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daniel-danny-fenton · 2 years

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SECOND CHANCES

Also posted on AO3 but tumblr eats posts with links so here we are

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In September in the year 2003, Amity Park got its biggest shock since the tragic suicide of Sidney Poindexter in 1956.

Danny Fenton had died.

Though no news stations had confirmed it, the whole town knew enough about the Fenton Ghost Portal experiment (because the scientists never shut up about it) to know that no child, no person, could have survived the 40,000 amps of pure electricity that ran through the structure the Doctors Fenton had so boldly boasted about before the accident.

Over the weekend, the town mourned the loss of such a young life and grew angry at the negligence of the Fenton parents. There were talks about potentially getting the young Jazz Fenton out of the house before she too could fall victim to her parents’ carelessness.

One Dash Baxter was tossing and turning in bed, thinking about how, instead of making high school a safe space for the smaller teen, he had made Danny’s life even more hellish than it already was. If he had been kinder, if he hadn’t branded Danny as a loser on day one, then maybe he’d have had more friends, more extracurriculars, and wouldn’t have been down in his parents’ stupid basement getting fried by stupid stupid electrical equipment.

The freshman English teacher, Mr. Lancer, was replaying his memories of Daniel Fenton over and over again in his head, trying to see if there were any signs he missed, if the neglect had been obvious and he had ignored it. The boy had handed in a late assignment that Friday, but as it was his first offense, Mr. Lancer had decided to forego the usual detention and let the teen go home for the weekend. If he had kept Danny later, would the teen still be alive?

On Monday morning, the halls were quiet in Casper High. Only the sound of shuffling feet, opening lockers, and whispered conversations could be heard. Nobody was smiling.

Dash Baxter passed by the nerds in the hallway, not even giving them a second glance. Paulina Sanchez wasn’t wearing her signature makeup, and neither was her friend, Star. The teachers were silent, only giving each other polite head nods before walking past.

Everyone noticed the missing faces of Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley in the crowd. Nobody blamed them for ditching. Who the hell could bring themselves to come to school when their best friend had just died.

And, of course, the most obvious missing face of all was Danny Fenton. He wasn’t a particularly popular person, but he was a nice kid. He was bright, cheerful, and had a childlike innocence to him. Mr. Lancer tried to picture the way the boy’s face lit up when he excitedly started to talk about the stars with his best friends.

The teacher tapped his pencil on the desk contemplatively in the empty classroom.

Suddenly, it seemed even quieter out in the hall, as if someone had sucked the air out of the entire school. Curious, Mr. Lancer got up from his desk and opened the door to take a peek outside.

He could hardly believe his eyes.

Strolling down the hall like it was any other Monday morning, was Danny Fenton himself. He had his head down, shuffling along tiredly. On either side of him were his two best friends, looking somewhat hesitant and nervous, but ultimately providing a small ring of protection around the boy in between them.

Dash Baxter’s face had paled to the shade of a sheet of paper. Mr. Lancer was worried the boy might pass out.

The only sound in the hallway was that of Danny opening his locker door, and pulling his books out. Not sure what else to do, the other students started to copy him.

No one shouted out a ‘Hey aren’t you supposed to be dead?’ or even a ‘How did you survive?’. Everyone simply continued in their stunned silence, not sure how to broach the situation.

What was going on didn’t become clear until that morning’s biology class, when the attending teacher asked Mr. Lancer to supervise for a few moments while he went to go copy some papers. The students slowly followed the steps for the lab, casting wary glances at Danny Fenton, who seemed to be engrossed in the task of picking up a beaker like it was the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life.

And, with what happened next, perhaps it was, for the glass beaker slipped through Danny’s hand and crashed onto the floor. Not out of his hand, through. Mr. Lancer could have sworn the boy’s hand had been transparent for a moment as if it wasn’t in this plane of existence.

Danny stared shell-shocked at his hand as if seeing it for the first time, and no one moved for a few seconds.

Evidently, many of the students noticed the same thing Mr. Lancer had, as they gave Danny’s hand the same look the boy himself was giving it.

“It’s okay, Mr. Fenton. Mistakes happen.” Mr. Lancer spoke surprisingly evenly, “Don’t get near that glass. I’ll clean it up.”

The boy nodded slowly as Mr. Lancer grabbed the broom.

That night, at a faculty meeting, the school staff looked around at each other, unsure of what to say about the day’s events.

“Alright, I’ll ask if no one else will,” the growling voice of Coach Tetslaff called out, “What’s the situation with the Fenton boy?”

The teachers shared glances between each other, “I- I am not entirely sure… if what I saw today… is, well, is that of reality.” Mr. Lancer hesitantly responded. The normally concise and well-spoken man was stuttering, “But while I was briefly taking over for Terry in the biology lab I- well I…”

“Oh, c’mon, man, spit it out!” Tetslaff impatiently ground out

Mr. Lancer sucked in a deep breath, “Well, I sort of saw a beaker… slip through Mr. Fenton’s hand.”

“That’s not uncommon. Kids drop stuff all the time.” Mr. Falluca frowned in confusion.

“I know that Terry, it’s just…,” Mr. Lancer replayed the events in the lab in his head before a memory resurfaced in his mind, “Hey… what if… what if, well, remember what the Fentons were saying about their ghost portal being a doorway to uh, to the dimension of the dead?”

There was a beat of silence before Tetslaff and Falluca burst out laughing, “Oh, William!,” Mr. Falluca giggled like a teenage girl, “Don’t tell me you’re falling for that h-horse shit!”

Mr. Lancer frowned angrily, “I don’t know what I believe right now, but are you really telling me to dismiss the situation? We thought Daniel Fenton was dead this morning! Dead!”

The other teachers sobered, “You’re right, William. You’re right. I’m sorry, we shouldn’t have laughed like that.” Mr. Falluca sucked in a breath, “But do you honestly think we could believe that Daniel Fenton is what? A ghost?”

“Ha! Wouldn’t that just be the ticket?” Tetslaff huffed, “A ghost living in a house full of ghost hunters!”

“Isn’t that just called a haunting?” Falluca chimed in.

Mr. Lancer felt his lips quirk up at the joke, relaxing a bit. Perhaps it was a bit of a silly theory. After all, ghosts didn’t exist, right?

Wrong.

Ghosts totally 100% absolutely did exist as the populace of Amity Park would find out within the next month.

It turned out that the accident which had supposedly killed Danny Fenton had been the same event that caused the Fenton Ghost Portal to become operational. And thus, the small town was saturated with ghosts from that moment forth.

There was a ghost of an old lunch lady from the 60’s, some dead 90’s teen with a motorcycle along with his girlfriend, a ghost that obsessed about boxes, and many more. Mr. Lancer even swore he saw the eerie apparition of Sidney Poindexter roaming the halls of Casper High one evening on his way home after grading papers.

The strangest ghost of all, however, was the one that called himself Phantom.

Phantom was different than his ghostly compatriots in the sense that he felt more alive than the rest. Mr. Lancer couldn’t put his finger on it, but he was definitely an interesting case. Perhaps it was the teenage ghost’s use of modern lingo, or references to current video games that tipped him off, but Mr. Lancer got the sick, horrifying feeling that Phantom had died very very recently.

It didn’t diminish the teacher’s worries that Phantom was also very very young. Around the same age as Daniel Fenton, actually, a thought that made Mr. Lancer’s blood run cold.

More and more, the teachers along with the rest of the school populace started to notice obvious changes in Danny.

The most obvious was his temperature. Danny’s skin was ice cold, a fact Mr. Falluca found out one day when the boy tripped and would have fallen over had the biology teacher not caught him by the arm. Mr. Falluca almost let go when it felt like frost was creeping up his own skin, but luckily Danny shifted his arm out of the teacher’s hand and muttered a quiet thank you.

The temperature of his skin also seemed to permeate throughout any room the teen would be in, plunging the area down to the temperature of a meat cooler.

The inhuman lack of body heat from the icebox of a boy made him pleasant to sit near during classes closer to summer, but once it got into the winter months, students and teachers alike took to wearing jackets indoors if they knew they were going to be spending extended time around Danny.

Of course, Danny seemed not to notice the cold at all. Even in winter, he’d still be wearing his signature t-shirt without a jacket in sight. And evidently, he didn’t notice other people’s reactions to him either as the only people he hung out with were his best friends, Sam and Tucker. Tucker was always wearing that ghastly yellow sweater, and Sam never took off her leather jacket, so other students wearing winter gear probably didn’t even register in Danny’s mind.

Mr. Lancer jotted this down on his list of ‘Is Daniel Dead?’ notes.

The event that got Coach Tetslaff to listen to his theory happened in gym class one day.

The class was playing dodgeball; what this taught young teens, Mr. Lancer would never know, but it seemed that every generation went through it. Dash Baxter and Daniel Fenton were on opposing teams. The smaller boy was tiredly, but expertly dodging the barrage of balls coming his way (Coach Testlaff pretended the fact that this seemed routine to Daniel wasn’t worrying at all) when Tucker was struck beside him, momentarily distracting the boy.

A ball going seemingly faster than the speed of sound smacked the side of Danny’s head as he was looking to his right, causing him to fall limply onto the floor.

The class froze as the ball bounced past Danny’s unmoving form, the only sound being rubber repeatedly hitting the waxed, wooden floorboards.

Coach Tetslaff surged forward, hurrying towards the fallen teen, “Who threw that?!”

“I didn't- I- I didn’t mean to…” Dash Baxter stammered out, looking at Danny’s unconscious form then back down at his hands in shock.

“Detention, Baxter. No headshots allowed.”

He gulped, “Yes ma’am.”

The hulk of a woman turned her attention back down to Danny Fenton. The boy was still, too still.

“Shit.” He wasn’t breathing.

She began to do chest compressions, ignoring the cold seeping up from beneath his shirt, but the boy’s chest refused to make any motions.

“Baxter!”

“Yes, ma’am?” He squeaked.

“Go call 911 right now!”

The jock scrambled away to the gym office.

“Coach, I really don’t think that’s necessary…” Tucker Foley jumped in but looked unsure of how to finish that sentence.

“Do you want your friend to die, Foley?” Coach Tetslaff snarled in desperation as she continued to do a few more chest compressions above Danny’s heart.

Instead of responding, Tucker got the oddest look on his face that was of utter devastation merged with an expression like the coach had just told the funniest joke in the world.

Tetslaff didn’t bother with him, now fully focusing on the Fenton boy on the ground who still wasn’t breathing. She stopped the compressions momentarily to feel for his heartbeat, lifting his limp (freezing cold) wrist off the ground and placing her fingers on it.

She waited. And waited. And waited.

There was no tell-tale thump of the heart against the tip of her fingers. Ice froze her veins as she instead moved her fingers to the boy’s neck, shaking slightly.

No beats. Nothing.

Mary-Anne Tetslaff’s stomach dropped. She weakly pulled her hands away from Danny, slumping backward.

A kid had just died on her watch.

A kid had just died on her watch, and she had been carelessly chewing out Dash Baxter when she could have been saving Daniel’s life.

She felt sick to her stomach.

“Coach! Coach! The ambulance is on its way!” Dash Baxter breathed heavily, running out of the gym office before pausing at everyone’s expressions.

Kwan had tears in his eyes. Paulina looked like every decision she had ever made was flashing through her mind. Star had her hands cupped over her mouth, and tears pouring out of her eyes. Valerie looked devastated. The remainder of the students looked equally as traumatized.

Tucker stared at Danny blankly, as if impatiently waiting for him to get back up.

“No…” Dash breathed quietly, “Please- no, c’mon… please don’t tell me-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Daniel Fenton jerked upwards, brushing his black hair out of his eyes, “Damn, that hurt.” He rubbed his temple.

Tetslaff flinched violently back, along with some of the other students as soon as the boy had moved, “Fenton…”

It was then that the boy seemed to become aware of his audience. His eyebrows quirked up in confusion, “What’s the matter, guys? You all look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Danny’s face grew into a lopsided grin.

Tetslaff noted that his chest still was not moving.

Tucker snorted, “C’mon, hotshot. Let’s get you to the nurse.”

Daniel huffed, but stood up gingerly, taking Tucker’s proffered hand to steady himself before the two boys headed off towards the nurse’s office.

The rest of the class stared at the gym doors vacantly and would have continued to do so had the bell not rung causing them to hesitantly shuffle out.

Coach Tetslaff was left to explain to the EMTs why they didn’t need their services anymore.

At the faculty meeting that night, Tetslaff was, for once, quiet. After going over the normal curriculum and plans for midterm testing, Principal Ishiyama turned to the coach.

