evident on her face, and a few minutes later both she and Dad ran out of the basement and into the garage. Danny released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, and sank through the floor and into the basement. The sooner he got this over with the better.

It was easy enough to find the shade; after all, they were both ectoplasmic entities, and shades in particular were so common that Danny had no trouble finding them even in his human form. Which was good, since unlike blob ghosts, shades had such low levels of ectoplasm that his ghost sense couldn’t locate them at all. Danny opened the small ecto-resistant container his parents had trapped the shade inside, and held his hand out, waiting. The shade jumped into his palm after only a few seconds. He held back a grin as he walked over to the portal. Easy . Now all he had to do was get the shade to the Ghost Zone.

Danny held his hand over the button that would open the Ghost Portal.

It was shaking.

Danny closed his eyes and tried to relax. This wasn’t even the same button. It was in an entirely different location. He wasn’t going to die again - not unless he felt like it. Danny felt his lips twitch at the joke, and emboldened, he opened his eyes and quickly pressed the button, jumping back almost immediately.

The Fenton Ghost Portal came to life, a green glow that looked almost like a maw forming inside of it. Danny shot through and quickly found the shade in his palm a nice island with a bunch of other shades. He sent out a wave of safe-protect-happy so the shade would know it was safe to stay there, before returning to the realm of the living.

He wished he could stay in the Ghost Zone a bit longer.

#dp x dc #danny phantom #tim drake #dead tired #braindead rejected soulmates au #loving you is a losing game

[jadedwolf18-blog]

Mini Phantom Invasion

<<Chapters One - Six | << Chapters Seven - Twelve

^^^^^

*****

These chapters were inspired by this post by @blackfoxsposts

*****

Here’s two chapters! The first is a recap of the two years we skipped over and the second is Danny interact with some of the BatFam

🤍🖤💚💙💚🖤🤍

Chapter 13

Danny sighed as they stared out into the dark purple foliage of the forrest. They and Elle had been exploring the far reaches of the Zone for the last week, bonding and spending time together before things got busy again. 

They would be returning tomorrow, to Phantoms Keep, as their eighteenth birthday was the day after. It was also the day of their coronation and the day they would officially claim Elle as their daughter. It was crazy to think that it had already been two years since they’d fled their old dimension. 

*****

Danny and Dan had become the protectors of Japan, as a whole, during those two years. They had even trained with Katana every now and then, that had been an interesting meeting that lead to Dan working part-time with the justice league. 

Danny themself preferred to remain in Japan and had only met the main members of the JL once, during their initial introduction. They and Dan had set up their head quarters in the village they had first started out in. It had now bloomed from a simple farming village into a small town that rivalled Amity Park in size. Though its main focus was still farming and the production of grains and fruit.

The area that housed the hot spring, their cave and both the big shrine and the smaller shrine had been left undisturbed and was still surrounded by forest, as it was declared the Holy Hunting Grounds and home to Japan’s protector spirits.

The small town had expanded in the opposite direction and its’ architecture and atmosphere kept to a historic aesthetic, their were no modern glass structure or tall buildings. Not that the interiors were devoid of modern facilities but, if one were to visit, it would seem as if you had stepped into the past. The Shrine stood as the tallest building and had been expanded to resemble a historic Shiro or castle. Their new symbol displayed proudly on its Tori Gate and above its entrance.

Danny and Dan had come up with a new symbol in their first month of actively protecting the town and before they started to include the whole of Japan as their haunts territory. It was now a circle with a white, up right triangle in the centre and a stylised version of the Kanji 幻 (maboroshi), meaning Phantom/vision/illusion/dream/phantasm. The Kanji and circle that adorned Dan’s suit were red to match the bracelet on his wrist, while Danny’s circle was red and the Kanji was Ecto-green. 

Even Elle’s wore the new symbol, both the circle and Kanji were a slightly paler green. It had become their family insignia, similar to the Bats and Birds of Gotham. They still went by Phantom when operating outside of Japan but were now mainly known as Maboroshi to the people of Japan.

Over the last two years Danny had gone back to their old dimension a few times, at first it was to check in with Jazz, Sam and Tucker but they had started to grow distant the more he refused to return. Jazz understood, encouraged it even but Sam and Tucker didn’t understand, Sam viewed it as abandoning their duty and Tucker thought they were just over reacting, that they could just live somewhere else and things would be fine. It had all come to an end the last time the had seen them. The other reason they had returned, with Dan, was to look for clues about their mother.

They had spoken more with Pandora and the ghost they had learned was their aunt, she went by Rina, she had told them that their mother was the Mother of Merfolk in her home dimension and was known as Aqua Rigina, a goddess to those who live in the see. She had passed her title to her daughter, their older sister, before fading from her dimension to travel and explore with her new found freedom. 

She had found a home in a new dimension, amongst a different pantheon and it was while traveling the dimensions, connected to the greek pantheon, that she came to care for a human. She new she would not be able to stay but she had hoped to be able to visit often. She never got the chance to tell him once she found out she was pregnant and well… they knew the rest. 

They and Dan had made no progress on finding out who their father was nor what dimension he was in. They only knew that the dimension was connected to the Greek pantheon but that was hardly helpful when there were so many. Short of entering their DNA into every universes data base, which they did not want to do, they could only hope they bumped into someone who knew. Danny knew there was a chance that their father would want nothing to do with them but they still hoped, that small part of them that had never grown up, craved to be accepted by their family.

On the brighter side, they had met with their older sister and her husband, though they brought sad news about her mother. She had accepted and welcomed both of them. They had spent some time with them, getting to know them and the other Mermaids of The Seven Seas, they even learned about their mer powers. It had been fun to meet their sister, brother-in-law and niece. 

*****

Danny had only just fallen asleep when they heard twig snap, they opened their eyes and slowly sat up, coiling their tail tighter around Elle, who had shifted to her creature form in her sleep. They kept their focus in the direction the sound had come from, pupils blown wide to peer into the unnatural darkness of the Ghost Zone forest. 

Chapter 14

Danny continued to watch and listen, even as they slowly roused Elle from her sleep, making a low growling purr and and a short series of quiet clicks, warning her of the potential threat and to stay in her creature form. She was quick to go on alert, ears twitching, trying to find what had put them on edge. 

They listened to the near silent footsteps, there were two, one significantly heavier than the other. As the two figures drew closer and they could just make out their forms, Danny released a long, low warning hiss. The figures paused, for a moment, at the edge of the forest, just out of sight. Danny stopped their hiss and watched, waited, for their response.

Minutes ticked by before the larger figure moved, slowly, forward and into the small clearing. The beginnings of a hiss was cut short when Danny recognised who was currently standing before them. Bruised and battered, cracks in their armour and an unconscious blue bird slung over their back. The smaller figure stepped forward soon after, revealing the hard to miss combination of red, yellow and red. 

“Batman?” Danny was shocked and confused as to why Batman and two of his birds would be in the Infinite Realms, let alone how they had gotten in and so far from any of the main haunts. “Do you need help?”

The smaller bird shifted into a defensive stance but Batman placed a calming hand on his shoulder. “Phantom. Do you know where we are?”

Straight to business it is then, they thought wryly as the corner of their lips twitched in amusement, they motioned them forward and ignited the campfire. They watched as the three drew closer, Batman gently lay Nightwing on the ground and checked him over before taking a seat across from them, on the other side of the fire. Robin was hesitant but soon followed Batman’s lead and took his own seat.

Danny relaxed, leaning back, using their tail as a back rest. They pulled Elle onto their lap and held her close, letting out a calming purr as they silently let her know who the new comers were and that they weren’t a threat… to them anyway.

“You are currently in the Infinite Realms or the Ghost Zone to pit it frankly. It’s where those who died violent deaths, have unfinished business, a strong attachment to the living ream or were created by the culmination of a belief go when the die. You, though, are not dead.” Danny looked them over, they were definitely in rough shape but they were alive. 

“So how, may I ask, did you end up here?” Danny started running their claws through Elles hair as they waited for a response. They knew Batman was weighing his options, they hadn’t worked together often, Dan was the one who had the most interaction with the JL. 

“We were fighting against the League of assassins, you’ve had run ins with them before according to Maboroshi. Nightwing was knocked unconscious, Robin went to catch him before he fell into the Lazarus Pit but their line was cu by an assassin. I went after them, instead of being submerged in Pit water, we were transported here.”

“Hmm, how long have you been here? Maboroshi hasn’t made contact, so he must not have been informed of your disappearance yet. You are lucky I had been close by, I don’t normally venture out this far.” Elle chirped and repositioned herself, seeing as they were safe, she was quick to go back to sleep.

“Hnn.” Batman looked into the fire, no doubt processing the fact that they were in the land of the dead.

“Who is that?” Robin asked, demanded.

“Robin!” Batman was quick to give his version of admonishment.

“What, it is a perfectly valid point of questioning, they are an unknown.” Batman sighed as he turned back to Phantom.

“To answer your question, Robin, this is my daughter. We are on a bonding trip, though we will be returning home tomorrow.” He watched as Batman physically perked up at the mention of a child, Danny found it amusing that such a large and intimidating figure had such a soft spot for children. “Back to the reason you are here and how long has it been, since you entered the Realms?”

“It has only been a few hours but Nightwing needs medical attention, as does Robin.” Batman ignored Robins pointed gaze.

“And you, I assume, by the looks of your suit. Rest for now and do what you can to field dress your wounds. I’ve got extra food you can eat, its human safe. Once you’re rested and fed, I’ll bring you to the Far Frozen to get a proper medical check. I’ll also send out a message to Maboroshi, get him to let the other Bats and Birds you’re ok.” Danny slowly set Elle into the cradle of their tail, as the reached for their travel pack that contained their food. They had snacks and junk food mostly but they also had pre-made meals they could heat on a fire. Setting up the rack to hold the fire safe containers, they made sure the food wouldn’t fall before turning their attention to their accidental guests. “Once you’re cleared by Frostbite, I’ll bring you to Phantoms Keep and get you through a portal home.”

“Thank you, Phantom.” Batman turned his attention to tending to Nightwing as Robin continued to stare at them.

“How do you know we can trust them?” Batman sighed and answered before Danny could say anything.

“Phantom is a protector spirit, Robin, it is in their nature to protect those they deem as theirs and help those that need it. It is more complex than that but that is the gist of it.” Robin huffed but seamed to be satisfied, for now, with the answer.

*****

The clearing had been silent as the Gotham vigilantes ate, Batman continued to check on Nightwing, though you wouldn’t know it by just looking at his expression, Danny could feel the worry, guilt and pain, coming off the big bad bat, as they fussed over Nightwing and Robin. Much to the young boys annoyance but Danny could tell he felt comfort in knowing that Batman cared for him, along with his own worry for Nightwing. 

Once the two vigilantes had finished their meals and everything had been packed away, Danny carefully picked up Elle and their travel pack. They floated up and shifted their tail to legs, before putting out the fire and upping their own natural glow to provide light for Batman and Robin. Batman picked up Nightwing, resettling them on his back and waited for Robin to join him before following after Phantom.

🤍🖤💚💙💚🖤🤍

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#Mini Phantom Invasion #dp x dc #dp x dc au #dp x dc prompt #dc x dp #dc x dp prompt #dc x dp au #brain dead #tim drake #red robin #danny phantom #let danny say fuck #Siren!Danny #mer!danny #mermaid!danny #merman!danny #tim x danny #red robin x phantom #Phantom x Red Robin #Danny x Tim #fanfiction prompts #prompts #danny fenton #Nightwing #dick grayson #duck candle #duck candles dressed as vigilantes #and heros #this song is so dramatic #Mini Dannyo Invasion

[radiance1]

FINNALLY FUCKING FOUND THIS POST!

So I'm here to add on to this with another idea that I had, this time concerning Sam than Danny, Vlad and Pariah.

So it's been about three entire years since the Ghost King's left on their quest to find Pariah.

Three years for Danny's friends and family to question where he went.

Three years for them to panic a bit and look for him.

Luckily for them, Sam received a note from Clockwork that the two left on a quest, somewhere along year 1. Which she then told the other, leading to them at least knowing what he's doing and not freaking out over it.

Do the... sudden, change that each and every resident received from a wish, it took some time to adjust for all residents.

Sam considers herself relatively more lucky than some others, say, being turned into a werewolf for example.

Sam herself was turned into a witch, although physically she didn't receive any changes, internally she could feel a thrum of power under her skin, waiting to be released.

So of course she did want any person in her situation would do.

Ask her parents to help her obtain any and all magical tomes they could get their hands on. Hell, they didn't even have to be tomes, just anything that was known to be magical.

Her parents managed to get her what she wanted, though some people made it very difficult to get some items, most of them being museums owners but it wasn't anything enough money couldn't fix.

And promises to take extremely good care, or return them when Sam was finished.

They also, totally unprompted on her part. Got a castle built for her. Only the size of a small mansion yes, but a castle nonetheless.

She thinks they heard talking about having one to herself, but nevertheless it paid off.

By year two she managed to completely go through most of what her parents got for her, then sent back what she was done with to those who wanted it back, if it were pages that still had lingering or outright heavy, amounts of magic still on them she kinda just, used her magic to duplicate them and sent the duplicate back to the museums.

Not that they would really know, now would they? Besides, they wouldn't be able to use said knowledge anyways.

Plus it would also be pretty dangerous if someone else with magical know how got their hands on them.

Now, she isn't pointing fingers but. You know. Freakshow, for example.

Those pages of magical knowledge are ones that she kept in book, with a durability spell and preservation of each and everyone of them, along with protections on the book itself to keep them safe.

Said book is also enchanted to never run out of space for new pages, and if not for any new page, then paper for spells she would right down.

It was near the end of year 2, when she was exploring an old ruin that she got full rights and ownership of. Funnily enough, said old ruin was right beneath her castle, so no one was really going to bother her about it, especially no one outside of Amity.

Amity Park keeps to itself, and anyone outside who wants to look deeper into it is not welcomed.

It was when she was exploring said ruin that she found something... otherworldly.

No it was nothing tied to the Ghost Zone.

At first, she thought it was. But reading through whatever ancient writing was left behind and comparing both ectoplasm and this mysterious pool of substance.

She could say with full confidence that this, liquid, was truly something otherworldly.

So of course she carefully experimented with said substance. It surprised her greatly when she finds out this thing is basically a revive and health potion in one, not like ectoplasm where it gave life to inanimate objects.

Even then that would need them being infused with a heavy amount of the stuff.

Like the Fenton's coo-

Regardless, it was a surprise, but at least it was a pleasant one.

It was when she was down in the ruin, having fixed it up considerably with magic and moved her magical artifacts, knowledge and research equipment down there that another surprise happened in year three.

A few months into the new year, when Sam was minding her business, studying some more ancient tomes and items her parents acquired, that some boy, who looked at least a year older than her. Crawled himself out of her pit.

Safe to say, she wasn't pleased.

But oh was she ever so curious.

#dc x dp #dp x dc crossover #sam manson #jason peter todd #Sam is a witch who isn't pleased with someone crawling out her property #Jason is just a recently revived dead kid who crawled out a pit #Sam is not pleased by this #but she is curious #Jason is just completely and utterly confused

[omegasmileyface]

The Forest, the Trees, the Fire I: CATALYST

Chapter 4

second chapter in a row to more than double the word count lets goooo. this one is the longest by far! feel free to take a break in the middle. also, it's my personal proudest! :3 Authors: myself, @attackradish, @ectolemonades. Artist: @/crunchysart

For the full characters list, word count, content warning, and a directory to all the currently available chapters and related content, see the Table of Contents!

full summary: The world outside of Amity Park has learned about the existence of ghosts, and the time for first impressions has arrived. The delicate public consciousness could be disrupted by the slightest ripple. Danny Fenton is being ripped apart from all sides, and when he finally breaks, the ripples will be very big indeed.

warnings: mind control/physical forcing, descriptions of pain, intense bad-faith arguing

words: 7587

AO3 link

first chapter

previous chapter

next chapter

===

November 8, 2006

Y'know, so much of Danny's big routine of "daily life" had changed, you'd think the smaller things would change too. But through all the turmoil— in Amity, in the Zone, in his own head— here he still was. Opening his front door after walking home from school, dreading whatever weapons and conversations lay beyond it.

He supposed, if he really cared that much, he could just fly up to his bedroom and hope his parents didn't notice.

And, wow! There they were, in the living room. No avoiding these pleasantries. If he vanished now, they'd just shoot at the open door anyway.

"Hi, guys."

"Hi, Sweetie! Here, come sit down and watch this news story with us."

Ooh, and a fate worse than death too! He'd know.

"Sorry, I've got a lot of make-up work—"

"Oh, some things are more important than homework!" His dad scooted over and patted the place where he had been sitting. Why? Why didn't he just leave the space that was open before? His dad was inscrutable. "I think you're gonna like this."

Danny listened to the little voice in his head that hated him and glanced at the TV.

It was an interview with Director Stewarts from the GIW. He seemed to be explaining the fight to get new passive ectofatal technology approved for public spaces. A man with a well-tailored suit in just the wrong shade of blue to match his eyes sat across a desk from him, nodding along and smiling like they were talking about a new library program.

They thought he'd like this. The thought froze him, his body torn between straight-up pouncing on the TV and shutting down completely. He paused to make sure they were done with the thought. Nothing? No well, we at least thought you'd like updates, sweetie? No well, not this, the documentary about comets that's on next? Not even a brief chuckle from his mom for his dad's blatant obliviousness?

