#minus the fentons. that lot was more helpful not knowing | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cordria · 3 years

Text

Twin Cores - DP

Saw this headcanon on Tumblr… awhile ago? It stuck with me, and I ended up writing this, and now I can’t find it to give the person proper credit. Lemme know if anyone recognizes this idea and knows who came up with it. (heart)

Was gonna do this idea for the Big Bang thing, but I forgot all about signing up. ;) Wonders. So I’ll just post it and come up with new ideas.

~2,700 words.

Danny floated high above the clouds, up where the air was thin and cold and the stars sparkled brightly overhead. It was terribly late, and Danny knew he’d be paying for this at school tomorrow, but this was always the best part of his week. He couldn’t come up here all the time, but when he cound, he always found himself relaxing. Hands behind his head, he floated on his back, studying the stars.

He let out a breath through his lips and brought a hand forwards to massage his chest, closing his eyes. Yesterday had not been good day. An accident with some of his parents’ technology had completely ruined his day. For reasons Danny didn’t understand, his chest had felt overly full since. Almost like he needed to cough up something - which couldn’t be, because his ghost form didn’t have any real lungs to cough with.

With a groan, Danny stretched and rolled his body through a bunch of sharp loop-the-loops and twists, hoping maybe he could work out the kink. Nothing. Hopefully it wouldn’t prevent him from getting a good night’s rest. He was exhausted.

He floated for a few minutes longer, watching the sky and hoping for a meteor or two, slowly turning the overfull feeling over in his mind. He pushed and prodded at the odd sensation, trying to come up with what in the world it could be.

It had to relate to his parents’ invention. Unfortunately, the day was a fuzzy blur in Danny’s memory and if something in particular had happened to him, he wouldn’t be able to remember it on his own. All he could do on his own was a vague understanding of what had happened.

Getting zapped with one of the newer devices yesterday had resulted in Danny getting split - again. His ghost half had fallen captive to the hero-like obsession of his core, and had gone on a hero-spree. A memory of rescuing a cat from a tree in a very overblown, comic-like way surfaced and Danny buried his face in his hands, embarrassed for himself. “Ugh, I hope nobody videoed that. Or anything else,” he muttered.

His human half had wandered aimlessly through the day, not knowing what to do with no driving force behind everything he did. Vague memories of eating pizza and not noticing the ghost haunting the place next door until Sam pointed it out filtered through the shadows.

From what he remembered, it hadn’t been a horrible sort of day for either half of him. His ghost half had been allowed to play with his obsession all day and his human half had gotten to just be… human. But he’d been split for much longer than ever before; Tucker and Sam were unable to work through how the strange invention worked.

Danny didn’t remember being much help with the endeavour. In fact, he sort of remembered his human half stealing the device, passing it to his ghost half, and the thing getting placed on top of the school for the afternoon. Jazz finally got it using some of the newer modifications to the Fenton’s vehicle that allowed it to fly.

By the time the three of them figured out how to reverse the effects, it was late in the evening on the second day - more than 36 hours since being split. Phantom had started to turn more and more ghost, losing more of his humanity each hour, delving deeper and deeper into this hero obsession. His eyes had turned more ghostly, teeth sharpening, fingers turning into claws. Even a cape had started to mist into view.

Danny slowly ran his tongue over his teeth - they were still a bit too sharp - and pulled his hands far enough away from his face to glance at his fingers. They weren’t claws, not like many ghosts had, but… his fingers no longer really looked human. The changes that had happened to his ghost form the last two days appeared to be permanent, even now that they were rejoined back together.

Danny… didn’t want to think about that. Not yet.

And his human half had started to go through changes as well. Danny vaguely remembered - towards the end of the escapade, when he’d convinced himself that he didn’t want to be rejoined with Phantom - trying to avoid everyone and ending up in a tree, floating in a very inhuman way. His totally human form regaining some of its ghost powers.

Danny mentally poked at the odd, full sensation in his chest again. Perhaps it was that his ghost powers had grown while he was separated. Phantom hadn’t been exactly a half-a-ghost when they’d been slammed back together. And Danny had been just a bit of ghost too. Perhaps now he was somehow 60% ghost and 50% human… and his body was trying to adjust to being too much ghost.

His mind poked at the sensation in his chest just a bit too hard. Danny slammed his eyes shut tight as he felt the sensation of transformation travel through him - lightning sharp and aching into his phantom bones. Panic set in a second later. He couldn’t transform up here - there wasn’t enough oxygen for his human form to breathe. He’d pass out and fall to his death.

He gasped and threw his arms out, instinctively trying to grab something even though he was on the edge of the atmosphere, as the transformation arced through his arms and legs. He kept his eyes closed as he fumbled for his ghost side. He needed to transform back fast. His human side would already be aching to breathe, desperate for oxygen after the last hour of being in ghost form.

But his ghost side… was…

Danny opened his eyes as he realized he wasn’t falling. As he realized his ghost form wasn’t something to grab for, because he was still a ghost.

“But…” he whispered, startled and confused. He’d felt himself transform. There was no mistaking the sensation that had swept through him. He looked around, almost as if the answer would be written in the air next to him.

Then the stars caught his gaze. He froze, mouth falling open, as he stared up at the sky. There were more stars than before, the whole sky alight with points of light. And he knew them - with each star he focused his eyes on, he knew what that star was. How far away it was, what it’s name was, what kind of star it was…

Delight sparkled inside him as he let his gaze drift across the heavens. Stars he didn’t even know existed seemed to soak into his skin, whispering all their secrets in his ears. “How…?” he breathed, twisting around and around and looking everywhere he could. “Why?”

His gaze snagged on the moon, crescent-shaped and gleaming. He almost felt like he was drowning in it’s glow, feeling everything about it. The ice hiding in its craters. The human-built machinery peppering its surface. The soft warmth still coiling in its dying core. He could just… go there. He could be there in about three seconds. He could just…

He threw up a hand, blocking the moon’s glow, blinking hard and pushing the thoughts out of his mind. “Holy shit,” he whispered, breathing hard, focusing on Earth, on human thoughts, on normalcy. “What is this?”

Then he saw his hand, thin fingers topped with sharp claws, glove missing. His forehead furrowed as he realized both his gloves were gone, as was the logo on his chest, and the white belt around his waist. A black shirt and black pants. His boots looked like his normal shoes, just moon-lit white. Actually, minus the claws and some color changes, he looked… like he had yesterday. “Uh… What is going on with me?”

He could feel the pull of the stars overhead. He knew he could just lean back, put his arms behind his head, and float there, watching the sky forever. Just revel in space for all time. Instead, he kept his gaze down towards the tops of the clouds.

At least the first step of what he should do now was clear. Whenever he was dealing with anything out of the ordinary, Sam and Tucker knew what to say. They’d help. He’d go home, grab his phone, and call them.

Danny flew towards Amity Park-

-and suddenly drew to a stop. He twisted around, eyes wide, realizing that he’d somehow overshot his home by a dozen miles or more. “What the fuck?” he said. He’d only been flying for a moment - how was he all the way over here? “I…”

He licked his lips and tried again. He set his gaze on Amity Park and flew-

-right past Amity Park again. It was an eyeblink of time between one side of the city and the other. Danny hung in the air, confused and slightly annoyed. “What is going on?” he said. A new power, obviously - but one that had unfortunate timing. His fingers curled, the claws digging uncomfortably into his palms. “This is what I get for leaving my phone behind,” he groused. The phone wouldn’t have done well in the thin, cold atmosphere. Even if he’d have brought it with, there was no guarantee it would have still been working.

“Are all my powers wonky?” Danny asked, raising his hand and pushing energy into his hand. Instead of a steady, gas-like glow, the energy sparkled and hissed, like he was holding onto an exploding firework. “Odd.”

His powers were working differently, so it was time to try using them differently. Time to change tactics. Instead of focusing on a direction, Danny focused his mind on a destination. He closed his eyes, picturing where exactly he wanted to end up. Opening his eyes and taking a deep breath, he tried to fly as slowly as possible.

The world seemed to blur and twist, glowing uncomfortably bright for the fraction of a second Danny allowed himself to be in motion. When the world settled back into place, Danny found himself hovering about ten feet off the ground, within the city of Amiry Park, only about a half-mile from his house. “That worked a lot better,” he said, rather pleased with himself.

Instead of chancing another attempt at flying, Danny figured he’d turn himself human. A ten foot drop wouldn’t be too bad, and he could walk home. It would be the least-tricky way to get home. He took a moment to worry that this new power would prevent him from turning human as easily as normal, but then slammed that idea shut and closed his eyes.

Danny pushed his ghost form away, pulling at that warm and heavy feeling in his mind. There was a sparkling sensation in his mind, then the sharp pain that came with turning himself human again. He dropped, landing lightly on his toes, breathing a heavy sigh of relief that at least this was still normal. He bounced a few times, testing out a few basic powers - invisibility seemed to work like normal, as did phasing through things. He didn’t try floating, for fear of accidentally ending up two towns over and two hundred feet above the ground in human form.

He walked home, rubbing his chest at that strange, too-full sensation, and snuck in the back door. Despite the fact that all the lights were out, he kept himself invisible to avoid his parents. It was so far past curfew that Danny didn’t even want to think about the trouble he’d be in if they realized he was still out.

His bedroom door was still locked. Danny phased through it, flipped on the lights, and dumped himself into his bed. “Ugh,” he groaned, feeling the drain of the last two days on his body. He glanced over at the clock. Just before two in the morning. Part of him wanted to just curl up in his bed and fall asleep, try to get a few hours of sleep before tackling school tomorrow. But too much of him had a tight ball of anxious curiosity.

He groaned as he rolled out of bed and stepped in front of his mirror. He looked awful. Dark rings under his eyes and a horrible, pale tone to his skin. He looked half dead. “On the positive side, nobody will question it if I want to stay home sick tomorrow,” he muttered. He shuddered and shifted his weight, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then triggered the transformation.

His ghost form spread like lightning across his skin, slammed through his head, and settled into his chest like a cold ball of fire. He squeaked one eye open just a touch, not sure of what he was going to see.

Phantom was peering back at him. Danny relaxed, letting his eyes open, and studied himself. From more than a few feet away, he looked absolutely normal. But up close, there were minor changes from the last few days. Teeth that were too pointy. Fingers that were a little more claw-like than normal. Hair that was more… smokey. Just a little. His mouth twisted, unsure of how he felt about the changes. “At least there’s no cape,” he murmured. “I’d look too much like Vlad with a cape.”

He squared his shoulders, set his teeth, and tried flying. He floated up and moved around his bedroom like normal. “So normal.” He caught sight of his claws and shivered. “Mostly.”

“Now…” He took a deep breath and jabbed hard at the over-full feeling in his chest. He was half-hoping nothing would happen. But light sparkled along his body, that tingling almost-painful sensation changing him in very subtle ways. His clothes changed from a jumpsuit to shirt and pants, his shoes looked like they would squeak on the floor as he walked. He was still glowing and transparent. “I’m… a different ghost?” He spread out his arms, feet firmly on the floor afraid to hover. “And I have like… superspeed.”

He took a very careful step forwards, peering closely at himself in the mirror. His eyes looked the same, with the normal green glow. His teeth were sharper, canines almost like little fangs. And… he leaned in, studying his freckles. They glowed, star-like, forming constellations across his skin.

His mind veered off tangent, remembering the stars overhead, the glittering facts that swirled through his mind, the odd bubbling joy that came with even thinking about space. The freckles on his cheeks rearranged themselves into the constellation Draco, and sparks and speckles swirled into life across his clothes. A supernova that resolved itself into the stars overhead. Danny could trace the stars in his clothes, knew everything about each star. He was caught by the strongest urge to fly there. To zip through space to Alrakis, a binary star system eighty-eight light years away. It would only take him 221 years, 5 months, and 3 days…

Danny jerked himself out of his thoughts. He couldn’t fly for over two hundred years. He shuddered and blinked, settling back on his heels. The glowing freckles on his face settled down, his clothes faded back to black. The familiar sort of pitch-black of space. The sort of black Danny imagined the universe looked like before stars existed. “I have space powers now,” Danny realized, his voice slow and excited. “I have space powers! I’m a space ghost!”

Curious, Danny poked at that over-full feeling in his chest again. The world tingled and flashed, and he was back to his old self. Phantom, with the logo and the better posture and the weight of the world resting on his shoulders. “I’m two ghosts, somehow? Two ghosts… and a human...” Danny stared at himself in the mirror. “Or...” he rested his hand on his chest, feeling that strange overly-full feeling. “Or something…?”

Danny shook his head, not sure where to even begin processing that one. Then he turned himself human again, watching the world get dark as the ghost energy faded away. He scratched at his scalp, trundled over to his bed, and dropped into its softness.

There wasn’t much he knew right then. The first was that space powers were the coolest power he could have gotten. And the second was that all this would be easier to process after a few hours of sleep and a large cup of caffeine.

#danny phantom #twin cores #space core AU #this was fun to write #thanks for the idea :)

393 notes · View notes

the-sprog · 3 years

Text

So since I'm very bad at remembering my ideas, I'm gonna throw this out there and hope one day I'm like "WAIT didn't I have an idea for a fic??? What was it???" And I will find it on my tumblr.

It's about Danny Phantom, obviously.

There are actually two of them in here so:

The easiest one: Jack and Maddie are not stupid. I mean they're scientists, the use the scientific method. One of the things about the scientific method is that if you do a bunch of tests, based on an hypothesis and only one of them comes out disproving it, then your hypothesis is incorrect.

Phantom has disproved basically all of their hypothesis.

So, next thing to do? Create a new one. Do new tests. They take Jazz's suggestion and try and see if the ghosts of Amity are actually conscious. Because obviously they're sentient, but are they like animals? Or are they like robots with artificial intelligence?

Or even better yet, are they like humans?

They grab Phantom's attention and ask him if he would cooperate for this test. A simple Turing test. Obviously they're still wary because of everything that happened with him, and do the test with witnesses to keep both Phantom's and their minds at ease.

He passed the test. With flying colors.

They're shocked and ask him if he knew peaceful ghosts that would be willing to take the test (because, y'know. Scientific method. Need to try over and over again). Phantom would have to explain that not all ghosts are as human-like as him (as, first of all, he's a halfa, but he doesn't say that. And second, lots of them are blobs or animal-like ghosts), but cue his parents meeting Jhonny and Kitty (cause I like the idea that they have a truce with Phantom and that going out of the zone helps them with their couple problems), as well as Shadow (example of a less human-like ghost). Then Sidney, Dora, the Fright Knight (cause king ghost Danny ftw) and Frostbite.

They all pass, more or less. Some, like Dora, the light and Sidney, where given away by their choice of word, but other than that all of them passed the test.

OK SO MORE COMPLEX ONE:

I love crossovers. I love finding ways of putting the two universes together, of making them work with each other, adapting the rules so that they apply to both. (With Danny Phantom it's also really cool to just... Make him travel the multiverse. He doesn't adhere to the rules of where he goes to, so it's always hilarious. But we're not here for that now).

One of the best ones to do this with is My Hero Academia. Whenever a show has someone with powers I end up asking myself "how should that work in the world of my hero?" And start trying to incorporate it in the lore.

So, first thing first, we're getting rid of the canon story of my hero. Completely unrelated to the show. This takes place decades in the past, when the first people where developing quirks (so if I wanted to write something with this and actually use my hero characters, I'd make it so that they where hit with a time traveling quirk or that Clockwork was somehow involved).

The Fenton's hatred for ghosts? Make it discrimination against the people who have quirks.

Danny being half-ghost? His quirk's fault. He calls it Ghost, for simplicity, it allows him to come back as a sort of ghost-like creature after he dies. Somehow, one day, he doesn't die completely so his body fixes it the only way it know how. Making him partially ghost.

Obviously that would mean that all the ghosts he fights aren't ghosts anymore. They're villains with quirks, and their powers would be based on what they can do on the show, minus the basic intangibility, invisibility and flight.

Obviously only Sam and Tucker would know he was Phantom and he had a quirk, he's also kinda the only one in town with one. People would be a little racist against quirk havers, but the kids, like in the show, come around to it. And actually start loving Phantom and thinking of him as a hero.

How do I fit Vlad in all of this? Ehm ahhhh this is the one thing I didn't think about. Very basic, but could give him a power similar to Danny, were instead of a ghost, he becomes a vampire. But his quirk is caused by an accident in college, so it's artificial.

Why does Skulker (who doesn't have a quirk. He's just a guy in a suit) hunt Danny? He has a very unique quirk.

Does Dani exist? I mean. Yeah. Cloning is not so farfetched, especially with the existence of quirks.

Clockwork can control time, he involuntary does that being a child, then an adult then an old man thing. The Observants are people without quirks that keep him in check, an organization that made a pact with him to stay young forever or something in change of idk what. No idea what Clockwork would get out of it I won't lie. Money maybe? Or somehow they found a way of keeping him there against his will?

Walker (and I'll make a seperate post about this) is an ex guy in white. Yes they still exist, but they hunt quirk havers instead of paranormal stuff. Walker was kicked out because he actually has a quirk but lied about it. He's after his own kind in the show as well. I mean, he's a stickler to the rules, but he only ever seems to care when it's ghosts that brake them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but never has he punished a human. His quirk is making semi-sentient minions. They're not copies of himself. They're like clay humans with basic forms. They all look alike and have no special characteristics.

Frostbite is just... A yeti. With cryokenisis. It's a mutation type quirk.

Same goes for Wulf, he's just a humanoid wolf that can create teleportation portals. I can't think of a reason why he would only speak Esperanto though. It could be something similar to Five from umbrella academy. He accidentally got stuck in the 1600 as a kid and managed to come back only relatively recently.

I feel like all the other ghosts have obvious powers.

Cujo can become ginormous,

Technus can control technology,

Dora and Aragon can become dragons,

Jhonny gives people bad luck and can control his shadow,

Kitty can make man disappear,

Ember can mind control using music,

Spectra can use people's negative emotions to stay young,

Bernard has shapeshifting,

Youngblood can't be seen by adults (side effect: can't grow old) and his sideckick has a variant of shapeshifting where he can only transform in animals. A definitive father figure),

Box ghost can control boxes,

Pandora can control the plagues of the world,

Desiré can make people's wishes come true,

Sidney can swap bodies with people,

Undergrowth can control plants,

Pariah Dark- I... Actually don't know...

Lunch Lady can control food,

Aaaanndddd no more come to mind.

I want to do something with this AU but I can't really think of an interesting story, other than "kids from 1A get misplaced in time and Danny has to help, discovering the existence of Clockwork and the Observants, whom he hates. So he tries to get Clockwork out of there with the other kid's help" but that's it, really.

I actually have a 3rd idea, but it basically works the same as the MHA one. Crossover with the X-Men.

Substitute quirk havers with mutants and quirks with mutations and you get the idea.

The plot would be more of a "Danny gets recruited by Xavier after the trauma of almost dying activated his mutation and goes to live at the mansion. This happens after the events of season 3, alla salted to make sense in the world of Marvel, but without Phantom planet. He makes friends there, since Sam and Tucker aren't with him and everything is fine and dandy and happy. Until it comes out that the Fentons actually contribute to the creation of the Sentinels, because they hate Phantom that much.

So Danny has to infiltrate his own family to get info on how the Sentinels work so they can destroy them, since his parents are still oblivious and they made it so that the Sentinels wouldn't attack Danny thinking that his accident just somehow make him register as a mutant on machinery" and that's it.

#danny phantom #my hero academia #crossover #danny Phantom and my hero academia crossover #danny phantomxmyhero academia #wanna write #marvel #X-Men #danny Phantom x X-Men

94 notes · View notes

gally-hin-phantom · 3 years

Text

Revamp of my Film Noir Au, now named Mafia Au

Danny lives a double-life, but this time is an hitman instead of a superhero, and all ghosts (minus Clockwork) are his targets/victims

Because like you know I love Aus where Danny isn’t playing nice 😈

xxx

Additional Arts with Jazz/Vlad/Dani and Au Information below the “Keep Reading”

(Triggers Warning: mention of violence and death)

——————————————————————— Name: Daniel James Fenton Nickname: Danny Occupation: Part Time Nasty Burger employee / Pro Hitman Age: 23 Codename: Phantom Kill Count: ??? Personal Gun: Smith and Wesson M&P 9mm Abilities: Smart, good liar, social skills, self-defense, guns skills, knife skills, first aid, parkour

History:

Daniel Fenton is the youngest son of Maddie and Jack Fenton. His parents died when he was still in middle school, leaving him alone with his hospitalized older sister Jazz Fenton and a lot of debts.

In high school, he started to steal money to keep his parents’ house and pay for Jazz’s hospitalization.

One day, without noticing he was stealing drug dealers, he accidentally got caught in a shoot-out. After the slaughter, hidden behind a bin, he met “The Master of Time” a professional hitman. At first the hitman wanted to kill him in order to erased any witness but Danny begged him to spare his life and to teach him assassination instead. Confused but intrigued by so much will, and after serious warnings the hitman accepted Danny as his apprentice. One year after, Danny got his first mission and target, an ex-policeman by the name of Percival Walker.

In the beginning Danny only wanted to target dubious people, but after being call « monster » by one of his victim, and then killing the innocent witness Dorathea Legrand, he stopped caring and started to accept missions with innocents and even children.

Each mission usually brought him between 15’000$ and 30’000$, after the intermediate commission he stored the rest on 5 separate bank accounts with different names, and lied to Jazz about his current job, saying that their parents left them a lot of insurance money.

He approximately killed 3-6 persons a year but hadn’t killed anyone in the last year and started to run out of money. In April, he gladly accepted his next mission, a wealthy businessman in the name of Vladimir Masters.

