#guess who most of danny's soul is made of

[dead-girl-tells-stories]

DC x DP Prompt

To the delight of Gotham's citizens, and the dismay of her criminal underbelly, the GCPD has a new specialized unit that ACTUALLY apprehends criminals and brings them to justice!

It's a relatively small squad of mostly young adults, who looked fresh out of their teens. But age didn't matter once they got the work done. And they did, as they've already got criminals like Penguin, Riddler, and Bane behind bars for what looks to be 'for good'.

No one besides Commissioner Gordan knows anything about the squad as they operate as a mostly separate entity from GCPD. It was rare to see any of them, and any photos taken were unusually blurry. They are also extremely secretive; if you exclude their social media which are usually just shit posts, memes, and thirst edits of the Wayne family.

They were a total mystery. Almost as mysterious as Batman.

But those who have seen/worked with the squad before all had the same thing to say about them. They were cool. They had an unusually effective method. And their leader is a menace. With his sharp teeth and pointed smile. And bright blue eyes that spoke to your soul. It was a pleasure to see/ work with him, it really was. But they weren't planning on doing so again for a long time.

That being said, Gotham had been quiet for a while. A bit too quiet if you ask anyone, especially the Bats. Strangely, it didn't feel like the usual calm before the shit storm. The instinctual pit in their guts that usually formed just wasn't there. This was different. This wasn't the calm before the storm. This was the ocean receding. But no one seemed to realize it yet.

Not until the tsunami came crashing down on them.

The GCPD special unit accounts that had been inactive for the last three months suddenly pinged to life. Everyone who followed them clicked the notification almost immediately. With this unnerving calm surrounding them, who the hell didn't want to see what batshit crazy statement they would make after three months of radio silence.

What they didn't expect, was to see a crystal-clear picture of justice finally being served.

The picture was a selfie, taken in an abandoned warehouse. In the middle of the dirty floor was the Joker. He was tied up and his head hung low. You could see how beaten he was, his clothes torn and bloody. His face paint was also coming off, revealing pale blotchy skin. Reminding everyone that, he was still human, just like the rest of them.

Behind him, all lined up with smiles on their faces, was Team Phantom. They were a bit bloody and bruised as well but overall in much better condition. They weren't wearing the normal GCPD navy blue uniform, but black and white ones. All stylized to fit the wearers taste. They all looked so young, but their eyes looked like old tired eyes, finally getting some relief.

From in the corner was their leader. Only part of his face was in the picture. One glowing blue eye, and part of his Cheshire smile. His hand making a peace sign next to the Joker. Even with only part of his being shown, everyone could tell he was relived as well.

And while the picture itself was shocking, the caption was what really got them. The top was what you would usually expect from the team. A big bold 'GOT EM' ' at the top. But at the bottom in small, almost unnoticeable text was:

"He will face his punishment. We will get our retribution. May we finally rest in peace."

#dp x dc #dpxdc #dc x dp #dcxdp #dp x dc prompt #dp dc crossover #dp x dc crossover #dc x dp prompt #danny and the gang are fragments of the souls of those the joker + the other criminals killed or got killed because of them #guess who most of danny's soul is made of #hint: he has pit rage #the joker is no longer human that's why they had a hard time cathing him #neither are the bats but neither party knew #i would like to mention that danny is tiny #he missed his growth spurt and is making it everyone's problem #danny is a tiny menace #danny sam val dash and kwan mostly work out in the feld #tucker wes and star are the guys and gal in the chair #Paulina Dan and Jazz are the lawyers who prosecute the crimanals #they always win #duh #ellie is their mascot #shes also a mencae #she sometimes go out on the felid #wearing a tutu #combat boots #and a studded leather jacket #with her hair in pig tails #she also has a spiked bat #she WILL use it

[unadulteratedsoulsweets]

A DC X DP #18

You want a taste of my brain? Okay, it's yours anyway.

Imagine dis…

This time I get inspiration from an A03 fic, and some of its parts just stuck with me and now I’m writing about it, if some of you want to read it go for it. If you are asking for the name don’t ask, I am not going to sell my soul to the devil to find it in my ever-growing history. If you do manage to find it, kudos to them.

TELL ME I AM GETTING DESPERATE OVER HERE

Credits to them as well. Also, as you’ve noticed I decided to post less, now it is due to a good old lack of inspiration. So, don’t go getting your hopes up on this one.

…

Ever since Danny Phantom had become the Ghost King he repeatedly entered the reincarnation cycle willingly to retain his morals when he was human. He still retained his ability to stay in the middle of life and death. But when he as the High King of the Infinite Realms gained immortality he found himself losing his ideals and values, he began forgetting. With Clockwork’s insistence, every few hundred years he would become human to experience a lifetime. Sometimes he would go another round in the same dimension, but only when he needed to finish an unfinished business.

Sometimes he is lucky sometimes he is not.

Sometimes he would be born into a loving family with either as the only child or him having siblings. He has experienced the life of royalty as the heir prince. He experienced the life of a knight who was known for his skills with the sword. He was born into a normal family which made him second guesses his every choice due to his lack of normality in his life. He was also born into some wild dimensions that of which could look like it came from a book. From wizards and sci-fi worlds, he never had the time to sit and be an extra.

But there were also times he was born far too unlucky. 

He was born in a salve ridden society, a parent who were core members of a rebellion so when his current parents died, he was expected to be like his parents. Born in a society where the rich trample the poor and he was forced into early child labor as expected in society to work at a very young age. Born where he and the people around him had never seen peace in a war-consumed country, a war that separated his family from each other not knowing whether one is alive or not, leaving only him and his siblings to stay alive. Being abandoned by a pair of druggies for his parents left alone inside a dumpster and died in the middle of the night, looking through the dimension he saw that some homeless people found his body and reported it to the authorities leaving his parents in jail while some prisoners seem to leave them at the near bottom of the hierarchy in prison.

…

It seems this time he was born in an assassin cult this time he wasn’t alone. A twin, an older sibling that was with him in the womb and both came into the world together. The moment he laid his eyes on his grandfather he can already tell that he is a major fruit loop from the way he both look at both of them. 

His name is too formal for his liking, Dylan Al Ghul, he already convinced Damian to call him Danny when it was just the two of them. Danny tries to downplay his abilities both ghost and human seeing that his grandfather is too power-hungry to the point of misusing ectoplasm that is corrupted but still ectoplasm to achieve some sort of immortality, he tried to give Damian a childhood in the form of showing him the stars whenever he could sneak him outside. He saw the absolute worship and awe Damian would give to their mother and their grandfather whenever they visit or supervised their training, Danny didn’t care for their approval nor their presence but seeing his brother seem to at awe and do anything to please the two made his heart shatter, his older brother never needed to prove anyone something.

Danny has repeatedly shown his disdain for the two most powerful people in the organization yet it is a miracle he still lives. It is because he is a spare, a spare yes not the heir but a useful spare one, twins one who specialized in stealth and espionage a twin who is a perfect copy of Damian aside from his eyes mirroring their supposed father. Both Talia and Ra seem to make it their life mission to drill his only purpose in his head, it may have never worked due to his adult mind but he pretended it would be as to not raise any suspicion.

…

The day Deathstroke attacked not only he dared to kill the demon head but also choose to kill the chosen heir, by removing an eye and some of his organs as a form of slow torture but also killing him as he made the organs unable to go back to their owner’s body.

Danny couldn’t look away from his bloodied brother, Talia slowly approached him from behind and put her hands on his shoulder, and whispered some honeyed words on how his role as the spare will be fulfilled at a much earlier date and promptly injected with a sleeping drug.

…

Danny was already awake when he noticed the cold metal bed behind him the lack of clothes as well the number of doctors seemingly in a rush to prepare for a last-minute surgery. He saw the unconscious form of Damian on the other side and suddenly heard the loud ticking noise of a grandfather’s clock. 

It seems that it was meant to be, Danny thought as an image of Clockwork flashed in his mind. 

He fell back asleep knowing that Damian lost an eye, kidney, a lung, some ribs as well an ungodly amount of blood, possibly more. Danny knew that this vessel of his wouldn’t survive at the sheer need and he already felt that he would not leave the room alive. So, he took one last peek at the sleeping Damian and promptly closed his eyes, the moment he opened his eyes once again he was back in his chambers in the Infinite Realms clutching his left eye in his face whilst looking at the mirror as he felt his eye be the first one to be removed.

It seems this time he died months before he and his brother celebrated their 10th birthday.

…

Damian woke up with a pounding headache being the assassin he is he immediately looked around seeing that his last memory is being tortured by Deathstroke.

He immediately took notice of his loose clothing and tried to walk towards the door but his knees immediately gave out. As he tries to gain his bearings, he noticed a scar right in the middle of his chest, it couldn’t be from the time when he was captured by Deathstroke as he noticed that this scar is too clean, too sterilized as if someone had just come out of a surgery type of scar. As he tries to loosen his shirt to take a better look at his scar when he noticed a mirror facing his way and noticed his eyes, instead of his usual pair of emerald eyes he was greeted with an emerald eye of his own and his brother’s icy blue eye in his left eye.

Damian remembered that Deathstroke took out his eye, as according to him it reminded him of the Demon head, and decided to promptly pull it out with his bare hands. 

Dread began to fill his very being and tried to go and look for his brother but deep down he already knew what happened to him after all, he is the heir while his brother his beloved younger brother is just a spare.

…

When Damian had met his father’s wards most of them commented on his heterochromia eyes and promptly greeted back with his sword in their faces.

The rest grumbled that Damian couldn’t take a tease or two, but immediately chased the demon brat as he chases each and one of them with the intent to kill.

Damian couldn’t tell them; another son was hidden from Bruce. Another son he had failed, another son who died before they could even meet him.

From the first few interactions he had with his father when he first met him, he knew where his brother’s bleeding heart came from.

Sometimes he could still see him, Dyl- no Danny, every time he looks in the mirror. The constant reminder that his brother was seen by the league as nothing but a spare. Whatever love he had for his mother disappeared the moment he laid his sight at his brother’s eye embedded in his supposed empty eye socket. 

The constant reminder that shows every time he looks at the mirror and the scar in the middle of his chest, Danny’s organs that were used on him to ensure his survival while Danny was left behind.

…

He was 14 years old when he went wide-eyed at the stranger across him and his brothers in a heavily populated area.

A teen looks exactly like him with a medical eyepatch on his left eye as he sits in a wheelchair chatting idly with an older man.

Damian heavily thought of a clone, did Talia, not mother never mother, make another clone after him after weeks of silence?

Damian still remembered the first time he encountered a clone with blue eyes, his running theory is that due to his new organs have bonded with him thus creating a batch of clones with blue eyes. Timothy had spoken up that since babies have a 50/50 chance of inheriting the colored eyes of either parent made a new branch of clones. 

Damian was already planning on disposing of the supposed clone when the said clone suddenly laughed exposing his neck that have a feign white line across indicating a scar. But that scar made Damian double guess, all clones he encountered are scarred free thus leaving him to have no trouble disposing of each and one of them but the existence of the scar he barely caught is something both brothers swore secrecy to it.

The laugh oh god, his laugh, only his brother laughs like that, Damian thought mournfully.

As he tries to look the other way, he suddenly faced the same doctor who was the assistant doctor that foresees his surgery years ago. He may have distanced himself from the League after he had fulfilled his debt but it was no mistaking that it was the same doctor that operated him that time.

A chemist they said, an insufficient man who is more cowardly than any other man yet his talent in poisons made him quite a gem in the League.

A clone who had broke out of their collective mind control? Possible, but why this clone? What made this look alike so special that this man dared to leave the League?

…

Robin began to follow the two, the other bats thought that he had a new case on his lap that requires recon. They didn’t question Robin’s new behavior as they have seen him do the same actions when he landed himself a case or when he was following a lead. Yet they couldn’t shake the feeling that something is not right, whether it is the fact that Robin refused any assistance or just the fact they have no idea what kind of case Robin is working on.

They should have listened to their guts then maybe they wouldn’t be surprised at the bat screen, showing a maternal and paternal match to a picture of a blue-eyed black-haired kid with a medical eyepatch on his left eye looking like Damian in a good day.

…

Danny was doing some paperwork when a flying thought passed by him about his last reincarnation. All memories from his adventures when he got reincarnated are usually put behind the back of his hand yet worries about the well-being of his brother made him distracted, and kept close a special one-way mirror to monitor his baby brother.

Danny felt nostalgic at the family drama and chaos that he can’t help but cackle at each interaction Damian has with their father’s adopted children and wards. He found himself majorly of his time watching for hours and hours, he can’t help but wish he was there. As if he was summoned Clockwork appeared in front of him and told him to go back, which confuses Danny since it was Clockwork who implemented that he cannot go back to the same dimension/ world if his body is too far gone to be revived by him, yet Clockwork told him to give someone named Alfred his regards and vanished. Looking bewildered at his mentor/ grandfather he tried to sense his vessel with little to no hope seeing that the League has his body, but surprises himself when he felt his own body submerged in a portion of the Lazarus pit. 

…

Going back, he was greeted by an assistant doctor that used to be in the League due to his ancestor’s debt. He explained that he cannot in good conscience do what he was instructed to after the operation, stole his body, and submerged it in an undiscovered pit due to its small size, enough to dump a child not enough for a grown adult. 

After an initial check-up, both he and the doctor discovered that the mini Lazarus pit regenerated all of his organs except his eye seeing that it was his entire body submerged excluding his head. The assistant doc theorized that those organs of his may be weaker since they were generated from nothing, Danny in all his eldritch glory as well as being the most powerful being across the Infinite Realms played his part perfectly of a now disabled child.

After all who would accuse this disabled child putting the daughter of the Demon Head in an endless nightmare by his command to Fright Knight? Who would accuse that innocent blue eye of his that he had killed any assassin in their tail ever since he and his now temporary guardian began exploring the world? Who would accuse an adorable child that he was the one who had put the Joker in a definite MIA? Who would accuse this child who smiles like the sun despite his setbacks be the one who tortured Deathstroke to the brink of insanity? Danny is pretty sure his temporary guardian knew of his secret endeavors but remained quiet due to his habit when he was in the League or just to prevent any grayer hairs from growing in. 

…

Now if only his brother stopped moping around the building across their apartment complex and just come inside, he made his infamous fudge to share with his brother. His brother didn’t have to drag the rest of the bat brigade in watching him across the building, he even made extra fudge, if only they could just go through the front door instead of rescuing him first in every rogue attack and pretend, they don’t him. Well, if they are playing a game then count him in to win. But for some reason all of them made a face of being constipated whenever they talk to him, Danny is so sure he used clean ingredients to make his fudge…

God dammit just enter the front door like a normal person, better yet tell Batman to stop looking at him as if he died! Those windows are not paying to fix themselves each time one of them decided to stop dropping and roll every other night!

…

PS: If someone out there wanted to continue or make a fic about this you are free to do so, don’t forget to tag me though.

#dc #dc x dp #dc x dp prompt #danny phantom #dp #ghost king danny #batfam #danny fenton #op danny #damian wayne

[duskyashe]

NaNoWriMo Day #16

[masterlist] [part one] [part three] [part four]

=============‹«⟨·•★•·⟩»›=============

Bruce sat in the bat cave, long after he'd sent his kids to bed. In his hands were the batarangs Phantom had gifted him. They were unnaturally cold in his hands, but the chill never became painful. In fact, it was strangely almost comforting.

Thinking back on Phantom, Bruce wasn't sure what to make of their meeting. The kid seemed to be a few years younger than Tim, and had all but told them he was being hunted. Phantom had come to them seeking protection from someone, or multiple someones, for himself and four others, most of which were kids. On one hand, it made his heart ache, knowing these kids had to run from their previous homes, their "haunt". On the other hand, Phantom's genuine belief that they were something beyond human was obvious and more than a bit unsettling (he ignored the part of him that reveled in that belief, the part that had him on edge before an Arkham breakout, the part that saw Phantom and whispered "other, different, like me".)

His kids had held similar reservations, though they'd all agreed Phantom wasn't a threat. His gifts, though obviously magical and not human in nature, had felt benign and were reasonably well thought out, and though the level of research each gift had symbolized was slightly worrying, Babs had assured them she'd closed all the holes in their internet security those gifts had exposed. In the end, they'd all agreed to honor Phantom's request for refuge. The kid's relief was profound and practically soul deep, which reassured Bruce they'd made the right choice.

As Bruce fiddled with his new batarangs, which held a very faint green sheen at the edges, he remembered the moment his "feeling" had reached its peak. Something had changed, something big, when he'd accepted Phantom's gifts. He still didn't know what, exactly, had happened, but he'd felt some sort of shift in the energy Gotham exuded, in his children, in him. He had felt the sense of connection between him and his children grow ever so slightly stronger, and he knew they'd felt it, too.

Bruce flipped the batarang in his dominant hand and caught it with ease, returning it to the holster with a sigh. Whatever Phantom was, whoever he was running from, whatever his presence meant for his family, and Gotham as a whole, Bruce had a feeling they'd be crossing paths with him again soon.

=============‹«⟨·•★•·⟩»›=============

Danny phased invisibly into his and Jazz's apartment, turning human as he sat at the table with a thoughtful frown on his face. Jazz looked over at him from the stove, a questioning look on her face, though she didn't pry, which he was thankful for. He needed to gather his thoughts before he explained what had happened tonight.

When Jazz placed a bowl of spaghetti in front of him, Danny took a deep breath. "You owe Sam ten bucks," he started, smiling at Jazz's soft curse. "Condor is definitely connected to death, but they're equally connected to life, and the only being or creature we know of that is perfectly balanced between life and death, that isn't a halfa, is a phoenix. They also don't have that slimy, necromantic feel liches are supposed to."

Jazz hummed as she swallowed her mouthful. "What about the others? How close were we on our guesses of them?"

"Well, Batman is definitely a guardian deity, and Gotham is definitely his territory. Ibis, who I actually interacted with, was also spot on, definitely a kitsune. You should have seen them move, Jazz, it was almost ethereal how gracefully they moved. Oh, and Starling? Definitely at least related to banshees. I don't think they're a true banshee, because that connection to death wasn't there, but they're at least related to banshees." Danny paused to take a few bites before continuing. "I think Signal is a Will-o'-the-wisp, actually. You know how I thought they'd be a vengeful spirit? Having been in their presence, I gotta say, not very vengeful. Very mischievous, somewhat malicious, but mostly protective, strangely enough. Same with Raven, they practically ooze protective vibes, along with some very pointed trickster energy. I think Raven might be some sort of protection based deity, under Batman's authority, with strong trickster leanings, which is an interesting mix in my opinion. Oh, and Robin is definitely fae, they've got a very ethereal look to them, paired with their grace and general mischievousness, there's no doubt. BlackBat is more difficult to say. I think they're either a shape changing shadow wolf or otherwise just living shadows. Even when they were illuminated by my glowy self, I could barely see them. It was trippy, I'll tell you that much right now."

They continued eating in silence for a bit before Jazz asked, "So am I signing the full lease tomorrow, or are we moving on?"

Danny grinned. "Oh no, we're good. Batman actually told me to get the others here as soon as possible." His grin mellowed to a small, warm smile. "I think he's worried about them, Jazz. When I mentioned only two of us were currently in Gotham because the others weren't able to come with us when we left, he asked if we needed help getting them here. He seemed to relax when I told him we had a plan and that they were just waiting for the go-ahead from our end."

"Are you going to call them after we finish dinner, then?" Jazz asked, taking another bite.

Danny nodded. "Yeah, Ellie will grab them in the middle of the night. They'll wait until morning with Frostbite before portaling in so we can get the lease signed." He paused, stirring his spaghetti absentmindedly as he thought. "I think," he started haltingly. "I think the bat clan aren't actually aware they're not human."

Jazz paused, spaghetti falling off her fork and back into her bowl as she stared at him in shock. "What do you mean, how could they not know their own natures? You guys pegged them as eldritch beings as soon as you discovered them, they have to know!"

"I don't know, they just. They didn't seem to understand why I was giving them gifts or behaving the way I was. They also looked very confused at a few of my gifts, like they weren't sure why I'd chosen that specific thing for them, even though it makes sense for what kind of being they are!" Danny huffed. Then he sighed. "If they don't actually know what they are, then someone needs to explain it to them. They deserve to know what they are, especially because some of their species have very specific instincts that could be very confusing, even terrifying, for someone who thinks they're human. I... Should I offer to teach them more about themselves next time I see them?"

Jazz looked at him with a small smile. "If you think they'd be receptive to it, I think that'd be for the best, especially if you're right about them thinking they're human. I highly doubt we'll be the only Fright to seek asylum here, after all."

Danny nodded. "Then tomorrow night, I'll make the offer. If we get kicked out because I offend them, then at least we'll all be together."

=============‹«⟨·•★•·⟩»›=============

This would have been longer, or at least done sooner, if I hadn't had an ocular migraine come out of nowhere earlier today (⁠´⁠-⁠﹏⁠-⁠`⁠；⁠) but after a two hour nap, I could actually see again, so I was finally able to get to work on this ficlet! ✧⁠\⁠(⁠>⁠o⁠<⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠✧ I had a lot of fun coming up with what the members of the Batfam had managed to become due to the entire city believing them to not be human (⁠◡⁠ ⁠ω⁠ ⁠◡⁠) Jason was fun, cuz I hadn't really thought about what exactly liches were before, so when I realized that Voldemort from Harry Potter was basically a textbook lich, I knew I had to change my initial plan for Jason (⁠^⁠～⁠^⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ but hey, now he gets super strength and the ability to heal himself from anything, including death! Much better than being able to create essentially undead thralls lol (⁠◠⁠‿⁠◕⁠)

I'm seriously hoping to continue this into at least one more part, with the Bats coming to terms with and learning more about their new supernatural status, possibly even the Justice League initiating contact with the distinctly not human protectors of Gotham, but we'll have to see what prompts I find (⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧

OH! ALSO! I'm so close to reaching 200 followers! When I do, I'm thinking of celebrating somehow, but I'm not sure what to do. If any of you have any ideas, please, let me know! I might take your suggestion to heart (⁠◠⁠‿⁠・⁠)⁠—⁠☆ also, if I get to 260 by the 26th of this month, I'll do another celebration lol

Y'all are awesome, thank you so much! I've got some more people who asked to be tagged in this continuation, so here's hoping I get them all again! @airis-hunter, @little-pondhead, @stealingyourbones, @crystallicedart, @summerfox1988, @minnesota-fats, @edgemcjee, @fire-glass, @f4nd0m-fun, I think you all asked to be tagged (or at least heavily implied it) if I continued my fake cryptids real ghosts au, so here ya go!

Have a good morning/day/night!

#danny phantom #batman #dc x dp #dp x dc #fanfic #dp crossover #dp au #fanfiction #nanowrimo 2022 #NaNoWriMo Day 16 #dp/dc week 2022 #i have so many thoughts #guys duke is now a Will-o'-the-wisp #and Bruce is a freaking god now #so is Dick #honestly Dick almost was a tengu from Japanese mythology but i thought #because he's been Batman's companion the longest #he should also get to be a deity #so boom dick is Gotham's god of mischief and childhood protection #Tim is actually also in the process of ascending to deity-hood #he's still a kitsune at the moment but once Ibis is better established he'll ascend lol #Damian is a mix of different fae beings and it's all because he became Robin right before Gotham's belief hit critical mass #if Tim had still been Robin at that time then he'd be a fae instead of a kitsune but nope it's Damian lol #and because the Bats don't kill Steph isn't actually a banshee #she's technically something new that is related to banshees #she's basically a banshee if a banshee's call didn't predict death but defeat via a punch to the face #and yes Babs is an actual Oracle lol Bruce is the god that gave her her power she's literally Batman's Oracle #no seriously do a quick Google search this actually checks out she's actually a real oracle in this au lol #Cass is living shadows confirmed #i couldn't resist she's just too good at blending in with her surroundings

[sleepy-writes-stuff]

DP X MCU WRITING PROMPT

Okay, I guess we're doing this. This post is a result of a brief mention I made of the Avengers in this dp x dc prompt here and I can't stop thinking about it. For even more context, you might wanna start here where the reaper of heroes au started. Or not. Up to you, really.

This is completely up for grabs if anyone wants to flesh it out a bit more/continue it!

(Btw, I'm going mostly by MCU movies and only what little info I know of the comics. Sorry, not sorry.)

(#) = Notes at the end of post

(*) = building off of other ideas

✦

Reaper of Heroes

Needless to say, Danny did not realize that his responsibility as the reaper of heroes souls would extend past his dimension and into others. In hindsight, he probably should've considering that he was the ruler of the Infinite Realms, a dimension between dimensions that eventually all would join, so therefore his responsibility would be just as all encompassing. He does not realize any of this until it's literally shoved in his face in the form of half the universe from a single dimension being spirited away into the Infinite Realms almost all at once.

Quite a few heroes blip on his radar in the swirling mass of souls that were harvested way before their time was due. He looks upon the horde of souls in utter agony and despair and can feel only one thing: Anger. Danny was unequivocally pissed. With the help of Clockwork, he pinpoints the dimension the influx of souls originated from and he suits up in full battle armor and heads there immediately.

What he finds only feeds the fire of his white hot rage, so much to the point his white hair briefly flickers like a burning flame before settling back to it's usual tussled state. With permission from this dimension's personification of Death(1), he begins a hunt for the one responsible for the disruption of not only his regular reaper duties, but the balance of life and death itself. It doesn't take him long to find Thanos, he just has to follow the familiar powerful aura of the Soul stone.

What he finds is the end of the first battle against Thanos (Infinity War. Ha) where Thanos had just snapped half the universe away and all the people were still in the process of crumbling into dust/being sent to the Infinite Realms. Before Thanos can teleport away from all the carnage he'd caused or snap his fingers once again when he senses another threat approaching, Phantom disrupts the energy from the gauntlet and has him pinned to the ground by his throat away from Thor. He uses a conjured sword of ghost ice in the other hand to sever the arm that wears the infinity stones from the shoulder down. In the end, he's so close to the purple alien the green glow of his eyes turns Thanos' rapidly paling complexion a sickening shade.

"That's enough of that. Wouldn't be very sporting of you to turn tail and run from the consequences of your actions, now would it?" He practically growls.

Thanos stares up at this newcomer with a mix of confusion and fear. "Who are you? How were you able to stop me from leaving? The Infinity gauntlet is supposed to be infallible!"

"Ha! You mean this little toy of yours?" He asks derisively with a fang-barring smirk and a brief glance at the gauntlet itself. "After using it to rewrite reality a time or two, you learn a couple of things. Did you really think you were the first to have the idea to gather reality's most ancient artifacts and fashion them into a wearable device? Sorry, but somebody already won that race. The first place ribbon goes to a creepy ringmaster by the name of Freakshow."(2)

Seeing the look of shock, frustration, and offense on the alien's face, Phantom snickered and leaned back, releasing his captive's throat only to put an armored boot against his chest to keep him down on the ground. Thanos briefly struggles against it but finds it impossible to move.