Just silence. Enraptured silence. Pleased silence, even.

Danny took stock of himself before he responded. Held perfectly still until he was sure all his rage was moved out of his tense fists and glowing eyes and back into the little hole inside himself where he usually shoved it. Maneuvered his smile out of "betrayed lover who felt the stab before thinking to be sad about it" and into "obedient church kid". Put those secret identity acting skills to use. He refused to open his mouth before his body was loose and innocent on the outside.

"I thought you guys hated the GIW?"

"Eh," said his dad. Helpful as always.

"They tend to bury everything they do in bureaucracy," elaborated his mom, "and care about the science last, money first. But, intentions be damned, they're working on some incredible new ways to keep the people of this town safe."

"Really," said Stewarts on the TV, "it's a matter of doing what we need to. The current regulations aren't made with that in mind, but we're doing what we can, despite the misunderstanding from lawmakers. Publicizing our new research is a big part of that."

Danny took a breath. "Personally—" ah shit, some of his tightness came across with that one. Loosen up, D-Man. "I don't feel safer knowing that there are people who want to put untested radiation emitters in my school."

His parents turned to look at him. They weren't nearly as good at hiding their anger.

Fuck.

===

"Stop!" There were tears in Danny's eyes. It was all he could do to keep from Wailing. "I don't want to talk about this anymore." He ran into his room like a wild animal before he could hear any complaints. There were no restraints that kept a ghost down quite like social convention.

The argument had been no different from every other argument they'd had on the subject the last few months. Lightning-paced switching between heated discussions of ectology (in which both parties clearly had irreparably different understandings of fundamental facts) and direct war on Danny's track record as a "bad kid". Two "we studied this, honey"s versus one "and you don't even care about graduating high school". Danny wasn't strong enough to pull out the child neglect allegations. At that point, he may as well tell them why he thought of himself as such an expert, about the death trap in their basement, but even this endless conversational circle of unstoppable forces and immovable objects was better than that. He knew he didn't have it in him.

He didn't know, though, why he hadn't thought to just leave before now. Damn this family and their cleverness— none of them knew how to just take their losses and shut the hell up. Even Jazz, when she was here, only ended arguments by shouting her psychiatric advice the loudest.

Maybe Jazz would know what to do. She put up with being the only bearer of emotional responsibility in the household for years, maybe she'd have pointers now that it was his job. He fumbled for his shitty $20 flip phone to call her. 

He must have been more desperate than he thought, because he somehow reached into the phone to summon her number without giving it any thought. He laughed at himself and his core while it rang. Too lazy to scroll through my contacts?

"Hey?"

"Jazz! Hi. Um, how are you?"

"I'm ok, I'm just getting back from dinner. What's up?"

"Oh, well…" see, now he was starting to have second thoughts about bothering her with this. But she could probably hear how upset he was through the phone, so there was no stopping now. "I got in another argument with Mom and Dad."

She exhaled sympathetically. "About ghost stuff again?"

Danny scoffed. "What else would they be willing to talk about for that long?"

Jazz didn't respond. He sighed. "I really just need to cool off for a bit. But do you have any ideas on how I can keep from just getting in the same conversations again and again and just making it worse?"

"Well, you should probably just refuse to talk about it, if you just don't want to waste your time. But if there's any chance they'll listen, it'll be because you let them know that your info comes from a good source. Assuming they agree, that is."

Danny scoffed. "So, what? Tell them I've been hanging out with ghosts and taking their word for things? Yeah, they'll love that."

"No!" Danny could practically hear Jazz roll her eyes. "If you want to get anywhere, you'd have to tell them that you're learning these things firsthand. Let them know about… the accident. You don't even have to tell them about Phantom."

All the passion left Danny. "…I can't do that."

"Danny. You know they won't really hurt you, at least not if you leave the Phantom part out. And the fighting. I know you can be cautious about what you tell them, you're good at—"

"It's not that! I mean, I'm not convinced they wouldn't do something drastic with the way they've been talking lately, but even without that… I mean, imagine having one of your kids away from home, and the other is so disconnected from you and honestly kind of being a fuckup—"

"Danny—"

"—and then you find out that he's been a ghost for two and a half years? And you think that ghosts can't, like… experience emotions or love or anything? That would hurt them so bad. Assuming it doesn't drive them away completely, they would hate me for telling them. Fuck, they could magically end up not caring at all, and I would hate myself for making them hear that. They might suck, Jazz, but I love them."

"I understand that—"

"I don't want to hurt someone I love, Jazz." The tears on Danny's face had dried, but he could feel more behind his eyes.

"I'm really sorry it's like this. …I don't know if this helps or anything, but they're going to get hurt one way or the other."

"I should just be staying out of arguments with them—"

"Look, you asked if there was a way you could keep the same conversations from happening again and again. They're comfortable where they are, and if you want them to stop hurting you and everyone else, they're going to have to stop being comfortable for a little. There's no way everyone can get out of this one unharmed."

Maybe he just wasn't done with all the feelings from earlier, but he really felt like what he was hearing should have been making him sad. He didn't understand why he was just getting angry.

"The pain they're going to feel is just a normal part of living with other people and learning. Maybe they need it."

Danny's breath hitched with a very ugly sound. He felt… offended. Not by his sister, it wasn't by any means her fault, but… by something. Reality. "It's not fair."

"I know. I'm sorry. But, hey, you don't need to listen to me. Just keep it in mind, I guess. Hey, um…"

The phone was silent for a few seconds except for the sound of rustling fabric.

"Sorry, but could you try not to call me unless you really need to for a while? Things are getting sort of stressful here and as much as I like talking to you, I'm a little worried about, like, disrupting my schedule. N-not that you shouldn't call! But, I guess… try to hold off, if it's not a hassle? I'll try to call more often when I have the time. Sorry… Okay?"

Oh.

His calls were disrupting her life.

For a moment, yet another angry thought flew through Danny's head. Did he not deserve to call her? She always wanted to be up in his business at home, and she could still call, but he couldn't? She was the only one who got to decide when they talked?

The thought extinguished itself before he could dwell on it. All he knew was that one more of his outlets, his comforts, his friends was off-limits at the moment.

"Got it. I'll try. Thanks for talking to me."

Danny hung up and went to spend the rest of his night in the Ghost Zone. He didn't go to school the next day.

===

November 13, 2006

"Thank you for the opportunity to meet, Mr. Masters."

"Of course." Vlad set four mugs of coffee— with coasters— at roughly opposing seats of his dining table. He was getting a hang of this "unspoken social code" thing; in business, official meetings happened in the office, and the "personal" meetings where agreements were actually devised happened at restaurants. But in politics, though the official meetings still stuck to the civic buildings, the "personal" meetings were held in the home. In mayorship, at least. Perhaps it was different for higher up positions.

Others may have found the vulnerability of showing their own home to their peers upsetting. Vlad was always happy for a chance to look like he was being open without having to actually do so. The lab stayed sealed off, the offices only held documents that looked important, and even Maddie was taking a nap behind a locked door.

As far as he was aware, pitting three members of an interested party against one politician in their own home was bad form. The Garrison Irving Walker Commission were lucky that he was a match for them, and wouldn't need to speak about this elsewhere.

"We wanted to talk about the measures the city of Amity Park takes to keep its citizens safe in the face of high numbers of ghosts," said the leftmost agent, Robert something.

Vlad nodded because it was nicer than saying oh, really? I had thought you were here to talk about the quality of fishing spots in town.

"I do hope that you've all found the ghost alarm system and robust self-defense supply chain in town satisfactory, as well as our thorough emergency protocols and permit approval rates."

The center agent, David whatever, gave a polite smile. Vlad didn't even have to look behind the sunglasses to see that it didn't reach his eyes. "It's incredibly refreshing to find a place with so many well thought-out plans. But we were curious as to why the town hasn't implemented any new measures in the last few years."

"And," said the agent on the right, Rosalyn what's-her-name, "there is a large opening for preventative and passive anti-ghost measures in the town's infrastructure, especially given the constant return of the Phantom. That's much of what we wanted to talk through, since we have some ideas that can be looked through and altered."

Lovely! Ideas. They spent the next hour talking through the list, during which Vlad had to stay on his toes figuring out what he could and couldn't say was "worth thinking about". A live-updating webpage reporting ghost sightings in the town? Ooh, strong idea, David, he'd have to consider that! A high-frequency ectoenergy emitter that would annoy ghosts into leaving? Great start, Rosalyn, but that might need some more testing before the people in town would agree to it. These people were so dedicated, so convinced that they needed to put as much attention and care into Amity Park as possible, that he considered overshadowing them briefly, just enough to spark a little disinterest in his town. But they had a lot of protective equipment hidden on their persons. It wouldn't be worth the risk.

Not that he couldn't respect seeing an opening and trying to worm into it, it was exactly what he had done when he'd discovered the town, but the damned Guys in White had no idea what iceberg they were scraping against. If they knew, perhaps they'd just leave it to him and go about their days.

They left with a reminder that they'd be talking official proposals in City Hall next week— yes, Robert, I wouldn't forget it for the world— and a confident assertion that Amity Park and the GIW would be of great help to one another.

It was assertions like that that left Vlad wondering if they'd forgotten that he owned Axion Labs, the only current public retailer of ectotechnology. And that he funded practically all of the town's battle repairs. And that he was a significant donor to the GIW.

Little Maddie was impatient enough when he ushered the agents out and unlocked her door. She ran to the couch to bat at a toy she had left under it and ignored Vlad when he pet her.

He sighed. "For people seemingly so concerned with this town, they don't seem to have any respect for what the people in it want." He thought for a moment. "Oh, what do I care? I should be figuring out how to play this when we meet next week. Do you think…"

His thoughts drifted to Daniel like usual. Vlad's plan to become King had been invalidated last winter, when word had spread through the Infinite Realms like ink through water that Danny Phantom had been established as the Crown Prince. The Crown of Fire had disappeared from the safe in his lab without a trace. Though the boy hadn't been actually crowned, even the announcement that he would be was a simple truth, a fact that couldn't be disputed or undermined. At this point, if Vlad wanted the High Throne, he'd either need to defeat Daniel in an official duel, kill Daniel and be chosen as the inheritor, or get Daniel to give it up willingly.

The options were not ideal. Vlad had a reputation in the Zone, yes, but he didn't exactly have friends. Employees, business partners, and people in his debt, yes, but staggeringly few people who liked him. Daniel had been more than holding his own in unexpected fights recently, so Vlad didn't want to test his luck in a duel where the boy had time to prepare. Time to gather the support of all those ghosts who tolerated him better than Vlad. He couldn't ignore the likelihood that he would lose, and then… well, more than likely he wouldn't even be let close to the topic of the Monarchy again. It would be his last chance.

As for option B, Vlad had to put killing Daniel off the table for good. While his ultimate goal was the Throne, he wouldn't like to have to make himself alone again to get there. And if the boy did die in the meantime, Vlad had no illusions that any council that could be assembled would choose him as the replacement. See the, uh, "no friends" thing.

And option C… Daniel didn't like him. This was just something Vlad had to come to terms with. Despite his best efforts, the boy was too stubborn to let himself land on any of their common ground. But…

He looked back to the notes he had taken when the GIW agents were over. There were a lot of things in those notes that would disrupt Vlad's life, but even more that would make Daniel's that much harder. Some of those things would have them both toasted for good, but some would only push a little… if new GIW regulations went through, Daniel would have more stress going about his daily life, more trouble keeping up his relationships, more pressure to do something about it as King… he wouldn't know how to deal with it. He didn't have any experience with politics. But Vlad did. There Vlad would be, trying his absolute best to keep the GIW in check. But, alas, there's only so much he can do without the power of an official political position and the threat of the Infinite Realms behind him…

"Yes," Vlad said to Maddie, who had fallen asleep again. "I think I can work with this after all."

===

November 16, 2006

Danny had been shocked, last year, at how many of his allies were willing to spend time with him to help him prepare for the Crown. People he still regularly fought with had offered advice (though he didn't expect many of them would have anything useful to say, the sentiment was incredible). People he thought hated him had told him to at least ask if he needed help— Walker had handed him a business card with his preferred hours on it. Most surprisingly, actual political leaders had opened their arms readily to help Danny. Dora, Frostbite, Pandora… even Clockwork had been seeing Danny for their odd brand of "lessons" until recently. Sure, he didn't talk to them much about casual things because they all had him hard at work studying to bear responsibility or whatever, but nobody was as shocked as Danny that such a network had opened to him.

Today, since he was already running away from his problems in the living world, Danny had seen if Pandora was up for a chat. They were sitting under a golden tree behind her palace. The meetings had started more formal, but they had both gotten tired of it with time. Danny had been trying to ignore his problems in the living world by reviewing ethical and strategic lessons, but his thoughts drifted back, and here they were.

"…and now they've started moving more of their people to be based in Amity, so they can put even more, quote, 'defenses' into place where the most ghosts are."

"And these defenses haven't been approved for the wider state yet?"

"No. Not Illinois and not America. They're working on that, but it looks like they're trying to set a standard in Amity before they can even get started everywhere else."

"A good observation, Danny! I agree, it sounds as if the GIW are trying to use your city as a proof that their techniques would work on a larger scale. Like some sort of laboratory test."

Danny choked. "So, do… do you really think they're trying to escalate, still?"

"My little poplar, you already know the answer to that. The question is, what are they escalating toward?"

Danny swallowed. "They tried once to destroy the entirety of the Infinite Realms. Looking back, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have worked, but they wanted it so badly. They might still think that's what they need to do. And even if they don't… some of my friends are missing. Wulf and Poindexter. And they keep coming out with new studies on ghosts. The GIW, I mean. I think they're kidnapping ghosts to experiment on them. I don't expect them to stop doing that."

Pandora hummed. "Those are both acts of war. Do you have any plans to respond to acts of war?"

Danny looked away. He really, really didn't want to think about things like that. But this was real, and there was no avoiding it.

Pandora waited for his answer. Eventually, he admitted, "I would like to let them know our perspective first, if there's any chance it would work."

Pandora nodded. "As Haides Polyxenos, you have the power of the Ghost Army behind you, both literally and socially. This creates an actionable threat against any army of humans, which gives you negotiating power. Even non-threats are backed up with the knowledge that, should it come down to sheer military power, you would be the de facto victor."

That was not what Danny meant. He felt that opening with "oh, and by the way, we could destroy you if we wanted, so, like, keep that in mind" was a terrible start for a peace discussion.

"Regardless of that, I respect your devotion to seeing if there is a peaceful option first. The blow to our people would not be insignificant, even with a guaranteed victory."

Danny played with the teal grass.

"…And I know that humanity means a lot to you. Even if they weren't your kin, you would have respect for them as another group that doesn't deserve war."

Danny nodded.

"All that considered, I think your idea to establish your people's perspective before doing anything else was very wise! If you research who you would need to contact and the etiquette behind doing so next time you are among the living, you could come back here and we could work on a script for your meeting them."

He smiled. "That sounds really nice, Pandora, thank you. Do you mind if I invite Frostbite? I think he'll add another good perspective to the mix."

Pandora stood up with a triumphant grin. "That is an excellent idea, Danny! Now, let's get you doing something with your body. Your archery still needs some work."

Danny groaned, but stood up too. Thoughts of his next step were already running through his mind.

===

November 21, 2006

"Mr. Masters, you've had some experience with ectology as a study, yes?"

Vlad had to force the smile when he replied, "yes."

The meeting at City Hall was stuffy, crowded, and— now, you'll want to be sitting down for this shock— boring. He had already fought through dozens of statements regarding technology that would disrupt Vlad's own connections, research projects that would bring humans far too close to true knowledge of ghosts, and legislative moves that took "guilty until proven innocent" to a degree even he balked at. He had made moves that would shift Daniel toward his arms, but not nearly as many as he would have liked. He was far more concerned at the moment with keeping the balance between his image and his safety.

He hadn't even realized that they had drawn up information on his past. Hmm.

"I looked into the field during my time in college. I enjoyed that time, but, eventually… I decided to leave to pursue business management." Close enough, yeah?

"We think you should see the interest behind our favorite project, then…" Rosalyn ("Dr. Ducharm", now) pressed a key on the keyboard wired to the computer at the front of the room. The projected slide on the wall changed to a 3-dimensional model of a square, concrete building with an impressive parking lot. It looked strangely like a larger version of the Axion Labs unit in town, except for a two-story glass dome on the north side of the roof. Painted next to the front entrance was "GIW" in massive white letters and the organization's circular seal.

"We would like to start a new operation in Amity Park, where we can employ ectologists from in and out of town to take advantage of the city's unique relationship with the Ghost Zone. We would have this building constructed as a base, and from there we could employ the talents of dozens of kinds of laboratory and non-laboratory workers, in an organized effort toward a safer future."

Now Vlad was trapped. There was that key word; employ. An operation of this size would spur Amity's construction and infrastructure sectors with something different than the usual repair jobs, and then it would employ STEM specialists from within the city, and then it would draw in dozens or hundreds of workers from the rest of the country, pulling outside money in. The city council would never pass it up. If they propagandized it well enough, the voters wouldn't, either. Vlad would look either malevolent or completely idiotic if he didn't express total interest now.

He let his eyes go flat lest they start showing red, and pulled the rest of his face into a plastic grin. "How exciting! Now there is a future."

