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nickmaghighlights · 1 year

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Nick Mag Highlights - #114 September 2005

Welcome to another edition of Nick Mag Highlights! Today, we’ll be taking a look at Issue #114 from September, 2005!

Now, I understand you might be slightly surprised we went from Issue #1 to Issue #114, but I say take the whiplash in stride! Variety is the spice of life after all, and this cover exudes variety. We went from a roster of just one measly Nicktoon to a whole overload of shows spilling out from the top of the page!

But of course, front and center we have Drake & Josh, which was entering its third season at the time after facing massive success. Unsurprising too, since it really had everything going for it. Boys wanted to be Drake, girls wanted to be near Drake, and Josh was there to carry the show. How times change… now Drake Bell doesn’t even want to be Drake Bell.

But I digress, let’s dive into Issue #114! You can read it on the Internet Archive here.

Is a franchise really a “thing” if it doesn’t have a fast food toy line? Think about it.

I remember that online game they’re advertising on the left, I’m pretty sure you never get to see your created ghost stand back-to-back with Danny Phantom himself, pretty disappointing if that was the prize you were after.

Okay, after looking at some footage, it seems like you never get to see your created ghost even move! Explains why my memories of this game are pretty vapid.

There’s nothing else to incite fear into the heart of a child quite like the phrase “Back to School”. Except for maybe dentist’s appointments, needles, large bugs, and the Easter Bunny.

To tie into this most horrifying occasion, the overarching theme of this issue is stupidity. Let’s keep reading and find out if that was a dumb idea.

At this point Nick Magazine had dropped Ooze News, instead opting to advertise the biggest Nickelodeon headlines (Oooh, Tak 3!) near the beginning, with a special section later on for showcasing any upcoming episodes of their regulars. Stay tuned for that!

I’m not a Barbie expert. Are these based on outfits the doll wore at some point? ‘Cause otherwise these are just regular clothes that say “Barbie” on them.

First speech bubble from Zelda in the blog’s history!

Anyway, did you know Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in The Middle) is a NASCAR driver now? Crazy.

Lovely illustration work from Roger Langridge, who still posts comics on Twitter! Check him out after you’ve finished reading this post, liked it, reblogged, left a comment, followed, and bookmarked my blog.

I know what some of you may be wondering, just what exactly was the hot-ticket item kids were asking for Christmas in a pre-iPhone world? Well, I guess a Firefly might be a possible answer? I don’t recall ever seeing one of these back in the day, and apparently they don’t even make them anymore.

What this ad conveniently doesn’t tell you is the amount of parental controls stuffed into one of these things, which makes them a fantastic safety tool, but maybe not that cool of a toy.

Take note, this was back when having “animations” was a selling point.

Here we can the see the aftermath of Nickelodeon teaming up with Baby Bottle Pop for a bit of cross-promotion, which culminated with the crowning of the first (and probably only) “Baby Bottle Popstar”.

Indeed, kids across America were urged to send in their own rendition of the iconic “Baby Bottle Pop jingle” (which no doubt most of you are humming right now). Those performances were left to the mercy of the online populace, voted upon with the utmost scrutiny. Few died, but many were injured, and a young Alyssa of California was crowned Baby Bottle champion.

So it says in the history books, anyway. If you’d like to see the Baby Bottle ballad that shook the world, I recorded a video of the Nick.com link included in this ad, courtesy of the Internet Archive.

Sorry, got a little intense back there. Anyway this is a fun section! And anything reminding me about Jack Black and School of Rock is a positive in my book. Little odd lumping in The Dukes of Hazzard next to Finding Nemo and Spongebob, but I guess they might have wanted to throw a bone to the preteens in the audience.

Pretty cool full page spread advertisement for a Nicktoon, and for Catscratch no less!

Ah Catscratch, one of Nick’s oft-neglected 2000’s ‘toons, right next to The X’s and Making Fiends. Obviously I’m biased a bit, being a 2000’s kid, but it really sucks these shows fail to even get a passing reference nowadays. Oh well, if My Life as a Teenage Robot can escape Nick’s 2000’s dungeon, maybe there’s hope for the others.

A pretty funny comedy section here, depicting the daily newspaper of the fictional town of Moronia. I’d recommend checking out the full section if you’re not already reading along, it’s pretty funny!

Y’know I really wouldn’t have thought such generic phrases like “Feel Brand New” and “Make it Your Style” would be trademarkable. I would think at most you could get away with holding the rights to “The Lisa Frank Brand is for Every Happy, Cute Girl”. Although since they left that last one open, I bet the trademark is still available if anyone wants to snag it.

Additionally I’d like to give props to this company for being so bold as to have one of their mascot characters thank the Lord himself for their brand’s existence. You hardly see such tenacity nowadays.

Weird short fascination I had as a kid: I really liked the style of these ads that Pop-Tart was running at the time. I’m sure a lot of you remember the commercials in particular. I guess the black-and-white scribbly style just tickled my brain! Weirdest thing was they never actually inspired me to buy Pop-Tarts myself, it was only last year or so I had my first ‘Tart. Suppose that makes me a fake fan.

We’ve made it to The Comic Book, rejoice!

Initially, I was particularly excited about this being the opportunity to introduce some of the regular comic series featured in this section, since I thought they’d have already started appearing by now, seeing as how we’ve jumped ahead much later into the magazine’s run.

But, uh, no, actually! This issue is completely lacking in strips from any of the notable ongoing comic series from the mag’s lifespan. Not even a Scene But Not Heard, which I guess disproves my memory of each issue having one!

Oh well, we’ll get to them when we get to them, the one-offs were usually just as entertaining. And we do at least have one recurring strip to talk about, Impy & Wormer!

Impy & Wormer was a regularly published strip for this section, created by James Kochalka. The strips were so small, you could find one of them at the bottom of each page of The Comic Book. It’s a pretty cute idea! I often found myself doodling Impy in the margins of my notebooks when the magazine was around.

Say what you will regarding how Web 2.0 and the modern internet has affected society’s mental health and the overall cultural zeitgeist, but it did lead to this funny one-panel comic :)

Holy moly. Does anyone else remember Postopia? I swear for the last couple years I tried my damned hardest to find out what website it was that I played some weird Flintstones flash games on as a kid. I recently found out that it was indeed Postopia. Man, between this and Pop-Tarts it really seems like I would just buy into whatever weird viral marketing these fast food brands were pumping out as a kid.

I remember these being a fairly common activity in the mag: gag product labels. Cut ‘em out and tape them on to their intended packaging and you’ve got an instant barrel of laughs! Problem is they never seemed to be the right size for the products I tried them on.

Come to think of it, my parents were really the only ones who got to see them finished, and they didn't really find them that amusing either. Was I really supposed to show my friends some dental floss I had taped a fake label onto?

“Nostalgia” is a term I honestly hate throwing around, what with how common it is, but this page in particular is really inciting some wistful childhood memories. Doesn’t seem like the worst deal in the world either, at least if you’re into membership cards, special edition issues, and stickers.

Sidenote, Step 4 isn’t really a surprise if you tell everyone it’s a Spongebob hat, guys!

Man, these guys hate teachers! I did not know a single kid in school who hated their teachers as much as the Nick Mag writers seemed to. A lot of my teachers were pretty nice, actually.

Yeah, in terms of replacing the Cartoon Calendar section (which we saw an example of in the previous NMH post), this leaves a lot to be desired. Still, I like when the magazine tried to give out fun factoids, it made me feel like my intelligence was being respected. Those puns are Zelda Van Gutters-tier writing though.

Now now, I’m not going to keep going on about Drake Bell. There’s only so many times you can shoot the elephant in the room before you start looking like the weird one. Drake & Josh was such a favorite of mine around the time this magazine came out, and it was really fun getting at least a little insight into what the behind-the-scenes view was like.

Small extra detail I find interesting is that almost every blurb below summarizing the new episodes for each show mentions romance and crushes (baring All That, but that’s a sketch show anyway*). Even the interview brings up that Josh had gotten a new girlfriend in Season 3. Guess Nick was really going all in on the love aspect to keep their preteen audience’s attention in the midst of puberty, which feels kind of manipulative in hindsight? Oh well.

*They were still making All That in 2005?

TurboNick, huh? I… think I remember this? Barely. Looking it up on Google gives me a faint sense of remembrance. Although I don’t remember Pick Boy. Sorry, Pick Boy.

I guess the idea was you could check out clips from all your favorite Nick shows and eventually be graced with a full-on episode thanks to Pick Boy, and given his name I’m sure voting was involved to decide the full episode that was released. Not the worst idea! I certainly don’t remember Cartoon Network posting full episodes online. They probably didn’t even have their own Pick Boy.

I’m willing to give credit where credit is due. In the last NMH post I accused a lot of kids’ for being very fart-centric. I’m still sure in the Gnarly 90’s that was true, given all the stuff Ren & Stimpy were getting up to on prime-time television. But here in the Techno 2000’s we reference Spock and take Grandma to prom. A much more sophisticated fare.

Man, this must have been so cool for any Sly Cooper fans picking up this book. It’s a triple threat: questions, concept art, and a quick-look at Sly 3! I may not be a fan myself, but I can always appreciate some concept art and creative insight for a largely beloved character and series.

And rounding us off it's... Hey, it’s Bill Trinen! He was a sort of meme for a while, wasn't he? Back when they let him be in Nintendo Directs, anyway. Well, I say meme, but I guess he was more like an oyster stuck on the underside of a much larger meme named Reggie Fils-Aimé.

Yeah, definitely more like an oyster… What were we talking about? Oh yeah, NintenDogs! Never played it. Apparently they poop! Cool, I guess!

Well, well! That wraps up another addition of Nick Mag Highlights! I think getting the 2000's side of the timeline after the first issue was good for giving a bit more context on how the magazine looked and grew throughout its time on the market. I’m excited to see what’s next, and I hope you enjoyed it too. There’s tons more content and memories to read through.

Also, one last thing. While looking up that one Danny Phantom flash game from the start of the issue I found that there’s apparently a new Danny Phantom graphic novel coming out this Summer? I’m surprised I haven’t heard anything about this! The art looks really pretty. If this seems like your thing, keep an eye on it!

That’s all for now! Until next time, keep reading!

#nmh post #2000s #2005 #nickelodeon #magazine #drake and josh

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inamindfarfaraway · 2 years

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Danny Phantom fanfic that starts out as a seemingly innocuous, fluffy tale of Danny and Danielle having a day out, messing around and bantering like the siblings they are, fighting a villain together, etc., except things don’t quite add up: there’s no mention of Jazz, Sam or Tucker; Danny buys something that seems like it should definitely be outside his price range; the Fentons are spoken of only as nuisances of enemies and pathetic rival ghost fighters; Danny generally acts ever so slightly off and Danielle seems to be pretending she doesn’t notice and it doesn’t bother her, which bothers him in turn. And as they pass by Fenton Works on their way home, it’s revealed this is a universe where Vlad’s plot in "Kindred Spirits" worked.

This Danny is a clone with artificial memories of being Vlad’s son. He unnerves Danielle because she spent time with the original Danny and a) she can tell the difference and constantly has to remind himself he’s the ‘right’ one and b) her loyalty to Vlad, his abusive hold on her just barely too strong to break, allowed him to murder the original Danny in cold blood in front of her, leaving her understandably very traumatized.

Okay, now I seriously want this AU. Clone!Danny being Vlad’s golden child, put on a tight, restrictive pedestal with all his father’s expectations on his shoulders. Does he think he was always Vlad’s? That he, Jazz and Dani are Vlad and Maddie’s children, but Maddie left his poor father for that damn manipulative reprobate Jack Fenton, and unlike their lost cause ex-older sister, the younger two had the sense to choose the family they deserve? Are they sent away to an elite boarding school to keep them away from the ‘rabble’ (aka potential friends)? Danielle being the scapegoat, left alive after the perfect clone was created due to Danny’s attachment to her and her desperate need to prove her worth making her useful for unconditional service. I bet Vlad wouldn’t bother to cure her molecular instability under the guise of it simply not being possible, meaning she’s basically chronically ill/disabled. The truth is he’s aware of how the first Danny and his fate planted the seeds of morality and rebellion in her, and correctly fears his treatment of her may be watering them. His perfect son would never betray him, but if his wayward daughter chooses to she won’t be able to get far. Ironically, this decision is a big piece of her growing pile of evidence that her father is maybe, in fact, evil. Both siblings defined by comparison: Danny believed to be the better version of knowingly, his little sister, and unknowingly, the dead boy whose life he never asked to steal; Danielle the inferior knockoff of the old Danny, let alone the current one. The mutual intertwined feelings of resentment, sympathy and guilt toward each other, with Danny longing for Elle’s freedom while regretting that he automatically receives all Vlad’s praise and love and Elle envying Danny’s pampering while feeling sick to her stomach that he’s trapped at the heart of Vlad’s web.

Not to mention the Fentons, Sam and Tucker and even the staff and other students of Casper High’s side of things where they investigate whatever the hell is going on with the sudden disappearance of Danny Fenton and the sudden appearance shortly afterward of Danny and ‘Danielle’ Masters. I mean, imagine how weird and suspicious that would be. Vlad. Think about it. Really think about how it would look from the outside and to everyone who knew Danny Fenton. You didn’t think this through at all, you fruit loop!

(Credit to @anikuja for this part.) NOT TO MENTION Danny Fenton’s ghost (so, is he just always Phantom? Or a new form based on Phantom with different powers and added details based on how he died and how he feels about it?) escaping the Ghost Zone for the Masters - Vlad to defeat him, the kids to get them away from him and to Team Phantom and also therapy, a lot of therapy - and his loved ones. So much story potential!

What’s the AU called then? Danny Masters AU? No, the focus is on both of the siblings equally. Masters Siblings AU! @phantomrose96

#abusive parent vlad just feels like such a good villain #should i write this?#maybe i should write this #masters siblings au #danny phantom #danny fenton #danielle fenton #danielle phantom #vlad masters #vlad plasmius #dp #danny phantom au #dp au #kindred spirits #danny phantom fanfic #dp fic idea #dp fanfic idea

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madametamma · 2 years

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I’m calling it ‘Friendless AU’

Danny Phantom AU where instead of Danny having Sam and Tucker be there to witness him getting his powers, it’s his bullies.

Every time one of the A listers overhears Danny talking about his parent’s inventions with his friends, they call him a liar, and a loser making up stupid stories. One day Danny has had enough and he tells them if they don’t believe him, they can come to Fentonworks and see for themselves. Two of the bullies take Danny up on that, thinking it’ll be a good opportunity to humiliate him.

When Danny shows them the portal, the bullies come up with a prank. They dare Danny to go in and when he’s inside they’ll turn the portal on (Thinking it’ll only flicker, and they can scare the crap out of Fenton.)

The portal does not just flicker, and for a few minutes the bullies are horrified with the idea that they’re responsible for a classmate’s death, until Danny awakens as a half ghost. Everyone’s freaking out, but they all come to the agreement to tell no one, mostly because like a lot of teens, their first priority is ‘don’t get into trouble’.

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Sam and Tuck notice something off about Danny. He stayed home from school for a few days and since then, he’s been acting beyond stressed. He jumps at shadows, seems to just disappear for periods of time, and it’s plain to see he hasn’t been taken care of himself.

The two friends are really concerned about him but Danny is too afraid to tell Sam and Tuck. He’s thinks they’ll accept him but there’s a small part of him that isn’t sure. He can’t help but feel really down on himself, becoming a creature that he’s been told his whole life is evil and needs to be hunted. How would he even begin to explain it to them?

In this AU, without having friends by his side every step of the way to support and help him, things are much rougher for Danny, both emotionally and in fights when no one has his back or comes to the rescue.

At first Sam and Tucker are heartbroken but as Sam notices that Danny is talking with the A listers more, She feels betrayed, like he’s choosing new, more popular friends over them.

And every time he tries to talk to them, of course something happens to prevent him. His ghost sense goes off. He’s interrupted. One of the A listers stop him, reminding him of the deal to tell no one, or something happens that makes Danny think Sam and Tucker wouldn’t accept him as a ghost.

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Now for the two bullies who know Danny’s secret. I think any one of the A listers would be an interesting fit. I think Kwan would come around to being Danny’s friend the quickest. Something with Star or Paulina could really prove to be interesting (By all means, let me know what you think) I think the best fit however, would be Dash and Val (Pre- Cujo incident)

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Dash would be extremely guilty over (sorta) killing Danny. He’s always loved pummeling dorks, but the idea of it going that far, for the first time in his life, makes him feel bad about it.

He keeps his mouth shut when his friends belittle Fenton. Suddenly he can’t NOT see what Danny is going through. His parents are ghost hunters and he doesn’t know the family well enough to imagine what they might do to the kid. (Or HIM, if they find out he’s responsible) He and his friends seem to be drifting apart. He watches Danny become a superhero and put his half life on the line to protect the town and he admires him for it.

At the same time, he resents Fenton. Dash has been able to do whatever he wants his whole life and get a pass for it. For the first time, there are consequences for his cruelty and he feels horrible guilt over it.

Also jealousy that Danny now has such cool powers. ALSO fear, now that the kid he used to wail on is turning into some powerful monster.

He’s not sure what to do about any of this.

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Valerie decides to be a little more friendly to Danny and help him when he needs it (Not exactly friends, she does still have a reputation to keep) but sometimes she’ll lie to her A list friends about where she’s going to go over to Danny’s house and help him figure out how to control his powers and fight ghosts. She even gives him a few pointers when he comes to fighting.

It looks like they’re slowly turning into friends until the Cujo accident, and Valerie looses everything. She doesn’t blame Danny (At least not as much) in this AU but she’s still resentful towards him, since none of this would have happened if he were more carful when ghost hunting. Danny tries to be kind, but she’s too angry over her whole situation.

She decides to take matters into her own hands and become the red huntress. She doesn’t tell Danny at first but he’s able to put together that it’s her in the red suit after a few encounters and they have a big blow up. He thinks she’s being reckless and is concerned over where she got her ghost tech. (He wonders if she stole it from Fentonworks) and she’s just too angry to want to hear anything from him.

She tells Danny that she won’t hunt him, but if people are watching, she’ll shoot at him to keep up appearances, and warns him to stay out of her way.

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I’d like to believe this would end with Sam and Tucker finally learning about Danny’s ghost half at one point and them becoming friends again, Dash deciding what to do with these complicated feelings and to be a better person, and for Valerie to cool off after some time and she and Danny team up more often than act as ghost hunting rivals.

They all become friends, but it’s a rough road to get there.

#Danny Phantom #Friendless AU #Danny fenton #Dash Baxter #Valerie Grey #Sam Manson #Tucker Foley #DP AU

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quirkless-accident · 2 years

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Ive got a prompt, since you don't seem to mind a bit of angst... (of course feel free to ignore if it's too much)

The Nomu are dead. Danny's dead. Cue All for One getting ahold of him to see just how many quirks he can take. You know, out of scientific curiosity.

When Danny wakes up, all he sees is darkness. The only thing that offers any kind of reprieve is his own natural glow.

His whole body hurts. Aches in a way that he hasn't felt since his accident. His limbs are all strung up, and he can't hardly move. His tugging, though weaker than usual, should have been enough to get the bonds to break, but the restraints didn't budge. He tried to fire up an ectoblast, but nothing happened. Which means these people...They knew what he was.

Maybe it was Vlad. If it was, that would make everything so much easier. Sure, it wouldn't explain the swirling purple-black mass that had swallowed him up, but it would explain the lump on the back of his head, and it would explain why he can't use his powers.

He's not sure how long he waits for somebody to finally come and mess with him. He knows he dozes in and out for a while, but with no way to tell the time it could have been hours or maybe even days. Had he been gone for days already? How long was he unconscious the first time? Were Mom and Dad looking for him? Was Jazz chewing her nails down to the quick with anxiety?

When somebody did finally come, it was a single man in a black and white skin tight suit. He was energetic and bored at the same time as he talked to Danny, though he can't really say he was paying much attention.

He didn't take the restraints off of him, but he did take the restrains off the wall. But before Danny could even think about attacking, four other copies of the man appeared and held him down long enough for one of them to shove his hands behind his back and lock his wrists together.

The man-Twice, he had introduced himself as-couldn't decide between shoving him harshly and gently prodding him. He seemed to be at war with himself, even before he made his duplicates. And because there was no telling how many he could make, Danny just complied as best as he could. He didn't have his ghost powers to back him up this time.

He's taken to this tall, long room with vats of miscellaneous creatures on either side. Danny can't help but cringe at the sight. He's briefly reminded of his clones being held in similar containment units, half melted and begging for mercy. But these ones...They look a little familiar. Didn't they cause that big mess in Hosu not too long ago?

"Ah, taking a gander at your kin," a new voice said. Danny tore his eyes away from the Nomu to look at the man who had spoken. He was wearing a dark, three-piece suit and a weird looking helmet like he was from a bad sci-fi movie. On his left was Shigaraki, scratching absently at his neck. Danny's never met the guy in person, but he would be an absolute idiot to not realize who that was. On the Boss' right was a man with dark hair and burn scars all over his body, looking down on him with piercing, blue eyes. He scoffs as he turns to the Boss.

"You think this runt is going to be able to handle it?" He asks snidely.

"Take the cuffs off and let's go a few rounds," Danny barks. He's in no position prepared to fight, even without the cuffs, but he'll take any chance he can get at escaping.

Unfortunately, nobody rises to the bait. But the burnt guy does give him a little condescending smirk, and well, it kind of pisses him off. He stamps it down as much as he can, because he won't be able to think clearly if he's blinded by his own rage.

"If you keep acting up you won't get your present," the Boss says as he slowly, threateningly walks down the stairs. There's a buzzing in the back of his head that's screaming danger! Run away! But Twice and his restraints make it impossible. So he tries to squash down the trembling his whole body is doing, and tries not to show any fear.

Evidently, neither of those work.

Boss comes down and cups Danny's face, and he has to fight the urge to throw up at how possessive it feels. He tries to lean away from it, but the hand follows without much trouble.

The suddenly, with no warning, the hand was gripping his face painfully. Danny tried to shake the hand off, but the Boss' other hand gripped his hair at the back of his head and held him in place.

There was a sudden, blinding hot pain. His whole body felt like it was on fire. Danny gasped and choked as his vision turned white and his ears started ringing.

He was vaguely aware that he was dropped to the floor as his knees buckled. His entire body spasmed. His mouth was open in a silent scream as his back arched towards the sky. As his vision slowly but surely returned to normal, he could see a blurry, dark figure hovering over him.

"Oh, this is better than I expected," the man crooned. He reached for Danny once more, holding the junction of his shoulder and neck, thumb pressing firmly onto his throat as a reminder that he could die right then and there.

Danny blacked out from the pain.

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This went on for what Danny can only assume is weeks.

Sensei, as that was his name, or All for One, which was too fucking long, hadn't gotten tired of him yet. Every day he would place his hands on Danny, and every time he did so he was met with blinding hot pain that made him fall to his knees.

"The Nomu," he had told Danny as he convulsed on the ground, "are my pride and joy. Several quirks genetically engineered in a perfect body to withstand the forces of All Might. You're a lot like them." A boot pressed down on his chest. Dabi came into view, looking more smug than ever.

"You're both dead," he said to Danny, looming over him. He felt his ribs creak from the pressure, but they didn't break. "Nomu are lifeless husks we shove quirks into. And, well, so are you."

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"Why?" Danny coughed as he was dragged out into the chamber room again. "Why don't you just kill me?"

"Well," All for One said, giving him a serene smile. "Where's the fun in that, boy?"

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Danny's sense of time was rightfully fucked. He knew he had been captured for a long time. Day in and day out he was met with nothing but pain, with the constant reminder of his death in the back of his mind. his body ached constantly, and his surroundings became a blurred sense of darkness and pain.