“Mary-Anne, why did you call that ambulance today? I’m told that no one was sent on it, though you must have had a good reason for calling it in.”

The coach gulped, “One of my students wasn’t breathing after sustaining a head injury. I might have jumped the gun on calling the ambulance… my apologies.”

Ishiyama remained quiet for a moment, “…Was this student named Daniel Fenton by any chance?”

Tetslaff looked up sharply, “How…?”

“Well you just have that look in your eyes like…,” the principal shifted in her seat, “Well, like you’ve seen a ghost, and usually that means… that you’ve noticed Daniel’s uh… oddities.”

“I’m surprised she didn’t notice sooner.” Mr. Falluca chimed in, “What with how he brings the cold with him wherever he goes.”

A couple of the other teachers nodded.

“I never noticed,” said Tetslaff, “All the kids are running around getting sweaty in that big gymnasium. A rush of cold air could be a blast from the AC just as well as it could’ve been Daniel.” Though the woman couldn’t get that seeping cold feeling out of her hands where she had felt Daniel’s chest just a few hours ago.

“Well, what about his eyes?” The geometry teacher, Mr. Cameron asked, “I saw them flash green once when I passed him back a test he’d failed. Last time I checked, his eyes were blue.”

A few other teachers muttered about similar experiences with the boy.

“He is permanently banned from the auto shop classroom. The last time he came in to deliver some papers, he touched Billy’s project and it started sparking like a live wire. Billy still hasn’t been able to make that old car work after that.”

“He floated out of one of the restroom stalls when I went in to take a leak.”

“I saw his arm pass through his locker.”

“Sometimes his freckles glow green.”

“My desk had frost on it after he set a paper down!”

As the teachers started to lay out all this evidence, Mr. Lancer leaned back in his chair, a contemplative frown on his face before leaning forward and placing his hands on the table, “And, what would all of this mean if we pretend for a moment that we’re not talking about Daniel Fenton?”

The ruckus quieted down as the staff thought about the solemn question.

“He’s a ghost.” Coach Tetslaff spoke quietly.

Mr. Lancer said nothing, choosing instead to lean back into his chair again and let her words sink in.

“Oh my god,” Mr. Falluca whispered, “He really did die in that lab accident.”

The air in the room was suffocating, “Then surely… surely the parents don’t know. They despise ghosts.” Mr. Cameron stated.

“I don’t even think Danny knows.” Mr. Lancer expressed bluntly.

The teachers pondered that grim realization before Mr. Falluca spoke up, “So… what do we do?”

“Nothing.” Said Ishiyama and Lancer at the same time. They looked at each other in shock.

“Nothing?” Coach Tetslaff asked in bewilderment, “We’ve got a dead kid attending this school and you want us to do nothing?”

“Yes.” Replied Ishiyama, “Think about it. This kid, ghost, Daniel, is no malevolent spirit like some of the ones we see out there today. If anything, I’d say it looks like he’s trying to live a normal teenage life. Why deny him that? He was a good kid in life, and he’s a good kid now.”

“Plus, if we bring attention to him being a ghost, we run the risk of his parents finding out and potentially hurting him. As teachers, it’s in our best interests to protect a student if they’re in trouble. Should we not do our duty as teachers just because this student happens to be dead?” Mr. Lancer questioned.

The staff at the table shook their heads.

“Then we’re in agreement,” Principal Ishiyama voiced, “To protect Daniel Fenton’s life, uh, afterlife, from his parents or anyone else looking to harm ghosts. And, we are also in agreement to never let Danny know that we know he’s dead?”

The faculty of Casper High nodded solemnly, and not a single word from that meeting left the room.

Over the next few years, it started to become increasingly obvious to the high school populace that Danny was no longer human (and no longer alive) as he exhibited more ghostly traits.

How Daniel’s parents had not yet noticed was beyond Mr. Lancer, though he elected to think it was bias and/or ignorance.

The cold air grew around Daniel as his skin changed to look like more of a pale, sickly shade of white. Occasionally, the teen’s eyes would flash toxic green in public, or sometimes he forgot about gravity for a minute and started floating to which Sam would not so discreetly tug him back down to earth.

The most damning evidence of all, however, was that Danny had not aged at all since freshman year.

It was so glaringly apparent, especially when he stood next to his friends who had gained a couple of inches on him and had lost most of the baby fat they’d had in their early teens. Danny still looked fourteen, frozen in time at the edge of adolescence. He looked just as he had back on that Monday morning in September 2003.

‘What a curse to be stuck forever at fourteen,’ Mr. Lancer sullenly mused just before he heard a knock at his door.

“Come in.”

In the doorway was the head of one Dash Baxter as he hesitantly stepped into the classroom. The boy was wearing his letterman jacket and his backpack was slung from his shoulder; a school newspaper peeked out boasting the success of the 2006 Casper High Ravens championship football game.

“What do you need, Mr. Baxter?”

The seventeen-year-old shuffled on his feet looking like he’d rather be anywhere else at that moment, “Mr. Lancer, sir, I-”

The teacher quirked up an eyebrow, “Yes?”

The boy sighed tiredly, suddenly looking a lot older than he had when he’d walked in, “I guess I was just wondering, and maybe I kind of already know, but… is Fenton, Danny, is he? Is he dead?”

Mr. Lancer let out a long breath. He knew this day would come, “Yes, Dash. I do believe he is.”

“Since freshman year?”

“Yes.”

“Right, yeah,” Dash’s voice cracked and his eyes watered over, “Yeah, I think I sort of always knew I just… I just didn’t want to say it out loud.”

Mr. Lancer quietly nudged a box of tissues in the boy’s direction, but Dash shook his head.

“It’s just. You had to have noticed me wailin’ on him all these years.”

“I have caught you once or twice, yes.”

“I stopped wailin’ on the other nerds back in freshman year.”

“Yes, I noticed that too.”

“I just figured that, well,” Dash sucked in a breath, “that if he was a ghost, and like, he didn’t know he was dead or anything, that me suddenly treatin’ him all cordial and stuff would kind of freak him out. So I just acted like nothing changed y’know?” A lone tear escaped the boy’s eye and he sniffed once.

Mr. Lancer nodded, “I know, Dash. I know.”

The teen took one of the tissues off the desk, and headed towards the door, “You’re a pretty cool guy, Mr. Lancer. You wasn’t a bad teacher either.”

“‘Weren’t,’ Mr. Baxter. ‘You weren’t a bad teacher.’”

The blond chuckled wetly, “Right, my bad. Catch ya later Mr. Lancer.” And he was out the door, leaving the man alone with his thoughts.

It seemed that it wasn’t just the teachers doing their part to help Daniel. Clearly, his friends had been looking out for him since day one, but even somebody like Dash Baxter was guarding him all these years. It was a pleasant thought, to realize that everybody cared even if Daniel was a ghost.

Throughout the years, William Lancer realized there were evil, corrupted ghosts like the hunter who was constantly attacking from all angles, morally gray ghosts like Sidney Poindexter who were never actively malicious and had a strict set of rules they lived by, and then there was Danny, a sweet, kind-hearted boy who just wanted a second chance to live the life that was ripped from him too soon.

The Doctors Fenton were wrong. Ghosts come in all types just like humans. There are bad people, good people, and everybody in between who just want to live their lives. Ghosts are the same; they just happen to be dead is all.

Mr. Lancer stood up from his desk and entered out into the hallway where students were packing up all their supplies for the next class.

Across the way, Daniel Fenton was absentmindedly reaching through his locker door and pulling out books before shifting his heavy backpack onto his back. He looked up only to pause when he noticed Mr. Lancer’s gaze on him.

Mr. Lancer waved at him.

And the boy stuck in time waved back with a smile before turning down the corridor to his next class.

#danny phantom #dp #danny fenton #fanfiction #fanfic #long #ao3 #au #dp au #angst

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going-dead · 3 years

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Lightning Scars and Listening Ears

Phic phight prompt by @datawyrms : Danny Phantom's jumpsuit is hiding a secret he'd rather not reveal to anyone. (feel free to be metaphorical if you want.) l

Team Human: @currentlylurking

Most citizens of Amity Park often forgot that Phantom wasn’t human. Sure he would fly through the skies, turn invisible, and shoot ectoplasm at the ghosts who would attack the city on a daily basis, but the way he acted when not saving the city always seemed so alive. That’s where the problem lied though. The ghost kid wasn’t alive, a fact that Amity Park never actually thought much about.

Phantom was playing around with some kids in the park when it all happened. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence to see the boy play with the younger citizens of the city, under their parents supervision most of the time. Seeing him give them piggyback rides and playing tag was actually a common sight when there were no ghosts to fight. Phantom had six different kids hanging off of his arms and legs, apparently trying to tackle him and get him to fall down. The group of parents laughed at the sight as the teenage hero fell to the ground admitting his defeat in a dramatic flourish. “Ahh you got me! Foul villains, you will regret this!” He laughed as he lunged at the closest kid and launched a tickle attack. Childish squeels rang out as the uncaptured children ran trying to avoid being tickled. The little girl in his arms was finally released from her attacker when she turned on Phantom and started to tickle him back. His laughter attracted the other kids who scattered and they joined the counter attack.

“I yield I yield!” He flailed his arms as a dozen little hands tickled any spot they could reach. The kids slowly let up their assault leaving the teen gasping for breath.

One of the children, the girl who started the attack on Phantom, pulled on his arm. “Mr. Phantom? What’s that did you get a owie?” She asked pointing to his neck where part of his jumpsuit wrinkled down revealing a few red raised streaks maring his skin.

Phantom froze eyes jumping over to the adults just a few feet over who had stopped their conversation to try to see what the young girl was asking about. He quickly pulled the collar of his suit back into place. He gave the girl and the other kids surrounding him a pained smile. “Yeah I did get an owie. Don’t worry though I’m fine, doesn’t even hurt anymore.” Suddenly blue frost escaped his lips, the adults sitting nearby never saw him more relieved to have a ghost show up than in that moment. He gave quick goodbyes to the kids before shooting off to find the day's threat to the city.

All the adults gathered waved over their respective kids. While they trusted Phantom to get rid of the threat it was always smart to stay inside during a ghost attack. A loud boom sounded in the direction where Phantom flew off, shaking the ground. They all gave each other uncertain looks. “My house is closest we can take shelter there.” One of the men said leading everyone away.

After a block of running the group was almost to shelter when the ghost fight moved over their heads. The adults grabbed onto the children doing their best to shield them from the flying debris. They held the kids against their chests as they watched the sky in horror. They didn’t recognize the attacking ghost, but it was certainly doing a number on Phantom. The rest of the battle lasted at most a minute when Phantom managed to suck up the ghost into his thermos before he seemed to wobble in the sky and falling to the ground creating a small crater where he landed.

The man who was leading the group passed off the kid he was holding to the man next to him. “David what are you-?”

“Brian just hold her.” He ran over to the fallen teen and picked him up in a fireman's carry and rushed the rest of the way to his house.

Once he arrived he kicked open the door and placed the teen onto the couch in his living room. He looked down trying to assess the situation. Phantom’s jumpsuit was torn in numerous places exposing spots of his arms, neck, and chest that had splatterings of green ectoplasm across the exposed flesh. He started taking the rest of the jumpsuit off of the teen wanting to make sure there were no hidden injuries underneath. Behind him he could hear his husband and the other parents come through the door. “Get me a wet rag and some warm water!” He yelled behind him.

Once he was handed the items he started working on cleaning up the cuts and wiping off the ectoplasm. He silently thanked any higher being out there that he took a first aid class a few years back. The wounds actually seemed less severe than what David initially thought, that or the kid had some seriously advanced healing. One of the parents led the kids upstairs while the rest of them crowded around David and Phantom.

Once Phantom was as patched up as he could be David finally sat back and actually took a full look at the boy. His breath caught in his throat as he examined the body infront of him. In the end all he could get out was.“Oh my god. He’s- he’s dead.”

“What the hell do you mean? Of course he’s not, I can clearly see him breathing right now.” One of the parents protested.

David shook his head. “No.” He went to run his hands down his face before spotting the blood- no the ectoplasm covering them and settled for grabbing onto his husband for support. “No, I mean he’s a ghost.”

“Well yeah he’s a ghost it’s not like that’s news now is it?” Brian said running his hand up and down his husband's back.