Yes, a future where Vlad was watched from all angles by ectosignature-reading cameras.

Oh, well. Construction was an infamously slow process. He would have time.

===

November 28, 2006

…IN SUCH A SITUATION, OF COURSE, YOU WOULD HAVE TO BRING FORWARD ANY GHOST YOU WOULD EXPECT TO HAVE INFORMATION ON THE EVENT. SHOULD THEY WITHHOLD IT, YOU—

Danny's phone chirped. Oh, thank God. There were only a few spots in the Realms where he got a cell connection (do not ask him how that worked), and he would take a late text over the bossy, traditionalist, very-poorly-hiding-their-hatred-for-him Observants any day.

He held up a hand directly in front of the indignant eye of the floating robe closest to him. Hilarious as usual. "One sec, guys."

He tuned out the sound of spectral sputtering as he looked through text previews.

Sam: (11:25) call when u get… Sam: (11:22) if u don't show… Tucker: (11:10) Read pls. Import… (10:54) Sam: what are you up… Tucker: (9:43) Missed you in ch…

So on and so forth for the last couple days. Nothing Danny wanted to see until he was ready to deal with that. He would handle it all at once, cleanly and nicely, when he went back home. There was too much in his brain for now.

He should probably glance at that "important" message before he lost service, though. He trusted Tucker's judgement on whether something was an emergency.

Tucker: (11:10) Read pls. Important. I get youre out for a reason but your parents have asked me where you are. I had to tell them I didnt know. Sorry. Theyll probably start getting serious about looking soon

Oh, crap. His parents had noticed he was gone. Four days must have been too much for them. He didn't know what to tell them he had been up to this time… or what to say next time he disappeared.

Whatever. That was future Danny trouble. He'd deal with that when he went home, and he'd go home after these eyeballs finished up with him.

He put his phone away and stopped tuning them out.

—AND WHATEVER MORTAL IS CONTACTING YOU AT A TIME LIKE THIS CAN WAIT UNTIL—

"Sorry 'bout that. Continue with the whole… 'inappropriate relations' thing?"

The Observants looked like they were each going to pop a giant blood vessel, but they switched tirades without complaint.

===

December 1, 2006

Vlad was in his study, admiring a knitting pattern on his laptop, when Valerie Gray knocked on his window. Quietly, he wondered why she bothered climbing through a window in her suit when she could have just shown up at his door in civilian clothes and saved them both the suspicion, but he let her in anyway.

"Miss Gray! Please, can I get you anything? It's chilly out there."

"Thank you, Mr. Masters! No, I just wanted to stop by."

Internally, Vlad rolled his eyes. "Stopping by" was for afternoons in his office, or emailing him beforehand, or civilian clothes at the very least. Still, Valerie Gray was a smart girl, and had a tendency toward making herself small when she wasn't trying to do the exact opposite. She likely had a real problem, and was just being demure about it.

"Well, sit down! Let's go into the living room. We're the only ones here, so no need to worry about your suit showing or anything." They started moving down the hall. "Speaking of which! How has it been faring? Anything new recently?" He had, as "the Wisconsin Ghost", tussled lightly with her for appearance's sake a few weeks back, and he saw that her suit was acting oddly up close. He had already done his own studies on it and determined that it was somehow sentient, or something to that effect, and much more ghostly than he had originally designed it. Lasting effects, he supposed, of a time that she got tied up with Technus two years ago. She still hadn't told him about it. Bold.

Regardless, he wasn't too worried. Let the girl become more ghostly. As long as she was putting that isolative pressure on Daniel, as long as she was giving Vlad that in on the human ghost hunting world, what did he care? But she really should be telling her innocent, human benefactor about these things. Imagine if he really did have her best interests in mind? She was as reckless as usual.

"Nope! Working just perfectly! I hope I've been doing my job well enough."

Vlad poured some coffee for both of them— he hadn't been lying about the cold night. "You absolutely have. You are, perhaps, the town's best defense against ghostly attacks."

When he handed Valerie her mug, she casually set it down without taking a drink. He admired her caution.

"Thank you! Seriously. But, Mr. Masters, that's sort of what I wanted to talk about. I've been trying to keep up on changes the Guys— sorry— the GIW have been trying to make here in Amity and Elmerton. I really like how they're trying to keep us stronger in the face of violent ghost attacks. But some of the things they want to try out here kinda make me think they're looking at us like a… like an experiment, more than people. People with lives, who are hurt by ghosts, yeah, but that doesn't mean we can't be hurt by other things, you know?"

Ah. Vlad took a sip of his coffee. She wanted to put her word into this game, too? Figured she could get a little opinion in because she had business relations with the mayor? To Vlad, it was yet another force wanting him pulled a certain way. Luckily, he didn't need Valerie Gray's approval, not like he needed the trust of the GIW and Daniel. It was good to have her trusting him, yes, but she was low on his list of priorities. He let her keep talking.

"I just wanted to say, I know you're doing all you can to work with them for the best for the people in town. And… I trust you to make sure that they're not putting ghost defense above respecting the humans. I think you're a good mayor, Mr. Masters. Thank you for what you're doing."

Vlad was shocked. He was glad Valerie wasn't looking at him, because he couldn't keep it off his face for a second. She was sixteen and openly armed with the best in human-ghost weaponry, but she looked absolutely tiny, hunched over and entrusting him with keeping her and the people she loved safe.

Normally, Vlad liked to see people so vulnerable to him, but there was something off-putting about his strongest pawn, this teenager so full of rage and determination that it took only the slightest push to turn her into a living declaration of war, being so honest about her weakness. If there was anyone Vlad expected to be blinded into following the GIW from sheer hatred of ghosts, besides perhaps the Fentons, it would be her.

The look on her face was one he had seen on Danielle a few times before she had disappeared, when she thought he loved her. It wasn't begging. No, Valerie Gray expected him to pull through on these anti-ghost regulations for her, just because she thought he was a good enough person. She was thanking him for something he hadn't done yet.

She trusted him to handle this with grace. And he realized now, with the Red Huntress depowered and sitting on his formal living room couch, that he didn't.

===

December 4, 2006

People had been coming up to Danny when he was around the Ghost Zone. Really, he should have been expecting it, but he was sort of taken aback every time. Your average ghost knew that he was the Prince, and even before that he had enough of a reputation that sometimes they would approach him to ask for help on whatever superhero comic plot had come into their lives recently, but… really, shouldn't there be other options? Walker couldn't have been the only one upholding "laws". Johnny wasn't the only one going on adventures in the living world when necessary. There were other ghosts who handled this sort of thing. Why seek out some half-human two-year-old?

Especially when he couldn't even do what they wanted. At least thirteen ghosts had approached him in the past few weeks to report friends and fright members that had gone to the living realm for one reason or another and never come back. Captured by the Guys in White, shoved in some lab, and… who knows what, after that.

He had tried a few times. Logically, he should have a pretty good shot at getting in and out. Yes, they were looking for his ectosignature in particular, but he was human. He was skilled at hiding it. And he had links in the human world, ways to hide in plain sight, and a hacker friend for whom he was eternally grateful.

The first time, he had gotten the poor ghost out intact. The second time, he even got some hapless animal ghosts and blobs out too. After that, things got harder. Security got tighter, bases got put in stranger places, employees became even more ruthless at the sight of Phantom.

It hurt Danny inside every time he thought about it, but there just wasn't anything he could think to do without getting himself killed, and that wouldn't help anyone in the long run. The experimentation was legal, even on the more humanoid ghosts as far as Danny could tell. He couldn't physically attack the facilities if he wasn't sure nobody would die, and even then the newer defenses had a nasty effect of sometimes turning his own energy around on him.

And now, as he found himself surrounded by the desperate children and friends of a wolf-woman ghost who had been taken away while visiting relatives in the living world, that was what he tried to tell them. But he felt sorry at his own excuses, and he wanted more than anything to be able to do better for the people relying on him, and he saw in their eyes that they did, too, and Danny felt something in the air that said that everyone else did, too, and then—

He blacked out.

===

When Danny woke, he was sitting on a marble chair in a room where the floor was black tile and the walls glowed blue. Anything beyond that was blurry. Right in front of his face was familiar blue and red, and for a moment he worried that he had passed out in front of Plasmius before he noticed the scar.

He just had time to realize this was his first time seeing Clockwork since summer before his head was filled with pain.

It was terrible, and bone-deep, and from his mind as much as his flesh, but it did something to wake him up, too. Danny could see now that the far end of the long room held several ghosts, most of whom he had been studying under. He could see that the glowing on the walls was from tall stained glass windows in every color between ectoplasm green and ocean blue.

He could see that his marble chair was on a dais, and that Clockwork was looking at him with pity. It was an unfamiliar look on them.

Oh, Danny thought as the important people and the important room sunk in between throbs of pain. I am absolutely screwed.

Clockwork squeezed Danny's shoulder. The pain didn't go away, which he thought was incredibly rude since he knew they had some healing power. They turned around and said to the room, Daniel Phantom is here, and he will be King.

Fuck. Fuck. This wasn't supposed to happen yet. This was the coronation, and it wasn't supposed to be like this. He knew it was pretty different from European coronations, but there was supposed to be some kind of party involved, at least. Some kind of tedious ceremony, and it would be stressful and awfully final but it would be happy for a bit. There would be weeks of preparation and months of warning and everyone had told him it wouldn't happen until he was ready.

But here Danny was, on a throne in his own damn color scheme that Fate and Sam had chosen for him, alone except for a few ghosts who were very much not having a good time, in more pain than he'd felt at once since he died, and perhaps the least ready it was possible to be. He was a sixteen year old who was failing every class and avoided talking to his own parents.

He didn't want to see any of this. He tried to close his eyes, but the pain echoed somewhere in the back of his head and the back of his core and his eyes opened and his vision cleared. He couldn't move his eyes or his thoughts away when Pandora walked to the spot Clockwork had left. She opened a lapis lazuli box, and inside was the Ring of Rage, smaller than ever on its own in there. The last time Danny had seen the Ring, it had been locked in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.

She put it on the middle finger of his left hand, and he knew that if his unfading Lichtenberg figures were visible, they would start right where the ring sat. It shrunk and simplified. A band of white, a band of black, a pointed gem of the same blues and greens as the windows.

The pain spread below Danny's neck, to the rest of his body. Whatever kept his eyes clear kept him from doubling over and screaming, too. He didn't have it in him to fight.

Pandora stepped back, and Frostbite walked forward with the Crown of Fire. He didn't place it on Danny's head, he just set it in his hands and wiped a tear off of Danny's cheek.

It was Clockwork who came forward again and lifted the Crown onto his head. It electrified his skin where it touched. Hadn't Pariah Dark's crown floated? Why was Danny's sitting on him, feeling like it was about to topple but refusing to fall, burning a halo onto his scalp?

Why was any of this happening?

Danny was distracted from the pain when that place in the back of his core struck a chord like a symphonic bell and first the Crown, then the Ring, then everything else oh God every drop of ectoplasm in the deep ocean around him every space hidden between every other space the entire seam between this place and the other resonated with it. One massive echo, one frequency carried to infinity in an instant, and that which was within was without, just the same.

May his reign be perfect, said Clockwork from out of sight.

Danny was on the floor. Son of a bitch! The pain ran through him one more time with emphasis before disappearing.

Some of the attendees— Observants, mostly— left without another word. Some, those Danny had started thinking of sort of like family recently, came and tried to help him stand.

It was a struggle to get to his feet, but once he was there, he couldn't help but notice that Clockwork was gone.

"Alright, Danny," Frostbite said. Heh, that might have been the first time he'd used his real name. "Let's get you some sleep, and then we can have a chat about your new powers before you go home."

Danny made himself smile from where he was collapsed over the yeti's arm. "Do I get cake now?"

"Sure," said Frostbite, comforting as any good doctor. "You can have all the cake you want."

Danny laughed weakly. "Some party this was."

(And when word hit them that a small team of yetis had shown up at a grocery store in Amity Park to buy a premade cake with real money, Sam and Tucker decided to keep it to themselves.)

===

December 11, 2006

"No," Vlad hissed when he read the paper Dr. Robert Eldridge handed him across his dining room table.

"What's the issue? I'm happy with the progress we've been making here, and this is the only logical next step."

"It's too invasive. People will never trust a group that measures their ectoplasmic exposure every time they go out in public."

"Their daily lives won't be disrupted because it's passive once installed. Not intrusive at all," said Dr. David Reyes, who had a hidden camera in one of his shirt buttons.

"It doesn't matter, the knowledge that they're having statistics about them being read out to some other body at all times will be too much. H— people hate that sort of thing."

"It's all about awareness," said Dr. Rosalyn Duchart, who had never been in an ecto lab environment in her life. "Most people will be okay with their ectoplasmic levels being measured, because they'll be low anyway. Nothing to hide. It'll only upset those who would be spotted. Disguised ghosts, long-term overshadowings, hauntings and whatnot."

"I'm not so sure about that." Vlad's hand tightened around his mug. "People don't take so kindly to the idea that they might be hiding something. I've certainly never enjoyed being watched."

Maybe, if he had paid a little more attention, he would have found he didn't enjoy the way he was being watched in that moment either.

===

Voicemail from… [phone] on… December 13 at… 4:19 PM. [Beep!]

Hey, Danny. It's Val. Um… I haven't seen you in a few weeks. Well, okay, I've seen you around town and at Nasty Burger once in a while, but we haven't talked. You know what I mean. Haha. So, I guess, if you're not at school, and you're not with your friends— uh, I asked them, sorry— where are you?

…You don't have to tell me, of course. It's probably none of my business. Unless it is, haha! Um. But yeah! I guess I just wanted to let you know that… I'm thinking about you! And I hope you're okay! And if there's anything you want to talk about with me, you can. I, uh, I even have homework you can copy if you want to get back on track with missed school.

Hey, call me sometime! I haven't had a chance to tell you about this dumb movie my dad and I watched last week. It was this 3-D animated Christmas movie? Yeah, it's as weird as it sounds, hehe. But that's all I'm telling you now! If you want the rest of the details you're gonna have to crawl out and talk to me.

Have a good day, okay? 'Kay. 

…End of message.

===

December 15, 2006

[A1 - BREAKING NEWS]

LANCE: GOOD EVENING EVERYONE.

I’M LANCE THUNDER –

TIFFANY: – AND I’M TIFFANY SNOW.

THIS IS AMITY PARK 8 AT 5.

TONIGHT’S BREAKING NEWS, A LEAKED GARRISON IRVING WALKER COMMISSION RESEARCH PAPER ALLEGES MAYOR VLAD MASTERS IS ACTUALLY A GHOST.

[VO]

[B-ROLL: STILL OF COVER PAGE]

LANCE: PAMELA DEH-LEE-UN, AARON HAMPTON AND DAVID RYE-EZ, LONG-TIME RESEARCHERS WITH THE GIW, WROTE THE PAPER.

TIFFANY: HAMPTON DEVELOPED SUSPICIONS ABOUT MASTERS SHORTLY AFTER THE GIW BEGAN WORKING WITH HIM ON PUBLIC ANTI-GHOST MEASURES.

THE TEAM STANDS BY THE RESEARCH, THOUGH THE PAPER WAS UNFINISHED AND STILL IN REVIEW AT THE TIME OF THE LEAK.

[A-ROLL: HAMPTON INTERVIEW]

LANCE: THE SOURCE OF THE LEAK HAS NOT BEEN CONFIRMED, BUT THE GIW’S MAIN CONCERN IS THE PUBLIC SEEING THE PAPER BEFORE PEER REVIEW.

WE CURRENTLY HAVE NO COMMENT FROM MASTERS OR CITY COUNCIL, BUT A PRESS CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD AT SIX-THIRTY PM.

TIFFANY: JOIN US AT TEN PM ON THE EVENING SHOW FOR EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE AND A MORE IN-DEPTH LOOK AT THE RESEARCH PAPER.

UP NEXT, WE’LL HEAR FROM RESIDENTS ON A STRING OF BREAK-INS DOWNTOWN.

#danny phantom #my writing #invisobang 2023 #the forest the trees the fire #ftf catalyst #ghost king danny #:) #:^)

[answrs]

asdfhjkl this is fuckin,,,,,, 17 pages of unfinished and rewritten dp/msa crossover. from TWO THOUSAND FRICKIN FIFTEEN. i am not going to be able to resist editing/adding more to this (which is the ENTIRE REASON IT NEVER GOT POSTED IN THE FIRST PLACE COUGH COUGH SELF) so i am sticking it under a cut, pressing send, then going to do errands in order to physically stop myself from spending 16 hours nitpicking it. also tunglr.hell deletes all the original formatting when pasting stuff in so all the italics/bold/strikethrough are missing rip.

please note! this is an original draft and then a rewritten (but mostly just different parts of the outline) second part.

im just. gonna paste the second one’s author note here (written circa 2016) and leave y’all to it:

stern fatherly disapproval I've been going back through the old dp/msa posts and I have to say, I am very disappointed in all of you. honestly, with such pride we take in over-angsting for BOTH fandoms, that there wasn’t much if any discussion to be seen on this is shocking. (Though, to be fair, I just now remembered I wrote this all the way back then and never published it, buT THE POINT STANDS. My inability to write more than ¾ of a fic before getting distracted and forgetting to finish it is only moderately related to this discussion.) At least it’s edited now, I guess? By which I mean completely rewritten. (you can still tell the parts connecting the main sections are a bit ‘eh’ but, well, ‘eh’.)