More often than not he felt like he was in limbo. He could feel the powers writhing under his skin, and in his brief moments of reprieve, he would try to distinguish what power was what.

Most of them were non-destructive. He could write in the air with glowing green letters. He could see in the dark, like built in night vision. He could smell the last three meals everybody had last eaten. But none of them could get him out of this mess. None of them were dangerous enough to require quirk suppressants. Only the ghost shackles that pulled his arms uncomfortably behind his back. God, when was the last time he was able to use his hands? Had weeks finally turned into months?

Was he...Was he going to die here?

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Danny was woken up by an earthquake. At least, that's what it felt like.

He peeled himself off of the floor and just barely managed to roll away from a piece of ceiling that fell from above him. He quickly squirmed his way to his feet and looked at the door.

The foundation of the building was ruined, and so was the door frame. The large metal rectangle attached to the wall was bent in awkward places, causing gaps in between it and the frame holding it in place.

And with another tremble of the earth, it was just barely big enough for Danny to squeeze through.

It was a bit rough with his hands still cuffed behind his back, but desperate times called for determined actions. Plus they hardly fed him anyway. If they didn't want him to be able to escape through tight spaces they shouldn't have allowed him to get so skinny.

With his quirks, he's able to figure out the best escape route. It's like a sixth sense at this point, and with Night Vision and Danger Tingle he's able to dodge any rubble that comes flying his way, or avoid hallways that are seconds from collapsing.

When he gets to the chamber room, there's a huge gaping hole where half the room used to be. All for One is floating in the air, speaking in his usual condescending tone. Through the mountains of rubble, he can barely make out the form of a very sickly looking, gaunt man.

They're having a classic city-leveling quirk fight. There's no way Danny is getting out of this if he's still cuffed. He looked around wildly, and prays to every god he can think of that All for One doesn't fucking notice him.

The universe seems to have allied itself with Danny one last time, because there are lots of sharp and pointy things he can use to break through the restrains. He sits down and maneuvers the cuffs around his feet so they're in front of him instead of behind him, and he slams them down repeatedly onto the very sharp pointy things until they snap.

His shoulders pop uncomfortable. His muscles haven't been stretched quite so far in a long time, and he doesn't have his full range of mobility. But the cuffs are sparking and flickering, and Danny can feel the familiar, long lost coldness that sits in the center of his chest.

He lets the power travel to his hands, and the cuffs burst in a flash of powerful green.

For the first time in months, Danny allows himself to smile.

He turned to the fight. All for one and this newcomer-All Might, he heard the villain call him (which, weird but okay)-were in close combat now. And with the force of the punches Danny wasn't sure he could handle bring caught in the crossfire. No, All for One would probably use him as a hostage or something. It was best if he stayed hidden.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, he heard All Might's battle cry.

United States of Smash!

Danny had seen it once on TV. That smash had leveled half the city he had been fighting in. It was the equivalent of Danny's Wail, and he knew just how absolutely devastating that could be. But most of the hiding places were glass, and he wasn't sure if he was strong enough for intangibility just yet. He had been planning on flying out originally and he needed to save all of his strength.

Wait.

In the back of the room, All for One's large chair stood strong and sturdy. It was big enough for him to hide behind, he just had to-

He didn't make it.

Instead, he was swept up in a tornado of forceful winds and miscellaneous debris and slammed against the wall.

He immediately passed out.

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Danny woke up slowly to the sound of continuous beeping and bright lights.

He groaned, and tried to cover his eyes with his hands, but found that he couldn't move them. He looked down, and found them cuffed to his hospital bed.

Quirk suppressants, his mind supplied.

And then-

Wait. Hospital bed?

He knew the Doctor had a room similar to this, but it was filled with heavy, malicious machinery and wall-to-wall monitors. This...This was just a normal, plain old hospital room. Had...Had All Might won?

Before he could think much more about it, the door opened. The nurse took one look at him, froze, and then scurried down the hall. A few minutes later, a detective and a hobo walked in. Danny almost laughed. It was like a setup to a bad joke.

"My name is Detective Tsukauchi," the detective said, taking off his hat. "This is pro hero Eraserhead. We just wanted to ask you a few questions about your involvement with All for One."

Danny scowled at the name and adjusted himself in the bed to get more comfortable. It was a bit weird with the cuffs, and in the back of his mind he knew he could channel his ghost powers to phase out of them, but he wanted these guys to trust him. To realize he was a victim in this mess too. So once he was settled, he took a deep breath and looked both men square in the eye.

"I'll tell you everything I know."

#danny phantom #danny fenton #all for one #sensei #afo #bnha #mha #boku no academia #my hero academia

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redrobin-detective · 3 years

Note

Danny stayed out of the ghost portal. And when they got back to the house, it was Jack who was poking around who accidentally hit the On switch and became a halfa. What would Jack do? He's already a pretty obsessed human! Would Maddie hate him now? Would they team up to experiment on his powers? Would he hide it from her very very badly? Would they try to reverse it? Would they publish a research paper and get GIW after them?

Oh this THIS could be fun because the name of this game is m i s c o m m u n i c a t i o n

Ok so Jcak goes in the portal, great big flash, everything just changed blah blah. He's now a human/ghost hybrid. He ofc tells Maddie because they're partners in everything. They're scared yet fascinated. Since they're convinced ghosts are evil, they thing Jack will eventually give into his 'evil' instincts. He starts distancing himself from his children in fear he'll hurt them, Maddie has weapons on her all the time specifically to take him down as needed.

But time passes and Jack, pretty much stays the same. J&M are fascinated and decide to use Jack's remaining time on Earth to study this phenomenon. They spend more and more time in the lab and, with their singular focus, don't really how worried and unhappy Danny and Jazz are. Jazz has kind of given up on them since they're now actively pulling away and she's only looking ahead to college. But Danny, sweet, sensitive, caring Danny feels like something is wrong. Wonders if there's something he can fix.

Jack Phantom makes appearances in Amity fighting ghosts occasionally but he prefers using his weaponry. It takes time for him to grow used to his abilities and what he is. Fighting dangerous ghosts again confirms his bias that they're evil and so he'll soon be that way too. Then comes the Reunion and they meet Plasmius for the first time, LOTS of inaccurate interpretations: Jack thinks Vlad is haunted by Plasmius and is trying to save him while keeping his ID a secret, Maddie puts 2 and 2 together on Vlad and Plasmius but Jack won't believe her, Vlad can't believe Jack had a similar accident to him but hides his nature to make the final blow more potent. And poor Danny, he sees Plasmius attacking his dad and thinks Jack has been pulling away bc he's being threatened by this ghost. Danny does the only thing he can do, he starts fighting ghosts.

Danny is not a natural ghost hunter but he learns and he learns quickly. Vlad learns of his attempts and finds it hilarious and sponsors Danny like he did Val in canon. Danny really looks up to Vlad and thanks him profusely for helping him to protect his dad. Vlad, in his skeevy but also pathetic way, finds he genuinely likes the attention from Danny and is impressed by his skills. He begins plotting, realizing if his and Jack's accident can happen twice on accident then he can replicate it again on purpose. He WILL have his perfect half ghost son.

Danny takes more and more responsibility as Amity's human ghost hunter. Sam and Tuck def get roped in, would be interesting if Jazz also became a ghost hunter, one who's more focused on keeping her brother safe from his dangerous new hobby. The Fenton Family has split in two from their secrets and no one realizes.

Jack Phantom and Hunter Danny (in disguise) initially start off antagonistic but it doesn't last long. Jack is too enthusiastic about a young human ghost hunter Gosh if only this could be Jack and his son! and starts telling him the ropes. Danny figures this is the ghost of an old ghost hunter and is fondly reminded of his dad who grows more distant by the day. Jack is impressed by the Hunter's techniques and Danny, well he's a hero nerd and is a bit jealous of the cool powers. Vlad keeps comically trying to pit the two against each other and it just doesn't work.

I'm losing my train of thought but things spiral further as Vlad tries to manipulate Jack in both forms, try to control and turn Danny against his folks and also somehow turn him half ghost. Danny actually gets along better with the ghosts than J&M and helps them realize that not all ghosts are evil. Just this slow journey of the Fentons breaking apart and then coming back together only no one realizes that they're actually family bonding this whole time.

#do I like AUs where everyone has different impressions on whats going on?#and everyone has their own conflicting motivations that clash with each other bc no one knows the full story?#you could say so #this was very therapuetic to write ty #ive had a rough few days

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lexosaurus · 3 years

Text

Invisobang: Morge pt 2

It was a beautiful day outside. The birds were singing, the flowers were blooming...a corpse was found in the woods.

Or, Amity Park's local cadaver dog trainer was walking her dog in the woods when they discovered a little surprise waiting for them six feet under.

Pairings: none WC: 9886 read on: [ao3] part 2 of 2, read: [part 1]

---

some amazing accompanying art by @ghostkiin

---

“It’s like you’re not even trying!” Plasmius barked, throwing Danny an exaggerated yawn while blocking the ectoblasts thrown his way. “Really, Daniel, you were always woefully incapable compared to me, but this is just abysmal, even for you.”

Danny gritted his teeth and glared back, allowing his glowing eyes to glare to toxic levels. Plasmius picked the wrong week to try to steal blueprints from Fentonworks.

“What, are you going to hit me with a little ectoblast again?”

“Oh I’ll show you an ectoblast,” Danny growled, charging ectoplasm in his palms so concentrated that the green glowed a fierce white. He flung his hands out, releasing the energy with a venomous, “eat shit, Fruitloop!”

But just like the rest of his life, his attack was uncontrolled, wild. It flew several feet to Vlad’s side, nailing a road sign and burning it like acid until there was nothing left.

Plasmius grinned at its charred remains. “Was that supposed to hit me? My, Daniel, I’m quaking in my boots!”

Danny felt his aura increase.

This week had already been shitty enough, even without Vlad’s help. He felt like his brain was trapped in a hailstorm, with constant unavoidable attacks pelting him from all sides. His core was a ball of energy and anxiety, not allowing him to sleep or eat or even breathe without the constant fear about his body and how it was being messed with and he needed to protect it and how he’d failed so miserably at protecting it and now his secret was going to be revealed and he was screwed.

“Well? I’m waiting! Tick tock, Little Badger!”

Ancients, Vlad was such an asshole.

“Shut UP!” Danny yelled, releasing his ghostly wail.

Just as a pink blast slapped him across the face, sending him flying into a brick building.

Plasmius tisked, flying nonchalantly towards him. “We can’t have you using that particular power, now can we? Not while you’re so obviously in control of yourself.”

“Fuck off.”

The older ghost smirked and brushed dust off his red and white cape. “Teenagers. Always so hormonal. What, did a girl at school reject you?”

“What are you talking about?” Danny launched himself back in the air and powered an ice blast. “You know what? Don’t answer that. I don’t care what you have to say.”

“No, I’m sure you don’t,” Vlad said, releasing a plasmius blast just before Danny released his own. The pink blast travelled across the air like a bullet, punching Danny in the gut and sending him crashing back into the building.

Meanwhile, Danny’s ice blast flew a foot above Vlad’s head, webbing itself into a tree and coating the branches with thick icicles.

Danny tried to push himself back onto his shaky feet, only to be pushed back down yet again by another plasmius blast.

Brick tumbled onto his head, coating his vision with dust. His body ached, and his neck was sore from the whiplash.

From his clouded vision, a glowing white figure with red eyes and gaudy horn-like spikes for hair hovered closer to him.

“My, my. You really are out of sorts today,” Plasmius said. “This is almost too easy. I could just take you out right here and go take your parents’ entire spectre speeder straight from your lab.

“What do you even need a spectre speeder for? You can fly,” Danny asked, rubbing a lump from his skull.

“A simple minded teenager such as yourself couldn’t possibly understand my reasons.”

Anger flared through Danny. He gripped some wreckage next to him and forced himself back onto his feet. His legs shook and he felt something wet drip down his calf.

Great, he was bleeding. Just add that to the list of reasons as to why this week was the worst.

“Shut up. I won’t let you do that.”

“Oh?” Plasmius powered a pink blast in each hand. “Then prove it.”

Danny tried, but with each attempted blast, kick, or punch, it seemed like Plasmius was one step ahead of him.

And worse, it felt like he was reveling in the power trip.

A burn here, a kick there—everywhere Danny looked, there was Vlad, glowing fist at the ready. It reminded him of the first time he’d encountered Vlad, back at the mansion. Having Vlad so openly destroy him had been shameful.

Danny collapsed onto the pavement, heaving, his entire body searing in pain.

Plasmius paused to survey him up and down with suspicious eyes. Finally, just as Danny was one breath away from turning invisible out of sheer discomfort, did the ghost finally open his mouth. “Alright, spit it out.”

Anxiety gripped Danny’s stomach. “What are you talking about?”

“Something’s troubling you enough to make you pathetically weak. It’s honestly embarrassing. I can’t stand here watching my future ward make a fool of himself any longer.”

“I’m not moving in with you, creep,” Danny bit back.

“That’s what you think. No matter, tell your dear old uncle what’s troubling you.”

“Go play in traffic.”

Plasmius’ eyes narrowed. “I’d nearly forgotten what a brat you are. Now tell me before I take methods into my own hands.”

Danny sighed, and attempted to stand. But the moment his foot touched the ground, a sharp pain shot up his shin. He hissed, and lowered himself back to the pavement.

“Well? I don’t have all day.”

“It’s nothing,” Danny grumbled, glaring at the pavement. He felt small under Plasmius’ critical gaze. “Nothing at all.”

“It’s obviously something,” Plasmius said, landing in front of Danny. “Now quit wasting my time and tell me what it is before I—”

“Then why don’t you leave? If I’m just wasting your precious time, then go home! It’s not like you even care about me anyways.”

Vlad leaned in, flaring his aura. “In case it’s not clear to your simple teenage brain, your actions represent the both of us. You fuck up, I have to pay the consequences.”

“Who says this is even about ghost stuff?” Danny hissed. “For all you know, I got in a fight with Jazz.”

Vlad scoffed. “Do you seriously believe me to be that stupid? Of course it’s about your identity! Why else would your core be acting so wildly if its Obsession weren’t at stake?”

Danny flinched.

“You did something, and I want to know what it is so I can determine if I need to run damage control on you or not before you blow this for all of us.”

“It’s...” Danny felt his aura pull back. “It’s about...you know…”

“I can assure you I do not know.”

“I...I might have…the police may have found...it…’

Plasmius sighed and rubbed his forehead with his hand. “What did they find?”

“My—my, uh...body?”

“You mean your identity?” Plasmius’ eyes widened.

“Not exactly.” Danny felt his face burn. “You know...the body I left when I...after the accident.”

Plasmius reacted instantly. He shot up, glancing around, before grabbing Danny and pulling him through a hastily erected portal.

Danny felt his body squeeze through the portal and then seconds later, he was in Vlad’s study. The ghost threw Danny on his loveseat and heightened his aura. His brows creased, and his eyes glowed a dangerous shade of red. “What exactly do you mean when you say the police found your deceased body? How did this happen? What the hell did you do?”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Danny cried indignantly. “They found it with their freakish police dog! I swear I buried it deep in the ground.”

“Well not deep enough, apparently!” Vlad pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “Of all the stupid, childish things you could do!”

“It wasn’t my fault!”

Vlad ripped his hands away from his face, his eyes snapping back to Danny. He took a step closer to the teen, his eyes narrowing until a red glow peaked underneath. “Then whose fault would it be exactly, hmm? What, is this yet another piece of blame you’re going to cast upon my shoulders? Me, the halfa who has managed to keep this a well kept secret for over twenty years when you apparently can’t even manage to keep it to yourself for one?”

Danny let his own ghostly strength shine through his eyes. “Quit acting like I invited them all over. I didn’t, it was a coincidence. A mistake.”

“Oh, goodness me!” Vlad let out a sardonic laugh. “I guess when the Ghost Investigative Ward appear at my doorstep in a month, I’ll just tell them it was all a mistake. That’s sure to turn them right around!”

“Shut up.”

“No I will not.” Vlad’s face set back into a scowl. “You have proven yourself to be a liability again and again, and every single time it’s me who has to clean up your little messes. Messes that you don’t seem to realize could be the end of our kind!”

Anxiety shot through Danny’s stomach. He gripped the arm rests of the chair, squeezing them so tightly he heard the faint sounds of cracking in the wood.

“And now you mean to tell me that the police have your rotting, ectoplasm-drenched inhuman corpse in their possession?” Vlad yelled. “And you’re really trying to argue with me that it was just a simple mistake?”

Danny’s shaking hand slipped, tearing off a chunk of the armchair. It clattering to the floor. “I don’t—I didn’t mean for this to happen. I don’t…”

Vlad closed his eyes, but Danny could still see the wisps of red shimmering through his eyelids. “No, of course you didn’t. But that doesn’t mean we can let them keep it.”

“I’ve tried.” His voice cracked. “I keep trying to convince them to stop, but they won’t—”

“What, you actually thought they’d listen to you? A ghost? My boy, I know you were dim, but this is truly extraordinary.”

Danny sniffed, keeping his head down. He felt like an egg boiling over, the yolk just one jolt away from breaking.

“No…” Plasmius hummed. “What we need is to take it back by force.”

“We can’t, they have the whole morgue under a shield. We can get in as ghosts, and it’d look too suspicious if we showed up as humans.”

“Unfortunately, you may be right about us appearing as humans. We can’t do that. But,” Plasmius’ tone shifted, “one thing we can do is break the shield.”

Danny froze. He gazed questioningly up at the older ghost, who was facing the window with a renewed sense of determination. “Break the shield? How? We can’t touch it!”

“No, but the shield doesn’t exist on its own. It has to be generated from somewhere, doesn’t it? Do you see? We break the device, we break the shield.”

Danny wasn’t following, and he was sure his face betrayed that much.

“Listen, Little Badger. Ghosts cannot touch the shield or the device, but who says—oh I don’t know—maybe a collapsed ceiling might do the trick? Some torn cables, perhaps? After all, with no energy supply, how could it possibly generate the power necessary to produce a shield?”

Danny felt his eyes widen. Something icy settled in his gut. When he spoke, his voice was hollow. “You want to destroy the building.”

“Well I certainly wouldn’t be so crude, but perhaps a few colleagues of mine might be swayed—”

“No.” Danny stood automatically.

Vlad’s head snapped over to him. “No?”

He could feel Vlad’s confusion, and it blended with his own. Deep down, he knew he needed to stop at nothing to get his body back, but collapsing the building? Putting others in danger?

Putting his remains in danger of ruin?

What if something happened? What if a brick fell on his skull? What if a spike tore his abdomen in half?

No, he couldn’t do it. It wasn’t worth the risk.

This was wrong.

“We can’t,” Danny choked out. “You’ll hurt it.”

“I don’t think you understand, Little Badger,” Vlad hissed, leaning down.

Danny could feel the heat of his red eyes on his skull.

“With the position you’ve put us both in? You don’t get to decide what happens to your corpse now.”

“No, Vlad. I’m serious. You can’t—”

“And so am I.” Plasmius straightened, and his aura tinted to a dangerous pink. “You’ve put us at risk one time too many. Now I’m taking things into my own hands. And no amount of scary eyes is going to sway me.”

In one motion, Vlad ripped open a portal and pushed Danny through. Before he could blink, he was back in the damp alley they’d just been in.

“Good day, Danny Phantom.”

Plasmius shut the portal, and Danny was alone.

---

“Thank you for taking the time to come talk to us about this,” Mark said, opening the conference room door for the consultant before him. “This case is unfortunately a bit out of my expertise, and the lab results are even more perplexing. Hopefully you’ll be able to parse through the documents much easier than I.”

Dr. Maddie Fenton, dressed in her typical turquoise lab attire, stepped through the door and took a seat at the table. “Of course, I’m always happy to help Amity’s law enforcement protect its citizens against ghosts.”

“Well,” Mark pulled out a chair for himself, placing the manila folders against the table. “This is actually a bit more complex.”

“Oh?” Dr. Fenton reached for the folders.

“To bring you up to speed, I mentioned on the phone that we needed your assistance with a murder case involving a ghost. But there’s a bit more to it.”

She opened the folder and leafed through the files.

“The truth is the body we uncovered we believe to be Phantom’s body.”

Dr. Fenton paused, her eyebrows shooting up. She glanced up at Mark. “That’s a rather serious case. What evidence do you have to support that?”

“Well…” Mark started. “When we uncovered the body, Phantom appeared above it, and was acting rather erratically. Like a cornered animal, almost.”

“He felt threatened.”

“Right.” He nodded. “But it’s more than that. When we ran forensics on the body, we found that all our lab results were corrupted with ectoplasm. Ectoplasm that when we ran the ectosignature for, turned out to be Phantom’s.”

Dr. Fenton looked back down at the files. “That’s highly unusual.”

“Well we were hoping you’d be able to piece this all together.” Mark gestured to the files.

“I see…” Dr. Fenton’s voice trailed off. Her eyes scanned the page, hungrily soaking up each word. The silence stretched on for a few minutes as Mark awaited her opinion.

Contacting the Fentons had been something Mark had been pushing off for as long as possible. The Fentons were loud, boisterous, and not at all known for their professionalism nor tact.

But it was either they contact the Fentons or the Ghost Investigation Ward. And despite Phantom’s cold demeanor towards the detectives, Mark still had hope that perhaps he could gain the teen ghost’s trust. And to do that, the GiW could not be anywhere near the station.

Of the duo, Maddie Fenton seemed the most level-headed. And it had just been Mark’s luck that of the pair, she was the one with a doctorate in ectobiology. Which meant that it was perfectly understandable when Mark had requested that she alone come into the station to review the files.

“We’re trying to keep this on the down-low. If Phantom feels like we’re going to turn him over to the government, he’ll clam up. As it stands we’re only barely getting information out of him.”

“Well, I wouldn’t trust anything he says anyway,” she said, not looking up from the paper. “He’ll do whatever possible to keep himself safe. Ghosts are products of their Obsessions, and Phantom is no different. If he feels like this investigation is going to come in the way of him being able to feed into his Obsession, then he’ll do anything to stop that from happening. No matter who he hurts in the process.”

Mark felt a shudder creep up his spine. “Do you think he could be lying about this being his body? Maybe he could have been the one to kill this boy and is trying to cover it up?”

“Hmm…no, that doesn’t seem likely given the labs. And besides, it would be highly unusual for Phantom to be summoned to a body that wasn’t his. Although…” Dr. Fenton mused. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before.”

“Like what?”

“Well, when an animal dies near a cluster of ambient ectoplasm, their body runs the risk of forming a ghost. However, there must be a significant final moment for the neural pathways in the brain to bond with the ectoplasm. That moment translates into an Obsession, which forms the core that the ghost then forms around. If a human dies peacefully, there’s nothing to work with. But if the human dies violently, or if they die with unfinished business, that gives the ambient ectoplasm something to charge with.”

Mark nodded politely, not seeing where this was going. This was all common knowledge for the people of Amity, and Mark had certainly seen enough of the Fentons’ public speeches to understand these basics.

“The ambient ectoplasm comes from the electrical connections in the brain, unrelated to what’s happening in the body. It’s why a human can be paralyzed from the waist-down, but still form a ghost with functioning legs. Do you see what I’m saying?”

Mark nodded, then shook his head. “I’m sorry, I’m not seeing how this relates to Phantom specifically?”

“There’s no real reason that Phantom’s human body should have been corrupted by ectoplasm. In fact, there’s never been a case of a human body with an ectosignature embedded in its cells. It’s virtually impossible, in fact. Living cells are completely incompatible with ectoplasm.”

Mark stared down at his own copy of the reports, his mind reeling. “You’ve never seen this before?”

“Not in my twenty years in this field.”

“Do you have any idea what could have caused this?”