Morals:

Danny is now ok to kill people, after all animals kill to eat, humans also kill animals for food. Receiving money to kill somebody isn’t so different from receiving money to butcher a cow for steak. After long conversations with his vegan friend Sam, he concluded that animals' lives don’t worth less than human lives. Moreover humans kill other humans, for oils or other horrible beliefs (racism, homophobia etc…). At least he does it to help his sister and not twisted pleasure. Like he says “He didn’t have a choice and can’t go back.”

Danny used to but doesn't have regrets anymore, “What's done is done” and what he earns help him to keep Fenton Works and Jazz alive by moving her to a better hospital.

He doesn’t have guilt either, the one to blame is the person who asks him to kill. The one to blame is the person who wants to kill, not the knife. Like a knife he is only a ‘tool’.

Even if he never sees a ghost he believes in a sort of afterlife, and isn’t scared of death. He only hopes to survive long enough until Jazz fully heals.

Memorable Kills:

Mission 1: Jailbreak Target name: Percival Walker Occupation: Prison Guardian, ex-policeman Cause of Death: Shooted in the head

Mission 2: Djinn Target name: ? Occupation: Secret mistress of a wealthy businessman Cause of Death: Stabbed in the throat Notes: Commissioned by the businessman’s jealous wife.

Mission ?: Specter Target name: ? Occupation: Teen therapist/counselor Cause of Death: Shouted several time all over her body Notes: Called Danny « freak » and « monster » right before death.

Mission ?: Plague Target name: Aragon Legrand Occupation: Heir of a powerful wealthy family Cause of Death: Shouted in the head Notes: Dorathea Legrand, Aragon’s sister, unexpectedly intervened during the mission, trying to protect her brother. She was also killed to avoid witnesses.

Mission ?: Lullaby Target: Ember McLain Occupation: Diva Cause of Death: Burned alive in her house, to make it look like an accident

Mission ?: BlueBlood Target name: ? Occupation: Rich Young Heir of a wealthy family Cause of Death: Suffocated in his sleep Notes: Youngest target, he was only 8

Mission ?: Snow Target name: ? Occupation: Journalist & Books Critic Cause of Death: Shouted in the head

xoxoxoxo

Name: Jasmine Panthea Fenton Occupation: Hospitalized civilian Age: 24 Nickname (by Danny): Jazz, and sometimes before her hospitalization Panny

History:

Hospitalized for a long time her health seems to deteriorate with each passing day, though moving to a better hospital seems to have stabilized her a bit.

Danny is making sure to visit her at least twice a week to keep her company and brought her plenty of books he lends from the library (even if she doesn’t always have the strength to read its, she is happy to have Danny to keep her company).

Though weaker, Jazz is intelligent and doesn’t believe one second the “insurance money” excuse, but she lets Danny has his secrets anyway until the day he decides to tell her everything. Little she suspects her baby brother, who smells like fried food and cheap burgers, has his hands covered with blood.

xoxoxoxo

Name: Unknown but his Initials are C.W. Occupation: Retired Hitman, intermediate Age: ??? Codename: Master of Time Nickname (by Danny): ClockWork Kill Count: ???

History:

After teaching everything he knows to Danny, he got shot in the knee and forced to retire. He now uses his old connections to act as an intermediate to find him missions.

Clockwork knows Danny only kill to help his sister and is actually very protective of him. He tries to help him and keep him as far as he can from too dangerous missions, even if Phantom’s skills and abilities to kill fast without letting traces are highly sought-after, resulting in more dangerous missions and famous targets.

xoxoxoxo

Mission ?: Plasmius Target name: Vladimir Mikhailovich Masters Occupation: One of the wealthiest businessman of the world Nickname (by Danny): Fruitloop Age: 49 Note: The bounty for his head would be able to finish paying Danny’s debts

History:

Vlad has a lot of enemies. He is a billionaire and is always on the right side of the law but also do a lot of devious stuffs in the shadows (child labor, ecologic disasters etc…). For humanity's sake, he is literally better dead.

Danny tracked Vlad for months before having the chance to point a gun on the almost untouchable man.

xoxoxoxo

Name: Danielle Masters Dead Name: Kim S. Occupation: Vlad’s personal bodyguard, keeps an eye on her master’s security 24/7 Age: 22 Nickname (by Danny): Elle Kill Count: ??? Personal weapons: Glock 26 and several knives hidden in her boots and jacket Abilities: Smart, good liar and actress, high class social skills, self-defense, guns skills, knife skills, first aid, parkour, high education, bilingual

History:

Vlad found her during one of his visits in a warzone country. In one rare act of kindness (?), he took her with him, raised her and paid for her « training ».

While acting as Vlad’s clingy and annoying daughter, she is in fact his close bodyguard. Dani is very devoted and would give her life for her « father » without an once of hesitation.

She usually wears a long jacket to hide her small thought muscular build and wears cloths comfy enough to run and jump.

#danny phantom #danny fenton #clockwork #jazz fenton #vlad masters #dani phantom #maddie the cat #gally draws #mafia au #lost time #or au where halfas have a double life #yes lost time :3 because I like this dynamic #danny is a good boy who don’t have luck #i kinda want to add more art to this au but it won’t really help me improve :(#and imma tired #wanted to redesign clockwork for a long time now #but I make an human design instead oof #ragequitting the art because it’s take me too long and i’m too tired to do more

309 notes · View notes

kinglazrus · 3 years

Text

Not Your Danny – Ch 2. Small Signs

Previous | Next | FFN | AO3

Word count: 3514

Awareness returns to Dani the same way it always does: instantly and with a deep, rattling breath. It echoes the dry rasp of her very first. Even after all this time, she still remembers what it was like to wake up in that vat. The thick ectoplasm that flooded her nose and mouth when she tried to breathe. The panic and confusion as her mind scrambled to understand what was happening. The overwhelming weight of knowledge that wasn't hers, that she didn't remember learning. Even thinking was a struggle in those first hours.

Sometimes waking up from sleep feels like that, minus the drowning. And being asleep is just like before. Before the electric current ran through her body and shocked her awake. Before she could think, or even knew what thinking was. Back when everything was just darkness and a mild awareness that she existed, but no certainty whether she was dead or alive.

Dani never dreams—she doesn’t think she's capable of it—but she's always aware.

Another light tap comes at the door.

On instinct, she scans her surroundings for danger. She takes in the blue walls, the plastic star constellations on the ceiling, and the general mess of the room before relaxing and remembering. This isn't some old house she's squatting in for the night; it's her new home.

She frowns. Her new home. Home. Home. The word doesn't sit right with her. It's what she's always wanted, but this place... could it really be home without Danny?

"Danielle?" a soft voice calls through the door.

Dani jerks upright, throwing off the blanket, and transforms in a flash. "I'm awake."

The doorknob rattles then turns, and the door slowly opens. Maddie Fenton peers inside. Her eyes land on Dani and she takes a sharp breath. "Oh, you're..." She trails off as she looks Dani over.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, I just wasn't expecting your ghost form."

Dani draws her knees to her chest, making herself small. "It's kind of my default."

"That's fine." Maddie steps forward. When she moves, something makes a crinkling noise, and Dani's gaze is drawn to a plastic bag hiding behind Maddie's legs. All wariness forgotten, Dani uncurls and crawls to the edge of the bed, clinging to the mattress while she leans forward.

"What's that?" she asks.

Maddie smiles and glances down at the bag. "We know you don't have much. Or"—she scans the room—"anything. So we picked up a few things on the way home. You'll probably need more, but we can take you shopping so you can pick things out for yourself. These are just some essentials."

She holds out the bag, and Dani eagerly snatches it up. Maddie wasn't lying when she said just the essentials. Inside, she finds a pair of pyjamas, a toothbrush—a toothbrush! She's never used one before—a hairbrush and some other toiletries, and lastly, a box with some kind of pad thing on the front. Dani takes out the box and turns it over in her hands.

"What are these?" she asks. They look vaguely familiar. Perhaps, once or twice, she glimpsed them sitting on drugstore shelves, but they had never caught her attention before.

"They're period pads," Maddie says.

"What are they for?"

Maddie opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. Her eyebrows crease together in confusion. Instead of answering, she walks forward to the end of the bed and kneels down. She reaches out, but stops before she can touch Dani and draws her hand back.

"How old are you?" she asks. "Jazz said you were at least fifteen."

"Technically, yeah. I think I was twelve biologically when Vlad made me? So I guess that makes me fifteen. But I've only existed for three years. My birthday is next month!" Dani grins. She didn't do much for her first birthday, but last year she visited Amity Park and Danny made a whole day of it! He even bought her a present, although Dani lost the music player pretty quickly. Not that she hadn't loved it, but it was hard to keep track of belongings when you weren't used to having them. She couldn't wait to see what they would do this year.

A second passes before Dani realizes what's wrong with that statement. Her grin falls away.

It doesn't look like Maddie noticed, though. She's too busy frowning at the box of pads that are still in Dani's hands.

"Have you never...?" Maddie gestures to the box, but Dani doesn’t know what she means. With a sigh, Maddie reaches out and takes the pads, setting them down on the floor. "I guess it doesn't matter what they're for right now, then. We can talk about that later. For now, how are you?"

Dani shrugs. "Okay, I guess." She was better a few seconds ago when she forgot Danny was dead for a blissful moment.

"We understand that this is all very new for you. And it's hard for all of us right now. Take your time. If you need anything, let us know. Other than that, you can just focus on getting settled. We'll take care of the rest," Maddie says.

Dani doesn't know what else there could be to take care of, but she nods anyway.

"Are you hungry? It's a little after noon right now and I was going to start making lunch. I could use some company."

"I could eat," Dani admits. Before arriving this morning, she didn't think to grab breakfast anywhere, and it has been well over a day since her last meal. Her stomach cramps, far from the worst hunger pangs, but still annoying.

Maddie smiles and stands up. "Perfect." She waves her hand, gesturing for Dani to follow. When Dani rises off the bed, her eyes widen. It only lasts a moment, a second of stunned silence, but it's enough for Dani to drop to the floor, her boots thumping on the thick carpet, feeling rather self-conscious.

Neither of them mentions it as they head downstairs. On the way down, Dani strains her ears, listening for Jazz or Jack elsewhere in the house. Jack, she hears quite easily, unsurprisingly. Loud, tromping footsteps carry up from the lab, their beat steady and constant. He must be pacing, Dani thinks. It reminds her of Danny. He used to pace when simply thinking didn't suffice; he needed to move through some problems, treat them like physical things he could see and touch. That's how he explained it to her once, not that long ago.

Jazz, if she's still home, doesn't make a sound.

Dani takes up residence at the kitchen table, pulling out a chair and sitting with her legs crossed over the seat. Meanwhile, Maddie starts taking ingredients out of the fridge. Nothing fancy. Lettuce, tomatoes, a few packages of sliced meat. A small pile of vegetables grows in the empty space beside the sink.

"If you don't mind, can you tell me what it's like?" Maddie asks as she pulls a cutting board from a drawer.

"What what's like?"

"Being a halfa."

Maddie, with her back to Dani, misses the way she presses her lips together at that word. Halfa. It's not a bad word, per se. Danny never had any issue with it, as far as Dani could tell, but it never sat right with her.

"I'm not a halfa," she says.

Maddie's hand pauses halfway to the knife block. She looks over her shoulder, finally noticing Dani's grim expression. "Am I saying it wrong? That's the term Jazz used."

"It's Danny's word." Maddie flinches, but Dani presses on. "And Vlad's too, I guess. Being a halfa means being half human and half ghost, but I'm just me."

"But you have both forms?"

"Yeah, but I wasn't all human before I became part ghost. And I didn't have to die for that to happen."

Maddie quickly turns back to the counter. Dani can't see her face, but it is impossible to miss how her shoulders tense. She grabs a knife from the block and a tomato from the counter and makes her first cut. The knife thunks against the cutting board. "What's it like being you, then?" There's a tremble in her voice. "With your powers."

Dani shrugs. "I'm okay with them. I'm a pretty fast flyer since that's how I always get around. Faster than Danny was."

Another chop, another loud thunk.

"But I'm really good at the weird body stuff! I got the hang of it really fast!" Dani can't help but smile. She holds her arm out, watching it slowly turn green and goopy. The sleeve of her shirt melts into skin and fat drops or ectoplasm slip off onto the table. The goop clings to her bones, only held together by her force of will. If she wanted, she could let it disintegrate into a bubbling puddle. Even the bone can turn soft and malleable as a licorice twist, although she doesn't let it get that far.

Thinking about why she can do this always brings up bad memories, but Dani pushes those aside in favour of how cool it is that she can melt into slime at a moment's notice.

"Look! Look at this!" Dani jiggles her arm, giggling as bits of ectoplasm go flying.

Maddie isn't looking, though. When Dani glances up to check, she finds Maddie staring down at the counter. "Was it like that for Danny?" Maddie asks.

Dani's smile falters. "Maybe? I got lots of training before I met him, but he was still better than me with most stuff. He couldn't do this, though!" She gives her arm another shake, then slaps it down on the table with a loud splat for good measure.

Maddie still doesn't look, though. She resumes her chopping, grabbing a pepper while pushing the tomato aside. "Tell me more."

—

Lunch is brief. Maddie brings a small stack of sandwiches and a plate of salad down to the lab for Jack, along with a small container of fudge. She comes back upstairs long enough to grab her own food before joining him.

"We're making some of our weapons safer for you to be around," Maddie explains before disappearing downstairs.

Dani isn't too disappointed to be left alone. While talking with Maddie was nice, it was always about her powers, always came back to Danny. Did Danny like flying? Did he struggle with his powers? You have this ability, did Danny have it, too? Genuine curiosity lingered in Maddie's voice with every question. Dani knows she's a scientist, and with that job comes a need for knowledge, a desire to understand everything. Having Dani in the house provides a unique chance to learn everything she can about ghosts and half-ghosts.

But something else lurked behind the curiosity. Dani, in her inexperience, can't properly name what she had felt, but it irks her. Makes her feel off-centre. When Maddie leaves, and Dani has a minute to herself, she breathes out a sigh of relief.

Her food disappears quickly. The sandwich is good; simple, but good. Same with the salad. Dani never starved on the road, but she ate what she could steal, pre-packaged foods snagged off gas station shelves. Once or twice, she snuck into restaurants to steal plates right from the kitchen, but that required stealth and patience if she didn't want to get noticed.

Once she has finished eating, and her plate is licked clean, she doesn't know what to do. Maddie left the fixings on the counter along with her dirty utensils. After a moment's debate, Dani deposits her plate and fork in the sink. She's washing her hands, squishing soap between her fingers, when Jazz enters.

Like Maddie, Jazz pauses when she takes in Dani's ghost form, but she doesn't comment on it. "How was your nap?"

Dani shrugs. Dipping her hands under the faucet, she watches the soap wash away, bubbles forming at the bottom of the sink. "It was good."

"Good." Jazz gathers her lunch in silence, grabbing the sandwich Maddie left out for her and loading a plate with salad. Once her plate is full, she starts putting everything away. Cutting board and knife in the sink, vegetables back in the fridge, bread wrapped and retied.

Dani watches, noticing little aborted movements Jazz keeps making. When she goes to put the bread away, her arm jerks as if she was about to throw it. She catches herself at the last second and walks it to the pantry. After the food is away, she grabs a tea towel rather than a dishcloth, and reaches toward the left sink, only to stop.

Dani peers between the empty left sink, and the right sink with the dirty dishes. "Something wrong?"

"No, it's... it's nothing." Jazz folds the tea towel and lays it on the counter, then grabs the dishcloth instead.

"Want some help?" Dani asks.

Jazz blinks. A strange look crosses her face, a soft smile tinged with hope that, to Dani, doesn't fit the situation at all. Jazz holds out the dishcloth and says, "First one done picks the show."

Dani grabs the tea towel since it's closer. "That doesn't really make sense. I can't finish drying until you're done washing," she points out.

Jazz stares at the tea towel, her own hand curling tighter around the dishcloth. "No, I guess it doesn't."

Dani abandons her cloth with the first dish Jazz passes over, phasing the cutting board dry rather than doing it by hand. She doesn't bother opening the drawer, either, shoving the cutting board right through the door instead. It takes less than a minute to get all the dishes clean and put away.

Jazz picks up her plate once the kitchen is clean and heads out. With nothing better to do, Dani follows her. They end up in the living room, Jazz claiming the left side of the couch while Dani takes the right. The remote lays between them for a second before Jazz grabs it. As she reaches for it, slowly, she keeps looking at Dani, as if she's checking for something, expectingher to do something.

Instead, Dani looks around the room.

Of all the rooms in Fenton Works, this is the one she has been in the least. With three windows looking out into the street and the front door right there, she and Danny always thought it was too risky to hang out here, in case Maddie and Jack came home when they weren't expecting it. A few family photos hang on the wall, and the cushions are well worn. Dani notes a significant dip on the loveseat. That must be Jack's favourite spot.

A burst of music pulls Dani's attention to the television. Jazz has put on a TV show. It starts mid-episode, but Dani actually recognizes it, to her surprise. She's only watched TV a handful of times in her life, although she has snuck into plenty of movie theatres. Although she can't remember the show's name, she knows it's about space explorers. The actors look different for some reason, but those colour-coded shirts are undeniably familiar.

"Has a redshirt died yet?" she asks.

Jazz hits pause. "You know Star Trek?"

"Danny showed me some of it. It's okay, I guess." When she says this, Jazz's eyes widen. A flicker of hurt passes through them, although Dani has no idea why. She ignores it. "This doesn't look like what I saw," Dani adds.

"He probably showed you the original series. He liked to start with that," Jazz says, quieter than before.

"So, what's this, then?"

"One of the series from the 90s. Deep Space Nine, I think? It's... it's the most recent one he was watching." Jazz's hand drifts over the remote, her fingers skimming the play button. "Do you mind if we watch it?"

Dani shrugs. "I don't care."

Starting partway through the episode, Dani doesn't quite know what's going on, and she doesn't care much to find out. It's entertaining enough to watch, but sci-fi isn't her thing. Hard to get into a genre that her whole existence revolves around.

Jazz is still eating by the time the episode ends. She's done by the end of the next, her crumb-ridden plate sitting on the coffee table, but neither of them makes a move to stop the show.

Every once in a while, Jazz glances Dani's way. She thinks nothing of it, at first, but by the fifth episode a frown has etched itself into Jazz's face, and Dani is getting annoyed as they near the two-hour mark.

The next time Jazz discreetly turns her head, Dani snaps. "Yeah?" The couch bounces as she swivels to face Jazz.

Jazz starts, then flushes, embarrassed at being caught. "I was just wondering, aren't you tired? I know you were sleeping earlier, but you've been in your ghost form all days. It's not exhausting?"

Dani shrugs. "No? I'm almost always like this."

"But Danny always got really tired if he stayed in his ghost form too long. Sometimes he would pass out or just lose the transformation completely."

"I'm not Danny, though."

Jazz stills. "Right. No, yeah. I guess you aren't."

"I'm not," Dani affirms.

Jazz nods sharply, jerking her head, and snaps her attention back to the TV.

—

The Fentons clearly have their own daily rhythm, one that sees surprisingly little impact without Danny's presence. Maybe they have already filled in the gaps in the couple of weeks Danny has been dead, but Dani doubts it. More than likely, he spent so much time as Phantom that it affected his daily routine.

Maddie and Jack spend most of their time in the lab, or out roving the city in their RV. There hasn't been another ghost attack since the one that killed Danny, and it probably isn't a coincidence, but the eldest Fentons don't seem to take that into account.

"They're trying to keep things normal," Jazz says when Dani asks her about it on the third day. "It's a normal coping mechanism. A good routine can prevent depressive episodes, as long as they aren't overworking themselves."

Ironic considering how Jazz is always working. Despite being on break from college, Dani catches her every day studying hard, chipping away at some paper, or breezing through a textbook thicker than her fist. She also has a notebook she keeps with her most of the time, labelled "Memorial Plans." An event Dani still knows very little about.

Dani falls into her own routine in those first few days. At mealtimes, she keeps whoever is cooking company. Maddie, if she's home. Jazz any other time. Dani takes to waiting in the kitchen for them, around noon and later at six o'clock. The first couple times they walked in to find her there, they looked startled, then pleased. Jazz's eyes actually watered, once. It doesn't take long before Dani fills in as a helper. It's more entertaining than watching, and after so long on the road, there's something nice about learning to cook. A reminder that she has time for it, that she will be here tomorrow and can do it again.

She and Jazz keep watching TV together, although the time varies. Whenever Jazz wants to sit down for an episode—and it's never more than that, despite how long they watched the first day—she finds Dani and asks if she wants any "Trek time." Dani gets the remote only once, on their second time watching. Instead of Star Trek, she picks a sitcom that looks funny and normal.

Jazz keeps the remote after that.

The only person Dani doesn't spend time with is Jack. She sees him once or twice, lumbering through the hall between the kitchen and the lab. As far as she can tell, he sleeps down there. He must since she has yet to find him on the second floor where the bedrooms are.

When she's alone, Dani occupies herself with Danny's things. He has a lot of stuff, and she has no idea what to do with all of it, much less what he did with all of it. Posters especially elude her. What's the point of something that doesn't actually do anything? She goes through his closet the most, picking at his clothes. There are a few shirts close to her size, since Danny didn't get his growth spurt until last year, but none of them suit Dani's style.

On her fourth day at Fenton Works, more than half a week since she arrived, Dani has all the shirts that fit her laid out on Danny's bed. None of them fit perfectly, but she wants to wear something new. You get sick of the same hoodie and shorts after three years, even if they grow with you.

A heavy, thumping knock comes at the door.

Dani, distracted by the shirts, says, "I don't really feel like it right now, Jazz."

"Dani." A voice much deeper than Jazz's greets her. When she looks up, she finds Jack in the open doorway, ecto-gun in hand. "Can we talk?"