“You guys don’t get it.” David pulled back. “Think! Look!” He ran his hand through his hair, staining it green. “Look at him.” He pointed at the teen’s unconscious body. There were lightning shaped scars running all over the boy’s body, from the base of his neck trailing all the way down to his ankles. Those weren’t the only scars marring his body though, small scars were scattered all over his body, there was a rather large one on his abdomen in the same spot where he was hit the other week fighting off a ghost who was attacking the high school. The gathered adults looked back at Phantom’s face. As he slept he almost looked like a normal teenager, there were small bags under his eyes, his closed eyes hid the toxic green color, and the glow surrounding him was almost nonexistent.

Three things seemed to dawn on the parents all at once.

1: Phantom at some point had died

2: He died young, at most he was just out of middle school when it happened.

3: From the looks of it he didn’t die in his sleep but painfully. They all silently hoped that at least it wasn’t drawn out.

As they all looked at each other they couldn’t help but think of their own children who were just upstairs. Did Phantom have a family? Did his parents miss their little boy? Do they know that Phantom was their son? Even worse, the boy had a jumpsuit on when he died, was his parents the cause of his premature death?

Of course if Phantom was conscious, didn’t have to worry about the whole identity thing, and could read their minds the boy would quickly put their minds to rest responding; yes, no he sees them daily, god no, and sorta it really was more of a case of teenage stupidity than his parents fault though.

Two of those issues though were quickly resolved as two white rings shocked the group out of their grief for a boy they hardly knew. The rings traveled across the boy’s body replacing bare skin with street clothes and white hair with black. Everyone looked at Phantom(?) confused, the boy in front of them was very unghost-like and the scratch on his face that was previously bleeding green now had a red where the scab was forming.

“What the fu- wait isn’t that the Fenton kid, Danny I think?” David asked looking back at the other parents who were in the same amount of shock that he was. Actually he was positive it was him, his older sister Jazz used to babysit their daughter and he would sometimes come along. If someone was going to respond they were cut off as the boy in front of them started to stir and open his eyes. He sat up almost falling off the couch in his panic, thankfully David was quick enough to catch him. “Woah there Danny, be careful you took a pretty bad beating out there. Hell I’m surprised you’re already awake to be honest kid.”

Danny gave him a thankful smile as he steadied himself. He froze once he caught a glimpse of his hair, his eyes shot down to his clothes. He looked back up and noticed the group of adults in front of him. “Now before you jump to any conclusions there’s a very reasonable explanation for this, or there will be just give me a few minutes.” “Wait so does this mean you’re not dead?” Brian asked.

“Brian you can’t just ask that! What if it’s a sensitive subject?” David scolded his husband then looked over at Danny. “Sorry about him.”

Danny looked over to the men who for some reason had hope in their eyes. “What? It’s fine. I mean I guess no- well yes- no- sorta- it’s complicated.”

As Danny looked at the numerous questioning eyes he sighed. It’s not like he could convince them that it was a trick of the light or something. And he did owe them since they patched him up better than he would have been able to at home in his bedroom. But before he could start he turned to David. “I’ll tell you guys everything but first um… is that my ectoplasm in your hair and on your hands? Because if so you probably should wash that off, prolonged exposure isn’t harmful per say but you could start to glow or something if you don’t wash it off soon.”

David looked down to his hands, apparently just now remembering he was still covered in the boy’s ectoplasm and rushed to the bathroom to wash it off. He’d worry about why the sight of his own blood- ectoplasm didn’t phase Danny at all later.

Once David returned, now free of ectoplasm, Danny sat down and started from the beginning. At one point in the story he must have started to cry because he was handed a tissue box, which he accepted with a thanks. By the end he wasn’t the only one with tears in his eyes, one of the adults had to go into the kitchen to compose themselves. Danny didn’t really understand why though, sure he sort of half died, but he didn’t see why it would affect any of them. “Hey! It’s fine, I’m fine it’s not a big deal! I mean it’s not like it only happened to me. Vlad went through it too like 20 years ago.” Danny seized up after he said that. “Don’t tell him you know about him though! Me not telling anyone about him is the only reason he’s not trying to fully kill me when we fight. That and he has a weird obsession with my mom and me.”

David paused at that. “So you’re telling us that not only did you go through a highly traumatic situation at a young age, but the only adult that even knows about it has tried to kill you multiple times?”

“I mean I guess but Jazz, my sister, knows about it too and she’s older than me and my friends.”

“Danny she’s also still a kid, an older one sure, but she is not an adult. Even if you didn’t go to your parents, was there no one else you could have talked to about it with? A therapist maybe?” David asked.

Danny laughed. “Ah no, Jazz tried having me go to the school therapist but she turned out to be a ghost who wanted to try to cause as much pain as possible. She even almost killed Jazz in front of the whole school.”

“Dear god.” David sighed. “All right, we will all keep your secret on one condition.” Danny cringed and looked down at his lap, of course there was a catch. He just hoped it wasn’t anything too bad like letting them run a bunch of experiments on him whenever they wanted to. His ghost injuries were bad enough to hide from others, he didn’t need to have to explain away needle marks or something. “You’ll see Brian once a week for therapy sessions. He’s a licensed psychiatrist.”

“Wait what?” Danny looked up confused.

“Oh don’t worry I won’t charge you of course since we are forcing you to do this, and obviously you can choose the day of the week. I usually don't work fridays or the weekends but if those are the only days that work I’m sure we can rearrange some of our family time to make room for you.” Brian smiled. “Now it’s getting pretty late isn’t it? I’m sure it’s about time everyone here starts to head home now hmm? Of course if you aren’t feeling well enough Danny I can call your parent’s up and just let them know you’ll be staying here. I’ll just tell them you were injured in a ghost fight, not exactly lying now is it?”

“Um no I’m fine enough to walk home thank you though.” Danny said. Everyone started saying their goodbyes and calling the children down to get them ready to leave. Danny was the last one left, he was almost out the door when he was stopped by David handing him a piece of paper.

“Here are our numbers, I also wrote down where Brian’s office is, you can set up your appointment over text. As well as our address, you can stop by or call us for any reason Danny and I mean it okay, any.”

Danny looked down at the paper and pocketed it with a nod. As he left he felt almost lighter for some reason. Maybe having adults who knew and didn’t want to kill him but actually wanted to help him wasn’t so bad after all.

#Danny phantom #phic phight 21 #Phic Phight #dead writes #My fic

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redrobin-detective · 3 years

Text

all is well

Death is nothing at all, I have only slipped into the next room I am I and you are you Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. ~ Henry Scott Hollard

AO3 link

______________

He hadn’t meant to say it, that much was clear. As much as she wanted to hate him for it, claim it was some sort of cruel manipulation; she knew he was just as distressed as she was. The ghost boy had covered his mouth, bright green eyes wide with panic as his misspoken words brought their battle to a screeching halt. Even the ghost the three hunters had been fighting stopped and stared before flying off. No one moved to stop them. Phantom looked at her fearfully, then over at her companion before vanishing without a trace.

It was a slip of the tongue, an accident, so why did the ghost boy calling her Mom make her blood run so cold?

“I’ve knew a kid who called the teacher Mom one time but I’ve never heard it from a ghost,” the Red Huntress said with a sarcastic chuckle. But her shoulders were tense and it was clear the situation made her uncomfortable too. “You okay, Mrs. Fenton?”

“My son isn’t dead,” Maddie said quietly. She would admit there were times where she’d look at Phantom and see Danny overlaid on top of him but those moments were becoming more and more rare. Maddie liked to think it’s because she could find more differences than similarities between the two but honestly, she couldn’t say who her son was anymore. She saw this damned ghost more than she saw the child living in her own house.

“I know, I’ve seen him around,” Huntress said with steady conviction. It made Maddie pause, as it always did, to wonder just how old Amity’s other human ghost hunter really was. Or how young rather. “It was a mistake, he’ll probably avoid you for a bit out of embarrassment but then things will go back to normal.”

“Yeah, a mistake,” Maddie muttered to herself, finally lowering the gun even though the fighting had ended several minutes ago. Why was this whole thing so unsettling to her? Phantom had said much worse things to her, called her a fake scientist and more obsessive than a ghost. He’d even called her a bad mother once when he’d been particularly riled up. She remembered how offended and angry his unnatural eyes had been as they’d glared accusingly into her.

“You know his parents are still alive,” Huntress said suddenly. “I found out by accident a little while ago.” She was still standing on her hoverboard about 3 feet off the ground, her gaze was trained away from Maddie. “They don’t know that he’s a ghost, that he’s Phantom,” the girl’s head was still turned away from Maddie but she had a feeling she was being watched none the less. “Maybe you remind him of his mother.”

Maddie felt liked she’d been slapped.

“And why does that matter to you?” she questioned defensively to cover how much the conversation was shaking her - they didn’t know how could they not know, how could they not miss - “I thought you hated him as much as we did.”

“I don’t like him,” the Huntress said vehemently. “He’s annoying and acts like he’s the only hunter in this town who can actually do the job. But I,” she paused, “I think I understand him, just a little bit. Enough that I’ve been combing through Amity’s missing children files in my spare time. Of course, it’s no good if no one reported him missing in the first place. Phantom doesn’t want me prying but it’s not right for a kid to die and no one to care.”

“He’s just a ghost,” Maddie said, her words weak even to her ears. Was that why Phantom was stuck here? Because he died forgotten and unmourned? The thought of one of her children, her babies, dying without her knowing... she was going to be sick.

“Yeah, he is,” Huntress nodded, “but he wasn’t always. And humans deserve to be remembered, even if they don’t want to be.” That said, the girl sped off into the setting sun, the varying shades of orange glinting off of her suit. Maddie stood in the middle of the street for a little while longer, gun pointed limply at the ground as her whole world spun.

She drove home slowly, taking the long way around to try and put her conflicting feelings into words before she talked to her husband. When she and Jack first began their research into ghosts, they told themselves that they had to divorce themselves from the people the ghosts had been before. If you focused on the lingering traces of humanity in every monster then they would never be put in their place. But she was human and she had kids around the ghost boy’s age, despite her attempts to stick to logic her heart ached with sympathy.

“And you call yourself a mother,” the Phantom in her memory spat at her, filled with hatred but underneath it all was grief. “Where are your kids now? All you care about is the dead but when are you going to care for the living?” Maddie tightened her grip on the steering wheel to keep her hands from shaking.

“Mads! You’re home!” Jack grinned enthusiastically as she quietly entered the house. “Jazzy has her nose in her books and you know Danny, in and up to his room without a word so I made us grilled cheese!” He held her a plate with a flourish, “they’re ghost shaped!” The world tilted itself a little more onto it’s proper axis, no matter how crazy things got, Jack would always be her true north.

“Gracias,” she said accepting the plate. “Can we talk, privately?” She gestured her head down to the basement. Conversations from the kitchen could easily be heard upstairs and she really didn’t want her children to overhear her asking if she was a bad mom. She didn’t want their confirmation that she was right.

Jack’s goofy grinned smoothed out into something softer and he put one hand gently on her back as they walked down to basement. He kicked her usual stool her way and they sat in silence while they ate their dinners, staring at the swirling vortex of the portal.

“You remember that time Phantom called me a neglectful mother?” Maddie asked quietly after a few minutes.

“Mads, you can’t let that sneaky spook get to you. Everyone knows you’re a great-”

“Jack,” she interrupted harsher than she needed to but she didn’t need comfort from a husband but the unbiased opinion of a fellow scientist. “He accidentally called me Mom while we were fighting today, I don’t - I don’t think he meant it, he looked more scared then I’ve ever seen him before he ran off. Huntress was there too, she said.” Maddie gripped her plate tightly in her hands. “She said that Phantom’s family is still alive, that they don’t know about him.”

“Not know? You mean about him being-”

“Apparently,” Maddie squeezed her eyes shut to fight off the unwanted sympathy she felt. “He’s always been the Ghost Boy, the Ghost Kid. I never - I never fully absorbed what that meant. He looks,” Maddie set the plate aside and dropped her head into her hands. “He’s about Danny’s age.”

“Maddie,” Jack said softly, setting aside his own plate and wheeling himself closer. “Whoever that boy was, he’s gone now and all that’s left is an echo, an obnoxious and powerful echo but he’s not... he’s not a child. Not anymore.”

“But he remembers,” Maddie gasped, angry she was letting herself get all worked up over a stupid ghost. “He called me Mom, Jack. Huntress, she said maybe I reminded him of her and,” her eyes filled with tears now. “He’s comparing me to someone who didn’t even notice that he’d died. What does that say about me? About my relationship with our children? I feel like all I do is argue with Jazz these days and god knows where Danny goes to half the time-”

“Maddie, don’t do that to yourself,” Jack said softly, tilting her face up towards him with a gloved hand. “Once you go down that rabbit hole, there’s no digging yourself out. I think it’s just part of being a parent, always worrying that you’re not doing things right. Sometimes,” Jack gaze dropped, troubled. “Sometimes I enter the room and Danny looks at me and freezes like he expects me to do something terrible... He’s just easily startled but it still hurts.”