Dr. Fenton pursed her lips. “There’s one...it would explain a lot about him actually. Human experimentation.”

Oh.

Shit.

“You don’t think…” Mark’s voice trailed off, his tongue incapable of finishing the sentence. To think that some sick individual would even attempt such a thing.

“It’s the only logical explanation here.” Dr. Fenton gestured at her folder. “Or at least, the only one I can piece together given this information. Phantom would have had to have died after interacting with an intense amount of ecto-technology. Technology with the power to chemically alter every cell in his living body just before finishing him off with electrocution. Of course, it’s just a theory. Only Phantom knows the truth.”

“Right.” He could hardly process what was being said. “But he won’t tell us the truth.”

“Well, I’m not surprised. Ghosts run a different social hierarchy than humans, theirs is far more simple. It’s entirely based on strength. The stronger the ghost, the better they protect their haunt, the more respect they’re given within ghost culture. If Phantom shows weakness, then the other ghosts can use that to dethrone him as the human world’s great protector.”

“But we’re not ghosts.”

“But he is.” Dr. Fenton cocked her head. “This explains other things too. Like the fact that Phantom, a relatively new ghost, is already a level seven on the ectoplasm power scale.”

“I assume that’s unusual.”

“Quite. It would have had to require an extremely intense death at the very least. But human experimentation with ectoplasm, feelling your body reject itself from the inside out, every strand of DNA being corrupted by the essence of death—that’s not an end I’d wish on my worst enemies.”

“And now we have his corpse. Phantom’s going to feel incredibly threatened. He’s bound to lash out.”

Dr. Fenton nodded gravely. “Then you better wrap this investigation up quickly, because Phantom is still a young ghost. He’s impatient, like a child. The longer you take to solve this case, the more unstable he’ll get. And I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end when he finally snaps.”

---

A dull unease panged at Danny’s core. It was calling to him, trying to goad him to his corpse.

Trouble, trouble, trouble, it seemed to whisper.

But he ignored it, just like he’d been ignoring it all this time. Because no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t get past the shields, he couldn’t get back to his corpse.

He was powerless. Alone.

Scared.

He tried to focus on his math worksheet, but the numbers blurred together and he couldn’t remember what eight times seven was. He had a calculator, but it was in his bag and he couldn’t remember what pocket he’d shoved it into, or even if he’d remembered to put it in his bag last night after staring blankly at the homework assignment for an hour without lifting his pencil even once.

No, his calculator was probably still on his desk at home.

Trouble, trouble, trouble.

The voices were louder now, and the pull was more desperate.

His throat hurt, and for a moment he was convinced his lungs were collapsing before he remembered that he’d forgotten to release the air trapped in his lungs and he couldn’t remember when he’d stopped breathing.

“Danny?” Mr. Falluca said from the front of the room. “Is everything alright?”

He commanded his head to nod, but he wasn’t sure if he succeeded. Maybe he did. He couldn’t check, he couldn’t lift his eyes from the desk.

The voices were too loud.

The dull pang wasn’t so dull anymore.

Trouble, trouble, go now, go now.

The pang was solidifying, taking shape. It was becoming sharper, more urgent.

Go now, go now, go now.

The pokes turned into pricks, threatening to rupture his organs, sending needles down the nerves in his arms and legs. A headache sparked before his eyes and his vision swam.

The voices attacked him from all angles, and fingers brushed against his skin, tugging the sleeves of his shirt towards the window, the ceiling, the wall, the door— anywhere so long as it was away from here. Outside. To the morgue.

Go to the morgue.

Ignore it, be strong. Just ignore it and it’ll go away.

Go now.

No.

Go now, go now, GO NOW.

No, he couldn’t.

The pinpricks finally morphed into one sharp, icy cold knife.

It stabbed his core.

Go now.

He stood from his chair, knocking it back.

Vaguely, he could hear the alarmed cries of his classmates, but he ignored them.

The only thing that mattered was his body. His corpse.

Protect.

A hand grabbed his arm, yanking him back, but he could feel the warmth of the human blood running under its veins and he couldn’t be bothered with human problems right now. Not when he was in danger.

He phased through the grip, and ran out of the classroom. He sprinted down the hall, tearing open the familiar looking door and transforming and taking off into the sky nearly as soon as the sun brushed his skin.

This was different than all the other times his core had tried to coax him to his corpse. Something was wrong. Really, really wrong. His body was in danger, and he needed to save it.

He heard an explosion in the distance, and he increased his speed, feeling his eyes sting as the cool air slapped against his corneas. The world blurred, but it was okay. His core was guiding him now, not his eyes. He didn’t need to see, he just needed to close off and follow his ghostly instincts.

“That’s right!” A deep voice yelled from across the way.

Danny pulled to a halt, blinking the sting from his vision.

Then a boulder flew past his body, hitting the wall of a disturbingly familiar building.

His core yelled in protest. The body was in danger. His body.

“You thought a pesky shield could keep me out? Me, Skulker, the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter? I’ll show you!”

Ice filled his veins, freezing his aura and building in power around his hands.

Skulker hoisted a parked motorcycle from the edge of the street into the air. “Take this!” he yelled, hurling it into the air.

It was heading straight for the door. It was going to break it, it might break the window, it could damage the body.

An icicle stabbed his core, and before Danny could blink, his hands were raised and jagged blue ice was shooting from his palms, catching the motorcycle in midair and pinning it to the street.

“What is the meaning of this?” Skulker roared, whipping around. His eyes locked on Danny and his confusion melted from this face only to be replaced by a triumphant smirk. “Well hello there, ghost child.”

Danny’s palms burned an even brighter blue. “ Leave,” he hissed, the Ghost Speak slipping off his tongue like butter.

Skulker’s grin widened. “It seems I’ve touched a nerve. Fear not, child, I’m just here to procure your pelt. Well, your other pelt.”

He flashed his aura in a showcase of power that would send most ghosts running for the hills. “Leave.”

A look of contempt replaced the humor on Skulker’s face. His eyes narrowed, and his voice lowered. “I don’t take orders from you, child.”

There was a natural balancing act between his human brain and ghost core, one that ensured that neither half of him was in full control one hundred percent of the time. No matter how human he was, his core still lingered in the background, and no matter how ghost he was, his human brain still kept tabs on his movements.

But now, as Danny watched Skulker rip a slab of concrete from the ground, he felt something snap inside of him.

“Then I have no choice.”

Green overtook his vision, and Danny Fenton simply disappeared.

Time passed—or it didn’t—in swirls of blue and green. If he looked out, he could see the power released from his gloves, he could see the mix of ectoplasm and ice that he was hurling at Skulker, to protect the building, to protect his body, to protect himself from Plasmius.

That vindictive, lonely asshole.

Who was Plasmius to encroach on what was his?

There were flashing lights around him, but Danny paid them no mind. The only thing that mattered was protecting his body.

Protect his haunt.

Protect his people.

Protect.

He could feel the newly pointed teeth pinch his gums, and the ghostly wisps of his hair fizzle around him. But oddly these changes didn’t worry him, instead they made him feel safe, secure. Like a child clinging onto their blanket.

He launched another barrage of attacks at Skulker, tearing holes through his armor. Panic struck Skulker’s features, and all Danny could think of was, ‘good.’ If Skulker wanted to try to claim dominance over his body, then he would suffer tenfold.

And just before he was about to launch a blast at Skulker that was sure to disintegrate his armor, an amplified voice behind him called out, “PHANTOM!”

Danny flinched, his power leaking out of its concentrated ball.

Weak.

“Phantom, stand down!”

Not a chance.

“We have the area surrounded. Stand down or we’ll be forced to shoot.”

“Better listen to your human puppets,” Skulker said, his voice too shaken to sound mocking. “I know when I’ve been bested.”

It took everything in Danny’s power to not launch himself over to Skulker and tear off his head. “You tried to steal my body.”

“That’s a fight between you and Plasmius.”

“Don’t try to get out of this.”

“Phantom,” Detective Johnson said. “Final warning. Stand down.”

Ectoplasm surged throughout his body. “Make me.”

Multiple events happened at once. Skulker motioned to leave just as Danny raised his arms, blistering white light moments away from release. Then, pain seared through his torso.

Danny yelped, jerking his hand back and releasing the ectoblast somewhere off into the sky. He fell back and hit the ecto-shield, sending electrical warnings through his bones.

Memories of the portal, of the thousands of volts of electricity, of the feeling of his bones and muscles and tissues and cells being ripped apart and stitched back together flashed before his eyes. It was too much, all too much too soon too present. He tried blasting the portal but his gloves were splattered with green and oh no, not good, not good.

He was dying, wasn’t he?

Again.

Would he have a second body?

His vision tilted, and finally he managed to rip himself away from the shield. He collapsed onto the cement and stared up at the sky, chest heaving.

He was paralyzed. He knew he had fingers, toes, arms, legs—but they didn’t work. He couldn’t feel anything. Couldn’t fly.

He was dying.

“Phantom?” Johnson’s cautious voice sounded from somewhere off to the side. “Sit up, let’s talk through this.”

There was a pregnant pause, and then Danny finally managed to blink. The world snapped back into focus, and his surroundings came with it. He looked down at his torso to see a little hole in his side of his suit surrounded by a trickle of green.

“What—?” Danny gasped.

“I’m gonna put the gun down, okay?” Johnson said. “I just wanna talk.”

“No.” Danny slowly pushed himself up. He surveyed the damage along the walls, the falling bricks on the sidewalk, the shattered windows and bent door. “No, no, no.”

His body wasn’t safe. Not anymore.

“Phantom, come on. Work with me here.”

But he couldn’t. That detective and his partner were just human, they didn’t understand. This was his body and Vlad knew about it and was trying to take matters into his own hands no matter the cost to Danny.

This was a disaster. He shouldn’t have told Vlad anything. He was so stupid for thinking Vlad could help him. He should have known, should have known.

“Phantom.”

“No.”

The cloak of invisibility covered his body, and he shot up into the sky.

Towards the city.

He needed to end this.

---

Sarah felt the chill first.

“You have to stop,” Phantom’s voice echoed behind her.

She sighed and put down her pencil. “Phantom, I thought I explained this already. The police can’t—”

“I don’t care about the police!”

The room grew cold.

“I don’t...ugh!” Phantom floated around her desk, clutching his forehead with one hand and his chest with the other. Mark had just called her with a warning, saying that Phantom was unstable. Looking at the ghost now, Sarah had to agree.

Phantom looked awful.

Dark circles pooled under his eyes, his hair stuck up in all directions, and his face lacked the green blush that normally sat below his skin. His jumpsuit was burned and dried ectoplasm crusted around the torn edges. He looked every bit the image of someone quickly coming undone.

Except this wasn’t just some random person, this was a powerful ghost. This was someone who could easily kill anyone who wronged him.

Or who he felt wronged him.

Deep down, Sarah knew Phantom wasn’t a violent ghost. It didn’t line up with his ghostly Obsession, or the theorized one anyway. But this was his corpse they were dealing with, it was an extension of himself.

Sarah had never confronted a ghost who had lost possession of their corpse. She’d never dealt with a ghost who willingly protected the shield that kept him away from his body if only to make sure it stayed safe. She’d never seen Phantom look so rattled.

At this point, there was no telling what he was capable of.

“Phantom,” she tried cautiously. “You need to calm down.”

“No, you need to tell your buddies to call off this investigation!”

“You know I can’t do that. I have no control over the department, and even if I did, we need to follow the law.”

His eyes flashed dangerously. “Why, because I’m a ghost? Because my words mean nothing because I’m not human? I’m telling you that I don’t want to press any charges, I don’t get why that’s not good enough!”

The room grew even colder.

“We’ve been over this. Please, Phantom, sit down—”

“No!” he snapped. “I’ve been telling you guys since the beginning that this was a bad idea, that people are going to get hurt! And no, nobody listened to me because I’m a fucking ghost! And now look, the building was attacked! My body was attacked! Do you—” his voice cracked, and the glow on his eyes wobbled. He drifted closer to her. “Do you even understand? Do you get how dangerous this is? Do you understand the people you guys have pissed off? Who you’re playing with now?”

Sarah took a deep breath. Even as a human, the power Phantom was emitting was palpable. “What people? You mean the ghost who attacked the morgue?”

“Not him. He—he’s just a lacky. Just following orders.” He let out a bitter laugh, running his hand over his forehead and smearing green across his skin. “You guys have no idea, you really don’t…”

Dread crept up Sarah’s spine. If what Mark was saying was true, then this could run deeper than they thought. “Explain it to me.”

“I’m…” He glanced up, looking ill. “I’m not…normal. For a ghost, I mean. I can’t explain it. I really can’t. But the other ghosts...they consider me a liability. And now that you guys have my—my body, they’re afraid.”

“Why are they afraid?”

“Because…” His brow furrowed. “I can’t—I can’t…”

She tilted her head, watching the ghost choke on his words. “Can’t, or won’t?”

“It doesn’t matter. They’ll stop at nothing till they get my body back. They’ll kill everyone in that building if it means nobody finds out my secret.”

What secret? Sarah wanted to scream, but she held back.

“Phantom,” Sarah lowered her tone. “Are they the reason you’ve been so afraid of us finding out the truth? Have they threatened you in any way?”

“No!” He backed up in shock. “I—I mean, sort of? Listen, it’s not because of him—them, I promise. It’s more complicated than that. He’s just protecting me, you know? If my secret gets out, that would put them all in danger, but it would put me in even more danger. I wouldn’t...I’d have to leave. I’d be on the run.”

“Why?”

“It’s so messed up.”

“Then tell me.”

She already knew. She just needed him to confirm it for her.

He looked to her, his bright green eyes seemingly desperate for help. But he shook his head. “I can’t do this.”

“Wait—”

But he was already gone.

---

“I’ve never seen him look so scared,” Abrams said.

“So you think he’s right.” Crowley took a long swig of his coffee, “Course you do.”

“It makes sense,” Abrams insisted. “Why else would Phantom be so terrified of people finding the truth?”

“Oh gee, I don’t know, maybe it’s because he’s a teen who was playing with electrical equipment he wasn’t supposed to be near and even in death doesn’t want to get in trouble for it!”

“Yes but how would that explain all the ectoplasm in his DNA? That doesn’t come from just any electric shock.”

“Who knows,” Crowley said. “The Fentons have always been crackpots. Always have had ludicrous theories. Now suddenly when it’s convenient, you’re all running to their side?”

Mark rolled his eyes. “We’re not running to their side.”

“Then what do you call this?” Crowley gestured to the duo. “Sure looks like it to me.”

“You have to admit that it makes sense,” Mark said. “I mean, get real. Doesn’t any of this smell fishy to you?”

Crowley slapped his empty coffee mug on the table. “You know what smells fishy to me? The Fentons are the only known ecto-scientists in this whole damn city, the only people who have lab-grade ecto-equipment in Amity Park, and suddenly right when they were getting into some financial trouble, Phantom appears out of nowhere from a death that reeks of forced ecto-contamination. That smells fishy to me.”

Mark paused, but then shook his head. “If that were true, then why would Dr. Fenton even offer human experimentation as a possibility?”

“To gloat? Gain our trust? Test our intelligence?” Crowley threw his hands up. “Who knows? They’re crazy!”

“So you think we need to investigate them?” Mark asked.

“I’d be a damn shit detective if I didn’t. They have the means and motive to create a ghost like Phantom. It’s just like Maddie said.”

“I think he’s right,” Abrams said, nibbling on her bagel. “If this is actually a case of ecto-experimentation, then the Fentons should be on the list of suspects.”

“Finally, some common sense around here. Just about the only case of common sense these days…” Crowley grumbled.

Mark chose to ignore that comment, instead checking his phone. No notifications, damn. The entire department had been on high alert for Phantom ever since the attack on the morgue. Mark was just relieved that the new and improved ecto-guns had finally been issued that morning. If not for the updated technology, that incident likely would have ended far less smoothly.

Not that it really ended smoothly. Phantom had yet again escaped Mark’s clutches, free to run off and break into Sarah’s home.

Guilt clawed at Mark’s stomach, but he pushed it back. Phantom was a slippery ghost, one that had escaped all levels of ghost hunters from the Fentons, to the Ghost Investigation Ward. Mark knew it would take a lot more than a few words of peace and one ecto-gun to stop that kind of raw power.

“What do we even know about the Fentons?” Abrams asked.

“They’re ghost hunters and mostly make weapons now, but before that they dabbled in all sorts of ecto-based technology. The husband, Jack, is the engineer and the wife, Maddie, is the biologist. They have two kids, Jasmine and Daniel. Jasmine, or ‘Jazz’ is supposedly top of her class, likely to graduate valedictorian, while Daniel’s something else. Bad grades, skips class, all around a bit of a loner,” Crowley said, regurgitating information like he was reading a case file.

Mark glanced at his colleague, giving him an impressed smirk. “Did your homework early, eh?”

“I told you, something aint right here,” Crowley said.

“And? What do you think?” Mark asked.

“What I think is that I’m shocked their house is even coded to have a lab inside. I’d like to know whose ass they kissed to give them that permit.”

Abrams snorted. “Jesus, Jacob.”

“What? I’m right!”

“Fine, whatever,” Mark stood, collecting his empty coffee cup and paper plate. “I godda head home, my sister’s visiting this weekend.”

“Alright, tell Susan I said hello. And say hi to her little demon child too.”

Mark rolled his eyes. “She’s four.”

“What, four year olds can’t be demons? I should know, I had two of them.”

Abrams swiped her empty wrapper and tossed it in the trash. “Yeah, I have to feed Atlas. I’ll see you both next week.”

“Take care!”

---

“Well at least we know Phantom didn’t change anything about his facial structure when he became a ghost.” Crowley’s small eyes swiveled between the photo of Phantom in one hand and the new sketch rendition of his human identity.

Mark grunted and stared at his own copy of the photo.

The corpse had been too decomposed to be able to distinguish a face, and ghosts often change their appearance in death. Sure, Phantom looked like a regular human, but it was impossible to know that for a fact.

Fortunately, modern research and re-composition was advanced enough that they didn’t have to wonder for long. Especially with this being such a high-profile case for the city.

And as it turned out, aside from the hair, Phantom really didn’t look all too different when he was alive. He had the same sharp nose, the same angular chin, the same boyish face. The only thing that was different was his hair and presumably his eye color, although that was still a mystery due to the corrupted DNA.

Even though there was little change to Phantom’s appearance, seeing the black haired, brown eyed human boy staring back at Mark was rather shocking, if he were being honest. There was something off putting about seeing this enigma quite literally brought back to life. It took away that edge of lore that the heroic town enigma had.

Now Phantom wasn’t some wild mystery. He was just...a kid.

“This really is something,” Crowley said. “Guess we should put it to good use.”

Mark sighed, turning his attention back to his desktop. Sifting through missing person’s reports was never exactly a fun way to start the morning.

“You think you can handle it, rookie?” Crowley asked.

“Yeah, I got it. I’ll let you know if I find anything interesting.”

Crowley let the photographs drop to his side. “Alright, I’m going to continue doing some digging on our suspects.”

“Good luck.”

“And you.”

The work was tedious and depressing. Face after face of missing minors flickered across his screen. It was almost too hard to believe that Phantom was a part of this list.

Caucasian. Black hair. Eye color unknown. Five foot five.

That was all they had on Phantom. For all they knew, he could have been from another city entirely.

But hopefully Mark would find a hit, at least one kid from Amity who fit the profile.

And in fact, there were a few...sort of. Four teens who had black hair and were about five foot five. But none of them looked quite like Phantom.

Which meant Mark had to widen his search.

How wonderful.

He leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms out wide. It was nearly lunchtime now and he felt like he’d gotten no further than where he was before. Mark stood from his chair, feeling a bit defeated. Hopefully Crowley would’ve had better luck on the suspect list than Mark.

He strolled over to Crowley’s desk, only to find the desk empty. Crowley had likely already left for lunch, the bastard hadn’t even bothered to grab Mark on the way.

Not that Mark could really blame him. He doubted Crowley wanted to use his lunch break to talk about the case after the tedious research they both had spent their mornings doing.

Mark dug his phone out of his pocket, intent on sending the older detective an update, when he stopped. Out of the corner of his eye, a familiar face stared up at him.

Mark slowly lowered the device and crept toward the desk, as if his mere presence would disintegrate the paper on his desk.

Inside Fentonworks: the Fenton family’s home-grown anti-ghost business!

It was an article printed from some online magazine that Mark didn’t recognize. Slapped on the cover of the page, just under the title, was a photo of a family of four beaming, waving at the camera. One of the members was a young boy—about Phantom’s age—with black hair in almost the same haircut as Phantom, with that crooked smile that Phantom had been caught adorning all too many times.

Waving at the camera.

Skinny, short for a boy, son to two ecto-science parents who fill their basement with dangerous high-voltage and easily combustible ecto-technology.

His name was listed as Daniel.

Mark glanced at the two images in his hand, and then looked at the article below him.

Holy shit.

No. There was no way. Crowley had been suspicious of them, and he had good reason to include them on his suspect list, but this kid was alive. He wasn’t missing, he wasn’t dead, he was standing right there.

It just wasn’t possible.

His apple watch pinged, alerting him of a ghost attack nearby.

Mark hurried back to his desk, swiping his coat off his chair.

This was impossible.

The police sketch and the copy of the article pressed against his fist.

Phantom was a ghost. Ghosts will do anything to protect themselves. They would lie, cheat, and manipulate humans in order to stay on top.

Mark was just seeing things.

There was no way that this was him.

He beelined for the door, tucking the papers into his pants pocket.

It wasn’t possible.

The drive there was short, and the fight even shorter. It had just been the Box Ghost, so nothing that Phantom couldn’t handle. The ghost gave his little song and dance, captured the ghost, and waved brightly to the crowd. But Mark could see right through it, right past all the cracks in his façade.

Phantom was losing it.

And Mark could end this.

“Phantom!” Mark called out through his cupped hands.

The ghost flinched, his cheery face replaced with a scowl instantly.

“Another time,” he said.

But Mark didn’t have another time. He needed to know now.

Because Phantom could end this insane proposition. He could laugh heartlessly at the mere mention that he was this random living child. He was Phantom, protector of Amity Park, not some human experiment.

Not some impossibility.

Not some kid who’s been dead for a year and only pretending to be human for his family.

Not the greatest act of manipulation from a ghost that Mark had ever seen.

Mark yanked the papers from his pocket and unfolded them with shaking fingers. He held them up hastily, knowing that they were too far away for normal human eyes.

But this was Phantom. He wasn’t human.

Mark saw the exact moment that Phantom recognized the photos. The ghost’s eyes widened, his face paled, his aura dimmed. Then, in the blink of an eye, the ghost vanished.

Mark was right.

---

The air was thick, tense. Phantom slumped in his armchair, his body the equivalent of a white flag. Even so, his eyes were bright, charged with nervous energy.

He was terrified.

Atlas must have sensed this, because the dog had decided to break away from being Sarah’s shadow to lay against the ghost’s feet.

“I don’t know where to start,” Phantom admitted after a few tense beats of silence.

“The beginning, maybe,” Jacob said.

Phantom looked sick at the suggestion, but relented. “You’re right. Yeah...I…” he glanced up at the two detectives and Sarah seated across the coffee table on her dull green couch. Phantom had appeared in her kitchen not even an hour ago, looking like he’d just seen the personification of death itself.

And instantly, Sarah knew.

She’d tried to coax him to let her bring him to the station so he could come clean there, but he refused. He said the information was too sensitive and he didn’t trust the station to not have cameras recording every angle of every room.

And so they settled on her living room instead. Mark and Jacob arrived, seeming none too surprised by the arrangement, and more than willing to follow Phantom’s direction if it meant they would finally get the truth.

Which Phantom didn’t seem remotely ready to give.