Summary: Danny captures Lewis in the thermos (as he does) and tosses him in the Ghost Zone like the rest of the town’s ghostly visitors. This is a bad thing.

“dp/ms zone - Created Aug 27, 2015″

The Skulls are driving through amity park, arthur at the wheel, vivi shotgun with the current traveling deadbeat curled at her feet (the rest are at home guarding the mansion), and Lewis in the back with mystery. Danny's ghost sense goes off as this van passes by, almost as ridiculous looking as his parents own vehicle. he looks in to see a large ghost apparently hiding in the back, the two tourists up front unaware. whatever it's planning can't be good, so he shoots in, sucks up the ghost, and flies off to the alarmed shouts trailing behind him. rather than just being startled at a ghost in their van like Danny thinks (though they are, at him just popping up suddenly), the humans cries are at seeing Phantom abduct their boo for seemingly no reason. not even mystery could react before the kid was off, grinning and waving back at them like he'd just had a job well done. the poor deadbeat is terrified, master has just been taken by a ghost hunter but they have to stay with mistress vivi and mister arthur. arthur slams on the breaks, throwing the van around to tear after the ghost, but he's disappeared. the four are devastated, turning back to the hotel, vivi clutching the now crying spirit like a lifeline. immediately they set to work researching phantom, hoping for any clue to find him and their taken spirit. the next day, Danny comes downstairs to find his parents talking to... visitors? clients? they look exhausted but kind of familiar, so he listens in from the steps outside the kitchen. please, you have to help us. phantom took our friend and you're the people who study this town you must know where to find him we just got him back we can't lose him again please help us we've looked everywhere please- what do you mean, phantom's taken your friend? had the ghost finally started attacking humans outright? there was this big flash and he was gone and he was holding this metal thing and oh honey, its okay, don't worry, there's no way that could have been your friend. phantom uses one of our thermoses and it only works on ghosts. but Lewis IS a spirit! how can you be friends with a ghost, that doesn't make sense. they're too violent and unstable to have consistent rational thought, let alone form attachments... what? how could you- how dare you say something like that! we've been paranormal investigators for years and Lewis is our best friend, don't you dare accuse him of being a mindless creature! how can you call yourselves scientists when you're just as prejudiced as all those stupid hunters we meet! if you won't help us, we'll find phantom ourselves, and we'll get our friend back no matter what we have to go through to do it! Danny sits frozen as the two storm out, guilt creeping in as he absorbs the conversation. he'd just done what he normally did on patrol, how was he supposed to know this ghost was somehow different? he was just taking it out before it could do anything funny, but now he was the one in the wrong? (he won't admit he sees ghosts like his parents do, always up to something malicious and never just innocent bystanders) not liking this feeling, he slips out of the house and trots after the group, quickly catching up. uh, hey. i, uh, heard about your friend and I think I can help... meet me outside Fentonworks at 11 tonight, my parents will be asleep by then so don't ring the doorbell. before they can get a word in, I have to go back, so dont be late! and runs back, turning a corner and going invisible before they can catch up. okay, he's just bought himself some time to fix this, he just needs to make some calls first... he'd just tossed the disoriented ghost (Lewis?) through the portal, not dumped him further in like he does with some of his enemies. he shouldn't be that hard to find. 1030 finds the three living members of the mystery skulls standing before the fentons house. at her side, vivi clutches a bag housing their remaining spirit, warded with nearly every spell in the book and some others besides. if phantom tried to take their deadbeat too, he was gonna have to fight for it. the research they'd done that day didn't make their moods any lighter. video clips of fantastical ghost fights helped them piece together that phantom took his captured enemies to a place called the ghost zone. further study had pulled up dozens of reports on the place, from an incident stranding part of the town there. while interview descriptions of the event ranged wildly, the common details said it was huge, green, and swarming with aggressive ghosts. and from the videos of some of these fights, no matter how strong he might be, Lewis's chances weren't looking good. Sam and tucker round the corner to see three unknown silhouettes clustered on the sidewalk ahead. reflexively their hands dart to their weapons, before they connect Danny's descriptions to the group ahead. damn, they were early then. hopefully Danny was ready and not just doing something stupid. (oh who were they kidding, he was always doing something stupid.) as they approach, the dog tenses, and the two humans whip around to stare at the teens. seeing as they've been spotted already, they close the remaining distance with quick strides. the woman is the first to speak, suspicion bleeding into her worried voice. and who might you two be  then? I'm sam, this is tucker. we're here to help Danny find your ghost since he's a horrible driver and couldn't read a screen to save his life. so since you're here already I'll just text him to come let us in. they get a grunt in acknowledgement from the male, but it's otherwise silent for the few minutes they spend waiting for the door to open. greengreengreen EVERYWHERE, no ground beneath your feet to stop you falling, falling... the space scattered with thousands of pointed rocks and green fog twisting through them... and if this is Arthur's reaction, Lewis is even worse off. and he's been stuck here not for minutes, but hours, days. reliving his death over and over, no reprieve from the constant memories. the team is so focused on Arthur's reaction it's not until mystery renders him unconscious they turn to vivi. standing stock still, unfocused eyes staring unblinking out the window, trembling with near invisible tears trailing down her face. because her boys aren't the only ones with memories of the cave, and while she may be the "strong" one of the group, when it comes to reminders of that night her ptsd is no less real. there you are dipstick! I've been looking all over for you! not now, ember, get out of the way. can't you see I'm busy? not until you tell me why you thought it was a good idea to toss a spirit into the ghost zone. are you completely mental? huh? don't play dumb with me, not even you wouldn't be able to tell. he looks nothing like a ghost! it's all we've been able to do by keeping guard, none of us can even get close to the guy with the state he's in! what are you even talking about-! vivi shoves his head away from the glass, calling out to the flaming musician. yell at him later, tell us where Lewis is now! ember looks down at the new human, sizing her up before nodding, gliding away. I still don't get it, what was she even going on about? I mean yeah, I shouldn't have tossed the guy in here, but the rest of that? what did that even mean? I believe I may be able to explain, a voice calls from the back, and all three kids jerks their heads around to stare at the (talking!) dog. (what the hell?) sam nearly crashes the speeder into an island before she collects herself enough to glance back at the window. ignoring their reactions, mystery continues to speak from his place in Arthur's lap, the mechanic petting him robotically (heh.). I didn't recognize it at first from the descriptions, but now I'm here I can tell this ghost zone, as you put it, is one part of the realm of the dead. the place we just left, your real world, is the realm of the living. ghosts, at least the ones that you know, are formed and exist in this dead realm. it's where they draw their energy from, regardless of whatever focus or reason they have for their being. a ghost that spends too long in the human world would begin to break down, the very reality chipping away at them piece by piece. similarly, a human spending too long unprotected in the ghosts world would suffer similar effects, their body fighting against what knows they should not be there. that's why, for instance, demons must be summoned from their own realm and strike deals with humans to stay on that plain. he looks straight at Danny beings that have rights, as it were, to both places may come and go as they please with no ill effects. i, for instance, may pass through both living and yokai realms if I were to so choose.

[anchor is physical, ties to world]

Lewis, however, is a spirit, brought forth and tied to the living realm. he's one of the, we call them ghosts, but imprints might be a better title, that make up the majority of 'ghost' activity humans encounter... well, outside of this town, at least.

I assume the ghosts you know of fall into different types or species, probably based on their power level or abilities. our own ghosts, or spirits as the name here for them seems to be, are much the same. they can range anywhere from vague wisps of an idea to a fully formed consciousness equal to or even above their former human status.

[these former-living are connected to physical objects, vessels, their soul reside in. this anchor, as we call it, thus ties them to the human realm, being a real, semi-physical object. it's a shell of sorts, breaking a ghost's anchor destroys the (self contained environment), releasing and exposing their soul, which unprotected dissipates very quickly.]

as for how this relates back to the idea of realms, well, the lower the power of an entity the easier it is to be torn apart... he pauses at Vivi's sudden realization, dashing to the forgotten bag on the seat. tearing open the pouch, she lets out a quiet 'oh thank the gods' as a tiny pink head pops out, chirping in concern. it winds its way into Vivi's arms, nuzzling her cheek. the woman looks at mystery, hoping that protection he had talked about was working on the deadbeat too. he nodded, as long as they were to stay in this vehicle, they'd probably be safe from harm. probably. I'd also suggest arthur stay too, even if he wasn't already... compromised, he looked over to the teens, still listening closely. suffice to say the scenery would certainly not be good for him. and for him to be the first thing Lewis sees after such an episode, arthur stiffens and the dog looks up at him sadly, even if he knows rationally it's not the you he thinks it is, he won't be in his right mind... it's gonna be okay, arthur. vivi settles beside the blond and leans against him, careful not to squish the spirit nestled in her arms. it'll just be like those first few weeks with the dreams. which i mean isn't ideal, obviously, but we've survived it once already, we can do it again if we have to. and it's not like before where he'd been alone for a year, it's really only been, what, a few hours, a day? um, actually... the trio (plus one) looks up, having already forgotten they weren't alone in the vehicle. i, uh, so that whole thing with different realities your, uh, dog? was talking about? heh, yeah, so... funny thing about the zone is, um. time goes differently in here. so like, an hour here is only a few minutes in the real, or, erm, living world... vivi completed the kids thought ...and a few hours on our side would be... days... oh gods no, Lewis. Danny flinches, another shot of guilt stabbing his conscience. ugh, of all the ghosts (or, er, spirits?) he could have snagged yesterday it had to have been this one. the only ghost in the whole town that couldn't live (unlive?) in the zone and was apparently afraid of the color green. just perfect. good Phantom, best hero. the speeder slows as ember approaches a group of ghosts, floating in a protective circle around an island about the size of a small house. they turn to glare at the vehicle, but at embers dismissive wave part to let the craft land. as soon as the door opens a blue blur shoots out, followed closely by a smaller white figure and finally the ghost child. the sight of Lewis when they finally reach him is horrible. he'd flown blindly until he found a larger rock to land on, one with a sort of raised wall on one side to keep his back to. images from the cave played out in a high definition loop before him, even curled on the ground he could still feel himself falling, falling...

now his hands are digging into the flesh around his eyes, still desperately begging the images away. even scrunched into a ball the gaping hole that is his chest is obvious, the constant trembling and whimpers only adding to the gory display. his heart, golden and whole before, has gone pitch black, more cracks than actual pieces at this point and only held together by the strange atmosphere of the zone. the same atmosphere doing a number on the rest of him, draining his power to dangerous lows. they can see the rock behind him, and not just through the bloody window in his chest. it's been so much longer for him, even without the flashbacks draining him at this point he'd still be pretty bad off. he feels like he's been left to rot, abandoned for days, months, years, only his mind for company. maybe karma has finally caught him up and dragged him to hell, just like he must deserve for what he's done. what else would this place be for, catered so perfectly to his failures? he doesn't know how long it's been, only that he's so, so tired. even the agonizing pain in his chest has faded, his whole body numb. cold. who is he? he can't remember, his mind is too foggy. where is he? he shouldn't be here. why? this place is... bad. green. green makes bad things happen. the green had laughed. not-green had been hurt. when? who was green? why? (Lewis!) L..ew...is? something about it sounds familiar. like purple and pink and warm and happy. but. no. Lewis is black and white and cold cold cold. like him. is he him? he can't tell what his color is. was. are? something is touching him. it moves the dark away and he sees blue. blue... what is blue's name again? it says something, but all he hears is static. he can't move and blue is raining. no, that's not right. blue is happy and smiles and love, not sad, never sad, why is blue sad?

his last coherent thought, before finally fading out, is please don't be sad, blue. as vivi reaches the collapsed spirit, her fear of losing Lewis again somehow worsens. she knows what lengths Lewis would go to before using this form, and that she can see straight through him means his energy is even lower than she'd feared. grabbing a wrist she pries a hand from his eyes, only for the revealed pupil to be a dull and cloudy purple. there's no sign of recognition, though she hopes some of her panicked rambling is making it through the haze. a whimper at her side draws Vivi's attention to mystery, worriedly sniffing the abused and battered locket, which looks like it's one small breath away from crumbling completely. we need to get him inside and home, now. she doesn't have to look to see mystery shifting, the gasp behind them is enough. the kitsune can take care of Lewis, she needs to focus on his anchor. unwinding her scarf, she makes use of the wonky gravity to wrap it around the locket, both preserving its shape and making sure pieces can't fall out when she moves it. with her part done and mystery gathering Lewis in his tails, vivi grabs the delicate package and hurries back to the waiting craft. she shivers as the static feeling of the speeder's shield passes over her, but it's a small price to pay to keep everyone safe. not from the ghosts, who she really needs to thank now she thinks about it, but the reality itself.

the shield, built on the presumption all ghosts held this strange ecto energy, blocked based on the presence of it. thus, the human Danny, locket, and eventually Lewis, all pass through it no problem.

Sam and tucker had stayed in the speeder as the trio ran out, ready to make a quick getaway if this all turned sour. they couldn't really see what was happening outside, but Danny could handle it (probably). he'd call if he needed them. (maybe.)

they kept to watching the last stranger still in the back of the vehicle. well, stranger plus the weird… pink... thing.

“zone new rewrite - Created Nov 15, 2015″

stern fatherly disapproval

I've been going back through the old dp/msa posts and I have to say, I am very disappointed in all of you. honestly, with such pride we take in over-angsting for BOTH fandoms, that there wasn’t much if any discussion to be seen on this is shocking. (Though, to be fair, I just now remembered I wrote this all the way back then and never published it, buT THE POINT STANDS. My inability to write more than ¾ of a fic before getting distracted and forgetting to finish it is only moderately related to this discussion.)

At least it’s edited now, I guess? By which I mean completely rewritten. (you can still tell the parts connecting the main sections are a bit ‘eh’ but, well, ‘eh’.)

Summary: Danny captures Lewis in the thermos (as he does) and tosses him in the Ghost Zone like the rest of the town’s ghostly visitors. This is a bad thing.

The Skulls were finally arriving in the famed Amity Park, having driven for hours now to reach the paranormal hotspot. This rotation found Arthur at the wheel, Vivi riding shotgun with the current travelling deadbeat curled at her feet, and Mystery and Lewis lounging in the back. Perhaps the hours watching mile after mile of fields and trees fly past had dulled their reflexes, allowed what happened next to be, none reacting fast enough to stop it.

~

Danny had watched the orange vehicle with a vague passing interest as it turned down the street, the van’s appearance almost as gaudy as his own parents’. Probably another group of "ghost hunting" tourists, here to putter around a few days buying overpriced souvenirs before running back home at the first sight of the Box Ghost. Nothing he needed to bother dealing with.

But as it passes by, a cloudy wisp escapes his throat, and suddenly it does become his business. Shooting from his post he flies through the van's wall, barely taking in the sight of the big hulking skeleton hiding behind the two oblivious tourists before sucking it up in the thermos. He only pauses to shoot the passengers a quick smile as a “you’re welcome” for his job well done before barreling straight back out, ignoring the alarmed shouts that follow.

~

Startled at the sudden apparition, it takes the living members of the team a few seconds to react, but by then it’s far too late. Phantom’s already abducted their Lewis, their friend, trapped him and flown off to who knows where, grinning all the while. Arthur slams on the brakes, whipping the van around (sorry girl, he’ll apologize for the rough treatment later, but Lew’s far more important right now) to tear after the fleeing ghost, but he’s already disappeared.

The poor deadbeat is terrified, Boss has just been taken, and their connection to Him feels cut off, blocked somehow. All they can do now is cling to Miss Vivi, hope she and Mister Arthur will fix this.

After nearly an hour barreling down the streets seeking the white-haired spectre, the four are forced to give up the frantic searching, turning back to the hotel. Vivi clutches the shaking pink spirit like a lifeline, this is the second time Lewis has been taken right in front of her and she could do nothing to stop it. Immediately upon entering the room they set to researching Phantom, praying for any clue on how to find him and their stolen spirit.

~

The next morning, Danny comes down the stairs to find his parents talking to… visitors? clients, maybe? They sound anxious but look kind of familiar, so he listens in from the top of the steps, out of view from the kitchen.

“You don't understand though, Phantom’s taken our friend! Come on, you’re supposed to be the experts in this town, you must have some idea what happens to them-” That must be the girl he saw speaking.

“But honey, what you’re saying doesn’t make any sense.” His mom sounds like she’s trying to calm down a small child, “We may think that Phantom is malicious, but he’s never directly hurt a human, as far as we know.”

“Has the Ghost Boy finally started attacking humans? Yes!” His dad’s outburst is cut off by what must be three very angry glares, before he sheepishly clarifies, “Er, wait, no, not like that, it's horrible. But I mean, this will finally prove to everyone he’s dangerous! So they’ll stop thinking they don’t need protection from him!”

His mom takes the conversation back over before Jack can drive it even further (if unintentionally) into the ground.

“Okay honey, can you tell me what happened again? When the ghost boy took... Lewis, was it?”

“We were just driving around and Lew was in the back just sitting there not even doing anything and then there was this big flash and he was gone and then he was holding this metal thing and then he was gone too and we can’t lose him again, not so soon after we finally found him again, please-”

There’s a small silence, the woman stopping to regain her composure, the two hunters taking in the information. And then,

“Oh! Oh then it’s okay, sweetie, (well I mean no it’s not because your friend is still missing but), you don’t have to worry about Phantom having taking him! See, the ghost boy uses a Fenton Thermos he stole from us, but it only works on ghosts, not humans. So whatever he captured couldn’t have been your friend, don’t worry. He's probably still out somewhere you visited before and whatever it was was just impersonating him to follow you.”