“Phantom is an echo, not a child,” Maddie nodded quietly to herself, trying to fall back on her usual logic but it tasted wrong in her mouth. He was a ghost... but also a child. “I wonder what he was like when he was alive? His personality seems remarkably preserved, he must have been a vibrant young man.”

“Or his death was particularly traumatic,” Jack mumbled. “Painful deaths usually leave powerful ghosts. And most healthy teens don’t just drop dead for nothing.” A chill fell over the lab.

“How could they not notice?” Maddie whispered with horror. “What sort of parent wouldn’t see that their child was dead, what? Now two years in?”

“Not everyone is as good a mom as you are, Mads,” Jack said, pulling her into his chest. “Neglectful parents are a dime a dozen sadly. He could’ve been a runaway too, ran off and died leaving his folks still holding out hope that he’d come home. Or maybe...” he frowned, “maybe he’s pretending he’s still alive.”

“No, he couldn’t keep the charade for this long,” Maddie gasped but the horrible idea had been planted none the less. Phantom always seemed in such a hurry, like he had somewhere else to be. Was another woman tapping her feet as she waited for her boy to return like Maddie often did, not knowing her child was long gone?

“He’s a wily one, incredibly solid for a spirit. Sometimes I look at him and swear I see his chest moving like he’s breathing. Dampen his glow, dye the hair, change his clothes, he could probably pass as human so long as you didn’t look too close.”

“Jack,” she pulled back and looked at her husband in a panic. “Jack, if he’s pretending to be human when he’s not fighting then there’s a good chance he goes to Casper.” Her and Jack’s eyes widened with realization at the same time.

Their children’s high school has had an unprecedented amount of ghost attacks since the portal opened. They could never figure out why the ghosts targeted that school and ignored the other elementary, middle or even the other public high, Wendy. “What are we going to do, should we pull out Danny and Jazz? Even just until we figure this out.”

“That might tip the ghost off,” Jack said evenly but his teeth were biting into his cheek with worry. “We don’t want to set him off, who knows what he’d do if his cover was blown.” He might look like a harmless teen but Maddie had seen first hand how devastating Phantom could be when threatened. “I think we should tell the kids.”

“What? Why? You know they’re supportive of him!” Well Jazz certainly was, differing opinion on Phantom seemed to be the cause of half their arguments. Danny, truthfully, she didn’t really know his opinions on the ghost boy. He always looked so uncomfortable talking about ghosts with them so they just didn’t.

“Supportive maybe but they’re smart and observant,” Jack countered. “They could be our eyes and ears inside the school. They know better than to provoke a dangerous ghost,” Jack let his eyes drift over to the portal. “Besides, if the worst comes to pass, I want them to be prepared.”

“I don’t like it but you’re probably right,” Maddie grumbled. “If it keeps them safe then I’d do just about anything.” Jack smiled and leaned forward to kiss her gently, his lips a perfect match for her own.

“And this is why you could never be a bad mother,” he said. “Come on, let’s talk to them before they go to sleep.”

“Or Danny sneaks out again,” Maddie said to herself as she followed her husband up the stairs and heard him call for a Fenton family meeting.

It went about as well as Maddie had expected. Jazz alternated between being angry and anxious, telling them emphatically that Phantom wasn’t hiding among them at school and wasn’t a bad ghost to begin with. Maddie didn’t know what had come over her but she hardly recognized this irrational and emotional young lady as her daughter. She hoped it was just Senior year stress and hormones and not some ghostly influenced. Danny, as usual, sat there like he was a piece of the furniture and didn’t say much at all.

“Danno,” Jack said gently as he interrupted Jazz’s rant to engage their youngest. “You would tell us if you noticed anything unusual with one of your classmates, right? You know we’re telling you kids this because we trust you, love you and want to keep you safe.”

“Have you considered that keeping guns around the house, threatening to hunt and torture ghosts doesn’t make me feel very safe?” Danny said quietly, looking down at the table. “So what if he sometimes goes to school, maybe he wants to have something normal in his life. All I know is that if I was Phantom, maybe I would want to hide too. So people like you didn’t find me.” For the second time that night, the words of a teenage boy stopped her cold.

“Danny, what do you-” Danny didn’t elaborate and instead pushed his chair back and headed towards the door.

“Young Man, where are you going? It’s almost curfew and we’re not done here,” Maddie scolded even though she knew that neither her or Jack were in the control of the situation. Danny opened the door and didn’t look back.

“I won’t be long, just a lap around the block. I just, I just need some air, okay?” The house became quiet, no one quite knowing what to say. Jazz excused herself a moment later and walked back up to her room. She slammed her door shut. The ticking of the clock was the only sound to be heard in the suddenly silent kitchen.

“Is that how he sees us?” Jack asked quietly, looking down at his large hands. “Danny used to think what we did was so cool, when did that change?” When did he change? was the silent, unasked question. Or maybe they'd all changed, grown apart so slowly that no one had really noticed. Maddie stood up abruptly and stalked towards the door, strapping an ectogun to her hip as she went.

“Mads, maybe you should give him-”

“You know as well as I do that this is the peak time for ghosts. Danny, he might not trust us but I won’t let a disagreement get him killed.” It was full dark outside and she was halfway down the block before she realized she didn’t know which direction Danny had gone in. The night air was chill for mid-April as it shook off the last dregs of winter. She was feeling cold in her protective hazmat; Danny had left in short sleeves. Maybe she should run back and get his jacket for when she found him.

“Nice night for a walk,” Maddie jumped at the voice to find Phantom lazily floating in the air above her. His posture was casual but his eyes were sharp, searching as he always was. Green eyes glanced at her gun before meeting her eyes. “Looking for someone? Perhaps chasing someone who doesn’t want to found?” No way was she going to let him know her son was out here, alone and vulnerable.

“You actually,” she lied. He raised a disbelieving eyebrow but didn’t call her out. How could he be so expressive and so hard to read all at once? Against her better judgement, she thought again about the ghost as a human. “You called me Mom earlier, I want to know why.”

“What, you’ve never called someone something dumb by mistake?” Phantom flinched, crossing his arms defensively. “It was an accident, I’m just as upset as you are, believe me. Now if you don’t mind, I was trying to have a nice flight to clear my mind. Good luck finding whoever you were really looking for.”

“My husband thinks you’re pretending to be alive, that you’re lying to the town, going to school.” She searched his face for some sign that she was wrong but his expression was still as stone. “You’re putting people in jeopardy, I thought you wanted to play the hero!”

“I’m not doing anything,” He growled, his eyes flashing ominously in the dark. “I’m just doing the best I can, okay? If I go to the Nasty Burger or sit in on English Poetry when there’s no ghosts to fight then who’s hurt? Only me for trying to hang onto something real, something normal!”

“But the ghosts-”

“News flash! The ghosts would be here with or without me because of your stupid portal! I can’t even legally drive and yet you blame me for everything.” He scoffed and looked away, “you really are just like my mother.”

“So I do remind you of her,” she stated. “Your mother.”

“That’s a great thing to say to some kid you shoot at regularly,” Phantom said, icily, his green gaze boring into her over his shoulder. “What do you want me to say? Yeah, you do. It’s not just your voice or your face but the way you look at me like I’m nothing but a disappointment. How you make me feel like I’m some damaged child you need to hammer into shape.”

“You can’t - I’m not disappointed,” she said before she could think otherwise because how else could she react to such a charged statement? What kind of abusive, miserable home had he come from? Her heart clenched again to be compared to this woman.

“Yeah, I can tell,” Phantom snapped at her sarcastically but, like the time when he’d called her a bad mother, underneath the anger was sadness. “None of this matters, we’re both going to keep doing our own thing without each other’s approval. We’re enemies so let’s just forget this all happened and go back to you shooting at me while I beg for you just stop and listen for one second-”

“Alright, I’m listening!” Maddie shouted back, frustrated and sympathetic against her better judgement. “What is it you want to tell me so bad?” Phantom froze, like he hadn’t expected her to just stop like that. His shoulders hunched and his eyes were wide and he looked so much like a lost teenager that it pulled painfully at her heart. God, why did this one ghost bring out so many contradictory feelings in her?

“I want,” he stopped, swallowed and floated to the ground so they were near eye level. Sometime in the last year, he’d gotten taller than her. She hadn’t realized ghosts could grow, could age. Phantom was always the exception to every rule they had. “I want the same thing you want. I don’t like seeing ghosts coming through and hurting people. Before I was Phantom, I was nobody, I couldn’t help anyone. I can now and keeping people safe, it gives me a purpose I didn’t even have when I was human. Ghosts might just be the untethered remnants of dead people but we still love and feel and value things, just differently than you do. I want to keep ghosts from attacking people but without damaging them, we’re not all evil just... trying to find our own way to the finish line. If you’d just, not attack on sight, I could show you.”

It was perhaps the most she’d heard Phantom say all at once. He was rubbing his gloved fingers anxiously against his thigh and there was a desperate bit of want in his tragically young face. He wanted her to believe him, like a child looking to their mother for approval. As more time stretched on without her speaking, his hopeful look fell into a kind of sad acceptance. He looked like Danny had at the kitchen table not 15 minutes before.

“Okay,” she said finally. “We can give it a try for a bit. It’s not a truce exactly but so long as you’re not causing harm, Jack and I won’t shoot at you.” It wasn’t much but the boy looked like he’d handed her the moon and then some. He floated up a little, his boots jittered with excitement. She gaped when he reached forward and grasped her hand only to shake it enthusiastically. His hand was chilled but solid in her own.

“Yeah, you got a deal! Don’t worry, Mo- Ma’am you won’t have to worry about me, I’ll be a good little ghost, scouts honor! not that I was, uh, ever in the scouts. If things go well, I’d be happy to tell you more about ghosts and the Zone. I’ll even give you a tour if you’d like.” His smile was infectious and she bit her lip to resist the natural urge to smile back.

Maybe Phantom was a ghost, a sad child who’d died far too young but he was also someone’s son. That woman, however, hadn’t been able to protect him, to support him. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to give the ghost boy a chance and maybe Maddie could fill in something his other mother couldn’t. Perhaps she could even learn how to give her own children what they needed too.

“We’ll see,” Maddie hummed. “Now, you were going to go flying and I need to find my son before he catches his death, that is, if he’ll even talk to me.”

“He will,” Phantom said softly. “My mom messed up, hurt me sometimes but I knew she loved me and I love her. I don’t know your son but I do know what it’s like to be a son and your mom is... whether you’re living, dead or in-between, she’s always your mom. Maybe he’s worried you won’t love him, the things he’s done or believes in.” He looked away and rubbed the back of his neck, “Of course, I don’t really know you and your family. Usually try and avoid you guys, being ghost hunters and all. Even your daughter is pretty scary.”

“That would be pretty weird, a ghost surrounded by hunters,” her lips twitched upwards despite herself as she imagined Phantom chatting with Jack and Jazz in the living room. The image wasn’t quite as strange as she’d initially thought. Who knows where this shaky truce would lead them? Phantom took that as his excuse to leave and flew off into the night. Maddie watched him go, she started up the block when she got a series of texts a few minutes later.

Danny: I’m home, sorry for running off like that Danny: I don’t like the way you talk about ghosts the way some people talk about race or gender. I want to make opinions based on facts and understanding, not half baked theories Danny: I’d be willing to talk more, if you’d stop being so stubbornly certain you’re right and just listened for a change Danny: I love you, Mom I don’t think I say that enough. Sometimes I feel scared to, like you won’t understand Danny: Jazz came down and Dad brought out the special fudge Danny: Come home, its cold out

Maddie brought her phone to her lips, looking up in the sky as if she might see Phantom still flying around. That boy still loved his mother, the mother who’d hurt him. She didn’t want to be like Phantom’s mom: distant, cruel, unwilling to listen. If she could hold out an olive branch for her enemy, then she certainly could for her son.

Mom: I love you too, baby, never doubt that. I think I'm ready to listen now. Mom: I’m on my way home, save some fudge for me.

I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, Just around the corner. All is well.

#danny phantom #my writing #this seriously came out of nowhere #it took several twists as it just kind of unfurled underneath me #was halfheartedly searching poems about death when I foung this one #it just jumped out like lightning to me #that even though death and circumstance have seperate Maddie and Danny #they're still connected #still mother and son for good or ill #there's love there and a chance for renewal #idk Im just tired #this has been written for like 3 hours its just taken me this damn long to edit

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ghostiiiee · 3 years

Text

Just Like Me

To read at my Ao3 CLICK HERE This is the first chapter. sorry is its a little rough. :sweatdrop:

Almost forgot! Tw: i will be going heavy on quirkless discrimination and mental health issues. Theres not much in the first chapter but i do want to touch on it at some point.