“I guess…” He tried again, closing his eyes. There was another tense moment of silence before a pair of white rings appeared around Phantom’s waist, traveling up his body and leaving behind a skinny black haired teenager.

Phantom cautiously opened his eyes. And, to Sarah’s surprise, they were blue.

“You’re Daniel Fenton,” Mark said.

She heard Jacob suck in a breath.

“Yes. I’m Danny Fenton.” Without the echo, his voice sounded much closer, much more down to earth than Phantom’s. “And a year ago, I was in an accident.”

His voice, like the rest of him, seemed softer without the powerful aura of Phantom behind it. If Sarah had passed him on the street, she wouldn’t have blinked twice. Gone was the cocky personality, the perfect posture, the floating white hair, the bright, determined expression. Gone was the jumpsuit, the logo, the strong voice that seemed like it could project for a mile, the banter, the confidence.

It was just a kid. A kid with baggy jeans, dirty shoes, and a plain shirt. He didn’t seem lithe, he looked weak. The green undertone to his skin was replaced with red, and his shoulders hunched in a way Sarah had never seen on Phantom before.

“What happened?” Mark asked.

“When my parents first completed their interdimensional ghost portal, it didn’t work. I decided to—it was my fault. I just decided to go in it. I don’t know why.” He looked up to the ceiling. “It was a stupid idea. The portal was plugged in, but there was a switch inside that wasn’t turned on, and I tripped over a wire and turned it on. From the inside.”

Sarah felt a pang in her chest. “That’s horrible.”

“Yeah. It was,” Phantom agreed. “And then I guess the portal stabilized the connection between Amity Park and the Ghost Zone, because ghosts started appearing in town. So I decided that if it was my fault that they were here, I was going to protect the town. And that’s what I’ve done.”

That’s his Obsession, Sarah realized. It’s protection.

“Why not come out with it?” Jacob asked. “Why bury your body? Why still try to pass as a human?”

Phantom’s head fell into his hands. “I didn’t know what else to do! It—I...you have to understand, my parents would never understand. They think all ghosts are evil. I couldn’t just come out and tell them what happened, they’d kill me!”

“So you decided it was safer to play human,” Jacob said.

“Yeah. I guess I did. Especially since...I sort of still am?” He lifted his head and stuck out his wrist. “I still have a pulse.”

No one moved.

“You’re shitting me,” Jacob guffawed.

“No, I’m being serious. The portal killed me, but then it brought me back to life. Except by then my body was already altered from the ecto-electricity, so the working theory is that I exist in this sort of limbo state between dead and alive. Hence why…” He transformed into Phantom and then back to Fenton. “Hence why I have two forms.”

“And the body,” Mark said. “The coroner report said it only weighed a little over half the weight of a normal body due to all the ectoplasm. But if you’re half alive, how would you have a body?”

Danny shrugged. “I don’t know? To be honest, that day was such a nightmare that I’ve mostly blocked it out.”

Mark finally reached over and took the boy’s wrist. He pressed two fingers against the skin and waited.

“Damn.” His eyes widened. “It’s actually there.”

“No way,” Jacob said, leaning over to take Phantom’s wrist. A few seconds passed before he was joining Mark’s reaction. “It is there.”

“I know.” Phantom tucked his arm back to his chest. “I don’t understand it. I have a heart and also a ghost core. I can feel it all the time, even as a human. I have human thoughts and feelings and ghostly instincts playing constantly.”

As confusing and morbid as this was, it made sense in a sort of twisted way that Sarah only reserved for the rambling logic of her paranoid, senior grandmother. It explained why Phantom, a ghost, would willingly risk himself day in and day out over the safety of humans. Phantom was a ghost who was driven to protect his home, and he was also a human who wanted to look after those he loved.

He was truly Schrödinger’s cat. Dead and alive inside his little box, his little town, with no one able to measure him.

“That’s the thing that sets you apart from the ghosts,” Sarah said, tapping her knee with her finger. “That day when you came to my house saying that you were different, this is what you were talking about. You also said it would be dangerous if this information got out.”

The question was implied, and Phantom seemed to pick up on it, judging by his grimace.

“You weren’t talking about your parents.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“So then who is it? Who was trying to destroy the morgue? Who are you hiding from?”

Danny crossed his arms and glared at the floor. “Isn’t it obvious?” he said bitterly. “The government. GiW, all of them. Think of what they’d do if they knew someone could be both dead and alive at the same time.”

“Well fuck the lot of them,” Jacob said.

“Yeah,” Danny agreed.

“And the ghost who was trying to take down the morgue?” Mark pressed.

“I…” Danny’s eyes shifted. “I can’t say. It’s a ghost thing. All the ghosts in the Zone know about me, they call me a halfa. Half alive, half dead. Honestly, I don’t think it took much convincing for them to want to protect me.”

“But you were fighting against them,” Jacob countered. “If they were really trying to protect you, then why not go along with them?”

Danny opened and closed his mouth, the words seemingly stuck in his throat. Words from Maddie’s ecto-biology papers fluttered across Sarah’s eyes, about how ghosts were evil, they were liars, they’d say and do anything to keep themselves safe.

But as Danny let out a defeated sigh, his arms uncrossing to dangle at his side, Sarah couldn’t help but see the face of a scared teen who was just doing his best.

“It’s a ghost thing,” he finally said. “I didn’t like what they were doing because...because I needed to protect my body. If the building collapsed, it would have gotten damaged.”

Sarah blinked, and her and Mark exchanged a glance.

“I see,” Mark said carefully. “So if there was a plan to recover your...body...safely, you would have gone along with it?”

“I don’t know. Ghosts are weird, they all have their own agenda. I’d rather if it were just...left alone. In the ground. Untouched. Like it had been.”

They were silent for a moment, and Sarah watched as Jacob and Mark stared at each other in silent conversation. One that only partners could properly understand.

Finally, Jacob relented. “Okay, here’s the deal. Say I go talk with Chief Davis and he agrees to keep your identity secret. In exchange, all you’d have to do for us is tell your parents.”

For a moment, Sarah thought Phantom was going to bolt out of the armchair.

“Why?”

“Because you’re screwing around putting your life in danger every day, kid,” Jacob said. “Not to mention, your parents’ house is a walking minefield for you. You godda protect yourself.”

“I protect myself just fine.”

“Doesn’t dismiss the fact that you’re running off getting in fights every day with ghosts, and then coming home to a house littered with ecto-weapons that could kill you. You know, all the way.”

“My parents will kill me if they find out though,” Danny said darkly. “You don’t know them.”

“Which is why you won’t be alone. Crowley and I will be there with you. And I know a woman in CPS who can keep this on the down low too. We won’t let anything happen, promise,” Mark said.

Phantom glanced between them, his wide blue eyes betraying just how fearful he was. “You promise?”

“Yeah kid, we got your back.”

---

“It’s going way better than I thought,” Danny said, throwing the stick up the path.

Atlas didn’t hesitate, bounding after the object with an enthusiasm rivaled by no one.

“I’m glad,” Sarah said. “You deserve a safe place to go home to.”

Danny cocked his head. “Yeah. I guess I do.”

Getting to know Danny these past few weeks was surreal. For a year now, Sarah had a set mental image of who Phantom was. The hero, the great protector, the thrill-seeker.

But now, as she got to know the quiet yet snarky kid who went to school and stressed over his math exams just like any other teen would, she’d gotten to appreciate the person that Danny truly was, the person he became when he wasn’t trying to hide his ghostly persona or playing the larger-than-life character.

Atlas pranced back, the stick held high like an Olympic medal.

“Good boy!” Danny praised.

At Sarah’s nonverbal command, Atlas dropped the stick in front of Danny, who was more than happy to pick it up and hurl ahead of the dirt path again.

“It’s weird. It’s almost like...I don’t know, it’s just kind of relieving? To not need to hide? Like don’t get me wrong, my parents are still kinda weird about it. I still don’t really use any of my powers at home because I just don’t think I’m ready. But the other day I used intangibility to get a cup out of the cabinet instead of just opening the cabinet door, and my mom didn’t even say anything. I remember back when I first got my powers and I couldn't figure out how to work them. I spent so long trying to hide any weirdness, and to think that now I can just do stuff and nobody cares.” A blissful smile dressed Danny’s lips. “It’s just nice, is all.”

“I bet,” Sarah said. “Must be a huge weight off your shoulders. And your sister’s okay with it?”

“Oh yeah. My sister actually already knew about it.”

“You’re kidding. Really?”

Danny threw the stick again. “Yeah, but I already knew about that. She told me a few months ago. But she’s been really helpful at home with trying to get everyone on the same page.”

“That’s good.”

“And my dad’s already been begging to take me out to the field with him.”

“Have you taken him up on it?”

“No. Not yet.”

Sarah peered cautiously over to him. “Why not?”

“I dunno.” Danny’s eyes tracked Atlas’ triumphant return from the woods. “It just seems a bit weird still. And besides, it would be kinda odd if my parents went from trying to kill me to suddenly Phantom’s new best friend overnight. For now they’ve agreed to a public truce.”

Ah yes, the truce. That had been all over the news when the Fenton’s announced it, citing new research into ghost psychology that showed instances of benevolent ghosts. The news had rocked the city, some calling the duo crazy, while others praising them for their growth.

Even though Phantom and the Fenton couple were still in the growing pains of their new truce, no one could deny how much more smoothly ghost fights had gotten since it began. There was less property damage, less citizen’s hurt, and overall the process seemed far more professional than it ever had.

“I’ve noticed a change,” Sarah said. “I really think it’s for the best.”

“So do I. Even though it’s still kinda weird.”

“It’ll get easier, just give it time.”

Atlas dropped the stick, apparently distracted by some scent on a bush. He stopped to sniff the plant before wandering behind it, his nose glued to the ground.

“Wait, Atlas—” Danny started, watching as Atlas disappeared into the foliage.

Hearing his name, the dog leapt back onto the trail and over to Danny, who paused to scratch him behind his ear. “Good boy.”

Sarah grinned down at the duo.

Who knew a cadaver dog and a half dead kid could make such a good pair?

---

Thanks for reading!

#danny phantom #my writing #morge #invisobang #invisobang 2021

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tumbling-darkling · 3 years

Text

Miraculous Ghosts

Danny and friends visit Paris and come across trouble, as well as the cities local superheroes.

Lately, Hawkmoth has been recycling villains. There are only so many people in Paris and not everyone gets emotionally vulnerable strongly enough or long enough to be akumatized. Those that do, and commonly like Mr. Pidgeon, usually had a certain fixation that was easy to exploit. The thing was, both Marienette and Chat Noir already knew their weakness, the items that would most likely get akumatized, the whole schtick. So the battles were really fast and easy.

A new face always had to be met with caution, the lack of knowledge regarding the person was dangerous and if the pair wasn’t careful, they could end up losing the battle. And their Miraculous.

With the start of summer came tourist season, and tourists could be victims of akumatization. Which seemed to be the case within the first week. 3 villains, all new faces, but the pair had gotten lucky with the similar powers that the heroes had faced before and the three were all defeated in a timely manner.

There was a short week of nothing happening.

And then all hell broke loose.

——————————��——————————

Marienette knew the start of the tourist season had begun just based on the filled streets of strange faces, sunglasses, cameras, and the use of foreign languages. This also was noticed based on how busy her parents' shop had become, and how rarely she was managing to escape outside to enjoy some of summer's freedom. The good thing was she was able to brush up on some of her English, since the tourists usually spoke the common American language and the experience was always welcome to help boost her grades in the upcoming year. Even if it was a few months away.

She’d figured out the best way to sneak off during any attacks was to ‘use the bathroom’ or ‘accidently’ make a mess and excuse herself to clean up. It had worked during the first week and she didn’t have to do anything the past week since Hawkmoth seemed to take a break. She finished serving a young pair of Americans, a tall girl with orange hair, and a lanky boy nearly the same height with raven black hair.

She had to admit, some Americans had a certain charm, but the bustle of the kitchen quickly caught her attention as she was back to serving the next person in line.

Just as Chloe waltzed in, basically knocking the american boy over as she strutted to the front of the line, causing people to cast glares in her direction. The boy hissed when he fell, the American girl offering to help him up in English as he shook his head and stood up, dusting himself off as Marienette went to deal with the walking form of pure rich privilege. “Urg, Dupain-Cheng’s dingy little cafe? Of course she works here, it just smells like burnt bread.” She huffed.

Marienette bristled, but put on her customer service smile, noticing the poor Americans victim to Chloe leaving the shop. She was hoping to offer them a replacement after dealing with Chloe but it was a little late now. “Ma’am, unless you are here to pick up an order, you will have to wait in line like everyone else.” She strained.

“Ma’am? I am Chloe Dubois! I don’t need to wait in line like some sort of peasant! Just give me whatever you didn’t make.”

Marienette had to swallow down any returning insults and put down one of their most expensive items, handing it over with a clearly strained smile, “have a nice day.”

Chloe huffed with her baked goods in hand but left as soon as she appeared, allowing Marienette some relief. Very little damage. A little annoyance but nothing worthy of an akuma-.

An explosion was heard from outside, and Marienette groaned internally.

She just had to jinx it.

—————————————————————

Ladybug dove off to the side as the villain shot out a ray of white, plasma-like energy. Adrien, fighting as Chat Noir, and his partner were having a hell of a time with this dude. He spotted the chaos on the news, the villain calling himself ‘Black Hole’ and giving his poor Lady a hard time. When he finally arrived on the scene, he wasn’t able to do much either.

The villain was basically a godly powerhouse, floating in the air, shooting burning rays of heated plasma, or even ice! Ice and plasma! Sometimes he MIXED the two beams to create an even WORSE beam! Whenever either of the heroes got close enough to land a hit, their punches and kicks would go right through him. Then he would DISAPPEAR. REAPPEARING AND LANDING ANOTHER HEAVY BLOW. He would fly around like gravity was non-existent, and these abilities didn’t stop there. Every so often, he would yank out this thermos looking thing and shoot out these wormholes. Or… possibly black holes. Calling them black holes felt wrong though… since they glowed green and swirled before disappearing after a few moments.

The villain's outfit was a change of pace too. It was impossible to figure out his age since he was completely covered in a thick fabric material that reminded him of space suits. Yet looked a lot less bulky than actual space suits, thin yet sturdy metal covered his forearms, and formed a backpack that was attached by a wide metal collar that spread to his collarbone and slightly covered his shoulders, as well as a metal strap that wrapped around right under his chest. A plated, metal belt circled his waist with a clip for the green black hole thermos, and thigh high boots with a similar fabric to his suit covered most of his legs, thick plastic looking platform soles attached at the feet. Black bands wrapped around the ankles of the boots. A helmet covered his entire face, a metal frame covering the bottom half like a muzzle while the top was a tinted glass dome following the shape of his head, the inside of it entirely black except for the eerie glow of a single, left eye. The helmet had a tube on the back of the helmet that connected to his backpack, but neither he or Ladybug could figure out if it was essential or for decoration. His entire colouring was monotone, much bleaker than their previous villains. His suit was black, the boots, forearm cuffs, belt, backpack and collar were all a middle shade of grey, the only flash of colour being the glow of the single toxic green eye amongst the darkness of the helmet.

The dude was disturbing. He didn’t make any sound, in fact he seemed to ABSORB the sound around him. Like they were in space.

Paris was getting destroyed more and more by the second and the two didn’t know what to do. The Lady’s lucky charm turned into a thermos, which she didn’t have a clue how to use in the situation in front of them. Maybe it was a hint? A clue about soup? Or getting the villains thermos?

The problem with the last idea was that neither he or Ladybug could TOUCH this villain. And each of them were getting worse and worse for wear by the second. He could tell Ladybug was getting ready to get some sort of help, but who could make something untouchable… touchable? Chat even tried to use cataclysm on the villain's thermos while Ladybug had distracted him, but he twisted at the last moments and grabbed Chat's hand, draining cataclysm before he tossed him aside like it was nothing.

Another blast of plasma sent the two tumbling away from each other, and then a blast of ice caught Chat off guard. Cold shot up his arm as his muscles convulsed, a scream caught in his throat as the ice trapped his arm in such a tight and sturdy prison. He twisted to try and use his free arm to claw the other out of the ice, a shadow in the corner of his vision causing him to twist and jolt in surprise as the villain stood right in front of him. The glowing green eye was cold as it bore into him, and the villain grew closer and closer, drifting off the ground and absorbing every noise around him, the air around them dropping to freezing temperatures. Chats breath formed in front of him as gasps, panic clear in the quick breaths, fear intensifying as the only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat and blood roaring through his veins.

The villain's hand shot out and grabbed his free one- the one with his miraculous.

Chat heard Ladybug cry out as the villain gripped onto the ring, a quick glance showing she too was trapped.

That she was next.

Chat tried to keep his fingers curled, but he was battered and weak, and the villain hadn’t even broken a sweat during their fight. Prying open his fingers was easy, the ring vulnerable. This was it. He used cataclysm too soon and now he was powerless. He couldn’t escape. He couldn’t save anyone. He was a failure. This was the end of Paris.

They lost.

—————————————————————

Fucking. Vlad.

This entire trip had Danny on edge and it was all because of Vlad.

At first, he thought maybe, for once, Vlad wasn’t being a piece of shit when offering the family a fully paid trip to France for two weeks. He was suspicious. He probably just wanted the family out of town to do some shady shit. But a two week trip to France wasn’t the WORST thing a man could do. Especially in comparison to kidnapping and cloning.

But then his parents got sick. A common flu. Right before the trip. And they wanted Jazz and him to experience Paris. Then Vlad offered to be a chaperone.

It was all a play to get Danny alone for two weeks and try and manipulate him.

He did manage to get Tucker and Sam to tag along, something about friends being his family and the two unused tickets his parents left behind. But Vlad knew how to separate the group. How to corner Danny at the worst moments and whisper annoying remarks in his ear as he tried to get away.

He survived a week. He only had one more week to go. Tucker and Sam were off checking out some places for lunch while Jazz and Danny went to pick up sweets for everyone to share after their meal.

Vlad was off doing who knew what so Danny had put him to the back of his mind.

The cafe they found was… well it smelled incredible. There were so many baked goods on display and the air was filled with the warm and sweet smell of the goodies. He let Jazz do most of the talking, she wanted to practice her French and Danny had recently discovered that being dubbed the ghost king meant that now he had a natural grasp on all verbal languages, including the dead ones. This meant his speech in French was almost flawless, and his understanding was like he was listening to someone speak English. He couldn’t read other languages though, just speak them. He was told though by a few locals he had an odd accent. It wasn’t an american one, just… odd.

So Jazz ordered the treats and the pair was headed out to meet Danny’s friends.

Then some blonde girl with way too much make-up basically knocked him to the ground, not even sending him a glance that indicated she knew what she did. It was annoying, but he dealt with bullies on a daily basis back at Amity Park. Well… used to. But he knew better than to waste any thought on some jerk like her. He sadly looked at the ruined cat paw shaped cookies, the icing ruined and the cookies crushed under his weight when he fell.

Standing up with the help of Jazz, they left the shop as Danny insisted on finding somewhere to wash off the icing stuck to his shirt. He liked this shirt too… he hoped it wouldn’t stain too badly. It was better than ectoplasm at least, that stuff needed to be burned out, there was no such thing as washing out ectoplasm.

Jazz asked to help, but Danny brushed her off, telling her he could easily clean himself off by himself.

And then Vlad chose that moment to corner him.

—————————————————————

“Hello Daniel.”

Danny splashed water wildly as he spun around to glare at the older Halfa, hissing out an ‘Ancients!’ in surprise. “What the hell, Vlad?” He spat, “sneaking up on a kid in the bathroom? I should just call the police and tell them about all that stalking you like to do.”

“Aren’t you tired of this childish game?” He hummed.

“Not really, seeing as I’m a child and I love games,” Danny sneered.

“I’m older, more experienced, and stronger. I am also patient, little badger. And it’s easy to wear you down. By the end of this trip, you are going to be begging to be my-.”

“Son? Pet? Little slave that does everything you ask? Sorry, Vladdy, but I ain’t the type to listen to crazy fruit loops. How about you go enjoy the company of your French rich friends like that Agreste dude instead of stalking me and trying to get with my mom and kill my dad. Might do you some good to make more friends than just your cat.”

“Oh Daniel, you throw your petty insults but I know ways to break you even further. You know, a lot of accidents happen in Paris. Terrible things.”

Danny felt his eyes flash as he spun on his heel, “listen to me, if you even consider-!”

“Not to mention your brand new ghostly responsibilities as… the ghost king? Imagine that. A child as the king. You don’t even know everything about ghosts.”

“Neither do you!” Danny spat.

“Oh but I know so much more. And I could easily teach you-.”

“Just shut up!”

“When you mess up, when the ghost zone begins to fall apart, you will wish you took my offer, but I may not be as forgiving when that happens.”

“I said shut up!”

“And we both know the moment the ghost zone falls apart, so will this world. All because a boy became king and didn’t take help he was so graciously offered.”

“SHUT THE HELL UP!”

Something inside him shifted, and Danny suddenly felt his mind cloud, a deep voice echoed his mind.

“A cruel man harassing a young teen that wants nothing to do with him. A shame when someone can’t take a hint.

Black Hole. I am Hawkmoth. I can give you the power to show this old man that he never should consider looking in your direction ever again.

All I ask is for Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculous. Do this for me, and Vlad Masters will never be an issue for you ever again.”

Danny’s clouded mind and building rage smirked at the offer, his voice echoing as he glanced up at Vlad who was giving him a confused look. “Yes, Hawkmoth.”

Darkness engulfed him and then his memory began to fail him.

—————————————————————

A boomerang slammed into Black Hole’s head, causing it to jerk to the side and a small crack formed on the glass that was hit. The metal boomerang dropped to the ground and Black Hole slowly looked down at it as a robotic voice cried out from it, “ghost detected!” And then a recorded voice spouted out, “take that, spook!”

Black Hole’s head slightly tilted at the noise it made, a hand subconsciously rubbing the crack it left behind. Then he twisted his gaze back to Chat Noir, going back to taking the hero’s miraculous.

Then a shout came from behind Black Hole and Chat caught the eyes of a teenage girl yelling and holding a bat over her head. Black Hole twisted, his body turning that transparent look whenever Chat or Ladybug had tried to hit him before, and Chat knew that it was useless. “No! Stop! Get out of here-!” He screamed at the citizen, but stopped when the bat connected with the villain's head and sent him flying into a wall.

Chat was at a loss for words for once in his life, watching the villain slowly pry himself from the wall from being hit by a baseball bat when he and Lady couldn’t land a single hit. He looked back at the citizen and shrieked as she raised the bat above her head and swung down at him, flinching and squeezing his eyes shut. She hit something, causing it to shatter and then- his hand was free!

He opened his eyes and looked at his hand in awe and then back at the girl, “who the heck are you?”

She huffed, dropping the bat casually on her shoulder, “Sam Manson. Friend of the idiot that didn’t do his research before taking a trip here. I’m surprised this didn’t happen earlier.”

Chat blinked, “you- you know that’s your friend? And knew this would happen?”

Sam shrugged, “the booo-merang is never wrong. And yeah, my friend there is not exactly the most emotionally stable person on the planet. Sorry it took us a while to get here. You guys really do move fast.”

Chat just opened and closed his mouth a few times, then yelled as she suddenly swung the bat again and smacked the villain in the gut as he got close during their exchange, knocking him sideways but not down like the first time. Black Hole turned again, making a snarling sound before he was blasted by some sort of green ray and sent flying sideways, rolling along the pavement before smashing into a car. Another teen jogged over with Ladybug behind him, dropping his hands to his knees as he wheezed, “I have ran… way too much for this to be considered a vacation.”

“M’Lady-, what is going on?” Chat asked.