Previous | Next

#phic phight #phic phight 2021 #notyourdanny #phanfic #phicc #dp fanfiction #danny phantom #dani phantom #danielle phantom #hurt/comfort #nyd chapter two #danny phantom fanfiction #trans danny #trans danny fenton

34 notes · View notes

anthropwashere · 4 years

Text

Phic Phight: it’s all downhill from here (honey don’t be scared)

Prompt from @aggressivelyclueless: Halfa Valerie AU: Valerie becomes half-ghost. Apart from that being a total nightmare, this also leads her to discover Danny's secret as well. How is she going to handle it?

@currentlylurking @phicphight

Word count: 7,825

Mr. Heppenheimer, the latest in a long line of chemistry teachers that have come through Casper High since actual, real life ghosts have begun treating Amity Park like their own personal Las Vegas retreat away from the rigors of whatever normal life is like for ghosts in the Ghost Zone, gives Danny a lingering stink eye. Clearly the last teacher, Mrs. Jamshidi (who barely lasted a month, and submitted her two-week notice while recovering in the hospital after an admittedly memorable encounter with Ember), had left notes behind for her successor. Danny doubted a single word of it was in his favor.

"This practical's worth a quarter of your grade this semester," Mr. Heppenheimer says in his usual droll way. "You're not going to make me regret handing you glassware, are you, Mister Fenton?"

Danny, still a bit sore and off-kilter after another Jack Fenton-approved growth spurt, grins down at him. "No, sir."

Mr. Heppenheimer hums doubtfully. Clearly Mrs. Jamshidi had left extensive notes. "Don't make me regret this."

"Short of a ghost attack, I doubt you will," Danny answers truthfully. He really has gotten a much better control on his powers since the last time any science teacher let him near anything fragile, well over a year ago now. Mrs. Gorman hated him from the start for reasons he never figured out, anyway. He's looking forward to a fresh start.

Of course, worryingly enough Danny’s been sensing a pretty powerful ghost lurking around Casper High for over a week now. Along with the usual big green beasties that like to come sniffing around crowds of humans, which he’s had to dip out to handle three times now. No one’s noticed his on-going ghost sense, though it helps that he’s long-since gotten into the habit of keeping one hand cupped lazily over his mouth—just in case. That’ll be harder to pass off here in a practical lab, but there ought to be a lot of things bubbling and steaming soon. He just has to be careful until he’s got some cover.

Mr. Heppenheimer hums again, more dismissive than doubtful, and lets him approach the counter. His partner in this practical is Star, which is—randomized, definitely. Whatever, also definitely. He and Star have as much in common as him and an actual star, which is to say—nothing. He doesn't even generate heat anymore, not really. He's got a modified Maddie Fenton-approved belt buckle that lets him fake it, but it's not remotely the same thing, and not a

ll that convincing at close quarters anyway. Star, at least, knows him well enough that she's been bringing a mint green cardigan to class ever since they were assigned project partners.

Danny, well-aware he’s only good in the eyes of his peers for a laugh and anti-ghost tech, smiles thinly at Star and gestures at her to take the lead. She sniffs pointedly and does just so, which is fine with him. She's well on her way to valedictorian, whereas he's just trying to graduate. If deferring to whatever she wants gets him a passing grade, sure! He'll do whatever she says and accept whatever belittling comment she tacks on along with it. No skin off his back, right?

About twenty minutes into class there's a magnificent crash of glass that puts Danny 110% on edge; it's only Sam appearing at his left with a reassuring hand on his arm that keeps him from blasting a hole through the wall out of pure reflex. Which, maybe, possibly, likely says something about his state of mind after three straight years of fighting the kind of monsters that don't have any place outside of his very worst nightmares, but—whatever. Point is, thanks to Sam, he doesn't trash the lab or draw any unwanted attention to himself, both of which are good things! Another point in his favor: it’s finally somebody else’s turn to destroy a whole tray of beakers.

"Miss—Gray!" Mr. Heppenheimer shouts after a brief glance at the clipboard Danny hasn't seen him put down in the two weeks since he took the job. "What's the meaning of this?!"

"S-sorry!" Valerie stammers, her eyes firmly on the mess at her feet. Her project partner, Wes, is scowling at Danny. Likely because he believes the mess is entirely his fault. Wes can believe whatever he likes; just because he's the only one not fully in on The Big Secret who figured out The Big Secret out doesn't make him automatically right 100% of the time. Case in point: now. Danny's only touched his notebook, where he's got three pages of dutifully written notes on what Star's tasked him to write as she did all the metaphorical heavy lifting. He could swear on a stack of Bibles that this latest chemistry accident doesn't have a thing to do with him. It’s kind of refreshing, honestly.

Mr. Heppenheimer hums again. It seems to be his default over all the loud swearing he'd obviously prefer to be doing. "Clean it up. And do be careful, Miss Gray. I'd prefer to avoid sending anyone to the nurse's office today if I can help it."

"I—yeah. Yes, sorry." Valerie dashes off to the closet where all the safety-slash-cleaning gear is stashed to fetch cat litter, broom, and dustpan. Star scoffs on Danny's right, while Sam, hand still firmly squeezing Danny's bicep, has a worryingly thoughtful scowl on.

"Valerie has been such a mess since her dad lost his job," Star remarks in the usual scathingly cruel A-lister tone.

"He got his job back." Danny points out as he tries to shrug Sam off without making a big deal of it.

"So?" Star's tone has shifted from scathing to incredulous, which means she somehow didn't know something Danny's known since the tail end of their freshman year. It's admittedly bizarre to find himself able to lord some classmate gossip over an A-lister, but—with a glance at Sam to confirm it is, in fact, cool to lord this gossip over an A-lister—he gives Star a slow, sly grin as he gestures her closer. She leans in without an ounce of self-restraint or disgust, which means Danny's moved higher up the food chain since the last time he bothered to pay any attention.

"Valerie's dad used to be some bigwig in Axion Labs," he says, one eye on Sam and the other on Tucker, both of whom in turn are watching the teacher and the rest of the class. Just in case. "After Vlad—uh. Vladco, I mean—took over the company, Mister Gray got his position back despite Phantom screwing him over, and it's been smooth sailing for him ever since."

The sound of Valerie sweeping up broken glass gets discordantly loud, somehow. Danny doesn't have to look at her to know she's glaring daggers at him. He sets his shoulders and sticks the angle of his nose twenty degrees snootier, mostly to spite whatever murderous and/or weepy glower Valerie might be trying to laser into his soul. Which, whatever. He knows the shape of his own soul by now. He knows it's Phantom, plus or minus some degree of fiery white hair and green-tinged skin.

A bit of the old guilt niggles in the back of his head though. Accident or not, it was Phantom who cost Mr. Gray his job in the first place and Vlad who gave it back. And Vlad only did it at all once he realized his favorite little ghost fighting minion would be a better thorn in Phantom’s side if she didn’t have to work a part-time job at the Nasty Burger. Which—well. Danny’s glad she doesn’t have to deal with that anymore, for all that it does make her a better thorn in his side.

But—guilt. Dumb guilt, but on his plate all the same. He manages to edge the conversation to some other Gossip with a capital G that even Star's not aware of. Oh the things a guy can hear when he can literally turn invisible. It's kind of fun, honestly, to fill her in. The rest of the hour is spent hissing old-as-shit hearsay that still manages to make Star's eyes light up like she's watching Paulina’s favorite cabin burn down again. They do, somehow, manage to get their project pushed along to step three, which will pick up with the rest of all the normal and unobtrusive partnered projects tomorrow. He's not sure which of them is to thank for that, but he is more than a little pleased with how neatly he wrote their notes. It's the most like a regular student he's felt in months. It's honestly pretty great!

"We have a problem," Tucker hisses no less than five seconds and no more than ten after the bell rings. It's that perfect middle ground time of everyone shoving all their shit into their bags so they can bolt out the classroom door as fast as normal-humanly possible, so it's also that perfect middle ground time of nobody paying the three of them the least bit of attention.

"You noticed too?" Sam asks with her usual omniscient scowl. Danny truly and whole-heartedly wishes she'd stop with that, but he's yet to find an opportunity where he can say that to her face without coming across as a total shitheel, including now, so he grits his teeth and raises a pointedly baffled eyebrow at the both of them.

"Noticed what?" He asks with a patience he hasn't actually felt since junior high.

"Valerie's—" Tucker does a casual look around to see if anyone's close enough to eavesdrop, intentionally or no, which means this is a Phantom Thing. And if this is something Phantom and Valerie related? Yeah, no, he's in too good a mood for whatever latest gadget or trick Vlad might be cooking up via Valerie.

He holds up a hand with a sigh he automatically pretends is a yawn to cover up the blue wisp that escapes with it. "Can this wait? Better yet, can we just—not? At least for today? I'm really not up for counter-scheming."

"No need for that," Tucker assures way too quickly. The nervous laugh he follows it up with really doesn't help.

"Right," Danny says wryly, but motions to let them talk. Sam and Tucker share one of those weird non-verbal psychic looks where they have a whole conversation in the span of two seconds that goes right over Danny's head. He wishes they’d stop doing that, but if he called them out on it they’d deny it loudly, and it’d be a whole thing, and—ugh.

"Valerie's acting weird," Tucker says once they've finished. "As in, 'we definitely need to intervene' weird."

"Possessed?"

"No. But this might be worse."

"But this isn't the first time she made a mess in class,” Sam says.

Danny slips his one (1) notebook and one (1) pencil into his bag. He's learned the hard way to pack light and get real good at shorthand, as well as keep all his textbooks down in the Fenton dungeon where they're least likely to get torched in a ghost fight. Again. "Isn't it?"

"Nope," Tucker says as they make their way to the door. Danny's sure to give Mr. Heppenheimer some ever-so-slightly iridescent stink eye of his own to make him flinch, and then doubt himself for flinching. One good turn, and all that. "Seventh actually. Third a teacher noticed, but she's been weirding out a lot of the other students."

Danny grunts, more interested in shouldering other people out of the way to make it easier for Sam and Tucker to squeeze out into the hall. Hey, may as well get some mileage out of being one of the tallest guys in school, right?

Sam touches his elbow to make sure she's got his attention while they make their way to their next classes. She's got sign language, Tucker's got photography, and Danny's got a free hour to nap in the auditorium ceiling. "She's constantly dropping things, she's always shivering, every lie I've heard her tell a faculty member has been total nonsense, she hasn't gone after a single ghost in almost two weeks—"

"Well, that would explain why there's been an uptick in my fifth period snake-wrangling," Danny remarks dryly, then grins nastily at some girl giving him a serious case of side-eye. She squeaks—actually squeaks!—and ducks behind some broad-shouldered guy in an eye-wateringly neon football jersey.

Tucker wacks his other elbow, scowling up at him. "Dude, this is serious."

"I haven't heard a reason to care yet."

He doesn't have to look to see they're doing another round of psychic Concerned About Our Bestie back-and-forth. Sam's the one who trips him—damn her preference for steel-toed boots—but it's Tucker who shoves him into a nook between two battered banks of lockers. "Danny," they both snap.

He blinks down at them expectantly, staying quiet. Hey, they're the one's worried about the badass ghost fighting black belt who would love nothing more than an opportunity to strap Phantom down to an operating table and go wild with a cattle prod. He's just trying to graduate. Preferably with all his teeth.

"Valerie is acting just like you did freshman year," Sam hisses. "Right after the you-know-what."

Danny barks laughter. "Yeah, right."

Sam and Tucker remain stone-cold serious. Worse, they look worried.

They wouldn't suggest something so crazy without a lot of thought put into it.

Fuck.

It's another two days before Danny gets a good—"good"—opportunity to talk to Valerie one-on-one. During that time he sees first-hand no less than 37 incidents of irrefutable acts of half-ghost-hood. How nobody else—including that ass, Wes!—has caught on yet is nothing short of a miracle. Valerie cut ties with every other person in their graduating class after some disastrous party embarrassment Danny never cared enough to find out the details of secondhand. She's kept her head down and her teeth bared at anybody who’s tried to meet her halfway, and it seems everyone's accepted the fact that Valerie Gray is the second worst delinquent in the entire school.

(The first is him, naturally.)

He corners her three minutes before the bell to end lunch will ring. He's got calculus next—an unexpected good turn in his life that still makes him giggle every time he actually has time to do his homework—and she's got English. They can't afford to skip either class, but hey, you only half-die once, right?

She scowls up at him, twitching her head out of a habit she's not yet broken. She only shaved her head a month ago. He's still reeling over how good she looks, and also how much it makes her look like the awesome older Valerie from the horrible future where he and Vlad ghost-melded and murdered a dismayingly large number of humans. If that future is still somehow lingering out there in the tangled fabric of spacetime like a bad hangnail, he’s pretty sure that Valerie died, fullstop.

He’d like it if he could do something to help this Valerie not die, fullstop.

She scowls up at him harder. "What do you want?"

He allows himself another couple seconds to just—bask. Yes, she's hot as hell, and if they were both normal humans she could easily break him over her knee like a fistful of kindling. He's not yet gotten an inch of the Fenton width. He's basically all elbows, and it's now all but impossible to find shoes in his size. It's great, really, just super.

Mostly though, he holds his breath and lets his ghost sense settle in a chilly, wriggly knot in his lungs. How the hell did he not realize she was the cause before now?

He smiles down at her. It becomes immediately apparent that this is the worst possible thing he could have chosen to do. He stops smiling. Somehow that's worse.

"We need to talk," he says, and immediately wants to hit himself. Has daytime television not taught him anything? That's the worst thing he could have said!

"I don't think so," she says, and tries to edge past him. He catches her elbow—

—and she's got him smashed up against a classroom door before he can even blink.

"Uh," they say at the same time. He feels one of her hands go ice cube cold against his skin. Since it's him and not a normal person, it's far more likely her hand just dropped to some negative three-digit temperature. If he were human, he'd be at risk for frostbite. As he's not, it's more like a refreshing breeze. He swears he even gets a whiff of the Ghost Zone off of her; like a hard shock of static on his tongue in a midnight snowfall. It's... nice. Is that what he smell-feels like?

Hmm. Distracting himself. Best to stop doing that.

She realizes after too long a beat of awkward silence that one of her arms has gone full-ghostly, and springs back with a half-hysterical yelp. He turns around to look at her again, rolling his shoulder out of a long habit of pretending that Dash trying to rough him up actually feels like anything. She looks—

Well. Kind of like some kind of frazzled toy dog that's had to deal with way too many idiot humans manhandling her, and like she's pissed that all the finger-biting she's tried has only gotten her a bunch of braindead cooing. Danny finds himself sympathizing, and also like maybe he needs to vent to somebody else aside from Cujo on their 3 a.m. Thursday walkies. He considers several facial expressions he could make at her, dismisses all of them, and settles on upping the grimacing and shoulder-rolling. It sort of works? She looks guilty, which is honestly one of the better reactions she could be leveling at him right now.

"We really do need to talk, actually," he says, feigning an apologetic tone while pretending very hard he hasn’t noticed her left arm suddenly stops at the elbow.

"Pretty sure we don't," she retorts.

He makes a show of rolling his eyes, and then a show of looking pointedly at her invisible arm. She looks down at herself, does a double-take, yelps again, and hides both of her arms behind her back as she makes several stammering attempts at a believable excuse. Danny winces, torn between sympathy and secondhand embarrassment. Sam was right; this is exactly how he stumbled his way through the first six months of figuring out his powers. At least he had the benefit of a couple of friends and eventually Jazz too to help cover his tracks. Valerie's on her own. She's going to get found out at this rate, and accidentally or not she will drag him and Vlad down with her.

"It's okay," he says calmly.

"Everything's fine I don't know what you're talking about!"

He looks at her, unimpressed, until she looks appropriately embarrassed. "Let's try this again," he says, and puts both hands up to stall when she goes to retort. "Please?"

She purses her lips, huffing through her nose, but nods. Good enough.

"You're not okay," he tells her. "You're freaking out because something crazy happened to you, and you don't have anybody to turn to for answers without risking everything. You think you're a monster, or that you're dead, or you're dying, or some shitty combination of all of the above. You're scared because you can't control what's happening, and you're scared because you know you're gonna get caught at this rate, and you're scared because you know exactly what the GIW does to the ecto-entities it manages to get its hands on, because you're the reason half the ghosts that frequent Amity Park have done time in a GIW containment cell. Right?"

Valerie stares.

She keeps staring.

Eventually her mouth starts making some feeble attempt at protest.

A while after that she musters up the stamina to stammer out, "W-whahaaat are you talking about? I think you've got—ha! The wrong idea! Yeah! I bet you're thinking I'm, uh. Um. Possessed! Yes! I'm definitely possessed! You caught me, oh fuck, I'm definitely just another one of Walker's goons—nobody important though! No nefarious schemes going on either, honest! I just, uh, wanted to take a human… out for a spin? Yes, that’s what I’m doing. You definitely don't need to say anything to your parents—"

"Valerie," he says.

Her mouth snaps shut so hard her teeth click. She looks terrified, furious, and miserable all at once. She looks like she knows she's cornered, caught red-handed, and like she fully expects Danny to rat her out. Does she really think so little of him?

He winces inwardly. Of course she does. She's kept him at arm's length since freshman year because he never owned up the truth to her. She's been protecting him from himself all this time by staying away. She only knows the front he puts on for everybody else.

The bell rings. In a matter of seconds this hallway is going to be packed with students, and this is not a conversation to risk anyone overhearing. He looks around. Their options are to either continue this wedged in a janitor's closet (she'd probably shoot him), ghost her up to the roof (she'd definitely shoot him) or duck into a classroom. Luck's on his side for once. He'd cornered her just outside the wreckage of the wood shop; it's not going to be fit to teach in until after they graduate, and even the other, regular delinquents know better than to hang out anywhere with that much Fenton ectobiological hazard caution tape.

He nods toward the door. "Please?"

She looks like she'd much rather go toe-to-tail with Desiree, but the sound of a crowd surging their way decides for her. She bolts for the door, Danny at her heels, and they're in and hidden out of sight before anyone could see them go. He watches through a small hole in a stretch of opaque plastic sheeting, patiently waiting for the rest of the school to disperse into their various classrooms. There're too many holes in the wood shop's walls to risk talking even with all the noise out there.

Eventually the hall outside quiets. The late bell rings. It's about as safe as it'll ever get to have this talk.

"I can explain," she begins, her voice quiet and shaken.

"You don't have to," he says, and turns on the scary eyes as he faces her.

Three years of fighting nightmare monsters hasn't done Valerie the right kind of favors either. A metal cube materializes over her shoulder and flares brightly as it powers up a shot. She in turn steps smoothly into a defensive stance, light humming up and down her as she... doesn't pull her ghost-fighting suit out of the spectral hammerspace it sloughs off to whenever she doesn't need it. He blinks. He looks at the cube properly once it becomes clear she isn't going to shoot him. The light coming off it isn't pink anymore, but the same ghost-green as his own powers.

"Explain," she growls.

Probably not a good time for jokes. He keeps his serious face on, scary eyes and all. "I was in an accident freshman year. My parents couldn't get their ghost portal to work. They got lax about not letting Jazz and I down there unsupervised. I took Sam and Tucker down there one afternoon while they were out. One thing led to another, and I accidentally got their portal to work. While I was standing inside it."

She winces. Not like Jazz or Wes did when he stammered out the story to them just so they'd stop asking. Not in sympathy as they tried to imagine what that would have felt like and falling a thousand miles short (not that he ever said so). She gives him the same look he's seen in the mirror every time a bad dream of that day grabs him by the throat and shocks him awake. She knows.

"Don't shoot," he jokes weakly, and reaches for that cold spark that shares the same illogical, impossible space as his heart.

Another three cubes appear in a neat arc over her head when he changes, not that he blames her. She's just found out she dated her sworn enemy once upon a time. He's definitely surprised she doesn't shoot. She does go a bit deer in the headlights again, but more like a ghost deer that's just as likely to shoot lasers as it might bolt into traffic. "I," she tries. "You. You're. The whole goddamn time?!"

"Okay," he says. "Point of order. Cujo really wasn't my dog yet when I got your dad fired. That was an accident and I'm still very, very sorry about that."

Her eyes go ghost-red. "You wanna try that again?"

He sucks air in through his teeth, sighs out another blue wisp. She's doing it too. Has been the whole conversation actually, and plenty of other times before. He wonders if she's figured out what it means yet. He adds it to the list he's mentally compiling, keeps his hands up, and starts running his mouth as contritely as he can.

The sun's almost set by the time Danny's really, truly, fully convinced Valerie not to turn him into the half-ghost equivalent of Swiss cheese. He's so hungry he feels like he's nursing a gut wound, but he thinks it's the smart choice to not suggest talking all of this out over dinner. It's not like his allowance (and black hole of an appetite) would pay for more than clearing out the dollar menu at Jack-in-the-Box, and no way is he stupid enough to suggest Valerie pay. So he remains perched on one of the few remaining tables left in the wood shop, still in Phantom mode mostly to watch Valerie grind her teeth. She's sitting cross-legged on another table, cubes and scary eyes gone. She's reached the fun sort of balance between bone-tired exhaustion and impotent frustration with no good outlet that isn't the kind of violence that will draw a lot of unwanted attention. She sits there and stews awhile, turning over everything he's told her.

He pulls out his phone—tossing her a wry grin when she flinches—and lets her stew. He shoots out a "safe, taking longer than a thought it would" into the group chat he's got with Sam, Tucker, and Jazz. Tucker lets him know he's rooting for him, and also they handled the Box Ghost's usual afternoon showing with a game of checkers, and Wulf's in town avoiding Walker again. Sam reminds him to work on his book report if Valerie doesn't skin him alive first. He shoots back a neutral affirmative to them both, then pulls up Bubble Blaster to kill time until Valerie feels like talking—

"It was two weeks ago," she starts.