"As for who I am," Phantom says, no longer smiling and with Thanos along with the few left on the battlefield's attention.

"I am Phantom, High King of the Infinite Realms. Lord of the dead, undying, and neverborn. Reaper of the souls of heroes and protector of the balance between life and death. And you," Phantom's eyes narrow to slits as he grinds his armored heel into the already deep wound on Thanos' chest, causing the alien to squirm in pain. "have made me very angry. How dare you disrupt the natural order and lay waste to so many innocent lives?"

Despite the obvious pain he was in and the growing fear of facing Phantom's wrath, Thanos still seemed to have plenty of courage to speak.

"Are-" He licks his lips nervously before continuing. "Are you Death?"(3)

Dark amusement dances in Phantom's eyes as he considers how to answer. He didn't need to think on it for very long though before he gave a wide, fanged grin and spoke.

"No. I did, however, meet with her before making my way over here, just to make sure I wasn't stepping on her toes by thrashing you myself. I gotta say, she's quite the conversationalist and her humor is to die for. Funny thing is though," He watches as a spark of awe, curiosity, and hope flashed in Thanos' eyes before dealing the final blow with glee. "she didn't have anything to say about you."

He watched as the alien's face took on a look of shock that quickly morphed into a combination of denial and anger. Phantom doubled down on the pressure he'd been exerting on Thanos' chest, causing the man to cry out in agony before continuing to assault his ego.

"In fact," he said conversationally. "she barely gave it a second thought when I asked to be the one to snap your chains and rip the soul from your body." He stopped there, humming curiously as he gracefully drew the ice sword he'd previously used to sever the man's arm and lodged deep into the soil.

"I wonder though." He mused as he held the point of the sword over Thanos' throat. The alien renewed his struggle, desperation written plain across his face as his eyes traveled along the sharp blade. He locked eyes with Phantom as a slow, gleeful smile spread across the ghost king's face.

"What will she say if I bring it to her in pieces?" He said before bringing the sword down and striking true.

✦

What's this? Actual dialogue??

Well, that was unexpected. I didn't plan on Danny being so unhinged/sword-happy, but I think it kinda fits with the context of it being in response to what happened in Infinity War i.e.- the insurmountable loss of life. I really enjoyed writing this tho. Just thinking about how I portrayed Danny in this has boss music blaring through my head.

Notes:

(1) Although most of them have never actually met, the embodiments of Death from every dimension more or less treat/view each other as siblings regardless of blood relation. Phantom and Death's relationship here will be/is basically the same as Danny and Jazz, i.e.- big sister, little brother. Shovel talk anyone?

(*) Let's have all the death characters from different fandoms gather around a table and have tea/coffee together. It'll be fun.

(2) I know chronologically (marvel comics vs dp show) that this isn't true, but shhh. Let's pretend it is in this case.

(3) Can't remember if it's mentioned or not, but does Thanos still have a creepy crush/infatuation with Death in the MCU? If not, I'm changing it. It's basically what this part of the conversation between Phantom and Thanos is referring to. His gift of so many souls to death being unappreciated stings, but not as much as getting his head lopped off and his soul torn to shreds.

Danny's interaction with Death

_

@mynameisnotlaura

How's this for talking about it? Look what you made me do! /lh/j

#dp x mcu #dp x marvel #danny is basically death's little brother #danny gives thanos the shovel talk except the shovel is a sword and the talk involves being beheaded #danny is ghost king and has lots of other titles #danny phantom crossover #reaper of heroes au #timeline starts at marvel then moves on to dc #does that make this a marvel and dc au? #imma put it anyway #marvel crossover prompt to #dp x dc crossover #dp x dc #dp crossover #writing prompt #prompt #sleepy-writes-stuff

[deke-rivers-1957]

Elvis Film Characters

So we know that Elvis did a lot of films where you go "hey there's elements of his character that match his real life". But which character do you think was the most like Elvis in terms of his personality?

My personal guess is Danny Fisher. He had a troubled soul but he still tried to do his best to do good. He made his mistakes and tried to make up for them.

Tagging @arrolyn1114, @be-my-ally, @cheesy-cryptid, @dilfelvis, @karel-in-wonderland, @leopardandstuds, @moonchild-daniella, @nymessis, @nemos-rapture, @peskybedtime, @shakerattlescroll, @stormie-ryan23, @thatbanditqueen, @xanatenshi and anyone else who wants to reply.

#elvis film #elvis fandom #elvis presley #danny fisher #king creole

[secretsandwriting]

Part Two: Half Human Half Whatever

Thirteen dead reapers, Thirteen spears, Thirteen bodies devoured by mushrooms, Thirteen days, Thirteen hours, Fourteen People.

Previous -- Masterlist -- Next

“I would’ve thought it would be harder to get to Death.” Dick inspected the map Danny had found. 

“This Death has made it easier to visit. From what I heard, the previous Death was almost impossible to go to.” Danny took the map back. “While easier, it’s still dangerous, more than half who go, don’t come back… This Death may be nicer, but she’s still the ruler of the reapers and someone who's capable of killing anyone she wants.”

“You’re going to see Lady Death as well?” An old man with a blindfold questioned them. “I guess most of us need something from her huh.” He smiled softly as he looked at the ground. “It’s been said Lady Death likes collecting eyes, and she’ll trade souls for them. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get my wife back. What are you visiting her for?” 

“He keeps finding dead reapers at the foot of his bed so we're trying to find out why.” Another man whistled at that.

“Damn, and I thought the assassins coming after me were bad.” He looked at his watch. “Thirteen hours exactly.” Everyone looked at their watches or phones. It had been thirteen hours to the exact second. “Well, the city’s right over here through this tunnel. Let's go before we get too close to 14 hours, when it comes to death 14 is the worst number. I’m Michel by the way.”

“Danny.”

“Dick.”

“Jason”

“Tim.”

“Bruce.”

“Steph, she’s Cass.”

“Damian.”

“Clark.”

“Jon.”

“Conner.”

“Fred.”

“Marcus.”

“Make sure you're careful in the city. The city itself was founded on a blood sacrifice and needs blood to survive. Normally it doesn’t need much, but every thirteen weeks it requires thirteen human sacrifices. If my timeline is correct, this week is the thirteenth week. Meaning piss of Lady Death and you might end up a sacrifice.”

“The nice thing is that we don’t have to worry about the reapers. Once you're in the city, you're off limits unless Lady Death herself gives the command.” Jason helped Fred over the bumps in the ground. He refused to take off his blindfold, wanting to be prepared to never see again. “Here we are, the gates of Okadus.” Michel ushered all of them in. 

“It’s this way to her palace.” He led the way, weaving through the streets until they came to a gate with a sign next to it.

To gain entrance to the castle you must sacrifice one of your bones, choose quickly or the city will choose for you.

All of them chose the same bone, the tailbone. A completely unnecessary bone, but a bone. Entrance was granted and the gates opened. The group walked through the hallway until they reached the large double doors at the end.

“This is the throne room. You just have to announce who you are and what you're here f-” He was cut off by the door opening. “Or not?” They stepped in and were met with Lady Death herself. She was lounging in a throne built of bones, a long black dress that seemed to melt into the floor, the color darker than anything they had ever seen. Her hands were black, it went up her arms fading out into the palest of white broken up by the black of her veins. Her eyes were somehow even darker than her dress, and her black hair hung down straight, framing the pale skin of her face. 

“Let’s save the fun one for last, what can I do for you Fred?” The old man stepped forwards.

“I’m here to trade my eyes for my wife’s soul.” Death visibly softened. Fred pulled the blindfold off and looked Death in the eye. “I love her more than anything and I want to be with her again.” 

“Unfortunately I can’t give you her soul. It’s too late for that. The only thing I can do is move your death closer so you can join her sooner. For one of your eyes, I’ll move your death to thirteen days from now and you’ll be escorted straight to your wife.”

“Yes! That would be wonderful!” With the snap of Death’s fingers Fred was gone and a reaper was in his place. 

“Fred’s moved up, you are to reap his soul in thirteen days and escort him directly to Anna. You can do the paperwork on the way if you want or you can do it in your office before you take him. Just make sure it’s done on time.” 

“Alright, Marcus.”

“I want to trade my eyes for immortality!”

“No. Don’t argue or I’ll have you placed in the dungeons and used for the next city sacrifice.” She waved her hand and Marcus was removed by one of the reapers. "I swear everybody wants to be immortal." She muttered under her breath.

“Michel. If you ask the same damn thing you’ve asked every month I will kill you myself.” Michel walked himself out. 

“If I had known this is what I would be dealing with everyday I wouldn’t have taken this position…” Danny knew the feeling well. “So, what brings the Ghost King to Okadus?”

“One of my friends has been having some serious trouble so I wanted to get it sorted as soon as possible.” He stepped aside and everyone pushed Bruce forward.

“Bruce Wayne. What seems to be the problem and why do you think I can help?” Bruce explained everything that had happened the past thirteen days and they all waited, hoping she would have some answers. Good answers.

“Well, the mushrooms everywhere were probably because I’ve been in Gotham the past thirteen days and with everything else going on they probably grew from the concentrated death magic. The thirteen bodies are from the sacrifices. I normally pick a city and find people who won’t be missed and this time it was Gotham so that’s nothing too bad. As for the dead reapers, and presence watching you, I’ll have to double check but I’m pretty sure it’s just a side effect of you escaping death a few too many times.” 

“Normally people can’t see the reapers and just spend thirteen days overly paranoid and then it goes away. I’m not sure why it happens but everything should be fine tonight. I’ll double check a few things but that's probably it. If anything else happens, have Ghost King send me a message and I’ll get to the bottom of it.”

“And how would I get in contact with you?” Danny raised an eyebrow. It had taken him a year to even figure out how to even get to Okadus and now he has to learn how to contact her?

“I told the reaper you grabbed to give you my phone number, you’re not the only half human half whatever you know. Anyways, if that’s all I’ll send you home.”

#danny phantom x reader #danny phantom social media au #danny phantom #dp x dc #jason todd #dick grayson #damian wayne #tim drake #stephanie brown #bruce wayne #dc social media au

[britcision]

Alright, friendos! Happy Hanukkah, happy Yule, merry Christmas, happy Kwanza, and happy holidays to anyone I forgot who is still celebrating or gets to start soon!

This chapter is dedicated to all our brave souls who have just made their way through finals! You made it, you’re free, and you deserve a heckin’ break

Tag list: @welcometosasakiworld @kyrianclawraith @someonebored0100 @stealingyourbones @starkcravingmad @frostedthroughghost @akikoyuii @rainbowbunny0159 @littlefeather345 @violet-catsarelife @serasvictoria02 @wolfjackle @blacksea21090 @secretdestinywerewolf @anime-hipster-the-amazing @undead-essence @skitscratched @blackroserelina @snoodly-boop @trickerdi @mayoota-blog @xysidhe @idkmrpianoman @little-apricot-the-writer @chaoticmistake @the-legal-shipper @bun-fish @aroranorth-west @demon-cat-goes-woof @eonic @onyxlightdragon @larks-and-katydids @peachesandcreamfemboy @jesus-camp-the-sequel

Previous chapter:

First chapter:

—————————

A Swell Night On The Town

Jason had been pretty sure he knew what to expect from Vlad Masters. The Plasmius file had stood out even amongst all the other ghosts, and not just for being a halfa.

The guy was a stalker, a creep, manipulative as hell, and would not take no for an answer. And no, he didn’t need a second grabby billionaire anywhere near his life, thanks.

He’d dealt with dozens just like him, rich assholes who thought their wealth and power made them untouchable.

And the man himself, standing in front of him? Yeah, okay, Jason was a little surprised.

Vlad’s face had this perfect fist shape to it, like his cheekbones were gonna wave Jason in to break his teeth.

Wild how that worked.

Offering to share Danny’s baby pictures was… an unexpected avenue of attack, honestly. Fucking effective though, and it had somehow defused the situation.

He’d still rather drag the man out by the scruff of his neck, but the apparent peace offering settled something inside him. Well, more directly Danny’s reaction to it.

Danny wasn’t scared of Vlad. Whatever he was, whatever he’d done? However much he’d hurt Danny in the past, used his death against him?

It hadn’t been fear setting Danny off when he knew Vlad was here. Which raised the question of what it had been, but he could always ask later.

For now, Vlad wasn’t an immediate threat to be eliminated, at least not yet. Today, they could play with him a little.

And if that changed? He was ready.

So Jason let his face soften into a smile as Danny groaned, damn near as dramatic as Dick. Let Vlad think he might be tempted.

And maybe just a little enjoy the revenge after all that bugging about the pixie boot photos earlier.

He reached out automatically to steady Danny as he swayed, leaving his hand on his shoulder. And watched Vlad track the gesture, which was… interesting.

Yeah, they could probably get him on the same game as the Manson’s. Jason let his arm slip around the slighter man’s shoulders, skimming gently down his arm.

Danny leaned into him just a little and if that made the pit happy, well, convenient bonus. Most of his attention stayed fixed on Vlad.

“I guess you’ve known each other a long time?” He offered, trying to keep his voice more neutral.

Danny sighed dramatically, folding his arms and glaring.

“Well it sure fucking feels like forever,” he grumbled loudly and Jason grinned, ruffling his hair.

“Not so long as I’d like,” Vlad argued with a soft chuckle, shaking his head. “I’m afraid even though I have always been his godfather we did not meet until he joined the club as it were. Had we met sooner I might have made a better impression.”

Sam snorted most of a laugh derisively through her nose, cocking her hip and smirking at him.

“Would you have given a fuck before he joined the club?” She asked sarcastically, perfectly matching his dramatic emphasis.

Vlad shot her another scathing look, then gave Jason an obsequious smile.

“Of course, I don’t have anything on me, but if you would like to come by some time…” he began, and Danny straightened so fast that something in Jason lurched to pull him back.

He resisted. Barely.

“Hell no Vlad, fuck off. You’re not having Jason over to your creepy ass castle in Wisconsin,” Danny snapped, his eyes flashing green and Jason had a revelation.

That? That was a truly fucking weird thing to see. Even if it hadn’t always been the trigger for violence, yeah, he could see why his family flinched.

Also? Danny getting possessive? Adorable.

Vlad certainly seemed to agree (which made Jason immediately want to change his mind), giving Danny a smug smile.

“Jason is an adult, Daniel, as you are yourself. I believe he can make up his own mind?” He purred, gaze flicking expectantly back to Jason.

It was a good thing he’d been practicing one of his best gala smiles half the month for this occasion. He’d never been more thankful for the training that let him keep it light and sweet.

“I’m not coming to your creepy ass castle in Wisconsin,” he agreed with Danny, loving the way Vlad’s face fell.

Impatient bastard. Like Jason hadn’t proved extremely early on which side of this line he was coming down on. Although…

“But maybe you can email me.”

Keep him sweet. Keep him hopeful. All the better to fully fuck around with later, and maybe give himself a backdoor into any plans.

Danny grinned smugly back at Vlad, folding his arms and leaning into Jason in a way that was definitely all out possessive. Which Jason could kinda get.

The new kid at school liked Danny best. Hell, Jason was always smug as fuck when one of the birds sided with him over B.

“Aww, I guess even your best impression wasn’t up for much, huh Vladdie?” Danny teased and Vlad’s eyes narrowed, before his smile flashed back, sharp and venomous.

“I shall certainly send you some pictures at my earliest convenience, Jason. Do you have a card?” He asked sweetly, looking from Danny directly up to Jason’s face.

Jason stifled a snicker.

“It’s not the eighties. Gimme your phone, I’ll add you.” He held out a hand, half expecting Vlad to refuse.

Surely he didn’t make his money and build his evil empire by being stupid. But no, Vlad gave him a calculating look and then handed the device right over.

Didn’t even try and look at the screen. And, well, Jason was a Robin once. Even Danny grabbing for the phone didn’t stop him, raising it above his reach.

Type his email with thumb swipes so it took half the time, turn on bluetooth, pair to Tim’s phone, get the ping for the downloaded app, bluetooth off and he handed the phone back to Masters, back on the contact screen.

“Here. That’s my private email, so don’t go giving it out to all and sundry,” he added as Danny tried to flap the phone from his hand.

“Aw come on Jason! You can’t give him that, he’s evil!” Danny whined, and Jason put his free hand directly in Danny’s face and pushed him away like he’d do Dick.

“You wanted to talk to Selina, you filthy fucking hypocrite.”

“Who wanted to talk to me?”

And speak of the devil, here she was, slinking towards them in one of her tight black dresses, short hair cupping her face.

Vlad shifted to let her join them, making a face when she stepped too close and stepping quickly away.

Jason closed his lips on a grin. Hope he didn’t have anything too precious in those pockets. Luckily his phone was still in hand, now tucked into a different pocket.

“I did,” Sam said loudly before anyone could interrupt, turning and bestowing her sweetest Manson Party Smile on her. “I heard you have baby photos of Jason.”

Selina raised an eyebrow as Jason made a half hearted grab for Sam, cocking her hip and smirking at him.

“Why darling, I most certainly do. And you are?” She asked, gaze darting around the group.

Sam stuck out her hand to shake.

“Sam Manson. This is my date, Danny Fenton, and my… friend, Jason Todd,” she introduced, jerking her thumb at the boys in turn.

Vlad cleared his throat, and promptly regretted it when Sam smirked.

“Oh, and this asshole is Vladdie.”

Vlad shot a glower at her while Danny and Jason snickered, turning to offer Selina his own hand.

“Vlad Masters, Daniel’s godfather.”

Selina took his hand delicately, a sharp smile on her face as she shook.

“Oh, so you’re the one who���s been snatching at the little Waynes! Have you come to make a grab for Jason?” She asked with a barely hidden glee, and alright, maybe she could stay.

Vlad’s poleaxed expression would make up for a lot, then he snapped too and snatched his hand away.

“I most certainly… oh… well. I. Suppose there was one incident, but I’d hardly call it grabbing,” he admitted with ill grace, smoothing down the front of his suit.

Selina’s smile spread and she pointed discretely towards the refreshment tables.

“Oh? Poor Tim has had to get an ice pack I hear, and someone said that you were behind Dick’s sudden disappearance. I’ll have to warn you that the last one left is Damian and he has a reputation of his own,” she purred.

Vlad’s brows furrowed into a deep frown, clearly not sure how to handle this situation. Being the focus of the gossip was apparently a change for him.

Jason was almost jealous, but the sheer joy of watching Selina at work washed it away. Not being the focus of all the gossip was a fun change for him.

“Damian Wayne?” Vlad asked, glancing back at Jason. Like Jason was about to help.

“He bites,” Jason explained casually and Danny fucking cackled, falling forward into Sam.

“Oh… oh Vlad… Vlad please… go bother Damian,” Danny gasped as Sam caught him, and Sam smirked.

“Would you turn down your Wayne scholarship?” Sam asked wickedly and Vlad’s head snapped around so fast he must have cricked his neck.

“Your what?” He asked sharply as Danny sucked in great lungfuls of air, finally straightening.

He was in no fit state to answer so Sam took over, smirking at Vlad.

“Oh, part of why Danny came is because he won a Wayne scholarship,” she said with a smug confidence Jason had to admire.

And join in on, since it was upsetting Vlad so much.

“Yeah, Brucie just loves to provide for underprivileged youth. It’s how we got my newest brother Duke,” he explained with an offhanded shrug, and oooooh he could almost see steam flying from Vlad’s ears.

His glare snapped back to Danny himself, who was just barely recovering.

“Then I suppose it’s a good thing I was here to defend your good name to Brucie,” Vlad spat the words like they tasted bad and that sent Danny off again.

“Aww, Vladdie, you do care,” he giggled, pulling himself back up and wiping at his eyes.

Vlad’s expression contrived to somehow become even more constipated. He turned deliberately back to Selina, his smile decidedly pinched now.

“And you know the Waynes well, I presume?” He asked, doing his best to pretend none of the younger three were grinning at him.

Selina cocked a brow, clearly clocking the interaction and filing it for later, a slow smile curling her lips that Jason fucking recognised.

“Oh, I know Brucie quite well,” she purred, one hand coming up to cup her elbow while she toyed with her hair, “I couldn’t paw-sibly miss the chance to greet Jason.”

Which, honestly, Jason considered mild for her. Vlad’s brows furrowed in confusion this time and Sam covered her mouth with her hand.

Selina tipped Jason a wink and he rolled his eyes good naturedly.

“Couldn’t miss the chance to fuck with Bruce, more like?” He asked dryly.

It wasn’t that he specifically didn’t want her there. Fuck, anything keeping Bruce off his ass was a win.

It was more that putting her next to Danny was probably an incredibly bad idea. His eyes had lit up - thankfully not green - and he grinned back at her.

“Well it is the purr-fect opportunity,” he said gleefully and Sam groaned.

“So this is how I die. Fantastic,” she snarked as Selina’s smile spread and she turned to face Danny more directly.

“But of course, anything fur family,” she agreed genially.

Vlad was beginning to look annoyed too, and Jason decided that was enough to tip him over into enjoying it. Not joining in; he wasn’t Dick.

Fuck.

Dick was here.

Biting down the urge to look around, Jason took a deep breath. Dick was probably still in the back. Probably still having hysterics.

What had Vlad even said to him?

Whatever it was, Jason might owe him a thank you for getting Dick out of the way of this particular meeting. All three at once would be…

Yeah, no, creepy castle in Wisconsin won if only because Jason had fucking always wanted to cause mayhem in an actual castle. Wayne Manor was fine, but an actual castle?

It might have battlements. It definitely had a ghost and a half.

Danny and Selina were clearly having fun, going back and forth with increasingly over reaching cat puns.

Jason took advantage of the moment to casually reach behind Danny and entwine his hand with Sam’s. She started a little, glanced over, and made a show of almost-but-not-quite pulling away.

Keep the show going. Apparently they were competing with Vlad for the spot of Top Scandal, which was just fucking great. No matter who won, they couldn’t lose.

Selina must have noticed though, because she gave him a sly look and gently broke things off with Danny.

“Not to pussyfoot away, but I do need to steal Jason for just a moment darlings. Old family friends and all that,” she added, tipping Danny a wink as he chuckled.

Jason gave her a wary look for a moment, then followed her a short distance away. Staying far enough back to be out of pickpocket range.

“What did you do?” He asked quietly once they were out of earshot, pausing at another potted plant. Appeasing Ivy, or a subtle invitation.

Selina gave him her most innocent smile, leaning up against the pot.

“I may have upset Bruce a little, and now he’s looking for you. He was going to the back rooms first but that shouldn’t take him long.”

Jason remembered watching Cass drag a wailing Dick to the back rooms.

“He might take longer than expected,” he noted with a half smirk, then shook his head. “So why’s he looking for me?”

He couldn’t think of anything Selina might do that would have Bruce hunting him down; usually the response to Selina turning up was to usher the kids away.

No matter how old those kids were.

Not that any of them actually wanted to stick around, just. It was dismissive at best.

Selina smiled fondly and patted his cheek, and for once the emotion seemed genuine.

“Jason, darling, no man likes to think their little boys have grown up. And of course I assumed that if you were making this much of a scandal this early on it was intentional, so I told him you had an orgy in the back rooms,” she finished bluntly, shattering the soft moment Jason didn’t know how to handle.

Rather than stammering or shutting down over emotions he wasn’t sure he could face, a startled laugh shot down his nose.

“You fucking what?!”

“I told him that when you five snuck off for your little chat earlier you’d been caught with your pants down,” Selina explained casually, an entirely catlike smile of satisfaction on her face.

And yeah, okay, maybe Jason was reminded why he liked Selina. For all the distance between them, she’d never stopped treating him as Robin.

She and Bruce might be on again off again, but she’d always be a cool stepmom to the birds. And she could be relied on to join a good joke…

Leaning in, Jason lowered his voice.

“You’re absolutely right, targets are the Manson parents, Bruce, and Vlad. Do you need to be filled in?” It had been a while since he’d done a speed debrief, but at least Selina had received a few.

And recreationally hung out with Harley Quinn. Her eyes sparkling with mirth, she shook her head.

“Oh not at all, darling. You know I pre-fur a surprise. Is the young Miss Manson in on it?” She asked, gaze sliding back across to the others.

Jason snickered, letting his eyes follow hers. Vlad seemed to have swanned off somewhere, and Danny was vainly “trying” to recapture Sam’s attention.

“Sam called the hit. They insist she has to find an eligible bachelor, so she’s got two,” he added, and Selina’s smile took on a decidedly nasty edge.

“Well then you’d best get back there and woo her, hadn’t you?” She cooed, long fingers gently patting Jason’s cheek again as she straightened to slink back into the party. “I’ll tell Bruce you’re at the refreshments.”

Jason hurried back to Sam and Danny, not exactly keeping his head low, but folding himself in a little. Hanging out with Superman and Clark Kent taught a guy a few tricks.

Catching his companions by an arm each, he leaned in to whisper,

“Selina told Bruce we’ve been having an orgy in the back rooms, she’s gonna be running interference and get him to the refreshments,” he explained quietly.

Sam snickered and shook her head, tugging her arm from his grip but allowing him to take her hand instead.

“So is she in on it?” She asked quietly, sharp eyes glancing around the party. Jason shrugged.

“I didn’t tell her much, but she’s always down to cause trouble of one sort or another. Wanna look for your parents and be conspicuous?” He asked Sam, grinning.

A grin spread across Sam’s face too and she nodded, giving him a nudge with her shoulder.

“Your family is fucking ridiculous, Jay.”

Which wasn’t news, but it was nice when other people noticed.

“We’re not really the ones to talk,” Danny pointed out with a grin of his own, coming around to take Sam’s other hand, “dare you to trip me in front of the Mansons, Jason.”

And if there was one thing Jason had gotten in trouble for all through his life… he could never resist a dare.

**

When did everything go so wrong?

It had been such a lovely evening, and yet out of nowhere, everything had turned on its head.

People were whispering about him, as they usually did, but now it was with giggles! Mockery hidden behind a hand, a glass, some ridiculous fan.

They tittered as he passed, closed their circles and turned their backs, or even moved away from him! He found himself suddenly alone, a room full of people exquisitely aware of his presence and avoiding it.

As if he were somehow beneath them. As if they had any sort of high horse to hold over him. And all for what? A mild misunderstanding?

It was something he’d always noticed about Gothamites, when he’d met them away from this dingy city. The way they considered themselves superior, above the rest for being a bloated parasite class in a jumped up hellhole.

Talking as if they personally were made stronger by all of those rogues, the darkness, the gothic nonsense. As if their city would protect them when even their Bat sought to bring them down.

Corrupt, stinking, filthy wretches. It was why it had never bothered him to avoid the den itself.

Oh, there was abundant ectoplasm, the misery and terror of millions saturating the air to almost Amity Park standards. So many people, crammed together, living in fear every day of their lives.