School was never something he looked forward to. After all, what was there to look forward to? He was used to getting bullied, made fun of for being different, called names, shoved around. The irony wasn’t lost on him. Many years ago, maybe he would have been the normal one?

Then again, what even was normal?

It used to be normal to go to school- learn history, math, science and whatever language the school taught.

It used to be normal to not have any powers, after all - superheroes were a dream. Stories people made up to tell themselves. Heroes existed, yes, but they never had powers. Heroes were just people, average people.

Again, there's another word that's changed. Average.

Normal. Average.

Two hundred years ago, it was normal for the average person to look human.

Two hundred years ago, it was normal for the average person to have no powers.

Two hundred years ago, it was normal for superheroes to only be a thing of stories.

That was two hundred years ago. Not now.

Now it's weird to not have powers.

Now you get bullied for being regular. Quirkless.

One of 20%.

Mathematically, he thought it was stupid that so many people get treated so differently. He did remember Mr. Lancer telling him of people getting treated for less. Mr. Lancer told him two hundred years ago, 10% of the population was seen as satanic because of what hand they used to write with. A similar estimated percent was discriminated against because of who they loved, or what they identified as.

“Sadly, Mr. Fenton, the human race has a history of not tolerating those who they see as a minority.”

“I remember that from history Mr. Lancer.” Danny sighed, leaning his head on his hand. His eyes stared out the window, looking at the stormy weather. “I remember you talking about how things used to be.”

The teacher pursed his lips, staying quiet and looking at him with concern.

Lancer had asked Danny to stay after class to speak to him. He never did like how Daniel’s peers would gang up on him after school ended. The best he could usually do was this. Casper’s principal was... far too likely to be accepting of anything the more wealthy students’ parents had to say.

“Is that why you’ve been spacing out all day then, Danny?”

It was asked gently. Danny’s eyes glanced over to the balding teacher before darting back to the window. He hummed for a moment. “...Kinda. I got a lot on my mind.”

“Penny for your thoughts then?” Lancer pulled his chair next to his desk.

It was quiet for a few minutes, the sound of rain gently pattering against the classroom windows filled the room while Danny collected his thoughts. Blue eyes watched raindrops roll down the glass.

“I don’t get it, Mr. Lancer.” His voice was quiet as the floodgates opened. “Everyone in my family has quirks. Dad is strong. My mom can copy anyone’s fighting styles just by watching. Jazz can look at someone and-.... well you know.” He sank down into his chair. “Aunty A, even has a quirk. I've never seen her miss a shot. And then there's me. Daniel James Fenton. The first quirkless person in our family in a long time. Don’t get me wrong either, it doesn’t bother me too much.” Liar. “It’s just... it feels like the cherry on top of everything else.

“My parents got an invitation to teach some classes at UA in Japan. In Japan, I've never lived anywhere but here. Amity Park. It’s not like they can leave me here. PLUS, Jazz has always wanted to go there for the General studies.”

“I understand your concern, Danny. But I’ve seen your work,” There was slight amusement in Mr. Lancers voice. “Aren’t you good at building things? I know I’ve caught you tinkering with something more than once in class.”

Danny’s face flushed red. “...My parent’s usually make those. They’re old models of support gear they have made. I was seeing if I could get a glitch out.”

“And?”

“...I keep shocking myself.” He mumbled. “It hurts like hell.”

“While I can’t say I’m happy that you are getting injured. As long as you are safe, I'm glad.” Mr. Lancer offered a smile to the teen. “As for the other predicament, you are always open to contact me if you need me after you move.”