Danny resists the urge to sigh and pockets his phone again. Well, he mimes pocketing his phone. It sort of phases into that weird imaginary skin between his halves with a buzz of protest. When he changes back it'll be in his back right pocket, fully charged.

"Mister Masters," she pauses to make this really complicated grimace, like she'd sort of prefer calling Vlad something like Captain Fuckface but she's too polite to do it aloud. Danny makes a mental note to call Vlad exactly that the next time they run into each other. The fruitloop'll make a hilarious noise, he just knows it. "Mister Masters sent me info on another job. He told me some of his employees at Axion Labs had reported some ghost sightings, and my dad had mentioned seeing some weird stuff too, so. So I snuck out and went to go check it out. It didn't sound like anything bad, just. Y'know. Another ghost."

Two weeks ago her tone would have been one of complete, dismissive disgust. Two weeks ago she was still human though. Danny stays quiet, which is probably the smart thing to do.

"There was something on my radar when I got there. I thought it was gonna be you, honestly—" She glares, a flicker of red coloring her eyes. He shrugs and gives her a charming grin that's all, Who, me? She doesn't buy it for a second, not that he expected her too. Two weeks ago Vlad was being a real prick though, setting all sorts of nasty ghoulies he'd Frankenstein'd in his super gross secret lab loose in the downtown area. Danny's honestly not sure if he got any sleep for like, four straight days. There was a lot of doctored coffee involved, by which he means the kind of coffee a regular human couldn't drink without requiring a fairly immediate trip to the ER.

(Tucker Foley tested.)

"Most of the reports were from some department I've never heard my dad talk about, and it's all three levels underground. If Technus hadn't juiced my suit up again I don't think I could've gotten down there—"

That's an alarm bell Danny super doesn't like the sound of. "Again?"

She waves her hand dismissively that's all, So last year, honey, try and keep up. "Doesn't matter. Point is, I got down there, and it—well. It looked like the Fen—uh. Your parents' lab. Kind of identical, actually. In a kinda creepy way."

Yeah, that's Vlad all over. Kinda creepy and not all that original. Oh well. He raises his eyebrows pointedly.

"Uh. Well, my radar went crazy down there, but I still couldn't get a real bead on anything. So I went poking around and found the framework of this—well, portal. I didn't realize it was a portal though, since it didn't look like the one in your parents' lab. It was standing on its own in the middle of the room, covered in cables—"

"Ours is a mess too," he points out. "You can't tell unless it's off though. I'm not really sure where all those cables and weird hunks of tech go while it's on...."

She gives him a look like she's regretting not shooting him earlier. He does the smart thing by not pointing out that shooting him is still very much on the table, and that if history's anything to go by she's a huge fan of shooting him. He can't help but think that opinion might, just possibly, if he's very lucky, have changed in the last couple of hours. Fingers crossed? Those cube cannon things hurt like a bitch.

"I was looking around that thing because it was freaking my radar out when Plas—Mister Masters showed up."

He reels a bit. She must've expected it, because it's her turn to raise her eyebrows pointedly. "Wait," he says, holding his hands up in a time out T. "Wait a minute. You knew he's Plasmius? The whole goddamn time?!"

"No," she snaps. "Only after Danielle."

"That's nearly the whole goddamn time. What the hell, he's been lording you over me as a reason not to blab the truth for years. For fuck's sake, Valerie—"

"You wanna maybe shut up and let me finish, ghost kid?"

He scowls. She scowls back, plus scary eyes. He's pretty sure she's not doing it intentionally, so the effect's not as impressive as it could be. Red continues to be a great color for her though, not that he's dumb enough to say that.

"Plasmius showed up, blasted me into the portal, and hit the switch before I could do anything," she bites out, hunching in on herself like she's wishing the ground would swallow her whole—aaaand there she goes, sinking through the table. He clears his throat loudly, she realizes what's going on and ends up flailing around like an idiot for a few seconds until her body gets physical enough to stay put.

"Sam was right," he muses. "This is entertaining."

"Fuck you," she snaps without much venom. Mostly she sounds tired.

He sighs, hating himself a little for reasons he's not gonna explore right now. He's too hungry for introspection. "Did he evil-monologue why he did that to you?"

"A little. I was kinda out of it, after." She grimaces, gesturing at herself. "I didn't catch all of it. Something about being a distraction for you, though I didn't know that he meant you at the time."

"Oh goodie, this evil plot has layers, and ruining your life is apparently a fucking footnote." He scrubs his face with both hands and changes back into his plain Jane self. Valerie twitches badly, eyes flashing red and a fun eye-watering white shimmer shivering up her whole body. Huh. "Hey, have you tried changing back since that asshat zapped you?"

"Of course not," she hisses, looking at him like he just suggested she go streaking through the administration office. "I'm trying to keep a low profile while I figure out a way to fix what he did to me."

Ah, hell.

"I'm sorry," seems the smart thing to start with. He hops off the table, hands up where she can see them as he approaches her. He takes a risk at reaching for her hands. She surprises him again by continuing to not shoot him. "I'm really, really sorry. But there's no fixing this. You just get—better at being this." He squeezes a little when she starts shaking her head and pulling away, amping up the 'I'm sorry for your loss' face he's had to get way too good at. Superhero, he ain't. "I'm serious. Vlad's been like me—like us—since like, '85 or whenever he got zapped by a proto-portal, and he got really sick after."

Her eyes go big and laser pointer red again. "S-sick?"

"Ecto-acne. Ever hear of it?" She shakes her head. "You'll probably be okay, if Axion's portal is based on my parents' portal, or even Vlad's."

"He has a portal?"

"In Wisconsin," he confirms grimly. "He's been trying to build a second one ever since he moved here, but I kept messing with him. I didn't think to check the basements of any of his evil companies."

"Axion Labs isn't evil," she retorts instead of doing the sensible thing and blaming him outright for the shit she’s mired in for keeps.

He raises an eyebrow. "Sure. And Invis-o-Bill really is hellbent on establishing a ghost-human empire capital in Amity fucking Park."

She winces.

"Wait. You didn't actually believe that, did you?"

She winces harder.

"Ohhhh Valerie," he sighs, dropping her hands to melodramatically sag against another table. "I'm wounded. Honestly, truthfully, hurt that you'd think so highly of fucking Invis-o-Bill. Haven't you been paying attention to the shit the gossip mags shill about me? I'm either a ghost blob with delusions of grandeur in a skinsuit or the ostracized son of Pariah Dark and Desiree. You don't think my evil ghost parents have been around enough to teach me how to be a good evil emperor, do you?"

She's trying—and failing—not to laugh. "Shut up. How was I supposed to know what to believe, huh? None of the ghosts ever say shit about you."

"Yeah, 'cause they're cool with keeping my secret!"

She presses forward to jab a finger in his chest. She's still kind of flicker-y at the edges, like she hasn't quite decided she isn't going to go full ghost hunter on him, so it sort of feels like another hard burst of static. Goosebumps break out all down his skin; it's all he can do not to shiver. "What's with that, anyway? Most of 'em are so hellbent on destroying you for stopping them again and again, but none of them have ever come blabbing your big life-ruining secret to me or your parents!"

He shrugs. "Honestly? I don't think it's ever occurred to any of them. I'm pretty sure Skulker's the only one who knows like, for sure that Vlad's the same as me, and that's only 'cuz he likes to take jobs from Vlad now and then. The others?" Another, more expansive shrug as he slides sideways out of her range. So she makes him uneasy. What about it? She's only shot him point blank like, five hundred times if she's done it once. He'd really like to get out of this whole situation without any new burns to hide.

"Huh," she says. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. It's not—I dunno. I think it'd be like cheating for most of 'em to go blabbing to some humans or even Vlad. They wanna take me down, sure, but they wanna do it on their own steam. I'm definitely not complaining."

"Course you're not, because you are ludicrously overpowered compared to most of the ghosts out there itching for a little world domination."

He grins down at her, big and sloppy. "Hey, give it some time and you'll be OP as fuck too."

She reacts to that little nugget of wisdom just like he expected her to; retreating halfway across the room and shrinking in on herself like she's dearly wishing for a bit of time travel to undo what Vlad did to her on a selfish whim. Well. A conversation with Clockwork is an option still on the table. He'll give her a few more days of adjustment before suggesting a fun little jaunt into the Ghost Zone. He's honestly not sure if Clockwork and her are properly acquainted. That should be good for a laugh if nothing else.

"Hey," he says companionably. "I mean it. You're gonna be okay."

She scoffs. He pretends not to hear the dampness to it. "Oh, sure. So long as I do exactly what you say, right?"

"This isn't blackmail," he says, injecting as much calm as he can to his voice. "Honest. I mean, I won't lie and pretend I'm not hoping you listen to me. If you get found out it's both of our necks on the chopping block. Sure, I'll make sure Vlad takes the fall too, so that's some nice revenge wrapped with a bow, but it's not like we'd be around to really appreciate it, y'know?"

She makes another, slightly damper noise. He considers the risk of hugging her against the risk of walking away with all his parts where they ought to be, and he decides the smart thing is to stay put and pretend right along with her that she's definitely not crying.

"I want to help you, Valerie. I've been where you're at. I know how much it sucks. And I had Sam and Tucker helping me while I tried to figure it all out. You... you need somebody to help you. Trust me on this much at least, okay? This isn't something you can do alone."

Her various damp noises evolve into an outright sob. "Fuck."

Yeah. That about sums it up.

"Fuck," she hisses out again, pawing roughly at her face. "This. I didn't want—all this time and you never—I coulda killed you but you didn't—and now I'm—!"

Okay. Yeah. Superheroes don't leave anybody to cry so miserably on their own. He's hardy. Even if she shoots him he can hang out, make sure she's okay to get home on her own. And they both skipped their last two classes. He ought to go rummage around their teachers' desks and try to figure out what tonight's homework is. She's got every reason to burn her textbooks and scream fuck it at the moon (Danny's sophomore year was a personal low point), and it's just as likely Skulker will pull some new scheme to try and skin him tonight as any other school night, but it's the principle of the thing. They're both just trying to graduate at this point, and they're so close.

It might seem so incredibly, completely stupid, to care about graduating with all the other bullshit in their lives. Most days, it is stupid to care. But there are some days that stupid, pointless piece of paper is the only reason Danny chooses to get out of bed. He chooses to remember that he's still human enough for human consequences. He needs that diploma to get into college, and he needs to get into college so he can earn his bachelor's, and he needs to be stable enough to earn his pilot's license, and then somehow net 1,000 hours as pilot-in-command in a fucking jet, and on and on and on, because there's still this stupid, stupid, stupid little voice in his head that won't shut up about how cool it'd be to actually manage to become an astronaut despite—

—everything.

He wants to ask what Valerie wanted to be when she grew up, but that's... not now. That's a conversation for later, if he's lucky enough that she'll trust him with that little, foolish dream every kid clings to even when they're loudly proclaiming how stupid it is. Everybody grows up and realizes how stupid the dream jobs they wanted when they were kids was; it's the real dreamers that grit their teeth and keep working despite—

—everything.

He takes the risk, the leap of faith. He closes the distance between them and plays a pattern across her shoulder to warn her he's coming in for a hug. No cubes or guns or accidental ecto-rays materialize to blast him into next week, so he calls it a win and finishes the deed. She's all hunched shoulders and hard fingers knotted in his shirt, hot tears and probably some snot at war with how neutrally temperature-wise the rest of her feels. Everybody else—everybody human—feels hot as a sunburn if he gets too close. Ghosts are still too cold, though thanks to his handy-dandy ice powers none of them are ever cold enough to hurt like humans do.

Here and now, hugging Valerie and whispering soft, pointless bullshit into her frizzy hair is the closest to human he's felt in—

—in too long.

"I'm sorry," she says.

"Don't be," he replies, instead of Me too.

"Thank you," she says.

"Nothin' to thank me for," he replies, instead of You should be blaming me for this.

"I'm scared," she says.

"It's going to be okay," he replies, and means it.

It's almost nine by the time he makes it to Sam's house, and he's so hungry he tunnel visions twice on the flight over. Lucky him, his friends and secret keepers know how bullshit his anatomy is, and there's a veritable buffet awaiting him when he gets there. Luckier him, his friends and secret keepers know better than to try and hold a Serious Conversation when he's like this, and leave him alone for the better part of 20 minutes before they both start loudly clearing their throats.

He slows his flawless imitation of a combine harvester long enough to muster a, "Hngh?"

Sam and Tucker waste precious moments he could be upping his calorie count with another psychic conversation that they're clearly both enjoying. He scowls, for all the good it'll do him.

"How'd it go?" Sam asks.

"Well," he says, setting his fork down to wipe his mouth with the back of his hand. Manners, schmmaners. "She didn't shoot me."

"Damn it," Tucker says loudly, and pulls out his phone.

"Seriously?" Danny asks.

"He owes Jazz twenty bucks," Same explains as Tucker begins a furiously-typed text. Danny suppresses the urge to shudder. Something about the haptic feedback on cell phones really sets him on edge. He genuinely doesn't know if it's a pet peeve or a ghost thing. Either way he always has to squash the insane urge to pitch Tucker's phone at the nearest brick wall, and right now that is an honest struggle.

"Seriously?" He repeats. "You bet against me?"

Tucker pauses long enough to level an incredulous glare at him. "Dude."

...yeah, okay. That's fair. Danny would've bet against himself too, if he'd known to.

"Rude," he says anyway, on principle.

Sam and Tucker both make a huge show of rolling their eyes, but at least Sam pushes another three slices of pizza in his direction. They even ordered in, so there's actual meat and cheese on it. He has the best friends a guy could ask for, even if Tucker is an ass nine times out of ten. Serves him right to lose 20 bucks, voting against him against his sister of all people.

"Details," Sam demands. "How's she doing, what happened, is she gonna stop trying to kill you, et cetera."

"Vlad happened," he manages through half a slice of pizza. Sam and Tucker both wince; Tucker hard enough he actually drops his phone.

"Fuck," Tucker hisses. "Why?"

"Dunno yet. And I dunno about you, but figuring out his latest scheme has definitely become number one on my honey do list."

They both nod. Tucker's the one to ask the important follow up. "And Valerie? How's she doing?"

He makes a seesaw motion with one hand. "Again, gotta stress the whole 'didn't shoot me' thing." He grins real sleazily while Tucker groans. "She's not great though. I foresee the next like, two months helping her out taking priority over all the usual ghost bullshit. Short of like, apocalyptic ghost attacks, of course."

"Fair," Sam and Tucker both say. Sam gives him a pointed capital L Look, going so far as to pull his plate a few inches away so he can better direct his instinctive growl at her. "She's not gonna rat, is she?"

"No," comes out more snarl-y than he means it to, but—pizza. Sam takes him at face value at least, and gives him his plate back, with an extra slice of meat lover's for good behavior. She's his favorite.

"We're gonna co-op," he adds, and pretends not to notice the Extraordinarily Concerned Psychic Look Sam and Tucker share over that bit of news. Whatever. They can stress over the idea of Valerie being included in their group. Him? He's gonna polish off the rest of this pizza, pull his one (1) notebook and one (1) pencil out of his bag, and he's going to get as much of a headstart on his homework before patrol as he can. If he actually manages to finish his two pages of grammar problems he's going to call it a great day. Anything else? Well, that's gravy so far as he's concerned.

He grins to himself a little, thinking of Valerie's new phone number burning a hole in his pocket. If anything toothsome decides to show up tonight he got the okay to text her. And honestly? For all that she's in the same bullshit hell as he, Vlad, and Elle are....

Well. It's probably shitty of him, but it's still nice to have an ally and friend in this half-ghost bullshit hell.

#danny phantom #my writing #valerie gray #gray ghost #phic phight 2020

352 notes · View notes

lanuvolanera · 3 years

Text

Sept 19th - Confession

Chapter 2

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

The nerve of that guy, coming in here all concerned, kissing her, then telling her what she can and can't do. Who the hell does he think he is?

Sam understands Danny's point fully and completely, what would be the point of getting in the way when you're already injured. But this is different, Sam knows for a fact that Danny and Tucker would be stuck without her. After all, she's the one with all the witchcraft and ritual knowledge, if that's what it's going to take to bring this ghost down.

From an early age, Sam has always been interested in that sort of thing, interested in the practices and holidays of different cultures.

Good thing all of this knowledge and fascination comes useful when dealing with the paranormal, not everything can be explained away by science.

After a few calming breaths, she notices that Danny has left his backpack and laptop in her room, so she busies herself putting them onto her dresser.

Climbing into bed, she huffs and collapses into her pillow. Tomorrow they might have different attitudes, maybe not, but for now, time to go to sleep.

Good luck with that.

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

The next morning, Sam gets her parents to call the school to inform them of her absence for the second day.

As far as Sam could tell, Pamela and Jeremy are still under the assumption that Sam had a nasty fall in PE the other day.

Her injury really isn't that bad, she can manage to walk. And so, she waits for her parents to leave for work that morning before getting ready to head to Skulk and Lurke.

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

It's midday and Danny and Tucker are in the cafeteria, minus Sam, in their usual corner, when Tucker decides to ask then and there.

"So."

"How did it go last night?" Tucker asks before taking a sip of his milk.

"We kissed."

That sip of milk Tucker had in his mouth at that point? He'd sprayed it all over the table. That's not quite the answer he was expecting.

"What the hell? That's great, isn't it? Why have you been bummed out all morning?"

Danny looks up at him, pain in his eyes. Guilt, more like.

"We had an argument." Danny looks back down.

"So you kissed her then had an argument with her? That's a great way to start off a romantic relationship."

"Hey, she said she's coming with us to the warehouse tonight and I told her no, its too dangerous, and she took it as an attack on her personality or something."

"Well duh, have you met Sam? Tucker says with a blank expression.

"What if she gets hurt again?"

"What if I get hurt? What if you get hurt? This is just the risk we have to take. How long have we been doing this now?"

"2 years"

"See, and we've been hurt before and managed to bounce back. Sam said so the other day, her injury isn't as bad as it looks. Hell, I don't want her coming with us but guess what? We need her."

Danny stays quiet for a moment.

"I just don't want to take the risk..."

"I know, dude." Tucker says, returning to his milk.

"I should apologise."

Tucker decides to change the subject, and so, he asks.

"What was it like?"

Danny looks back up with a slight confused expression, so Tucker elaborates.

"The kiss."

That earned a crimson blush dusting across Danny's cheeks, and he stutters.

"Oh, that? It was just- it was- uh..."

Tucker patted his hand on his friends shoulder.

"It was amazing, honestly. Nothing those fake out make outs could ever compare to..."

"Aww, look at you, lover boy." Tucker laughed, giving Danny another firm slap at the top of his back.

Soon the bell rings, signalling for the students to attend their next classes. The pair clear away their things and head out of the cafeterias exit, idly chatting about tonight's plan.

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

Sam manages to find a spare seat at the Skulk and Lurke, dumping the armful of books she'd picked off the shelves.

Glancing at the blurbs at the back of each book, Sam sorts them in the order of how promising these books sound, the more information she can get out of them, the better.

Sam glances up and who does she find?

Jazz spots her from the other side of the book store and waves. She begins her beeline over to Sam.

"Hey!" Jazz exclaims.

"Hey, Jazz. What are you doing here? This isn't your usual scene."

"I've come to check out some books on paranormal psychology." Figures. "Most of this stuff I've found are fictional but the imagination of these authors lead to interesting topics and questions on phychoanalysing ghosts and monsters. Great, huh?"

"Sure is."

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at school with Danny?"

"I'm off sick, actually." Sam says, lifting her leg up just so Jazz can see around the table leg.

"Oh. Shouldn't you be at home getting rest?" Jazz says with a stern yet concerned look on her face.

"I should but this is far more important."

"I see." Nothing gets past Jazz and her quizzical look, Sam can see the gears in her head turning.

"Why aren't you at school today?" Sam asks.

"Free period. Do you need help with anything?"

Sam glances between the books in front of her and back up to Jazz. Would it be so bad to let Jazz in on what Sam is trying to look for? Would Jazz be useful? Does she even know about all of the ritual and witchcraft stuff? Would she even be interested?

One way to find out.

"Sure."

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

Danny had called Sam that morning, like he promised.

It was brief, and maybe a little awkward, though the plans they made were clear.

Sam managed to find the book Tucker mentioned and agreed to meet both Danny and Tucker at the Nasty Burger after school, to tell them all she had learnt to formulate a plan of attack.

Thing is, she never mentioned to him that she'd be bringing Jazz along.

The final school bell sounded not too long ago, and Danny and Tucker were half way towards the Nasty Burger when Jazz pulls her car up beside them, with Sam in the passenger seat.

The boys scramble in, and before they know it, Jazz is pulling into the Nasty Burger car park.

Entering the fast food joint, the four spot a booth in the far corner and make their way over. Sam and Danny squeeze in on opposite sides closest to the window. Tucker and Jazz hang back a bit.

"Hey, do you wanna join the queue with me?" Jazz asks, and Tucker nods, leaving the pair in the booth alone.

"Did it feel a little awkward in the car? Or was it just me?"

"They got into a bit of a fight last night." Tucker cleared up jazz's confusion.

"Jeez, they should get a room already." Jazz remarks nonchalantly, to which Tucker bursts out in laughter, alerting other customers to their presence.

Back at the table, the deafening silence was getting a bit too much before Danny has had enough.

"Look, I'm sorry for upsetting you. Again. You just- you mean a lot to me."

Sam looks up at him from the book she has in front of her and sighs.

"I'm sorry, too. I understand where you're coming from, I get it. Just, trust me, okay?"

"Okay." Danny replies with a small smile.