It made their hope powerful, those who lived at street level. Those who actually faced the city’s dangers. But these inept plutocrats? Cushioned with wealth and corruption and casual evil?

Their city hated them almost as much as Vlad. Would be happy to see them and their pathetic little Court fall. Maybe then the place could finally breathe.

They should count themselves lucky Vlad was above sinking to their level. Restrained himself to icy smiles and remembered faces, adding to his list of those to exploit.

Perhaps that would make Daniel happy; he and that goth girl were so in favour of the working class. A little redistribution of wealth (and some to himself) could be a nice gift.

Of course, if he actually thought about it, Vlad had a pretty solid guess of when the night had left the rails. He never should have grabbed the young Drake, thinking he was Daniel or not.

Frankly grabbing Daniel had been one of the habits he was intent on breaking, but it had just… happened. Force of habit was an irritatingly powerful thing.

They had always had a very physical relationship, and wasn’t that part of the problem? Vlad had never intended that.

It was just that the boy didn’t listen. Wouldn’t see what was good for him, no matter how clearly it was shoved in front of his face. He was independent, wilful, and while those were good traits…

Daniel also insisted on using them against him. Against himself. And Vlad… well, Vlad knew he had a temper. And frankly, so did Daniel.

They butted heads and with their shared abilities, sometimes that got explosive. But those same abilities were how Vlad knew that no matter how much they fought, they would be pulled back together.

And now there was a new halfa. For a supposedly rare occurrence, it was really becoming increasingly common.

Perhaps that was worth testing too. If something about the modern world made it easier to create a new halfa.

Not that young Jason was quite finished yet, he wasn’t a fully formed ghost, but Vlad could already taste the power in the air around the boy.

Not being alone had been all he’d wanted for so long.

And, apparently, something Daniel had been craving in an entirely different way. The air between the boys had been charged with more than just Daniel’s little flare of power.

Vlad wasn’t quite sure where the need to mention Daniel’s photos had come from; he’d never planned to let the boy know he had them.

It had been an idle curiosity, years ago now, and they’d never come to fruition. But seeing Daniel so obviously interested in young Jason…

Vlad was sure he’d looked at Madeline like that all the time, back at school. And far more lucky than he, Jason seemed to return the interest.

Daniel moving to protect Jason, put himself between them, had been expected. It was his nature, dear boy, and as foolish as it could be he stuck to it.

Jason refusing to allow it, moving Daniel behind himself? Surprising, and entertaining. If not for himself, he’d have thought those protective urges helped to form a halfa.

And, of course, it was rather telling.

Whatever Daniel had told him that made Jason see Vlad as a threat, Jason saw him as a threat to Daniel, not himself. That could be useful too.

Vlad would rather be a threat to neither of them if they’d just learn to listen. All he offered was a gift, and all he asked was to not have it tossed aside.

All he wanted was a family. And while he certainly wasn’t yet as desperate as Brucie Wayne, adopting any child he found on a street corner… perhaps the other man did have something to teach him.

With any luck they would still be able to have their private meeting. Vlad could only hope that the impression he’d managed to make would be enough.

The man doted on his sons, and Vlad involved in upsetting two of them? No, he would have to tread very carefully here.

Some form of apology. Not tonight, not while the issues were still… fresh. He would have to steer clear of the Waynes for the rest of the evening.

And think of some suitable way to show his contrition.

The younger boy was interested in technology, wasn’t he? His interest in Tucker would be explained there. And Vlad had plenty of technology beyond the power of science alone.

Yes, some form of gift for Timothy. Nothing too closely related to ghosts, but that was only a brief limit.

And perhaps it would be a way to soothe Jason too. For him to see that Vlad was sincere, that he did not intend to be a threat.

Why, maybe even something to protect the boy. A personal shield, perhaps. That should please such a protective soul.

Richard would be harder. Perhaps Vlad should have avoided the topic altogether, but he hadn’t realised the boys had been close.

By all accounts Grayson had precious little to do with Brucie around the time of Jason’s adoption, and while there was never any negative publicity, they rarely appeared together.

Not the way Grayson could now be seen fawning over all of his other siblings, draping himself over them and teasing whenever possible.

Perhaps Jason’s death had been a catalyst for him.

Not that it mattered. Even if the young man’s hysterics had been at least partially overblown (it certainly hadn’t followed through to Vlad’s enhanced senses), the message was clear.

And he’d gotten the answers he needed anyway.

Perhaps something equally overblown in return, Vlad mused with a slight smile, ignoring the other guests flowing around him.

Flowers wouldn’t please most young men, but the goal wasn’t actually to please Richard. He might appreciate a dramatic gesture in return.

And the man was a police officer of some sort. Something for his station.

Yes, no need for the evening to be a total loss. There would be the meeting with Bruce, and perhaps he could even persuade the man that he wished for his help to make amends.

As frustrating as this little setback was… this was still his day.

**

Tucker had absolutely no idea why Sam always complained about these parties, because he was having the best night of his life.

He’d met Tim Drake-Wayne! Actually hung out with Tim Drake-Wayne! WAS STILL hanging out with Tim Drake-Wayne!

And he got to piss off Vlad, eat fancy food, make his mom cry with pics of him in his fancy suit… Yeah, it was the best day ever.

Tim had taken his jacket off a little while ago after they’d bumped into Vlad, and while they’d joked about rigging him a sling for the rest of the night, it’d be taking the bit a little far.

It had also given them an excuse to hang out away from the crowd for a while and just talk tech while Tucker iced the “wounded” shoulder.

As expected, Tim Drake-Wayne was beyond brilliant. Most CEOs had no idea what the departments who actually worked for a living did, but Tim?

Tim knew about every single project going on in R&D. He knew what all of them were doing, and he seemed impressed that Tucker kept up with as much of their testing as was made public.

Remembering which bits still weren’t technically public yet was a little trickier, but he didn’t want to make a bad impression.

Hiring the hacker who broke your system was a movie bit, not real life. But, Tucker did hope that if he could impress Tim tonight, he’d at least remember Tucker’s name when the job faires started.

If Danny and Jason hooked up, maybe he and Tim would get to hang out at other events in future.

Because yeah, Tucker dug the new halfa. He did. Jason was funny, cool, pretty considerate, and just immediately down for Team Phantom’s fuckery in a way few people were.

Hell, he’d gotten Tucker a party ticket at pretty near the last second for Tucker to have this, the best night of his life. Tucker loved the guy, for all he’d known him for about a weekend.

But.

He did suffer from not being Tim Drake-Wayne. Like a lot.

It was probably something he heard way too often though, so Tucker was never gonna mention it.

Cuz yeah, Jason might be entry number four in a species that no one had thought was possible, but like.

Tim Drake-Wayne.

It just wasn’t a fair contest.

Tucker hadn’t clicked with anyone this fast since the day he met Danny in first grade too. He’d known Tim Drake-Wayne would be brilliant, obviously.

The guy was the next best thing to Batman himself, and was even mentioned occasionally in some of the Oracle-spotting groups Tucker frequented.

(Not that he could be Oracle, of course. While Tucker would put money on Oracle being in Gotham, Tim had way too much public presence.

He had a busy, often public job, but Tucker was just dying to ask if he’d ever done custom work for Oracle themself. Not on first meetings, though.

Had to find out if the guy was In The Know or not first. There were some theories that he was good enough to be a Robin, but Tucker didn’t really follow Gotham’s vigilantes.

More likely they just bought - or were given - Wayne tech and talked to the Oracle themselves.)

But really, Tucker hadn’t expected Tim to be so funny. He reminded Tucker of Danny in that way, always ready with a quip or a one liner.

They cracked each other up, and even now that they were back recirculating Tucker barely noticed who Tim was introducing him to.

All rich folks, the Mansons’ level or higher, most old enough to be their parents if not their grandparents. All making boring, prim and proper conversation.

The room might as well have been empty of everyone but Tucker and Tim. He didn’t even bother keeping an eye on Vlad, though he and Tim had exchanged grins as they watched the slowly expanding circle now following the man wherever he went.

Vlad was Danny’s problem. Tonight, all Tucker cared about was spending time with one of his own personal heroes.

Right up until he opened his mouth and fucked it up.

“Yeah, I was gonna stay at MIT over the holidays, there were some cool experimental tech meet ups planned? But I’m glad I wound up going home. It would have sucked to miss this!”

Tim stared at him for a moment, then actually laughed, which kinda surprised Tucker a bit. He hadn’t been joking?

And Tim clearly saw his confusion, patting Tucker companionably on the back.

“Sorry man, it’s just… you’ve gotta be the only person I know who doesn’t hate these things with a passion,” he explained, still grinning fondly.

Tucker cocked his head, frowning thoughtfully.

“What? Why not? The food’s great, dressing up fancy is fine once in a while, and the company…” he trailed off, cheeks heating just a little as he considered how to end the sentence.

He didn’t wanna wind up sounding like Danny. That would be way too embarrassing.

Luckily Tim didn’t seem to mind, grinning and giving him a cheeky nudge. Hopefully he wouldn’t notice the blush so much on Tucker’s cheeks.

“Oh trust me, this is definitely the best gala I’ve ever been to too. I’ve never had half this much fun before, cuz the company is usually waaaay more…” he waved his hand, gesturing to the small chatting groups they were wandering past.

All older, stuffy, boring… yeah. Fair.

Tucker grinned slyly at the other man.

“Well I’m glad I could liven up your evening, but Jason already told us you’re here to scout out Danny,” he teased, and Tim laughed again.

“Yeah, that probably woulda made top five anyway,” he agreed easily, “but you shoulda seen Damian’s first party. Demon brat was still half feral, he challenged a guy to a duel for calling him the “little Wayne”.”

Tucker laughed as well, glancing around the hall just in case the littlest Wayne should appear. No such luck.

“I can’t say I’m surprised,” he agreed with a broad grin, “he seemed a little short tempered.”

Tim nodded cheerfully.

“Oh he’d take your fingers off if Brucie hadn’t convinced him it was undignified to bite. His mom was one of those… what you’d call old fashioned. Very big on family honour and defending it at all costs.”

Tucker whistled long and low, shaking his head.

“Yeah, can’t say I’ve seen much of that… not as much as Danny, but you met Vlad,” he added with a snicker and Tim chuckled and bumped his shoulder.

“Yeah, well. I’m still glad you came. Do your family live near by or did you have to fly in?” Tim asked cheerfully and Tucker laughed.

“Nah, neither, Danny picked me up.” And then Tucker froze.

Right.

Yeah.

Cuz you couldn’t just say “my friend the Ghost King came and picked me up, we portalled through his private dimension”.

Not to a stranger.

Tim looked momentarily confused. As one should, when someone made no fucking sense.

“Danny? Does he fly?” He asked, and Tucker hid a sigh of relief under a huff of laughter.

“Well I’m not really supposed to say,” he whispered, leaning in close so as not to be overheard, “but let’s just say not officially?”

**

Team Phantom Group Chat

‘TechMasterF: so for all future interactions Danny you have an illegal pilots license. Can the GAV do a plane?’

‘TechMasterF: doesn’t matter I’ll say it can’

**

Jason had not been in the back rooms.

There also hadn’t been the kind of scuffing that would indicate… activities from a group of more than two people, but that didn’t put Bruce’s mind at ease.

There were plenty of ways to hide such things, and he had endlessly drilled his boys in being discrete.

If only he’d done a worse job.

Prowling around the party, he kept his genial smile on as a matter of course, chatting as he passed but never stopping. He had to find his son.

He’d run into Dick on his way out of the back hall, half burying poor Cass in his loud sobbing. Seeing an opportunity, Bruce had pulled both aside for a quick debrief.

Apparently Masters had run into them as well, and had actually dared to ask the question he’d heard circling the room all evening.

Jason’s funeral.

No one else was going to, thanks to Dick’s antics.

It didn’t make Bruce feel any better, since neither of them seemed to have noticed whatever Tim had seen. Both had seen Jason, still with the youngest Manson and this suspicious Danny.

Bruce hadn’t waited beyond that, though he trusted Dick’s quick warning that Masters had a bad reputation. One that Bruce had heard too; his business dealings were notoriously predatory.

Whatever leverage he held over former partners, Bruce wouldn’t allow him to get it over his family.

However the man was also known to be a brilliant scientist and engineer, and clearly had an interest in Wayne Enterprises. Bruce could take advantage of that to gather information on Danny.

Finally, finally he spotted the familiar white flash of Jason’s hair in the middle of the floor. He was accompanied by Sam and a scrungly young man with dark hair and blue eyes.

The mysterious Danny.

Time to say hello.

Bruce began to move purposefully through the crowd, not being obvious in his staring but keeping them in the corner of his eye.

**

“Oh shit,” Sam hissed suddenly, grip tightening on Danny’s arm, “Bruce is on his way.”

Danny’s eyes widened and he didn’t quite look all around, but only just. He looked to Jason instead.

“Do we wanna do this now?” He asked, shaking out his shoulders like they were talking about an actual fight.

Jason paused and mulled it over. Dinner would be starting soon, and honestly? If they held Bruce off til then, he couldn’t come for a “private chat” for at least another two hours.

Which would be pretty fucking funny. Especially since Selina had been winding him up.

On the other hand, Bruce wouldn’t have more than ten minutes to interrogate them, and Jason could wind the man up himself.

Jason leaned in until his lips almost brushed Danny’s ear, voice low so they couldn’t be overheard by anyone but Sam, who also leaned in.

“How much do we look like we’ve been passionately making out?” He asked softly, wicked glee in his voice. At least, that’s what Danny thought he said.

It was a little hard to focus with his breath tickling across sensitive skin.

Sam stifled a laugh but Danny almost missed it as he glanced over, catching Bruce Wayne’s eye. And the sudden, intense glare.

A startled squeak slipped free and he grabbed Jason and Sam and vanished.

At least Jason wouldn’t see him blush.

**

Across the hall, Damian’s eyes narrowed.

He’d gotten himself a good vantage point, half way up the stairs so that his relative height wouldn’t be against him.

He could see the whole hall clearly, easily able to track Todd and his cohorts. The dramatics reminded him of one of Todd’s books too, so he was sure the man was having the time of his life.

Right until Fenton grabbed both of his companions and all three disappeared. As if they’d just turned invisible.

Fenton was some form of meta. And something had startled him. Tracing back along the direction he’d been facing, Damian caught sight if Father.

Talking to the Kyle woman.

**

“Selina,” Bruce acknowledged, attention snapped away from Danny Fenton as Selina slunk up to his side, her smile wide and satisfied.

“Bruce. I thought I should come and let you know about the mood in the room,” she purred, hand slipping through his arm.

Eyes narrowed, Bruce glanced up to where Jason had been. His face much, much too close to Danny’s.

All three young people were gone.

Sighing softly in irritation, he returned his attention to Selina.

“Oh? And what is that?” He asked, trying not to let his annoyance rub off on her. She couldn’t have known.

Selina smiled up at him, her other hand coming up to pat gently at his chest.

“Rumour has it Vlad Masters is after your Jason. He’s invited him back to his castle to “get to know each other a little better”,” she purred, fingers flicking against him for the air quotes.

Bruce’s eyes narrowed.

“Why?” He asked sharply, now sweeping the room for Masters’ ponytail.

Selina shrugged elegantly, tweaking his tie before moving back.

“Who can say? Perhaps he’s after the same thing as the Mansons, hoping Jason and young Danny will hit it off. Perhaps it’s a little more… personal,” she mused, a half smile on his face.

Bruce’s expression pinched tighter for just a moment, but he didn’t bother pasting a smile back on. He was allowed to be worried for his son.

Especially if a man old enough to be his father was inviting him away.

“And what did Jason say?” He asked half to himself rather than to her, once again furiously searching the crowd for Jason.

Selina shrugged again, also scanning the crowd.

“Well, he’s been keeping himself quite busy with the small town guests. Perhaps he’s growing tired of Gotham,” she mused, watching Bruce from the corner of her eye.

He knew he twitched. Kept the rest of the response under control.

He wasn’t sure which was worse; Jason building a harem, being courted by an older man, or just plain wanting to leave… no, none of it was good.

The worst part… was that Bruce wouldn’t blame him.

Jason couldn’t be allowed to leave. He just couldn’t. No matter what else happened, Jason needed to be close enough for his family to keep an eye on him.

However good he thought his control of the pit was, it kept slipping. And the chances that Jason would do some serious damage were bad enough in Gotham itself, never mind across the country.

Gotham held so many bad memories, too many of them Bruce’s own doing. Gods, he wished he could safely let Jason go and get him out of that environment. Somewhere far from bad habits.

Though Jason was reluctant enough to leave just Crime Alley. He loved Gotham, and always had, despite what it had cost him. At least if he wanted to leave, Bruce had a plan.

And the fact that he actually would prefer it if Jason were just sleeping around… wasn’t one Bruce was prepared to deal with. He would absolutely not be admitting any of it to Alfred.

Looking back to Selina, his eyes narrowed.

“That wasn’t an answer. Why would Jason want to leave Gotham?” He almost demanded, stepping into her space this time.

Selina did not look impressed, lips pursing and a single brow rising pointedly as she looked him over.

“Why, I don’t know, Bruce. Can you think of anything that might be making him feel unwelcome? Unappreciated? He never did like the limelight,” she remarked coolly, and that cut deeper than her claws.

“The gala was his idea,” he tried to defend himself, not thinking about the first part of her question. Jason had wanted his official life back.

Selina tutted softly, reaching up to pat him on the cheek. That was her slightly pitying smile too.

She knew him far too well.

“You know you won’t get his motivations from talking to me, Bruce. If you want to know what Jason’s thinking you’ll have to ask him yourself. Today’s probably a good time,” she added slyly, half turning away, “after all, you know how soothing a little… exercise can be.”

And then she was gone again, swaying away into the crowd. Bruce took a moment to collect himself before following, closing his eyes and drawing in a deep breath.

It would be fine.

He’d been planning his speech for tonight for weeks. Since Jason had first voiced the idea to Dick.

Bruce knew he was no good at bearing his soul. Open heart to hearts with his children had always been his greatest struggle, and he knew it weighed on them all.

He loved them with all of his heart, and it was maybe that which made it so difficult to just… let himself be vulnerable. He never knew what to say. How to express the depths of emotion.

But he would fix that today, he’d promised himself. He would tell Jason how much he loved him in front of the world.

**

Narrowed eyes being the only outward sign of irritation, Damian hurried down the stairs and through the crowd.

There was no point going directly to Father; he would likely be distracted with the Kyle woman for a while yet. No, he had to find one of his siblings.

Surely one of them had noticed. Todd was to be the center of their attention for the evening. One of them must also have been watching when he disappeared into thin air.

Grayson first, he decided, ducking and weaving between the much taller adults. He was the most competent, and the most invested in Todd’s new behaviour.

Grayson must have seen.

**

Danny gave Jason and Sam an embarrassed grin as he popped them back into visibility behind a plant.

“Sorry… Bruce caught me looking and I kinda panicked?” He offered sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. It was kinda adorable.

Sam rolled her eyes and flicked him upside the head.

“Dude, you’ve gotta learn to chill. One day someone’s gonna see that,” she reprimanded him.

Jason cocked a brow, resisting the urge to pat himself down and check he was tangible again. They’d gone directly through more than one guest on their way to a quiet corner.

“Does this happen a lot?” He asked dryly, fighting down a smile. It was quite possibly the funniest startle response he’d ever seen.

Danny’s cheeks flushed and he looked away, pointedly looking at the floor.

“Not so much any more?” He offered, and Sam snickered.

“He told you how many times he phased through glassware when he first changed, right?” She teased. Danny gave her a half hearted shove and she laughed, shoving back much harder.

Jason did his very best impression of innocence, raising both hands.

“I’m gonna plead the fifth. We should go make sure we’re spotted though, just in case anyone saw,” he added, giving the room another quick scan.

There was no real commotion, no one looking this way and that like they were trying to find someone.

It might be okay.

**

Damian caught up to Cass and Dick just as Dick was wrapping up a particularly colourful story about repainting the manor that was probably at least half true.

Cass wasn’t completely sure, but it would explain the rule about paint rollers being used from the floor or not at all.

Damian was frustrated though, all tight and tense and trembling with self satisfaction. Which wasn’t actually all that unusual, but she wouldn’t say it.

He walked straight up to her, full of determination.

“Cain. Grayson. I need to speak to you,” he demanded bluntly, ignoring the two couples still laughing over Dick’s story.

Cass and Dick exchanged curious looks, and Cass shrugged. Dick turned back to their audience, grinning broadly.

“Well, big brother duty never sleeps. We’ll see you around!” He declared with a jaunty wave, turning to follow Damian. “What’s up, kiddo? It’s nearly dinner time.”

Damian gave him a scathing look and Cass hid a smile. None of them did well with stuffy parties.

Once the youngest decided they’d come far enough from listening ears, he stopped and turned back to hiss.

“Fenton is a meta. He and perhaps Manson as well. I saw them disappear in the crowd.”

Brows furrowed, Dick glanced to Cass again. She frowned, thinking back to what she’d seen of both Amity Parkers. There hadn’t been anything out of the ordinary in their body language.

Unless you thought they were supposed to be civilians, but that wasn’t strange. Not in her circles.

Damian was sure though, so she shrugged again. Dick turned back to Damian, grinning consolingly.

“Hey, I know it’s embarrassing, but Jason’s always been a sneaky bastard. It’s not a big deal to lose them.”

Which was the other option. But the way Damian’s eyes narrowed, anger cranking up and then being choked back down… he was sure.

“I did not say I lost them, Richard! I said I saw them disappear. In front of my eyes. Whether it was some teleportation or just invisibility, I saw them,” he spit out, giving them both a fierce glare.

Cass hesitated, glancing across the hall.

It was… busy. Not exactly packed, but there were enough people, the patterns too random to predict… no.

She’d have noticed someone invisible stepping their way through. There were ways one had to move to avoid being struck if no one could see you.

In a place like this? Not even she would try it in the middle of the floor. This was where you took the high road, or hugged the walls.

Looking back to her brothers, she carefully signed, her body hiding her hands from the crowd.

‘Teleport. Where?’

Dick accepted her analysis as simple fact, frowning thoughtfully and looking around. Damian looked viciously gleeful to be vindicated.

“If they’re still here, it’d have to be short range. Probably somewhere quiet, somewhere they’d been. How long ago?” He asked Damian, and the boy didn’t even glance at his watch.

“Not more than three minutes. You are easy to find.”

“I’m not trying not to be, Dami,” Dick corrected easily, looking around the hall again. “Odds are they’d have gone for the back, so we’ll head that way.”

Which was a really solid plan. Until they stepped back into the crowd and immediately ran into Jason, Danny, and Sam, talking to Tim and Tucker.

**

Bumping into Tucker and Tim had been a fun coincidence, and Danny wasn’t about to miss the chance to catch up. Sure, they’d not been apart long, but a lot had happened.

First of all…

“What happened to your shoulder Tim?” Jason asked “innocently”, something just on this side of sincere worry in his eyes.

Tim made a face, rolling his shoulder and carefully cupping it.

“Oh, nothing. Just a bit of an overenthusiastic greeting by someone called Vlad,” he said nonchalantly, shooting Danny a sly smile. “He thought I was someone else.”

For just the briefest second, that hot flare of Obsession hit Jason again. Protect-mine-how dare he.

But Danny was used to those kinds of reactions; mostly from personal experience. If he even thought his friends were hurt in an attack, things got… intense.

He let his aura spread enough to stroke across Jason’s again, not moving closer while they were the center of attention. He felt the flash of surprise, and something… else?

Something softer, none of the alarm he’d felt when he’d filled the room. He stroked calm-safe-amused-he’s faking back anyway and watched Jason’t shoulders settle.

Felt a wash of embarrassed-amused-sorry more directed his way, and smiled to himself. Jason was getting good at this pretty fast.

Sam, Tuck, and Tim had kept the conversation going while they had their little halfa moment, chatting just a little louder than they should about Tim’s encounter.

Just so their neighbours could hear them without having to strain, of course.

That would be rude.

Slotting back into the conversation was easy, and honestly? Tim was also a pretty cool guy to hang out with. Danny was a little surprised by how much fun he was having.

It just went to show, the galas of nightmares could be pretty fun with friends.

There was definitely something about to start though, because people were beginning to move more pointedly towards the large doors opposite the stairs. The dining hall, if Danny remembered right.

Right. Dinner.

It was probably that which brought Damian, Dick, and Cass to join them. Dick launched easily into the story of their own encounter with Vlad and okay, being funny as fuck clearly ran in the family.

Damian was a little off though. Until he actually met Bruce, Danny couldn’t say for sure, but for now? Maybe the Waynes were just the unfunny ones.

That or something was bugging him, because he had a tight frown on his face. And… was… kinda staring at Danny.

Half an eye on the kid, Danny casually shifted away to the right. The glare followed, so yeah - gonna say that was for him.

It was kinda cute really. For all the kid wanted to play tough guy and pretend he didn’t care, he basically radiated a protective suspicion for Jason.

Danny had to admit he’d been weird enough when he thought anyone was threatening Jazz or his friends, so he couldn’t complain. Just felt strange to be on the other side of.

Just as they were approaching the wide open doors, the Mansons popped up again, absolutely beaming to see Sam surrounded by the full crop of Waynes.

“I’m so happy to see you all getting along, poor Samantha does get so lonely at these events sometimes,” Pamela trilled happily, patting her daughter on the shoulder.

Sam, Manson Party Smile in place, glanced at the hand like she was seriously considering biting it. Danny hid a grin of his own.

“We’re sorry to break up the party, but we should be getting our two off to our table,” Jeremy explained, giving Sam a beaming smile and pretending Danny didn’t exist.

Jason cut in immediately, bestowing a charming smile on both of them and offering Sam his hand. Which she gave a sidelong look to, then slowly took.

Pamela’s eyes all but whirred like camera lenses as she locked onto the gesture.

“Actually, I was just about to invite Sam to join me at our table? And Danny too of course,” Jason added as an afterthought, also not looking for Danny.

For the best, because he wasn’t sure he could hold in all the giggles. No chance of the Mansons noticing anyway, because they were on cloud nine.

“Oh, how wonderful! It would certainly give you some more time to get to know each other,” Pamela gushed, the hand on Sam’s shoulder giving her daughter a sudden little shove closer to Jason.

As if there was any chance she might have missed the super subtle parental semaphore all evening.

And Sam deserved an Oscar.

Glancing up to Jason, she let the Party Smile slip more into a real, shy one, quickly looking away like she didn’t want to be caught looking.

“Yeah, okay. Sounds good,” she said quietly, her grip tightening just a little.

If Danny hadn’t known she’d never been shy in a relationship in her life he could have easily bought into this Bridgerton bullshit. As it was, he and Tuck exchanged grins, wishing for popcorn.

Jeremy took his wife by the arm before she could dissolve into delighted tittering, inclining his head to the group.