“This is Tucker, and his friend Sam, and they know how to help,” Ladybug quickly explained, glancing back at Black Hole. “We need to draw his attention and get that thermos off of him, then Sam and Tucker can use this,” she held up the thermos from her lucky charm, “and we can get his akuma.”

“Akuma is in the thermos, knock it off,” Chat summarized. He heard his miraculous beeping, a sign he was close to his limit.

“Let’s end this fast.”

—————————————————————

Ladybug held the booo-merang in one hand as the two teens and Chat drew Black Hole’s attention, the teens equipped with weapons that seemed to get past some of Black Holes abilities.

She narrowed her gaze, waiting for the perfect moment, then threw the weapon, watching it arch in the air then knock the thermos off of the villain's waist. The thermos clattered to the ground and drew his attention, he quickly twisted and dove to try and retrieve it, which was when a bright beam erupted from the polka dot thermos Ladybug had given the teens. The beam caught the villain's legs and he was tugged back, his form pulling towards it like taffy as he twisted and a horrid scream of anger burst from him. He tried to escape it, flailing and reaching for anything to hang on to, but in a matter of seconds he was pulled into the canister and Sam slammed the lid shut. The screaming stopped and Ladybug made her way over to Black Hole’s thermos, stomping on it and crushing it, releasing the Akuma hidden inside. With a flick of her wrist her lucky charm turned back into its original form, dumping Black Hole onto the street, then the butterfly was caught and purified, and another click of her miraculous, she let the little bug flutter away harmlessly. With a shout, ‘Miraculous Ladybug!’, everything around them was engulfed in black and red as the damages were undone around them.

At last, the villain's form was released of Hawkmoth's influence and it left a lanky teen laying on the street. He slowly sat up with a groan and a hand to his head and she then realized it was the same teen as from the shop. So once again, this was Chloe’s fault. She turned her attention to the two teens that helped her, noticing Chat let out a hasty farewell and thanks and disappeared around a corner. “Thank you, both of you. Without your help… well, without your help we may have lost that battle. But how in the world did you do that?”

“What the fuck just happened?” The teen groaned, “I feel like the booo-merang smacked me in the head like… fifty times.”

“That’s because I may have smacked you a few times with the fenton creep stick,” Sam shrugged as she helped her friend up who gave her wide eyes in return.

“You fucking what?”

Tucker took a step forward to answer Ladybug’s question, “let's just say back in our town, we have very specific supervillains that have abilities that make it hard for regular attacks to land. So we have specialized gear. Sam and I did a bit of research before heading here and figured if any of us got Akumatized, we may reflect some of those traits.”

“I… see…” Ladybug hummed, “and where did you say you were all from?” The three cast a few glances between each other, but before any of them could answer, her miraculous beeped angrily as she quickly realized she was out of time. “Thank you again for your help, if we could meet again to exchange some of that tech to make sure this never happens again-,” she quickly tried to set up a meet up before Sam held up a hand.

“This won’t happen again. A lot of what happened here is very unique to Amity, so once we finish our vacation, you won’t see this kind of thing ever again.”

Ladybug only had more questions but the angry beeping only forced her to nod and bid a quick farewell before getting out of sight to let Tiki take a rest. Marienette held out a few macaroons for Tiki as her thoughts swirled in her head. The questions about the odd American trio and how they knew how to deal with a villain as unique as Black Hole.

She may be able to corner them later. They did say they had to ‘finish their vacation.’

And in the meantime, it was time to do some research on this place called ‘Amity’.

—————————————————————

Danny didn’t remember a lot of what happened while he was the villain, Black Hole. It was like a dream, he kinda remembered the feeling, vague details, but nothing specific.

What he wished he remembered was whatever he did to Vlad. He must have done something because his memories cut out right after Vlad harassed him in the bathroom and after the event, the froot loop avoided him during the entire trip. Even refused to make eye contact!

What he would give just for a few seconds of that memory! Or for someone to have recorded it!

For now though he got to reap the rewards, flashing his eyes green when Vlad would glance over and causing the man to flinch. Oh man, he was going to abuse this newfound intimidation ability till the bitter end.

163 notes · View notes

arashikitten · 3 years

Text

Dark Danny Should’ve Come Back at Least Once

I think most of the Phandom can agree that The Ultimate Enemy was one of the best Danny Phantom episodes ever made, and for good reason. It was incredibly dark of a kid’s cartoon, especially one made by Bitch Hartman, and on top of that, it provided some very interesting lore and characters. We get to see Danny pushed to his absolute emotional limit in a way that I don’t think the show ever did before, save maybe for My Brother’s Keeper in season 1, and we get our first glimpse at Clockwork, who thanks to @five-rivers fanfic Mortified, has become one of my favorite DP characters. And of course, we get to see Dark Danny, or Dan.

But there’s one little thing about this episode that’s always bothered me: the very ending.

Because at the very end of TUE, we get a shot of the Fenton thermos that Dan is sealed away in rocking back and forth, before Dan’s face forms a massive dent in the side, his laughter echoing as the screen fades to the end credits.

You would think, with an ending like that, that Dan would come back in a later episode. That he would return in the series finale is this last big bad, this final demon for Danny to confront once and for all.

But that’s not what happens. And it kinda pisses me off.

Dan should’ve come back. We should have gotten at least one more episode with this guy, exploring more of his character, more of his side of the story, anything at all. And you know what would be a great way to do this?

Vlad.

Imagine this, if you will.

Dan makes his escape from Clockwork’s lair, dead set on finishing what he started. Eventually, he discovers Vlad’s portal (let’s say that Vlad decided to rebuild his here) and, upon coming face to face with the man who made him like this in the first place, freaks out. Dan makes an attempt on Vlad’s life, and Vlad just barely manages to escape.

Once Vlad is sure this strange new ghost won’t find him so easily, he realizes that this new ghost had Danny’s insignia on his chest, and puts it together that Danny must be involved in this somehow.

So Vlad makes his way to Amity Park to confront Danny about this new ghost. Danny assumes that Vlad is there to try to kill Jack or whatever, the two get into a massive fistfight, before Vlad finally tells Danny that he’s only here because a strange new ghost wearing Danny’s insignia popped out of his portal this morning attempting to kill him a second time.

And Danny freezes. He goes from snarky and flippant to sheer, raw terror that has Vlad actually worried. Danny demands to know what this new ghost looks like, and Vlad’s concern turns to fear when Danny’s face goes white with horror because this is the same kid who went up against Pariah Dark without a second thought, who has faced countless ghosts who’s powers could be considered godly with a fearless smile on his face, and Vlad may not have much respect for Danny but he knows what the kid lacks in intelligence he more than makes up for in bravery.

Meaning that whoever this new ghost is must be incredibly powerful, incredibly horrific, and incredibly dangerous.

Danny tells Vlad to go to Danny’s house and tell them to put the ghost shields surrounding the town up, to not try anything funny, and don’t. Leave. The Shields. No matter what.

For once, Vlad decides to take Danny’s lead. He appears on the Fenton’s doorstep, Armani suit ruffled and hair disheveled, telling them that there is a very powerful ghost making it’s way toward Amity Park and they need to put the ghost shields up now, or risk a Pariah Dark-level threat again.

Then Vlad makes his way toward the edge of town, because he still hasn’t gotten an answer from Danny as to who exactly that ghost was, and he’ll be damned if he can’t get an answer.

Meanwhile, Danny is just outside the ghost shields, waiting for Dan to arrive. He’s absolutely terrified, because what if Danny isn’t strong enough this time? What if he fails again, like he almost did before Clockwork turned back time? Would Clockwork do that for him again? Would he have to watch his future burn down this present that he’s taken so long to keep up?

Then Dan arrives. Right as Vlad makes it to the edge of the shield.

And Vlad watches with awe as the two fight. He watches as Danny holds his own against this ghost that had almost decimated Vlad barely 2 hours prior, watches as Danny outmaneuvers, outsmarts this menace, watches as Danny fights tooth and nail in a way that Vlad is sure he’s never seen before, and he realizes that Danny has been holding back. Maybe not at first, maybe not during those first few months, but definitely for a while now, because Danny is holding his own now when Vlad couldn’t.

But then that leaves the question as to why? Why is Danny going all out now? Why was he so scared of this new ghost? More importantly, when did Danny encounter this guy?

Because he had to have fought this ghost at least once before, to have had that reaction to Vlad’s description.

And then, he hears the other ghost’s voice, one that sounds like a strange mixture of his and Danny’s, and he hears him say “It doesn’t matter what you do, Danny. You might’ve stopped that explosion, but there are still so many other things that lead to me. A car crash, an unlucky ghost attack, the ecto-filtrator, Vlad getting lucky, all of them could still happen. Your friends, your family, all gone, and you still turn into me.”

And suddenly, everything makes sense. That ghost that Danny’s fighting, that ghost that attacked Vlad, that is Danny, or it was, before something twisted him into an unrecognizable monster, and Vlad has a creeping suspicion that it has something to do with him. And he realizes that Danny is so much more than he ever gave him credit for. He sees Danny, fighting his own future with a hope that Vlad would call naive if not for the fact that Danny had already thwarted whatever horrible future lead to this at least once before, and he understands that he was wrong about Danny.

Because this? Fighting against the personification of all the worst parts of yourself not once, but at least twice? It would require a maturity, a strength of will that Vlad knows he himself lacks, and he comes to the stunning realization that for all the childish quips and petty pranks, Danny is far more mature than Vlad ever was, far stronger than Vlad ever was.

And then, Danny does the ghostly wail.

And if Vlad was surprised before, then he's absolutely terrified now. That’s enough power to destroy an entire city, that single wail, and the sound is a bone-chilling scream that rubs the older halfa wrong in every way possible because that sound should not come from someone as young as Danny.

And now Vlad is caught between two realizations: that Danny is so much stronger than Vlad could ever be in every sense of the word, and that the only reason Danny is that strong is because he has to be, because he’s a child being forced to go against all manner of ghostly and cosmic horror all on his own, and Vlad suddenly feels intensely guilty because he should’ve been helping Danny, and instead he’s done nothing but make his life harder.

At that point, Jack and Maddie arrive. They freak out because Vlad is so close to Phantom and this other extremely powerful ghost, what the hell is he thinking!? And Vlad is trying desperately to get them to leave, because Danny looks exhausted and Vlad might be an ass, but he’s starting his redemption arc now and that means making sure Danny’s secret, and by extension Danny himself, is safe from his parents. Vlad knows what it’s like to be on an examination table, knows how terrifying it is to have doctors looming over you with knives and bright lights while you have no idea what’s going on, and he’ll be damned if he lets Danny (who he again reminds himself is very much still a child) go through that with his own parents.

But it’s too late. Danny detransforms right there on the street, in full view of Jack and Maddie and everyone else who’s gathered there (Dan’s been sucked back in the thermos at this point).

Danny turns around, covered in scratches and burns and bruises, blood in his mouth from where Dan punched him in the lip, left arm hanging in an unnatural angle, and he sees everyone: He sees Vlad, icy blue eyes so similar to Danny’s own filled with uncharacteristic worry.

He sees Sam and Tucker, both with wide, scared eyes, and he can just barely see the faint shimmer of tears gathering in their eyes.

He sees Jazz, face pale and her knuckles white as she grips the Fenton peeler with all her strength.

He sees Valerie, her helmet down and exposing a flurry of emotions ranging from shock to anger to horror to pain.

He sees his mom and dad, clinging to each other as they stare at Danny, at their son, and come to the realization that their son is dead, their son is a ghost and he has been for a while now and how did they never notice? How could they not notice that they had been shooting at their own son for at least a year now, that their boy had been putting his afterlife on the line for them while also trying to keep up with school, and evade capture by the GIW, all at the same time?

And Danny is scared, he’s so scared, because his parents look horrified of him and they think he’s a monster, and they hate him, because why else would they be looking at him like that?

He feels his fathers arms wrapping around him and he’s sure, he’s so sure that they’re about to haul him off to their lab to be pinned down and dissected by his own parents, because they saw Dan, they saw what he would become, they saw what he is now, they know now. But then his mom and dad start apologizing, because they never noticed, and they should’ve, they should’ve seen that Danny’s low grades and missed curfews and skipped classes were because he was putting his life on the line for everyone in this town over and over and over again. They apologize for not making him feel safe in his own house, because how many times did they rant about dissecting their own son right in front of him? How many times had Jack and Maddie shown Danny a dissected blob ghost and effectively told him that he was the next one on the list? How much hell did their own son have to go through on his own, because his own parents couldn’t see what was right there?

And Danny finally realizes that no, he’s not going to end up on a dissection table, that his parents do accept him as he is now.

But there’s still this lingering fear because they don’t know. They don’t know what Danny might turn into, and he can’t keep that from them anymore, because Dan is a secret he can’t keep anymore.

Jack and Maddie are confused when their son pulls away, and for a moment they’re worried that Danny’s upset with them, that he’s angry at them, because why wouldn’t he be?

Then they see this nervousness, they see how he’s shaking and tense, and they might not always be able to read the room that well but they can tell that there’s something else going on here that Danny wants to tell them, even if he’s scared to.

So Jack and Maddie ask Danny if he wants to talk about whatever it is back at the house, and Danny says yes, but Vlad, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz should also be there, because Danny needs some level of support and he knows that Vlad won’t stop pestering him about Dan until he tells him.

Valerie steps in at this point, finally getting over her shock to demand to know what the hells going on, was Danny Phantom the whole time? Who was that other ghost? Why did that other ghost say that Danny would turn into him?

Sam and Tucker, who have been through the emotional wringer watching their best friend fight his evil future self, then reveal his identity to his parents, are kinda pissed at Valerie, because Danny’s already stressed out enough as is, she doesn’t need to be adding on to it. A fight almost breaks out between the three of them, which only stopped when Vlad of all people, steps in saying that while Valerie does have a right to know what’s going on, all of this yelling will do nothing but cause problems.

The three simmer down, and they all head over to the Fenton’s house, where Danny tells them everything: the portal, Pariah Dark (Vlad suddenly finds a particularly interesting spot on the floor), and Dan. He tells them about how Jack, Maddie, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker died in an explosion in that timeline, how that timeline’s Danny turned to Vlad to take him in, how Alt!Danny asked Vlad to remove his human half so he wouldn’t feel that pain anymore. How Alt!Phantom had been driven insane by the separation (he leaves out the part where Phantom fuses with Vlad’s ghost half: he’s not sure Vlad wants him to tell them about his halfa status), killing his human half before destroying most of humanity. How Danny had been forced to fight Dan a year ago, when he had attempted to blow up his friends in family in this timeline to ensure Dan’s recreation here.

When he’s finally done, about an hour and a half later, Danny looks around the room: at Valerie, at Vlad, at his best friends, at his sister, at his parents, and he sees not only acceptance, but respect. Pride. Because they saw that Danny was willing to look his fate in the eye, and say that he would change it no matter what. They saw him fight tooth and nail to protect them, they saw him defend them from his own demons with a bravery most grown adults don’t have, much less a 14 year old boy.

And they accept him.

#Danny Phantom #long post #how I think the finale shouldve gone #Dan Phantom #vlad masters #vlad plasmius #jazz fenton #jack and maddie fenton #sam manson #Tucker Foley #valerie gray #angst #Dan shouldve been the series finale villian and I will fight anyone who says otherwise #Vlad could’ve gotten a redemption arc where he realizes that Danny is technically a kid and is so much stronger than Vlad gives him credit #like yeah I made a post on how Vlad is both an incel and a boomer not two days ago #but like #his character could’ve been so much better?#Danny could’ve gotten a mentor dammit!#BAMF Danny

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dreamwraith · 3 years

Text

Teleport

Summary: Danny finally learned how to teleport, but where is the 'off' switch? Pairings: Hints of Sam crushing on Danny Warnings: Danny accidentally teleports into the girl’s locker room, but only for a few seconds; he’s as startled as they are. Danny and Tucker have a no-homo thing going on, they should probably just hug it out already.

On Ao3

"Hey! Sam! Sam, wait up!"

Sam glanced over her shoulder. When she saw Tucker chasing after her with an anxious look on his face, she stopped walking down the sidewalk. Tucker was able to reach her in no time, but he had to bend over and gulp in large breaths afterward.

"Something wrong, Tucker?" she asked after giving him a few seconds to catch his breath. "I thought I was meeting you and Danny at school today?"

"Well, yeah," Tucker panted, "that was the plan, but…Have you seen Danny?"

She raised an eyebrow. "No. Why? Did something happen? Is he in trouble?"

Tucker waved his hand, chuckling between gasps. "No…well, yes…well, kind of…"

"Tucker…"

"No, he isn't in any real danger. Yes, his secret may be in jeopardy."

Sam widened her eyes. "His secret might be in what? What happened exactly?"

Tucker stood up straight, using his beret to wipe his sweaty forehead. "Well, this morning, while Danny and I were walking to school, he had a breakthrough on teleporting. He practiced it a couple times by teleporting up and down the sidewalk when no one was around, getting farther and farther away. He was getting really good at it!"

"O-kay," Sam said slowly, "so somebody saw him doing this?"

"Um. No."

"What went wrong then?"

"Well, we were almost to school, so he changed back to Fenton. But a few seconds after he did, he disappeared and—"

POP!

"Tucker!" Danny jumped on Tucker. His best friend screamed and would have shot three feet in the air if Danny's Hug of Death was any less secure. "Finally! I've been trying to get back to you for who knows how long now! Oh, hey, Sam! Wait, where'd you come from?" He loosened his hold on the trembling Tucker and looked around. "This isn't where I left you, Tuck…"

"He came to find me after you apparently disappeared," Sam explained for their shell-shocked friend. "Danny, what's going on? Are—"

"I can't stop teleporting, Sam!" Danny all but shouted, unwrapping one arm from around Tucker so he could wave it around for emphasis. "One minute I'm walking peacefully down the sidewalk, the next I'm in my room! So far I've teleported to school three times, to the Ghost Zone twice, my room five times, yours once, Tucker's three, Vlad's house one time too many, and once I somehow ended up, like, fifty feet in the air! I can't control it!" He released Tucker, and latched onto Sam's shoulders, earning a surprised gasp from the Goth. "Make it stop, Sam! I can't take it anymore!"

"Danny, calm down!" She brushed Danny's hands off her shoulders, but he quickly grabbed her wrists. She scowled. "Danny, let go of me before I show a very incriminating photo of you and Tucker to Jazz."

Danny's hands flew away from Sam like she was an evil ghost in disguise. "I thought you burned that!" He hesitated before giving Tucker a one-armed hug again.

Sam smirked. "Why would I get rid of perfectly good blackmail material? Is there a reason you keep grabbing onto us, Danny?"

"Yeah, dude," Tucker said, finally regaining his wits enough to eye his strange friend. "It's getting awkward."

"I am being teleported all over the place without my consent," Danny reminded them, "can't I get a little sympathy from you guys?" They gave him bland, completely unsympathetic looks. "Alright, fine. By holding onto you stationary people, I'm hoping you will anchor me and stop me from teleporting."

"Wouldn't we just teleport with you though?" Sam asked.

Tucker's eyes grew large and he struggled against Danny's hold, but even in human form Danny was stronger than him.

"No," Danny grunted, "because it takes a lot of control to be able to teleport more than one person, and clearly I don't posses any control over this, whatsoever."

Tucker relaxed but his nose wrinkled. "It still feels awkward, Danny. Go hug, Sam."

"I'm not hugging you," Danny protested. "This is a manly arm grip!"

"It doesn't feel very manly."

"Doesn't look like it either," Sam said, smirking.

Danny huffed. "Fine." He dragged Tucker closer to Sam and then threw his other arm around her neck before she could protest. Sam gasped and struggled, upset—if her red face was anything to go by—but Danny started walking, and his friends were forced to follow. "Alright! Now this is teamwork!"

"More like kidnapping!" Sam shouted.

Tucker teased, "You know you like it, Sam."

"Oh, yeah, I just love to be held against my will."

"It's only until this stops," Danny tried to reason.

"Oh? And when will that be?"

"Uh…I don't know…"

She sighed, resigned. "This all started after you changed back into Danny Fenton, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, maybe you'll have more control of it if you're in your ghost form. Seems to me your ghost half would have more control over your powers than your human half would."

Danny hung his head, wishing he could face-palm without losing his anchors. "I should have thought of that…"

"That's what I'm here for. Now hurry up and change while the streets are empty."

Danny nodded, and in a flash of light, he became Amity Park's number one ghostly hero.

After a few seconds, Sam cleared her throat. "You'll have to let go of us to test this, Danny…"

Danny flinched. "B-but what if it doesn't work and I start teleporting like crazy again?"

"Then we'll just have to think of something else!" Sam hissed, "Now let go of us before somebody sees Danny Phantom hanging out with Danny Fenton's friends!"

Danny grimaced. He slowly, very slowly, released his best friends. They walked a few steps farther ahead before stopping and facing Danny again. He had his eyes pinched shut and his hands fisted at his sides.

"Did I teleport?" he asked, keeping his eyes sealed.

"No." Tucker chuckled. "But you look constipated. Loosen up, dude."

Danny cracked an eye open, but upon seeing the same setting as before, he grinned, and jumped in place. "Alright! Way to go, Sam!" He went to high five her, but seconds away from making contact, Danny became consumed by green mist. The mist disappeared along with Danny, followed by a popping sound.

Sam lowered her hand slowly, and exchanged glances with Tucker. "Uh, I guess it didn't work…"

Tucker sighed. "We might as well get to school, Sam. He's not going to show up here any time soon…"

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

POP!

"Paradise Lost!"

Danny's momentum carried him through the motion of the high-five, but because Sam's hand wasn't there to meet his, his swat carried into a somersault in midair. "Whoa!" He righted himself and jerked his head from side to side. The faces staring up at him were familiar, but the location wasn't since only teachers and their favorites were allowed inside the teacher's lounge.

Danny laughed nervously. "Um, uh, whoops?"

Mr. Lancer was the first to regain his composure. He stood up and fixed his tie in a nervous habit. "Mr. …Phantom, what is the meaning of this?" Sweat noticeably broke out over his forehead.

Danny flushed. "Um, I'm having a few technical issues with my powers…" He cleared his throat and floated with his back straight, adopting his 'hero' voice. "Sorry for the inconvenience, citizens. I'll just be going…"

But after a few seconds, Danny still floated in place above their table, staring fixedly into space. The teachers looked at each other in confusion. The Art teacher pulled out a sketch pad and started sketching the focused Ghost Boy in profile.

"…Any second now…"

If they had crickets in the staff lounge, they'd be chirping.

"…Any second…"

Mr. Felucca stepped forward, his index finger poised in question. "What power are you having difficulties with, Mr. Ghost Boy? As a scientist, perhaps I can be of assistance."

Danny grimaced. "Uh, actually—"

Ms. Tetslaff slammed a fist on the table, and the sudden violence made Danny start in surprise. "If it's power he's having trouble with, it's me he should be coming to for help! I'll whip him into shape!"

He winced, and drifted away from her. "Uh, it's not really a physical power—"

"I have studied many classical stories that teach great, historical lessons," Mr. Lancer said. "Perhaps one of those will be of some use to you, Mr. Phantom?"

"Thanks, but I don't—"

The Mythology teacher scoffed. "Your literature is of no use to a being of exponential power. My myths have way more value to him than your 'fiction'."

"I don't need—"

The Psychology teacher snapped her fingers. "It may be psychological! Please feel free to tell me all about your problems. I'm here to help!"

"I don't have a psychological issue! Why does everyone always think that?"

Ms. Loretta gazed at Danny's skinny body with a critical eye. "Perhaps it has something to do with malnourishment. Do ghosts have to eat? I can make you something, boy."

"…Uh…no…"

The Government teacher trembled in his seat, staring up at Danny in fear. "W-we should call somebody about this! Call the Fentons! Call the Guys in White! They'll know what to do!"