“But Lewis IS a spirit!”

There's a pause.

“Er, what? No, that can’t be right…”

“And why not?” There’s a fourth voice, quieter but hard, with the same undercurrent of exasperation Danny himself has when discussing ghosts with his parents. “Don’t you think we’d know if our bo-best friend was a spirit? I mean, if the floating and the skull wasn’t obvious enough there’s always the fact that we had to- had to... to...” He trails off, but it’s easy enough to piece together the unsaid words.

Still, that doesn’t stop his dad from speaking, the large man prone to rambling in tense moments.

“No, we mean… How do I say this, it just, it isn’t possible! Ghosts are just too emotionally unstable to have consistent rational thought, let alone form attachments… regardless of whoever they might’ve been based off of in life. That’s what makes them so dangerous to be around, even for us. I know it may be hard to hear, but-”

The halfa jumps as something very heavy slams down on the table. It sounds almost like metal, but what-?

Then it’s the man's voice again, dangerously calm and dripping with venom that makes even Danny go still.

“You call yourselves scientists, but you’re not, are you? You’re too blinded by your own prejudices to be anything more than the next hotshot group we come across, shooting anything just for not being human. Never matters they were perfectly normal before, now they're just monsters to be shot at! Because anything that isn’t 100% human can’t really think, really feel, they’re all just mindless things to you. Hell, I don’t have a human arm, does that mean I’m not sentient? Do you-”

“Arthur that’s enough.”

If his voice is a rock hers is cold hard steel.

“But-”

“Taking our frustrations out on them does nothing but waste time and energy we could be using to find Lewis. And don’t you dare give me that look, I don’t like them talking about him like that any more than you do, but now is not the time.”

There’s the sound of a chair being pushed out from the table, and the woman takes a deep, steadying breath.

“We’ve been paranormal investigators for years, we know when a lead is bust. We came here in hopes you’d have some information to help us, but I can see now it was a lost cause. With that mindset, there’s no way you’d be able to follow the dead’s thought process, let alone accurately anticipate their next move. Ghosts work in patterns just like humans do, we have enough experience that we can get Lewis back without your help.”

There's a deep, resigned sigh.

“Look, I know we aren’t going to change your view of the dead from this, but I hope one day you reexamine what exactly makes you think about them the way you do.”

“Now come on, Arthur, let’s check in with Mystery at the hotel and see if he’s managed to dig up anything actually useful for us.”

~

Danny stays frozen on the steps as the door slams shut, guilt slowly creeping in as the situation unravels. It had just been a normal patrol yesterday, how had it managed to go this fantastically wrong? Just fly around, suck up some ghosts, and toss them back through the portal. How the hell was he supposed to know this one was any different? All he’d done was take out the guy before he could do anything funny, stop the problem before it even started, but now he was the one in the wrong? (He won’t admit he’s much like his parents when it comes to judging ghosts, even when he knows plenty of them aren’t malicious. Guilty until proven innocent, but with his track record meeting ghosts he couldn’t be to blame. Shoot first, ask questions never, but wasn’t that the same thing he chastised his parents for? …No, best to cut that train of thought off right now-)

Not liking these feelings of guilt, he slips out and trots after the two, following them down the street until he judges it to be a safe enough distance from the house his parents won’t see them if they look out the front door.

“Hey, uh, you’re the guys looking for your... friend, right?” He shuffles his feet awkwardly as they stare at him, unsure how to actually go about doing this. Damn him and his lack of planning.

“So, I overheard what happened and er, I... think I could help? Like my friends and I know lots about Phantom… My parents don’t know about it but I can show you where I, uh, where the ghosts go. When he catches them I mean. Except they’re also there whenever they aren’t in Amity so I guess then too, which would be most of the time then? but, uh.” Jack isn’t the only one in the family to ramble, but the blond man (Arthur?) is tapping his foot impatiently and giving him a look that reads ‘just get on with it’.

The blue haired girl, who he still doesn’t know the name of, looks suspicious, but they’ve followed worse leads before, and if this kid knew what he was talking about, well, it would certainly help…

~

Of their group Vivi is generally the one known to be impatient, not one for idling, nor interested in “just going over the transmission again, Vi, I swear it’ll only be like ten minutes, honest.” But right now Arthur is upset, and angry, and an upset, angry Arthur is a snappy Arthur, and also an Arthur that just wants this kid to get to the god damned point already so they can leave and keep looking for their missing teammate.

~

“Right, sorry. So, uh, come back to Fentonworks tonight at, like... eleven thirty maybe? Mom and Dad should be asleep by then so don’t ring the doorbell or anything, it would probably end up being the only time ever that they didn’t sleep like rocks, with how my luck tends to be…”

Before they can press for more information, he’s off like a shot, throwing a “sorryseeyagottagobye!” over his shoulder at the two. They may give chase, they may not, but he isn’t looking back to check. He’s never been great at lying, and if these guys are as actually experienced with ghosts as they say, their questions will likely be a lot harder to weasel his way out of. He’s not gonna chance being found out any sooner than he has to. So as he rounds a corner he flickers invisible, and sure enough the woman rounds the bend mere seconds later, pausing to catch her breath and swear (quite creatively, he must say) as she sees he’s disappeared.

Okay, he’s bought himself some time to fix this, he just has to make a few calls…

Luckily, he’d only tossed the disoriented skeleton through the portal, not dumped him further in like he’d started doing with some of his more... annoying enemies. He shouldn’t be that hard to find.

(famous last words.)

~

Eleven on the dot finds the remaining Mystery Skulls standing beneath the gaudy neon lights of the Fenton household. At her side, Vivi clutches a bag housing their remaining spirit, heavily warded with every spell in the book (and some others besides). If Phantom tried to take their deadbeat too, he would have to fight them for it, and they were taking absolutely no chances.

The research they’d done in the meantime hadn’t make their moods any lighter. Video after video of Phantom showcased his fighting abilities and power, spectacular battles around the city that left buildings in shambles and craters in their wake. But from a myriad of soundbites they managed to salvage, they’d pieced together that after the fights Phantom took his captured opponents to a place known as the “Ghost Zone”. Further searching pulled up dozens of local reports on the place, from an incident apparently stranding part of the town there a few years prior. While witness accounts ranged wildly, the common threads marked it as huge, green, and swarming with aggressive ghosts. And looking back at some of the opponents in those fights, however strong Lewis might be his chances weren’t looking good. At all.

~

Sam and Tucker round the corner to see two strange figures clustered on the sidewalk ahead. Their hands reflexively dart to their weapons, before connecting Danny’s descriptions to the group ahead, along with what was probably their dog. Damn, they were early then. Hopefully Danny was actually ready and not just doing something stupi-oh who were they kidding he was always doing something stupid.

They haven’t moved twenty feet before the dog growls, and the two humans whip around to stare at them. (So much for sneaking past and kicking Danny’s butt into gear, then.) Seeing as they’ve been spotted already, the teens close the remaining distance with quick strides.

The blue haired woman is the first to speak when they reach the house, suspicion not quite covering up the worry in her voice.

“And who might you two be, then?”

Sam thinks for a moment, then decides, fuck it, they’re going to learn soon anyway, might as well go with the (partial, at least) truth.

“I’m Sam, this is Tucker. We’re here to help Danny find your ghost since he’s a horrible driver who couldn't move straight to save his life. And for backup since, well, he can hardly go five minutes without getting into some kind of trouble.”

they get a grunt in acknowledgement from the blond, but it's otherwise silent for the few minutes they spend waiting for the door to open.

------!!!!-------

greengreengreen EVERYWHERE, no ground beneath your feet to stop you falling, falling... the space scattered with thousands of pointed rocks and green fog twisting through them... and if this is Arthur's reaction, Lewis is even worse off. and he's been stuck here not for minutes, but hours, days. reliving his death over and over, no reprieve from the constant memories. the team is so focused on Arthur's reaction it's not until mystery renders him unconscious they turn to vivi. standing stock still, unfocused eyes staring unblinking out the window, trembling with near invisible tears trailing down her face. because her boys aren't the only ones with memories of the cave, and while she may be the "strong" one of the group, when it comes to reminders of that night her ptsd is no less real. there you are dipstick! I've been looking all over for you! not now, ember, get out of the way. can't you see I'm busy? not until you tell me why you thought it was a good idea to toss a spirit into the ghost zone. are you completely mental? huh? don't play dumb with me, not even you wouldn't be able to tell. he looks nothing like a ghost! it's all we've been able to do by keeping guard, none of us can even get close to the guy with the state he's in! what are you even talking about-! vivi shoves his head away from the glass, calling out to the flaming musician. yell at him later, tell us where Lewis is now! ember looks down at the new human, sizing her up before nodding, gliding away. I still don't get it, what was she even going on about? I mean yeah, I shouldn't have tossed the guy in here, but the rest of that? what did that even mean? I believe I may be able to explain, a voice calls from the back, and all three kids jerks their heads around to stare at the (talking!) dog. (what the hell?) sam nearly crashes the speeder into an island before she collects herself enough to glance back at the window. ignoring their reactions, mystery continues to speak from his place in Arthur's lap, the mechanic petting him robotically (heh.). I didn't recognize it at first from the descriptions, but now I'm here I can tell this ghost zone, as you put it, is one part of the realm of the dead. the place we just left, your real world, is the realm of the living. ghosts, at least the ones that you know, are formed and exist in this dead realm. it's where they draw their energy from, regardless of whatever focus or reason they have for their being. a ghost that spends too long in the human world would begin to break down, the very reality chipping away at them piece by piece. similarly, a human spending too long unprotected in the ghosts world would suffer similar effects, their body fighting against what knows they should not be there. that's why, for instance, demons must be summoned from their own realm and strike deals with humans to stay on that plain. he looks straight at Danny beings that have rights, as it were, to both places may come and go as they please with no ill effects. i, for instance, may pass through both living and yokai realms if I were to so choose.

[anchor is physical, ties to world]

Lewis, however, is a spirit, brought forth and tied to the living realm. he's one of the, we call them ghosts, but imprints might be a better title, that make up the majority of 'ghost' activity humans encounter... well, outside of this town, at least.

I assume the ghosts you know of fall into different types or species, probably based on their power level or abilities. our own ghosts, or spirits as the name here for them seems to be, are much the same. they can range anywhere from vague wisps of an idea to a fully formed consciousness equal to or even above their former human status.

[these former-living are connected to physical objects, vessels, their soul reside in. this anchor, as we call it, thus ties them to the human realm, being a real, semi-physical object. it's a shell of sorts, breaking a ghost's anchor destroys the (self contained environment), releasing and exposing their soul, which unprotected dissipates very quickly.]

as for how this relates back to the idea of realms, well, the lower the power of an entity the easier it is to be torn apart... he pauses at Vivi's sudden realization, dashing to the forgotten bag on the seat. tearing open the pouch, she lets out a quiet 'oh thank the gods' as a tiny pink head pops out, chirping in concern. it winds its way into Vivi's arms, nuzzling her cheek. the woman looks at mystery, hoping that protection he had talked about was working on the deadbeat too. he nodded, as long as they were to stay in this vehicle, they'd probably be safe from harm. probably. I'd also suggest arthur stay too, even if he wasn't already... compromised, he looked over to the teens, still listening closely. suffice to say the scenery would certainly not be good for him. and for him to be the first thing Lewis sees after such an episode, arthur stiffens and the dog looks up at him sadly, even if he knows rationally it's not the you he thinks it is, he won't be in his right mind... it's gonna be okay, arthur. vivi settles beside the blond and leans against him, careful not to squish the spirit nestled in her arms. it'll just be like those first few weeks with the dreams. which i mean isn't ideal, obviously, but we've survived it once already, we can do it again if we have to. and it's not like before where he'd been alone for a year, it's really only been, what, a few hours, a day? um, actually... the trio (plus one) looks up, having already forgotten they weren't alone in the vehicle. i, uh, so that whole thing with different realities your, uh, dog? was talking about? heh, yeah, so... funny thing about the zone is, um. time goes differently in here. so like, an hour here is only a few minutes in the real, or, erm, living world... vivi completed the kids thought ...and a few hours on our side would be... days... oh gods no, Lewis. Danny flinches, another shot of guilt stabbing his conscience. ugh, of all the ghosts (or, er, spirits?) he could have snagged yesterday it had to have been this one. the only ghost in the whole town that couldn't live (unlive?) in the zone and was apparently afraid of the color green. just perfect. good Phantom, best hero. the speeder slows as ember approaches a group of ghosts, floating in a protective circle around an island about the size of a small house. they turn to glare at the vehicle, but at ember’s dismissive wave, part to let the craft land. as soon as the door opens a blue blur shoots out, followed closely by a smaller white figure and finally the ghost child. the sight of Lewis when they finally reach him is horrible. he'd flown blindly until he found a larger rock to land on, one with a sort of raised wall on one side to keep his back to. images from the cave played out in a high definition loop before him, even curled on the ground he could still feel himself falling, falling...

now his hands are digging into the flesh around his eyes, still desperately begging the images away. even scrunched into a ball the gaping hole that is his chest is obvious, the constant trembling and whimpers only adding to the gory display. his heart, golden and whole before, has gone pitch black, more cracks than actual pieces at this point and only held together by the strange atmosphere of the zone. the same atmosphere doing a number on the rest of him, draining his power to dangerous lows. they can see the rock behind him, and not just through the bloody window in his chest. it's been so much longer for him, even without the flashbacks draining him at this point he'd still be pretty bad off. he feels like he's been left to rot, abandoned for days, months, years, only his mind for company. maybe karma has finally caught him up and dragged him to hell, just like he must deserve for what he's done. what else would this place be for, catered so perfectly to his failures? he doesn't know how long it's been, only that he's so, so tired. even the agonizing pain in his chest has faded, his whole body numb. cold. who is he? he can't remember, his mind is too foggy. where is he? he shouldn't be here. why? this place is... bad. green. green makes bad things happen. the green had laughed. not-green had been hurt. when? who was green? why? (Lewis!) L..ew...is? something about it sounds familiar. like purple and pink and warm and happy. but… no. Lewis is black and white and cold cold cold. like him. is he him? he can't tell what his color is. was. are? something is touching him. it moves the dark away and he sees blue. blue... what is blue's name again? it says something, but all he hears is static. he can't move and blue is raining. no, that's not right. blue is happy and smiles and love, not sad, never sad, why is blue sad?

his last coherent thought, before finally fading out, is please don't be sad, blue. as vivi reaches the collapsed spirit, her fear of losing Lewis again somehow worsens. she knows what lengths Lewis would go to before using this form, and that she can see straight through him means his energy is even lower than she'd feared. grabbing a wrist she pries a hand from his eyes, only for the revealed pupil to be a dull and cloudy purple. there's no sign of recognition, though she hopes some of her panicked rambling is making it through the haze. a whimper at her side draws Vivi's attention to mystery, worriedly sniffing the abused and battered locket, which looks like it's one small breath away from crumbling completely. "we need to get him inside and home, now." she doesn't have to look to see mystery shifting, the gasp behind them is enough. the kitsune can take care of Lewis, she needs to focus on his anchor. unwinding her scarf, she makes use of the wonky gravity to wrap it around the locket, both preserving its shape and making sure pieces can't fall out when she moves it. with her part done and mystery gathering Lewis in his tails, vivi grabs the delicate package and hurries back to the waiting craft. she shivers as the static feeling of the speeder's shield passes over her, but it's a small price to pay to keep everyone safe. not from the ghosts, who she really needs to thank now she thinks about it, but the reality itself.

Sam and tucker had stayed in the speeder as the trio ran out, ready to make a quick getaway if this all turned sour. they couldn't really see what was happening outside, but Danny could handle it (probably). he'd call if he needed them. (maybe.)

they kept to watching the last stranger still in the back of the vehicle. well, stranger plus the weird… pink... thing.

#dp/msa #mystery skulls animated #mystery skulls #danny phantom #wip #VERY wip :') #so wip it's not even funny please know that going into this #answrs writes #mine

[hattafan2593]

Danny Phantom Rewrites - Episode 1: Mystery Meat

Like most kids, I watched Danny Phantom growing up. It was - and still is - one of my favorite cartoons.

That said, the show had many, many flaws, both character and plot-wise.

So I decided to come up with some hypothetical changes that may have made the show better. Call it an AU of sorts.

So without further ado, here are some changes to the first episode, Mystery Meat.

1. The parents. Writers really seem to love the "parents who are oblivious/ignorant to the point of being neglectful and abusive" trope, don't they? Well, we're scrapping that. In this version of the show, Jack and Maddie Fenton behave like actual parents, taking an interest in their kids lives outside of ghosts and acting like responsible adults, or at least more responsible than the canon Fentons. They're also less gung-ho and trigger happy, being more focused on paranormal research and data collecting than actual ghost-hunting.

Also, they know about Danny being half-ghost from the start. The B-plot focuses on them trying to find a cure from their son's "ailment", only to run into roadblocks, as any solution they come up with is likely to hurt Danny, or make things worse.