“I’m sure we’ll see you after dinner then. Have fun,” he told Sam, and for just a moment he sounded so sincerely proud that Sam’s grip tightened in Jason’s.

Then they were gone and she groaned melodramatically, dropping said hand and glaring at Tucker and Danny.

“Not a word,” she snapped, eyes narrowed. Both boys immediately raised their hands in abject surrender.

“Whatever would we even say?” Tuck asked innocently. Beside him Tim snickered.

“That your parents clearly read even more period romances than Jason?” He offered, and Sam’s eyes narrowed at him instead.

Then she huffed, folding her arms and dragging Jason’s hand into the crook of her elbow.

“Yeah, yeah. Get me to the table. At least I don’t have to listen to them gushing for an hour,” she grumbled, actual sadness flicking across her eyes.

Jason slipped his hand free and before she could protest, wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“C’mon, let me tell you about all the times Timmy’s fallen asleep at gala dinners,” he said innocently, shooting a wicked grin at his younger brother as he turned them away to keep walking.

Tim’s smile dropped immediately as they begun to walk, hurrying around so he could glare at Jason and walk backwards.

“Don’t you fucking dare Jason. I still have pictures of the Discowing incident,” he threatened, and unfortunately for him only made Jason grin broader.

“You did, until Babs owed me a favour,” he teased back and Tim’s eyes narrowed, hands jumping to his phone.

“Fuck off she did not, she wouldn’t,” he grumbled as he fell behind, Dick landing a companionable hand on the back of his neck to steer him along with them.

“Discowing incident?” Tucker asked, hurrying up on Jason’s other side.

Jason glanced back over his shoulder, smirking at Dick and Tim.

“Family game night. The loser has to suffer some humiliation, and when I lost they got me one of Nightwing’s old costumes to wear for photos. The one with the v-neck,” he added for explanation.

Coming up on Sam’s other side, his hand in the small of her back, Danny damn near tripped over his feet. He’d have fallen if Sam hadn’t caught him, a smug smirk now on her face.

At least she was feeling better.

Behind them, Dick rolled his eyes while Tucker went searching on his PDA.

“Hey, I still say that was a cool suit. More interesting than all the black spandex the rest of the bat brigade mainline,” he protested, making all three of his brothers scoff.

“Then why did he stop wearing it?” Steph asked, materialising from nowhere to toss an arm around Dick’s shoulders, just as Danny asked,

“Isn’t Nightwing’s current costume mostly black?”

Even Cass giggled, which Danny had already decided was an accomplishment. Dick gave a few half hearted defences while the others needled him, and Tucker made a triumphant noise and passed his PDA to Sam.

She angled it so Danny could see and he had to clap his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing.

“He fought crime in that?!” He exclaimed through his fingers, and Sam raised a pointed brow at him.

“Batman’s underwear are on the outside and this is the line?” She asked sarcastically, then turned and grinned up at Jason. “So when are you introducing me to my new best friend Babs?”

They’d reached a large oval table now… right in the front and center of the room. Right. Wayne table, Jason’s gala.

They were gonna have an audience.

Jason chuckled and grinned down at Sam, moving to pull out a chair for her just off center.

“Absolutely fucking never unless you swear to forget all you’ve heard,” he promised as the rest of his siblings minus Cass rushed around for the other side of the table.

Sam snorted a laugh, taking the seat and letting him tuck her in.

“Look at what I am fucking wearing. Give me the disco suit and I’ll wear that with pride,” she pointed out, gesturing to the mass of bows.

Dick won the race, by diving into the seat Tim had just pulled out and locking his legs underneath it. He leaned immediately across the table and grinned at Sam.

“Are you busy tomorrow?” He asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Steph dropped down to sit beside him.

“We could go later tonight?” She offered, and both laughed when Jason flicked a napkin at them, taking his own seat.

“You’re both the fucking worst, and Babs has shit on you too,” he reminded them, with no real effect.

Danny took a seat Sam’s other side, Tucker winding up beside Danny on the curve. That left Tim with a seat almost half opposite Tucker, on the other side of the round.

Further from the main action, but honestly, he took it with good grace. Better than Damian, who despite having the seat on Dick’s other side, near the middle of the table, was still sulking.

Maybe because he’d had to wait for a new chair to be brought? Cass had the other new chair, at Jason’s other side.

No one seemed worried that they’d left the table unbalanced, mostly down at one end.

A couple of attendants had already hurried over with three extra chairs, disappearing again for place settings as the Waynes passed cutlery around.

Danny figured this was what throwing the party (and having more money than your average country) did for you. People didn’t make a fuss when plans changed.

The hall was still pretty loud, people finding their seats and getting comfortable. Across the table Dick leaned forward, grinning broadly at Sam and Danny.

“So, we know about Sam and her folks. What about you, Danny? Do you have any family nearby?” He asked, ignoring a warning look from Jason.

Danny appreciated it, but he didn’t really mind. Odds on, he’d be getting to know Jason’s family better at some point. They seemed pretty close.

“Nah, my sister’s studying psychology in Star City and both parents are still in Illinois. We sort of spread out.” Not least so both he and Jazz could have some time away from home.

Time to pretend to be normal. And somewhere nobody knew the name Fenton.

Dick nodded cheerfully, but Danny didn’t miss how both Damian and Steph’s eyes had narrowed. They were gonna remember what he said for later.

Fun. Maybe he should be doing some interrogating back.

Dick had already moved on though, still with that charming smile.

“Can’t say I know much about that, the furthest I got from home was Bludhaven,” he said companionably, tugging Damian in for a hug. “Can’t let the little ones do without their biggest brother.”

Damian squirmed viciously, sputtering protests, and Steph laughed and pulled Dick into a headlock.

“Jason’s bigger,” she teased, and Danny couldn’t help glancing over from the corner of his eye.

Jason was a lot bigger. In just about every direction. To be fair, Jason was bigger than some cars.

Dick squirmed free with surprising flexibility, releasing Damian who huffed and corrected his outfit immediately. Danny figured it was as good a time as any to do some sleuthing back.

“Bludhaven, huh? What do you do there?”

“I’m a cop,” Dick answered with an easy shrug. “I guess I got in the habit of wrangling these little bastards.”

Sam snorted a laugh beside him and Danny hid a grin in his hands. He was probably gonna regret that.

“You grew up in Gotham and became a cop?” She asked, heavy with derision. Beside Danny Tucker snickered, leaning over to whisper to Tim.

“And you thought you had it bad before.” Which, yeah. ACAB was Sam’s other favourite mantra after Eat The Rich.

Dick shrugged again, not losing his cheerful grin yet and spread his hands.

“That’s kinda why I did it. There were always so many corrupt cops, I wanted there to be at least someone that people could count on,” he explained like it might save him.

Sam stifled most of the second laugh.

“Oh, sorry, I thought you said you became a cop, not a firefighter. Is he a snitch too?” She asked Steph, who looked like Christmas had either come a little late or extremely early.

“Not to Bruce, but he did threaten to arrest me for parking near a fire route,” she said with a wicked grin.

Decidedly pouting now, Dick threw both hands into the air.

“I was kidding! I didn’t actually arrest her!” He argued as the rest of the table booed. Even Damian.

“Just another corrupt cop,” Sam sighed, shaking her head. Dick opened and closed his mouth a few times, then frowned.

“Wait so I’m a snitch if I do arrest people and corrupt if I don’t? How am I supposed to win?” He complained, the pout still mostly playful.

Sam stared him dead in the eye, devoid of mercy.

“Not be a cop.”

Dick groaned dramatically and Steph laughed, reaching over to pinch his cheeks.

“Hey, we told you when you joined,” she pointed out cheerfully and Dick sighed.

“Well, yeah, but the system’s not gonna change if no one ever does anything, is it?”

Tucker and Danny exchanged looks. Grins. And were slightly surprised when Jason beat Sam to the punch.

“Corrupt systems don’t change from the inside, Dickie,” he said with a smirk. Dick pointed an accusatory finger at him.

“Hey, you can’t talk. He likes Red Hood,” he explained as an aside to the Amity Parkers as if it might help his case.

Jason spread his hands, grinning.

“Hey, I came from the Alley, I’m allowed to appreciate a guy cleaning it up. Which the cops never even tried,” he added smugly. Dick huffed.

“Red Hood killed people.”

“So do the police,” Sam pointed out with a smirk of her own and Dick deflated.

“Red Hood stopped,” Jason joined in, jumping on the moment of weakness. “I bet his bodycount is less than Bludhaven PD’s.”

Steph and Tim both snickered at that, although Danny wasn’t quite sure why. It seemed a little more innuendo ridden than just enjoying Dick’s suffering.

And Jason’s cheeks definitely pinked. But he ignored them. Yeah, Danny had some follow up questions for later.

From Jason’s other side, Cass signed something that Danny couldn’t quite catch from this angle, but Steph nodded quickly.

“Yeah, good point Cass. She wants to know what you guys think about vigilantes,” she explained, looking expectantly at Sam.

Who frowned for a moment, then shrugged.

“At least they’re getting something done. But someone needs to look into Batman hoarding children,” she said dryly, and most of the table snickered.

“I think most of them follow him,” Tim pointed out in an effort to be fair. Steph and Jason both made faces at him and he flipped them both off.

“But do you have a favourite of Gotham’s vigilantes?” asked Dick, leaping onto the subject change with both feet.

Danny cast a quick glance at Jason, but he looked about as entertained as the rest of the table. It must have been something they talked about a lot.

Or the rest of the Waynes were the rest of the bats. But Danny didn’t want to assume… unless it would be funny.

Without the key of Jason’s old Robin connection, Sam and Tucker probably wouldn’t get there.

Sam was pursing her lips, probably thinking about her options. She’d know more of them than him or Tucker, but Danny figured he knew most of the big players.

“Black Bat,” she finally decided, leaning back in her seat, “but Batwoman definitely fucks.”

This was met with general agreement, Danny frowning for a moment. He’d not had many bat sightings since moving to Gotham, but…

“She definitely says fuck,” he agreed with a snicker. Sam punched his shoulder.

“You can’t talk. Who’s your favourite, new town boy?”

Rubbing his arm and feigning great injury, Danny stuck his tongue out at her. Thought for a moment longer.

“Signal’s pretty great,” he decided, tipping his chair back for a moment to frown at the ceiling, “I passed by the mall after a rogue attack one time and he was teaching the kids to do flips.”

“After the rogue was in custody?” Steph asked, but she was still grinning. Danny shrugged.

“I dunno, I don’t talk to cops.”

Dick let out another wounded groan and Sam snickered, then leaned forward to look at Tucker.

“How about you?”

Tucker hesitated for a moment, clearly torn. Then he visibly drew in his courage and looked around the table expectantly.

“Have you guys heard of the Oracle?” He asked, voice heavy with anticipation. The surrounding Gothamites stilled, watching him expectantly.

Sam rolled her eyes.

“If you’re not wearing spandex are you even a vigilante?” She asked dryly. Tucker flipped her off.

“Hey, Oracle’s done more for this city than any of the bats! More for the whole world!”

“It’s a legend in the hacker community,” Danny “explained”, keeping an eye on Dick and Steph as the two opposite him. And less obviously hacker connected.

If they were the bats and Oracle existed, they’d know.

“They’re a master hacker that can break any system, any time, and gathers all the evidence to put people like Roman Sionis behind bars,” Tucker said, taking over the explanation.

With his usual dramatic aplomb, planting both hands flat on the table and leaning forward impressively, his voice low and conspiratorial.

“No one knows who they are or anything about them. You just find their tracks sometimes, especially when there’s a really big rogue attack or someone gets busted too soon.”

“Sounds kinda like a rumour,” Dick offered with a small shrug, glancing at Tim. “How about you, Tim? Have you heard of an Oracle?”

Tim hesitated for a moment, just long enough for Steph to snicker.

“Guess if there is one they don’t bother with Bludhaven PD,” she said smugly, dodging when Dick swung half heartedly at her. “Police brutality!”

Dick groaned whole heartedly as the others laughed, sinking back into his seat.

“But seriously, why doesn’t anyone like Nightwing?” He grumbled, arms folded as he pouted at his siblings. “He was on the scene before it was cool.”

‘Before he had to be cool,’ Cass signed, shuffling a little further around the curve of the oval so the rest of the table could see her.

Dick’s head snapped up when Steph and Sam laughed harder, pouting at his sister.

“Hey! Not fair when I’m not looking!”

‘Pay attention then,’ she signed back, her expression all sweet and studied innocence.

At the other end of the table Tucker decided to take a little pity on the guy.

“Nightwing’s okay. I liked that suit,” he said with a shrug and a grin. Dick straightened in his seat, grinning over at him.

“Finally, a man of distinction and taste!”

“Cops don’t get opinions,” Sam smirked, leaning forward to grin at Tucker, “so what’s your excuse?”

Tucker stuck his nose in the air, pointedly looking away from her.

“We’re not all goth, Sam. Some of us have heard of colours.”

“Spoiler wears purple,” Tim put in helpfully, pulling up a picture to show him. Tucker leaned in for a moment, then nodded.

“Yeah that’s pretty cool too. Capes are in,” he added, shooting a meaningful look at Danny. Who rolled his eyes, both hands in the air.

“And when they come in for those of us not wearing identity obscuring masks, I’ll wear one,” he replied dryly. Tucker pshawed at him, waving a hand.

“You’re in Gotham, how weird would it be?” He asked off handedly. Danny sighed and then looked pointedly around the rest of the table.

“Weird?” Steph offered, shrugging.

“Pretty fuckin’ weird,” Jason agreed and Danny folded his arms and grinned at Tucker.

“I’m not breaking my win streak by letting some rogue mistake me for a bat. You wear a cape while you’re here,” he said, sticking out his tongue.

Whatever Tucker was about to say was lost when Dick sat up sharply, face bright with renewed enthusiasm.

“Wait, Danny, does that mean you haven’t been in a rogue attack before?” He asked eagerly, which was just a little too fucking weird.

Even weirder, the rest of the Gothamites looked equally excited. Even Damian managed a smug anticipation around his piercing stare.

Danny felt kind of like he was in a freak show display case.

“Uh… yeah? But I bet loads of people in Gotham haven’t and it’s only been a year…” his excuses were immediately batted away as Steph clasped her hands in front of her.

“Oh that means tonight is gonna be your first! That’s so exciting!” She squealed happily.

Danny and Tucker gave her weird looks, but to their surprise it was Sam who answered, sighing and leaning back in her seat.

“At least one rogue always attacks a gala,” she explained, waving a hand around them, “it’s all of Gotham’s wealthiest in one place. It’s why we don’t come here much,” she added, eyes narrowing in frustration.

Beside her Jason frowned down at her. Probably trying to work out the frustration.

“Because they don’t think it’s safe? One of the bats always deals with it,” he added when Tucker and Danny still looked confused.

Sam snorted and shook her head.

“Because they think I’ll start something during the attack,” she huffed, folding her arms and glaring at Tucker and Danny. Daring them to comment.

Tucker, unafraid of death with Danny between them, snickered.

“You’ll finish something during the attack,” he corrected, ignoring the suddenly concerned looks from the Gothamites.

Sam’s eyes narrowed further but she let the comment stand. Steph leaned forward a little, looking nervous for the first time.

“It’s usually better not to get involved?” She offered, sounding almost apologetic. “The rogues can be pretty dangerous and you don’t want to call attention to yourself.”

“I doubt that would be an issue,” Damian snapped, eyes narrowed as he trained that glare on Sam instead of Danny.

She stared him down, then nodded sharply.

“He gets it. Anyway, you don’t have to worry, I got the lecture half a dozen times when we flew in. “No punching assholes, or any criminals”,” she mimicked her mom’s perky tones, heavily sarcastic air quotes stretched alongside.

Stifling a grin, Danny suddenly noticed something.

“Hey wait, I didn’t get the no punching speech?”

“Maybe they’re hoping you die in the rogue attack,” Tucker snickered, shooting Jason a sly grin.

There was, predictably, that Obsessive flare of protection-guard-still funny and Danny kicked Tucker under the table for it.

He already wasn’t happy about the whole Fright Knight thing, better not to belabour it. Almost before he reached for Jason, he felt the other man reaching back though.

Grinned in spite of himself at that first careful brush.

Safe-home-I’m fine

Smug-strong-damn fucking right you are

“They’d be a little late to that request,” Danny shot back at Tucker instead, even as he winced from the kick.

About half the table groaned, which Danny personally considered unfair, since the Gothamites hadn’t heard his death jokes before.

Right up until Tim ran both hands through his hair, looking from Danny to Jason in amused exasperation.

“Great, there’s two of you. Are bad puns a side effect of the Lazarus pit too?” He asked dryly.

“No because if it was puns, it’d be Dick,” Jason shot back just as fast and Dick groaned, letting his head flop forwards onto the table.

“Did I just not get the memo that it’s “Bully Dick Day” or something?” He moaned plaintively, still overacting enough that Danny wasn’t worried they’d actually upset him.

And when Jason leaned over and flicked the top of his head, equally unconcerned.

“Consider it revenge for almost a decade of godawful puns, Dickiebird,” he told him bluntly, and Dick groaned louder.

“Betrayed by my own brethren… abandoned by my flesh and blood…”

“We are not your flesh and blood,” Damian reminded him sharply - and possibly unwisely, since it prompted Dick to flop over onto him instead and wail louder.

“Denounced! Deserted! Thrown to the gutters!” He howled at increasing volume.

Damian threw all attempts at dignity to the wind, struggling to fight his brother off without falling out of his chair. Dick just threw more of his weight over, both chairs beginning to rock dangerously.

There was now muffled laughter from more than just their own table in the background. This only seemed to encourage Dick, right up until someone cleared their throat into the microphone.

Damian took immediate advantage of his hesitation and shoved Dick off him and to the floor. Danny and the rest of the table looked up into the surprisingly stern face of Brucie Wayne.

Who then smiled.

“So, with that bit of rough housing out of the way… I promise I will let you all get to your meals shortly, but I have a couple of things to say first. I’ll do my best to keep it short and sweet.”

Dick scrambled back into his seat and Danny glanced along the table, wondering what was going on. The party was just to show Jason was back, right?

Jason was sat right here.

And had apparently caught wind of his confusion, catching his eye and half smirking.

“It’ll be a couple minutes. Then I have a speech, then we’re done and it’s just food, more socialising, and shaking hands with 90% of high society,” he explained quietly, leaning down to Sam and Danny as Bruce spoke.

Sam didn’t seem concerned, so Danny settled in as well to watch. There might be some fun baby Jason stories.

And y’know? It was a pretty standard speech. Talking about his beloved son, how hard it had been when he was gone, how happy Bruce had been to find him.

Danny found himself glancing over at Jason a couple of times, the beginning of a smile tugging at his lips. Jason looked mostly unmoved, smiling along at appropriate points, but not engaged.

Until.

“And I can only say how sorry I am that I wasn’t there when he needed me the most,” Bruce ended softly, eyes meeting Jason’s from the podium.

The younger man went white so fast Danny almost thought he’d transformed. Sam’s nails bit into the table.

“That’s the first time he’s said that, isn’t it?” She snarled, just low enough to go under the genteel applause all around them.

Danny flicked his aura out across Jason and he visibly started, then turned to glance at them. Nodded once. And started to stand.

Sam’s hand snapped over like a whip before he’d pushed the chair back, her voice low and deathly serious.

“Jason Todd we met today but if you go up there right now and say anything even like that you forgive him, that man is leaving here tonight in a Fenton thermos.”

Danny rolled his eyes, leaning over and nudging his hand under hers as the applause began to fade, eyes beginning to turn their way.

“Can’t put living humans in the thermos, Sam,” he hissed, sending a gentle pulse of reassurance-calm-we’ve got you through his fingertips to Jason.

The other halfa looked surprised for a moment, then shot him a grateful smile, hand turning to touch both of theirs as he rose. Sam turned her fixed smile on Danny, now holding both of their hands.

“I did not say he would still be living, Danny,” she said firmly and Jason stifled a laugh, his aura brightening to amused-shocked-touched.

Beat the hell out of the gaping, painful hole it had been. Danny caught his fingers for a last second before Jason pulled away, grinning at them both.

“I appreciate the backup, but I’ve got this. I know how to handle him,” Jason said softly, coming around behind their seats.

One hand brushed across the back of Danny’s neck, though who he was grounding Danny couldn’t say. And as he moved up to the podium himself, Danny damn near believed him.

Couldn���t argue with the open sincerity Bruce was putting out either though.

Tugging their hands back off the table, he leaned in to whisper to Sam.

“The fuck was that about? At least he finally said sorry?”

Sam closed her eyes for a long moment, visibly reigning in her temper.

“I fucking hate that manipulative bullshit, Danny. It’s the same crap as a public proposal; he gets to be the good guy, and all the pressure is on Jason to act the right way, do the acceptable thing, or he’s the villain. It’s fucked up and it’s a cruel way to force the answer you want from someone if you don’t think they’d give it,” she snarled, eyes still fixed on Bruce as he moved to the side of the stage.

Danny stared at her for a long moment, then sunk back into his seat, Tucker visibly deflating alongside him. He’d never thought of it like that.

Tucker let out a low, uneasy whistle as Jason took the microphone.

“Sooooooo, note for Val, no public proposals?” He offered in a whisper, and Danny giggled in spite of himself.

Sam kicked him in the shins, fighting her own smile, still staring at Jason.

“Shut up.”

**

Jason was gonna buy Sam a coffee. Six coffees. Maybe more.

He just… he’d seen Bruce’s speech. They’d read each others, both gone through them with Alfred to make sure they were concise, charming, and appropriate.

Bruce had asked for his green light on every story.

The apology hadn’t been in it.

Fuck, his head was still spinning in a thousand different directions and he could barely even feel the pit. He felt shocky, shaky even now, going through the motions.

Smile and wave.

He didn’t know what he’d have said or done if Sam hadn’t grabbed him. If he could have said anything at all. But it had helped. Brought him back to himself.

And an imminent offer to murder Bruce, which he sorely appreciated even if he was pretty sure Bruce hadn’t actually been hoping to force him into anything.

The guy was a master manipulator of his own image, but… he wouldn’t do that to them. To any of his children, no matter how much Jason sometimes doubted that he still counted.

There was something in the way their eyes met, the way his voice softened even on mic. A tenderness that Jason actually believed, in spite of himself.

And how fucked up was that, that it was easier for Bruce to say sorry in a mask, in front of a couple hundred people, than just to Jason alone? That it took a crowd for him to admit he’d failed?

No. Jason wasn’t going to forgive him. Not the easy out of a public reconciliation and then everything going magically back to normal.

Fuck, he wanted to. Wanted to fall into Bruce’s arms, be fifteen again when his dad was always right and strong and had all the answers.

Wanted to say the words and have the fairytale moment.

But even without the pit screaming bloody vengeance he knew it wouldn’t be true. Saying sorry was never what he’d wanted from Bruce, and he hadn’t expected it.

He wanted to know he’d mattered. Wanted to know that Bruce had cared, had learned, would never put a fucking kid in that position ever again.

Bruce was more careful now. Tim and Damian and Steph had an extra full book of rules on top of what Dick and Jason had made.

But he still wouldn’t make the hard choices. Still looked down on Jason for taking someone at their word when they said they’d never change, that it’d take death to stop them.

They still had a fucking lot to talk about, even if Jason had stopped killing.

Bruce hadn’t looked away the entire time Jason made his way to the podium. At least, not unless he’d done it in those seconds with Sam and Danny.

He’d moved back and away, giving Jason his space, and he appreciated that. He even managed a small, slightly strained but genuine smile as he stepped up to the mic.

“And on that cheerful note…” he let himself trail off, pulling his own less practiced but still perfect Party Smile on, letting the room in on the joke.

Laughter broke out quickly, breaking the tension that maybe hadn’t all been in Jason’s head. Looking back at Danny, Jason could swear he felt the other man’s relief wash over him.

He was fine. He could make a joke.

Part of him wanted to change his own speech, something to acknowledge what Bruce said, something to throw him off like he’d done to Jason.

But Sam was right; Jason had deserved to hear those words alone first. In private. And when he was ready to move on, that’s how he’d tell Bruce.

Honestly his mind was empty anyway. It was hard enough to remember the practiced speech, and letting himself sink into the familiar words helped steady him.

His speech was shorter. Bruce told their “story”, ostensibly to spare Jason from painful memories. All Jason had to do was say how glad he was to be back.

Talk about all the things he wanted to do for kids that hadn’t gotten as lucky as him. The things he’d do with his second chance… third chance in the eyes of most of the room.

Name a couple of generous future donors Tim had helped him select for bleeding hearts and a love of attention. Although… that’d be an opening.

Hiding a smirk behind the practiced smile, Jason looked around the room until he caught sight of the older Mansons.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about the future,” he added, just at the end of his own speech. Made eye contact with both, looked to the front table, and smiled at Sam.

Yeah, this’d give Bruce a fucking heart attack too. That’d do.

“There’s so much I’ve missed. I don’t want to miss out on anything else. I intend to take every chance this new life gives me with both hands. Especially when it brings new… friends.”

He lingered over the pause, enjoying the way Sam’s grin turned fucking feral. Let his gaze drift sideways to Danny, who had both hands clapped over his mouth to muffle his laughter.

Figured fuck it.

And blew Sam a kiss.

**

Danny stilled, something pinching suddenly tight in his chest.

He’d seen Jason’s lips before. Pretty much every time they’re together, honestly, they spent a lot of time talking. They have so much to talk about.

He’d already seen them laugh, smile, pout, pulled tight in a snarl. All sorts of expressions, and he can just about remember watching old clips of Robin.

Same expressive face, even around a mask. There’s a weight there now that Robin never had though, even when he got more violent.

Dying changed people, and there weren’t many people in the world who knew that more intimately than Danny. Being a teen superhero wasn’t easy either, but being a dead teen hero…

Honestly it was a distinction they shared with way too many of the other young heroes, and Danny got why Jason fucking hated the very concept.

It aged you before your time. Showed you sides of the world no kid should see. Gave you the chance to keep other kids from having to.

Danny thought he’d seen pretty much everything the living world had to offer. The good, the bad, the ugly. But now he was here, looking up at his new friend, and it felt like he’d never seen him before.

There was a part of him that wanted to see Jason smile more, to see the weight lift from his shoulders.

There’s a part of him remembering those lips next to his ear, warm breath stroking across him but not closing the gap.

There’s a part of him that wondered how, even after all he’d been through, Jason still had those smiles in him.

And there’s a part of him as he watched Jason press his fingers to his lips that wondered if they could possibly be as soft as they looked. If Jason had leaned just a hairsbreadth closer…

And yeah, he was going to be denying ownership of every single one of those parts, thank you very much. Especially the one that flickered with just a hint of jealousy.

Jason was a damn fine actor, that much had been clear right from the start of the evening. This was all just for the bit.

There was nothing to be jealous of.

He just. Hadn’t noticed Jason’s lips before. How soft and full they looked, how a smile curved them into something beautiful.