The Art teacher reached out and pinched a fold of Danny's jumpsuit. "Is this latex?"

"Hey!" Danny knocked his hand away and floated a few paces away from him. "No touching!"

"We should give him a physical!"

"He needs to learn a moral lesson!"

"What he needs is more meat on his bones!"

"Oh, how am I going to capture that glow…"

"Something must be wrong with the inner workings of his mind!"

"The FENTONS!"

"Perhaps it is his molecular structure that is causing the problem!"

"QUIET!" Danny shouted. The teachers instantly quieted. "There is nothing wrong with my body, my mind, or my morals, alright? I just developed a new power and I'm having some difficulty controlling it. That's all!"

The teachers backed away from the panting ghost boy.

Mr. Felucca was the first to gather his courage. He asked, "What kind of power?"

Danny relaxed. "Teleport—"

POP!

The teachers gasped, and stared at the spot where the Ghost Boy had once been.

"NOOO!" the Art teacher cried, and threw down his half-complete sketch. "I was so close!"

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

POP!

"—ation."

"Breach in Sector 8! We have a breach in Sector 8!"

Before Danny had a chance to gather his bearings, several ghost nets crashed into him and bound him to the floor. Where the net touched him, little bolts of electricity shot into his system like static jumping to a doorknob. Danny growled and struggled against the painful bindings, but the whirring of a ghost gun made him freeze. He looked up into the tinted sunglasses of a GiW operative.

"D-Don't move, Phantom!"

Danny's eyes half-lidded in boredom. "Oh great. The Mr. Clean Groupies…"

"Quiet, ghost," another agent ordered. "We have you surrounded."

Danny looked past the two standing over him. "Let me guess, the reinforcements are invisible?"

Danny wasn't able to see his eyes, but the second agent's brows furrowed, and his mouth turned down.. "I don't like your tone, boy."

Danny used his infamous cocky smirk. "Like I care? With only two agents, why should I worry? I could take you guys out easy."

The first agent, the one who had stuttered, gulped. Without warning, he shot at Danny.

Danny gasped, and dove to the side. He needn't have bothered, though. The shot was way off target. It crashed into the wall five feet behind Danny.

"Agent N!"

Danny eyed the scared agent warily. Like cornered wolves, frightened hunters packing heat were dangerous. "New agent?" he asked the other guy.

He grunted. "As green as they come. Listen, kid," he faced Agent N, "there is a rhythm to these things. We exchange witty banter, and then we start shootin' them."

Agent N nodded his head rapidly. "Y-yes, sir. Understood, sir! Should I tranquilize him, sir?"

"Wow, he is green."

The senior agent scowled. "Tranquilizers don't work on ghosts, recruit. Get your facts straight!"

Agent N stuttered apologies. Danny rolled his eyes and wished he would teleport out of there already.

"W-what do we do then, s-sir?"

The other agent grinned sadistically. "We shock him until he loses consciousness."

Danny flinched, but tried to hide it. "Gee, so humane. You must be very proud of your species."

"I am." The senior agent pulled a button switch out of his pocket, and poised his thumb above the large red button. Danny breathed in a deep breath, readying a Ghostly Wail. Passing out and transforming in front of them wasn't an option. "Or, I don't care about yours. Prepare yourself, ghost scum."

POP!

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

POP!

The first thing Danny noticed was the absence of annoying static shocks. The second thing he noticed was the absence of everything else. Including air. He was really glad he took a deep breath before, though the breath was almost stolen from him when he looked down at the Earth. Like, the Earth, the blue planet Earth.

I'm in space! he thought, grinning goofily. He gazed around himself in wonder. He had been to space before, but he'd been too busy fighting to really admire the scenery.

Stars in every direction, as far as the eye could see, he was on the sunny side of the Earth, but he could see the moon poking out from behind the rocky planet. A comet was off in the distance, its ice and dust particles trailing behind it as the solar wind tore at the ice rock. He closed his eyes, and lights danced behind his eyelids as the solar wind hit him.

Danny sagged, and his expression became dreamy. It's so beautiful…this just makes me want to be an astronaut even more! I wish I could stay—Air! He gripped his throat. Air! I need air!

POP!

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

POP!

"Chronicles of Narnia!"

Danny gasped in air, like he'd never tasted anything so sweet. Space was awesome, but it'd be a lot better with oxygen.

"Danny Phantom!"

Danny spun around, and found his first period class staring up at him the same way he had stared at Outer Space. A nervous smile worked its way onto his lips. "I'm just dropping by. I'll be gone in a second, so please, don't let me interrupt."

The class started whispering to each other in excitement, looking like they were seconds away from mobbing him. In the back row, he saw Sam scowl. She hated his 'hero' voice. Tucker waved discreetly to him, and Danny subtly nodded back. He was glad Valerie didn't have his first hour…

"Mr. Phantom!"

Danny looked over his shoulder at Mr. Lancer. "Uh, hello again…"

Lancer frowned. "I take it you haven't fixed your 'problem'?"

"…No."

"Then perhaps you would like to sit in for my lesson," he said, smirking like he had just won a contest. "Perhaps you will learn something."

The students screamed. No longer able to contain themselves, they jumped out of their seats and rushed for Danny. He floated out of their reach, feeling nervous and slightly nauseous. Tucker and Sam joined them in order to keep up appearances, and Danny was annoyed to see Tucker filming it all on his PDA. His classmates gathered below him, shouting for autographs.

Danny backed away, breathing fast. "Uh, I don't know if that's such a good idea! Besides, I probably won't be here for much longer, or at least I really hope not, so I—"

POP!

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

POP!

"…and that is why, I believe we can use the town's little ghost problem to our…" Vlad trailed off when it became apparent he didn't have his audience's full attention. "…advantage…"

Despite the meeting being comprised of mostly professional reporters and self-important civilians, they were whispering rudely amongst each other, laughing and pointing at something behind Vlad. He looked behind him, but all he saw was the red curtain. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

"…As I was saying," Vlad said, turning back to the microphone on the podium, "with an interest in ghosts growing worldwide, more and more people will be traveling to Amity Park in search of the fabled beings—one in particular, I might add. I say we encourage this by building tourist attractions that will bring in large crowds of people."

"What?" a familiar voice exclaimed. Vlad smirked, his suspicion confirmed. Danny Phantom flew in front of him, his arms thrown out. "You can't bring more people here! I knew you were a fruitloop, Vlad, but this is going a bit far!"

"Ah," Vlad said suavely, "Amity Park's famous Ghost Boy. So nice of you to join us."

"Cut the crap, Vlad…er, Mr. Mayor…" Danny blushed and glanced over his shoulder at the flashing cameras and excited audience.

Vlad chuckled. "If it puts you more at ease, you're welcome to use my first name. It's the least I can do for our star attraction."

Danny refocused his righteous gaze on Vlad, but he floated to the side of him so his back was no longer to the cameras. "You can't bring tourists here, Masters."

"Oh? And why not? It'd be very profitable for this town."

"You mean it'd be very profitable for you," Danny corrected. "And you can't bring them here because, in case you haven't noticed, this town isn't very safe. The people living here know to run when a ghost attacks, but tourists will get closer because that's what they came to see. People could get seriously hurt…"

"Do you doubt your ability to protect them, little hero?" Vlad questioned, smirking mockingly. "We can use the funds the tourists bring in to hire more competent ghost hunters, so I assure you there is no need for such fear."

Danny scowled at the 'competent' part. "You're making a mistake, Masters. You can hire a hundred ghost hunters, but they won't be enough to—"

POP!

Vlad raised an eyebrow. Interesting… He hadn't expected the boy to develop his teleportation powers so soon, but his apparent lack of control more than made up for his accelerated growth. He'd make the boy suffer a while longer before he approached him.

He turned back to his murmuring audience. "Any questions?"

The crowd shot to their feet.

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

Ms. Tetslaff blew her whistle. Her students looked at her with hope in their eyes and sweat covering every inch of their exhausted bodies. "That's enough for today," she said. "Shower up, you lazy maggots!" The students silently cheered and limped toward the locker rooms.

Tucker almost fell over in relief. He'd take helping Danny fight ghosts over gym any day. He was tempted to curl into a ball and fake dehydration, just so he could sit and relax for a few seconds. Sadly, it was not to be. Sam bounced to his side, and Tucker for the second time that day cursed the girl's athleticism.

She grabbed his arm, and forced him to stumble toward the locker rooms. He muttered complaints, but being the good friend she was, she ignored them.

"Any sign of Danny since this morning?" she asked him quietly.

"Once," Tucker replied. Even his voice sounded tired. "He made a brief appearance in third period chemistry class, and I mean brief. He was there for all but five seconds, but it was still enough to disrupt the whole class and get us out of homework." He grinned. "It was awesome! What about you?"

Sam shrugged. "He popped into second period Art Class. Everybody started sketching him, including Mr. Coal." She smirked. "Danny looked so embarrassed."

Tucker chuckled. "I bet. How long did he stay?"

"Five or ten minutes. There were a lot of disappointed groans after he disappeared, but Mr. Coal managed to finish. It looks really cool too…I also heard he made an appearance for History Class, and Government." She rolled her eyes. "The Government teacher tried to call the Guys in White, but he got taken captive by his class."

Tucker laughed. "Oh man! I wish I had seen that!"

"We can ask Danny all about it once we see him again," Sam pointed out. "If he stays long enough…"

Tucker chuckled.

They split into their gender specific locker rooms, waving goodbye. Still chuckling, Tucker grabbed his shower supplies and strolled into the shower area. Because of a recent ghost attack, tarps littered the area, for once creating some much needed privacy. Too bad Danny was missing it. Mr. Modesty would most definitely appreciate the seclusion.

Tucker stripped down, and was just about to turn on the water when…

POP!

"Tucker!"

Tucker jumped.

Danny nearly hugged him like he had that morning, but he stopped at the last second. He pulled slowly away, making a face. "Uh, you're my best friend and everything, Tuck," he said, "and I love you like a brother, but I am so not touching you when you're naked…"

Tucker hurriedly wrapped his lower half in his towel. "Well no asked you to!" He looked at his best friend, noticing the tousled white hair, the tear in his jumpsuit, and the way his eyes twitched and darted around the room. "Having a rough day, Danny?"

"Like you wouldn't believe!" Danny pulled on his own hair—explaining why it was so messy—and stared at Tucker with unnaturally large eyes. "I never know where I'm going, or when I'm going there! It's all completely random! And I've seen things, Tuck! I've seen things…"

Tucker held his fists against his naked chest, mocking a scared expression. "Were they dead people?" he whispered.

Danny blinked, scowled, and crossed his hands over his chest, sulking. "Oh yeah, ha ha. Laugh at the poor kid who just saw Ember and Skulker making out."

Tucker's jaw dropped and his face turned slightly green.

Danny smirked. "Yeah! Not so funny now, is it!"

POP!

Tucker stared at the empty space before him for a moment, wondering where his traveling friend would end up next.

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

POP!

It happened very fast.

Danny saw what every straight guy dreams about, committed it unintentionally to memory, and was then deafened by shrieks. He screamed too and quickly covered his eyes with his hands. He turned around and tried to fly out of the Girl's Locker Room, but he forgot to go intangible, and he crashed into the lockers. The girls started throwing towels, hairbrushes, and other items at him.

"Sorry! I'm sorry!" he shouted over their screams, cowering in a corner. "I have no control over where I'm going!"

POP!

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

POP!

Danny was never so glad to hear that sound. Still, he stayed in a fetal position, too afraid to see where he had teleported to. Maybe if I stay still, he thought desperately, I won't teleport!

"It's alright, Danny," a kind and familiar voice said. "You're safe here."

Danny opened his eyes slowly, and stared up at Clockwork. The Time Ghost in, the form of an old man, smiled kindly back down at him.

Danny grinned and jumped to his feet. "Clockwork! Man, am I glad to see you! Listen, you have to help me! I can't stop teleporting everywhere, and I'm seeing things I really don't want to be seeing, going places I shouldn't be going, and you probably already know about all of this, because you're the Master of Time and everything, but I have to tell you because—"

"Danny, you have something on—"

"—I'm freaking out here, because I can't stop teleporting—"

"Danny, your head—"

"—and I'm seeing things I should not be not be seeing, and it won't stop, Clockwork, make it stop!" Danny leaned his head against his Guardian/mentor's chest, whimpering pathetically. "Make it stop…"

Clockwork hesitated, unsure. He reached up a hand, and patted Danny awkwardly on the shoulder. "I…I'm sorry, Danny," he said, sounding sincerely apologetic. "It's not my place to help you."

Danny's shoulders slumped in defeat. He drew away from the timeless ghost and shook the hand off his shoulder. "Yeah…I should have figured that…Sorry for putting you on the spot, Clockwork."

Clockwork changed into a toddler. He sighed, and shook his head. "There is nothing to apologize for, Danny. You ask far less of me than most ghosts. However," his tone made Danny glance despondently up at him, "I can tell you it will end soon."

Danny straightened, and his eyes brightened with hope. "Really?"

The Time Master nodded sagely. "Indeed." He smirked, and it was very odd to see such a sarcastic look on a kid's face. "By the way, Danny. You have something on your head."

Danny frowned. He brought his hand to his head and pressed down, immediately feeling something lacy. He grabbed it and brought it down to eye level. It was a white bra. Danny let out a half-yelp and quickly tossed it away from him. He wiped his hand against his pants, making a face.

Clockwork chuckled, now a middle-aged man. "I thought you were over the 'cootie' stage by now, Danny."

Danny grimaced. "I'm fourteen, and I have an older sister. You do the math."

Clockwork nodded. "Fair enough. You have ten seconds before you teleport again."

Danny looked dismayed. "So soon? Can you tell me where I'm going?"

"Home, Danny. To Fenton Works." Danny smiled in relief. "But you won't get a warm welcome."

He frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

"Five…"

"Clockwork!"

"Four…"

"I can't believe you're counting down!"

"Three…"

"Whoever heard of Master of all Time counting down the time?"

"Two…"

"'Hey, I'm Clockwork! I'm counting down because I'm awesome like that—'"

"One."

POP!

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

POP!

"GHOST!"

"Ghost!"

"Warning! Warning! Ecto-entity in the lab."

Danny blinked. "Wow. What a welcome home…"

His mom grabbed an ecto gun off one of the lab tables and shot at Danny. He gasped and quickly dove beneath it, escaping the shot by a hair. Jack shot a net at Danny, but it missed him completely. Still in a ball, it ricocheted off the wall and expanded over Maddie, knocking her to the ground and sending her gun flying. Danny clamped his hands over his mouth, trying to smother his giggles.

"Jack!" Maddie shouted angrily, struggling inside the net.

"Sorry, sweet cheeks!" Jack dropped the net launcher and grabbed the weapon they'd been working on before Danny arrived. "I'll get you out of there as soon as I capture this ghost!"

"Jack! We haven't fixed the—"

"BONSAI!" Jack pulled the trigger. Ectoplasmic goop shot into his face.

"—trigger…"

Danny wasn't sure whether to be embarrassed by his father (again), or be grateful he messed up an attack (again). He just chuckled weakly, and rubbed the back of his neck.

POP!

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

POP!

As soon as the green mist cleared, Danny looked around his new surroundings. What he saw made him grimace, and not just because the green and gold color scheme was an eyesore.

"Ah, Daniel. I was wondering when you'd 'pop' in."

Vlad stepped out of a darkened hallway, haunting smirk in place. Danny spun around and crossed his arms over his chest, lifting an eyebrow. "Do you always have to make a creepy entrance, or is this another fruitloop thing?"

Vlad huffed, looking offended. "It's dramatic, Daniel, not creepy."

"Where'd you learn it from, Villainy for Dummies? Seems like overcompensation if you ask me."

Vlad's eyes flashed red, before he schooled his expression into one of mocking regret. "I was going to offer you my expertise on teleporting, but if you're going to be immature, I have more important things to do." He turned around, walking back into the dark hallway.

Danny gasped, and quickly flew in front of the man. "Whoa, hold on!" He held up his hands in front of Vlad, forcing him to stop. "You can stop this? You can make me stop teleporting?" Vlad nodded, and Danny smiled happily. "Great! I—Wait." The smile fell from his face, and he eyed the man suspiciously. "What's in it for you?"

Vlad's lips twisted into a smirk. "No longer naïve enough to expect anything for free. I'm proud of you, little badger. My price is the usual."

"Renounce my dad and become your evil apprentice?" Danny crossed his arms again. "Forget it, Vlad."

Vlad shrugged his shoulders. "Then enjoy the rest of your life filled with uncertainty." He walked around Danny, raising a hand in farewell. "Ta."

Danny winced. He chewed on his bottom lip, thinking. He hated teleporting. If he ever got out of the rut he had fallen into, he swore the power would definitely be crossed off his list…He groaned, and flew after Vlad. "Vlad wait!"

Vlad halted, his expression triumphant. "Yes?"

Danny refused to meet his eyes. "I…The reward isn't worth the price, Vlad, but…will you teach me to control this power for…Mom's cell number?"

Vlad's eyes sparkled in interest. "You'll give me her phone number?"

It was difficult, but Danny managed to keep from grinning triumphantly. "She'll probably never forgive me, but yes. I mean, it's not like you'll get anywhere with it…"

Vlad smiled cockily. "I assure you, Daniel, I can be quite charming. I'll be your legal father in no time." Danny gagged, and Vlad rolled his eyes. "I suppose we have a deal?" Vlad held out his hand.

Danny stared at it, making a show of hesitating. "Alright…" He reached out and grabbed the other hybrids hand. "Deal."

POP!

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

POP!

Danny blinked, and when his eyes opened, it wasn't Vlad's ugly décor that greeted his sight, but Amity's newspaper office. People occupied cubicles, writing down stories on computers and scribbling notes in their notebooks, but no sign of Vlad.

"No!" Danny screamed, frantically searching the office for his savior. He could have followed him in ghost form, right? The sound of typing and pencils scribbling on paper instantly ceased, but Danny didn't notice. "I was so close to ending this!" He ran a hand through his hair, pacing back and forth on the open air. "I finally outsmarted the creep, and I get whooshed off before I can even celebrate! Where's justice in that? Is this some great cosmic joke? Just—"

POP!

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

POP!

"GHOST!"

"Jack! Get this net off me!"

"—how many people are laughing at me? The Observants—"

POP!

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

POP!

"Danny Phantom!"

"—are probably having a grand ol' time laughing at me, the jerks. No doubt Vlad finds this whole thing amusing—"

POP!

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

POP!

"Breach in Sector 11! Again!"

"—because he's a total bastard like that. Clockwork, Master of all Annoyingness, acted—"

POP!

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

POP!

"BEWARE!"

"—all sincere, but I bet he's laughing on the inside!"

POP!

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

POP!

"Mr. Phantom! A few questions—"

"And don't even get me started on my friends—"

POP!

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

POP!

"—probably laughing about it at this very moment! Some friends!"

"Danny?"

Danny spun around. His friends stared up at him, along with the whole Casper High cafeteria. He was floating over the lunch line, and even the lunch ladies were gaping openly at him. Slop slipped off one of their spoons.

Danny laughed. "Great. Just great. Of course I'd wind up here, again."

"Danny," Sam hissed, "go invisible!"

Considering the students were starting to rush in his direction, that was sound advice. Danny turned invisible. His fans slowed, groaning in disappointment, but Danny felt no sympathy. He placed a hand on Sam's shoulder, and whispered, "I'll meet you guys at our table." She nodded and whispered the message to Tucker.

Danny sat in his designated seat and placed his head in his hands, just taking time to relax and not think about anything. A few minutes later, Tucker and Sam sat at the table on either side of him.

"Danny?" Sam asked quietly. "Are you still here?"

Danny nodded his head, but realized they couldn't see it. He sighed. "Yes."

Tucker stuffed some mystery meat into his mouth. "So how's your day been?" he asked cheerfully.

Danny groaned.

"Aw, it can't be that bad." He grinned, and nudged what he hopped was Danny's shoulder and not his head. "Sam says you teleported into the girl's locker room while they were changing…"

Sam stabbed her salad, growling low in her throat. She muttered what Danny assumed were threats against mankind.

"They nearly killed me, Tuck."

"Yeah, but you would have died a happy man!"

Danny's lips twitched. "True…"

Sam slammed her spork down, her face flaming. "We are never speaking of it again, and you—" she pointed a threatening finger at Danny's seat "—are going to forget what you saw. Got it?"

"…I don't think I can, Sam…"

Sam growled, and Tucker laughed. Danny smiled, though they couldn't see it, and snuck a fry from Tucker's tray. Being invisible had its perks.

"The school is in an uproar, Danny," Sam said after a minute of silence. "…More than usual. Valerie is going crazy trying to find you, Paulina constantly fixes her makeup, and the teachers seem to be competing against each other…"

Tucker nodded. "There's even a bet going around about where you'll pop in next!"

Danny raised an unseen eyebrow. "Do I want to know who started the bet, Tuck…?"

Tucker coughed into his fist. "Depends on what you plan to do to him—or her! For all we know, the evil, clever, and no doubt charming mastermind might have been a girl."

Danny rolled his eyes, and stole another fry from the 'clever mastermind'. "Uh-huh."

"Have you learned any control yet?" Sam asked.

Danny grumbled. "No. I convinced Vlad to help me, though."

"How'd you manage that?" Sam asked.

He smirked slyly. "By offering my mom's cell phone number."

Tucker frowned. "But your mom doesn't—" His eyes cleared in understanding. He smiled at Danny. "Niiice, dude."

"So, you know how to stop now?" Sam asked.

Danny sighed. "No. Before he had a chance to tell me, I teleported away."

"Well," Tucker said, "that explains the rant. That must have been really frustrating."

"I wasn't ranting!" Danny protested. "I was…expressing my anger to the universe."

"In other words, ranting," Sam concluded.

"…Alright fine, I ranted."

"Maybe there's a pattern to it," Sam suggested. "You've been here for a while. What are you doing differently now?"

Danny shrugged. "Talking to you guys, focusing on not teleporting so I have a chance to relax."

"Maybe that's the answer then. You just have to concentrate on your surroundings and on staying in one place."

He grimaced. "I don't know, Sam. What about when I—"

POP!

Sam groaned, and leaned back in her chair. "Great. Here we go again."

Tucker chuckled. "Look on the bright side, Sam. At least the bet—that I had no part in making—is still on. I'm going to be rich!" He went to grab a fry, but the bucket was empty. He frowned down at his tray. "Where'd my fries go?"

#Danny Phantom #Sam Manson #Tucker Folely #apples keep the ghosts away #light-hearted fanfiction #old fic #writing trance

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datawyrms · 3 years

Text

“Did you apologize to Tucker yet?”

“About what? Wait, are we talking again? I thought we weren’t talking.” The ghost circled back, blindly fumbling with the thermos lid, eyes busy squinting at the hunter’s mask as if it would let him see through it better. “You’re not gonna say it’s fine then shoot me, are you?”

“Why do you always remind me why I don’t like talking to you like this.”

“What’d you mean like ‘this’? Like I should pretend that isn’t a totally valid question?”

Valerie groaned, gesturing at the ghost. “Like that sort of thing is normal!”

Phantom smirked, letting the edges of his boots hit the hoverboard. “Welcome to my life.”

“And how you just keep that stupid confident face up.”

“Uh huh. I thought you were lecturing me about Tucker, not my personality.”

She deeply considered having the board jar the ghost off, but that’d probably just amuse him more. “You seriously don’t remember why you should be apologizing?”

“Well according to you, I should basically apologize for existing. So sometimes I lose track on the particulars.” There was an edge there that the blithe tone couldn’t quite cover up, even as the ghost sat down. “Y’gonna enlighten me or what? I’m bad at twenty questions.”