Now that that's out of the way, Sam begins telling him about how she bumped into Jazz, and that she offered to help. Because, honestly, they need all the help they can get.

Tucker and Jazz arrive back at the table with enough food for all four, and Sam gets to work.

"So, I found the 'witchcraft untold' book, and the review was right, Tuck, it is like a work of fiction, though based on facts, which I've cross referenced from other books. And what I've found interesting was this recipe for containment."

Sam brandished the page in question so the other three occupants of the table have a good view.

"My idea is to use this recipe and form a trap. We're gonna need a few things, like crystals, smudge sticks and bait. If what it says in the book is true, the ghost will freeze in the spot of the trap for us to figure out what to do next."

"How long will the trap work for?" Jazz asks.

"As long as no one destroys the trap, the ghost should stay there until we're ready to deal with it."

"Okay, so if this is part one of the plan, what's the next part?" Danny asks.

"Has that book mentioned a way to dispell it from our plane?" Tucker chimes in.

"Wait, why can't you just use the Fenton thermos?" Jazz looked confused. She'd guessed it hasn't worked in some way other wise they wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation.

"We encountered it last night, we had to leave it alone before anyone else got hurt." Danny said, glancing up at Sam and away in sorrow.

"We think this ghost is a type we haven't run into before, the thermos had no effect." Tucker cleared up.

"Right." Jazz says in morbid understanding.

"Part two would be to perform this ritual I found in another book, sending the spirit to hell, essentially." Sam says

"Hell is real?" Tucker asks in bewilderment. They're so used to knowing the existence of the ghost zone, that they can't really comprehend any other forms of dimensions. Earth being the opposite side of the ghost zone and vice versa, where else are people in passing supposed to thrive?

"Hell in figurative terms, I guess in this sense, another version or in another area of the ghost zone, maybe?" Sam tries.

"Makes sense." Danny says. "So how do we do this ritual?"

#dp shiptember 2021 #danny phantom #sam manson #tucker foley #amethyst ocean

3 notes · View notes

damianwaynerocks · 4 years

Text

Ghosts in Gotham

Danny Phantom / DC Comics

Dedicated To: @psychovigilantewrites

Description: The Batfamily has been through their fair share of the supernatural. That’s why they originally weren’t worried whenever ghosts started showing up in Gotham City. Until one day, something happens; Batman is captured and taken into the Ghost Zone. With no way to go in there themselves, with no way to fight the ghosts inside, the bats decide to call the person who can; Danny Phantom. Together, Danny takes Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown and Damian Wayne into the Ghost Zone before the Batman is lost forever.

Word Count: 3523

Ch 1 Ch 2 Masterlist

Chapter 3:

Danny could deal with a lot.

He'd dealt with dying. He'd dealt with becoming a ghost. He'd dealt with ghosts trying to kill him. He'd dealt with finding out that his dad's best friend wasn't only a halfa like him, but that he wanted to get with his mom. He'd dealt with ghost prison. He'd dealt with finding out he'd been cloned. He'd dealt with finding a future in which everyone he loved was dead and he himself was evil. He'd even dealt with girls.

He thought he could deal with anything.

But being stuck a small space with Damian Wayne and Tim Drake?

He wasn't so sure he could deal with that.

"You incompetent creature, why on earth are you listening to a C-average oaf instead of me?"

"Because the 'oaf' has been here before. We haven't."

"I possessed more intelligence than you and Fenton combined whenever I was four years old, and I have memorized the Infi-map. I am completely capable of commanding this voyage."

Danny's eye twitched at the arguing. It was worse than he and Jasmine. "Does it ever end?" he asked Stephanie through gritted teeth. The blonde sighed.

"Damian feels like he has to prove that he's superior to Tim," she explained. "It's not my place to tell you exactly why, but it's true. And he knows exactly how to get under Tim's skin."

"So.. no?"

"No."

Danny groaned. "It's giving me a headache." He perked up as he saw the island in front of him. "Hey, guys," he said, "We're here."

They had reached the lair of Clockwork. Clockwork was the master of time and could see into any timeline and all of the possible outcomes. Danny had the idea of asking him if he could show them the moment in which Bruce Wayne had disappeared, in the hopes that they could see which ghost it was.

It was a long shot, but it was the only idea Danny could think of.

Tim and Damian had stopped their arguing, unbuckling their seat belts as Danny landed the Speeder on the grounds of the lair.

"So this guy can tell us who took Bruce?" Stephanie asked as she opened the door, stepping on to the ground. Danny nodded.

"Yeah. I can't promise he'll help, but it's our best bet."

The foursome walked towards the massive clocktower, Damian walking in step with Danny as he gripped his sword. Danny knocked on the door, and it opened with a creak.

"Hello, Danny," a voice said. "And hello, Bats." Clockwork floated down. He was a small ghost, purple in color with a darker purple cloak.

"Whaddup, Clockwork," Danny greeted. "Long time no see." He heard Stephanie laugh at the pun behind him and then heard her grunt as Damian elbowed her.

"It has not been long to me, Danny," Clockwork replied. His eyes drifted over the group. "What do you want?"

"I assume that you know, Time Master," Damian answered before Danny could open his mouth, stepping forward until he was right beside a swirling vortex, although his eyes remained on the ghost. "We are looking for my Father, and Phantom says you can help."

"Damian Wayne," Clockwork said curtly. "Son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al’ Ghul. I understand that you are worried about your father, but I would suggest you step back before you see something you don't want to."

Danny was surprised to see that Damian obeyed. He narrowed his eyes. Clockwork almost seemed... nervous? "What aren't you telling us?"

"You are indeed a smart boy," Clockwork chuckled, "I hope you also can deduce that you were not brought here on accident. I was originally going to go and tell you myself, however, I have seen that it would be better for you to have Stephanie Brown, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne at your side."

"What's wrong?"

"Something has happened," Clockwork turned around, clasping his hands behind on his back as he floated further off. "The Observants have underestimated your power," he turned back around, locking his gaze with Danny's. "The power you have not yet gained."

Danny's face paled. "You don't mean-"

"That is all I can say," the ghost interrupted. "Leave now. I have work to do. I have to stop a little boy with a powerful watch from destroying his timeline."

Danny, however, couldn't move. He was frozen, his eyes wide. There was no way. He was locked in a thermos, with no possible way for a ghost to escape.

Although, that ghost wasn't just any ghost.

"What do you mean by that?" Damian demanded. "Tell us more. Now."

Clockwork looked at the boy with humor in his eyes. "Mr. Wayne, you should not threaten me." He waved his hand. "Now go. You do not have much... time."

Danny shook his head and turned around, walking towards the exit in a trance-like state. With a glance at Clockwork, the others followed, with Damian at the rear. Before he could leave, Clockwork called his name.

"Damian, listen closely," he said, shifting into an older ghost as he spoke. "You will one day get an offer. It will be a tempting offer, one that you will not want to refuse," his eyes darkened. "Do not accept it."

Damian blinked, before strutting outside to follow the others, not responding to Clockwork's warning.

Tim, Stephanie, and Danny were already on the ship as Damian walked out. As he opened the door to step in, he tuned into the conversation.

"So, you're telling us that an evil version of you exists outside of time, and it has Bruce," Tim said slowly. Danny nodded.

"We call him Dark Danny. In the alternate timeline, he- or, I, I guess -watched our family die. He couldn't handle the pain and guilt, so he had Vlad Masters- bad guy, by the way, deck him if you ever see him at a rich-person party -turn him into a full ghost, getting rid of the human side completely. It drove him mad, and without his human side, he was the most powerful ghost in the Ghost Zone. He destroyed the world."

"How did you defeat him?" Damian asked, pulling a capri-sun out of his cooler as he listened. Danny ran a hand through his hair.

"I don't know. Dumb luck, honestly. I guess I have a power that he didn't get until years later, and it knocked him off his game so I could take him down." He grimaced. "I probably wouldn't have beat him if I hadn't surprised him. He took down all of the other ghosts in the Ghost Zone by that point,"

"He must've taken out the Justice League, too," Stephanie mused, crossing her arms. "You said you didn't see them anywhere, right? The only reason they wouldn't have been fighting him is if..." she trailed off.

"We can defeat him," Damian said, crushing the capri-sun in his hand as he finished. "If Phantom can defeat him, then with our help, we can, too."

"Yeah, but like I said, it was only because I surprised him," Danny pointed out.

"Then let's surprise him again," Tim said. He took out the Infi-map. "Danny, who's your worst enemy here? If we can get them to help, and that might knock Dark Danny off his game."

"Pariah Dark," Danny answered instantly. "But that's a terrible idea, trust me," he paused, thinking. "We do need backup, and I know of at least two who could help." He turned his body intangible before Tim could respond, and flew out of the Speeder. He landed in front of it, and putting both of his fingers in his mouth, he whistled. "Come here, Cujo!"

It took a few seconds, but a small green dog zipped in front of Danny, jumping in his arms and knocking him over. Danny smiled widely as he scratched behind Cujo's ears.

"Hey, little guy!" he laughed as the dog licked his face. "I missed you too! You down for an adventure?" Cujo barked, wagging his tail. "I'll take that as a yes," Danny said, phasing back into the Speeder.

"Guys," he said, setting the dog down. "I'd like you to meet Cujo, the best boy in the entire Ghost Zone."

Damian's eyes lit up behind his mask, kneeling down and hugging Cujo as the dog barreled into him, not paying attention as Tim spoke.

"Don't get me wrong, he's adorable, but he doesn't look like he can pack a punch," he said, watching the dog fondly.

"Trust me, he's a fighter," Danny assured him. Tim nodded.

"If you say so, but man, I wish I had a dog," He walked over to where Damian was, scratching Cujo's back. Damian scowled, pulling the dog closer.

"Get back, Drake, Cujo clearly prefers me over you."

"Damian, come on, you have so many pets and I don't have any-"

"You have Bart."

"Bart is not my pet-"

"He is the human version of an Australian Shepherd minus the intelligence-"

As the two bickered, Danny looked at Stephanie. "Damian likes animals?" Stephanie laughed.

"Oh you have no idea, he has a dog, a cat, a cow-"

"A cow?"

"His name is Bat-Cow!" Damian snapped from where he had begrudgingly let Tim hold the dog.

"I love everything about that," Danny laughed. "That's the best name." Damian looked at Tim with a smug look on his face.

"See, Drake? Bat-Cow is a great name."

"I never said it wasn't!"

Danny started to ask Stephanie a question before he heard a crash and the Speeder lurched to the side.

"We've been hit!" Tim yelled, jumping off of the floor and grabbing the Speeder's controls, trying to steady the craft. Danny merged out of the Speeder and narrowed his eyes as he saw the culprit.

A gray ghost in black armor with flaming hair sneered, his arm smoking from where he had shot the Speeder. "Whelp," he growled.

"Nice to see you too, Shorty!" Danny said in a mock-cheerful tone. "Here to kill me? Because you didn't have to shoot the ship, you could've just yelled 'I am Skulker, and you are my prey! Prepare to die!'" he lowered his voice as he imitated the bounty hunter. "And then I would say something witty back, and I would pound you into the ground."

"You aren't the only prey this time, Ghost Child." Skulker answered with a menacing grin.

"You after the Bats?" Danny asked with a raised eyebrow. "If you were trying to kill them, you did a crappy job of it. That blast didn't kill anyone."

"That's the point. I think it'd be fun to beat the proteges of Batman, so they need to be alive and able to fight." he pointed downwards, and Danny followed his gaze, before swooping down to follow.

Somehow, he hadn't noticed that the Speeder was plummeting down to the island below. While the Specter Speeder was durable enough to keep from dying on impact, he didn't want them to crash.

He hurled himself in front of the Speeder, and crossing his arms, made a force field that surrounding the Speeder. Danny grunted at the exertion, gritting his teeth as he tried to keep the force field surrounding the heavy ship.

The ship still crashed with a loud bang, leaving a large crater around it, but the ship itself was intact. Danny dropped his arms and fell to his knees, exhausted.

The door opened, and his three companions stepped out. "Nice one!" Stephanie praised, and Danny gave her a thumbs-up as he tried to catch his breath. He felt somebody nudge his shoulder, and he saw Damian standing above him with a capri-sun in his hand.

"Drink this," he said, handing Danny the drink. "Do not waste it. I can destroy you."

"Thanks," Danny panted as he poked the straw into the pouch. Damian nodded stiffly.

"Hate to interrupt," Tim said, helping Danny to his feet. "But that that Iron Man wannabe is headed this way."

Danny finished his drink and threw it over his shoulder as his fists lit up with a green aura, ignoring Damian's huff of protest at the littering.

Skulker chuckled as he cracked his knuckles. "Well, look at that," he sneered, "Not a scratch on you! I'm impressed."

"You? Impressed? Who would've thought," Danny said, narrowing his eyes.

Tim pulled out a bo-staff, twirling it around as Damian unsheathed his sword. Stephanie moved to stand beside Danny as she gripped her eskrima sticks.

"Oh, you will soon be impressed yourself," Skulker said as his arms morphed into guns. "You see, I-" he was cut off with a grunt as Danny rushed forward and sent a strong right-hook into his face.

Skulker flew back a few yards before finding his feet again. He glared at Danny. "That was low even for you Ghost Boy. Interrupting me I monologue."

Danny shrugged. "What can I say? It’s the same reason why I’m failing Chemistry; I have a short attention span.” He grinned. "But he doesn't!"

While they had been talking, Damian had managed to get behind Skulker. He jumped into the air, drop-kicking the ghost, sending him to the ground with a thud. Danny picked Skulker up and gave him an uppercut, launching him into the sky.

Skulker shook his head, steadying himself, and shot a barrage of ectoblasts at the four heroes below. Danny made his body intangible while the others, used to being shot at, dodged the blasts with ease. Tim shot his grappling hook at Skulker, wrapping the cord around his leg and pulling him back to the ground.

Tim swung the cord, launching Skulker to the side where his body was met by two hits of Stephanie's eskrima sticks. Skulker merged through the cord and landed on the ground, his teeth grinding together in fury.

"Enough!" he shouted, and sent a shock wave from his arms that blew them back. "I am sick of your pathetic attempts at besting me, whelp! When will you learn that you cannot best the Ghost Hunter!"

"Uh, kind of hard to learn that after I've beaten you, like, every single time we've fought," Danny retorted, putting his hands on his hips with a smirk.

Skulker's eye twitched. "My employer said to bring you in alive, but I don't think he'd mind you all missing a few limbs." His arms morphed into missile launchers, and he held them out at the four.

"Phantom, you possess electrokinesis, correct?" Damian asked quietly, tensing his muscles. Danny nodded.

"Yeah." He met Damian's eyes and smirked as he realized what the younger boy had in mind.

Damian grabbed on to Danny's arm, and, turning them both intangible and invisible, Danny carried Damian into the air, right above Skulker. One of Danny's hands crackled with electricity, and the tip of his fingers brushed against Damian's sword. The blade lit up like a taser. Damian and Danny exchanged a glance and, using Danny's shoulder for leverage, Damian jumped, free-falling towards Skulker.

By the time Skulker saw Damian, it was too late. Damian jabbed his electrified sword into Skulker's armor.

"Oh, crud," Skulker muttered as his armor crackled with electricity, before short-circuiting and launching him into the sky and out of sight.

"Nice one, Damian!" Danny floated to the ground, a wide smile on his face. He raised his hand for a high five. "Up top!"

"Tt. The act of high-fiving is such a ridiculous notion," Damian muttered, but he smacked his hand against the other's anyways. "You did quite well yourself."

"That guy-" Tim popped his shoulder back into place, wincing. "-does not pass the vibe check."

Stephanie snorted. "That guy is the vibe check, Timbers."

Damian sheathed his sword. "I assume that we all have gathered that his employer was Dark Danny?" It was more a statement than a question.

"Oh, for sure," Danny said, before stumbling as Cujo barreled into him. Danny huffed as he lifted the dog to his face. "Where were you, big guy?"

"Are you sure this dog can help us take Future-You down?" Stephanie asked with a raised eyebrow. "A fat lot of help he just was."

"I think he was just sleeping," Danny said as he sat the dog down. "I promise he'll be useful."

"Ship looks pretty good, considering," Tim said from where he was looking at the Specter Speeder. "I think whatever he hit us with just killed the engine. It should start back up."

Danny frowned, a finger on his chin as he pondered aloud. "So if Future-Me has employed Skulker, then he's gotta be somewhere that Skulker has access to. His lair, maybe? But I doubt it. They'd need to be somewhere with some pretty high-tech stuff if they're keeping Batman hostage."

"Are there any technology-related ghosts?" Stephanie asked. Danny didn't answer at first as he watched Tim switch the Speeder on.

"Yes," Danny finally answered. "There is, but I doubt he knows who he's working for. Skulker probably doesn't know either." Danny paused, and the smallest hint of a smile ghosted across his face as another thought struck him. "And I bet Skulker's girlfriend knows even less than that."

"So you're tellin' me Skulker's working for Future You? Who took away my voice and my beauty?" A ghost with pink, flaming hair in a high ponytail asked. "Now why the heck would you do that for? I thought we were cool."

"We are. This guy is me from another timeline. He isn't me." Danny explained to Skulker's girlfriend. Ember McLain, the Ghost of Song, crossed her arms, her lips turning into a frown.

"No way he would work with someone who wronged me like that. He would never."

"He doesn't know," Tim spoke up. "He probably just offered him money, or whatever currency you use, in exchange for taking Danny and us."

The Infi-map had taken the four to Ember's lair. If anybody could convince Skulker to stop, Danny had reasoned, it would be her.

"With you, Skulker, Cujo and Wulf on our side, we can beat him," Danny said. "Seeing Skulker and I work together might trip him up," he paused. "You do want to beat this guy, right? I mean, he will end up destroying your voice." Even though Ember might not care about the human world being obliterated, she would definitely care about the same thing happening to her voice.

Stephanie and Damian had stayed in the Speeder with Damian. Stephanie's eyes were wide behind her cowl. "Damian, that's Ember McLain," she whispered. "Remember that song Remember from a couple of years ago? The one Jason wouldn't stop singing on patrol? She sang it! And she's a ghost!"

"Of course she is a supernatural being, Brown, I told you she had the voice of a siren," Damian whispered back.

"I'll talk to him," Ember agreed. "He'll listen to me. You guys go find Wulf, and we'll meet you at Technus' place."

"Great." Danny smiled. "Thanks, Ember. I owe you one."

"Well, I might just take you up on that sometime, Ghost Kid."

"So, Wulf," Tim began as the two walked back towards the ship. "He's like a werewolf? You said?"

"He isn't a werewolf, but he looks like what you'd expect a werewolf to look like," Danny explained. "He's a beast, literally and figuratively. And his claws can tear open a portal to our world, so once we get Batman, we can get out of the Ghost Zone fast."

"Great. Where is he?"

"That's the fun part," Danny replied as he got into the Specter Speeder. "We have to break him out of prison. And the people who own it do not like me.”

115 notes · View notes

astrodances · 4 years

Text

F.O.W.L. Case Files: Calling Agent X

First, huzzah for the return of DuckTales! 🥰

Second, I just want to get some theories off my chest before “The Phantom and the Sorceress!” airs, namely in regards to the Phantom Blot and co. When Disney+ dropped last year and I watched DT87 fully for the first time, the following guy stuck out to me from the Phantom Blot’s episode, “All Ducks On Deck”:

Ensign Plover, aka Agent X.

An apparent right-hand man to Admiral Grimitz in the Navy, in reality a cohort in Phantom Blot’s Operation Aardvark plan.

(The rest is under a cut)

The earliest theory note (that I haven’t seen in quite a while, but just found) for this (or any) Agent X is that they were the one sent out to (try to) sabotage the Spear of Selene (back when that theory had more life 😅), or that maybe it was the pig in the search rocket from “What Ever Happened to Della Duck?!”

There was also a different Agent X in the DT87 episode, “The Duck Who Knew Too Much.” This Agent X was a man working with Agent Gold Feather to procure the Mantis Robot to steal Scrooge’s gold. That episode featured Fenton and Gandra, and served as the inspiration for DT17 Gandra’s characterization as a scientist. Between this and the other episode, my mind was racing with ideas of who Agent X could be in DT17, and where and how they could fit into the F.O.W.L. hierarchy - with the Phantom Blot? with Gandra? as an independent agent?

With part of Season 3 now under our belts though, and what with the bits of info we’ve gotten about the Phantom Blot so far, and his official DT17 debut upon us, my theories are definitely honing in on an Agent X-Phantom Blot connection (be it in this next episode or a later one), or at the very least, that we’ll see an Agent X within F.O.W.L. Those are my main theories here.

The following are just some musings (about Agent X, the Phantom Blot, and more) based on everything we have available to us so far (minus the Phantom Blot’s comic or other animation appearances, since I haven’t gotten into those yet), since there’s nothing strong enough between them all to really grind out one cohesive theory yet beyond just Agent X showing up in some capacity:

In regards to Ensign Plover - if he specifically shows up, either as Agent X or not, he might be redesigned as the “delightful sidekick” that Frank mentioned the Phantom Blot would get?

I know a lot of people have been theorizing that either the Phantom Brat or Poe might possibly be this sidekick. To throw my own red-string-crack-theory into this particular ring, I just want to point out the following about the Ensign’s name: PlOvEr (I’m making POE stand out from his name). Do with that what you will. 😂 (Disclaimer though - that spelling of “Plover” could very well be wrong. It’s hard to hear the pronunciation in the episode, and I’ve seen a number of different spellings online. This has been the most consistent spelling I’ve seen though, so I’m going with it.)

Before we knew that Giancarlo Esposito was going to be playing the Phantom Blot and we’d gotten more info about his character, one of my possible theories was going to be that the Phantom IS Plover is disguise. But hey, perhaps Plover is still a part of his backstory?