In the show, the ramifications of Danny being half-ghost are glossed over for the most part. Here, it's part of the plot - their son is a walking Schrödinger's cat, half-dead, half alive. (And yes, in the rewrite it is acknowledged that the ghosts in the show, at least the majority of them, were once humans that had died, and are not, in fact, alien creatures from an alternate dimension) And intentionally or not, it was their invention that made him this way.

This leaves them conflicted - on the one hand, the portal is now active. They now have access to the Ghost Zone, and the chance to study and learn more about the paranormal and how it affects the world around them. On the other hand, it came at the cost of their son getting hurt, and it's likely that they'd be putting their family in more danger if they leave the portal on. This actually makes them consider giving up paranormal research altogether, something that Jazz vocally encourages.

At the end of the episode, they decide that the portal is too dangerous, and have it shut down (for now). Of course, this doesn't stop all the ghosts that are suddenly showing up in Amity Park. After all, theirs is not the only ghost portal in existence, is it? But that's for another episode...

2. The main plot. Look, there's no nice way of saying this -canon!Sam is a bitch. A holier-than-thou, hypocritical, unlikeable bitch. Rewrite! Sam has most of canon!Sam's traits, only significantly toned down. Her stances and beliefs are more nuanced, and when she tries to make changes, she does so in ways that she genuinely thinks will be beneficial, and not just have her be edgy for the sake of being edgy.

As such, the rewrite has Sam prepare an actual vegetarian/vegan menu, and not just have the students eat grass. There are some objectors, like Tucker and Dash, but for the most part, no one really has a problem with it. Danny even tries a veggie burger and says it's delicious.

The rewrite then follows the canon episode's plot - Danny senses the Lunch Lady, Dash comes over and starts his shit, Danny starts a food fight as a distraction to get away, he confronts the Lunch Lady.

However, this is where things differ a bit.

When the Lunch Lady asks, "Did someone change the menu?", instead of saying Sam did it, Danny (backed up by Sam and Tucker) makes up a lie that they got a memo about the freezer being broken and that all the meat was spoiled, hence the change in menu. LL inspects the freezer, which is in working condition, and has plenty of meat inside. Suspicious, she goes to investigate. Realizing that they just threw the faculty and staff under the bus, Danny goes ghost and chases after her.

They end up in the teacher's lounge, where the staff are having their meat buffet. LL is furious. Not only did they change her menu, but these adults are apparently also stealing food from children and lying to them about it! Well, if it's meat they want, it's meat they'll get! She changes into a meat monster, and a fight ensues.

3. Dash and Lancer. Are you tired of teachers in media willingly turning a blind eye to bullies' BS?! So am I! So when Lancer gives Danny and his friends detention for starting the food fight, he gives Dash detention, too, as there were multiple eyewitnesses who saw Dash assaulting Danny beforehand. Dash objects, of course, but Lancer puts his foot down and says that Dash will serve detention, or he'll lose his spot on the football team. So, yeah! Dash actually suffers the consequences of his actions! Yay!

4. The Lunch Lady. I actually like her as a villain, and I wish she was utilized more, as a character if not as a main antagonist. That said, the rewrite has her personality changed slightly - instead of exploding in anger, she mostly maintains her sugary sweet tone, albeit with an undercut of malice. She only really gets angry when she thinks the adults stole the meat. With the kids however, she speaks sweetly and gently, almost grandmotherly, even when fighting Danny.

Like other ghosts in the series, however, the Lunch Lady has a one-track mind - her menu has been changed, and she needs to fix it. Then it's, "the school staff is starving the students, they need to pay!" She dismisses Danny's attempts to reason with her. When the Fentons show up to confront the ghost, she easily swats them away. Even when Sam confesses that it was her that changed the menu, she just pats her head and says "oh sweetie, you don't need to lie for them." Remember that Danny at this point in the series is still struggling with his powers, so she doesn't really take him seriously. It's only near the end of the episode does she go all out against him, and he barely manages to hold his own until he gets his hands on the Fenton thermos.

Aaaaaand that's it! That my rewrite of Danny Phantom Season 1 Episode 1 "Mystery Meat"! Let me know what you think!

hattafan out

#hattafan2593 #danny phantom #episode rewrite #au #fuck butch hartman #fix it

[its-rat-time-babey]

Amity park headcanons:

Mail carriers often carry empty “decoy boxes” that appear different than their other packages (perfectly square and usually painted gold or other metallic colours) to offer to the box ghost. He gets the shiny decoy box and in return the mail carrier gets to deliver their actual package without any issues.

The box ghost will sometimes even reward the people that give him especially good quality boxes by protecting them from other ghosts.

Cujo may have been the first Axion guard dog to come back as a ghost, but he was far from the last. Amity Parkers eventually nicknamed this type of ghost “Axion dogs”, a nickname which soon spread to cover most doglike ghosts.

Basically if you hear people talking about an “Axion dog” showing up somewhere in town, don’t go there without proper protection. They were still trained guard dogs in life and even if they don’t remember exactly what they’re guarding now, they WILL treat you like an intruder if you get too close. And that’s assuming that the “Axion dog” IS an actual ghost dog, because the nickname extends to any ghost resembling a dog or wolf.

Crime rates in Amity are extremely low. They say those who break the law are better off handing themselves in, because even if you manage to get away, you may hear an unseen voice reminding you of what you did, and once you hear that voice once, no matter where you go, even outside of Amity Park, it will always find you and pull you directly into the ghost zone for eternity.

Amity Parkers are a very superstitious bunch.

All across Amity, it’s considered bad luck to step on someone else’s shadow. Especially in areas near and along the highway, because sometimes a person dressed in biker clothes will walk by, looking like a perfectly normal human being and meaning no harm to anyone. But step on their shadow and you will quickly realize just why Amity Parkers have this superstition.

And that’s not counting the one shadow that wanders Amity Park, attached to nothing, darting between alleyways. Unlike Johnny, it very much DOES mean harm. If you are seen by it, head for the nearest area with ghost protection. It will follow you, listing off everything you’ve ever hated about yourself, mocking you for everything you’ve ever regretted, but do not stop heading towards protection. It will tell you your own secrets, secrets that no one but you should know, and you will start feeling hopeless, lost, nihilistic and tired, but do not stop heading towards protection. You can cover your ears to try and block out the noise but it will continue to speak directly into your head, sometimes switching it’s voice to that of your loved ones or even to your own voice, mocking you all the way, but do not stop heading towards protection, and whatever you do, DO NOT find yourself alone with the shadow, lest it decide that feeding off your misery isn’t enough and begins to feed off of your lifeforce. If no protection is nearby but other ghosts are visible head towards them instead, as ghosts hate The Suicide Spirit just as much as humans do.

The phrase “I wish” is never spoken by anyone.

After the ghost king incident, some ghosts explained to some Amity Parkers that they never say the name of the ghost king, for fear that he may hear them and stir in his sleep. Now most of Amity Park refuses to say the name “Pariah Dark” as well, and any attempts to say it will result in all Amity Parkers in the room shushing you.

Computer parts are treated like armed bombs. Stores selling computer parts are legally required to have at least two forms of ghost protection and broken parts are destroyed or repurposed as quickly as possible.

Most stores sell two different kinds of incense. Ghost irritants, with most made from blood blossoms and a bunch of other things to dilute it down and make it safer/better smelling for humans and Ghost soothers, which are made from a wide mix of plants and herbs associated with death and the afterlife.

It’s illegal to grow blood blossoms without a license in most parts of America because they are extremely poisonous and the smoke made from burning blood blossoms is extremely bad for your health. Ghost irritants get around this by mixing the blossoms with other, less poisonous plants and various anti-ghost chemicals. Ghost irritants are too diluted to cause as much damage to ghosts as a blood blossom but they still damage the ghosts physical form if they stick around too long, not to mention that the smell of an irritant is OVERPOWERING as hell to ghosts.

The Fentons don’t use ghost irritants because Jazz, Maddie, Danny and Ellie are all genuinely allergic to blood blossoms and Danny and Ellie are both “allergic” to the stuff used in irritants that don’t include blood blossoms.

Ghost Soothers are the opposite of irritants. They calm ghosts down and safely reduce the effects of ghostly obsessions. If the ghost is rampaging because of its obsession (which is the case 90% of the time) a ghost soother can make it come to its senses and stop whatever it’s doing. It won’t work on ghosts that are genuinely malicious however, and the more a ghost is consumed by its obsession, the more soother it needs. Usually one is enough to get the ghost to peacefully leave whoever lit the incense alone though.

Things that reduce the effects of obsessions are rare to nonexistent in the ghost zone, so ghosts are common customers for shops that sell ghost soothers, often without them knowing. Sometimes they will send in a ghost that looks human enough to not raise any questions, sometimes they possess people so they can enter and some that really struggle with keeping their obsessions in check will sneak in while the store is closed and leave money on the counter.

In abandoned, run down parts of Amity it’s not uncommon to see ghosts smoking soothing incenses like cigarettes.

Even though the public’s opinion on ghosts is rather divided, all residents of Amity Park, from the Ghost lovers to the Fentons follow four rules when it comes to interacting with ghosts.

Never say it’s living name, unless the ghost gives you permission. (If you don’t have permission, saying a ghost’s living name can cause the ghost to briefly relive it’s own death and uncontrollably lash out at everything around it. This goes doubly so if the ghost doesn’t remember it’s own past.)

Never directly ask it what it’s obsession is. It’ll tell you on its own if it wants to. (Ghosts are very secretive about their obsessions and don’t take kindly to anything else trying to learn them.)

NEVER use its obsession against it or threaten its obsession. (Doing this will not only seriously piss off the ghost, but also piss off every ghost in a mile radius. To use a ghosts obsession against it is to loudly announce to the entire ghost zone, “I AM AN ASSHOLE WHO IS LOOKING FOR A FIGHT! COME AND KILL ME!”.)

Never ask it how it died. (This doesn’t cause any harm to the ghost, but it’s still considered impolite, especially if the ghost died recently. Older ghosts that have long since come to terms with being dead have no issues with being asked.)

No one in Amity Park respects the GIW. Absolutely no one.

#danny phantom #headcanons #amity park #amity parkers are built different #really spectra should be their own warning #zone culture #worldbuilding

[phantomrose96]

Joyrider

(Welcome to another warm-up writing piece. cw for mild body horror)

...

The mall food court doubled rather nicely as a battle-dome.

It fit the bill: a flat and circular arena, crowned two-stories up by a hemisphere of glass windows which lapsed iridescent in the maelstrom of ecto-fire.

Spectator chairs sat empty, hastily shoved back and knocked over by the Amity Park mall patrons who knew to leg it at the first sound of explosions and the first sign of the atmosphere tipping dark. Admittedly, the patron evacuation took longer than Danny anticipated, and he backed himself into a corner playing defense for the 50 some-odd people who, worn-out on the every-day mundanity of ghost alarms, took their time gathering belongings, or shutting off burners, or working in a few last bites of a burger.

So with the crowd gone and the stage their own, Danny found himself pressed back against a vat of french fry oil, hands braced against the handle of a broom he held out horizontally, which the ghost gripped with equal measure and shoved her full weight against.

“Oh, why not take a little dip, Ghost Boy? I hear the water’s nice.”

“No thanks,” Danny answered, shoving harder. “I never was much of a hot tub guy. You on the other hand—”

Danny set a foot forward and pivoted, body fueling the torque as he spun the broom, and tore the ghost with him, a pirouette to swap their spots and jam the ghost back-pressed to the fryer.

“—you seem like you’d like it hot.”

The ghost barked a laugh, jaw stretching lower and loose than Danny was comfortable with.

“Ha! You sure? Not very heroic of you to deep fry this girl I’m possessing.”

Danny faltered. His grip slipped. His blood chilled to ice as the information clicked in place – as he recognized the sensation of a ghost talking through someone. This wasn’t the ghost’s own form. This was some girl. How had he not felt—

A blast took him by the ribs. Danny doubled over, immediately kicked back. A foot found contact with his face, driving him down, until the girl’s wet and slippery fingers pinned him down by the wrists.

Danny strained. He could pivot his wrist a fraction of an inch left or right, but he could not break the hold.

“Get off me!”

And a voice answered from behind him.

“I can help with that.”

Danny craned his neck. Upside down, vantage point from the floor, he registered Sam’s combat boots slam into focus. She bent to one knee, a bazooka locked on the other. It charged, whined, and erupted with an explosion of green light.

The ghost shrieked. It took only an instant of resistance before the ghost tore cleanly from the girl possessed.

“Now if you don’t mind me—” Tucker, by the voice. Danny heard the whine of a Fenton Thermos heating up. “—I’d officially like to change my order from fries to soup.”

The beam burst forth, and the writhing, shrieking, yelping form of the exorcised ghost clawed and scratched in Danny’s direction before the thermos consumed her in full.

“Really? ‘Fries to soup’? Even Danny can do better than that.”

“Hey,” Danny answered.

“I was thinking on my feet, Sam. I didn’t hear any witty quips from you.”

The conversation fell away from Danny’s focus as the full human weight of the possessed girl dropped down on him. Gently, Danny gripped her by the shoulder, lifting her as he pushed himself into a sitting position.

“Your parents’ anti-possession gear is getting good. I don’t think I’ve seen an exorcism work that quickly.” Sam’s voice, now at his side. Danny glanced over, finding her kneeling beside him. “Is she hurt?”

Danny gave the girl a once-over. She was pale, cold, lips seeping blue. A mottled, blackish bruise spread across her temple, partially hidden beneath loose red bangs.

“I don’t… totally know. I didn’t land any hits on her, thankfully. But who knows what that ghost might have done. We should call an ambulance.”

“On it,” Tucker, from behind.

“Do you… do you think the bazooka might have hurt her?” Sam asked.

Danny shook his head. “Mom and Dad have blasted each other with that thing a hundred times. Dad got himself possessed by the box ghost for a trial run. It doesn’t hurt people. …Maybe she just needs a minute.”

“Lay her down, maybe?”

“Good idea.”

Danny eased forward, careful in his movements. Something about his grip slipped, sliding loose and rolling forward, and she fell unceremoniously from his arms, shoulder knocking ground as she lay there partially turned on her side.

“Danny!”

“Sorry! I didn’t—something slipped!”

“Well don’t leave her like—” Sam gripped a hand to the girl’s shoulder, weight behind her wrist to roll the girl fully onto her back. Sam’s hand froze, and then yanked away.

“What?” Danny asked.

“That didn’t feel right.” Sam only stared down, her hand hovering, twitching in increments. “Way too cold… and loose.”

“Loose?”

“Danny, look at her hands. What’s wrong with her hands?”

Danny looked. The skin stretched and wrapped the bones of her fingers as if rotated partway around. Her fingernails sat off-center, twisted around and bunched up like a glove. Sam’s hand came back into view, and she clamped it to the girl’s wrist.

“It’s like jelly. Danny it’s like jelly. Why is she this cold? Danny, I don’t think she’s—”

Something new caught Danny’s eye, a purple discoloration peeking out from the bottom ruffles of the girl’s shirt. His hands seemed to move on their own as he reached down, and pinched the bottom of her shirt, and pulled it back.

Black bruising consumed her torso, caving deep and bloating, pruning around the trails of heavy stitching that ran along the tracks of surgical cuts carving through her abdomen.

Danny yanked his hand away as if burned.

“Danny, she’s not breathing.”

The rest of Danny’s thoughts drowned in the swelling wail of the approaching ambulance siren.

…

Outside the Fenton Portal, green lighting doused the only part of Danny’s form not hidden in shadow, and danced with the fire of his glowing green eyes. Danny uncapped the thermos in his hand, and he trailed his thumb along the eject switch.

A new consuming green light belted forth, lasting only a moment until it vanished with a twin-braided ghost in its wake. The ghost blinked, smoothing over her hair and pulling the ends of her braids over her shoulders.

“Oh, it’s the Ghost Boy again. I thought you’d just throw me back in the Ghost Zone. Are you interested in a round 2?”

“No, not interested,” Danny answered, tone colder than ice.

“Yeesh, you’re quite sour. No more puns?”

“Why were you possessing that girl?”

“Hmm?”

“Why were you possessing her?”

The ghost blinked, green portal light mixing murkily with her purple eyes. “No particular reason. It was just a joyride.”

“A joyr—she was dead.”

Another blink. “Yeah I know. She was sitting in the morgue. She was in like a car crash or something and they already took all her organs. They didn’t need her. And I was gonna give her back, but you had to go and make it a whole thing.” The girl swooped forward, eyes wide and roving over Danny. “You seem mad. Wanna call a truce?” She stuck a hand forward. “I’m Melissa, by the way.”

Danny jolted, eyes flashing brighter. “No, you’re not. That girl was Melissa.”

“Oh for real?” Melissa let out a chuckle. “Crazy coincidence. I like don’t even know that many Melissas. Anyway truce?”

“No.” Danny ran his fingers through his hair. “You were possessing the body of a dead girl and you made me fight her! Don’t you see how that’s—that’s so—how fucked up—that you’d even—”

“Well I mean, I didn’t make you fight me. You made that happen. I was minding my business.”

“Doing what?”

“Shopping. Why else would I take a body for a joyride? I stole some cute clothes to wear. Stole some food to eat. Oh! That outfit I was wearing when we were fighting? Yeah I picked that out. She was in like a hospital gown when I found her. Super cute improvement right?”

An ectoblast sounded and connected with the wall behind Melissa, missing her a foot to the right. Danny’s hand glowed, and his eyes focused with a razor sharpness.