“You broke your promise to him, remember?”

The blank stare she earned in response was absolutely infuriating. “Uhhh. Which one?” He had the sense to look embarrassed, hand glued to the back of his neck.

That wasn’t going to help him though. Shooting him was actually sounding like a fair idea if it was the only thing that would get him to actually learn and pay attention. “To stop possessing people. The big one? The really easy one that NONE of his other friends need to worry about doing ‘accidentally’?”

“Wow Val, if you just wanted to say you think I’m weird you didn’t need to drag Tuck into it.” The embarrassment slid into a scowl easily enough, arms crossed as if that would defend him. “I haven’t done that for months.”

“He’s been telling you he hates it for years.” Before she even figured out Danny’s dead man walking secret. Tucker was too good a friend to be ignored for literal years because a ghost conveniently forgot how fucked up it was to invade someone’s body and use them as an unwilling meat puppet if it was ‘helpful’.

“I try, okay? I’m not doing it to upset him!”

“Somehow everyone else can manage without doing it.”

The ghost tilted his head. “Well duh, you guys can’t.”

“Even if we could, we wouldn’t.” She snapped, the confusion and completely casual excusing of his actions just a little too much to deal with. “Heroes don’t control people.”

“Well excuse me for needing to protect myself. If what I am gets out to the wrong people, I’m dead. More dead.” He groaned face in hand “You know what I mean. Worse than dead. Dani too.”

“Do you really think Tucker’s dad would have ratted your whispy ass out? That he wouldn’t help you explain? Or was it just an excuse to let yourself do what you want?”

“Well you seem to have decided that it was! Which it wasn’t!” His eyes flared green with the defence, and Valarie had to work to not react to the impulsive want to get away from an angry ghost. “I just- reacted, okay? I told him that!”

“Well Tucker and Sam keep forgetting how much of a ghost you are, so of course they won’t buy that excuse.”

“Excuse? It’s not an excuse!” He was up, the offended squawk reminding her so much of how he was before. When they were all fourteen, and every uncomfortable problem could be chalked up to being ‘a moody teenager’ and ignored for a while longer. “And you could stop saying ghost like that, while you’re at it?” The glow dimmed, but he kept the distance. “Sound like my dad.”

“What, you want me to say it like you do when they keep coming here to threaten people? Deal with it.”

“There are plenty of ghosts who don’t do that.”

“Yeah. They don’t come here, and they aren’t my problem,” she shrugged, considering. “I’ll say it nice to them.”

“Oh, real funny.”

“You deserve it.”

She expected a scoff, at least. Probably a laugh, considering how often he’d joke about being the town’s public enemy for a time. Instead he averted his eyes. “Maybe we can finish this talk on the ground?”

It was easier to be ticked off at him when he was joking, or steamed himself. Phantom didn’t ‘do’ uneasy. Maybe it was a good sign that he was actually listening, if he wanted to continue ‘off the clock’. “Space cadet wants to land? Sure, if you want.”

“I wouldn’t go with ‘want’, but yeah.”

It wasn’t much trouble, in the middle of the day. A quick glance while hidden in at least one direction was enough. People who lived in Amity Park knew they should get out of the area of a ghost sighting at this point. Even if she and Phantom were trusted enough to deal with it, stray shots happened. Things fell. Not too many eyes to avoid, even if her identity felt like an open secret most of the time.

Danny had it even easier. He just had to think. It felt like a sick joke, that he could stop being dead on a whim and blend in fairly well. The gangly man leaning against the tree looked human. Black hair, blue eyes, needed a tan, unremarkable. Average. Unless you knew what to look for, anyway. How a casual slouch didn’t match up with how he was always looking for something, a tense energy that seemed desperate to crack free of that spine. That he could walk in winter with the thinnest of jackets and not shake from the cold even once. “Hey.”

Valerie rolled her eyes, sitting on the bench. “Hey yourself.”

Danny grimaced, looking up and away. “How much of a ghost I am, huh?” It wasn’t an angry question, exactly. He was still slouching, hands in pockets. Guarded and uneasy. How much of that fear and caution the person she thought she knew, and how much of it was just another part of his act?

“You’ve said you’re at least half of one.”

“Yeah. You just make it sound like that’s a bad thing.”

The whole crux of the issue, really. How no one really knew how to deal with Danny, his secret and how he’d changed. “It’s not a bad thing on it’s own.”

“So I’m the part you like to sneer at,” his brow furrowed, the creases and wrinkles more ominous as blue slid closer to green. “I thought we went over this. You know what actually happened. How I never really attacked people.”

She admired Tucker and Sam’s patience, she really did. “We have. It’s not about that stuff. That’s years ago, you know it. It’s the other stuff.”

The anger was gone in an instant. “What other stuff?”

He was a living migraine waiting to happen. “How you keep thinking things from seven years ago are more important than things happening right now?”

“Hey, you’re the one that held the grudge for two.”.

“Months. Not years.”

He slouched more at the correction, apparently very interested in his own hands. “Oh. Right.”

“You haven’t been using the reminders like Jazz told you to, have you.”

“I can remember fine! I don’t need some box doing it for me. I’ve just been busy.”

Busy. That was his excuse this time? She crossed her arms and leaned back. “Okay, what year is it?”

“Uhm.” he paused to pick at a non existent loose thread “One starting in 2?”

“Danny.”

“What! Lots of people don’t care too much about the time.”

He didn’t even try to guess within ten years. There was living in the present, and there was this. “No, you know your ghost side makes you act in certain ways and keep denying it. So you still get the complete pain version of ghost. Get it?”

“I’m not that different.” He wouldn’t look at her, hand clenching. “I’m human too, you know.”

“Uhuh. The way your eyes flare up when you’re mad is super human.” She ignored his scowl, pushing forward. “I get it. You don’t like being reminded. Tuck and Sam try to ignore it for your sake.”

“Val, I’m not denying it okay? I know. It’s pretty obvious!”

“Then stop pretending you don’t know. They’re trying so hard to help you have a chance of getting a job that isn’t with your parents and you won’t even use the reminders to help you remember where in time you are!”

That got him to bristle, shaking off his slouch in a sudden reminder of how tall he really was. “Why does it matter? We’re all just kidding ourselves about me ever leaving here.”

“So you just won’t try? Just give up on finding anything else? For someone who keeps insisting he’s human, you sure seem eager to ditch that half of your life.”

“That isn’t what I’m doing.”

“Then what are you doing? Because all I’ve seen you do is get tetchy about ghosts and instinctively do ghost things. When you’re human.”

“I’m putting in the work.You know it’s hard to study or hold down a job.”

“So stop making it harder on yourself.They’ve found ways to help keep you grounded, so do it.” Sam should be saying this, of course. She’d heard it frustratedly repeated so many times, but she never dared to actually say it to the one who had to hear it. Because he was already prone to pulling away or vanishing when you pressed too hard, made things too uncomfortable. Ghosts didn’t do coping, and Danny was never great at facing personal issues head on before becoming a menace to her sanity either. “You think making things harder makes you more of a hero?”

“‘Course not.” He wasn’t looking at her anymore. He was looking for an escape, an out. “I shouldn’t need that stuff, alright?”

Now it was her turn to be puzzled. “Why shouldn’t you?”

A lopsided grin answered her question. “Who likes admitting they’re a freak?” The tree no longer had a human standing by it, but his voice was easy enough to hear. “ But I guess some people care about a freak like me anyway.”

(did Valerie use a tracker to smack him and say ‘you’re not a freak’ right after this? yes)

#Danny Phantom #valerie gray #dp side hoes week 2021 #i only did two prompts #because im bad #tbh should be fleshed out more #but them going into too much detail of what's the issue would be unnatural sounding #and already kinda is lol #but idk ghosts not really being 'down' with time was an interesting idea #to me anyway #my random thoughts are random #tbh so mucch good stuff around that im all 'lol why u adding' bu #content is content ye #i should stop musing in tags

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dp-marvel94 · 3 years

Text

The First Night

Summary: For Phic Phight 2021, Prompt by @amabsis A sixteen years old Danny Fenton helps his fourteen year old counterpart through his first night as a ghost.

Word Count: 7,795

Also on AO3 and fanfiction.net

Prompt: Season 3 Danny Phantom gets transported to the past and only Season 1 Danny Fenton can see him

“That’s not how it happened.” Danny frowned, looking through one of Clockwork’s time windows.

The window showed the empty lab as a fourteen year old Danny stumbled out of the newly activated portal. The boy was hyperventilating, green eyes widening as he stared in horror at his glowing hands. In Clockwork’s lair, Danny shivered; he couldn’t hear the words but he could guess them. No. No. No. A sting of panicked denials from the boy in the scene. Of course, Danny could guess them; he’d been in the same position, felt the same fear. But….

“Where’s Sam and Tucker?” The sixteen year old quietly asked, his heart aching. He turned to look at the Ancient ghost who was floating beside him. “They’re supposed to be there.”

Clockwork frowned. “That isn’t your timeline.” He motioned towards the window, for Danny to continue watching.

Across the screen, the other Danny was stumbling across the lab before throwing the bathroom door open. He froze in front of the mirror, his green eyes wide with fear. He reached forward, seeming to verify he was in fact looking at a mirror. Then the boy recoiled. His chest heaved, eyes watering.

“This is a timeline where you were alone during your accident.” His mentor explained.

In front of the pair, there was a flash of light. A ring of light formed around the other Danny’s waist, turning him human. He stumbled, gasping as he touched down. The boy stared at his now bare hands. Relief passed over his face for an instant...before his hand disappeared. The other Danny’s mouth opened in what was likely a scream.

Danny ripped his eyes away, unable to watch any longer as his own memories of his accident hit him. So very similar except...Sam and Tucker were beside him. The goth’s teary eyes as she realized he was a ghost. Their frantic questions and panicked footsteps as he rushed to the bathroom. Their shock and then relief when he turned human. Tucker’s hand on his wrist, checking his pulse. The technogeek’s surprised scream as Danny’s hand turned intangible and fell through his friend’s hand. Renewed panic. Sam’s comforting hands on his back. His friends helping him stumble up the stairs and to his bedroom.

In Clockwork’s lair, Danny shivered, feeling his eyes water. His mentor’s hundreds of clocks ticked around the pair, the Master of Times’ comforting arm around him.

Danny remained frozen like that for a while, the memories replaying. His accident had been terrifying and stressful, the source of many nightmares but….he’d had his friends with him.

His heart clenched, looking up at the screen. The image showed his other self, huddled on his bed and crying.

Danny hadn’t been alone but...the boy on the screen, his other self, had been. The sixteen year old frowned. He could hardly imagine that yet it had happened to another version of himself, was happening in front of him and….

“What will happen to him now?” The boy asked, his stomach flopping with worry.

Clockwork remained silent for a moment, his brow furrowed as if in thought. Then he turned red eyes onto Danny. “It is not a favorable timeline.” The old ghost mused sadly. “If things continue, he will never tell his friends. He will push them away and his family as well. It will be a sad, lonely existence. And likely a short one.”

Danny paled, eyes widening. That sounded horrible, painful. He could imagine it, feeling so isolated and afraid. He wouldn’t wish that on this worst enemy and….he shivered… while the circumstances were vastly different, something reminded him far too much of another alternative timeline he’d seen, one Clockwork had diverted him from.

The boy looked at the screen, frowning. “Can you do something, Clockwork?”

The older ghost looked down at him, frowning thoughtfully. He tapped his chin, humming. “I myself cannot...however….”

Danny perked up. “What is it?” Clockwork floated purposefully away, holding up a finger. “Clockwork?”

His mentor flew to a rack along the wall and grabbed a familiar looking device. The older ghost returned, depositing the gear shaped medallion in Danny’s hands.

The boy furrowed in brow in confusion before realization hit him. He looked up, frowning. “Me? What can I do?”

Clockwork motioned to the screen again. “You can ensure he doesn’t spend his first night as a ghost alone.”

Danny looked at the window, remembering. His first night after the accident...watching a movie with Sam and Tucker. Them comforting him while chills wracked his body, his limbs turning invisible and intangible against his will. On the bed, his younger counterpart was still crying.

In the lair, the boy steeled himself and put on the medallion. He turned to the Master of Time. “Alright. What do I need to do?”

Clockwork nodded, looking pleased. “Keep that on. It will prevent anyone other than your alternative self from seeing you. In the morning, I will summon a portal for you to return here.”

Danny tilted his head. “So….if I take this off….?”

His mentor raised a brow. “You will remain in place, though visible to everyone.”

The boy blinked. “That’s not how it worked last time.”

The Master of Time just gave him a mischievous look and motioned to the screen. “Go on. I trust you will not divulge too much of the future.”

Danny rolled his eyes, used to his mentor’s evasiness. But at the same time….his stomach flopped with nerves. Could he do this? Could he actually do this? He’d never been that good at comforting people but....the boy he was going to help wasn’t just anyone. He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and floated through the window.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny blinked, blue light swirling around him. A moment later, he was floating in a dark bedroom. His eyes roved over the familiar surroundings: his NASA posters and rocket models, scattered books and clothes, half finished homework on the desk. And on the bed….the sound of crying hitched and the other Danny shivered.

Slowly, the boy sat up. His arms wrapped around himself, as if he was cold. And Danny knew, he likely was; his very presence always chilled the room when he was in ghost form, and it had just gotten more intense since his ice powers had activated. On the bed, his younger self’s eyes widened in fear, his mouth falling open.

Instantly, Danny was hit with a sense of dread. He helped his hands out in front of him. “Wait. Hold on. It’s-”

The younger Danny’s eyes flickered from the ghost to his door. “Ghost!” He screamed, chest heaving.

The older boy paled. “No. Stop. I’m-”

Heavy feet pounded down the hall and the bedroom door flung open, the light of the hallway spilling into the dark room. “Where’s the ghost?!” The large ghost hunter demanded, holding an ectogun.

Shakily, the younger Danny pointed across the room, directly at his older counterpart. His dad’s head turned, eyes narrowing. Then his brow furrowed in confusion. “Where is it?”

Danny flinched at being called an it, his heart pounding anxiously. Self consciously, he turned invisible.

His younger self’s eyes darted from his father to the spot the ghost had been occupying. “You didn’t...you didn’t see…?” His voice raised up in question and he rubbed his eyes.

Danny shifted nervously in the air. The man was still staring through him, unseeing. And his younger self was still gaping, his fear turning into confusion.

“What is it, son?” Dad turned, looking at the younger boy in concern.

The younger Danny blinked rapidly in disbelief. “I guess….I was seeing things.” He frowned. “Must have been a nightmare.”

His dad lowered the gun. “Do you want to talk about it?”

The boy shook his head, frowning. “No. I…” He shivered and then looked at his hand, his eyes widening. “I’m...I’m fine.” He stuffed the appendage under his covers. “It’s fine. I just want to…” He faked a yawn. “Go back to sleep.” He blinked up at Dad, trying to look innocent.

The man furrowed his brow, looking unsure. “If you’re sure…”

The boy stretched, yawning exaggeratedly. “Yeah. It’s fine...I’m...just gonna..go back to sleep.” His gaze flickered from the door to where Danny was floating invisibly, before he gave Dad a sheepish smile.

Dad still looked uncertain but after a moment, he stepped back. “Alright. Sleep well, Danno.”

The boy nodded. “Night, Dad.”

The man closed the door, seemingly leaving his son alone. On the bed, Danny’s younger self put his head in his hands. “I’m losing it. First the stupid…” He shivered, again, hands disappearing. “Stupid body. Stupid portal.” He gritted his teeth. “Now I’m seeing things.”

Danny floated forward, his heart sinking. He needed to do something, to comfort his increasingly distressed younger counterpart. He stopped, hovering at the edge of the bed. With a thought, he returned to visibility. “You’re not seeing things.”

The younger Danny’s head whipped up, his eyes widening. He opened his mouth, likely to shout again.

His own eyes widening, the ghost boy reflexively covered the human’s mouth. “Please don’t scream.”

The other boy shook his head, his eyes pinching closed. He whimpered.

Danny’s lip trembled, sudden regret hitting him. “No. Don’t be scared. I’m here to help you.”

This younger self shook his head again. He was shaking, with fear and stress.

“Danny. Please. You’re safe.” The older boy begged.

His counterpart stiffened at his name, his eyes slowly peeking open and then widening in realization. His brow furrowed in confusion as he searched the other boy’s face.

Slowly, Danny removed his hand.

His younger self’s mouth opened and closed. Finally, he muttered. “Why do you look like me?”

Danny swallowed, preparing himself. “ ‘Cause I am you.” He said, as kindly as he could.

The other Danny blinked, frowning. “But….you’re a ghost?”

His older self looked down at his glowing hands. He raised a brow. “Yeah? So are you.”

The younger Danny tensed, his shoulders raising. “No. I’m not. I’m not a ghost. That’s ridiculous. I’m...I’m me. And you’re….” He pointed. “How do I know you’re not tricking me?”

Danny sighed, running fingers through his hair. “Alright….how about this?” He summoned the light of his transformation. A breath later and he was heavy and warm.

His younger self’s head whipped back and he let out a squeak.

Danny gave him a disarming smile and held out a hand. “I have a heartbeat, see?”

Tentatively, the other boy reached forward. His brow furrowed in concentration. Then awed surprise covered his face. “I can feel it.”

“Yeah.” Danny smiled. “I’m alive, obviously. But I’m a ghost too. Just like you.”

“Okay.” His younger self took a breath. “Okay. But...how?”

“Well….the accident…” He started.

The other boy shook his head. “No. I…..” He bit his lip. “If you’re me then...then, tell me something only I would know.”

Danny sighed, eyeing a spot on the bed. “Can I sit here?” His counterpart rose a brow before shuffling over. His older self then huffed, flopping onto the bed. “So… I never told Sam and Tucker this but….really, I wanted to get the portal to work so Mom and Dad would be proud of me.” He looked down, rubbing his neck. “They were so upset that the portal didn’t start and….I hated seeing them like that. They’d been spending so much time working on it and...I thought if I got it to work they’d be so happy and they’d be proud of me...but...well…” He bit his lip. “You know what happened.”

There was silence for a while, only the sound of both boy’s breathing. Then the younger Danny finally spoke. “Okay. That’s….damn.... That’s heavy. That’s...that’s a lot. But…. I get it. I...I know I’d probably never tell someone else that but it’s true so….” He sighed. “I believe you.”

Danny nodded. “Good.” He rubbed the back of his neck, meeting his counterpart’s eyes. “It would have been super awkward if you didn’t believe me after that.”

The other boy shook his head, even half smiling. “Yeah. So...you’re me but” His eyes trailed his older self’s body again. “….from the future?”

“Yep. From about two years from now. I’m sixteen.”

The younger Danny nodded, biting his lip. “So...two years and I can still...uhh...because of the accident...I can still….”

“Turn into a ghost?” His older counterpart offered.

The boy flinched. “No. I’m not...whatever that was, I’m not a...a ghost.” Almost as if his core sensed his denial, another shiver wracked his body. He flickered intangible and started sinking through the bed with a distressed cry.

Danny reached forward, turning his own hand intangible to grab the younger boy’s wrist. With a combination of ghostly enhanced strength and transferred weightlessness, he pulled the other out of the bed. After a few seconds, his counterpart returned to solidity and Danny let go, allowing him to drop back down onto the mattress.

The younger Danny gritted his teeth, wrapping his arms around his waist. “Stupid...whatever this is!”

“They’re ghost powers, because you’re-” Danny started to explain.

His younger self glared. “Not a ghost. I’m just….sick..or something. The stupid portal-” He shivered again, this time light sparking around his waist.

The older boy frowned, knowing what it signified. At the same time, a memory hit him. Himself sitting on the bed in the dark, that same light trying to overtake him. Heart pounding with terrified, panicked fear. Sam and Tucker trying to calm him down.

“No. NO. What’s happening?!” The younger boy panted, fearfully. “No. Stop!” He pinched his eyes closed, as if trying to push the feeling away. The ring of light disappeared for a second before flaring again. Then he groaned and curled in on himself. “No. Stop! I don’t...I don’t want..” His brow furrowed as he forced the light away again but it just reappeared. “Not again! Please. Stop. I’m not… I’m not….” His breath heaved, tears starting to well in his eyes.

Danny’s core ached at the sight. “Danny…” He started, quietly saying his other self’s name.

The younger boy looked up, glaring. “Stop just staring! Help me.”

“I’m trying.” Danny muttered, feeling chastised. That earned him an annoyed growl, which he completely deserved. So he took a breath, steeling himself. He could do this.

The boy put a hand on his younger counterpart’s arm. “Don’t fight it.”

“What?” His alternative self demanded.

“That light...your body’s trying to turn into your ghost form.” Danny explained.

“Ghost form?! But… I don’t wanna be a ghost!” There was another groan as the light flared again.

“I know.” The older half ghost squeezed, comfortingly. “I know. I know...I remember how scary this is. But...you’ll be okay, Danny. It’ll be okay. So don’t fight it. Let it happen.”

“But...I don’t...I don’t want this. Please! Make it stop! It hurts.”

“I know. I know.” Danny soothed. “But it’ll stop hurting if you stop fighting and change.”

“Please. Please don’t make me.” The younger boy begged, a tear falling from his eyes.

“Listen to me.” Danny insisted. “I promise, you’ll be okay. You’ll be able change back after. And your body needs this. It’s trying to get used to your new powers. But you’re safe. I’m right here. You can do this.”

Shakily, the younger Danny looked up, meeting his counterpart’s eyes. “You promise?”

Danny gave him a half smile. “I’m here, aren’t I? I’ve been through this already and I turned out okay. So will you.”

The other boy nodded, his brow unfurrowing slightly. He breathed out and the white light dancing over his skin coalesced into a ring. It spread, up towards his head and down towards his feet. Danny shivered as the light passed over the arm he was holding, the cold reaching out to touch his own core. The flash left him blinking spots out of his vision. Then he was staring at the familiar ghost boy, floating across from him.

The younger Danny frowned, staring down at his hands with a heart broken expression. “So...it’s...it’s true. I am a ghost.”

“Yes.” Danny said simply.

His counterpart wrinkled his nose, his fists balling. “So I’m some kind of...some kinda...undead freak.”

Danny pulled his hand away, the words painfully jabbing at his heart. “You’re not a freak. You’re just different now. And that’s okay.”

“No it’s not.” His alternative self snapped. “I’m freaking dead.”

“Well...that’s complicated but-”

The younger Danny crossed his arms, cutting him off. “Well, excuse me. Apparently, I can turn back to normal so I’m not actually dead. Except I’m still a freaking ghost and..and…” His chest heaved. “Mom and Dad freaking hunt ghosts.” His eyes widened. “Ghosts are supposed to be monsters. Unfeeling violent monsters. I’m...I’m gonna…” He covered his mouth, horror struck. “Oh god. What if-”

“Danny.” The older Danny’s hands were on both of the younger’s shoulders. “Look at me.” With a thought, he summoned his own rings and transformed. “Actually look at me.” The younger boy’s mouth snapped shut as he did so. “I’ve been like this for two years. Two years. And I’m still me. I’m not some monster who hurts people for no reason. I still feel things. I still have all my memories. I’m still me.”

His counterpart frowned. “But...I saw….you’re….we’re….still alive too.”

Danny shook his head. “I’ve met other ghosts too. And...Mom and Dad are wrong. Ghosts are just like the living. Yeah, they’re different but….they’re still people too.”

The younger Danny bit his lip. “But..that’s...that could be a trick or….”

The older boy squeezed his shoulders. “Actually, it was a ghost who sent me here.”

His counterpart frowned. “What? A ghost?”