For those who’ve seen “All Ducks On Deck” - the Phantom Blot’s lair/lab/office in the new episode (seen above; from that new interview with Giancarlo) gives me some reminiscing vibes of the Blot’s lair in that DT87 episode.

This makes me think that there’s a possibility of “Operation Aardvark” showing up. This operation in DT87 involved Plover stealing the Navy’s invisible fighter jet plane for the Phantom Blot, who would then build a whole “air force of invisible jets” as part of his master plan to take over the world. At any rate, I’m keeping my ears open for the word “aardvark,” but regarding DT17 Phantom Blot’s plans...

There are two quotes (both said by the Blot) from the DT87 episode that might be useful to keep in mind:

“One must be patient if one wants to take over the world.”

“If one expects to take over the world, one must know how to handle people.”

(He also mentions that he wants to rule the world with an iron fist, which plays well with his new DT17 gauntlet, but I digress.) These two quotes and his plan totally fit F.O.W.L.’s MO - they have definitely been playing the long game, and they have been handling Scrooge and co. like puppets for their plans to steal the world. In the above-mentioned interview with Giancarlo, he says that the Phantom Blot “hates magic and wants to take all of the magic out of the world,” which would definitely help F.O.W.L. in stealing it. As far as the “hating magic” part goes, that will probably play into the Blot’s personal motivations. The way he says, “You. It wasn’t enough.” in that clip is, for one, chilling, but I think it’s gonna bring up a dynamic between him and either Magica, Gladstone, or Lena. I’m putting my own money on that line being directed at Gladstone, given what we’ve seen of him in the clips so far, and that the following screenshot of him pulling in Webby’s axe (throwing this in there - Black Knight, anyone?) seems to be in the same scene as the second screenshot, where Gladstone is unconscious and Webby doesn’t have her axe:

(Just for completeness’ sake, here’s the promo poster with Webby holding her axe in her sleepwear, which brought me to the above possibility:)

The main point is that, whatever “wasn’t enough” might refer to some past deal or trade with Gladstone (or one of our magic-holders). (And a larger point is that this fits well into theories of F.O.W.L. agents teaming up with the organization for mutual benefit, like with Rockerduck.)

Maybe he wants to blot out phantoms of his/the past, or of history?

Anyway, this veered far from Agent X and probably lost all coherence at some point, but whatever the case may be for both him and the Phantom Blot, I’m excited to see our ducks again! 😁🥳

#DuckTales #Phantom Blot #Agent X #F.O.W.L.#The Phantom and the Sorceress!#DuckTales spoilers #(just in case)#F.O.W.L. Case Files #my theories

9 notes · View notes

phantomphangphucker · 5 years

Text

The Bindings Of Time - Chapter 3. Time Confines Us All, Even Time Itself - PhannieMay - Day 13 Confined and Day 22 Memories

Summary: Danny gains and losses bindings

—return to the present—

“Um, Danny? Sweetie?”, Maddie pulls Danny out of his head, a head that is much more overfilled than it used to be, as he starts paying attention to her again. “Sorry just thinking, adjusting perceptions and what not”, judging by his mom’s expression that didn’t make much sense. He could just look back to see what they were talking about but it would be more natural, to a regular human or ghost, to not. Though Danny is finding it a little odd to not have instant access to the information. Just like with his ice, being in his human form seems to dampen his time powers and make them not so automatic. He actually has to forcibly look through time instead of his mind just doing it on its own as soon as the thought occurs to him. Effectively giving him a break from it, which is probably good for his, still partly human and thus totally not meant to handle this, psyche.

Blinking a bit, as he realises she never asked why he was gone so long. Sure he’d leave for hours at a time but not two full days, which was probably going to happen a lot now. Having time powers makes time feel a bit irrelevant, even if he literally can’t lose track of it, it’s more like he can ignore its passing or lack there of. A lot easier to be grounded in the now as a human though, makes the loss of his mentor feel closer though. “Um, sorry for being gone for so long”, rubbing his neck, “can’t say I like making you cry. Not my intention though, I didn’t know how long I’d be”. She’s looking at him a bit more confused, sighing worriedly, “you know me well, but I still feel like I’m playing catch-up with you”. Shaking her head at him which just makes him feel a bit guilty, as she keeps talking, “I don’t want to push you, since you’re obviously not in the best of spirits; even if I do want to know”. Danny nods, he can’t claim to be surprised. Both his parents have been that way since he was about sixteen. Two years of hiding and lying took its toll, but the past year of honestly had helped. Even if there still was so very much and now a whole lot more. “Well, it wasn’t anything bad or dangerous and I sort of knew what was happening”, pausing to check that talking about this won’t mess with anything, he can’t rely on ClockWork to be hyper-vigilant and pop up if he’s about to fuck up anymore. No, now he’s got to be even more hyper-vigilant, about pretty well everything. Tilting his head as he flips through scenarios, trying to just glaze lightly over so he doesn’t know literally everything anyone’s about to say to avoid coming off like an unnatural ass. ClockWork may have basked in that but he wasn’t about to pull that on his own family. Once he’s content this won’t fuck things up and knowing that yeah, putting off the topic of ClockWork is a bad idea, even if he’s still mourning him. Blinking a bit as he realises he’s going to have to “come out” as the master of time at some point to the entire Ghost Zone, that or he could be a sneaky bastard. He prefers option two at least in the beginning, continuing to speak now, “it’s the new job”, flicking his fingers at the thermos but not actually touching it, “babysitting this jerk isn’t the job, he just comes with the territory”. “So you took someone’s old job? A ghost related job or a job a ghost did? And a super evil ghost in a Fenton thermos came with? Can’t say I like that anymore than before”, deciding he prefers biting the bullet over dragging things out, like always. Danny clears his throat, “more like inherited it, I’ve been apprenticed for it since I as about 15 and he picked me out well before I was even born. And it’s a job done by a ghost, now a halfa”. Rubbing his neck a bit sheepishly, “technically this evil son of a- was my problem and responsibility first, he just became the other guy’s responsibility because he helped, basically cheated for, me”, smirking a little as he finishes, “and now everything’s come full circle, like the hands on a clock”. Danny can tell she’s a bit more shocked and not exactly pleased, “why would you get apprenticed for a ghost job? None the less be an apprentice to a ghost?! The rest I don’t get at all”. Watching his mom for a second, who looks more confused than understanding, before sighing sadly, “he saved my life, in more ways than one. If he hadn’t cheat time itself for me, I would have been destroyed. Likewise, I saved him, in me he found what he’d been waiting for since the beginning, someone to exist with him and free him”. Looking off at a wall aching with slowly fading sadness and loss, which just makes his cores lingering ache more noticeable, “I got continued existence and he got fulfilment and long earned rest. Free from the confines of the job, of eternity and time”. Rubbing his chest as he feels Maddie poke him, “sweetie you’re rambling a bit. I’m glad he saved you but it seems like you’re constantly in a state of near destruction. And I think I need to know what this job actually is, what kind of jobs do ghosts even have?”. “Um mom, we already went over me being indestructible now. Matured core and all that. He didn’t save me from near destruction, he saved me from guaranteed absolute destruction. Me surviving was impossible, that’s why I say he cheated. This thermos and who’s inside wouldn’t even exist if he hadn’t cheated. Saving me meant also saving the most powerful and evil ghost to ever exist”, knowing full well the conclusion his mom’s going to jump to here, “and no, I know he didn’t do it to save the evil ghost instead of me. And as for the job, it’s complicated. Overwhelmingly so, but this job is how he was able to cheat at all”. He can tell she doesn’t really believe him on the whole, ClockWork did it to save him, thing. Knowing that she’ll think he feels that way because he’s so ghost friendly, which it’s a damn good thing he is. Sighing, and tapping on the thermos, “the reason I was going to be destroyed was to destroy the ghost confined in here. Because if I stopped existing before that stupid C.A.T. test, then he would never have existed at all. This ghost destroyed nearly all of humanity and most ghosts. Laid waste to every human city and ghost lair. Eventually, he would have destroyed everything and everyone. He’s perfectly capable of still doing that, hence why he can not be allowed out”. “How-how? That, makes no sense? A ghost? A ghost could be that dangerous? Why is his existence, tied to, yours?”, frowning a little as he watches her eye the thermos clearly a bit freaked. Turning his head away from her, “because, because he’s me. Me as a full ghost after getting my humanity torn out”, grimacing hard as he talks, “you want a ghost devoid of emotions or good, he’s it. His name is Dan, Dan Phantom”. “Bullshit”, Danny jerks from that response and promptly decides he probably should have checked the future a bit better, apparently. Maddie shakes her head harshly, “you don’t have a bad bone in your body. You’re good”. “Well yeah I’m good, hence the whole he's me minus all humanity and horrendously traumatised after you all got killed in a massive explosion right in front of him. Not to mention getting experimented on afterwards by an utter frootloop”, shaking his head because he did feel a bit sorry for Dan, especially after seeing what Vlad actually did to him. “That me had it more than just bad, pretty well every awful thing that could happen to him, did. People don’t survive that and stay good, especially when they literally lack humanity”. Maddie meets his eyes looking a bit haunted as he finishes, “simply put, Dan snapped, becoming completely callous; a psychopath with zero traces of any morals”. Patting her hand, “but that was before my core stabilised. Dan was able to snap like that because his humanity was torn out before his core stabilised, making him already inherently unstable as a full ghost. My humanity can’t even be torn out now. So I can’t become him, not anymore”. “I, good. That’s good. What are you, going to...do.....With him?”, Danny still doesn’t really know, “well, I can’t leave him prolongedly unguarded, that’s why he’s here. Can’t carry him with me like this either, far too dangerous. And my room isn’t exactly closed off from all others without permission”. Frowning at the thermos, “really I need some way were no one but me has any form of access to him or the thermos but is also near me frequently”. “Well um, what’d the other guy do? Why would he retire if you, or him, didn’t have a plan”, Danny winces a bit at her saying “retire”, but ignores it for now, “he lived in a section of the Zone that is literally closed off from all others without permission. Technically it’s my home now too but I’m not going to move to the Zone. Obviously”. Danny raises an eyebrow at Maddie who clearly has an idea, tilting his head to the side knowing damn well he needs to know if this idea is a massive fuck up or not. Sighing as there are about three different kinds of inventions she could be thinking of and that she’s going to blurt out the one that’s a damn bad idea. Talking just as she goes to open her mouth, “no, no building some melting device. I don’t even need to be able to look to know just how many ways that could go horribly. The blue containment shrinking sphere is your better idea”. Tapping his chin as an idea hits him, “could even fashion that into a necklace or bracelet if need be”. Sam was already going to eye him about the pinky ring so a Dan bracelet wouldn’t be too much further weirdness. While Maddie shakes her head and looks slightly frazzled, “did, did you just...read my mind? Danny what?”. Danny rubs his neck sheepishly, “no, it’s part of the job. I could tell you had some idea so I had to make sure that whatever the idea was wouldn’t result in a bad outcome”. He’s going to have to pull this on his parents a lot, the stuff they create can flat-out go against physics sometimes. He really wouldn’t put it past them to mess with time on accident. “So you saw the future? What? What is this job even?”, Danny blinks realising he hadn’t actually told her earlier. But also not really wanting to yet, “I’d uh, rather deal with the Dan problem first. Kind of urgent and I know building stuff takes a while”. Maddie stares at him incredulously but sighs, knowing damn well that pushing Danny won’t actually get you answers; just diversions and lies. Danny can tell she’s a bit annoyed as she waves for him to follow her to the lab, glaring at the thermos before grabbing it and following her.