“Stop talking like that, okay? It’s pissing me off. I need you to tell me you know this was fucked up.”

Melissa put a finger to her chin. “I mean I guess stealing is kinda wrong. They were all like, big box corporate stores don’t worry.”

“The. Dead. Body.”

And Melissa fell silent a moment, violet eyes probing deep into Danny’s before widening. “Oh. Oh you’re like for-real mad about that. Like actually. I thought you were like, making an ironic joke.”

“Why the hell would I be joking about this??”

Melissa cocked her head to the side. “Well because you’re doing it too, duh. Like, duh.”

A huff of air cut against Danny’s teeth, an involuntary noise, incredulous, a guffaw he didn’t consciously make. The jelly sensation of decomposing flesh was back under his fingers. “I am not—would never—I’ve never even seen a dead body before this thing with you and I’d never in a million years even think for even a fucking second that I’d want to possess a dead body. What’s wrong with you?!”

Melissa bobbed a little in the air, ends of her braids trailing over the straps of her ephemeral sundress. “See this is why I really can’t tell if you’re joking or not. What are you talking about? You’re doing it right now.” She clasped her hands behind her back. “The black-haired boy whose corpse you’re possessing. Why are you allowed to do it?”

Danny froze. He laughed, heavy, with an uncomfortable force. “Myself, you mean? I’m not possessing myself. I am myself. I’m a half-ghost.”

Melissa met his laugh. “Oh what? No way like, that’s your own corpse? How’d you even get back to it in time? That’s crazy lucky like you must have died right near a portal or something.”

An involuntary shiver traced down Danny’s spine.

“…I’m not dead.” His eyes shifted around, and Danny dropped to the floor. He set a hand against the wall, throwing on the lights to the Fenton basement. Rings swept around his form, green iridescent eyes sweeping blue, white hair seeping black. “Look. Literally look at me. I’m not dead.”

And Melissa swooped closer. She set a finger to her bottom lip and hovered a foot in front of Danny, drinking him in. She swept to the side, like a swimmer in the water, sweeping around him in a full arc. She edged closer and pinched her fingers against the exposed skin on Danny’s arm. He flinched.

“Oh wow there’s like, not even any decay or anything. Your human brain even feels like it’s working it’s all like, electro-magnety. How long were you dead before you got back to your body?”

“I didn’t die.”

“Then what did happen?”

“I got shocked by the Fenton Portal, okay? It was just a lab accident and it gave me powers.”

“Oh. Oh.” Melissa’s eyes shot wide. “Oh you didn’t die near a portal… You died in a portal. You didn’t even have to get back to find your body at all. You must have appeared like practically on top of your own body. That’s crazy lucky. That’s so lucky. Your body was like, probably only dead a microsecond before you hopped back in. No wonder it’s so well-preserved.”

Danny swatted her away. “You’re not listening to me.”

“You’re not listening to me.” Melissa floated backwards. “What do you think is more likely? A bajillion ecto-volts somehow gave you superpowers that exactly mirror everything a regular dead ghost can do? …Or you died, and became a regular old ghost, and did what any regular old ghost can do, which is possess a freshly-dead dead body?”

“…I’m half-ghost,” Danny answered, human heart pounding in his chest. “I know what I am.”

Melissa bobbed back, feet pointed backwards until the soles of her feet skimmed the matrix of the portal. “I see you’ve made up your mind. That’s alright. But it was still pretty mean of you to accuse me like a big hypocrite like that.”

“I’ll destroy you if you ever try that again.”

“Oh I’ll try asking permission next time okay? Promise.” Melissa’s feet sank into the surface of the portal. “But, before I go, I’ve just got one more question to leave you with.”

“Go.”

“Why should a lethal accident do anything other than kill you?”

“Go.”

“Maybe you’ll have an answer for me next time I see you. Byeee!”

A spark of white erupted from the portal, consuming, absorbing, and fizzling out as Melissa’s form vanished into the ether beyond.

…

“Hey! Yo! Danny, come check this out!”

Danny rounded the stairs, unsocked feet creaking the floorboards with each step. Danny yawned, and blinked, and rubbed at his bruised eyes with the sleeve of his pajama top.

“Still asleep? That’s fine! You don’t have to do anything. Just come over here and look at what your old pop’s been up to.”

Danny entered the living room, where Jack sat hunched on the couch surrounded by an arsenal of power tools, rags, oil, soldering equipment, and scrap metal. From beside him he hefted a bazooka into view.

“This is the Fentonzooka 3.2.17. Amped up and equipped with all the latest in ghost-busting and human-saving technology.”

Danny blinked. “3.2.17?”

“Yep. This baby’s got 17 bug patches, tweaks, and internal improvements since the 3.2.0. The 3.2.0 was the advent of the snack compartment in the side. Look!” Jack spun a dial, revealing a chamber half-filled with pistachios.

Danny only stared.

Jack hefted the bazooka onto his shoulder. “Even better, Mads and I finally got rid of the last little sting humans feel when it’s fired. It’s now completely 100% harmless to humans. It feels like the breeze from a standing fan when it hits ya.” Jack turned, and he aimed the barrel at Danny. “Wanna try it out?”

Danny stood, and Danny stared, and Danny said nothing.

What might happen when it hit him?

Would it hit like the gentle breeze of a fan? Wash over him like air conditioning? Tingle cool and pleasant against his human fingers, human face, human skin?

Would it do something else?

Why should a lethal accident do anything other than kill you?

Jack eased the bazooka a bit off center, pulling his eyes away from the sight. He stared directly at Danny. “Danny?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you want to try it out?”

Danny stood.

Danny stared.

Danny wondered if he’d have an answer for Melissa the next time he saw her.

#danny phantom #dp #dp fanfiction #long post #this idea is actually from uhhhhhh probably like 2 years ago #back when i was still in the midst of not being able to write anything so #stuck this idea in the microwave for this warm up fic

[lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks]

Was thinking about the OP Danny tag and had an Idea.

So you know that one fic where everyone not from Amity Park are instinctively terrified of Danny? It’s basically that but with superheroes.

The supers are expecting, prepared for even, the aura of danger that Phantom and other ghosts emit and therefore aren’t too freaked out by him.

What they aren’t expecting however is feeling Existential Dread when they meet the otherwise unassuming son of Dr. and Dr. Fenton.

I'm not sure which fic that is but please!! send me a link!! I want to read it!! I love anything about outsiders interacting with anything/one from Amity Park

also Dr. and Dr. Fenton I am all about that, I've had it in my head for a long time that people who don't know them personally refer to them as Dr, but not people in their general daily life because they find it confusing, and I'm now realising I never made a post about that oops

(to clarify, the Fentons go by Mr and Mrs in regards to school meetings and professional conversations and such so they know which one of them someone is addressing, using body language and eye contact cues do not work because Jack doesn't generally look at people he's speaking with, it was Maddie's idea to drop the Dr titles because she preferred to make things easier for Jack rather than harass him about being better at reading people, because she is a Supportive Wife who doesn't shame her neurodivergent husband)

and I love that Creepy Boy aura, especially when people don't know he's Phantom because okay since we've been using DC heroes a lot I'll use them as a solid example for this next giant tangent

they probably wouldn't peg Danny's secret identity right away, like we know Batman is World's Greatest Detective but until he actually sees both Danny AND Phantom with his own two eyes he wouldn't make the connection because Danny has a Superman identity

by which I mean his strength is that nobody expects him to have a secret identity

people think Superman lives in the Fortress of Solitude, he has an alien home and an alien name and as far as people are concerned he just dropped onto earth a fully grown man, why would he need a secret identity?

Danny is exactly the same, as far as people know he's a ghost, his home is the Ghost Zone, he can't have a secret identity because he's dead, the closest thing he has to that is whoever he was when he was alive and that could have been anyone from any time within the last decade, any similarity noticed between Phantom and Danny would be chalked up to a simple coincidence, especially considering the headcanon that Phantom's body is built slightly different to Danny's (I run this through the transdanny canon where his ghost self presents more masc due to it reflecting Danny's body in a way that Feels Right to him)

so nobody, not even Batman, expects him to have any kind of human disguise, the only giveaway would be the fact that Batman has seen this trick before with Superman and still figured it out, so once he meets this kid who is the child of ghost hunters, who lives on top of the ghost portal, has an incredibly off-putting aura, and looks an awful lot like Phantom, that would be enough for him to start digging where most people would brush it away as coincidence

but like, who even knows how long it would take for him to come into contact with Danny's human self, he could have known about Phantom for days, weeks, or even years before ever realising that he's part human

it is super fun to imagine that first meeting though, when this gangly needy teenager is tagging along with his parents on this trip to install ghost tech in the watchtower (actually I vaguely recall reading a one shot fic about that premise yeeeaaaars ago but I can't remember what it was called RIP if I find it again I'll link it) and then any one of these seasoned superheroes who interact with him are like, 'bruh that kid gives me the creeps'

I can't help but draw a comparison to people feeling the same way around him as they feel around Jason Todd, because death leaves a stank on people that they just can't shake off

also I just want another excuse to use the Dead Boys Squad tag again sorry not sorry

#asks #danny phantom #overpowered danny #dc #justice league #jason todd #dead boys squad #lula's headcanons #lula's aus

[five-rivers]

What Was Bound, What Was Loosed 5

Written for Day 31: Insomnia

Warning: Depression

Part of this series.

.

Danny could not sleep.

He had spent so long these past… Days? Weeks? Months? With all his sleeping, and then the rain, it was hard for him to tell how long had passed, but he’d spent most of it asleep.

But now he was awake, and had been for more than a day, and he itched with it. His skin felt like it would crawl off his body, and at the same time far too tight.

He wanted to move. He wanted do things. He… was barely strong enough to walk all the way around his castle. Walk, not fly. His powers were choppy and exhausting, but not in a way that let him sleep.

The last time he slept was shortly after he and Danny had fished Vlad out of his descent into alcoholism and banned him from having more than one cup of wine every twelve hours. He’d spent a lot of time out in the rain after that, and he wondered if he could still catch colds. Maybe that’s what this was. Maybe what he needed was a doctor.

It wasn’t like he’d be able to trust any of the doctors he knew.

So, instead, he paced until his legs gave out, then laid on his bed, staring blankly at the false stars set in his ceiling.

His bed. His ceiling. He hated that he thought of them that way, because they weren’t.

When he was home, in his real home, in Amity Park, when he felt like this, when the nights were too long, and empty, and quiet for him to wrap his head around them, he would go flying, go stargazing, but that was impossible here.

No stars.

He ached for them.

Then, incensed and frustrated, he threw himself off the bed again.

“Aren’t you going to do something?” he snapped.

The question was mostly directed at Clockwork, but it was Fright Knight who answered. “What would you have of me, my liege?”

“I don’t know,” said Danny. He twisted his fingers in the hem of his shirt, which was precisely the texture and thickness he liked. Everything was too nice, here. Nice and hollow and empty and wrong and good intentioned but suffocating. He wanted to break things. The most he could do was break himself.

“Would you like me to summon your cousin?” asked Fright Knight, hopefully. “She seems to give you comfort.”

“No,” Danny half-growled. “She’s- No.” Ellie had her own problems, problems indirectly caused by him and his stupid coronation, and he was terrible company right now, anyway. He wasn’t going to be selfish on top of everything else.

“You will figure this out, Daniel,” said Clockwork, quiet but sincere.

“Figure what out? As far as you care, everything is going just fine. Everything is the way it was meant to be. Isn’t that what you always say?”

“I care that you are in distress,” said Clockwork.

“Because that messes everything else up? Because I’m such an inconvenience?”

“No,” said Clockwork, voice still even, still patient. “Because I care about you.”

Danny sniffed, dangerously close to tears. “Then why don’t you stop standing there and actually give me something that will help? Why don’t you- Why don’t you just stop with the whole mysterious, all knowing, act, and actually help me for once?”

“Daniel,” said Clockwork, reaching for him.

“No!” snapped Danny.

Clockwork lowered his hands.

“I just want to sleep.”

“There is Nocturne,” said Clockwork, folding his hands together, then fidgeting with one of his watches.

Danny shivered, the permanent cold he carried with him these days sharpening. “He’s the one who--” He made a short, violent gesture. “He’s the one who put me to sleep, so the rest of you could--”

“Yes,” said Clockwork. “He was.”

Anger flashed through him like distant lightning, stinging his overdry eyes. Outside the palace, thunder boomed.

“Maybe,” said Danny, “you should have just made me sleep forever.” At least then, he wouldn’t be subjecting the entire Ghost Zone to his stupid mood swings. It was bad enough when he had Vortex’s power.

Worry and hurt flickered over Clockwork’s face before it fell back into something impassive. Good. Clockwork didn’t have the right to feel bad about this.

Danny ran a hand through his hair. He was becoming erratic.

“Regret making a half ghost king yet? Maybe if you picked someone who actually wanted this, they wouldn’t have to sleep.”

“My liege?” said Fright Knight. “I can go fetch Nocturne. I know where he is hiding. If that is your desire.”

Danny didn’t know what he wanted. He hated this. He didn’t want this. He dropped onto the bed again, worn out and still itching to act. Was Amity Park alright without him? Without ghosts? What had happened to the human crime rate? Were there murders again? Were they safe?

“Do whatever you want,” said Danny, waving vaguely at Fright Knight. “I don’t care.” He rolled over to lie face down on the bed. The false stars were too depressing.

The bed sank slightly as Clockwork also settled on it. “I may not be able to help you sleep,” said Clockwork, “but there are other things I can do for you. If you need food, or would like to go elsewhere in the palace, or would like Danielle or Vladimir…”

Danny shook his head. He was quite alright stewing in his own misery on his own. He hardly even wanted Clockwork there, except he did.

“Very well. If you change your mind, I am here.”

.

“Hey!” shouted Ellie. “Where are you going?” She flew up next to Fright Knight.

“His majesty has commanded us to find a way to help him sleep.”

“Commanded you, huh?”

From the way Fright Knight’s body twisted, Ellie concluded that wasn’t quite how things happened.

“You can, of course, accompany me, your highness,” said Fright Knight.

Ellie thought about it. Traveling was her thing. On the other hand, she felt that leaving Vlad and Danny alone with their emotions was bad… not that she’d been hanging out with them just now. They were just so… sad. It wasn’t like Ellie didn’t get it. It wasn’t like she wasn’t sad about not being able to see Earth anymore. But…

But she didn’t have ties to it. Not like Danny did, with his friends and family. Not even like Vlad did, with his businesses. She was a free spirit.

And staying here all the time was starting to make her feel restless. Wrong. Like a round peg squished into a square hole.

“Yeah,” said Ellie. “I think I will.”

.

“Hey,” said Ellie, after about a quarter hour. “Exactly what are you looking for again? I sort of doubt there’s a pharmacy or whatever out here.”

“Anything the human world has, we have here,” said the Fright Knight. “Only better.”

“And sparser,” countered Ellie, waving at their slightly-drizzly surroundings.

“Oi! Phantom!” There was a sound like an engine trying to rev and some rather creative swearing that Ellie decided to commit to memory. “Hey! I’m talking to you, nerd!”

“I’ll take care of this, your highness,” said Fright Knight, interposing himself between Ellie and the biker punk ghost flying towards them.

“I can take care of myself,” said Ellie, avoiding his ‘protection.’ “I’ve beaten Danny before, you know.”

The biker ghost came up short. “You aren’t Phantom,” he said, accusingly. “What are you, a fangirl?”

“Excuse you, I’m his cousin.”

“Your highness, this is no time to comport with ruffians--”

“Wait! Wait, don’t go. I need his help. If you can just tell ‘im. It’s… Everything’s gone all weird, and people are saying there’s a new king, and all the portals are closed. And I don’t really care about that, there’s enough road to ride on here, when it’s not raining hard enough to flood my engines, but Kitty-- Something happened to her because of his parents’ stupid portal, and now with all the portals gone, it’s really screwed her up.”

Ellie shrugged, uncomfortable. “I don’t really know anything about that. But Danny’s back in the castle--”

“Palace,” corrected Fright Knight. “Castles are fortified dwellings, palaces are not.”

“If you think Danny’s place doesn’t have defenses, you don’t know Danny very well,” said Ellie. “Anyway, I don’t know anything about portals except how to find them. I don’t know if Danny knows anything more than that, but Clockwork’s back there, too, so…” She shrugged. “But Danny’s also got a bit of insomnia, so I don’t know how helpful he’ll be?”

“Brat’s always got insomnia,” said the ghost. “Thanks, mini Phantom.”

“Don’t call her highness--!”

The ghost zoomed away, a dark shadow following close behind.

“Oh, dear,” said Fright Knight. “One must hope that his majesty does not take too much offense to that knave.”

“Come on, it’s Danny. You’re talking like you expect Danny to end him or something.”

Fright Knight’s silence spoke volumes.

.

Danny usually avoided the throne room. He hated it there. Hated the reminder. There was no reason for him to be in there, anyway. It wasn’t like he was passing down decrees or holding audiences or anything, and it didn’t seem like he ever would.

All of his allies were avoiding him, and it wasn’t like his enemies would seek him out. Besides, the Realms had gotten along just fine with Pariah Dark imprisoned, as far as he could tell. They didn’t need him. Not really. Not beyond the role he was playing as Fisher King.

He leaned against the door of the throne room and keened lightly. Somehow, staring at the place he had been bound, he felt both useless and used.