“Thank you Mr. Lancer.”

~~~~~~~

Danny was thankful that they moved over the summer and not in the middle of the year. School was already hectic enough as was. Moving in the middle of the year was not something he ever wanted to do, let alone moving across the globe in the middle of the year.

He kept to himself for the first few weeks. He liked to walk around, exploring the new area. It felt different than Amity park. More crowded. He noted early on there was definitely more hero around too. It didn’t bother him too much.

That's a lie.

More heroes means more villains.

He didn’t like villains.

He also didn’t like being a hostage.

Lucky him!

He was held hostage by a villain not even before the end of the second week. Not that this was a first time experience for him, having been a favorite target back in Amity Park. He knew all the heroes back home personally because of it. People just loved to take quirkless people hostage. One would think, with the target that seems to hang over his head, that Daniel James Fenton wouldn’t take such risks as walking around alone at night. One would think that if he did, it would be out of necessity, and he would at least have something on him to defend himself.

...yeah no that's not the case. Why in the world would that be the case?

Danny was shoved onto the ground, air leaving his lungs as he hit. He gasped for air, trying to look at who was targeting him now. He couldn’t really tell much about the person, ratty clothes and a hoodie pulled up to cover their face. Nothing could be seen under the hood, it was just shadow, pure, black shadow.

“What’s a runt like you doing out right now?” The villain crouched next to Danny. Chuckling when he tried to scoot away. They put a foot on one of Danny’s wrists, “Ah-ah. Now that’s rude. I’m talking to you punk.”

Danny didn’t respond, wincing at the pressure on his arm.

“It’s rather rude to ignore your elders.” The villain put more pressure, adjusting so they were crouched like a vulture next to prey.

“F-fuck you. I’ve seen worse.” He growled

The regret in saying that was nearly instant. In the blink of an eye, the ground next to his head - that was solid concrete what the hell- was shattered. The villain was making an inhuman noise, a low gutteral sound coming from them. “You haven’t seen my worst. I wasn’t gonna do much to ya, but I’m starting to change my mind kid.”

He knew he should do anything else - he was already on a thin line - but fuck it. He had a free hand anyways. He grabbed something from his pocket and slammed it against the villain. “As I said before. Fuck. You.” He pressed the button on the side.

The machine sparked to life. Quite literally. Danny still didn’t know what it was supposed to do, but he could make it shock things. Like a weird taser. Unlucky for Danny he was literally pinned to the ground beneath the villain getting tased. And as everyone knows. Humans are conductive. Very conductive.

Strangely the villain didn't even flinch. The growl getting louder as they grabbed the device from their shoulder and crushed it with their hand. Danny started shaking. Okay so that was a horrible idea.

The shadows of the alley gathered around the villain. Climbing up their clothing and slowly slithering along their arm. They held Danny down, forming chains around him. In the villain’s hand, a knife, absorbing all light, The villian made the move to attack, and Danny closed his eyes, waiting for the pain to come.

It never did.

It lessened.

Weight lifted from him, a weight he hadn’t realized was there besides his arm. Tentatively he opened his eyes.

The villain was on the ground a few meters away from him, knocked out and tied up to a fire exit- similar to how Batman would leave criminals for the cops. Danny blinked. He hadn’t heard anything. So what in the world happened? And how could that have happened so fast?

Standing up, he looked around for a sign of anyone being there to help him.

Oddly enough. It seemed no one had caused the villain to go down, at least not that Danny could see. Blue eyes scanned the area for a moment, looking for anything that wasn’t there before. Nothing popped out. Nothing was out of place. It looked like no one had been there.

He let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. The air condensed, forming mist as it left his mouth and floated away. It was like when he first stepped outside in the winter. Which was strange- it was the middle of summer. A small frown formed on his face. The nights here weren’t that cold normally.

He brushed it off, ignoring the goosebumps running along his skin as the air chilled. Perhaps whoever knocked the villain out had a rather cold quirk, he mused to himself. Heroes normally make themselves known at this point, checking to see if he was okay.

He had an inkling it wasn’t a hero. At least not a licensed one. Not that he minded. He didn’t care who it was really. They saved his life… he was grateful for that.

Danny looked up to the clear sky, moonlight peaking over the buildings enough to illuminate the alley where the street lights glowed. He smiled up to the stars. “Thank you.” He said softly. “I wasn’t paying attention tonight.”

He left the alley, starting his way back home. He never caught sight of the figure watching him.

#Danny Phantom #danny fenton #mha x dp #bnha #mha

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dp-marvel94 · 2 years

Text

Face to Face- chapter 39

Summary: When Danny went through the ghost catcher, he expected to be cured of the ghostliness that had haunted him since the accident, not to wake up on the lab floor with his parents saying he’d been overshadowed but everything’s back to normal now. But why does Danny Fenton cry himself to sleep to then dream of flying? Why does Phantom, the ghost who was supposedly possessing Danny remember a life that wasn’t his? Most of all, why do both the human and the ghost feel that something vital is missing, in their very soul? Or: Trying to cure himself of his powers one month after the accident, Danny accidentally splits himself but neither his ghost nor his human half know that that is what they did

First -> Last -> Next

Word Count: 4,215

Also on AO3 and Fanfiction.net

Note: Hey my lovely readers! I'm here with a Face to Face update and very excited! With this chapter, we finally breach 200K with plenty more planned. :)

And a note about the band talk... so I pretty much gave the trio my music taste, with my love of relatively small time hard rock and metal bands. The conversation is meant to reflect one I would have with my sister and other concert friends; gotta write from what you know, right? And I also figured you guys would appreciate me giving the Dannys an opportunity to make a pun :P

The rest of Tuesday progressed without any notable incident. Fenton came home from school. Homework. Dinner with the family. Jazz and both Dannys watched some TV with their parents before the human teens went up to bed.

Fenton made faces at himself in the mirror while he brushed his teeth. Yes, he would say it had been a pretty good day, a normal day. Or… what passed for normal for the time being. Phantom had told him about the ectoweenies and the human Danny told his counterpart about talking to Sam and Tucker about everything.

The ghost frowned from where he was leaning on the doorframe of the bathroom. “And Sam and Tucker? They’re both doing good?”

The human spit out the foam in his mouth. “Yeah. Sam’s parents are still driving her nuts. And Tucker keeps raving about this new PDA he ordered. But things are good. They were really excited to hear about what happened with Sidney.”

“They were.” Phantom perked up slightly. “That’s good.” His eyes flickered down, saying nothing else.

There was a pause, as Fenton finished rinsing out his mouth. No words were really needed; the human could feel his ghost’s heavy core. They hadn’t talked or thought about it much but after only seeing Sam and Tucker in person briefly the past week, Phantom really missed them.

“Our grounding’s up tomorrow.” Human Danny offered gently.

That made his other self’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really?!”

A nod. “Yep.”

“It’s… already been a week.” The ghost frowned. “How’s it only been a week?” He muttered.

Fenton shrugged, sharing the sentiment. A week. It had been a week since they’d had that talk in the park and gotten grounded for being out past curfew. So much had happened; it felt like it had been much longer, like months. And yet… it also felt like barely any time had passed at all.

Human Danny didn’t comment on this. Instead, he said. “We can ask if Sam and Tucker can come over tomorrow. I know you want to see them.”

Phantom nodded enthusiastically. “I’ll make sure to ask Mom and Dad in the morning and I’ll text our friends.” He floated backward to let his human out of the bathroom so he could go to bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another sleep. Another breakfast and whirlwind to get ready for school. And Fenton was again getting his books.

“Hey, guys. You wanna come over this afternoon?” The human boy smiled. “My grounding’s finally over.”

Both of his friends’ eyes lit up, instantly agreeing. Then Tucker said. “I should probably text my mom first though.”

The technogeek did just that, pulling out his PDA. Sam was doing the same on her phone. Both received permission. And not five minutes later, both of his friends’ devices buzzed at the same time.

Sam read the text. “Your parents said it was okay, too. Ghost you asked them.”

“Awesome!” Fenton pumped his fist, feeling excited. Now he had to just get through his classes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Paradoxically, school seemed to drag and fly by at the same time. Many hours later, the human Danny arrived at his front door, Sam and Tucker following him. He turned the key, unlocking it, and pulled the door open. It swung inward and…

Fenton blinked. There in the kitchen, level with the top dish shelf, floated Phantom. The ghost had a set of bowls in one hand as he pulled open the door. The human shook his head, clearing his startled mind. Then he smiled.

Ghost Danny’s head turned. “Sam! Tucker!” He visibly brightened, eyes glowing more intensely. He placed the bowls down and in a blur, flew across the living room. The ghost threw one arm around each of his friends. “I’m so happy you could come over!”

“Yeah….dude.” Tucker said awkwardly. His eyes flitted to the human Danny, the ghost Danny, and then to Sam.

Sam raised an eyebrow at the technogeek and elbowed him. “Me too.” She added, an excited smile spreading across her face.

Phantom pulled back, still beaming. His eyes flickered to his human self and he held up a fist. “Fenton!”

Human Danny fist bumped him. “Phantom!”

Just then, Mom’s voice called up the basement stairs. “Danny?! Is that your friends?”

“Yes!” Both Dannys called with exactly the same inflection.

The sound of footsteps started rising from the basement. Ghost Danny darted back to the dishwasher. “I gotta finish this before homework.” He muttered. Then louder. “And get us some snacks!”

Fenton dropped his bag and walked forward to help with the chore. Two pairs of hands were faster than one, weren’t they? Sam and Tucker also dropped their bags, coming into the kitchen. Both grabbed sodas out of the fridge and started going through the pantry, at home in their friend’s house. At the same time, human Danny started putting away the silverware.

The door to the basement opened. Fenton turned to greet his mom. And…. for just a moment, his stomach flopped with nerves as her eyes flitted the ghost floating beside him. He half-expected a startled reaction but… She didn’t bat an eye as she smiled and her gaze smoothly moved from Phantom to him.

“Hi sweetie.” Mom said warmly. “How was school?” She walked to his side and briefly put one arm around his back in a hug.

“It was good.” Fenton accepted the gesture. “Mr. Lancer gave us our essays back.” His eyes flickered to his ghost half. “We got an A minus.”

“You did?!” The woman asked, excitedly. “Great job. I’m so proud of you.” She looked up at Phantom as well. “Of both of you.”

The ghost beamed. “Thanks Mom.”

“Thanks.” Fenton smiled, similarly warmed by the praise.

Phantom continued. “Sam and Tucker are here!” He pointed at the two friends who both waved, greeting the woman. “We’re gonna get some snacks and work on homework.”

“Alright kids. Don’t overdo it on the snacks.” She pointed. “I’ve got dinner in the crock pot so we’ll eat before it's too late.”

Tucker perked up. “What are ya cooking, Mrs. F?”

“Just a pot roast.” The adult said, walking over to the counter to check on the meal.

The technogeek seemed to have stars in his eyes from the answer but Sam elbowed him. “Weren't you just saying your mom wanted you home for meatloaf tonight?”

The beret-wearing boy rubbed the spot. “Oh. Right.” He gave a sheepish smile. “How about just a bit to go? For later?”

Fenton and Phantom chuckled, even as Sam rolled her eyes. All of them knew he wasn’t being entirely serious.

“Perhaps.” Mom had a similar knowing twinkle in her eye. She glanced back at the door. “I’ll see you in a bit. Your dad and I need to finish up in the lab. Have a good time, kids.”

The woman waved, going down the stairs. The teenagers did as well, before returning to their conversation. With the dishes finished, Fenton grabbed his own snack. The four sat at the table for a bit, chatting about school, the upcoming dance, and music.

“Have you listened to Relent’s new album yet?” Sam asked.

“Yes! It’s fire!” Phantom smiled, gesturing excitedly. “It’s so good.”

The goth’s eyes lit up. “I know, right?! I love Snakes or… oh, Enemy freaking slaps! I mean the title track, Heavy is really good too. What’s your favorite song?” She asked ghost Danny excitedly.

“Oh that’s really hard. All the songs are good but maybe….” The boy tapped his chin, thinking. “I know, Ghost.” He beamed. “Ghost is my favorite song.”

Fenton burst out laughing at the answer. At the same time, Sam rolled her eyes good naturedly. “Of course it is.” She leaned forward, pointing at Fenton. “Seriously, what’s your favorite?”

The human Danny held up his hands. “Hey, he was being serious. Ghost is a banger.”

Sam groaned. “Come on. That pun...and it’s the single. The single can’t be your favorite song on the album.”

“Why not?” Tucker shrugged. “First. They put out three singles, four if you count LOW. And second, If it’s a good song, it’s a good song. That’s probably why it’s a single, ‘cause it’s the best.”

The goth raised a brow. “We all know that’s not how it works. They pick the song that’s likely to get the most streams, or radio play.” She crossed her arms. “Doesn’t mean it's the best. I mean look at Darkness Dies! It’s Disciple's most popular song and it didn’t make the album the first time around! Either the bands don’t know what is good anymore or it being the single doesn’t automatically make it a good song. That being said, Disciple and Relent aren’t good examples because they don’t really put out bad songs.”

Fenton shrugged, not replying. There was no point in arguing that point. Beside him, Tucker was typing on his PDA. “Oh, Sam. Did you see this?” He held the device up to show her a picture.

Sam’s eyes widened. Her chair teetered, almost falling as she practically leapt out of it. “Relent’s touring with GFM! And The Protest!”

“Look at the dates.” The technogeek motioned.

The goth leaned forward at the same time both Dannys moved to see. Phantom was the first to react. “They’re playing here! And the… first.”

“That’s in two weeks!” Sam bounced on her feet. “I’m gonna get to see GFM!”

Fenton starred, a little stunned. He was sure he’d never seen his goth friend this excited before. Then the corners of his lips turned up as he slowly smiled. His eyes flickered to Phantom. “Dude… we’ve got to get back to normal before then.”

“Uh yeah.” Phantom nodded enthusiastically. “Dude, I’m not missing that.”

The group talked for a while, gushing about the upcoming concert and what songs they hoped to hear. Eventually, a reprimand from Jazz when she came in convinced the younger teens to work on homework with much grumbling and pouting from all.

An hour later, Fenton flopped dramatically onto the carpet. “That’s it. We’re done.” Still sitting to his right, he saw his counterpart roll his eyes.

Above his head, from somewhere in the kitchen came an exaggerated sigh from Jazz. “It can't be that bad.”

The human’s eyes flickered to the side as Phantom stuck his tongue out at their sister, shaking his head mischievously. Fenton raised a brow. He sat up just in time to see the older teen roll her eyes before returning to her own homework. “Little brothers.” She mumbled.

Human Danny stuck out his tongue this time, though it wasn’t particularly satisfying since Jazz didn’t see it this time. Oh well, there’d be time to mess with his sister later. He turned his attention back to his friends. Sam was putting away her textbook while Tucker was checking his PDA.

“Ah man. I have to leave in fifteen.” The technogeek lamented.

Fenton frowned. “Oh. What do you guys want to do then?”

Beside him, Phantom’s eyes lit up with a sudden idea. “I need to show you something!” Excitedly, the ghost smoothly floated off the floor and into a standing position.

Tucker raised a brow. “Dude, what is it?”

Phantom covered his lips with one finger and wiggled his eyebrows playfully. He floated to one of the walls and placed both feet on the ground. He turned around to look at the other teens. “Just watch.”