He realised he’d been staring when he caught Jason’s eye, saw those smooth lips twitch into a wider smile. And then Jason was making his way down from the podium.

Back to the table.

Holy fuck Danny was gonna need to be able to string a coherent sentence together by the time he arrived. Even with Sam and Tucker, with Jason’s siblings responses of glee and laughter…

He might not make it.

He just kept getting distracted in the curve of that mischievous smile.

———————————

Biggest thanks to @lehana37 and @wolfjackle for helping me out when I got stuck on this one! It turns out the answer to tricky scenes is still “And then Catwoman was there”.

This last scene is for @jotaroslooseeyebrowhair 😁

Next:

#danny fenton dead and loving it #dp x dc #dpxdc #a swell night on the town #chapter 5 #oh what’s this are we finally actually getting somewhere? #slanderous anarchy #dick’s bullying begins >)

[randomvarious]

Underworld - "Born Slippy" Essential Selection, Volume One by Fatboy Slim & Paul Oakenfold Song released in 1996. Mix released in 2000. Techno / Experimental

Plays: N/A on Spotify // 84.3K+ on YouTube

If you're someone who at least dabbles in electronic and dance music from time to time, then you absolutely *must* know the utterly strange and totally unique enigma that is Underworld's "Born Slippy." This is a tune that, against all odds, somehow managed to totally captivate the UK public in the mid-90s, reaching #2 on the country's singles chart, while also serving as the theme song to the Scotland-set Danny Boyle-directed film, Trainspotting. Plus, as what's likely to be the most popular techno song ever made, it's also probably the only piece of techno to ever so thoroughly penetrate the 'hip' and 'alternative' English-speaking music cognoscenti of the western hemisphere as well.

Now, there's a lot I could say about this provocative, mid-90s defining work of art, but I think the best way to describe it is thusly: essentially, there are two distinct, yin-and-yang modes to "Born Slippy." One is heaven, which consists of some iconically euphoric synth work and no drums, and the other is just pure fucking chaos, which chiefly contains hard and intense bouts of totally bugged-out and pummeling percussion 😵. And throughout both modes, Karl Hyde provides this mantric, barely sensical, partially improvised, and completely intoxicated stream-of-conscious narrative that seems to maybe be describing a very long and eventful night out. But a very important thing to remember with the studio version of this song in particular is that the two modes that are contained within it don't really overlap with one another; that is to say, outside of like, two small seconds, the synth melody that opens up the song and then returns somewhere in the middle doesn't touch any drums at all, and it's not until much, much later in the fullest version of this more than eleven-and-a-half-minute epic that you'll actually hear any sort of synth in a chaotic part, and those synths that do eventually manifest in one of those parts don't sound anything like the one that soothes in the beginning anyway.

But guess who went and totally fucked up this whole arrangement almost a full quarter-century ago? Fatboy Slim. Back in 2000, he and another piece of dance music's Mount Rushmore, Paul Oakenfold, put out a double-disc double-mix called Essential Selection, Volume One, and while Oakey's sublime trance set totally outshined Fatboy's less-than-stellar big beat and breaks sesh, there was still a three-song run nestled within Fatboy's set that was pretty damn killer, and it consisted of the following tunes, which were all pretty popular in the UK at the time:

Scanty Sandwich's "Because of You," a big beat banger that samples a young Michael Jackson and sounds like something that Fatboy Slim might've *cooked* up himself 😅;

"Born Slippy";

And my favorite downtempo track of all time, the Groove Armada classic, "At the River," which samples an old Patti Page tune and comes with some soul-piercing trombone on it too 😌.

So if you haven't clicked play at the top of this post, or you still haven't figured it out yet, what Fatboy Slim did with this section of his mix is he paired those heavenly synths from "Born Slippy" with the chugging snare-end of "Because of You," giving the opening part of this Underworld classic a great dimension of bounciness that it hadn't really had before. Fatboy raises the BPM on "Born Slippy" to make it match to those drums—and he's ticked those up a tad as well—and then after fading out of the Scanty Sandwich track and fucking around with the effects, he waits until a stacked-up drum part from "Born Slippy" arrives, in order to completely and effectively counterbalance it with the opening bars from the maximally relaxational "At the River," which had never had that level of percussion intermingle with it before either.

Fatboy Slim's probably not the greatest DJ in the world, but what he did with this mass-appealing trio of UK electronic tunes on this otherwise underwhelming mix of his from all the way back at the turn of the millennium definitely deserves more credit and attention than it's received over the years. Pretty nifty little section here, I think, with two great songs bleeding into and out of one of the most remarkable tracks of the entire 90s, "Born Slippy" 😋.

#techno #dance #dance music #electronic #electronic music #music #90s #90s music #90's #90's music #Youtube

[psychokeks]

A little headcanon of mine that was inspired by this prompt: https://im-totally-not-an-alien-2.tumblr.com/post/690977597332570112/hey-who-wants-a-really-dark-and-morbid-prompt

Making this its own post so that the world sees it? I guess. Despite being years on this site I still don't know how everything works, especially on mobile.

It's full of angst and has the potential to be tragic.

Now, the gist is that Danny gets captured by Batman, who is his Dad in this au, because he misunderstands what a ghost core is and removes it, causing Danny to despise him and try to "go ghost" again. By all means necessary. The whole thing is of course bad because he gets a huge part of himself just taken away.

Batman thinks it's for the best and wouldn't listen to Danny, keeping him in Wayne Manor and getting him back everytime he tries to escape.

I am quite fascinated with this take and I love it. I also thought about it and am trying to get the "science" of how this scenario could work and I am generally trying to discern how I think that cores work in the Danny Phantom world.

Now, the way I think about cores is that as much as they are the brain/body/whole being of a ghost they are at their simplest definition the soul of a person. And this soul can also have two modes of existing, the active mode and the passive mode.

The active mode would be when it is tightly compressed into what is called the core. This mode exists only when the being is made of pure energy. Now when the core enters the more physical realm and aquires a body (most likely being born but you can't exclude revival and such things.) it changes into its passive mode.

The passive mode is not like a compressed core but more like a cloud of energy. It's like taking a breather and just relaxing. While in passive mode the soul gives up all "administrative" work and decisions to the body. The body houses the decompressed core and it's like, swimming or floating inside the cells of the body. This could also be what people perceive as the aura of a person. But the influence of the soul is not really gone, it's just that while the soul might still strive for a purpose to keep it going the body will of course compromise to secure survival and safety.

The passive mode is like vacation for the soul where it can just let itself go. Exist. Take in everything life offers. But in a certain way I think this is also a state where it is most vulnerable.

The forming of a ghost is mostly seen as caused ba a traumatic event. (Excluding the forming of born ghosts). You could explain this by saying that in a way, the soul was so much hurt that it compressed to a core to protect itself, flipping to the active mode to control its own actions better and directly influence what it's doing without the hindrance of a physical body.

If you think about the theory of this active and passive mode you could also explain the dreamcatcher incident. I don't really remember that one episode but Danny went through a dreamcatcher and got split into his ghost half and his human half. Both those halves had quite the opposite personalities and i never liked that because neither of them really felt like Danny. It's more like he was split into his extremes of the active mode and the passive mode.

The phandom established that ghosts have an obsession. Some like this take on ghost and some don't. I think they can have obsessions but those could also change over time. Slowly. Very slowly.

The strongest obsession of a ghost is the one that might have killed them or was influenced by the way they died. The core is just stuck on that one because it was what led to their forming and what was just a dominant part of them at the moment. It fixates on that to protect itself, learn to protect itself or to "control" their trauma.

Some of us have smaller obsessive bouts where we just fixate on a fandom and nothing else really brings joy until we move to the next fandom. Or some people are fixated on a novel/sport/activity etc. until we move on. At the least, our bodies will tell us when it's time to take a breather and just eat something or relax.

But ghosts don't have that. They don't have a body telling them to chill/eat/sleep and so on. They are not hindered by being tired. They have that one thing going for them and nothing can physically stop them living out the thing that gives them purpose, and because they don't get tired doing that, they will not move on to another obsession. Furthermore because they don't move on from their obsession they might perfect it, take it to the extreme. (Best hunter, rockstar, kid just wanting to play).

Going back to Danny, I see many, so so many fics where his obsession is to protect. Some even bind him to Amity Park saying he can't leave because of his obsession. Was this caused because we all saw the pure ghost form as a hero?

I don't really like it when his freedom is bound in such a way. I more prefer the fics where his obsession is space.

(And did noone ever see the beautiful parallel of the ghost of time and the ghost of space knowing each other? Noone ever thought about what exactly Clockwork saw in Danny to want to help him? The one that guides but cannot act and the one who can change so much but needs guidance? I'm sobbing just thinking about this.)

Well....that's just my personal feelings about this.

Now, the Hero Danny or purely Phantom or just Active Danny had the whole thing of protecting the town going on. As this was his 'current' obsession it was the one that manifested on the ghost form. It was also an unnatural state of the active mode so even that might have been tampered with.

The Lazy Danny or Human Danny or just Passive Danny was basically a soul half stuck in passive mode. Not even getting the little drive to really strive for anything a natural passive mode would give him. This was basically a body just thinking about itself. Purely I don't know...hedonistic, wanting to have fun. Not being able to think about future plans and just living in the moment. Both those halves where unnatural and not viable in the long run. I think a split soul would have just killed them in the long run.

Finally Dannys situation could be one where his core was so much tempered by by the portal that he can change between active and passive mode. He has a core that can relax and compress at will. Giving more freedom when in human form and powering up fast (sucking in all the energy) to form the ghost form. It might also never be a conventional ghost core and he would never have a normal aura as a human anymore. Even with the change he would have a halfstate of being. Having a fainter aura as a human that is a bit more saturated in the middle and as a ghost he would have his core, but he would be able to release larger bouts of energy.

It just really came to me why Danny could have a legit reason to be so much stronger than other ghosts. Vlad too I guess. Because of his special core. Ghost may stagnate in their power. They have to stay stable. But Danny is partly kept stable by his body. That's why his core can give out more energy. He can expend more energy because his core is not so tightly compressed like a normal ghosts. They have a limit. His limiter is kind of deactivated. ...now I'm just rambling.

If you think about Danny always being in a state of permanent active and passive mode then getting rid of the core would be like cutting out a huge part of him. Half to be exact and all the connections, maybe like blood vessels would be left open. Bleeding out and killing him. His passive soul would cling to the body to safe itself or the body clings to the soul.

Maybe losing a small part, a fracture, would have been survivable, but being literally cut in two...it aches. Death would call to him, his other half would call. Crying and screaming and bleeding and fading. An open core and a body with an open wound (on a spiritual level).

What do the bats see? What does his family see? A person slowly losing himself. Aching in a way that grows with time. Maybe slowly driven mad by the pain of a slow and painful death. Not even a pain that's visible but one that is deep inside. One he can't comprehend in the beginning. And nothing helps. Nothing can get him motivated. He loses his will to live but is it really that? Is it not the hopeful thought that death will bind his two halves together again? Is trying to kill himself not the frantic behaviour of a being that wants to save its very existence?

What would the ghost see? What would members of the justice league dark see? What would every person with the Sight see? A walking corpse. A mutilated boy, clinging to live and striving for death. Carrying an open wound for the world to see. To feel. Maybe to taste. Maybe to experience. Being in a presence of a being that is surrounded by its own blood. Cloying your senses and constricting your throat. Would they be horrified? Would they even really know what they are looking at when they themselves try not to drown in anothers blood? Would they weep and scream and feel his pain like it was their own, would they not want to destroy all that could produce such horrors?

What could they do? Would they be in time to save him? Could they stitch him back together? Would it take or would he not have the energy to connect what was cut. Maybe a healing sleep? For how long and where...most likely in the ghost zone. It's where he wanted to be. It's where he will fade or keep existing.

The question now is, when everything is over will he ever return? Will this future ghost king ever be himself again after everything that has happened?

#danny phantom #danny fenton #dp x dc #batman #dp au #ghost cores #headcanon #world building i guess #dp clockwork #mentioned #space ghost danny #kinda hinted #might go back to that idea

[wicked-ghoul]

this is not meant to be critical BTW I just wanted to get something off my chest...

i’ve been trying to think of how to word this cuz like...

I REALLY enjoyed A Glitch in Time! My love for Danny Phantom has not wavered at all and I was given a huge boost of serotonin seeing my bbys again in a new story and I like a lot of what the story did for those charactors...!

That said...

I don’t quite feel the same level of “OMFG MY SOUL IS CLEANSED” that I see a lot of fans having and I couldn't quite pinpoint WHY because the comic IS really good and I DID really enjoy it...

But...like...okay, so:

The stuff that I’ve always found most fascinating about Danny’s issues is 1) His relationship to his parents. 2) His relationship to Valerie. and 3) How his anger and spite get the better of him and how that informs a lot of who Dark Danny became (yes I still call him Dark Danny don’t @ me lol)

I feel like the comic did touch on that 3rd thing but maybe not quite as much as I had hoped??? And to my memory he doesn’t even really interact that much with his parents and I don’t even think he talked to Valerie AT ALL in the comic...(I really need to go back and reread it lol)

I think that’s all being saved for a (potential) sequel comic which is perfectly fine, but I guess I was really hoping that the comic would explore that stuff and it just didn’t so I was kind of disappointed.

But that doesn’t make the comic bad! Far from it, I thought it handled everything really well! I loved the humor and characterization and it made me very happy!!!

But when Danny’s character arc happened...I liked it, I loved his little Steven Universe getting his powers back in the movie moment it was great and he was adorable as ever and I liked the idea of him helping ghosts rather than hunting them...but it wasn’t as big a deal to me as, y’know, Vlad and Dark Danny’s arcs! Which is fine, those arcs where great and I loved how they were handled...I guess I just wanted more for Danny? Like, specifically relating to his relationship with his family and Valerie more so than how he deals with the ghosts...but they’re clearly setting up for another comic so maybe THEN we’ll get to the stuff I was really looking forward to!?!

I really don’t wanna be a downer, but this was nagging at me ever since I finished the comic and I just needed to get it off my chest...

 I think I also am still reeling from some other fandoms I’ve been in where if you don’t like or agree with canon then you’ll be skewered and deemed “not a real fan” or “just not getting it” and I’ve gotten used to the Phandom’s “fuck it, we ball” attitude towards canon and now that there’s new official content I’m scared of a reawakening of the Anti vs True Fans bullshit from the days when Danny Phantom was still airing! (fandom trauma’s a real thing my dudes...)

So...yeah. To conclude, the comic is very well done and there’s a lot of great stuff in it and I can’t think of anything I truly disliked, just some nitpicks that kept me from being as emphatic as the rest of the fandom and I just wanted to express my disappointment. But I’m still so happy that we even got it and that it even worked to resolve/fix things that the show left hanging!!! I still love Danny Phantom so much and if they ever do make another comic I’m excited to see what they do with it!

#danny phantom #danny phantom spoilers #agit #agit spoilers #a glitch in time #not tagging this as critical cuz it's really not #i think rereading it knowing what to expect will make it more enjoyable so I'm not expecting or hoping for something that isn't gonna happen #i do love danny's little firworks trick it was so cute/precious! #he still is just...my boy!!! <3 ;.;

[new-revenant]

Hello! That demon AU looks fun! May I please ask for more details? Like, for example what counts as a demon in this universe? Is there like - an implication that demons exist alongside angels and all that religious jazz, or are they basically the Fae?

And Phantom - is he his own thing that was just super weakened and merged with Danny for survival, or is it like canon and Danny is essentially a new demon? Maybe that's why everyone attacks him and his city, they think this lil baby man is all set on building his presence and essentially went ' hold up tiny, let the big boys have cults, you go and do whatever, come back in like a hundred years ' while Danny is just doing his thing and trying to protect everyone.

I'm sorry if I'm rambling, this AU just made my lil funky brain gears turn, I'm very happy right now •^•

The art is also very nice, i love it!

Why thank you! I’m going to answer these questions from top to bottom, starting with what counts as a demon. It’s under the cut because this is a bit long.

I guess they are a bit similar to the Fae, like, there are religious elements and a lot of ways demons and angels work is based on religion, but God isn’t really confirmed to exist and isn’t confirmed to have created everything and all that. But you know how Butch retconned to make it that ghosts were just monsters from another dimension or something? Yeah that’s canon here, but with demons.

Now angels also exist, and angels who don’t do what they are essentially “programmed” to do are cast out as demons. What angels are programmed to do can range from very specific to very broad, such as “protect this certain human from harm,” to “warn these certain humans when something bad happens,” to “watch over humanity as a whole.” The broader the order, usually, the higher up an angel is on their little hierarchy. Arch angels are usually the ones on the tippy top, and are the only ones with names. They watch over all angels and keep demons at bay.

At first, demons aren’t all “I will contract a human for their soul” and all that, they tend to focus in on what they wanted to do/experience that made them go outside of their programming. It’s like the obsession hc, but this obsession is usually warped or even forgotten as time goes on. Eventually, they seek out humans to try to live/do something through them.

Phantom, for example, is a demon who forgot what he originally fell for. He chose his name to be “Mira Phantasm, the Demon of Mimicry.” Titles are part of demon names and are very important, which is why all demons shout their name and title, or just their title.

So, right after asking Phantom why he looked like him(he’s the demon of mimicry, he can look like whoever he wants to-with a few minor changes, he’s not perfect at that) Danny called him Danny Phantom, because Phantom sounds like Fenton and his name was also Mira Phantasm, it all worked out. Phantom actually really liked that joke, so it was the first “bonding moment” between the two.

Why Phantom sorta merged with Danny is for a few reasons. Firstly, Phantom and Danny kinda get along. Kinda, but it is better than most human-demon relationships(platonic). Secondly, Danny reminded Phantom what he fell for-to live life as a human being does. He wanted to be with them so badly, to be free like them, that he was cast out and became an enemy of the angels. Thirdly, it was more like Danny made a deal with Phantom rather than the other way around.

Phantom struck up a deal at the exact moment Danny turned on the portal. Phantom offered him the ability to survive it and live again, as long as Phantom got his soul. Danny would’ve obviously denied that, if not for him wanting to live. Danny asked him what caused him to fall. After that, Danny made a deal of “If I get to live, I get your powers and you’ll help me stop other demons from hurting others. In exchange, you’ll be able to live as a human alongside me.” Phantom agreed.

You see, making a deal with a demon is different from a demon making a deal with you-it essentially is based on who gains more from the relationship. Most demons want to gain more than a human would, but with Phantom remembering how much he so desperately wanted to be a human, he was willing to give up everything for that. It was a very rash decision, but that’s just how most deals with demons work.

Now, since Phantom looks and acts a lot differently to Danny, most demons assume that he is just a new demon, that might have to do with the new disappearance of Phantom. Danny also acts a lot differently than most demons as well, he specifically stops other demons from harming or harassing others. But he also just does human things sometimes, which is Phantom taking control and living out through him. So most demons-and some demon hunters(wink wink nudge nudge)-think he is a baby demon who fell because he wanted to help humans a bit too much. And maybe killed Phantom and absorbed his powers somehow, since he can still mimic other demon’s powers, just much weaker than Phantom can.

Hope that answers all your current questions! You can ask me more if you want. Thank you for the ask :)

#danny phantom #danny phantom au #danny fenton #dp au #demon au #asked #kitty-av #revenant rambles

[catohphm]

Weekend With The Grays 2023 Day 3 Prompt - Cocktail Party

This is my third entry in the 2023 Weekend With the Grays, a Christmas - Winter Solstice event for Hogwarts Legacy organized by @endlessly-cursed. She is the creator of Prim, who is mentioned in the story. Malcolm is also mentioned, who belongs to @gaygryffindorgal. Bella belongs to @mjs-oc-corner, who also wrote Roxie, mentioned in the post. In this post, the friends share what Winbourne means to them during the cocktail party in the gazebo.

A change of pace followed the mass extravagance of the Welcome Ball. Lady Primrose and Lord Malcolm had been refurbishing the gazebo outside for a get-together. It was a cocktail party for the hosts and requests to relax after all the dancing the previous day. Part of Danny and Bella, those young souls wished they could dance forever. Yet they looked forward to the other plans their friends look after the estate had in store for everybody.

People had opportunities to chat before the cocktail party, but this gathering was going to be different in some way. The lord and lady would get to join the conversation more and breathe from their duties for a little while. Of course they had to make sure they had a chance to speak with all the guests. That was to come natural yet, since they were people that Prim and Malcolm knew and had invited. The talk around the estate was that a couple who proposed at midnight would have one of them taken literally off their feet. 

Danny and Bella were joking about the gossip while they huddled together on one of the benches of the gazebo, which was shared by Prim, Malcolm and a few other friends. “Oh, Bella, don't even make me bet on who's proposing to their beloved at midnight.” said Danny in response to one of Bella's jokes. “Don't worry,” she then went “it's not like who actually is proposing is that important to know.” Her love finished “I'm just here for the talking circle.” and they shared a laugh. The legend was acknowledged but it ended up helping to enhance the atmosphere and the air of excitement.

Then, Prim just had finished chatting with another friend when she invited Danny and Bella to come and speak with her. She smiled and motioned for them. The couple got off the bench and approached the Lady.

“Good evening, my lady.” he greeted Prim. “Good evening, Danny. I heard you and Bella lost a necklace. Got it back, hopefully.”

“Yes,” spoke up Bella. “It was mine actually. We even reached it with both of our hands and pulled it out in unison.” Prim was a little in awe, but found it humorous most of all. “Really?” 

“Definitely.” answered Bella. “I even told her it adds the new meaning of finding something together.” Prim smiled at this before continuing. “How about you two join me for a bit?” Her friends eagerly sat down with her. They had a moment before she had to check on the others.

Prim asked them “How's your stay at Winbourne been? Been getting to chat with some of our other friends?”

“For sure.” replied Bella as she sipped her drink. “We met up with Roxie. She's even in Danny’s training class for the Ministry’s new aurors.”

“That's wonderful.” the Lady remarked “Roxie has a good, kind heart. I feel that's quite warming to hear. I'm glad she's there to help you get through the course each day, Danny.”

“It wouldn't be complete without her there.” he said affirmingly. 

“Winbourne would be very different without you all here.” added Prim. “For years we've been close as friends. Even more, everyone's bonds growing is such a happy thing to witness.”

Bella, excited in her tone, asked “I guess you could say this is our Winbourne family.”

“Yes.” Prim agreed. “That's how I want people coming over here to feel. This estate, it's a special place. Not just any estate. I made it a point that I would also put the work in to look after these grounds. I inherited it, yes, but privileges you get just cause don't hold a candle to efforts you're invested in for a while. They're nice and useful, but the happiness of others beyond these walls also of value to me, not just myself, my husband and the Somersets.”

“That's well said, my lady.” Bella said. Danny reacted confidently. “I've never thought much of nobility but Winbourne shoots above all else. It's got the tender love and care most think are lacking in the high class.”

The three then shared a toast. Bella then asked Prim a question. “Do your wishes for your life as a viscountess and Winbourne help you in tending to the responsibilities of your role?” In agreement, Danny commented “no one should assume it’s like a stroll in the garden.” 

“Truly so. Remember when I was growing up, I saw the point of privilege on it's own as dull by the time we were old enough for Hogwarts. I want to make a difference in people's lives. What I have here available just helps me in the path of achieving that.”

“It’s a very fair point, Prim.” noted Bella. No matter where you are, we're always supporting you.”

“You can always count on us like we can count on you throughout our own endeavors,” said Danny.

Prim nodded. “Thank you, Danny and Bella. It's a part of the reason why you two here always have a place here at Winbourne. I must now see how the other guests, our other friends are doing. I hope you two enjoy the rest of the party.”

“Thanks again, my lady.” said Bella as the Prim got up from her seat and began to depart. “It's always anytime.” she went before leaving to catch up with the others.

“Let's get some more drinks and come back over here.” Bella then offered her love. “How about we make these two for the place Winbourne has in our hearts?” suggested Danny. “That we get onto.” she went as she motioned up with him and off to refill their glasses.

Their bonds with Roxie and Prim enjoyed a great mutual commonality. It was many years running. Since at least their first year it has been a thing, and it is well-cherished by the friends. The gradually maturing romance between Danny and Bella further reinforced the association amongst the four. Prim's efforts to make Winbourne a welcoming space to her friends made it a spot where many lifetime pairings of love started. It brought credibility and fondness back into the legend of midnight proposals.

#wwtgsolstice23 #hogwarts legacy #hp legacy era #hp victorian era #hogwarts legacy mc #bella mcintyre #danny gibson #danny x bella #bellany #roxie hailey #malcolm stolberg burke #primrose gray

[saintsir4n]

15

WARNINGS: SMUT

1914

TOMMY Shelby was happy, in fact, he was more than that, the woman who owned his heart was back in his grasp, and regardless of it not feeling the same, he was adamant about making their relationship better. It was tough, considering he was the reason that she lost a friend...a brother and there was no fixing that. Your best friend gets taken from you and you try and do the same to me, Eden's words always echoed through his mind. She was right and there was no mending her ruptured soul, all he could do was make her feel better.

And that was hard.

Not even Stevie would talk to Eden, someone who was an extension of Enzo and wanted nothing to do with her, it only hurt more.

But what brought her tears was what she met on her doorstep on a rainy morning. A second-hand typewriter and along with it was a note,

For all the times you helped, loved and protected me.

May you shine through the fog of the mirky city, little sister,

- E. Changretta.

P.S. Adam Garden is the perfect name.

Tommy was the one to bring it into her home, rubbing a hand over her back as he read the note with appreciative eyes, despite not understanding most of it contained. Typewriters weren't cheap, even if they were second-hand.

"You've got more motivation now don't ya Edie?"

She cast him a sad smile, "I guess I do."

"I'm sorry," Tommy breathed out. He'd been saying it for days, ever since she stormed into his house, demanding that he treat her well, he was doing everything in his power not to mess up. "I'm sorry Eden." For everything.

She simply nodded and looked away.

—

Meeting Tommy in the betting shop like he wanted, Eden smiled at the workers, made up of four Peaky soldiers (mainly old friends from school or boys needing work, like Danny Owen and Sudboat). They smiled back, knowing who she was and more importantly in their eyes, who she was with... one of the big bosses.

"Boys," her batting eyelashes and smoulder almost cause them to fall from their chairs and if it weren't for Tommy emerging from the office, with John and Arthur behind him, they would've.

They tipped their caps in her direction, "Miss Dawkins."

And with that, they quickly returned to their work.

John and Arthur smirked at each other, greeting the nurse with a wide grin. She didn't press a kiss to Tommy's cheek, which irked him, watching as she entered the office, leaving the brothers to whisper.

"Careful brother, she's got them foamin' at the mouth," John teased, adjusting his hat and putting a toothpick back in his mouth,

"Yeah yeah, try and make it home without fallin' up the stairs," Tommy retorted, not in the mood for quips, because he didn't receive a kiss from his lady.