—two days later—

Jack comes upstairs from the lab cupping what looks like a fragile hallow ice bubble, but Danny already knows it’s by no means fragile, heck he’d have a hard time destroying it. Maintaining a blank expression as he catches it from his dad, “can’t say I entirely get what you need it for son, but! It’s all complete! Another Fenton works creation in the bag!”. Danny can’t help but smile a little bit, he liked seeing his dad happy and it’s pretty obvious to anyone really, that his dad took inspiration from Danny’s ice for this creation. Danny’s slight smile turns into a smirk at the thought of how this was a bit ironic. Dan couldn’t use ice powers because of his unstable core, this was practically a bit mocking. Smiling at his dad as he hands Danny a bowl of cereal, before sitting down. “So Danny-boy, Mads tells me you’ve got some future sight thing now?”, Danny chokes on his cereal faintly, for being able to know everything and see the future he sure is getting caught off guard often. Which is keeping him from coming off as completely weird to his family though, Sam and Tucker will know somethings up pretty quick though. Tucker’s practically got a six sense for when Danny’s become stronger or has some new power. Clearing his throat, “uh, yeah”, raising an eyebrow at his mom as she walks in. Obviously, she didn’t hear Jack though as she just looks confused, until his dad starts talking again anyway, “so...how does it work? Can you just see to any point? Is it random?! You still learning to control it? How’d you get this one? Your other powers are all general ghost powers, ice core powers or you unique one; is this another unique?”. Danny can’t help but chuckle at his excitable father but his mom speaks before he gets a chance to properly respond, “yes I told him, sweetie, we’re family”. Danny smiles at her warmly, he can’t really blame her for making a point that secret keeping isn’t a Fenton thing, “yeah it’s fine”, turning to his dad, and electing to just ask like a normal damn person instead of probing the past, “it’s a bit complicated dad. Did mom tell you I got a ghost job now?”. Jack nods excitedly, “yeah! Said you took over a ghosts job! But I was assuming you wanted both of us to hear about that rather than just explaining it to us separately”. Danny mentally facepalms, realising he could have easily used that excuse on mom and clearly mom didn’t even think about that herself, as she blinks and nods. Danny rubs at his neck but he’s definitely feeling better about everything now so he supposes he’s up for talking about it now. The ghosts giving him a break and both physical and mental reminders of ClockWork make it a lot easier. Being in ghost form even more so, even if he’s utterly omniscient in ghost form now. Plus it’s honestly weird not knowing everything on the drop of a hat as a human now, way too easy to instantly be used to something like that, “that wasn’t the reason for my lack of explaining earlier. I just wasn’t up for talking about it yet”. “And now?”, like always his mom’s more concerned about him than interested in learning something new. Which does really make him happy, “I’m better. Still miss him though”. Rubbing his neck again as he can tell he’s promptly confused both of them, “mom, he didn’t retire. He faded, that’s the word for when a ghost dies”. Jack does look a bit sad, mostly cause it’s clear to him that his son is. While Maddie looks a bit more upset, having been made aware, at least a little bit, how close Danny was to this particular ghost. “Oh sweetie, I’m sorry. You said he was your mentor, so I’m guessing he was kind of like a parent to you?”, Jack blinks before going wide-eyed as Danny nods. Danny fiddles with his fingers a bit, rubbing at the ring as he responds, “you guys are my human family, human parents. ClockWork was my ghost family, ghost parent. Not sure if that makes any sense”. Jack nods curtly, “makes sense you’d have a ghost close to you in that way, need family on both sides I imagine”. Danny nods, his dad’s always been the one more readily accepting of things, while his mom looks a bit more sad, “so in the same way you followed us in our jobs, be it in a different way, you did the same with him”. Danny a blinks a bit and smiles, “kind of yeah. But what ClockWork did, what I do now; is a lot more important. There’s a reason it comes with an oath to put the job before everything and person, including yourself, at any cost. For ClockWork that cost was solitude and immortality until a suitable successor”, Danny can’t help but frown, ClockWork played it off well but it was clear to him how worn and lonely he really was. Sighing, “ghosts aren’t meant to stick around forever so doing so isn’t exactly, good”. Jack chokes on his fudge mildly while Maddie just looks worried, “you seem happy and willing about the job part but he basically cursed you with immortality? That hardly seems good or fair. That cost is extreme too, what if you had to kill someone for this job?”. Jack only nods as he rubs his throat while Danny sits up straight, not about to let his mentor or his, and now Danny’s, job be insulted; even unintentionally. Though also not showing any displeasure, “it’s different with me and he knew that, that’s why he took me on”, locking eyes with his mom, “have you really thought about what it means? When I said my human and ghost halves protect and heal each other in an unending loop?”. Shaking his head a bit, “my human cannot die, my ghost can not fade. I was immortal from the moment my core fully stabilised, I can’t become anymore immortal and there will be no successor after me. So it’s a forever kind of thing”. Rubbing his neck a bit, “as for the killing thing, technically ClockWork was required to destroy me but he cheated. So there are loopholes if need be, but he also knew there would be a positive outcome to his cheating”. Staring right at both of them, “if I was required to destroy someone and there was no possible future where not destroying them was the better option, then yes. Yes, I would. The only way that would even be required, is if not destroying them would result in complete destruction, of the world or of time itself”. “Danny that’s kind of insane. Immortality? If you can handle it then why couldn’t he? Just different personalities or is it because you’re a halfa?”. Danny tilts his head checking timelines again because anything big or biggish secret wise, could have messed up consequences. Giving a smirk and curt nod as everything checks out, which his parents just look confused and worried over. “It’s a halfa thing yes. You see, ClockWork is, was, one of the very first ghosts; an ancient. And yes he was created for this job but he was still a regular ghost. The immortality was because of the job given not caused by his very nature. No full ghost or full human is meant to exist forever so it was confining and taxing”, finishing off his cereal before continuing, “whereas halfas are, by our very nature, immortal. We’re meant for it, so it’s not such a burden”. “Son, this job sounds extreme, like it’s a burden itself? What could possibly be a job that strips someone, even a ghost, of mortality?”, Danny can feel that Jack’s actually a bit impressed by his son obviously doing something important. He can also tell his dad’s worried, smiling softly to make it clear he’s fine, “it is a burden, but I was already burdened, so what’s another on the list. Being the hero and protector is a burden, my power is a burden, just being a halfa alone is a burden”. Snickering a bit to himself, because he always got a kick out of his old masters name, “as for the job, to say it’s extreme is putting it mildly. ClockWork’s name is a pun in a sense, the job is to protect the timestream. Make sure nothing happens to destroy time”. Danny has to restrain himself from laughing at their confusion as they talk at once. “Time can be destroyed?” “How are you even supposed to protect a plane of reality?” It probably says a lot that Danny never even questioned that when he found out about ClockWork, it just seemed rather obvious. Danny shrugs a bit, “time paradoxes, temporal shifts, universal destruction, planetary destruction would destroy time for earth and Zone so that too. I’ve nearly destroyed it myself twice, it’s not that hard”, rubbing his neck and looking around a bit, “well ok, wasn’t that hard for an overly reckless and overpowered teenager”. “As for the how, that’s pretty simple. Watch the future for issues and get rid of or avoid that issue”, shrugging again, “also bound to get job requests from the Observants sometimes, to deal with things that are just destructively bad but not necessarily destructive to time. But they wouldn’t go to ClockWork, or me for that matter, unless they felt they had no other choice. Seeing as how both of us have, or had, a tendency to go against their wishes and pretty well all laws”, snickering into his hand, “not to mention the puns”. Jack shakes his head, “wow Danny-boy. So you must be able to see any point in the future then?”, tapping his chin, “how would a job give you a whole new power though? Does the position just awaken something? Or is there some kind of device? Like an invention!”. If someone built a device like that Danny bets he’d have to destroy that for sure, having two people with time powers was asking for trouble. Sitting upright again, because explaining this was going to be confusing for sure and low key freak them out some, “none of the above. I inherited ClockWork’s time powers. You see, there are these things call core fusion crystals, they can basically fuse a core type into another ghosts preexisting core; only if their core doesn’t reject it though. So my core isn’t just an ice core anymore, it’s ice and time”, fondly patting at his chest, it was a bit like having a little of ClockWork literally part of him. Which in a sense was the case, the fusion crystal would have had to be formed by ClockWork from his cores energy. Seeing as he was the only one with a time core, obviously. He wants a better name for it though, even if what he’s got currently is amusing, “time freeze core because puns. Though cold clock core is also pretty amusing”. Tapping his chin, “not to mention, triple C and pays a bit of homage”, now he wants to go with that instead but mutters as he’s shaking his head, “little off track though”. “Anyway, calling it a new power is kind of misleading. The person holding the job position is called the Master of Time for a reason”, Danny lets Jack interrupt just to avoid overwhelming his parents because time power is grade A an overwhelming thing to think about someone having. Danny’s honestly still a little thrown that it’s not that overwhelming to have, he’s pretty well instantly used to it still. “I’m not sure I follow son. Master just means you watch over it right? Which is pretty wild and a bit awesome already”, Maddie nods with her husband while Danny feels a bit bad for them. Adjusting a little, “I watch over it, yes, but it’s more than that. Master means time is functionally mine. As in, control over it. I can make time stop, reverse, speed up, slow down”, rolling his hand in the air with intentional nonchalance, “teleport myself or others through time, make portals in and out of the Zone”. Maddie blinks rapidly while Jack stutters a bit, “you can, stop...time? Like, all of it?”. Danny nods, trying to make this sound less extreme “as much of it as I want, so all of it sure”. Smirking a little, “the way ClockWork explained it to me when we first met, and I tried to fight him, which wasn’t smart”, air-quoting “You see, for me, time goes backward and forward” end air quoting, shaking his head, “after that he insulted me for being 14 and smashed my face into a bell, repeatedly. All around a pretty great guy”. Now his parents look pretty unimpressed so he holds his hands up a bit, “he had reasons, always does. Or did. He did that to make it pretty well clear fighting him was not exactly possible and to get me to jump through a time portal, bunch of stuff really. Saving your guy’s lives makes up for pretty well everything anyway”. Chuckling a little bit, “besides everyone close to me has attacked or tried to kill me anyways. Basically a right of passage at this point”. Pausing for a bit, it’s a bit amusing that the people he’s closest too are technically the most dangerous to him. “Anyway, sidetracked again”. Maddie raises her eyebrows, “what more could there possibly be to this? This power, you’re practically a god”. Danny winces a bit, he knew a few viewed ClockWork that way which of course meant he’d get the same treatment, “that would depend on what you mean by practically. I’ve been worshiped as a god, or saviour, by an entire clan of ghosts since I was almost 15”. Jack laughs, “wow, that is sure something, but I think Mads means power wise not how you’re viewed”. Maddie nods, though looking a little startled, “confined to immortality, time control; compared to that, the worshiping is more funny than anything sweetie”. Obviously, his parents underestimate personality and others opinion of you when it comes to the whole “god” thing. The Observants are scary powerful and have so much control but no ghost would worship or even consider them close to being gods. They didn’t act the part and no one really liked them. Whereas, ClockWork was a guider and always collected. While Phantom was a protector and helper. And both of them were enigmas that confused other ghosts. But Danny knew he was viewed a lot more on equal footing with other ghosts than ClockWork was. That might just change now though. “Eh, I find it both funny and embarrassing. But there are other aspects to the time thing, yes. I’m sort of excluded from time in a sense. So ageing is kind of optional, I could reverse age if I wanted to. ClockWork near constantly shifted between child, adult and old man. Glad I don’t do that automatically, that might be a little too weird. Could if I wanted to though”, shifting and remembering how his mom saw this as a bit of a curse, “so if anything what ClockWork’s fading gave me, was a gift. Saving me from ageing, as power over time frees me from times effects. Unlike other halfas, I will not grow old, and being eternally old would be far more of a curse than being confined to the burden of keeping time”. Maddie blinks at him so Danny smiles at her reassuringly, she sighs, “you’re not wrong there sweetie. Though I did assume not ageing was inherent to immortality”. “Wish it was”, fiddling with his fingers, “but while the time control is major power it’s, uh, got nothing on the other main aspect”. Tilting his head to again check time-streams and futures, because damnit he will not mess this up, he’d be straight up embarrassed and crushed if he messed up so early. Sure he could likely reverse any fuck ups but still. Plus the Observants would notice, and while he doesn’t care for them, it’s best he makes it clear this job is rightfully his. Jack obviously thinks his son’s stalling though, “well, I don’t think it could be all that much more shocking Danny-boy. You know we’re fine with your powers, just have to adjust is all”. Danny returns Jack’s smile after a beat, turning his head to his mom, “Uh you should throw out that cabbage. It’s gonna eat the rest of the tomato soup otherwise”. She looks confused for a bit, which is understandable since the soup hasn’t even been put in the fridge yet. Jack actually gets it pretty quick though, “right! Future sight! Well, thanks then. Why that though?”. Danny’s not really sure what Jack means, since mind reading is not something he can do. Maddie tosses out the, very clearly starting to become contaminated, cabbage as Danny talks, “the other main bit has to do with the future sight. See, it’s not that I can see the future, but rather that I can see everything. Every single possible future, every single area of the present and all of the past. Omniscient, all-knowing. Technically omnipresent as well, since I can know what’s happening everywhere and teleport to anywhere as I please”. Rubbing his neck a bit and looking around, “nice thing about being in human form though, it doesn’t happen automatically. Also a bit annoying though”. Maybe there was an inherent feeling of attentive watchfulness tired to time powers, or it could just be his heroic need to protect and be a vigilant guard. “You’re, you, that’s universal knowledge you’re talking about”. Danny nods, “yes, when I’m human I have to actually intentionally do it but while ghost, well, I’m constantly aware of everything”. Which does carry a bit of a voyeuristic creepiness to it, knowing everything about everyone was beyond invasive but he needed to know. Besides, it’s not like he’ll do anything too mischievous with his new knowledge. Mr. Lancer is going to be so confused though. “That sounds awful actually, completely overwhelming. How are you even able to handle that?”, Danny can’t blame anyone for feeling that way, that kind of power is so incomprehensible to everyone else that just trying to imagine it would be headache inducing. “Yeah, that’s kind of why I was gone for two days, the sudden onslaught of well, everything, knocked me out cold for a solid day at least. Gave my brain the time it needed to adjust. But it’s kind of impossible to not be used to it, because of the future sight I automatically knew how to use the new powers; feels like I’ve had them for eons really”. Jack is clearly a bit confused, “you’re not even that old though? I guess time powers are just really strange”. Danny nods, really everything about him is strange, “in a sense I’ve been here mentally since the beginning of time. I’ve seen every action anyone’s ever taken. And I can or could see every action anyone’s ever going to. ClockWork was even giving me random bits of advice out loud back in the Bronze Age. So mentally I’m not really an 18-year-old anymore. I’m well, old man time”. Maddie rubs her temples a bit, “that feels almost painful to imagine. But you’re still our son, and younger than us”. Danny smiles a bit, “well, of course. Just weirder, it’s hard to not be rather confusing to people when you exist outside of time but have it in a more literal sense. I exist in a completely different state than all other life and death. And that state isn’t really comprehendible unless you’re in it. You experience life in the present, while I experience it in the past, present, future and none of them all at once. Young, middle-aged, old, ageless”, Danny shrugs and decides to shut up as his parents squint at him with furrowed eyebrows. “Yeah, I’m not sure we can make sense of that sweetie. I think your personality has changed some”, Danny knows she’s got more to say, watching as she taps her chin, “so wait, this ClockWork guy knew you would take his place and view him in the past? All the way back then? What?”. Obviously, she doesn’t find that as funny, or comforting, as Danny does, “he knew from the moment time and him came into existence, but it’s more like he knew I was a possible future. Him and now I, don’t just see one future, but every single possible one. Can tell which is the most likely and could manipulate things to get the most desirable outcome”. Leaning back a bit, “that’s why it’s so important that the Master Of Time is self-sacrificial. Perfectly content to damn themselves to do what’s best or needed. In a way that’s what ClockWork did, if he wanted to stay around all he would have had to do was not offer to take me on as his apprentice. He faded because he was no longer needed as the Master Of Time. But he took me on anyway because that was what was best, he was never meant to be the real Master Of Time. But rather a guardian of the position and guide for when the true one arrive, me”. Chuckling as he knows he damn well sounds like him a bit here. “I’m not sure how to even react to that, so he basically destroyed himself, knowing full what it would destroy him”, Danny nods at his mom but tilts his hand back and forth in the air, “yeah, but it was also for his benefit too. Like I said, he wasn’t meant for the confines of immortality and he was worn down by it. No one else knew him well enough to tell though”. Everyone’s quiet for a while before Jack, a little less excited than he’d normally be, asks, “so... powers! Demonstration?”. Danny can’t help but chuckle, remembering full well how startling time stopping, then suddenly having something around your neck and being able to be aware of the stopped time, was. Nodding at his dad, already knowing this was perfectly fine to do, plus there’s no way he wasn’t going to have some fun, “yeah, I could find millions of different ways to explain how I am now, mentally, and it still wouldn’t really make sense. So sure, little explanation first though. Time powers are a bit funny, obviously. Anything beyond the awareness stuff needs to be channelled through a time staff. So I guess don’t be too startled by the sudden appearance of a giant stick”. At their nods Danny sticks his left arm and hand out, with his staff appearing directly in his hand; and even if he knew they’d be startled he still laughs, amused. Rubbing the staff with his thumb fondly as Jack claps his hands together excitedly and Maddie eyes it impressed, “that is very clearly yours”. “Yeah, ClockWork made it before he faded. It’s very similar to his”, pointing at the DP, “his had a CW instead. So I’m not the only one who paraded around with my own initials”. Sighing and missing the guy a bit, “we really had a lot in common”. “Did he make tons of jokes too?”, Danny knows full well his dad’s trying to relate and encourage happy thoughts, which yeah of course thinking about a good joke is going to do that. Smirking, “he literally had a grandfather clock in his chest, three watches on each arm, and a pocket watch. His name is even a time joke. When he wanted the Observants to leave he’d always tell them to “observe the door”, which I also do but he started it. He is, was, not as bad as I am but pretty darn close”. It’ll probably be a while before he stops flubbing up current tense and past tense, doesn’t help that he can literally see ClockWork whenever and get random ass advice. At least it was way less confusing now, which obviously meant Danny was more confusing to others than before. Which yes, is amusing. Maddie snickers a bit, “no wonder you got along, encouraged each other apparently”, Danny can’t really blame her for looking to change the subject and his very noticeable staff was distracting, “so how do you even stop time? That sounds like it has to be complicated, the staff doesn’t look complicated though”. Danny can’t help but tilt his head back and laugh, “naw, simple as the push of a button and a catchphrase, also courtesy of ClockWork”. Jack mutters into his hand, “sweet ghosties, they even both have silly catchphrases”. Danny smirks, “and all this is why the Observants can’t stand either us, we’re both completely insufferable to them”. Glancing amused at his staff before speaking, making sure to push the button just a bit after his words would hit their ears, purely so they could hear the catchphrase, “time out”. Pulling out two of his time medallions and slipping one over his mom first, knowing his dad would have the more amusing reaction. Maddie looks around confused and jumps sideways, yanking her hands to her chest, “did you teleport or som-”. Danny nods his chin out towards dad which causes Maddie to cut herself off as she sees he’s not moving. Turning her head back to Danny gaping, as Danny chuckles, “times been out for a good five minutes now. Just in the house though”. Maddie turns her head back to Jack, noticing there’s something around her neck this time. Grabbing at it while Danny pipes up, “ah ah ah, if you take my medallion off you won’t be immune to time anymore”. Danny moves around his mom, eyeing her amused as she checks out the medallion. Slipping one over his dad’s neck as she talks, “you’re symbol sure is on everything”. Jack jerks and flails a bit, “what the?!”. Unlike Maddie, he notices the weight of the medallion near instantly, “Oh?!”. Tilting his head at Danny who’s snickering, “what’s with the jewellery? And oh! Times stopped isn’t it!”. Danny nods with a hand over his smirking mouth, “it’s a time medallion dad and they make you immune to meddlings with time”. Tilting his head back to his mom, “ClockWork’s had his CW on them, so the DP is expected”. Danny smiles softly as his dad looks over the medallion with awe and almost childish joy, he kind of feels like the oldest one here. Which he guesses is true, mentally anyway. His mom walks around to face him and he knows the quizzical look is about his eyes, “sweetie, your eyes are purple and glowing purple”. Danny knowingly turns his head to his dad before Jack even has a chance to bound over, “Oh! Like when you use your ice powers! So blue for ice and purple for time?”. Danny nods, having ClockWork’s purple already feels more comforting than saddening. Smiling a little sadly still, “yeah, no surprise really. ClockWork was pretty purple all over”. Tilting his head as his ghost sense goes off, chuckling at the image of the Box Ghost getting chased off by one, apparently, pissed off guy with a fly swatter. Maddie of course notices, “who is it? Trouble? And also, you’ve been tilting your head like that a lot”. Danny blinks a bit and yeah he has done that every time hasn’t he? While human anyways, well, having a tell could be rather useful. Let people know he’s not just ignoring them or stalling, just checking something out. Chuckling again at the Box Ghost’s dismay, “it’s just Boxy, times truce is still standing so he was just here to say high but gave up. Might have a slight grudge against fly swatters for a bit”. He can’t help but smirk at his parents' mild confusion, “and the head tilt is a bit of a tell, I guess. I’m checking time stuff. Futures or just what’s going on elsewhere”. “Well, no wonder you’d stop speaking then! And times truce?”, Maddie nods at her husband but raises her eyebrow at Danny, “why are you doing it so much though?”. “As a Ghost it’s constant. And we’ve been talking about bigger more important things, saying the wrong thing or at the wrong point could mess with things”, to Danny this just makes sense and seems almost obvious. And it did well before being the Master Of Time, likely has something to do with all the time he spent around ClockWork and the apprentice work. Sighing and closing his eyes a bit mournfully, “times truce is the name given to the truce that’s been called in wake of ClockWork’s fading. That’s why there have been no ghosts for around a week, the truce extends to Amity because I’m here. My closeness with him was well known”. “Oh, sorry, again”, Danny nods softly at his mom. He gets that she doesn’t really know what to say, they’re not exactly familiar with how this stuff is handled, “I’ll be fine. There isn’t normally this big of a deal when a ghost fades. Ghost don’t grieve like humans do, ghosts fading is sort of just ignored normally. But ClockWork’s impact was far-reaching and everyone was affected by him. So an afterdeath ceremony was in order, meaning a truce as well”, Danny’s still a bit unimpressed with the Observants. He’d think they’d stick around just to not rub people the wrong way, it’s like they wanted to be viewed with disdain and contempt. His dad has a hint of excitement to him, though clearly not exactly happy, “Oh? New ghost tradition, so what’s that?”. Maddie smiles awkwardly, and tries for a joke, “ghost celebrities, huh?”. Rubbing over his ring again, “more like respected than celebrated, and it’s a funeral, dad. Minus speeches or flowers, but add in offerings; equal to what the ghost felt they gained or took from the faded one”. Danny can tell his dad is torn between excitement of new knowledge and feeling dejected, funerals weren’t exactly something to be excited over. Walking over and swinging his staff in time with his steps, talking as he pats his dad on the shoulder reassuringly, “yeah it’s not a happy thing, of course. It was good to have though”. Both of them nod while Jack eyes the staff a bit, “on a happier note, instantly makes you seem more powerful and mature. Sure will add to the effect Phantom just has on people. Won’t it be a pain to carry in fights though?”. Maddie nods, “doesn’t seem like the most practical thing”. Danny’s not even sure what to think of that, of course the staff has an air of power, his power was in it. Plus it was a weapon in a sense and weapons just make people look powerful and dangerous. Least he hasn’t whipped out a scythe, which really ClockWork only had and used to be dramatic. “Uh, stopping time is very practical; for me anyway. Need the staff for that but I don’t have to carry it around as Phantom. It’s simply here when I want it to be, regardless of form”. This seems rather obvious to him but he does chuckle at the mental image of someone literally being forced to carry what’s effectively a giant fancy stick, constantly. Smiling softly, “but I’m guessing you want to see how this all looks on Phantom. Besides, the staff isn’t the only change, I carry twelve medallions around my waist in little clocks for one”. His mom chuckles but nods, clearly happy for the different subject, “are you actually guessing or do you already know? And there’s a lot of clock imagery with this”. “I don’t know everything constantly while human and I can’t read minds, so guessing is accurate, consider it a. educated guess. And tell me about it, it’s much to my amusement though”, jokes were jokes even if they were a bit on the nose. At least they were used to him transforming now but they’ll be caught off guard this time. Smirking a little as he lets his white rings wash over him with purple ones forming to make his cloak. He does find it a bit funny that his Time Master stuff gets its own unique little transformation rings. Feeling the hood settle in just behind his ears, which did make how pointy and longer they were stand out a bit. Least it kept his white hair easily visible. Jack actually jumps a little and Maddie covers gasps with her hand, at least she didn’t start having a coughing fit like one of the other possibilities though, “yeah, like I said, there have been changes”. Rubbing the gear clasp, “ClockWork made the cloak for me back when I first started apprenticing under him. It’s part of my form now and he had a similar purple one”. Shrugging exaggeratedly, “hood was rarely up as an apprentice though, seems pretty content to stay up now”. Jack walks up and touches the cloak, again filled with childish wonder, “oh! It’s soft!”. Danny laughs and tilts his head back a little, “it’s royal velvet and plush, ClockWork’s way of being extra. Got silver stitching too. His was silk and satin”. Maddie mutters, “well that’s one way of showing off high status. Definitely excessive”. Danny nods amused, “excessive done with complete nonchalance, absurdity becomes mundane when you’ve seen it all and fades to nothing when time’s functionally ineffective on you”. Snickering a little, “kind of like how putty making farting sounds is highly amusing to children but disregardable to adults”. Maddie looks a bit baffled and Danny shrugs as she talks, “yeah your personality has changed”. And how could it not really? He wasn’t exactly the most knowledgeable person before and know he was basically THE most knowledgable person. Being in Phantom form didn’t exactly help in that regard, “I’ve always been a bit of an eccentric mess, now I’m just an eccentric mess with all of time in me and at my whim. Be impossible not to change some”, really changing is something he knows damn well at this point, “I changed when I became Phantom as well. Power and responsibility changes people, this is just more noticeable to you as it seems instantaneous. For me, it's been eons of eternity”. Both of them nod obviously not really able to wrap their heads around that, though Danny fully expected that. And at this point, Danny figures he really shouldn’t just suspend the house in time forever, technically he could but this is bound to be weird enough for his family already. Quietly muttering, “time in”, because he will carry that on, while his mom talks, “seems more noticeable while you’re a ghost and this is going to take some getting u-”, she cuts herself off as she blinks at Jack’s time medallion free chest. Then raising her eyebrow at Danny, who snickers faintly, “time’s going again. And don’t worry about not really noticing, I’m the only one who’s supposed to easily notice time being messed with. Yes I knew you were going to ask about that and yes you guys are just going to have get used to me being more odd than usual as-well as just knowing things”, holding up a finger somewhat playfully as he continues, “but just because I know doesn’t mean I’ll point it out or give you an answer to something. ClockWork was big on riddles and intentional confusion for a lot of reasons, somethings really should be known only by time and it’s master”. Jack is clearly disappointed but hopefully, this will keep him from pushing answers out of Danny. His dad’s a bit more pushy about things, but his mom’s the one to sigh and speak, “can’t say I like more secrets and lying Danny. But I know you have a point”. Running his free right hand through his hair, “I know, but then again, I know everything”. This motion gets Jack to focus on Danny’s hourglasses, grabbing at his hands animatedly and lifting them up and down to watch the sand? move. Danny wheezes a bit as his dad looks rather giddy, “it’s so detailed! Like real sand!”. Now Maddie’s over inspecting it too, “is there even a point to these?”. “Does there really need to be? Purpose is relative anyway. But the flow of sand is affected by the state of time around me. Flows slower if times slowed, faster if it’s sped up, and doesn’t flow at all while times stopped”, Danny smirks, “like a time sense”. Danny leaves out that he can make the sand spill out his fingertips endlessly. Freezing, unfreezing, slowing or speeding time on whatever it’s spilled on. And he’s got a feeling it will work effectively even on things outside of time. Raising an eyebrow as he gets an idea and eyes the crystal-like sphere on the table, “hey dad, I’m going to make a bit of an addition to the little containment device. Cool?”. Danny’s not some ass that doesn’t ask first, even if he already knows the answer. “But of course Danny-boy! Haven’t got the faintest idea what but I’m always interested!”, both them let go of his hands and Maddie goes to make lunch though she does eye him curiously. Danny can’t help but shake his head a little, the passing of time was a bit weird feeling now. Being unaffected by it and able to fully ignore it, or be acutely aware of it; seemed to result in him either being hyper aware or “losing track” of it. Even more so when it simultaneously feels like barely seconds have passed and like it’s been centuries, since he ate breakfasted or since the Observants, begrudgingly, gave their blessings. Sitting down after sending away his staff and changing to his ghostly tail, which like always now, makes him feel less overflowing with power. Rolling the sphere back and forth between his hands and descretly seeping sand inside it as he does. Eventually holding it up and giving it a shake, making the sand swirl and float around in the gravity nullified insides. Maddie raises an eyebrow, “how’d that even get inside there?”. “That would be telling, wouldn’t it?”, Maddie sighs, slightly humoured though, as she plates everyone’s food.