Despite the confused looks, Sam and Tucker didn’t say anything, just watching curiously. Fenton’s own brow was furrowed; what exactly was this about? Then his ghost spread his finger and placed his hands on the wall, one above the other. He shuffled his feet forward until his toes were right on the wall. One more look back to make sure he was being watched, a smirk and… Phantom moved the lower hand higher and stepped onto the wall.

Behind him, jaws dropped. Fenton’s eyes widened. Was he…. No way. The corners of his lips started turning up. Hand over hand, his ghostly counterpart moved up the wall. Fenton felt like laughing. NO Way.

“Dude!” Tucker had his hands up. “Are you wall crawling?!”

Phantom hazarded a glance back. “Yep.” He grinned. “Like Spiderman.”

His human self blinked and an excited chuckle burst from his lips. “Like Spiderman.”

“That’s awesome!” The technogeek exclaimed. “How? How are you doing that?” At the same time, Jazz gasped, finally taking note of the commotion. “What the heck are you doing? You’re going to get footprints on the wall!” And Sam… “Why didn’t you tell us earlier? This is so cool!”

“Guys.” Phantom shook his head, good naturedly. “Let me concentrate.”

Every questioning mouth snapped closed, though the excited looks remained glued to Sam and Tucker’s faces. Fenton’s own mouth was still open as his ghost self clammered to the top of the wall. Jazz stood from her seat at the kitchen table, quickly coming to stand with the other teens. The ghost carefully shifted so he was crawling along the ceiling. Phantom looked down, still grinning. He stopped above the still gaping humans and maneuvered to sit crossed legged on the ceiling.

“There.” The ghost flopped down, spreading his arms. “Now I will take questions.”

Sam spoke first, elbowing Fenton even as she was looking at Phantom. “Fenton. Why didn’t you tell us about this?” The question was without bite, just teasing and disbelieving.

Human Danny looked between his two friends and sister. “Guys.” He laughed. “I literally didn’t know about this ‘til just now.” But as soon as he said the words, a mental door opened and there was the memory of practicing and experimenting with the power this afternoon.

On the ceiling, Phantom shrugged. “What can I say? Sometimes I surprise myself.” He gave Fenton a meaningful look and the human shook his head, still smiling.

“But seriously… how?” Sam motioned to the ghost who was hanging from the ceiling like an oversized bat.

“I’m floating.” The ghost said plainly. “Or… it’s like gravity’s only a thing if I want it to be so I think I’m kinda changing how gravity affects just me so…” He pointed toward the teens. “That’s up. And…” He motioned to the ceiling. “That’s down.”

“That’s incredible, Danny.” Jazz breathed, amazed.

“Yeah.” Sam agreed. “Amazing.”

“Dude.” Tucker’s hand went to his forehead, expression awed. He blinked and then… “Danny! You can use your powers on other people!”

Phantom raised a brow, surprised by the change of topic. “Uh… yeah?”

“I mean… at school, you could turn all of us intangible and invisible to get out of the basement. And….I was like...floating with you.”

“So?” Fenton questioned, half shrugging.

“So!” Tucker’s hands raised. “I wanna sit on the ceiling too, man!”

Phantom blinked. “What? How would...how would we even do that?”

Sam’s eyes widened. “Like Tucker said, sharing your power. So you totally could do it, if you’re touching whoever it is. So…” She grinned. “Hanging out on the ceiling?”

The ghost didn’t reply, still looking at both his friends. Then his eyes went to Fenton and there was a silent conversation. Both were unsure. Was this a good idea?

Then, Jazz crossed her arms. “What. No. No way. This is a bad idea and you should get down from there before you hurt yourself.”

A bad idea, Jazz said? Well… Phantom grinned at her, mischievously. “Nah, it's a great idea.”

“Danny!” Their sister’s jaw dropped. “No.”

Fenton elbowed her. “It’ll be fine. We can do this.”

“That’s what I’m worried about.” The older teen muttered.

“We’ll be careful.” Human Danny rolled his eyes.

“Yeah. So….” Phantom stood, feet on the ceiling and head down. “How do we do this?”

“Me first! Me first!” Tucker jumped excitedly. “Danny, stand up.” The ghost did so and the technogeek jumped again, reaching towards him. The outstretched hands missed by more than a foot, due to the high ceiling. The beret-wearing boy frowned in reaction. “Too high. Maybe…if I stand on the couch and-”

“Wait, Tuck.” Phantom interrupted as his friend stepped towards the couch. “Maybe…” He bit his lip and Fenton could feel the uncertainty, his own stomach flopping. The green eyes met blue. “I should try it with Fenton first.”

Human Danny didn’t visibly react; he wasn’t surprised in the least. The same couldn’t be said for his friends. Disappointed flashed across Tucker’s face and Sam asked. “Why?”

Ghost Danny rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I’m pretty sure the power sharing is easier with other me. We should try that first.”

“Oh, so you can get yourself hurt instead of one of us. Like I said” Jazz replied sarcastically, looking dissatisfied. “I still don’t like this. It’s not a good idea.”

Fenton narrowed his eyes. “I’m not gonna get hurt. I trust my own powers. He won’t drop me. And frankly….” He crossed his arms. “I’d rather get dropped than one of you guys.”

Their sister opened her mouth to argue but Phantom cut her off before she could. “Jazz. It’s fine. I wouldn’t drop him. I do have some self preservation. It’s not even that far.” The ghost crossed his arms, mirroring Fenton’s position.

There was a pause as Jazz’s eyes flickered between the two versions of her brother. Then she sighed. “Fine. Go ahead.”

Phantom actually looked a little smug. Then he looked to his friends. “Sam? Tuck?”

“Yeah. Go ahead.” Tucker agreed, apparently satisfied by the explanation. Sam gave a nod as well.

“Alright.” Fenton rubbed his hands together. He hopped up on the couch and raised both hands. The human stood on his toes and the ghost stretched slightly. Gloved and ungloved hands met and were grasped in each other. Human Danny let out a small gasp as a tingly feeling traveled from his hands down to his feet. Then that familiar weightlessness overtook him. Fenton relaxed, letting his feet float off the furniture. “So that worked.” His eyes flickered up to the ceiling. “How do I move though?”

“Just think about it.” Phantom supplied.

“Helpful.” Sam quipped.

“No really. You just think about it. It’s like breathing or walking. Just think and… it happens.”

Fenton frowned. That still wasn’t all that helpful. He looked at the ceiling beside Phantom again before looking directly up and meeting his ghost half’s green eyes. His counterpart smiled encouragingly. The human smiled back. Alright, he could do this. He wanted to be standing on the ceiling, beside Phantom. So he’d need to… kinda swing up there. Or down. The ceiling was the floor. It was supposed to be down so-

Human Danny’s eyes widened. He gasped as his legs effortlessly floated out from directly under him and up until he was almost sitting in the air with his legs splayed in front of him. Fenton moved without thought, waist and arms bending at the world flipped upside down. Before he could register, he was standing on white-popcorned ceiling, across from his ghost and with their hands still clasped.

“Woah.” Fenton blinked. “That worked.” He was standing on the ceiling and… he wasn’t dizzy at all. It felt just like standing on the floor, even if he was still weightless. He grinned. “It worked!”

“Awesome!” Phantom also grinned. “You did it!” The ghost let go, intent to wave his hands in his excitement.

Human Danny’s mouth formed an O. Gravity reengaged, the world turned back around, and he was falling. He shrieked, hands instinctively moving to protect his head. Oh shit, he was gonna-

Fenton jerked to a stop, the tingly cold feeling washing through him. What? He blinked, eyes darting back and forth panickedly. He was still floating? How? What? Why? His heart pounded and he looked up, at whatever cold thing was wrapped around his ankle. Oh. It was Phantom. The ghost had caught him, a hand wrapped around his leg and an arm stretched a little too long to be natural.

Ghost Danny smiled sheepishly. “Sorry.”

His panic gone, Fenton scowled. He glanced down at his friends and sister. Their faces showed a combination of fear, relief, and confusion.

Jazz put up her hands. “You said you weren’t going to drop him.”

Human Danny sighed. “At least I caught myself.” He looked back up at Phantom. “Thanks for the save but… try to remember we have to be touching for it to work.”

Phantom blushed green. “Yeah… Let’s do that.” He then looked at his arm. “Woah. Didn’t know I could do that.” The arm holding the human’s ankle stretched just a little bit longer and thinner before it snapped back to its normal length.

Fenton started willing himself into a more upright position, relative to Phantom. He reached out with his right hand, taking the ghost’s left hand again as soon as their fingertips touched. “Is it like how you can make your legs into that ghostly tail thing?”

Phantom shrugged. “Probably.”

The gloves right and ungloved left hands met and again, Fenton was floating towards the ceiling. Just as his feet set down, the door to the lab opened. Both heads turned.

“What was that screaming?” Mom asked, concerned. She stopped at the threshold between the kitchen and the living room. Surprise flashed across her face and her gaze flickered from the teenagers on the ground to what they were looking up at. Her eyes widened. “What are you doing?”

Fenton blushed. “Uh… you know. Just practicing.”

The adult blinked. “Okay. But...why was someone screaming?”

“Phantom dropped him.” Jazz cut in.

Both Dannys’ jaws dropped, scandalized. “Jazz!”

“Hey! I caught myself.” Phantom argued.

“Yeah, we’re both fine.” Fenton backed him up.

Mom took a breath, putting a hand on her head. “Just… be more careful next time, Danny. Maybe pick somewhere less... high next time. Maybe over a soft mattress or pillows or something.”

Both boys looked at each other, a little surprised. “Oh, okay. We will.” “Yeah, we will.”

No one said anything for a pause. Both Dannys blushed. Then Dad came up from that lab. He stared. “Wow. Neat trick, Danno.”

That broke some of the tension. “Thanks Dad.” Fenton called.

“Yeah! It’s really cool.” Tucker added encouragingly.

Mom lowered her hand. “Sweetie, you should finish up with your friends. Dinner will be ready soon and they need to leave, right?”

Sam glanced at the clock. “Yeah. Simmons should be here to pick me up in a few minutes.”

“Aw man.” Tucker looked disappointed.

Fenton and Phantom felt the same sadness. Hanging out with friends was over for now. They looked at each other and without needing any words, smoothly turned in the air. Human Danny didn’t know which one of them was willing the movement but in perfect sync, they lowered from the ceiling, flipped right side up, and landed back on the carpet. Only then did the hands unclasp.

“Sorry, Tuck. Next time?” Phantom offered.

“You know it.” The technogeek gave ghost Danny a fist bump, followed by the human Danny.

“Yeah.” For just a moment, Fenton’s eyes flickered to Mom, nervously. Could she infer what they were talking about? She raised a brow and his stomach dropped, expecting a reprimand; there was no way Mom would be okay with him fooling around with his powers with his friends.

But the woman surprised him. “Just be careful if you’re going to play around with your powers with your friends, Danny.” Her expression turned more serious as she turned to address Sam and Tucker. “I know superpowers are exciting but I’m trusting all of you to be responsible and not reckless. Maybe bring your bike helmet and your elbow and knee pads? I don’t want to have to take anyone to the hospital.”

Tucker’s expression was, suddenly, extremely serious. “Yeah, Mrs. F. We’ll be careful.”

“Of course, Mrs. Fenton. You can trust us.” The corner of Sam’s lips turned up. “We’ll keep Danny in line.”

Fenton’s mouth fell open in offense. “Really? You too, Sam?” Despite his words, the human boy wasn’t really serious.

The goth shrugged. At the same time, Tucker half-smiled. “Someone’s got to stop you from dropping yourself.”

Phantom put a hand to his head. “It was an accident! And I caught him.”

“You did a great job, little brother.” Jazz patted him on the shoulder, teasingly.

“Yeah! That must have been impressive. Great reflexes, son.” Dad added, joining the group.

Mom shook her head, still smiling despite the topic. And slowly… both Danny’s smiled too even with the teasing. It felt good, like they were just hanging out, like this was a normal school day. Or rather… not like the accident hadn’t happened and nothing had changed but… this was becoming the new normal, ghost powers and all.

#Danny Phantom #my fic #Face to Face #Ghost Catcher #Split Danny #Double Danny

24 notes · View notes

lexosaurus · 3 years

Text

Statistic

My contribution to DP Side Hoes Week 2021 day 1! Character: Mr. Lancer Theme: Reflection

---

William Lancer stood in front of the mirror, fastening his tie with practiced fingers. He pulled the fabric down, completing the knot, and straightened it before him.

There. Now he was ready to start his day.

Well, almost.

He picked up the steaming mug of coffee off his dresser and sipped it, cherishing the warmth. It was early, too early. No matter how much his parents told him he would get used to waking up early for work every day as an adult, he never seemed to get the hang of it.

He stifled a yawn, noting the bags under his eyes and creasing forehead as he stared at his reflection in the mirror. Teaching had aged him, there was no doubt. Between preparing the lesson plans, grading assignments, editing papers, meeting with parents, tutoring students—not to mention the dreaded administrative meetings—it was really no surprise that teaching had slowly worn him down over the years.

But he wasn’t sure he could ever walk away. At least, not for a few more decades.

He headed downstairs, swiping his keys off his kitchen counter and starting the familiar drive to school.

Teaching wasn’t all bad, it wasn’t all weary, thankless work. The students, though hormonal and immature they could be, kept him going every day. Watching their eyes light up as they understood a concept, seeing them succeed in their athletic or creative ventures, those were the small moments he cherished. The parts of his days that he yearned for.

He parked and strolled into the school, coffee still in hand. The hallways, though empty now, would soon be teaming with life as the students slowly made their way to school. And though they’d be tired at first, slowly throughout the day the voices in the halls would get louder, more lively, as the day picked up steam.

He said a few obligatory greetings to his coworkers, grabbed a few files from his office, and then headed to the printer room. He had a few worksheets he needed to print out for his students today.

“Will!” Tom Falluca greeted him. A copy machine buzzed next to him, spitting out papers.

“Hey, Tom.” Edward set his mug down on a spare table. It always amazed him how lively Tom seemed to be in the morning. “Happy Friday.”

“And to you! Got any plans for the weekend?”

William shrugged. His weekends tended to all be the same, with him switching off between prepping for school, emails, reading, and video games. Not that he told anyone about the latter hobby. It would have been rather unprofessional of him to admit to such a thing. “I’ll probably get started on my book club book. It’s a rather interesting one I believe. Well, according to Jane from the history department it is. But that woman will read anything, so I take her recommendations with a grain of salt. How about you?”

“My wife’s sister will be in town this weekend, so we’ll be hosting them.”

“Oh, that will be fun. Is she the one with the kids?”

“Yup, although they’ll be spending the weekend with their grandparents, so we won’t have them this time. It’ll just be Alice and her husband. I think we’ll probably go biking around the city on Saturday and then go out to dinner and a bar.”

“I’m sure they’ll appreciate it.” William pressed a button, whirring his copy machine to life. “Kids can be such a handful.”

“Oh, you’re telling me! I still have one at home, although he’s old enough now to be able to take care of himself for a day.”

“That’s the good thing about you working here, isn’t it? He would never be able to get away with a house party.”

Tom chuckled. “Heavens, no. The rumor mill works too well for that.”

William hummed, swapping a paper out of the copy machine with another.

“If any of your students look despondent today, it’s because they got their math test back,” Tom said.

“Not a good one?”

“Well, for the most part it went okay. But there were a few scores that were a bit lower than expected, and the usual suspects didn’t do well either...”

William didn’t miss the implication of that last comment. “You mean Mr. Fenton and Mr. Baxter.”

“Dash didn’t do great, but I spoke with his parents about arranging him with a math tutor last week and they seemed to agree with the idea, especially since I know he’s starting to think about college recruitment. But Danny!” He let out a sharp breath and rubbed his temples with the tips of his fingers. “Good grief, I don’t know what to do with that kid.”