"No promises, ain't that right John boy?" Arthur jokily nudged him.

John nodded as they turned to leave, not before he made one last gag, "And make sure to give Edie a proper seein' to, bet she starved."

"Fuck off," Tommy pushed them both away, ignoring their laughter as he turned back around and opened the office door.

"They think I'm starved?" Eden questioned, hearing everything that was said.

"Don't worry 'bout 'em, they weren't there yesterday were they?" his eyes shone with lust, referring to their ex-rated activities as he rounded the desk that she was sitting behind.

Tommy seemed to ride Shadow miles out, with Eden gripping his torso and the hat she wore for safety. A picnic he said, and why the fuck did she listen. Horse riding wasn't for her, not this soon anyway, but she got on. It took half an hour for him to find the place he rode to a few weeks back, thinking of the empire he wanted to build.

Helping get off the shadow and tying his reigns to a tree, he grabbed a blanket and then took her hand and ran, as fast as possible, with giggles falling from her lips.

Soon she lay naked, back on the blanket, staring up at Tommy.

"Here Thomas?"

"Yeah, I promise no one will lay an eye on you," or he would cut them a pretty smile,

Tommy found himself inside of her, the only place where he could forget about every worry and doubt, her velvety walls fluttering around him, her nails on his chest his back, whilst purring pretty words in his ear, driving him crazy.

She was drunk on the waves of pleasure washing over her.

"You're so beautiful," he grunted, pressing kisses to her neck, nibbling on the skin drawing more whimpers from her. The sounds she made only spurred him on. Grabbing her hands and placing them above her hand, he didn't relent, "fuck."

"Please, don't stop."

"I was there Thomas, you don't 'ave to remind me."

"Suprise you still have your voice," he remarked, sitting on the desk, pushing some work out of the way,

She coyly chuckled into her hands, "I hate you,"

"Keep tellin' ya self that," he teased, grabbing her ankle and pulling off her shoe, earning a confused look before he began to rub the heel of her feet, drawing a satisfied sigh from her, "How was work?"

"Witnessed some poor bloke get amputated today," Tommy snapped his head up at her words, "turns out, one day he was cold and drunk, so he turned on his oven, to warm up his hands, as you do."

"Standard practice," he said highly amused.

"He fell asleep and woke up to one of his hands burnt to a crisp, the other was decent because he moved in his sleep I guess. He screamed down the bloody hospital when he arrived, demanded that we somehow get him a new hand," she said with a deadpanned expression, making Tommy laugh, "we couldn't obviously, so the surgeon – thankfully one came in today. He had to knock the guy so he would stop screamin'. The surgeon wanted my mum to gather some nurses so we could see how to properly amputate someone, so she got me and a couple of the girls to see 'im sew up his wrist. Blood was everywhere and the hand was chucked away, thank god, Thomas it was charred like a burnt chicken - remind me to not eat chicken for a while."

"I will, sounds like you had an eventful day," Eden marvelled at his hands, trying to focus on his speech, "the surgeon didn't have somethin' to put him under?"

"There was a chloroform shortage today," she informed, "well that's what they told us, I think it was one of the nurses, stealin' 'em because some think that 'god created humans and gave them the strength to go through pain,' would love to see 'em go through childbirth and still think that."

"My mum went through it five times," he breathed out.

"Strong woman," she instantly replied.

Tommy wordlessly agreed, placing down her foot gently, then grabbed the other, slipping it out of her shoe and began massaging it.

"Don't know how she did it," she murmured, stunned he was talking about his mother, it was rare when he did.

"Pol helped." Dad didn't, he chose not to add. A man's place wasn't in the birthing room, he and his brothers weren't taught many things by their dad but that was one of them. "Me and Arthur were born in a Vardo."

Her eyes widened, "Really?" Tommy nodded in response, "Where is it now?"

"Somewhere in Charlie's yard no doubt," he paused, "Want to see it?" he asked, patting her leg and placing it down.

"You'd take me?" she leaned forward in intrigue.

"I'd take you anywhere you asked."

Her heart swelled at his words, "Yeah, one day I wanna see it."

"Alright," a grin tugged at his lips, "When I finally put a baby in you —"

"--Tommy —" she gasped, not like that stopped him.

"---You can 'ave the baby in there," he proposed, smiling at the memory of the dreams he'd been having.

"The vardo?" Eden pondered for a moment, smirking at the thought, "Okay, I'll have our baby in the vardo."

His smile reached his eyes, causing her to quirk up a brow.

"What?"

"You said 'our' baby," butterflies swarmed his stomach at the thought.

Yes, he proclaimed copious times that he wanted her to be the mother of his children, this was just the first time she verbally agreed.

She huffed out a chuckle, "Well who else is gonna knock me up?"

"If they wanna keep their balls, no one," he said emotionlessly.

"Got that right," She agreed instantly, "but what if I decided not to 'ave 'em?"

"Then we don't 'ave 'em."

"Just like that? really?"

"Really," he wouldn't force her if she wasn't ready and with how he'd be behaving, he was lucky that she continued to consider it.

Eden winced at what she was going to say next, "But y'know, our children... it'll be tough on 'em. The world I mean."

"Then I'll burn it down," he stated with indifference.

Eden sighed, "Be serious."

"I am."

"Half black, half traveller... the worlds gonna really love 'em," her tone laced with sarcasm.

He shook his head, "Fuck the world if it's got somethin' to say."

She blew out her cheeks, "Raising children in this society --"

"I'll be there to support ya, you're not raising them alone," he promised.

She rubbed her temples, "I probably will, you're a man."

She worried about many things, but regarding their relationship, she didn't know if the moment she got pregnant, he would treat her like a possession or a partner. Recently, he'd tried to stop doing so, though, she imagined it wouldn't last long, but she was allowing herself to be delusional for a moment. 

"A man who will help you raise our children." He wondered if their children would have her beauty marks or his blue eyes.

His mother had beautiful brown eyes like Eden but none of his siblings inherited her darker features, only her dark hair and wild spirit, as Polly liked to call it.

Standing up, he took her face in his hands, catching the blush spreading across her cheeks, no doubt it was the same one kissing his.

"You won't be alone, not when I helpin' out a baby in your stomach," he winked at her and Eden couldn't help but laugh.

"I'll be walkin' 'round like a whale."

"A pretty whale," he retorted, eyes dropping to her stomach.

She feigned offence, "Thought you said pretty was an insult."

"Not to a whale."

She tried to push him away, but he didn't budge, "You got jokes now."

"You said I was funny."

"When you do voices – not impressions of me of course," she reiterated.

He chuckled, "I'll do 'em to our kids,"

She teasingly jabbed a finger in his face, "You'll be lucky if they like 'em."

"It won't be luck."

"Tell that to the horseshoe you're walkin' round with," she responded knowingly.

"What's this?" Tommy picked up something that fell out of her cardigan pocket as they lay there bare.

"Now this, I didn't steal it... John did," she revealed, sheepishly smiling and tugging his blazer over her body.

He snorted, "That don't surprise me."

"Remember the carnival last month," he nodded, still staring at the horseshoe, "Well, my dad told me there was some merchant that sold very good antiques — he found out for my uncle Jeremiah — anyways, I told John about it, asked him to find a horseshoe... for good luck."

His face lit up like a kid at Christmas, "For me?"

The bronze horseshoe was a perfect gift.

"Who else would I be askin' for?" He raised his hand in surrender as she continued, "he came back with that after nickin' it from the stall and I even offered to pay him for it, but he wouldn't take it, which is a shock because anythin' shiny —"

"—my brother can't keep his hands off."

"Exactly."

"Why am I only seein' this now?" something quickly dawned on him, "'cause of how I was actin'"

"Glad you remembered, your big brains finally workin'," she giggled.

"Alright, alright come here," he cupped the back of her head, bringing her to a passionate kiss, sending a wave of goosebumps over her skin.

"Thomas –" she felt him drop the horseshoe somewhere on the blanket, "make me feel good."

"Wanna feel good?" he muttered against her lips, pulling away his blazer, revealing the body he knew every inch of, knew where to touch, where to love, "so greedy,"

His kisses trailed from her lips to her neck, before his lips found her breasts.

"Fuck," her back arched as he sucked at her nipples, blowing over the skin.

"And you say you ain't forgiven me yet," he muttered, kissing further down her body.

"I bloody 'aven't."

Tommy licked his lips, groaning at the arousal between her legs.

"You will."

"Yeah, the horseshoe was a gift from you," he said, feeling it in his pocket.

Wiggling her brows, she asked, "So you'll always carry it around?"

"For good luck," he recited her, with a smile.

It wasn't the only thing he always carried around.

She winked at him, "For good luck."

Looking around the room, a framed picture of a horse caught her eye. A stallion to be exact and she knew amongst the brothers, Tommy would be the one to put it up with a proud smile on his face. He was cute when he smiled, adorable even. She hoped he never stopped smiling, rather than beating down her friends.

She turned to him, realising that he was already smiling down at her.

"What?" he asked softly.

"Do you think I could be a writer, a real one?" nerves came off at the mere question.

His face scrunched up, "Wouldn't have bought you that notebook if I didn't. 'Ave you finished writin' int it?"

She rapidly nodded, "Last week."

A wild smile took over his face, "See..." he pressed a kiss to her forehead, "You tried usin' that typewriter yet?"

He felt her tense under his touch.

"No, not yet," she averted her eyes.

And Tommy decided not to press on the matter, it was something to do with Enzo, he knew it was.

So he changed the subject, correction, he joked about what he had to do to get on top, to be King.

"Birmingham is so fuckin' dull, you have to be a bright ball of fire to be seen," she exclaimed, turning to look at him. "If you wanna do somethin' big, you gotta start small."

"Like what?" he rushed out the first thing that came to mind, "burn pictures of the King?"

She laughed, "And that's small to you?"

He nodded, "Got your attention."

"Why, do you hate the man?"

"I don't, he's done nought to me."

She raised a questioning brow, "Wanna get yourself killed?"

"No."

"Let me guess, Tommy Shelby ain't afraid of death?" she teased.

Tommy chuckled but didn't say anything in response. Twenty-two years old... he was afraid of death, dying really and if he ever reached a point where he wasn't then he would no longer be himself.

He wished there was a time when all he had to do was work with horses, but he knew it wasn't realistic, there was more he needed to do -- had to do, for just not him, but the family.

Seeing a slight change in his demeanour, Eden grabbed his hand, "Well put aside those anarchic thoughts and think 'bout somethin' happy, like our future house."

"And what about it?"

"What do you want in it?"

"In our big house..." he blew a raspberry, thinking of their future sanctuary "Let's see, the kids have to be runnin' 'bout, all up and down the halls, round a pond, in the stables –"

"Stables?"

"Stables, where we'll keep the horses," she rolled her eyes at his sarcasm, but listened nonetheless, "I need a study, and so do you. A nursery, or a bench where you can read to the kids, y'know one of those rooms."

Her brows furrowed, "A playroom?"

"That's what they're called." she nodded, in response, then motioned for him to continue, "want our house to have one of those fountains out front."

"Our house needs to be far out, so Mrs Granberry won't be near."

He shuddered at the thought of her, "That woman... hope to never see her again."

"Amen to that," she then began to ponder, "How many horses we havin', none racin' ones?"

"Two, at first, one for me and one for you," he proposed, already seeing her head shaking.

"No," she let out a nervous laugh, "I can't ride horses – and no Tommy, you don't count."

A smirk tugged at his lips, "Weren't gonna say that. You were ridin' Shadow just fine."

"I was squeezin' you so tight, I'm surprised you didn't suffocate."

He forced himself not to make a joke at her phrasing, instead, he said, "You'll be better next time."

She sent him a pointed look, "You say that to Freddie? I know he's never been on a horse."

"Prefers walkin', he does."

"And rallyin' of sorts," she added, remembering all the big speeches Freddie made at school, it was usually against capitalism or him defending his Jewish faith before he and his family had to change their name to avoid further discrimination.

"Got that right," Tommy agreed.

"Where is he? 'aven't seen 'im in a while."

Tommy played with a stray strand of her hair, "Out with some girl, he's seein'"

"Right," she stood up, Tommy pulled her, between his legs, then held out a cigarette, which she didn't light for him, earning a grunt, but she happily took a few drags, Eden went as far as to tease him by blowing the smoke into his mouth, grazing their lips in a taunting manner before pulling away,  "How was your day?"

Tommy stared at her, his eyes swarmed with joy and his heart practically wanted to beat out of its chest, he couldn't hide his happiness. She was so close to me, willingly too, although she tended to tense or shift or shuffle away sometimes, she was still close to him. He just needed her to wear that bloody necklace.

So he just kept smiling, and said something she wasn't expecting,

"Well... John reckons he's knocked Martha up again."

"He's what?!"

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

a/n:

gratiela brancusi as 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗯𝘆

no, mara shelby will not be in the story, however, she will be included and i wanted you guys to have an image of what i imagined her to look like. considering she had to be around 35 in canon when she passed away (i know i changed the ages of some of the shelbys)

i hope you guys are seeing the changes in their relationship, sure they're having sex, but their small intamacies have changed. eden is being stubborn (as she should) still not kissing him outside of the bedroom, or lighting a cigarette and especially not wearing his mother's necklace.

i wanted the horseshoe eden gifted tommy, to relate to the horse he rode in the first episode of the show, but online it doesn't say what breed of horse it is, which was annoying. also, pre-war tommy, i doubt was so adamant about death, he was scared in my opinion, and everyone was. polly mentioned a few times that he wanted to work with horses, so i made sure to mention that.

I feel like if I were going to continue the book post-war, then I would have written a scene where Eden would amputate someone, for the the foreshadowing aspect. But don't worry that won't happen, even though it would have been a very intense scene.

#wattpad #fanfic #black reader #edendawkins #tommy and eden #tommyshelby and edendawkins #eden dawkins #tommyshelby x blackreader #tommyshelbyfic #untilwemeetagain

[dp-marvel94]

Face to Face- Chapter 49

Summary: When Danny went through the ghost catcher, he expected to be cured of the ghostliness that had haunted him since the accident, not to wake up on the lab floor with his parents saying he’d been overshadowed but everything’s back to normal now. But why does Danny Fenton cry himself to sleep to then dream of flying? Why does Phantom, the ghost who was supposedly possessing Danny remember a life that wasn’t his? Most of all, why do both the human and the ghost feel that something vital is missing, in their very soul? Or: Trying to cure himself of his powers one month after the accident, Danny accidentally splits himself but neither his ghost nor his human half know that that is what they did

First -> Last-> Next

Word Count: 6,619

Also on AO3 and Fanfiction.net

Note: I'm back with another chapter! Thanks guys for all the birthday wishes last time. :) Speaking of, my wonderful friend, Weshney, made cover art for this story! See the post on Tumbler here!

Fenton came back to himself right where he’d been before, where he’d pulled his ghost half to his feet after he’d been slashed. The human winced, the transferred injury throbbing. Blood sluggishly dripped from it, falling and joining the splatter of his ectoplasm on the grass.

Human Danny frowned down at the spot. Of course he’d gotten hurt. That’s what he gets, trying to fight a dragon with half a brain. Although…. He looked up, gaze falling on the two ghosts twenty feet away from him. The dragon wasn’t exactly a dragon anymore. 

 The boy hurried forward, keenly aware of the throbbing cut on his leg, thanks to the tree almost falling on him. He stopped beside Phantom.

“I apologize for my outburst.” The ghostly woman said, looking up at ghost Danny.

Phantom blinked, confused. “But…you were a dragon?”

Her eyes fell on his hands. “The amulet. It gives the wearer the power of a dragon when under the sway of strong emotion.” 

Startled, the ghost boy dropped the necklace.

“It does tend to bring out the worst in me.”The woman frowned guiltily. Then she looked between the two counterparts. Confusion flickered across her face before understanding. “Thank you, brave twin warriors, for protecting the innocents from me in my altered state, and bringing me out of the amulet’s spell.”

The Dannys looked at each other. “No, we’re not-” Phantom started, holding up his hands. 

“Is the dragon gone?” Kwan yelling from behind the bathroom interrupted the words.

“Shit! I think my ankle’s broken.” Wes cursed. “Fenton! I thought you were helping get me out of here!”

Human Danny frowned, almost picturing the jock’s pained, angry face. He had been helping Kwan lift the beam off when he’d felt the dragon claw his other half. He’d sprinted off, leaving the pair behind to help himself.

“I’ll go help them.” Fenton said, guilt flaring. “We can… sort this all out in a bit.”

“Yes.” The woman nodded, also looking guilty. “Those injured are of utmost importance. I will wait for explanations of…” Her gaze flickered around the park, brow furrowed. “Where exactly I am and how I have found myself here.”

Phantom gave an agreeing, though troubled hum. “Alright. Go.” He grabbed the human’s uninjured arm, giving it a knowing pat. “Thank you. I wouldn’t have been able to get the necklace off her without you.”

Some of the guilt melted off. Human Danny half-smiled, turning to jog back to the half-collapsed bathrooms. He found his two classmates in the same position as he’d left them. Carefully, he and Kwan lifted the fallen beam. Then, the two helped Wes to his feet. Slowly, the three limped across the grass towards the parking lot. 

They passed the two ghosts and Kwan stumbled to a stop, eyes wide. “Are those both like… ghosts?” He quickly glanced from the two glowing beings to human Danny. “Fenton, dude… your parents are… are right?”

“I told you! I told you he was a ghost.” Wes snapped, glaring at Phantom.

The ghost boy paled, the echo of his dread dropping in Fenton’s stomach. Then, ghost Danny swallowed. “I guess there’s no hiding it now. I am… I am a ghost.”

“Ghosts exist.” Kwan said, awed. “Ghosts exist.” Eyes widening even more, he quickly looked between the two nearly identical boys, eyes narrowing on… the twin claw marks. “And.. twin telepathy… that’s real.”

“No, it’s not.” Both Dannys muttered at the same time.

The red-head rolled his eyes. “Come on, Fenton. We all saw those claw marks come out of nowhere. Because apparently you have a psychic connection to your dead twin. Which is super fishy.” He frowned, eyeing the pair suspiciously. “We’ve been in the same class since Kindergarten and you’ve never had a brother.”

Phantom crossed his arms. “Maybe I died as a baby. Maybe Danny doesn’t want to talk about the twin he doesn’t even remember. Not that it’s any of your business.” He scowled, completely serious despite lying through his teeth.

“Yeah, Wes.” Fenton added. “Maybe I don’t want to talk about my… my dead brother.” The boy stuttered over the words. It was a lie but… his stomach churned, queasy. This talk of death was too close to home.

“But…” Wes motioned with one hand. “You look the same age.”

“Weird twin psychic connection stuff.” Phantom half-shrugged. 

The red-head remained skeptical. “You told us he was your cousin earlier. James, wasn’t it?” He scowled at Fenton.

“Will you stop giving us a hard time?” Human Danny narrowed his eyes. “I’m pretty sure James saved your life earlier.” He motioned to the ghost, proud of how smoothly he’d said the name. “And now, of all times you want to play twenty questions? I thought you were hurt, Weston.”

“He’s right.” Kwan cut in. “We need to get you off that ankle, Wes.”

The basketball player glared for just a moment more before huffing. “Fine.” With nods, the other two teens started forward. “But I’m not gonna drop it.” Wes grumbled. “This is still fishy.”

Fenton rolled his eyes, not dignifying the statement. Behind him, Phantom and the dragon ghost talked quietly but the human paid their words no mind. He’d learn about the conversation from his ghost half later, after all.

The three teens slowly shuffled to the parking lot. Arriving at a bench, they carefully helped Wes sit.

“I’ll call my dad to pick me up.” The red-head frowned, pulling out his phone. “We’re gonna have to get my ankle checked out.”

Just then, the roar of a motor cut through the air. A massive vehicle turned around the corner. The GAV. So Sam had managed to get up with his parents. His parents…. For just a moment his stomach churned, remembering this afternoon with Mom. But…. Fenton glanced back, at the dragon ghost and his other self. They had bigger problems right now.

The RV pulled into the parking lot. Fenton jogged forward, meeting it as it parked. 

Mom’s eyes met his through the windshield, worry then relief flickering across her face. She threw open the door. “Danny! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Mom.” The woman’s brow furrowed, eyes lingering on the cuts on his arm and then flickering down to his leg. “Just some scratches.” He smiled placatingly. “We’re okay.”

Mom didn’t look satisfied with the answer. But then, the driver’s side slammed open. “Where’s the dragon?!” Dad jumped out, wielding a familiar gun.

Fenton winced, putting up his hands. “Dealt with. She uh…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll just show you. Phantom’s over there, talking to her.”

“Talking?” That was Jazz, exiting the back seat with a first aid kit.

“I’ll show you.” Human Danny repeated, giving a chuckle.

The three full humans traded confused looks but soon Dad shrugged, leaving the ectogun behind to follow Fenton. Jazz and Mom came after. 

Phantom and the ghostly woman were right where he’d left them, except now Sam and Tucker stood beside his ghost half.

“Sorry for hitting you with that rock.” The technogeek was saying sheepishly. 

“I assure you I harbor no ill will, Sir Tucker.” The dragon ghost bowed, cheeks green with shame. “Again, the guilt is mine, for putting your people in danger and damaging this lovely public garden.”

Human Danny coughed. “Mom and Dad are here.” He motioned to the adults, addressing Phantom before turning back to the glowing woman. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name earlier.”

“Of course.” The woman nodded graciously, bowing. “I am Princess Dorathea of Maddingly.”

The boy blinked. Princess? He shook his head, suddenly sheepishly. “Uh… Danny Fenton, your majesty?” 

He bowed awkwardly.

The movement elicited an amused chuckle from the woman. “Simply Dora will suffice.” She then looked at Phantom. “And, Danny? Was I mistaken? I believed Danny was your given name.” Her brow wrinkled in confusion.

“It is. Danny Phantom. Like I said before.” Dora’s perplexed expression remained. Phantom lowered his voice. “We… weren’t being completely honest earlier. Fenton and I aren’t twins. We’re the same person. A halfa.”

The dragon ghost’s eyes widened slightly, looking between the two. “A halfa, you say?” She nodded to herself, a look of realization flickering across her face. “Duplication, of course. Quite clever.”

The counterparts looked at each other but didn’t think to correct her, not as Dora turned her attention to the Fenton parents. “And these are the parents of the halfa. You must be quite proud, Lord and Lady. Your son is both skilled and brave to have protected the innocent and freed me from my amulet’s spell.” She turned to Phantom. “You were very clever to counter my dragon fire with ice so quickly.”

Ghost Danny couldn’t help but prim slightly at the praise. “Really? Thank you.”

All the while, the parents followed the conversation with similar awed looks. Finally, Dad broke you. “You’re the dragon?” 

Dora turned to look up at the man, smiling subtly at his excitement. “Yes. The amulet is my family’s power.” She motioned to the necklace, still at Phantom’s feet. “This necklace with its partner has been passed down from parent to child for generations. It gives the wearer the powers of a dragon and marks the royal family as the rightful rulers of our kingdom.”

“And your kingdom?” Mom asked, eyes wide and curious. “Mattingly? That’s what you said it was called?”

“Yes. Unfortunately it is ruled by my tyrant of a brother, Aragon.” Her brow furrowed, lips dropping into a frown. “I had fled, needing some time away. He was being particularly infuriating. I happened upon a swirling green light…” She shook her head, as if pulling herself out of her memories. “I found myself here, in the material world I presume.”

Phantom nodded. “Yes, this is the uh… material world, like they call it in the Infinite Realms. We’re in a town called Amity Park.”

“Amity Park…” Dora hummed thoughtfully. “And the swirling light by which I arrived here, do you know what manner of phenomenon that was, young sir?”

Mom’s face creased with worry, looking between both versions of her son. “Danny, do you know about this swirling light she’s talking about?”

“It was a natural portal. We saw it open up, right here.” Fenton motioned to the sky above the now slightly scorched field.

“A natural portal…” A bit of awe bled into the adult woman’s reaction. “But, we’ve never seen one here, in Amity. And in the middle of the day, out in the open…” One hand went to her forehead. “What are the chances… this should be impossible.”

“Could it have something to do with our portal?” Dad suggested. “We have seen or heard of three different ghosts within the last few weeks, not including our Danno.”

“Yes, that would make sense.” Mom’s eyes widened with the realization. “But the implications….”

“I know. If natural portals are becoming more likely… could we have affected the stability of the boundary between the dimensions?” Dad ran a hand through his hair.

“Don’t get ahead of yourselves.” Jazz cut in, ever the rationale one. “You don’t have any proof of that.”

The adults both looked up. “Of course.” The woman nodded at her daughter, taking a breath. “One thing at a time.” Her eyes flickered to the dragon princess.

Dora, who’d been keenly watching the conversation as if it was a particularly interesting tennis match, perked up. “Excuse me, Lady… Fenton, is it? What do you mean by ‘my’ portal?”

“Oh, I never gave my name, did I?” The woman gave a small smile, the worry softly disappearing from her face. “I’m Maddie Fenton. This is my husband, Jack.”

She motioned to the man who grinned. “Nice to meet ya.” Dad enthusiastically stuck his hand forward, offering a hand shake.

The dragon ghost took the offered hand, giving a delicate shake. “Well met, sir.”

The man chuckled, withdrawing his hand. “Madds and I are scientists. We’ve been studying anything and everything ghostly for over twenty years!”

“Ectoplasmic and spectral phenomena,” Mom specified. “Like the portal you came through. Recently, we finished a major project, a work decades in the making. We set out to open a portal to the Ghost Zone. Or the Infinite Realms, as we recently learned. And we did.” Her lips turned up. Her eyes flickered to Phantom, the proud smile marred by sadness. “We created a working portal to the world of ghosts.” 

For just a moment, Fenton felt his core clinch, despite the fact it wasn’t in his current body. That sad contradiction. His parents’ life work, which made them so proud and happy, killed him. It took his life and yet, it also gave him so much. Mom’s crying, guilty face, the day he’d ran away through the portal, flashed in his mind. So many feelings wrapped up in that portal. At least his parents seemed to be doing better in that regard. The human Danny gave his mom a meaningful, understanding look, smiling slightly.

Dora breathed a sigh of relief, having not picked up on the exchange between mother and son. “So I have not in fact found myself stranded.”

“No, you’re not stuck here.” Phantom nodded kindly. “We can take you back to the portal whenever you’re ready, right Mom and Dad?”

“Of course, Danny-boy.” Dad agreed enthusiastically. 

“Great!” Fenton took a step forward, motioning towards the parking lot.

“Not so fast, Danny.” Mom cut in. “We need to take a quick look at your injuries before we go home.” She took the kit from Jazz, riffling through it for supplies.

“Alright.” Human Danny huffed, sitting down on the grass. “I’ll go first.” 

The woman sat beside him, pulling antiseptic from the kit. “This might sting a little, sweetie.”