Danny has to catch his plate as him changing back to Fenton startles her, seconds before Sam and Tucker both barge in, startling her even more. Putting her hand on her chest and gapping at Danny’s friends, “your hands' work don’t they?”. Danny snickers as Tucker makes a show of actually checking that he does indeed have hands while Sam walks up to Danny, “what is the entire Zone sulking or something? Cause we’re getting kinda paranoid over here”. Danny rubs his neck guiltily, he probably should have mentioned the times truce to them but he was a bit distracted at the time and securing Dan was more vital than a hangout session. “More like truce than sulking. But it’s fair to say moods aren’t exactly high. And everyone is a bit confused as to wondering just how close me and ClockWork are, were”, Sam grimaces a bit at his slip up while Tucker leans against the table, “could have used to know about the truce dude. Makes sense though, really should have seen that coming”, shoving Danny on the shoulder, “he’d be glad to still be confusing the heck out of people though”. Danny’s absolutely positive of that, “one thing I certainly didn’t see coming was Walker straight up saluting me, full body military style”. Sam mouths, “damn”. While Maddie tilts her head with a question on her lips, Danny tilts his head back and just answers her; both to decrease his friends' future confusion and cause it a little, “no not yet. No ghosties have a clue either”. His mom’s looks like a mixture of being impressed and judgmental. Danny shrugs exaggeratedly, “to say I’ve been a bit, preoccupied, would be an understatement, yeah?”. Maddie nods before offering his, rather lost, friends some food. Turning back to his friends, “I’ll explain but you got here in time so feel like flipping off Dan’s thermos before I shove it inside of a snow globe?”. Jack snorts loudly at his friends startled jerking and Sam smacking him, “what the hell?! It makes sense but seriously, Danny?”. Tucker just eyeballs the little sphere before stuffing his face. Danny shrugs defensively, “like I said, been busy. Bunch of shits happened this week, some you know some you don’t. But yeah Dan’s my issue to sort out now and can’t just go leaving him unattended in the clock tower”. “Yup! Me and Mads made a super tough shrinking containment! Still kind of hard to believe though”, Jack scratches at his head and Danny’s pretty well sure neither of them are ever really going to believe he’s capable of anything remotely close to what Dan did. The confidence, though misplaced, is nice. Tucker mutters through a mouth full, “and what’s the point of the sand?”. Maddie just points at Danny, who smirks slightly, “just a touch of time is all”. Sam pinches her nose and snorts, “you’re awful. Both of you”. “Birds of a feather, flock together”, Danny’s muttering just earns him a confused glare from Sam. Shaking her head at him, “so how long’s the truce for and could we, or more so you, deal with that thing sooner rather than later”. Danny nods rolling the sphere around a little, “it’ll be overcome tomorrow, but I doubt there’ll be much in the way of issues. Boxy already showed but he wasn’t looking to cause shit”, snickering, “he got shit though”. Tucker shakes his head, obviously amused but Jack slaps his hand on the table making everyone but Danny jump, pointing at the sphere as he talks, “that's right! I don’t think I really need to tell you how it works but, I will anyway. Like absorbing goo! Just push it down on the thermos and voila!”. Danny chuckles into his hand and tilts his head, making sure that now really is the best time for this. Frowning a bit as it’s clear the time dust/sand still needs to settle in a bit. Some of it seeping into the cracks and making a mini explosion isn’t exactly favourable. He could do without the thermos becoming even more damaged. Catching Sam’s raises an eyebrow, poking the sphere as he talks, “time sand is taking its sweet time”. “What’s it even supposed to do, dude?”, Danny watches amused and mildly weirded out as Tucker sniffs at the sphere. Shaking his head, “you’re still the weird one. And time stuff, duh”. Tucker rolls his eyes at him while Sam's eyebrows raise even more and she pulls down the collar of his shirt, even without future sight and universal knowledge Danny wouldn’t be surprised that she’s the first to notice. His parents have been more than distracted and Tucker is a bit of a blind fool, plus you really could only see a bit of one of the notches peaking out of his shirt. Sam looks both impressed and sad while his mom speaks a little judgingly, “a tattoo? Really Danny?”. Danny rolls his eyes, “not really”. Sam snorts so Danny tilts his head to her, “no really, it’s not really”. Now Tucker’s wheezing, “dude, you really are awful”. “Well, if it’s not a tattoo then what is it? If that’s even what you’re saying”, his mom is clearly still unimpressed. In a way it is a tattoo, better called a marking, stamp, symbol, or imprint though. “Times mark? I didn’t go out and get tatted”. Sam seems to be commenting more on Maddie’s and Jack’s slightly shocked but understanding nods, “ok? This is new. Since when are your parents getting something and we aren’t?”. “I’ve been explaining to them all morning, needed to fill them in on ClockWork and things just flowed from there”, Tucker nods, readily accepting this. But Danny’s pretty used to Sam not exactly liking being out of the loop, “you couldn’t text us?”. Danny glares at her humorously, “it’s not some simple thing besides, it wasn’t the time”. Sam groans and looks to Maddie, “has he been making time puns all day?”. Danny’s smiles softly, because he pretty well has been, but the topics made them not really jokes. It’s both nice and a bit sad that time jokes are going to be his thing now; and not just when his mentor was around or the subject. Maddie shrugs, “time and ClockWork have been the subject since everyone got up so maybe?”. Tucker squints at Danny, “ok? How the hell do you talk about one guy for hours? I know you have a weird thing with or for or whatever, him but that seems excessive”. Pretty well everyone glares at Tucker a judgingly. Sam crosses her arms at him, “Tucker, you can be an insensitive arse, you know that?”. Danny’s content to let them give Tucker shit as he takes the chance to check in with time again. Danny can’t help but start snickering as now’s definitely a good time to be a little shit and it’s best to just get on with life, or half-life in his case, at this point. Nearly all of the other ghosts were totally fine by now, they’d sure be in for a shock eventually though. Sam snaps him out of his head, “now what’s that face for and what’s so funny?”. Danny actually starts laughing now, cause he’s got a plan to enact. Smirking after he stops laughing, “oh a lot of things. It’ll make sense in time”. Smirking devilishly as he starts talking in time with his gothic friend. “How are you weirder?”, Sam/Danny. “Danny, what the fuck?”, Sam/Danny. Sam just glares at him now as he’s grinning like an idiot and Tucker starts wheezing. Danny flicks his eyes at Tucker as he starts speaking in time with him as his dad puts his head down and laughs into the table. “So what? Mind reader now dude?”, Tucker/Danny. Tucker squints his eyes at Danny, as both of them quickly say, “tater tots and a football eating rabbit”. This is enough to make Maddie laugh too even if Danny can tell she’s a bit weirded out. Danny waves his hand lazily at them, “ok so obviously weird shit has happened recently”. Sam mouths “what the fuck”, before turning to Danny and actually talking, “how the hell? Pretty sure you shouldn’t still be getting new powers at this point”. Tucker starts laughing a bit hard, “I think, think it’s more likely Time pants put him up to som-“, Tucker cuts himself off and blinks a bit, “oh, OH! Holy shit...dude, what, fuck, how? Should that even be...be possible?”. Danny chuckles into his hand, “what can I say, time works in mysterious ways; and ClockWork works in even more mysterious ways”. “Pretty sure you’re the mysterious one here”, Sam is squinting and Tucker is gaping at him. “Exactly, like I said, time’s mysterious”, Danny knows that’s a bit blunt but he really couldn’t resist, besides time is him in a sense. One with, or whatever bullshit, time actualisation with the self. Though yeah the idea of fully realising time in every facet is pretty out there, true but sort of incomprehensible to regular folks. And even if his friends and family were all straight up strange, they were still regular humans really. Sam stares him down, “I call bullshit”. While his dad mouths, “wow”, before shaking his head and talking, “it took us hours to get where he was going, he actually just plain told us. You two just figured it out by a few odd comments”. Danny nods and smiles a little because really, his friends are so used to his bullshit and they’ve met ClockWork; so it’s really not surprising they’d put together the pieces. Tucker finally closes his mouth but promptly opens it back up, “well Mr. F, we’ve seen some crazy things and already knew about the time apprentice thing. Probably should have figured really”. Danny shrugs loosely, “hey, it took an Observant actually handing me a time medallion to figure that out myself”, grumbling more to himself, “still not impressed not even one of them stuck around to pay their pound. Phantom knows they owed him”. Sam crosses her arms and glares at Danny, “wow those guys are jerks but I still call bullshit. ClockWork’s job literally requires his powers so how the heck would you ge-”, Sam facepalming cuts her off. Dragging her hand down her face and pointing at his chest, “core fusion?”. Danny nods while Tucker cringes, “dude damn, ow. Dude tell me you at least had a choice in this because damn”. Sam glares hard at both the boys, “they damn well better have! I will shred them if they forced this”. Maddie’s eyes go wide as Danny knows she never even considered that he hadn’t had a choice, putting his hands up to pacify everyone, “they may be jerks but that would be a bit much even for them. Besides, they would rather pick pretty much anyone else, they kind of hate my shit and think I’m way overpowered, remember? Heck! They felt the need to point that out, twice”, turning his head back to his mom, “I knew what I was getting into, so don’t worry”. At his mom’s curt nod Danny turns back to his friends, looking to Tucker, “but yeah, ow’s right. But I’m fond as ever”. Both them give him a strong nod, Sam pointing at his chest, “did the look change though”. Tucker nods a little excitedly, “right! New core so?”. Tucker tilts his head a bit, “what even is your core type now?”. Danny chuckles, “it’s got a bit of a glitchy look now but that’s it and I’m still debating between time freeze and cold clock”. Tucker coughs a bit but then points aggressively at Danny, “dude! Cold clock!”. Sam nods, clearly agreeing, “makes more sense. Least that way you’re calling both aspects by the slightly incorrect name. And shirt”. Maddie just looks confused at this point and his parents haven’t actually seen his scarring. But it’s fine now, he knows. As he’s pulling off his shirt he hears his mom ask a bit worriedly, “sweetie? What does Tucker mean by ow?”. Tossing his shirt across a chair and keeping his chest facing his friends. Tucker whistles and Sam raises her eyebrows a bit judgingly, “what? You didn’t even explain that core fusion is extremely painful? That’s like one of the first things to mention”. That gets Maddie to walk around to face him, clearly unimpressed but sidetracked instantly by his chest. Putting her hand over her gaping mouth, “oh my god”. Which gets Jack to come around too, Danny explains before either can jump to their conclusions and worries, “human body plus core equals scarring. I’ve had it since the accident, it’s just different looking now because my cores changed”. Rubbing his chest, “and yeah hurt like hell. Easily the second most painful thing I’ve experienced”. Tucker nods with a frown but pats him on the shoulder, “guessing you’re still achy and shit?”. “What, so you’ve been a bit in pain for days?”, Danny nods at his dad with an apologetic look. Shrugging a little, “there’s nothing to really be done, so there’s no case to make a big deal of”. He knows his parents don’t really like how good with pain he is but it is what it is. And as of now, the discomfort was hardly even noticeable; didn’t even qualify as pain. Turning his head to eyeball the sphere and tilting his head as he checks things, catching his mom mutter, “I hope you don’t do that to spy on people”. Sam and Tucker are obviously confused but Danny smirks, glad the sphere is all settled now. Turning his head back to his friends, “guess I have a bit of a tell. Tilt my head when I’m checking time”, glancing to his mom, “it’s impossible for me not to spy, that’s like half the point. But I’m not doing it just to know what people are up to in a creepy way”. Tucker tilts his head, “wow so you actually have to check in all the time? Damn that must be annoying, why the heck wouldn’t you just get notified or whatever when something’s afoot”. Even Danny has to admit that would be way more convenient but in a sense he would still check in lots, checking up is just right. He needs to and rather wants to, “comes naturally, but yeah slightly annoying and irksome to actually have to intentionally check instead of it just happening on its own constantly. My human form is a bit confining in that sense”. “Dude what? Constantly? So what you just constantly see the future while all Phantom? That sounds like a headache and way more “confining” or whatever. Like your heads trapped in the time stream or whatever”, Tucker shakes his head, “man if that’s what ClockWork dealt with all the time, no wonder he was confusing and a little too weird”. Danny points his finger at Tucker, “hey, I resent that. ClockWork was the perfect amount of weird for me”. Danny can’t help but sigh wistfully as he shrugs, “and Tuck it’s more like everything, not just futures. And it’s more like I’m trapping time than the other way around. Existing behind my eyes and hands, to be toyed with as I please. Sure, being outside of the confines of time begets immortality but I was already in that state. And sure yeah there’s the whole confined to guard over time, the responsibility of it, but...”, Danny mutters quickly into his hand with a smirk, “time’s my bitch”. Danny can’t help but smile fondly reminded of the first time ClockWork said that. He still can’t believe he actually managed to get him drunk, replacing chess pieces with shot glasses was hilarious and who the hell was Danny going to do that with now. Cause for all of ClockWork’s high and mighty demeanour he was damn chill, could easily say he was a little shit. Even if Danny was way more of a little shit, snickering because man was he ever going to drive the Observants nutty. And not even intentionally so, though he’ll do it intentionally as well. Danny smirks a bit with his chin resting in his hand as his friends share a confused and judgemental look, he feels a bit distant from them right now. In a sense he is, everyone around him is confined inside a glass case of time and he’s standing, or floating, outside of it. They can see what’s in their own case but he sees every case if he so chooses. And of course they can see him, if he’s around them and their time’s moving along normally; but he can’t join any of them really. Same as they can’t truly step out of their glass cases and join him. Even if they came to exist outside of time and the time stream, that wouldn’t give them access to time’s core; to time’s true nature, the entirety of it and all that it contains. Time owns everything, life and death, every action or inaction, every choice and consequence. Shaking his head at how that really does make it oh so clear that he functionally owns everything himself then, time confines everything and time is him. Tucker pulls him out of his mental musings, “yeah, you’re weirder. If you start getting all philosophical riddler on us, I will hit you and mock you, aggressively. Dealing with that once was enough”. Maddie raises an eyebrow, “once? Who are we talking about?”. Sam shakes her head at Danny before looking to Maddie, “ClockWork, we’ve really only been around him once, maybe twice. He was a solitary guy”. Danny nods, “had to be, that’s how he made himself an objective viewer. I’m just objective by nature, though inclined to sympathies”. Looking to his mom somewhat sadly, “I’m really the only one who knew him remotely well. Even most ghosts only knowingly met him a few times at best”, snickering a little, “on the other hand, everyone knows me”. Danny picks up the containment sphere and tilts his head backwards to look at the ceiling, before pointing at it and sending his intangibility telekinetically to the ceiling; phasing and floating the thermos down to him. Tucker slaps his leg excitedly, “dude! When’d you master that?”. Danny raises an eyebrow at him, “uh, the same time as I mastered literally everything else? Universal knowledge, absolute self-mastery, actualisation, yadda yadda”. Sam’s more concerned with the thermos than Danny’s powers, which is pretty usual. Tucker’s always been the one more excited over Danny’s abilities and of course both of them are more worried about tolerating his new weirdness than him being weird. Unlike the entire Fenton family, his friends really were quite selfish; though wonderfully loyal and protective to a fault. Sam walks over and pokes at the thermos before shivering a little, Danny doesn’t blame her at all cause it bothered him too. Sure a large part of why is because he can’t see Dan’s future, something being outside of time, of its and thus his confines, was just wrong and definitely induces a bit of paranoia. Which really just gives him an excuse to check the timestream again, Tucker mutters at him in the process, “sudden onset habit much. But yeah, even I’d want to check literally everything before even considering doing something with Dan”. It’s pretty easy for everyone to agree there and Sam pipes up as Danny promptly shoves the containment device over the thermos, “does it seriously take that little time to check every possible future or whatever?”. “Sam, Dan and his thermos exist outside of time. He’s pretty well the one thing I can’t see or check. I’m just inferring possible problems based on relative futures. And I’m not exactly looking very far forwards”, he can clearly see the mild disbelief on her face, “and considering it took just a bit over one day to get the entire timestream downloaded into my head, how long or not something takes sort of doesn’t apply to me. I could spend hours on something and have it seem like seconds to others”. “Uh, shouldn’t you have to do the whole time out, time in, thing for that to happen?”, Tucker’s watching Danny roll around the sphere as he talks rather than looking at Danny’s face. “I could do it that way sure, no one would know after all. But it’s more that time doesn’t affect me like it does everyone else. Hours, minutes, seconds, centuries, all kind of just exist simultaneously and also don’t exist at all. Around and within me”, shrugging and shrinking down the sphere to half the size of a marble, “don’t try to make sense of it, you won’t be able to. One of those, you can’t understand unless you experience and know it, sort of things”. Tucker groans, “talk about confusing”. Danny laughs and gives him a cocky smirk, “would you rather I give diversions and prophetics? Welcome to why ClockWork never really answered people’s questions. The Master Of Time is an inherently confusion inducing title to hold”. Tucker just mutters, “Phantom no”, while Danny pulls out some small purple rope and starts knotting it around the tiny sphere. Sam catches on pretty well instantly, “Uh, is it such a great idea to make him into jewellery? What with all the fighting?”. “Even I’d have a hard time actually destroying this thing. So it’s fine and much better than just leaving him around in my room. Plus the string’s a bit like an extra layer of confinement”, sure it’s probably going overboard at this point but it’s pretty well reasonable and he’s sure wearing a freakishly powerful and dangerous ghost as jewellery would both insult Dan and befuddle to Observants. If they even had mouths they’d be gaping at the absurdity of this. Snickering to himself, “this is the most unassuming weapon of mass destruction ever”. Tucker smirks, “limitless evil”, Tucker and Danny talk at the same time finger-gunning at each other, “itty bitty living space”. Danny chuckles, “or death space really”. Sam shakes her head, “a borderline bomb with the trappings and confines of a freaking bracelet. You’re a joke”. “One that’s perfectly timed and dead on arrival” “You’re awful” “Ghoulishly ghastly”, Danny grins slightly, “devilishly problematic”. Everyone shakes their heads at his antics, though Danny knows they’re all happy since it shows he’s doing ok; or at least, ok enough.

Tucker points at Danny with a rare show of seriousness, while Danny ties the rope around his left wrist, “you better make sure Dan stays trapped in there though, cause man, I’d rather hundreds of rounds of chess over him”. Danny can’t help but snort at that, “I’m weird, not nuts and I could oblige you there. Sure I could never beat ClockWork, obviously. But I’d wager to say I did pretty good”. “Ok, not only do you have an unfair advantage at, well, everything. But still, don’t get why you’d put yourself through that”, Tucker shivers a little bit and yeah Danny’s fondness for ClockWork is really all that made chess actually enjoyable. But it was one of the things they just sort of did together, so he’s quite content to make it a bit of a past time. Maybe he’ll be a really confusing mess and start to speed play against himself. ClockWork gifting him a rotating chess board makes a lot more sense now. Rolling his eyes at Tucker, “I’m not going to know their every move, while human anyway. So it would still be fair”. “I’d be curious to see, me and Mads play checkers and chess fairly often ourselves”, both Sam and Tucker glance at his parents incredulously. Even Danny understands that finding out that the excitable, and sometimes a bit foolish, Fenton parents play chess, is more than a little surprising. Chuckling a little, “well chess can be pretty boring to watch, even speed plays aren’t that great to sit around watching”. Danny’s a bit surprised when both his friends wave him off, Sam straight up clears off the table while Tucker rolls his eyes at Danny, “dude, chess is a ClockWork thing. Which is exactly the kind of thing to do now”. Sam smirks, “yeah make new memories with the old sort of thing”, now she just looks a bit sheepish and guilty, “besides, we never did let you show us that board you were so excited about getting from him”. “Well alright then, I’m quite content to spend what’s left of the day confusing you with the fact that I don’t suck at chess. Didn’t need to clear the table though”, Danny elects to go fetch it like a normal human person, while they all look slightly confused, as he walks with a small smile and hands in his pants pockets, up the stairs. Smiling fondly at the smooth purple oak wood, with black tourmaline and howlite tiles. Stacked on top of, honestly gravity-defying, spinnable and tiltable dark grey, with black, green and blue, Ruin Marble circles and squares. With the last square sitting on top of a piece of black stained RedWood, etched with daffodils. Compacting the neck and base into the table top before carrying it down. Danny smirks as Sam shakes her head, “does everything have to be purple?”. Placing the chess board down on the ground because seeing their shock at this thing folding out was too good to resist. Turning the little silver dial and covering up his snickering mouth while they watch the circles and squares fold out. Eyeing his mom as she pokes at it, “how is this even stable? And again this is extravagant”. Everything with ClockWork was a bit extra, which was all well and good for Danny since Danny was the same way really. “Funny enough Marble symbolises stability and structure. And this is Ruin Marble specifically, symbolising mastery of knowledge, thought and self-control”. Tapping on the base with his foot, “black RedWood for eternal death, daffodils for eternal life and rebirth”. Poking the actual board, “purple for time and oak for strength. The tiles are black tourmaline, for protection and spiritual connection with earth and zone, and howlite, for calming and selflessness”. Chuckling to himself, “howlite’s also a sleep stone which I think is just ClockWork’s way of poking fun at my horrendous sleep schedule”. Tucker groans, “oh and let me guess the chess pieces have some meaning too? Did he ever do anything without some deeper meaning or message”. Danny can’t help but snicker, pulling out the pieces; which outside of the lower half being either purple velvet or black velvet and the tops all being white gold, were pretty normal. Shaking a black one at Tucker, “pretty sure he was incapable of not being deep. White gold for eternity, indestructibility and a sacred bond between two people. Velvet is power and high status”. Danny really thinks ClockWork just likes velvet rather than having some deep reason for going with that, or it’s cause Danny’s cloak is velvet. Maddie sighs as she fiddles with one of the pieces, “I feel kind of bad knowing you were this close to someone I never got to meet or even hear about, until now”. And Danny does feel a little bad about not telling her, but ClockWork is, was, complicated and hard to explain. Smiling softly at her, “he was a solitary guy, humans only meet him if they absolutely have too really. But if it’s anything, he knew you both well, like he knew everyone well, and knew you’d feel this way now. He understood, and would tell you not to dwell or feel bad”. “If he knew then couldn’t he have just shown up once instead of us never meeting him?”, Danny can tell she’s not impressed. Setting up the board as he replies, “because it wasn’t something that absolutely needed to be done. Being The Master Of Time means objectivity, while he had a soft spot for me, he really shouldn’t have been doing things just to make others lives easier. Including my own”. Danny knows that means he really shouldn’t be using future knowledge to improve his or others lives, and he doesn’t intend to. It just so happens that most things that improve his life are either necessary or the better option. Though that would depend on someone’s opinion on “improve”. Danny smiles a little as his mom gets on the opposite side of the board from him but clearly she’s still unimpressed. He knows she would have picked up that if ClockWork shouldn’t have then neither should he. “So what? Even if you know something bad’s going to happen to us or someone else, you have to just let it? Unless it’ll hurt time?”, Danny wishes this didn’t sound as bad as it does but he knows she’d rather unpleasant truths over lies. Sighing a little, “yes, in some situations I might even have to encourage it or make sure it does happen. ClockWork did that to me with the Dan thing. Dan existed because I got the test answers, I got the test answers because ClockWork sent a ghost form the future to fight me”. Sure it was pretty likely Danny was going to get those answers anyway but it would have been in a different way, which probably would have been bad. All four of them look a bit bummed now, Maddie sighs as they start the game, “I can’t say I like that”. Danny only nods, he gets it. Of course she doesn’t, why would she? But responsibility is responsibility and if he starts meddling just to make peoples lives better, including his own, that would be a nasty spiral and could only end badly. It’ll hurt when, eventually, everyone around him finally runs out their clocks but that’s natural, for humans and ghosts, and it’s not like he’ll forget any of them. Danny spends most of the matches pondering on the trappings and confines of his immortality and time that will run out for everyone else. End.

#Danny Phantom #phandom #Phanniemay #phanniemay19 #confined #memories #danny fenton #Maddie Fenton #jack fenton #Dan Phantom #clockwork #phantomphangphucker #have a fic suck my dick #time master danny #sam manson #Tucker Foley

27 notes · View notes