Clockwork hovered behind him.

A pair of shades, thralls, approached them, and Danny tensed. They were only extensions of his will, but they made him uneasy. They were a symbol of what had changed.

Not that what had changed really needed a symbol, because everything had changed, but somehow, they were much more…

There.

“An audience has been requested,” they said.

The last time an audience had been requested, it was Vlad and Ellie.

“Who?” asked Danny.

“Johnny Thirteen.”

Danny blinked. Johnny wouldn’t have been one of the ones to bind him. He wasn’t a leader, an Ancient, or other power. He wasn’t one of Danny’s supposed allies. He’d been a pretty lukewarm enemy, even, him and Kitty.

They’d even helped each other a few times.

“I’m not in the mood to fight him,” grumbled Danny. The shades didn’t move. “Let him in, I guess.” He glared at the throne. “In the garden,” he decided. He wasn’t ready for the throne, and even if he was, Johnny wasn’t the type to be impressed. “Can you take me there?” he asked Clockwork, mulishly.

“Of course,” said Clockwork.

.

“I don’t understand,” said Danny. “What, exactly, happened to Kitty?”

“I don’t know, man. One moment, we’re hanging out lifeside, the next, we’re getting pulled back and then Kitty gets that static thing going on, like when she was caught in the portal that one time. I got her stuff.” He pulled a ring and scarf out of his jacket pockets. “They’ve got her essence in them, kinda? But I can’t get her.”

Danny chewed his lower lip. “That sounds… bad.” At the same time, the fact that other people were harmed by this brought a perverse sense of comfort to his heart.

“You think?” snapped Johnny. “Look, it’s your parents’ messed up portal that did this to her, so you’ve got to fix it.”

“I was going to try, anyway,” said Danny, evenly. “Clockwork, do you know what’s happening.”

“Part of her was trapped between worlds, in the universal membrane of the Ghost Zone,” said Clockwork. “It’s anchoring her there.”

“Can you fix it?”

“No,” said Clockwork. “But you can.”

Danny frowned. “Real information,” he reminded Clockwork, snappishly.

“You are king and core,” said Clockwork. “You can declare your own borders.”

“That wasn’t just some nonsense people were saying, then?” asked Johnny. “That’s really you being king?”

“I guess,” said Danny. “Also, that isn’t helpful Clockwork. How do I do that?”

“I do not know,” said Clockwork. “I have never been king.”

“Maybe you should have volunteered,” snapped Danny. He shook himself, fingers curling around the edge of the bench. The buds of the flowers surrounding them, already tightly furled, drew back.

‘He could control his borders,’ whatever that meant. It wasn’t a lot to go on. Hardly anything at all.

He shut his eyes and felt inside himself, like he usually would when trying to reach for a new or difficult ghost power. Then, slowly, he edged outward, feeling for the limits of his awareness.

Outward.

And outward.

And farther still, farther than he’d ever gotten before. And--

There.

He pushed gently. The border shifted, enough for what was in it to fall out unharmed.

Slowly, he came back to himself, and the sight of Johnny and Kitty hugging each other, eyes streaming with tears that floated up, away from the garden. Something inside of him, something he didn’t even realize had been tightened like a vise, loosened. His shoulders slumped.

“Thanks, man,” said Johnny. “I really didn’t know what to do. I owe you one.”

Danny opened his mouth to tell him there wasn’t anything Johnny had to do. But…

“Actually, if you could tell people I’m not going to instantly kill them if they look at me, that would be nice.” How he knew that was what a lot, maybe even most, of people thought… Danny wasn’t going to think too hard about that right now.

“Sure,” said Kitty. “That’s easy enough.”

Johnny and Kitty left shortly after that. Danny rubbed his eyes and leaned backwards into Clockwork.

“I want to go to bed,” he said.

.

Bonus:

“You’re lost, aren’t you?” asked Ellie, unimpressed.

“I am not lost, your highness,” said Fright Knight, strained. “It’s just that this island wasn’t here before.”

“Sure.”

“It’s true!”

“I believe you.”

Fright Knight hissed under his breath and muttered, “I don’t believe you.”

“Sounds like a you problem. Just like being lost.”

#danny phantom #ectober #ectoberhaunt trick #ectober 2021 #ectoberhaunt 2021 #ectoberweek2021 #ectober week 2021 #what was bound what was loosed

[andydona-chan]

Bad, bad treat!

Read it at AO3!

Scratching a bit on the wall with the spatula, Danny sighed, he had been trying to remove the mix of candy and ectoplasm from the walls on Fenton Works for at least 3 hours now. He was tired, but the memories from the day before still made him smile, so he supposed it was worth it.

Looking back at what happened, he should have seen it coming, he sighed and turned to look at his two best friends, Tucker and Sam were helping him, and even though Tucker looked like he was melting with all the activity this required and Sam, with red-tinted cheeks from the sun, who was just spraying the spots with a Fenton ecto-removing formula were also tired, they also didn’t seem to regret what happened.

Danny chuckled a bit and thought back to Halloween night (aka yesterday), the three of them had been planning on what to do for that night to make it a very interesting trick or treating experience.

While both Tucker and Danny had spent a good portion of their budget to buy candy (in which only half of it actually went for the trick or treating basket), Sam and Jazz had worked together to create a spooky corridor from the entrance and down to the lab. Jack and Maddie had been invited to talk at some conventions, the convention was actually for horror movie fans and ufo theorists and the sort, so it was nothing too serious but it will keep them out for the following three days, leaving them alone for the best night of the year.

Using that as an opportunity, they made the ghost portal the biggest attraction. Jazz of course had taken some ‘security measures to prevent things from going downside, or so she thought. The corridor that Tuck and Danny had to assemble (girls designed, so they built) guided people through some weird-looking plants and spider webs, also some splats of glow in the dark paint that looked like ectoplasm had been on the paper-made walls. The black light and some of the rumors about the portal made it for a very good-looking spooky place, especially with the lights off.

Danny and Tucker had both dressed up as scarecrows and were sitting about a meter away from the portal, there was a line there that said do not cross and they were supposed to stop any curious kid if they tried to go near. Danny had the candy basket and from time to time he would move and scare some children. Jazz and Sam were taking turns helping people go down while talking like a witch and a vampire, which helped prevent a big amount of people from coming and going.

It seemed to be working, at least until a ghost was detected nearby. Danny turned to look at Tucker who just shrugged and looked at him. Danny was sure the ghost hadn’t entered from the portal because it was closed, but natural portals were now becoming a constant so he still needed to go and check. He transformed and left the basket on the chair they’ve been using to allow Tucker to continue with the act.

Turns out it was just Johnny and Kitty, who had tried to pass as teenagers going trick or treating, they hadn’t really used their ghost powers or influence to get candies and they actually seemed to be having fun, so after negotiating a calm night with the pair Danny went back to his place. He flew around the place once before turning invisible and intangible to give the people outside something to talk about, however, when going back, Tucker was on the floor, placing the candies back on the basket.

“What happened?” Danny asked returning to his human form and helping Tucker with the candies.

“Youngblood,” he said with a frown, “just a moment ago the portal opened and he tried to kidnap the basket, so I tried to stop him, we were pulling on the basket for a moment, who would say that kid almost pulled me into the Zone, however, I negotiated to give him a handful of sweets and the brat just let go of the basket, thus the mess. He took the candies and left but yeah, nothing serious.”

“Well, at least it wasn’t anything worse and no other ghost came out right?” They finished lifting the candies and Danny placed the basket on Tucker’s arms as he sat.

“Yeah, the girls stopped the tours when the alarm went off, Sam just came to make sure I was okay and left, they must be on their way down again” Danny nodded, at least Jazz’s plan had been good so far.

“Let’s keep it spooky then”, said Danny posing again as a scarecrow. It was no surprise that after a couple of children, some teenagers also started showing up, Paulina and Star, Dash, and even Wes walked down to get candies and then left, by ten pm they had run out of candies, and people on the streets with children were less and less.

“Wow, no big incidents tonight, talk about good luck!” said Tucker after they closed the door.

“Yeah, it was also fun, not creepy and full of horror as I was expecting, but it was alright,” said Sam pulling candy from an inside pocket on her vampire cloak.

“And with all the safety measures we took, nobody got hurt, abducted, or lost in the Zone, so there’s that…” said Jazz, cut short by Sam’s scream of pain.

“What in hell…?” Sam had thrown the popsicle she had just removed the cover off to the floor and was looking at one of her fingers covered in blood, she turned to look and Danny and showed him her tongue, for a second he thought she was joking, but then he saw there was also blood there.

Tucker had gone to lift the popsicle from the floor. “That stupid thing bit me,” said Sam, and Tucker retracted from where he was about to pick up the candy. It was Danny who then moved and went to get the candy from the floor; he lifted it and touched the strawberry glassy surface of the candy, only to have it open something like a mouth trying to bite him too…

He then turned around and looked at Tucker “Dude, did the candies enter the Ghost Zone when you were dealing with Youngblood?”

Tucker opened his mouth to answer but then lifted a finger and cursed silently, it was then that they heard people screaming. Danny, Sam, and Jazz shared a look, this was a big problem. In a minute they were making a plan, with a net to pick up the candies the girls were going to visit and or try to locate the people with the candies, Danny and Tucker had to sacrifice their share to replace the contaminated ones, so they left and started doing their own trick or treat route.

Some people were already looking for them, some other people were screaming in their homes, in a matter of minutes there was chaos in the streets of Amity Park. “How many people went to the house today?” asked Danny while trying to catch some of the candies that the people were running from.

“I didn’t keep count,” said Sam, “but it was a lot!”

While she tried to catch some of the candies with the net Danny had an idea. “The shield, people will be able to go into it and it will stop these, let’s get them there” Jazz and Tucker who were also nearby heard him and took off towards the house telling people to follow them.

Jazz made sure to turn on the shield and cover the housing ratio, Tucker was calmly telling people to go in, and just as expected the ghostly candies couldn’t follow. Danny used that moment to go ghost, and tried to use a shield of his own to gather all the candies. These allowed people to go back to their houses, some of them grabbed candies from the non-contaminated pile, but others just left and the ghost shield on the house was turned off.

At that point, Johnny and Kitty showed up on the motorcycle. “Wow, the first time I see treats become tricks on Halloween night,” said Johnny, “but I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said pointing ad Danny’s shield full of furious candies.

“Why?” asked Danny.

“Candies can only support certain contamination level, they’re not made to keep it for too long, that’s how we can eat the candies, they dissolve and become part of us, but when not part of a ghost and with a constant increase of contamination made by an ectoplasmic shield, they’ll just… boom!” said Kitty as a matter of fact.

Just then Danny looked at the contained candies in the shield, as if Kitty’s words were a command, some candies started exploding like popcorn, Danny let go of the shield, however, the candies didn’t fall, instead, they remained floating and started exploding, splatting candy and ectoplasm everywhere but mostly onto Fenton Works, some of the most colorful ones creating something that looked like fireworks.

Jazz, Sam, and Tucker were already inside, and if the look of horror on Jazz’s face was something to go by, this was going to get him grounded, it didn’t escape him, however, how his friends laughed at the whole thing, Johnny and Kitty went back to the Zone shortly after the show ended, but Danny entered covered in a sweet mixture of candy and ectoplasm.

Jazz had only asked him to make sure the house was clean before their parents arrived, something that by the looks of it was still going to take time. The ectoplasm candy he was trying to get off finally gave out and fell to the floor, he lifted it and placed it inside the ghost proof trash bag they were using, then reaching inside his pocket, Danny pulled out candy, the green-yellow candy screamed at him once and he threw it in his mouth, Tucker and Sam looked at him with disgusted faces, but he just shrugged.

“Someone’s got to eat all those sweets,” he said smiling. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz had found themselves with some ecto-contaminated candies after the whole thing, and Danny was supposed to get rid of them, but the ectoplasm actually gave it a different kind of flavor, he had been unable to keep his share of candies from Halloween, so it was only fair he at least had those.

#Danny Phantom #fanfic #phan phic #ectober2021 #ectoberhaunt #ectober month 2021 #ectober month #trick vs treat #dp #sam manson #jazz fenton #tucker foley #danny fenton #Halloween #Happy Halloween

[kattythingz]

Of Starlit Pearls [Revamped]

951 / 9428

Phantom was no expert on human sayings. Oftentimes, they didn’t even make sense to him—not until a gaggle of amused fans hunted him down with a terrifying glee in their eyes. But that didn’t mean he was hopeless! In fact, there were even rare occasions where he understood some sayings on his own.

For example, ghost towns.

In Phantom’s experience, actual ghost towns were bustling with mischievous giggles and scandalous gossip; the Far Frozen, despite its rigid exterior, exemplified this perfectly. 

But that was just one part of the Ghost Zone, and while Phantom hadn’t quite mapped out its entirety yet, he knew for a fact that some areas of the Ghost Zone were just plain creepy—all frozen atmosphere and echoing silence.

Amity Park reflected that image rather well.

Which was to say: what the hell?

Phantom’s core thundered in his chest, the unease leaking onto his face in a confused frown. His frown only deepened when not a living soul dotted the street below.

He’d only been gone for a day. How did this happen?

“Of course things go south the moment I leave,” Phantom sighed

He must’ve spent hours roaming the streets, checking every nook and cranny for a speck of life. By then, fear had nipped at his throat, threatening to scratch his core as something deep within him went taut.

Then he saw it; a flash of movement.

Hopeful for a human and an explanation, he lowered closer to the street. “Hey! Are you okay?”

The figure looked up—a human, he noted with a sigh of relief. 

The human similarly relaxed, naked hope beaming across their face as they waved frantically at Phantom. “Phantom! Over here!”

Phantom smiled, touching down on the street. “So I haven’t astronomically flopped my hero entrance exam.” 

The boy laughed weakly. “Yeah, uh… I don’t know about that.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Phantom feigned offense. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” the boy said, uncertainty making its way back to his face. “Everything was fine this morning. No reports of ghost attacks or anything! Then, just a few hours ago, everything just stopped! My friends didn’t pick up their phones, my parents didn’t come home from work, and when I went outside, the streets were empty! I looked around the neighborhood, but it was the same everywhere. I don’t…” he trailed off with a crack.

Phantom’s core ached for the boy, but he refrained from letting it show. What this boy needed now was reassurance; it was Phantom’s lawful, self-appointed duty to be that reassurance.

“Hey,” he said softly. “It’s okay. You’re gonna be okay.”

The boy nodded, a hesitant but hopeful thing.

Phantom tried for another smile. “Can you tell me anything about how this happened?” He gave the boy a pointed once-over. “It looks like you’ve been running from something. Can you tell me about that?”

“It… it was a ghost. I counted at least three.”

“What did they look like?”

“Like…” the boy paused. “Kind of like normal ghosts, I guess? They didn’t have any details, you know? Just the usual green goo and red eyes.”

Phantom frowned. That could be anything.

“They had horns, too!” The boy rushed. “Kinda fat too. I don’t think they had any powers either. They didn’t shoot at me or anything.”

“Do you know why they chased you?”

“I… I think so.” The boy furrowed his brow, thinking hard. “I wasn’t really paying attention, but when I did see people, I think… a lot of them were wearing hats.”

“Hats?” Phantom repeated dubiously.

Thankfully, the boy had enough sense to look abashed. “I know it sounds weird, but literally all of them had one.” 

“Okay. Three ghosts that leave behind hats. Anything else?”

The boy shook his head.

Phantom withheld a sigh. “That’s fine,” he said, giving the boy an honest smile. “You helped me put a picture to… whatever’s causing this. That’s way more than I had an hour ago.”

Despite his words, guilt lingered in the boy’s eyes. It ate at Phantom—worrying over stupid things was his job, not the humans he’d promised to protect. 

“Hey, trust me,” Phantom said. “You did help, alright? And you can help even more if you’ll let me take you someplace to hide. Okay, uh…”

“Kyle.”

“Right. Okay, Kyle?”

Kyle nodded, finally losing that edge in his limbs.

Then his gaze locked onto something behind Phantom, and the edge returned full-force.

Phantom whirled around just in time to see three green blurs rushing at them. Energy rushed into his hands, the familiar thrum of power pouring out his skin and forming an ectoblast.

“Run!” Phantom yelled over his shoulder. “Don’t stop or look for me, I’ll find you myself!”

He didn’t hear a reply, which was good. 

The trio of red glares latching onto Kyle? Not so much.

Phantom stopped one of the ghosts with an ectoblast, but the follow-up wasn’t nearly fast enough as the other two darted after Kyle.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Phantom growled. The next two blasts came instinctively, and before the ghosts could recover from that, he froze them in place with a blast of iced ectoplasm.

(No, he didn’t take constructive criticism.)

A gust of wind to his right alerted him to the third ghost, catching up to Kyle at an alarming speed. Even Phantom, for all his rigorous training with Frostbite, couldn’t keep up. 

He readied another iced blast, but Kyle’s loud, uneven breathing gave him pause. Kyle said the ghosts lacked powers, but that didn’t mean they lacked intelligence. What if the ghost swerved out of the way, or morphed around the blast? What if-

Kyle screamed, and all hesitation left Phantom.

Read the full chapter here!!!

#Danny Phantom #Danny Fenton #void!danny #void danny #void pearl #Fluff and angst #pitch pearl #pitch pearl au #500+ #preview #revamp #fanfiction