Fenton barely winced as Mom cleaned the scratches on his arm and wrapped them. Above him, the others continued talking. 

“Did any other ghosts come through the portal?” Dad asked. 

“It was just Dora.” Phantom answered. 

The group looked around, surveying the damage. “It doesn’t look too bad.” Tucker offered. “The fires are all out.”

“There’s a few trees down.” Sam pointed, frowning. “And well… that.” Fenton turned his head. The half-destroyed bathrooms.

“That’s not good.” Jazz frowned. “Was any one hurt?”

“Wes from school hurt his ankle. One of the beams fell on him.” Phantom frowned, just a hint of guilt flickering across his face. Fenton sympathized; his ghost half had saved the jock from getting bitten, crushed, or mauled by a dragon but he’d been too late to stop that injury.

Dora bore a similar guilty look. “I will have to apologize to this Wes.”

“No one else was seriously hurt.” Sam offered comfortingly. “Fenton got a bunch of kids away before anything happened.”

“You should have seen him.” Tucker smiled proudly. “I saw him carrying this kindergartener out of the playground. It was on fire and he was running with the girl like it was nothing.”

“It wasn’t on fire.” Fenton cut in. Quieter. “Yet.”

Mom seemed to still catch the word, her cleaning hands pausing. “Is that true?” That worry was back.

The boy nodded. “Yeah. They needed help so…” He shrugged.

For a moment, the worry lingered. Then the woman’s expression softened. “I’m so proud of you.” Her eyes flickered up to Phantom. “Of both of you. I think I heard something about you pulling this amulet off a certain dragon princess.”

“Yeah.” Phantom shrugged, blushing.

“That sounds incredible!” Dad enthused. “How’d you manage that?”

“It was awesome! I saw the whole thing, Mr. F. Danny here….” Tucker waved his hands, giving a play by play of the dragon fight, including his and Sam’s vital distraction. About half way through, the mother finished attending to her human son’s injuries and it was Phantom’s turn.

“Hey!” Ghost Danny sat down, glaring up at his friends. “That was a logical conclusion! She was growling something about wanting a ball. How was I supposed to know she wasn’t actually just a dragon?!”

Sam snickered. “You still told a dragon to fetch.”

The dragon ghost giggled. “It was quite comical, sir Phantom.”

Fenton rolled his eyes, quickly trying to change the subject. “Hey, Dora, why did you keep saying something about wanting to go to the ball?”

Instantly, the princesses expression shifted. The relaxed, slightly amused look disappeared, replaced by a scowl. She looked down, shoulder rising with a new tension.

Human Danny swallowed, quickly apologetic. “You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to. Sorry.”

Dora shook her head before looking up again. When she spoke, her voice was bitterly quiet. “My brother was attending a ball in a neighboring kingdom. I wished to attend to perhaps find a suitor. I’d hoped for an advantageous marriage to a noble of another kingdom. But Aragon forbad me from going.”

Fenton’s eyes widened slightly. This was quite a turn. Across from him, Sam’s face reddened, almost enraged. Jazz frowned, eyes round, compassionate, and sad.

Human Danny just felt slightly confused. “So your brother won’t let you get married? Why?”

“Why do you want to get married in the first place?” Tucker asked, nose wrinkled.

The dragon ghost looked down for a long moment, face hard. Then… “I do hope for a loving partner to share my existence with. However,” Her voice came out deceptively calm and even. “An afterlife under even the most inattentive husband would be immeasurably better than even a day of continued existence under my brother’s claw.”

There was silence, a heavy somber thing. Fenton frowned, a subtle ache stabbing his heart. He’d just met the ghost, barely knew her situation and yet… worried churned within him. Something told him it wasn’t wise to ask but… “Why don’t you… I don’t know, fight him? You’re a powerful, badass dragon. Or…” He shrugged, blushing in sudden embarrassment. “Why don’t you leave?”

The woman’s head jerked up, slitted eyes fixing on him. Human Danny swallowed; that expression was much too like her enraged dragon form. But… Dora breathed out, expression slowly softening. “Why indeed.”  She stood slowly, wiping off her dress. “I believe it wise to be on our way, is it not?”

The Dannys traded hesitant looks. For just a moment, Phantom’s eyes flickered to his mother’s, her face tight with worry. “Uh, sure.” The ghost boy frowned. “Just let Mom finish up with me first.”

“Oh, of course.” The dragon princess bowed slightly, head hung down. 

Jazz approached the ghostly woman, face compassionate. “Sorry about the questions.” Her voice lowered. “Danny’s right. You don’t have to talk about it but if you want to…”

Dora looked up, face softening. “Jasmine, was it?” Her volume lowered, taking a step away from the two Dannys. “Perhaps…”

Fenton looked away, averting his attention from the conversation. He looked to Mom, back to wrapping Phantom’s leg. And then to Sam and Tucker. He frowned, eyes flickering over their disheveled forms. “Are you guys okay?”

The goth waved him off. “Just a few bruises.”

Tucker’s nose wrinkled, shrugging one shoulder. “Same here. Just this bruise on my shoulder.”

“Do you want my mom to take a look?” Fenton offered, stepping towards his friend.

“Sure.” The technogeek pulled back the sleeve on his shirt.

Human Danny peered at the reddish, swollen mark. He hissed through his teeth. “That looks like it hurts.”

Just then… “All done.” Mom gave Phantom a comforting pat on his knee, before closing the first aid kit.

“Awesome.” Fluidly, the ghost boy floated up. He frowned, eyes going to the tecnogeek’s bruise. “Tucker…” His hand carefully brushed the injury. “I’m so sorry you got hurt.”

“No sweat, dude.” His brow then furrowed, glancing down to Phantom’s hands. “Dude, whatever you’re doing feels nice.”

Phantom withdrew his hand. “What?”

“No, put your hand back.” Tucker shook his head. Brow raised, ghost Danny did as he was asked. The technogeek let out a pleasantly surprised sigh, half-smiling. “Your hands are so cold.”

“Really?” Sam reached forward, grabbing Phantom’s other arm and directing his hand to the bruise on her forearm. Her eyes widened slightly, before she grinned. “That feels so good.”

Phantom just looked perplexed. “What is happening right now?”

Tucker laughed. “You’re like a giant ice pack.”

“A person-shaped air conditioner unit.” Sam snorted.

Fenton was catching onto the joke. He pressed his stinging arm against his ghost self’s chest. “A walking, talking personal freezer.” He chuckled once, before humming pleasantly. “Who would have thought ice was such a cool power?”

Ghost Danny rolled his eyes before grinning. “Well, I guess I can be my own ice pack now.”

The friends all laughed and Fenton felt more of the tension let off. His friends were okay. No one was badly hurt. The park was mostly undamaged. He glanced to his parents who were back to enthusiastically talking about the natural portal; they’d taken meeting Dora well. And the dragon ghost herself…. Her posture was more relaxed, head held up as she talked quietly to Jazz. The corner of human Danny’s lip went up, encouraged by the exchange. 

Dora noticed the look, her eyes meeting his. “May we embark for the Fenton residue, then?”

All eyes turned to the princess. Phantom nodded. “I’m good to go.” He glanced down, before pointing. “Oh, what about your necklace?”

The dragon ghost approached, kneeling in front of the object. She pulled a piece of cloth from a pouch on her side. “The effect is slowed without direct skin contact. Shielding myself with this handkerchief will allow us time, should the magic attempt to overtake me again.” She slipped the wrapped jewelry into her pouch.

“Let’s go then!” Dad pointed enthusiastically. “We can take the Fenton GAV.”

“Assuming Princess Dora is alright with that.” Mom quickly added.

“What is this… GAV?” Dora asked, curious.

“The Ghost Assault Vehicle!” The man rambled off, starting towards the parking lot. “We built it for hunting ghosts! Maybe we should renamed it though. We’re looking to do less fighting and more exploring and learning. What do you think, Mads? It could be the Ghost Adventure Vehicle.”

Mom hurried after him, the ghostly woman coming right behind. “It doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it?”

“If I may?” Dora interjected. “Perhaps alter the middle letter. You earlier mentioned exploration. Ghost Exploration Vehicle makes a worthy name to my ear.”

“GEV… That’s brilliant!” The man enthused. 

The pair of scientists continued, excitedly explaining the vehicle to the ghost woman’s rapt attention. All the while Fenton stared, disbelieving. Was this really happening?

“And here she is!” Dad motioned, the group having arrived at the vehicle.

Dora’s eyes widened, her aura momentarily flickering brighter. “An armor carriage… this is stupendous!” Her head turned side to side, as if searching. “It must require an entire team of horses. Where are the animals?”

“No horses required! It’s self propelled. The old one used to be your normal old internal combustion engine but it was a real gas guzzler. This one’s electric. Runs off a battery. We’re working on figurin’ out how to charge it with ectoplasm, right from the portal.”

The dragon ghost tilted her head. “What is an internal combustion engine?”

“That is an engine where the combustion of fuel with air creates hot gas which do some kind of work, such as moving a piston while it expands.” Mom started explaining. “In a car, a vehicle like this one, the piston turns a crankshaft attached to the wheels. These continual, controlled explosions propel the vehicle forward.”

Fenton blinked, looking to his ghost half who shrugged, just as disbelieving. He felt like he was in the twilight zone. Mom was explaining how cars worked to a ghost, completely calm as if this was just a normal day. The human Danny felt like his head was going to explode. This day, everything that happened, was all so impossible, incredible. But-

“Mommy! It’s the glowy boy!” A familiar voice interrupted his thoughts.

Both Dannys turned at the sound. “Hey!” Phantom smiled, waving. 

It was Sophie, running up to them with her mother closely behind. Both Dannys hurried over to meet her. 

The girl stopped short, eyes wide. “Why are there two of you?”

Behind her, the mother stopped, panting slightly with her hands on her knees. She looked up, surprised for just a moment before she straightened, a look of understanding passing her face. “They’re twins, honey. Like Benny’s older sisters. Remember them?”

The child blinked once before nodding. “Oh! That’s why they look like the same person.”

“Yeah.” Fenton blushed, not bothering to correct the assessment. 

Sophie practically leapt forward, an armful of grateful four-year-old clinging to human Danny’s waist. “Thanks for saving me, mister. I was so scared. Everyone was running and screaming. And I couldn’t find Mommy. I fell down and hurt my knee. And it was so loud and hot. I was so scared. But you found me and brought me to Mommy.”

Fenton tentatively patted her back. “Of course. I’m… I’m glad I could help.”

The girl looked up, smiling at him. “You’re the best and…” She pulled back, turning to Phantom. “So are you!”

“Me?” The ghost boy pointed to himself, one eyebrow raised.

Sophie nodded. “You’re the bestest! Me and Mommy saw you fighting the dragon! You were flying and shooting ice and, and you went through the car like…” She motioned excitedly with her hands. “Just like this. And it was the awesomest most bestest thing ever!!”

“Really, you think so?” Phantom blushed slightly, still smiling at the excitement. 

The girl nodded enthusiastically, before looking down, biting her lip. “Sorry I ran and screamed before. I got scared but that was silly. You look so nice and… and you glow so pretty. I didn’t know you were a superhero! Like… like the Powerpuff girls!” She pointed down to the bandaid on her knee. 

The exclamation earned a laugh from Phantom. 

Sophie continued, undeterred. “Or Superman! Or Batman! Or Spiderman! Or Hulk! Benny likes Hulk best but the Powerpuff girls are the bestest! ‘Sides, you can fly like them and… and Blossom has ice breath too. And laser eyes! Do you have laser eyes?”

The ghost boy knelt down, meeting her eyes. “No lazer eyes. But I can do this.” Slowly, he turned invisible. 

The child blinked. “Where did you go?”

Phantom drifted to the side, poking her shoulder. “Right here.”

He reappeared, earning giggles from the girl. She clapped. “You can disappear?!”

“Yep.” He grinned. 

Another giggle. “That was awesome! Awesome….” A blink. “I don’t know your superhero name.”

“You can call me Phantom. Danny Phantom.” The ghost boy offered with a proud grin.

“Phantom.” Sophie nodded. She leaned forward, clinging to him in a hug. “Thanks for saving us, Danny Phantom.”

The ghost boy hugged her back. “I’m just happy everyone’s safe. You were so brave, Sophie. Thank you for letting my… brother help you too.”

Sophie pulled back, eyes positively sparkling. “You’re my hero.” Her eyes flickered to Fenton. “Both of you are my heroes.”

Phantom puffed out his chest slightly. “It’s all in a day's work, ma’am.” He saluted, to the girl’s giggles. 

Fenton smiled down fondly. “Like he said, I’m happy everyone’s safe. You were so brave, Sophie.”

“Danny, we need to get home. Come on! ” Mom suddenly called across the parking lot.

The ghost boy stood. “Mom’s calling us.” He motioned to Fenton.

Sophie’s mother, who had been quietly watching the whole time, stepped forward, taking her daughter's hand. “Thank you, both of you. Thank you so much.”

The Dannys acknowledged with nods. “Of course ma’am.” Phantom spoke first.

Fenton stepped away with a wave. “Take care of yourselves. See you around Sophie.”

The little girl waved. “Bye!”

“Bye.” The ghost boy flew off, waving.

Fenton jogged after him, pausing once they met up with Dora.

“Again, my sincerest apologies.” She bowed deeply in front of… Wes? Huh. True to what she’d said earlier, the dragon ghost was in fact apologizing.

The red-head blinked, disbelieving. “Uh… thanks, dragon lady?”

The princess bowed again. “No thanks are necessary, truly. Now, I must take my leave. Good day, sir.” She turned away, floating back to the GAV. Or was it the GEV?

“Okay?” It was then Wes noticed the two Dannys. He narrowed his eyes, pointing. “I’ve got my eyes on you, ‘James.’” He bracketed the word with air quotes.

“Yeah, sure.” Fenton rolled his eyes. “See ya, Wes.”

The ghost and boy walked away, ignoring the suspicious look. But once out of earshot… “James?” Phantom raised a questioning bow.

“Like you said at the mall earlier.” Fenton shrugged. 

A simple brush of hands and Phantom’s eyes widened, reminded of the earlier confrontation. “You called me James? Really?”

“Yep.” Human Danny smiled teasingly. “It’s your name now. Get over it.”

The ghost chuckled, rolling his eyes. “No, it’s not.”

“Come on, James.” Fenton jogged forward, laughing.

Phantom darted around the human, easily beating him to the GAV. He floated in front of the back door with flickering tail, arms crossed. “Hey! Why do I have to be James? You should be James.”

Human Danny poked his ghost half’s shoulder. “You’re the one who said it first. Now get.” He practically shoved the ghost over, out of the way of the door.

Phantom laughed, looping his arms around Fenton’s neck.

“What are you doing?” Human Danny turned his head, trying to look.

His other half’s voice, slightly huffy, came from right beside his ear. “If I have to be James, you have to carry me. That’s just fair.”

Fenton laughed, grin absolutely victorious. “I still win. My back’s one big bruise and I’ve got a giant ice pack.”

The ghost huffed but didn’t let go as Fenton opened the door. He stepped up and into the vehicle, undeterred by his oversized backpack. Inside, Jazz and Dora giggled at the scene.

Mom turned back, peering into the back of the GAV. “Do we have everyone?” Her eyes flickered to the two counterparts, the corner of her lip turning up. “Danny, seat belts.”

“Right.” Both said at the same time. 

Phantom let go, drifting to sit beside Dora. Fenton sat across from his ghost, on the other side. Both buckled. With brief explanations, Jazz and Phantom helped the dragon princess into the restraint as well.

“Alright! Let’s go!” Dad took off, eliciting a surprised squeak from Dora.

The dragon princess quickly relaxed after. “This is marvelous.” She watched the scenery rush by with wide eyes. “What is that?”

The other passengers explained the various buildings and structures they passed to the ghostly woman’s great excitement. 

The vehicle jerked to a stop. “We have ceased moving.” Dora began reaching for the seatbelt’s release mechanism. “Have we arrived?”

Jazz shook her head. “We stopped at a light. It’s where two roads cross. There’s a signal to indicate who can go.”

The GAV started again. The princess continued with the questions, the family and friends with their explanations. Soon enough, the vehicle rolled to a stop. 

“Now we’re here.” Mom opened the door.

The other passengers disembarked. Dora floated out, staring up at the imposing structure. “The modern age is truly marvelous.” She said, breathless.

Into the house. More awed questions and enthusiastic explanations. The dragon princess wanted to know about the television, the books on the shelves, the clock on the wall. She drifted into the kitchen.

“This is where we cook our food.” Mom explained.

The ghostly woman nodded, eyes roving over the room. They fell on certain golden brown baked goods lined up on the counter. “What are these confections? They smell scrumptious.”

Phantom drifted forward. His eyes widened, taking an audible sniff. “It smells so good…” His head turned, looking at his mother. “Did you… did you get it to work?”

The woman nodded, eyes smiling with pride. “Take a look.” She motioned to the counter.

The ghost boy darted forward, his human half following.

Behind them. “Did what work?” Tucker asked. 

Fenton blinked, staring down. “It… it worked!” There, still on the baking tray, were perfect circles. Golden brown with rich, chocolatey spots. And… slightly green and glowing. “The ecto-cookies! You figured it out.”

Phantom’s hands hovered over, tentative but so hopeful. “Can I try one?”

The mother nodded furiously. 

Ghost Danny lifted one cookie off the tray. Bringing it to his mouth, he took a bite. For just a moment, he lingered, not chewing. Then…. Phantom’s eyes rolled back, a look of pure delight on his face. He furiously chewed, swallowed. “I can taste it! I can taste it!”

He could indeed taste it, the sensation even tangible for Fenton’s taste buds. It was still slightly warm. Rich chocolate. That nutty, caramel flavor. And… just a hint of citrus. That was strange, different from how this recipe normally tasted. It must have been the ectoplasm. But… it was perfect.

Phantom practically inhaled the rest of the cookie before gulping down another one.

Dora raised a brow, flabbergasted. “Are these ectoplasm-infused material world food?”

“Mom’s been trying to figure it out for weeks!” The ghost boy nodded, mumbling through a half chewed cookie.

“Danny, don’t talk with your mouth full.” Mom chastised. 

Phantom swallowed. “You figured it out! You figured it out and it’s so good! These are the best cookies I’ve ever had!” He darted forward, tightly hugging his mom. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

“You’re welcome, sweetie. I’m so happy it finally worked.” She brushed a hand through the white hair.

“May I try one?” Dora hazarded.

Mother and son pulled apart. They traded questioning looks before nodding. 

“Of course.” The woman waved, ever the gracious host.

The dragon ghost lifted a cookie, sampling her own bite. Her eyes widened, pleased, before she hummed. Once her mouth was empty… “Delicious, Lady Fenton. Truly.” Another few bites and the cookie was gone. “You are a most ingenious confectioner. I have tasted nothing like this in all my years.”

The mother waved her off, blushing slightly at the compliment. “They’re just chocolate chip cookies.”

“Chocolate.” Dora’s brow furrowed thoughtfully. “Made from the cacao beans of the new world…” Her eyes widened in realization. “The sweetened drink is all the rage in King Phillip the Great’s court. But baked into a confection… that is indeed marvelous.”

“Really, adding chocolate chips wasn’t my idea.” The human woman insisted. “The whole recipe isn’t even mine. It’s an old family one.”

Dad chuckled, patting the woman’s shoulder. “Just take the compliment, Mads.”

With that, Mom rolled her eyes but she chuckled. “Alright. Thank you Dora.”

The princess gave a nod, eyeing the tray again.

Phantom motioned. “Have another if you want.”

“Can I have one?” Fenton asked, once Dora was on her second cookie. Mom’s brow started to furrow but before she could ask… “Oh yeah. I have to take the serum first. That’s what you told other me earlier, right?”

“That’s right.” The woman pulled the blue liquid from the cooler and handed it to the human version of her son. “You’ll have to wait fifteen minutes for it to start working. Then you can have a cookie.”

“Bottoms up, then.” He tipped the tube slightly before drinking. Huh. It really did taste like blue raspberry gummy bears.

Fifteen minutes later, Human Danny had his first ecto-cookie. It was delicious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been quite a night, Phantom thought, lounging on the couch with Fenton, Blobby lying on his lap. After the cookies, Dora had gone back to excitedly asking his parents questions. The three were so involved in the conversation, the adults didn’t even notice when Jazz left to pick up take out.

The other four(ish) teens had started on homework; luckily Sam and Tucker had thought to grab Fenton’s bookbag for him. Fifteen minutes later there was dinner, the adults stopping long enough to thank Jazz and grab their food.

Fenton enjoyed his sesame chicken, Phantom happily indulging in more cookies. Sue him, he could finally taste something and he was going to enjoy it, damnit!

Now, homework finished with the sun long since having set, the teens were watching tv and relaxing.

“My driver’s here.” Sam said, looking up from her phone. “Tuck, we can drop you off on the way home.”

“Really!” The technogeek’s eyes practically sparkled.

“Yes. Now hurry up if we both want to make curfew.” The goth gave him a light jab on the arm, gathering her things. 

Tucker did the same, then saying goodbyes. “Bye Mr and Mrs. F.” He waved at the couple, still sitting at the table and talking to their guest. 

“-And that’s how vaccination works.” Maddie turned, smiling at the boy. “Have a good night, Tucker. Thank you for staying for dinner. Make sure to have your mother check that bruise when you get home.”

“You got it.” The boy nodded.

Dora’s eyes were wide, mind seemingly lost in the previous conversation. “So the pox… does not exist anymore. The wonders never cease.” She blinked, finally seeming to take in the technogeek. “Sir Tucker? Were you making parting remarks?”

Tucker’s brow wrinkled. “Yeah. Me and Sam need to get home. So uh, Bye Dora. It was nice to meet you.” 

“Bye Dora.” Sam also waved.

The ghost princess rose from her seat, bowing. “Yes. Fare thee well, sir and miss. You will forever hold my gratitude.”

A honk from outside. “Come on. We shouldn’t leave our ride waiting.” Sam pointed, hurrying towards the door. “Bye Jazz. Bye Danny.” She disappeared through the door, Tucker following after.

Dora didn’t immediately move, a somber mode falling over the room. After a long moment, she sighed, squaring her shoulder. “I should part as well. I have delayed long enough.”

Phantom floated up. “Yeah. Let me show you the portal.”

The two ghosts floated to the basement door, ghost Danny leading the way. The humans all followed.

“Um, so here it is.” The ghost boy motioned to the swirling green doorway. “You just fly through and you’re in the realms.”

The princess nodded, turning to him. “I wish that I could promise you safety and welcome in my kingdom, should you ever require it. But I assure, my friendship and loyalty is yours, Halfa.” She bowed, turning to smile at his human half. “I am honored to have been welcomed into your home and enjoyed your hospitality. Until we meet again.”

Both halves blinked, honored and overwhelmed by the words. Then…. Phantom finally bowed. “Until we meet again, Princess Dora.”

The dragon princess gave one last smile before drifting through the portal.

For a long moment, the Dannys stared after, eyes trailing the mist. The song pushed and pulled, emotions clashed in heart and core. But paramount… worry.

Phantom’s core twinged, lips dropping into a frown. “What’s gonna happen to her now?” He muttered.

“She’s going to be okay.” Jazz’s voice, right behind him.

The ghost boy turned to look just as his sister stepped between him and his human half, wrapping an arm around each of them. “You think so?”

The girl nodded. “I think she’s strong. She’ll figure things out and… we’ll see her again.”

Phantom’s brow furrowed considering the words, everything that had happened. A dragon fight, ending in gracious apologies. A medieval ghost, eyes wide in awe of the modern world. A princess, abused and mistreated by her brother. So many unanswered questions. About this ghostly woman, where she’d come from, what would become of her. It made his stomach flop. 

But most important… the corner of his lip turned up, despite himself. A new connection to the Ghost Zone. Another ghostly friend. A hopeful feeling swelled in his heart.

Fenton voiced it. “Yeah. I’m sure we’ll see her again.”

#Danny Phantom #Face to Face #Double Danny #Split Danny #princess dorathea #my fic

[asleep-in-the-keep-sideblog]

Asleep In The Keep: A DP x BNHA fic

Summary: Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady find a member from the mysterious vigilante group, Phantom.

Word count: 5817

Chapter 19: Where's Your Head at?!

19/?

It had been a slow night during patrols, which was surprising since during the last few weeks, crime rates had gone up. Stain: The Hero Killer sparked something in society that made people lash out towards the heroes. Most of those affected had been angsty teens who felt hurt or scorned by their peers, or at least that's what Kamui Woods’ heard. They just needed a steady hand to guide them back to the right path. The real threat however wasn’t the ones who made themselves known, but the ones who worked in the quiet behind every corner or alley. It was important to stay diligent and keep an unclouded mind… 

…Which was something his partner was having a hard time with.

“Seriously, that kid was really creepy.” Mt. Lady, while being an exceptional hero with a powerful quirk, she had a habit of looking at the smaller things. This didn’t impact her hero duties for when push came to shove, she shushed harder. Kamui Woods admires that about her. She continued again, “Did you see the way he looked at me?” She made exaggerated motions while pointing to her eyes, “it was like he was trying to freak me out on purpose. It gave me the chills” she shivered. 

Despite her flaws, Kamui Woods really enjoyed his time with her, and even considered her a friend (even if she never agrees to hang out with him off the clock).

“He was probably just shocked to see a hero at this time of night.” Kamui Woods couldn’t lie and say he didn’t feel something from the boy. It felt as if there was no soul behind the kid’s eyes and they wanted his to reflect them. He thought for a moment and said, “It could’ve had something to do with his quirk?” Quirks that affected people’s emotions weren’t unheard of, but they were still few and far between. Kamui Woods himself had only met two people who had such a quirk. He continued, “The kid seemed polite. He even bowed as we walked past.” Despite the interaction being creepy, the kid was still respectful.

“I guess…” she shrugged, “but when he walked past, his shoulder brushed against me. It was cold. It was like all the warmth from my arm was sucked out. I actually thought he was about to attack me.” This took Kamui Woods by surprise. 

The night, while not the warmest, sat at a comfortable 15°C, but when the boy passed by, a bitter chill swept into Kamui Woods bones. He thought it was just the breeze. And the boy, in spite of being off-putting, didn’t give off any malicious intent. He still believed Mt. Lady. She, despite being a newer hero, had a good head on her shoulders and had the instincts needed for the job, even if she could act immature at times. Kamui Woods would keep an eye out for the boy from now on.

They continued like this, neither of them saying anything except for a few short conversations. The patrol remained slow and eventually they were close to where they started again. The Hero Commission had assigned many of the local heroes of Musutafu different sections of the city. Supposedly, they believed the vigilante group who calls themselves “Phantom” had been seen around here but had not made any contact with any heroes in the area. Until that changes, heroes all over Musutafu were confined to one patrol route. Kamui Woods doubted that would happen. One of the group members would probably catch on to being hunted then they would move to a different city, like they did in Hosu. 