Danny nodded. “He’s my mentor. He...he saved me. He saved everyone.” He looked down at the last part, his heart clenching at the memory. His hand stretched out, reaching towards his tied up friends and family. The roar of the explosion, the pressure wave throwing him back, the smoke. Then suddenly suspended in the air, Clockwork in front of him. The older ghost waving and his loved ones appearing, unconscious but alive and unharmed.

The boy shook his head, forcing the memory away. “He watches over the timelines so that explains how I’m here. And he couldn’t come here himself but…” He smiled at his younger self. “Neither of us wanted you to have to go through this alone.”

The other Danny starred, looking bewildered for a long moment. Then he sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Wow...that’s a lot...”

“Yeah, it is.” Danny nodded, agreeing.

Across from him, the younger boy looked overwhelmed, like he was still unsure what to think of all this. His brow furrowed in thought as he picked at his glowing gloves. He then shivered as his hands turned invisible again. He sighed again. “I still hate this. I feel so weird.”

“I know but...you’ll get used to it soon, I promise.” Danny comforted.

His other self just huffed.

Danny bit his lip, stomach flopping. As he said, he did remember the feeling, how strange being in ghost form was at first. It was unnatural and stifling; the randomness of his powers scared him. And there was seemingly nothing to be done, only wait until he got used to his new normal. But right now, he only had one night with this version of himself and words would only do so much.

The older boy glanced out the window, the stars twinkling through it. His brow furrowed. Maybe if he could show his younger self….. Danny floated up from his cross legged position.

The younger Danny looked up, questioningly. “What’re you doing?”

Danny offered his hand to pull the other boy up. “I want to show you something.”

His counterpart raised a brow but took the hand. Surprisingly smoothly, he floated to his feet. That is, until he noticed he was floating. He wobbled in the air, eyes widening. “Woah!”

Danny grabbed his other arm, steadying him. “There you go. You’ve got it.”

The younger boy stabilized, his gaze flickering from his feet and back to his other self’s face. “Alright. Okay. Maybe that wasn’t so bad.”

The older boy smiled. “Good.” He motioned toward the window. “Let’s go.”

“Where?” The younger Danny tilted his head.

Danny smiled wider. “We’re going flying.”

His counterpart’s eyes widened in surprise but he didn’t ask any questions, even as Danny pulled him towards the window. The older boy flickered intangible, the power passing over his companion as well and they both phased through the window. The younger gasped but still allowed himself to be pulled along as Danny started ascending. In ten seconds, he rose at least a hundred feet; all the while, the younger Danny watched him curiously.

Danny paused, looking out over the town. “Wow. Look at that view.” He smiled. Stretched out below him was Amity Park. His city. His home. He could see all of it. “There’s the park.” He pointed in front of him. “And Casper High.” He turned, pointing slightly to the left of the school. “The Nasty Burger. And-”

His younger self’s hand, which he was still holding, squeezed, the grip almost painful.

Danny looked down, suddenly worried. “What is it?”

“I don’t...I don’t like this.” His voice trembled. “We’re so...so high.”

“Oh..alright. Sorry…” The older boy frowned, concerned and slightly confused. He didn’t remember being this afraid of heights the first time he flew. But then again, this was a different timeline than his. But still….his ghostly tail flickered under him, nervously.

The younger half ghost’s eyes widened and he jerked away. “What the hell happened to your legs?” Danny glanced down at the same time his counterpart did. The younger stared at his own furiously twitching ghostly tail. “What the hell happened to my legs?”

Danny held out his hands. “Hey, it’s okay. That’s normal.”

“Normal!?” The other Danny shouted. “Nothing about this is normal!”

“I know but-” He was cut off by a scream.

Below him, the younger’s mouth fell open in horror as white light flashed around his waist. Before he could breath, the ring passed over him and he turned human. Gravity reengaged and he was falling.

The scene seemed to play out in front of Danny in slow motion. His younger self’s hand stretched out in front of him, eyes wide with terror. Danny reached and dove, his ghostly tail trailing behind him. His heart pounded as he strained, flying faster than gravity could pull him down.

Seconds that felt like minutes later, the older boy grabbed his counterpart. His arm reached around the boy’s chest from the back, looped under the other’s arm pits. Danny resisted against gravity and the pair jerked to a stop.

The younger Danny panted. He shook against the other’s chest until he found his voice. “What the hell?! Are you trying to kill me again?”

“I’m sorry!” Danny flinched. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t...I didn’t think this through.”

“Ya think!” The other yelled, angry struggling to cover his fear. “I’m scared of heights!”

The older Danny frowned. “No you’re not.” He’d never been afraid of heights.

“Well, maybe you’re not. But I’m not you!”

Danny’s brow furrowed at the words. He wanted to comment that that wasn’t exactly correct but…. That felt like the wrong thing to say. Instead, he sighed. “ Alright. How about...let’s just go home.”

The younger didn’t say anything as they slowly descended. The ops center grew closer and closer. Soon, the two were floating just inches above the metal surface. Danny let go of his counterpart and he landed on his feet on the roof.

The ghost remained floated, nervously rubbing his neck as his counterpart turned to face him. The younger frowned. He punched his older version in the arm, a little too hard to be playful. “No offense but that sucked.”

Danny bit his lip. “I am so sorry.” He looked down, cheeks coloring with shame. “I really screwed up. I’m so bad at this.”

The other crossed his arms. “Dude. You should at least know what not to do, based on what happened your first time.”

“My first?” Danny’s brow furrowed in question. Then a realization hit him. “This didn’t happen to me.” He motioned between himself and the younger halfa. “I’m from a different timeline. Dimension?” He shook his head. “Sam and Tucker were in that lab during my accident. And they stayed with me my first night as a half ghost.”

The younger Danny’s expression slowly softened. He uncrossed his arms. “Half ghost?”

“Yeah. That’s what we came up with for this.” He motioned to himself. “The other ghosts call me a halfa though.”

The younger nodded. “Alright. So you're still me. But from another timeline. And older.”

“That’s right.” Danny agreed. He shifted nervously in the air. “Like I said, I wasn’t alone tonight. And...I didn’t want you to be either. And I’m sorry I messed up. I really do want to help so….” He bit his lip. “Whatever you need. If you want to talk about stuff, or get some pointers on your powers, or a distraction? I’ll do whatever you want, okay?”

The other Danny studied him for a moment. “I think...I just want a distraction for now. Maybe we can talk later.”

Danny nodded, touching down on the roof. With a thought, he turned human. He looked up. “That stars are a good distraction... or something else?”

His counterpart smiled. “No. Star gazing’s good. I can always ramble about space.”

The two flopped down on the roof and the younger Danny did just that. He pointed out constellations, talked about far away stars and planets and blackholes. Danny listened. It was nice, being on the other side of this. So this is what he sounded like when he got starstruck. It was also wonderful to see his alternative self relax, to see the corner of his lips turn up into a smile. Then, for just a second, his freckles lit up green.

The younger half ghost stopped in the middle of his sentence, brow furrowing. His eyes flared green and they widened. “Holy...what that…” He reached upward with one hand, as if he could touch the sky. “What am I seeing?” He turned to look at his older version.

Danny furrowed his brow for a moment before realizing. He’d long grown used to it; his vision was enhanced at night in either form, even without his eyes glowing. But still... he smiled, turning his eyes back to the night sky, deeper and more vibrate than any human could see. “That’s what the night looks like to a ghost.”

“What?” The younger breathed.

“Ghosts can see better than humans in the dark. Like a hundred times better. So that’s what the sky looks like to you now.”

“But...it’s…. It looks like...when we go to Aunt Alicia’s and...there’s just so many stars but...there’s more colors? And...it’s deeper?” He pointed. “And that’s the Milky Way!”

Danny chuckled. “Yeah.”

The younger boy sat up, looking down at him. “So...if my eyes are glowing…. ‘Cause apparently, that’s something they do now?....It always looks like this.”

The older nodded. “Actually, it always looks like that to me but….yeah.” Danny sighed, looking wistfully. “That’s my second favorite thing about being half ghost. The first is being able to fly.” He met his counterpart’s eyes. “The stars look even more incredible if you’re above the clouds.” He grinned, teeth gleaming. “But the best view is in space.”

His counterpart’s eyes widened. “Space!? You’ve been to…. You’ve been to space?!”

Danny nodded. “Yeah but...I shouldn’t spoil too much. Just be careful. Don’t try it until you know you’ve got a handle on transforming….actually not until after you met...uh...our mentor so he can bail you out if something happens.”

The younger tapped his chin. “This mysterious mentor again. You gonna tell me who he is?”

“Probably shouldn’t. He won’t be happy if I tell you too much about the future.”

The younger Danny hummed. Then he looked back at the sky. He pointed. “Look! A meteor!”

Danny traced the path with his eyes until it fizzled out. “Did you make a wish?” His counterpart nodded and the older raised a brow. “Are you gonna tell me?”

His alternative self turned. “Hey. You know it won’t come true if you tell someone else.”

“I’m not exactly someone else.”

“But you’re not, not someone else.” The younger chuckled. Then his brow furrowed. “So….you said in your timeline, Sam and Tucker were with you tonight?”

“Yeah. They...We were all really scared but...they helped me figure out what was happening.” He sighed. “I wouldn’t have made it this far without them.”

The younger turned back to look at the sky, frowning.

“What is it?” Danny asked.

“They’re gonna think I’m a freak.” His alternative self whispered.

Danny frowned. “You don’t really think that.”

The younger raised a brow, as if to say seriously. Then he shivered as a hand turned intangible and sunk into the roof. He groaned. “Not again.” He pulled the limb out and frowned as his hand turned invisible again. “Really? This isn’t going to freak them out?”

The older sighed. “I mean honestly...it might, a little but...they’ll want to understand and help you.”

The other Danny just huffed as his arm reappeared.

“Haven’t they always been there for you?” Danny asked.

His counterpart’s expression softened. “Yeah, they have.”

“So trust them now. They’re your friends.”

“But…” He worried his lip. “Oh god. How am I even supposed to have that conversation?”

Danny frowned, thinking. He didn’t know how to answer. He hadn’t had to tell them but…. “I guess just go for it. They’ll believe you. And remember they’ll always have your back.”

The other boy said nothing for a long while. Then he glared as his hand disappeared again. “How do I get this to stop?”

The older look at the outline of the invisible limb. “Well….your body’s still adjusting to your powers so it’s going to do that for a while-”

“Wow. That’s a big help.” The younger Danny interrupted.

Danny continued, with an eye roll. “But...for me, it got better after I started practicing my powers.”

The other’s eyes widened and he sat up. “You’re not serious.”

“I am. I had to learn how to turn invisible and intangible on purpose. It was like...my powers wanted to be used. They're a part of me. I couldn't just ignore them and hope they went away. I had to use them."

The younger shook his head. "That sounds wrong. I mean...these are ghost powers." He emphasized the word with worry and just a hint of disgust; the implication was clear.

Danny frowned but his voice was patient and kind. "Yeah, they are. But being a ghost doesn't make you bad, Danny. It's just...a different way of existing."

The fourteen year old studied him for a long moment. Finally, he said. "You really believe that."

The other boy nodded. "Yeah, I do."

It had taken a while. Practicing his powers with his friends and seeing how comfortable and accepting they were of him. Meeting, talking to, and learning from other ghosts. It was hard to unlearn a lifetime of biases ingrained by his parents and he still felt uncertain at times but it was getting better. (He'd even made headway in changing his parent's beliefs about ghosts but that was another story.)

Across from him, the young Danny sighed. "Alright. That's...I don't know what to think of that but… I guess you can give me some pointers at least and...I'll think about what you said."

"Really?!" Danny's eyes lit up excitedly and he sat up.

The younger joined him in a sitting position. "Yeah." He sighed. "I guess this is the part where you show me the ropes."

"Okay." The older rubbed his hands together. "First… you're gonna need to change into your ghost form."

His counterpart's eyes widened. "No. Nah uh. No way."

"Your powers are easier to use if you transform. Plus…" Danny raised a brow. "Do you want to randomly change into a ghost during dinner?"

The younger paled before conceding. "Alright. I'll do it. But…. How?"

The older boy hummed, considering. "Okay so…." He placed his hand on his chest. "You know that ball of cold right here?"

His counterpart gave him a confused look. "What are you talking about?"

Danny frowned, leaning forward. "In the center of your chest, a little to the right of your heart." He gently grabbed the other boy's hand and placed it on his own chest. "Can you feel it? It kinda hums like...well...it reminds me of the refrigerator…. 'Cause it buzzes, sounds kinda electrical, and it’s cold…."

The younger Danny's brow furrowed in thought. After a long moment, slight realization lit his eyes. "Yeah. Okay. I think I'm feeling...something."

Danny nodded. "That's my core. It's where my powers come from." At the other's understanding nod, he continued. "You have the same thing inside of you."

His counterpart frowned, lowering his hand. “Of course I do.”

The older’s expression softened. “You don’t have to be afraid of this. Your core is a part of you. Just like your heart or your brain. It’s an organ that controls your powers; that’s all it is.”

Honestly, that was a simplification. Even with the very basic knowledge he’d learned at the Far Frozen, Danny knew his core did much more than regulate his powers. It helped him think and remember, to sense and respond to things around him. But right now, his other self just needed to know to not be afraid of a part of himself.

“If you say so.” The younger looked down. He moved his hand up to his own chest, brow furrowing.

Danny glanced at the other’s chest. “Now, can you feel it now?”

“Yeah.” The other Danny confirmed, still frowning. “So...how do I...uhh...transform?”

The older nodded. “Close your eyes.” The younger boy did so and Danny continued. “Really focus on that cold, that energy. Feel it swirling around in your chest. It’s pulsing and buzzing, deep inside you. Now…” The boy took a breath. “Reach out and touch that cold with your mind. Wrapped your hands around it and...pull. Pull it to the surface.”

His counterpart’s brow furrowed in concentration; clearly he was listening to the words and trying to put them into practice. His nose wrinkled, focus increasing. Then the younger Danny gasped. White light danced over his skin, forming a ring around his chest. Surprised, his eyes popped open and then widened as his gaze fell on the ring.

Danny smiled encouragingly. “That’s it. Now just let it pass over you.”

The younger nodded, taking a breath. The ring passed a few heartbeats later, leaving a ghost floating across from Danny.

“You did it.” The older congratulated.

The younger Danny looked down at his hands, flipping them over and examining the glow of his gloves. “I did….” His brow furrowed. “That actually wasn’t that bad.” He lowered his hands. “Still weird though.”

Danny chuckled. “You’ll get used to it.”

His counterpart didn’t reply to that, instead asking. “So what now?”

The older Danny transformed into his ghost form. “I guess, I’ll go over the basic powers and help you practice for a bit.”

The younger Danny nodded, relaxing his shoulders with forced confidence. “Let’s do this.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two spend the next hour practicing. Danny explained the three basic powers: invisibility, intangibility, and flight. He demonstrated each. Flickering invisible, phasing through the metal pillars on top of the ops center, flying circles above the roof.

“Now you try.” Danny encouraged after showing off each power.

His younger self did try, despite his anxiety. The displays of his powers were spotty. He flickered in and out of visibility like a dying light bulb. Random parts of his body turned intangible and he furrowed his power, concerting great effort to turn to his whole body intangible. But he was making progress.

“There you go!” Danny cheered as his alternative self successfully phased through the satellite dish twice in a row. He grinned, offering the other boy a high five.

The younger Danny returned the gesture. “Yeah!”

The practice continued, the new halfa’s confidence growing. It made Danny happy to see his counterpart growing more comfortable, even if his control was still laughable. His body continued flickering invisible and intangible to the younger’s frustration. The older half ghost figured things would be like that for a while, as the younger’s body adjusted to his new core and powers. But the prospect of him spending less time confused and less time afraid of his powers was a bright one. And another bright prospect….

Danny glanced at the air just below his counterpart’s glowing boots. He smiled. “You’ve got a great handle on floating.”

The younger Danny looked down, browning furrowing. Then his eyes widened in realization. He wobbled in the air.

Danny reached out to steady him. “Hey, don’t think about it too hard. Just let your body do what it will. Flying’s natural to us ghosts.”

His counterpart frowned. Clearly, he didn’t like being called a ghost again but he didn’t comment. Instead, he straightened and focused on his older self’s face. “Alright. I’ll do that, just… let my body do it’s thing.”

“Good.” Danny patted him on the shoulder. He offered a half smile. “Let’s fly. I promise I won’t go too high this time.

The older half ghost did as he said, leading his younger self in a circle around the ops center while floating only about five feet above the roof.

After a few circles, he let go, flying in front of the younger. Giving a mischievous grin, he glanced back over his shoulder. “Let’s go a little faster.”

The younger Danny raised a brow, a smile sneaking onto his face. He increased his speed, inching in front of the other boy. In return, Danny smiled and flew faster himself. He pulled forward, in front of the other boy. The younger’s slight smile grew and he darted forward, faster still.

Just like that, a race started. The two ghosts circled the roof, chasing each other. Slowly, smiles grew into laughter. Danny snickered, dodging around the satellite dish. Seconds later, his younger self phased through. The older flew higher, his legs morphing into a ghostly tail as he twisted back around to fly in the other direction. The other Danny let out a laugh, reaching for him but just missing. Danny dove down, phasing through the roof with his counterpart following seconds later. He passed by the fridge, before darting up through the roof again.

Danny flew about about five feet up and then froze as another shooting star careened across the sky. He marveled for just a second before a cold body slammed into him. The air weezed out of his lungs and he let out a cry as the pair tumbled, head over heels.

With some effort, Danny slowed the tumble. He looked down, recognizing the arms were wrapped around his chest and the shaking body they were connected to. The older halfa ghost put hand on the younger’s back. “Hey. It’s okay.”

The other Danny looked up. He was laughing. “Oh man...this is ridiculous.” He let go, slowly backing up. “But I really needed that.”

Danny smiled. “No problem. I’m happy you’re having a good time.”

The younger raised a hand to rub the back of his neck, looking sheepish. “Yeah well...thanks.” He glanced down, paling as he realized they were floating three stories above the street. Danny took his hand, leading him back to the roof.

“So do you want to practice some more or….” The older started once both had touched down on the roof. Then the younger yawned. The corner of Danny’s lip turned up. “I guess that answers my question.”

The other boy yawned, stretching. “Yeah. Let’s go to bed.” He glanced down. “Oh uh…. Should I turn back or….”

“We can just phase into your bedroom. That’s less noisy than climbing down the steps.”

“Yeah. Okay.” The younger Danny nodded in agreement. His older self phased through the roof and he followed.

Seconds later, the two halfas were floating inside of Danny Fenton’s bedroom. With a flash of light, the older turned human.

The younger frowned. “How do I turn back?”

“Oh, right.” Danny bit his lip, considering. “So where your heart is...there should be this little warm spot. I kinda think of it as a candle flame. You want to coax that, make it bigger so you’re warm and heavy and-” He was cut off by a flash.

The younger Danny touched down. “That was a lot easier than the other way around.”

Danny shrugged. “Figures. You’re more used to being a human than a ghost.”

“Yeah.” The younger sat on the bed. “So I’m going to go to sleep then. What about you?” His lips turned down. “Are you leaving or…?”

Danny shook his head. “Not until the morning.” He walked over to the closet. “I’ll use your sleeping bag if you don’t mind.”

“Go for it.” The younger was already lying down. He watched sleepily as Danny retrieved the sleeping bag and settled on the floor. He yawned. “Good night.”

“Good night.” Danny hummed in return.

Soon, the younger Danny was snoring. The older laid still for a few minutes, mind going over all that had happened tonight. But his thought stilled, fatigue overtaking him as well. He sighed happily, falling asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny drifted in sleep, his mind floating through dreams. Not nightmares for once but pleasant ones. Having a picnic with his friends and family. Making cookies with Clockwork. Flying through space. He floated up, out of the depths of sleep. Awareness of the waking world slowly enveloped him. Morning light on his face. Warm, thick fabric around him. The hardness of...the floor? His brow furrowed but he just buried his face in his pillow.

Then there was a thump behind him. Danny jerked, rolling over. He squinted, eyes falling on a figure less than two feet in front of him. He frowned. It was….himself?

“Ouch.” The boy groaned. “How the heck did I end up under the bed...” He trailed off, eyes falling on Danny. “Oh...it’s you. That...all that really happened.”

Danny’s mind finally caught up as he remembered. Last night. Clockwork sending him through the time window. Talking his younger self through his second transformation into a ghost. Trying to take him flying. Stargazing with him. Demonstrating his ghost powers and helping his young counterpart practice.

Danny hummed. “Yep. Really here.” The corner of his lip turned up. “And I guess you phased through the bed in your sleep.”

The younger grumbled. “I thought practicing was supposed to help.”

“It will...just not overnight. Like I said, your body’s still trying to adjust. It’ll take time so be patient.”

The other Danny groaned. “Great.”

“I know it sucks but you’ll get through it.” Danny promised.

His counterpart didn’t reply. Instead, he stood up and then laid back down on his bed. His eyes flickered to the window and the light streaming through it. He glanced down at his older self. “So...it’s morning.”

“Yeah. I don’t know when my portal will open but it should be soon.”

The younger Danny nodded soberly. “And...I guess you can’t tell me much more about the future.”

“No. I can’t.” Danny said, feeling guilty.

If he could, there’s a lot he would say. About the ghosts he’d fight. About Vlad. About Valerie. About his parents. But Clockwork trusted him and….

“Okay.” The younger sighed. “But...I’ll be okay, right?”

Slowly, Danny sat up. He studied his younger self for a bit before smiling. “You’ll be okay.” His brow furrowed, considering. “Yeah, everything’s not always perfect…” He remembered his many ghost fights. Valerie’s grudge against him. His parent’s mistrust. All of the headaches Vlad had caused him.

“But I’ve done and seen so many incredible things.” Saving the town. Meeting Clockwork, Frostbite, Dora, Pandora. Dating Valerie and his truces with the Red huntress. Slowly changing his parents’ opinions on ghosts. Meeting and saving Danielle. And all the while….“ And Sam and Tucker have been with me, the whole time. We’ve only gotten closer since my accident. We’re team Phantom and we’ve helped so many people and learned so much. Really just...it’s been incredible and…. I know it will be that same for you.” Danny finished with complete conviction.

His younger self considered his words for a long time before he raised a brow. “Team Phantom?”

Danny smirked. “That’s a spoiler.”

The other Danny huffed before his expression softened. “Alright that’s….” He sat up and ran a hand through his hair. “All of this had been so unbelievable but...I still believe you.” He sighed. “And I’m going to tell Sam and Tucker about my accident.

Danny’s eyes widened, his lips turning up. “Really?”

“Yeah. You’ve convinced me. ‘Cause you were right last night. They have alway been there for me so...thanks for reminding me.”

The older boy smiled. “You’re welcome.”

Danny stayed like that for a moment, smiling and watching his younger self with satisfaction. Faintly, he felt the medallion around his neck hum. And he knew it was time. To his side, a blue portal sparked into existence.

The younger Danny’ eyes widened. “Is that it?”

Danny nodded and stood up. “Yep. That’s my way home.” He turned to the portal, preparing to step through. “I guess this is goodbye.”

The younger Danny also stood, frowning. “Am I gonna see you again?”

Danny shook his head. “I don’t think so. Not like this.”

The other boy nodded, seeing to understand what he meant. That conundrum. Two different yet so similar lives. The same person and yet not.

The younger Danny stepped forward. He wrapped his arms around his counterpart. “Thank you for making sure I wasn’t alone last night.”

Danny hugged him back. “I...I couldn’t see you in pain if I could do something about it.” He squeezed. “Take care of yourself, Danny.”

The younger also squeezed. “You too, Danny.”

The pair stayed like that for a long moment before pulling away. With parting waves, Danny stepped through the portal.

#Danny Phantom #Phic Phight #Phic Phight 2021 #double danny #time travel #alternate timeline #the accident #my fic

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