As they were walking past an alley, a bitter chill blew in the air. Both him and Mt. Lady froze, recognizing the sensation. Was it that same boy? They had checked the alley before on their last round. Nothing was out of the usual other than an overwhelming feeling of wrongness. They left quickly after confirming the area was clear. Of course it had to be this alley. He looked over at Mt. Lady behind him, her eyes were wide. She was thinking the same as him. They didn’t dare speak, too afraid of disrupting whatever was happening in the alley or alerting the person inside. There was always a chance nothing was there, but Kamui Woods doubted it. Every muscle in his body was twitching to flee, and he had to fight to not cave-in to the instinct. Mt. Lady was in a similar condition. This was exactly why they had to go in. 

Kamui Woods looked over at Mt. Lady and gave her a confident look, but it was hidden under his helmet. Instead, he gave her a firm nod and she nodded back at him. Just being with her was enough to calm him down. With slightly shaky hands, he was able to sign out a hastily thought-up strategy. Most heroes knew sign language since it was important to be able to communicate in situations like this. When what to do was decided, Mt. Lady and him nodded at eachother once more to reassure themselves. Kamui Woods sent out a quick message for reinforcements in the area. Despite his feelings for Mt. Lady, the crammed environment wasn’t the most suited for her quirk. Until then, they had to risk going in, not wanting to chance the criminal getting away. 

Slowly, using all their stealth training, they approached the mouth of the alley. Unfortunately, the alley was a dead-end, so they couldn’t go in through the back to corner them. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise, since that also meant the person (or persons) couldn’t get away either. They had no idea what they were up against. By how intense the aura was, something bad must have happened. The worst case was a murder, which seemed likely since the feeling of death was slowly overwhelming them as they walked deeper into the alley.

They heard faint noises up ahead. They both had to stop breathing to be even able to hear it. It was almost like fizzing? They walked in synchronized movements deeper in, curiosity getting the better of them. A faint green glow illuminated out and there was a faint smell of electricity in the air. Before them they saw a blob on the ground, but what surprised them most was what was above it. After a second, the blob lifted into the air and returned to it’s master, a white haired teen. A phrase repeated into Kamui Woods’ head. It is cold outside. 

The teen, no, Phantom , grabbed it out of the air and it molded into his hand. Was that thing a part of him? Was this his quirk? Kamui Woods couldn’t see any of the others around. From what he knew about the group, they liked to work closely together. Was it just him? Before he was able to communicate this to Mt. Lady, she gasped at the display before her. 

Phantom snapped his head towards them in an unnatural manner, earning further gasps from both of the heroes. His eyes widened as he stared down the heroes, and the off-putting vibe increased tenfold. Before Phantom could react first, Kamui Woods launched an attack of tree roots from his arm and was able to wrap it around him. Mt. Lady rushed in while he was incapacitated, but something was off. Phantom didn’t seem phased, he wasn’t even struggling. The only thing on his face was shock, and even that was mild. While he still had the opportunity, Kamui Woods grabbed his communicator with his free hand and spoke one phrase without context. 

“It is cold outside!” He heard nothing on the other end.

Mt. Lady’s punch connected as soon as the phrase was uttered. Despite being limited in tighter spaces, her hand-to-hand combat made up for this disadvantage, and she was a heavy hitter. The sound of her fist echoed in the alley with a sickening crunch. They both watched in horror as Phantom’s head exploded, bursting his shattered skull into a gooey mess.

Mt. Lady looked at the crime scene in shock for a second, then her face morphed into one of fear and disgust. She looked over at him, pale and trembling after what she had just done. Kamui Woods knew Mt. Lady, she wouldn’t hit hard enough to kill. Seconds slowed down to minutes and Kamui Woods felt himself get sick when he realized his roots were still holding onto the body…

He was about to release his hold, ready to burn off the branches, when he caught sight of the boy's once intact head. The splatters orbited around the boy's neck like a bloody halo (if blood was green and glowing). The body was still twitching. 

Slowly, like the attack was going back in time, the goo started to flow back to the body's head. Mt. Lady was still looking at Kamui Woods, so she couldn’t see what was building behind her. His body language must have given it away and she slowly turned around, obviously apprehensive to what she might see. She turned just in time to see the last few drops meld into his head. 

The once dead teen looked at them blankly, but there was something hidden underneath. Phantom touched the roots that wrapped around him gently, like he was scared they were going to attack him (which was fair after what just happened to him). He suddenly grabbed hold of a firm branch and started to push his body away. He struggled at first, and Kamui Woods had no idea what he was trying to do. Slowly, the boy’s body was starting to move through the roots. It was like watching slime ooze out between the cracks of a box. 

Both Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady were too stunned to do anything, still not yet recovered from the boy’s decapitation. After a few seconds, the boy untangled himself from the branches. He rubbed and patted his torso, as if still surprised that it was intact. Did he not know he could do that?

“What the fuck…” the boy groaned. It appears he didn’t know. His hands shot up to his neck, rubbing under the fabric as if looking for the seam. Something twisted inside Kamui’s gut. The boy felt more than dangerous, he felt wrong. 

Kamui Woods shook off his shock and launched his other arm at the boy while recoiling his other roots. They were able to once again latch onto Phantom. Like before, Phantom was able to squirm out of the root's grasps, this time with more ease than prior. While he was preoccupied with that, Mt. Lady rushed towards him with a fist raised, but missed and hit the roots below, causing them to splitter apart, wood chips flying. Phantom jumped back and it seemed as if he was floating. Mt. Lady charged at him again, but he nimbly dodged her every attack. 

“Why are you attacking me?” Phantom’s voice was hollow as he spoke and its echo reverberated in Kamui Woods bones. It didn’t sound desperate or like a plea, just filled with a child-like confusion. Mt. Lady, unmoved, didn’t stop her volley of attacks and Kamui Woods followed suit, sending smaller but faster branches to the vigilantes' feet to trip him up. His foot got tangled and Mt. Lady was able to hit his shoulder. It reacted similarly to his head, but he quickly recovered.

“Seriously, like why?” Phantom jumped back, “I haven’t done anything to you guys!” He stood open in front of them as if expecting an answer. He really looked like a kid.

“You’re dangerous!” Mt. Lady shouted as she threw another punch. The teen shrieked but was able to dodge it like the others. 

“Is this because of the whole ‘vigilante’ thing?” It sounded like a whine, “I really didn’t think it’s that big of a deal.” He was casually able to dodge both Mt. Lady’s and Kamui Woods attacks. The kid was skilled, that was for sure. He must have had training before, along with his brothers. They have yet to show themselves, but from the stories Kamui Woods heard, they were able to move in sync perfectly. They had to find a way to end this soon before they arrived. 

A thought dashed across Kamui Woods’ mind as cold air filled his lungs. The boy… This was the same chill from when the boy passed by them on the street. Could he be one of the brothers? He couldn’t remember what the kid looked like, only black hair and a white streak, but he felt very similar to the Phantom before them now. But was that really the case, where was he? Kamui Woods looked around frantically for any spot that they might have missed, any corner, any object, any unseen shadow... It’s possible that this all could’ve been a trap, that the boy led them here, he heard a similar thing happened with Fat Gum. But that didn’t make sense! The Phantom member didn’t look like he was expecting them, and if it had been a trap wouldn’t there be more of them? Phantom also hadn’t tried attacking them, despite what they’d done. He seemed more confused than malicious. But the boy and the Phantom before them were connected somehow…

Wait, was it only one person? But that didn’t make sense either! Phantom had only been using one quirk and from the reports each Phantom had a different set of skills (with ice one being more active). Nothing was adding up.  

The fight was going nowhere. Phantom had yet to tire but the same couldn’t be said for Mt. Lady and him. Mt. Lady’s attacks had gotten slower and Kamui Woods branches were becoming less coordinated. Phantom noticed.

“Since you’re not gonna answer my questions, can I ask something else?” Silence, “So the guy, I understand his quirk and costume, he’s basically Groot, but-” Kamui Woods was offended.

“Like that guy from that American movie?!” He shouted. Before the age of quirks, people would make hero movies that almost mirrored the world today. These were classics that people still found enjoyment out of, even if it wasn’t the most accurate portrayal of quirks. 

“Yeah?” The kid answered casually. Mt. Lady tried to sweep his legs, but her kick went through them like jello. 

“How old are you, kid?” Nowadays however, not as many people had seen them. Kamui Woods’ grandparents had a copy of these films so he was at least familiar with it. Before Phantom had the chance to answer, a powerful fist connected to his body, and sent the slime-like boy flying into the wall. 

Luck was on their side. Reinforcements had finally arrived in the form of The Punching Hero: Death Arms. He was the only one so far, but the fight had only been going for less than 10 minutes, so it made sense. 

“Finally!” Mt. Lady beamed, “I was trying to get a hit on that little fucker!” she did a little jump and punched into the air. 

Death Arms looked at the wall that held the remains of Phantom. He had punched so hard that the wall had a crater in it. Phantom looked like a cracked egg. Death Arms paled.

“I really didn’t mean to hit him that hard. When you called for backup, you sounded desperate. I really thought he could take it.” He looked at his arms, the thing he held the most pride for, in shock and disgust, similarly to how Mt. Lady reacted. 

“He’s not dead.” Mt. Lady went over to the man and comforted him, putting a hand on his shoulder and looking up. 

“He’s not?” Death arms looked confused. While she explained the situation to him, Kamui Woods went over to where the boy was splattered. Already his goo-like body was wiggling and being pulled together. It was kind of gross to look at. 

Kamui Woods grabbed a pair of anti-quirk cuffs, but wasn’t sure how to use it on the boy. Out of the gooey mass a limb started to form so he gently cuffed whatever it was. More limbs started writhing out and the cuff fell to the group. Kamui Woods panicked. Without having anything else he could do, he made a bar-like grid with his roots to try to stop them from forming. The goo started spreading to them and they broke over the force. Death Arms was able to snap out of his grief, and started punching the substance. Kamui Woods got a weird sense of déjà vu about a villain they had fought before and felt a phantom memory of smoke and fire. He hoped that boy was alright.

He snapped out of it when the goo started climbing up Death Arms’ arms. A sickening crack echoed throughout the alley and then screams. Phantom had broken his arms as if they were a toothpick. A black skull started to lurch outside from the rest of the mass. Skin bloomed like mold and covered the emerging body. The zombie-like figure was only mere inches from Death Arms face, his head and elongated neck bobbing back and forth like a snake trying to hold onto the hero's eye contact. Death Arm’s body thrashed despite his injuries as he desperately tried to escape from Phantoms’, no, the monster’s body. Kamui Woods had always known Death Arms to be a brave man, he had never seen the man scream, but today the streak had been broken. He screamed like a scared child. 

Instead of overtaking the rest of the man’s body, it’s neck slithered past him. The goo receded and coagulated at Phantom’s head, then pooled down into the shape of his body. When the last of the slime left Death Arm’s body, the man collapsed and did not get back up. The slime started taking more color and soon the once familiar visage of Phantom was before them. 

“O̷͈͂̔H̸͉̬̀͒ ̴̳͠ͅM̶̺̉͆Y̶̹͊͗ ̸͔͕̚Ĝ̶̗̣O̸͍͎̎͠D̶̰̐ ̵̯̭̉̈́T̵͍̳̊H̴͔͛A̸̢͝Ṭ̸̳̽͝ ̴̪͈̿F̶̰̬͗͐Ĕ̵͔͎̌L̵̼̃̂͜T̶̮͠ ̸̱͐S̸̢̄̈́O̶̦͇̾ ̴͙̖̽W̸̭̔E̵̢̛̎I̵̭͕̅͝Ŕ̴̳̺͂D̵̡͙͋!̷̟̎” He started shaking his hands like he was trying to dry them off. 

Indescribable horror froze the heroes to the ground. Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods could only stare at the creature in terror. That was the only thing they had been able to do all night. He was too powerful for just the two of them to fight alone. Even Endeavor would have a hard time bringing him down. 

Phantom continued to ignore them, laughing and mumbling to himself. He didn’t even see them as a threat. Kamui Woods looked over at Mt. Lady. There were only two options: 

1) Retreat. They have no hope of beating him.

2) Stay and fight. So far Phantom had been only toying with them, but there was no telling how long that will last.

He looked into Mt. Lady’s eyes. They were just as passionate and determined as when the fight first began. They were heroes, of course they would stay and fight. Kamui Woods swore if he made it out of this, he would ask out Mt. Lady.

Phantom turned to them with a smile too big for a human face, it only took a second for it to be blasted off. A jet stream of water came from behind them, knocking Phantom away for the second time that fight. Backdraft and other heroes came pouring into the alley. It is a bad sign when so many heroes are needed for a single foe, but at this moment, Kamui Woods couldn’t be happier to see them. Someone started barking orders but he was too out of it to understand.

They surrounded the area where Phantom landed, but at enough of a distance in case something happens. Phantom was able to recover (of course), and stood before the heroes, something unseen in his eyes. His feet lifted off of the ground, which earned gasps from all around. Kamui Woods no longer had the threshold for any more surprises tonight. Phantom rose higher and higher, till he was looking down on all the heroes. They all braced for his attack…But nothing came. 

Phantom simply turned and flew away, fading into the night like a falling star. A haunting silence filled the alley, the anticipation of what might happen still building. No one dared move from their battle stances. Then like a veil of smoke, it dissipated. It started as a few murmurs then spread into loud conversations and disagreements. In all the ruckus, a few heroes went up to Kamui Woods and Mt. Lady. It was clear to everyone that it must’ve been one hell of a fight. Mt. Lady was quick to snap out of whatever trance the two were still in, and started boasting about how she was able to hold Phantom off. Kamui Woods on the other hand had had too much excitement for the night and went to go sit down against a wall. 

Paramedics and the police arrived on scene and immediately rushed to Death Arms, who still lay unresponsive on the ground. A tense excitement buzzed throughout the alley. No one had come this close to any member of Phantom since the Hosu incident. Kamui Woods thought he had an idea why. It wasn’t a group. It was a single person. 

It was hard to believe it at first, but that's the only thing that made any sense to him right now. Maybe he was too tired from the fight, even now his brain was fighting with him about the fact that a person can only have one quirk. Kamui Woods lifted his helmet slightly to rub his face. 

Nothing was impossible these days. 

★

It was safe to say that Danny had had an eventful night. After he found the portal he was ready to go home (i.e. the shack he called home). Amity Park was still out of his reach, but now he was closer than he ever had been before. The feeling of not wanting to go nagged at him, but he shoved it deeper down. 

He flew over the alleyway, just far enough to still be able to see the heroes below. He didn’t expect so many of them, but then again he supposed he was a wanted ‘criminal’. Typical. There were about 20 heroes down there; more still arriving, and some cops. Danny didn’t know if he would be able to take down all of them. He still didn’t know how powerful he was in this world, it was best not to risk it. He was just lucky these last few times..

He didn’t like running away from a fight and even now a part of him wanted to go back and finish it. That was why he was still so close. He watched the hulk of a man that punched him get loaded onto a stretcher. Serves him right, he thought bitterly. He would survive, just be on bed-rest for a few weeks. 

Danny didn’t know what came over him. The hero wasn’t even able to hurt him, none of them could. Even when the hit sent him flying, Danny couldn’t feel anything. Not even when he collided with the wall. He thinks it was his instincts taking over. His new body scared him. For a second he was gone, he was only aware he was unaware. He came to when he heard the snap. No, it was more than just that. He felt the bones break inside of him. It felt like chewing into hard carrots. Luckily, Danny’s body didn’t try to eat the poor man. He could not handle the trauma that came with eating someone.

Danny also thought back to when that lady punched into his head. He thought it was all over. He felt all fuzzy and confused. It was like when you blew your nose too hard and for too long. It took him a moment to figure out what to do from there, but then he remembered his first night here. His ectoplasm moved outside of him. He just took that sensation and expanded it. Danny didn’t know if he would ever be used to his body. 

He watched the heroes below like ants. They seemed happy enough, most of them going off into little groups and chatting, completely unaware that he was still there. He spotted the two heroes he fought earlier talking to an official looking women in black. They were further away from the others, probably for privacy. The women’s mousey assistant handed them what looked to be a large stack of paper covered in small words. He had no clue what that was about. 

It was clear none of the heroes were going to hunt him or do anything else interesting for the night, so Danny flew away. He started making his way towards the coffee shop from before. Danny didn’t know why, he just thought he needed to go there. Besides, getting a sketchy job wasn’t the worst idea he ever had (that was going in the portal). Maybe when he goes back home his mom and dad might finally be proud of him for a change. 

Danny made sure to memorize the area around to be able to find the portal again. He found a good land marker in the shape of a school or office building (it was hard to tell). It had two interconnected buildings made of glass in the shape of an ‘H’, and a tall concrete fence around it with an arc. It was distinct enough to find again and that's all that really mattered to Danny. It also happened to be pretty close to the coffee shop as well. 

Danny had no trouble finding the little shop. The Coffee & Tea sign greeted him at the window. His glowing form reflected back at him and he jumped back a little. He forgot he looked like that… He stared at himself and took a deep breath for comfort and closed his eyes. He imagined his human face again. After a second, Danny didn’t feel any different, so peeked open an eye to check. Ah there he was, the human him. This level of self-indulgence might be unhealthy, but it made him happy. He looked different this time. There weren’t any veins under his skin and looked less like a corpse. He pulled down his suit a little and was shocked to see the blue fade down further under his shirt. He was getting better at this.

He untied his hoodie from his waist (honestly he was surprised he hadn’t lost it in the fight), and pulled it over. He could say that he was shocked to find that it had a subtle glow to it, but that would be a lie. It had just been in an area with a lot of ectoplasm. It made sense it was a little radioactive. 

“There,” he posed in front of the window, “I look perfectly human.” In this world's standards at least. He shook his hands to get rid of the anxious energy he was building up. He checked himself one more time, then with a final breath, he went up to the door. 

He was about to knock when he stopped instead.  

“Tanaka?��� Danny asked unsure at the door before him. He heard several clicks before the door opened. He couldn’t see a person on the other side, just the dark room of the café. 

“Come in, Tommy” A staticky voice sounded from the speaker above. Danny jumped and the flights flicked. He walked in and shut the door behind him, careful not to make any noise. 

It wasn’t like anything bad was gonna happen.

Zzz

A man arrived on the scene. He was a local hero who had become less active in recent years due to his other job as a teacher. His students were still away for internships, so he was able to use his free time for patrols (and avoid personal care no matter how much his husband begged). Principle Nezu gave him a special task to locate the vigilante ‘ group’, “Phantom”, before the Hero Commission , but so far has had no luck. The only leads were rumors, and the supposed sightings were too far apart to check in one night. He was actually in the middle of said search when he got an alert. Unfortunately, the location was across town, so it took him a while to get there. 

Looks like they found him first. 

He grabbed a bottle of eye drops from his pocket and wetted his eyes, an unfortunate side-effect of his quirk. Eye bags were a permanent feature on his face, a marker for how overworked he was. Despite this, his eyes were sharp as he looked over the scene. It was obvious there had been a fight there but the property damage was less than expected for someone as powerful and unknown as Phantom. He walked deeper into the alley where most of the people were. A small dent in the ground caught his eye. It was freshly made judging from the rubble around it, and about the size of a fist. It wasn’t close to the larger craters and so didn’t come from the fight. He kneeled down to get a better look at it. There was nothing of substance in the crater itself, but beside it was a small dirt pile and bug shells. Taking a small bag left over from a snack, he scooped up the dirt. This wasn’t the best way to transport the sample, but it was the only thing he had. He could give this to Principle Nezu so they could figure out what made Phantom respond like this. 

A few heroes looked at him strangely, but didn’t approach him. Despite not being well known (choosing to stay underground for both professional and personal reasons), he still had the reputation of being odd. 

“Eraser Head” A cop approached behind him, Shouta turned to meet their eyes. He recognized him as Tsukauchi Naomasa, All Might’s friend. The man looked more tired since Shouta had last seen him, but that wasn’t really a surprise. His eye bags had started to match his own. The two looked like they could be related. 

“Detective Tsukauchi.” He greeted back. Tsukauchi reached out his hand and Shouta used it to pull himself off of the ground. “I take it All Might has informed you of the situation?” They could use all the help they could get at locating Phantom, and Tsukauchi’s resources would be invaluable.

“No, actually.” The man rubbed his neck, “It was Principle Nezu. All Might has chosen to stay out of this.” That surprised Shouta. It must’ve been clear because the man continued, “He has too many personal matters wrapped up in this, that is all I can say at this time.”

“I see.” All Might would’ve been able to cut down the search time significantly, but Shouta supposed with his decline in strength, that wasn’t the most realistic outcome. “That’s disappointing then.” Regardless of the man’s own feelings, he hopes he would at least still be able to give them information about AFO. No longer wanting to talk about All Might, Shouta moved forward with the conversation, “So what happened tonight?”

“While Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods were on patrol, they got a ‘weird vibe’ from the alleyway and decided to check it out. There they witnessed Phantom use an unidentified quirk, my theory is ectoplasm not to be confused with Ectoplasm’s quirk, and fought him.” A muscle in Shouta’s face twitched, but he was able to keep the rest of his face neutral, only nodding along with Tsukauchi. The man paid no mind to this and kept going, “Fortunately I was able to arrive before the Hero Commission, so they were more willing to share this information.” He stepped closer to Shouta and he mirrored the action. In a hushed voice Tsukauchi whispered, “After the first blow, his head exploded and turned into that same substance.”

Shouta couldn’t help his mouth from dropping. After his shock, his hands clamped into fists. He didn’t know much about Phantom, but from what Principle Nezu had told him, he did not have a good life before. He had to keep a clear head. Rationally he understood where the other heroes were coming from. Phantom was an unknown and could be violent. But to go so far as blowing the kid’s heads off? As the opening blow? That was something Shouta couldn’t understand. 

Tsukauchi looked at him, a look of understanding and pity on his face. He knew Shouta had a soft spot for kids. He coughed a little, and continued on with his report, “His body behaved similarly throughout the fight. Death Arms shortly arrived on scene but had both of his arms broken. Then more heroes arrived to save them both.” 

“Who attacked first?” Shouta interrupted. He could maybe understand if Phantom attacked or was acting aggressively than if he was just standing there. 

“They did.” Tsukauchi handed him a sealed folder, “What I just told you was the shorthanded version. The rest is in the report”

Shouta quickly grabbed the folder and stuffed it into his jumpsuit, “And it’s safe to say the Hero Commission doesn’t know about this?” He was looking forward to reading it. 

“As far as they know, I handed the only report over to Ms. Makoto to be destroyed” A smile spread on his face. They were asking him a lot to go against orders, but Phantom needed to be found. 

The Hero Commission may have made official first contact with him, but that didn’t mean they had him. Both Principle Nezu and Shouta sore they would never get him. In a strange way, they actually did UA a favor. 

There had been reports in the surrounding area but they were sporadic and far out, almost as if Phantom was looking for something, which means he’ll stay close by. This location was in the middle of it. They also confirmed that Phantom wouldn’t attack unless provoked. He really was just a kid… Shouta had to keep focus. 

The Commission also did them a disservice. Now the kid would be more apprehensive around heroes, making Shouta’s job harder. He thanked the detective and the man left. If they were seen interacting too long it would be suspicious. 

It was nearing 3 am, but Shouta still had a long morning of searching ahead of him. He doubted he would find Phantom tonight, but it was smart to strike while the iron is hot. First he had to read the report of course (he was looking forward to how the heroes defended their actions). So much to do at once. He inhaled deeply and rubbed the bridge of his nose, he could already feel a headache coming in. one thing was for certain…

He needed some coffee.

#danny phantom #dp #danny fenton #dp cross #dp crossover #dp fic #dp x bnha #boku no hero academia #mha #bnha #dp x bnha fanfic #dp x mha fanfic #mt. lady #kamui woods #body horror #creepy danny #feral danny #ectoplasm #Aizawa #aizawa shouta #mha aizawa #bnha aizawa #aizawa sensei #shouta aizawa #dadzawa

[fleetingdesires]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💛

Danni ❤️ It's taken me way too long to do this, but I have some time now so let's get to it. In vaguely descending order:

Marching On | E | 10k | Snarry (and various background relationships)

Fifteen years into Severus and Harry's relationship, the status quo becomes untenable. Harry grapples with no longer being able to turn a blind eye towards Severus' bit on the side, while Severus finally realises that his best might not have been good enough for Harry. And Teddy? Well, he's just the catalyst that brought home the hard truths.

Why I love it: It's love in all its messy reality. Sometimes we make choices we come to regret. Sometimes we make choices we don't regret until someone makes us regret it. Sometimes that regret doesn't feel real or genuine except to the person who feels it. And sometimes, the thing that is sacrificed for love is a piece of your soul. Is that a valid tradeoff? Don't know. Ask yourself. I still am.

The Lover and the Boytoy | E | 10k | Snucius, Drucius, Draco/Lucius/Severus

Draco has been thirsty for his Daddy’s best friend, Severus Snape - and Lucius knows it. Of course he'll indulge his boy, even (or maybe, especially) if it means sharing his lover.

Why I love it: Yet another messy situation. I love them. Sudden emotional intrigue in the middle of a PWP? I didn't see it coming and neither will anyone else. Thanks for spawning brain rot, fic, I *appreciate* it. I guess.

All out of Sorts | E | 1.8k | Snarry

The Sorting Ceremony is for children. When adults attempt it, the results can be rather unexpected as Headmaster Snape, the most Slytherin of Slytherins, finds out. Bad-tempered huffing and puffing ensues.

Why I love it: I made Severus a Hufflepuff. It's fucking hilarious. That's all. 😂

Playing Games | E | 9k | Albus Severus Potter/James Sirius Potter

James thinks they’re just playing Truth or Dare. Al is playing a different game altogether.

Why I love it: Feels like the hottest thing I've ever written. May be influenced by @phenomenalasterisk's amazing podfic of it, which made me blush so hard while driving (my first mistake, really) I had to stop listening halfway through for fear of crashing. Just thinking about it makes me a little hot, ngl.

Settling/Unsettling | E | 29k | Mycroft Holmes/Sherlock Holmes

Mycroft loves the one man he cannot have - his brother. It doesn’t help that their relationship is tattered beyond recognition. When Gregory Lestrade enters his life, he is pleasantly surprised to find that the man is satisfactory, both in and out of bed. If he can't have the one man he wants, he may as well settle for second best. But what happens when events draw the brothers closer together, and the impossible becomes probable?

Why I love it: It is not my finest piece of work. A diamond in the rough is a more accurate description of it. But damn, I still love the plot and want to rewrite it someday.

#self rec #snarry #snucius #drucius #malfoycest #jalbus #pottercest #holmescest #bbc sherlock #hp fic #asked and answered #wow look at that RANGE 😏 #lmao not really there's so much cest #leave to my degeneracy