William recalled the essay he graded from Mr. Fenton earlier this weekend. It was a garbled blend of English words that could only have been written by someone who couldn’t even bother to read the Sparknotes of the novel. For a while, William suspected dyslexia. But he had seen Mr. Fenton’s work after being forced to study in the classroom after school, and while he certainly wasn’t on the same level as his sister, he had shown to be able to produce legible, comprehensible papers when he put the time into it.

It was almost too easy to write him off as just another lazy student. And sometimes, William did do that. But he knew that deep down there was a much, much larger issue at play.

He just didn’t know what that issue was.

“Fenton is a rather interesting case,” William finally said. “Truthfully, I haven’t been able to figure out how to handle him either.”

“It would be much easier if his parents would get involved. I’ve sent emails, but they just apologize for his performance and promise that they’ll talk to him. He doesn’t need to be talked to, he needs real intervention, and I can’t do that if his parents won’t agree to it.”

“I’ve had similar issues,” William admitted. Jack and Maddie Fenton were an unfortunate roadblock in his progress with Daniel. At the moment, it seemed detentions were the only way he could actually get Mr. Fenton to be forced into doing schoolwork at all. And even then, half the time Mr. Fenton would either not show up to the detention, or he’d pull one of his infamous disappearing acts halfway.

“I don’t know.” Tom shook his head. “Every so often, you get a student like this. I know, I’ve been at this job for almost thirty years. I know we’re not heroes, we can’t save everyone. But it still is such a damn shame to see a student with so much potential slip through the cracks.”

“I agree.”

At this rate, Mr. Fenton would amount to nothing more than just another failed statistic. He would just slip through the cracks.

William hated to think about it.

“We can’t save them all, Tom, but I’ll see about trying to get Madeline and Jack Fenton into my office again with the guidance counselor.”

“Theresa’s good. Maybe she’ll get through to them.”

William shrugged and collected his papers. It wouldn’t have been the first time that Theresa, Mr. Fenton’s parents, and himself had sat down together to discuss Daniel’s performance. But it was always the same response, just a, “We never had these issues from Jazz!” from the father and a, “I’m so sorry, I’ll talk to him,” from the mother. Any suggestions of a 504 plan was shut down before William could finish his sentence.

“He’s never had these issues before. We’ll talk some sense into him!” Jack Fenton had said.

There had been students in past years who had parents that spoke like this. Opposed to alternative methods, so sure they alone could “talk some sense” into their teen as if that would solve all their academic issues.

It never ended well.

William shuffled off to homeroom, one hand clutching his photocopied papers and the other holding a nearly empty mug of coffee.

He wasn’t sure how to get through to Daniel. He wasn’t sure how to convince his parents that Daniel needed extra help, and that was okay. It wasn’t a sign of intelligence, or lack thereof.

But he needed to figure it out.

He refused to let Mr. Fenton become another statistic.

---

Thanks for reading!

#danny phantom #dp side hoes week 2021 #phicc #my writing #unbeta'd

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dannymayevent · 4 years

Text

Congrats to @tinydragontoons for completing all 31 days of Dannymay 2020! You did a fantastic job and we hope you enjoyed the challenge!

This fic was written by @lexosaurus based on your art for Day 20: Sky

---*---

Danny wasn’t a good student.

He tried—he tried so hard—but he just couldn’t do it. He couldn’t get his assignments done, he didn’t know how to begin studying for an exam, he didn’t know how to ask his teachers for help because he didn’t understand what he did or didn’t know about each class and he didn’t want to bother his teachers anyways it was his fault he was in this position, it would only annoy his teachers if he came crying to them for his mistakes.

He wasn’t a good student.

---

“Don’t you care about your future?” Mr. Lancer’s eyes bore into his. “Don’t you want to work for NASA?”

Danny shrugged.

Shrug and evade. That was his tactic.

“My grades aren’t good enough for NASA.”

“Maybe not right now, but they could be.”

Danny glared at the ground. The tiles were dirty. They likely were once white, but now they just looked grey.

“I’m not Jazz. I can’t just will my grades higher.”

“I never asked you to be Jazz, Daniel.”

Danny shook his head, frustration pooling throughout his body. Didn’t Mr. Lancer understand? It didn’t matter what he did, he would never be able to work for NASA. He wasn’t smart enough. He wasn’t Jazz.

Danny knew what true intelligence was. Hell, between his mom’s PhD, his dad’s ability to create anything out of a pile of scraps, and Jazz’s perfect grades, he knew firsthand what geniuses looked like.

And he knew he wasn’t one of them.

---

“You going out tonight, Danny?” Jazz said from his doorway, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Danny turned around, away from his zipped backpack filled with incomplete assignments and failed exams, and said, “It’s a full moon.”

He stared down at his gloved hand, watching as the glow shimmered around his body. It had been a year since the accident, but he still didn’t know what the hell he was.

“You want some company?” Jazz asked.

“Maybe tomorrow.”

Probably not. He knew Jazz was worried about him, she was only trying to help, blah blah blah, but how was she supposed to help him if he didn’t even know what he needed help with? He wasn’t a good student, he wasn’t human, and if Vlad was right, he had managed to make the entirety of Amity Park his haunt. Would he even be able to leave this city if he tried?

“Alright, I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

He didn’t respond, instead listening for the soft click signaling his safety from the prying eyes of the rest of his family. He knew she was only trying to help, but she was intelligent like their parents. She had friends, she wasn’t bullied, she was human, and she’d never struggled on a single exam in her life. How the hell was she supposed to help him when they were just so different?

Ignoring his untouched backpack one more time—he could deal with those assignments tomorrow in detention—he pulled on his core and shot through the wall like a rocket.

---

“Care to explain, Mr. Fenton?” Mr. Lancer peered at Danny over his manila folder.

Danny sighed and fell into his seat. Another day, another detention for tardiness and missing homework.

“I don’t know.”

“Mr. Fenton…” Mr. Lancer started, but Danny realized that he didn’t want to hear that stupid speech again. He was sick of it.

“I get it, I suck at school, you’re disappointed in me, I need to apply myself more and then I’ll be fine. I know the drill already.”

“Daniel, that’s not what I was going to say.”

---

The cool, spring air brushed against his skin, cloaking his body like a blanket as he dove into the empty sky. He twisted up, pushing his body higher and higher into the night sky.

Danny flipped on his back. The stars were bright tonight, and Danny could see all the constellations draped across the sky like a painting. Star patterns like Sagittarius and Capricorn painted his vision, and he scanned the constellations for their planets, Jupiter and Saturn. Not for the first time, he wished he had a telescope to see Saturn’s rings. It was, without a doubt, his favorite planet.

But nothing compared to the moon.

It was huge, bigger than normal, and it illuminated the Earth with a soft glow not unlike the aura that surrounded Phantom’s body. It was stunning and majestic and everything Danny needed to ease the stress that was crowding his mind.

It was perfect.

He glided along the air like he was in a lazy river, his tension melting away and falling to the ground below him.

Sometimes, Danny wished he had never stepped foot in that portal. Sometimes he just wanted to be an average teen again with average problems and an average home life. But not right now.

In this moment, Danny wouldn’t have had it any other way.

---

“Mr. Fenton, may I ask you something?”

Danny paused, his pencil freezing in the air. So far, this detention had been dressed in silence. It had been a rare afternoon where he didn’t feel choked by exhaustion, and he was actually able to focus on completing his missing English essay.

“Okay, shoot.”

“When you look into your future, what do you see?”

He set his pencil down. “I don’t know.”

And that was the truth. He didn’t know because he was Danny Fenton, a below-average teenager with below-average grades. How was he supposed to know what his future held?

“I see a bright young man who’s slowly but surely figured out where he wants to be. He’s had to struggle to get to this point a bit more than his peers, but he’s reached his goals and is living his life the way he wants to.”

He stared at his paper, his brows furrowing. There was no way Mr. Lancer could have seen all that. He must have been lying. He had to have been lying.

Danny wasn’t...he wasn’t…

---

He landed on the sign. ‘Now Leaving Amity Park,’ it read.

Looking up, he could see the moon in all its glory. It lit up the sky, highlighting all the stars around it with its twinkling glow.

A bright light flashed along the stars. It lit up, traveling across the sky with an otherworldly speed, before disappearing into the darkness of night.

Danny felt a grin creep along his lips. That was a meteor, no doubt. He closed his eyes and made a wish.

One day he was going to leave Amity Park. He was going to go out on his own, find his own path, and become his own person outside of everything that tied him down here. And then he would be able to return, head held high, and tell Mr. Lancer and his parents and everyone else in his life, “Look! I did it.”

He opened his eyes and stared up at the stars once again. If he reached out, it was almost as if he could touch the moon.

Danny wasn’t a good student, but he still tried. And one day, he was going to try and succeed.

#danny phantom #dannymay2020 #prize #fanfiction

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mischiefandspirits · 3 years

Text

Doppelgänger (15/19)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{Doctor's Disorders}

“Ugh, what is that smell?” Danny asked as he and Valerie approached Tucker.

“This,” Tucker held up a spray can. “It’s my new all-over body spray. I made it myself, I call it Foley by Tucker Foley. It combines with your natural odor to create a sweet, manly scent that smells different to everyone who sniffs it.”

Their noses scrunched up as Tucker started spraying himself.

“Tuck, you smell like a sweaty cookie.”

“By choice. The ladies will be swarming all over me.”

“Doubtful,” Valerie snorted. “You smell horrible.”

He pointed at her with the can. “You don’t count. You’re already dating Dan-”

The can slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground, spraying Valerie in the process.

She scowled as the smell of sports bra and sugar cookies washed over her. “You better hope this washes out,” she growled and shoved past him towards the locker room. Thankfully she had first period free so she could shower and drown her clothes in perfume. It didn’t completely help, but it was better. Maybe she should consider keeping a spare set of clothes in her locker. It’d help for the times she tears her clothes in a fight.

“Anyone in here?” Tetslaff called just as she finished fixing her hair.

“I’m here,” she said, tossing her mini curling iron into her locker. She grabbed her bag and walked towards the door to see Tetslaff eyeing her.

“You feeling okay, Gray? Any bug bites?”

“No. I’m fine. Why?”

“All students need to report to the gym. Anyone else here?”

She shook her head. “Bailey was in here, but she left a few minutes ago.

The PE teacher nodded and escorted her to the gym. She was surprised to see the entire student body either sitting or laying on the floor and bleachers, most of whom were glowing. The teachers were hovering over everyone as a man in a doctor’s uniform drifted through, occasionally stopping to talk to the students.

When he saw her, he came over. “And who do we have here?”

“Valerie Gray, what’s going on?”

“What symptoms is she showing?” he asked Tetslaff, ignoring Valerie’s question.

“None as far as I’ve seen,” she grunted and the doctor frowned behind his mask.

“Interesting. She’s the fourth one. Sit her with the others.” He gestured to the corner and Valerie smiled to see Danny, Sam, and Tucker waiting there.

They looked surprised when she joined them and Danny pulled her into a hug. “You okay?”

“Other than still smelling a little awful, I’m perfect. What’s going on?” she asked, pulling back but staying pressed into his side.

Sam gestured to the other students. “Some sort of ghost bug, literally. A whole swarm attacked the school and started phasing into people, resulting in that. You didn’t notice?”

“I’ve been in the showers.” She sent Tucker a look and he ducked behind Sam. “None of you got the bug?”

They shook their heads and Danny pointed off to the side, “Jazz did though.”

Valerie looked over to see Danny’s sister curled up on a mat, her body fuzzy at the edges. “Well, there goes the idea that prolonged exposure to ghost hunting equipment is what’s protecting us. Are your parents doing anything?”

Danny shrugged. “We’ve been in here the whole time. The doctor said he wanted us close since we’re the only ones showing signs of immunity. And they took our phones so I can’t call my parents.”

She smirked and took out her phone. “Looks like they forgot to take mine.”

Danny took it and the three crowded around him to keep him from sight.

“Do your parents have something that could fix this?” Sam asked as Danny dialed.

He thought about it for a second then smiled. “Mom, Dad… Yeah, I’m okay… Really? That’s weird. Why wouldn’t they tell you anything? Nevermind, I’ll explain everything, but can you guys grab the Ghost Catcher before you leave?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Is it just me or does Dr. Rand look really mad that his patients are being cured?” Valerie hummed.

Said doctor was currently standing off to the side as the teachers lead students through the ghost catcher, Danny’s parents sucking up the ghost bugs as they were pulled out.

Jazz took in his scowl with a frown. “Maybe it’s a pride thing? He was pretty much useless.”

“Or maybe he was part of a government conspiracy to experiment on us while we possessed ghost abilities,” Sam suggested.

“Sounds like something the Guys in White would do,” Danny muttered sleepily from his spot in Valerie’s lap.

“He’s a doctor. All doctors are evil,” Tucker agreed.

“What’s his problem?” Valerie whispered to her boyfriend.

“He’s afraid of doctors, nurses, hospitals, so on.”

“What’d you say his name was again?” Jazz asked, still staring at the man.

“Dr. Bert Rand.”

“Bertrand? Like Ms. Spectra’s gh-assistant?” Jazz stuttered.

The trio turned to her, then groaned, “Oh my god, we’re idiots.”

Valerie frowned as their voices nudged at her, but pushed it aside as Jazz asked, “What?”

“Spectra was a ghost, same for Bertrand. They must be behind the attack on the school,” Sam explained.

Valerie narrowed her eyes and moved Danny off of her. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

Jazz bit her lip as the girl left, then nudged Danny. “You three should go too. You, uh, don’t know when you might get another chance.”

They frowned, but agreed quickly and left.

Jazz smiled and leaned back. Those three could take care of the ghosts. Now she just needed an excuse for when Valerie got back.

{Pirate Radio}

Jazz sighed as she relaxed on her blanket, only to frown when someone started messing with the radio.

She sat up to glare at Tucker. “Knock it off!”

He held up his hands and backed up.

“Come on, Jazz. This music bites,” Danny said. “It’s our turn to pick something to listen to.”

“I like it. It relaxes me.”

“Well, we do outnumber you four to one,” Valerie pointed out.

Jazz grabbed the radio and held it close to her, scowling at the younger teens that she had joined on the Ops Center for stargazing.

Just then, the ground began to rumble and a pirate ship of all things burst intangibly out of the street.

Jazz jumped to her feet and gestured her brother back. “Danny, you, Sam, and Tucker need to go. Uh, go get our parents. Downstairs. Out of view.”

“R-right, we’ll go get them,” Tucker said and the trio ran off.

“I thought your parents were out,” Valerie said.

“Oops, I forgot.” Jazz turned to the girl and was surprised to see her pulling a ghost pistol out of her bag.

The girl froze. “Oh, uh, Danny gave it to me. For, you know, protection?”

As cute as it was that Danny was so worried about his girlfriend, Jazz would have to talk to him about handing out weapons of all things.

“Got anything else in there?”

Valerie tossed her a thermos just as a group of pirate ghosts landed on the Ops Center. The two girls went to work blasting and sucking up ghosts. Jazz saw a pair heading for the shield and pointed them out to Valerie, but Danny or one of his partners cut them off. She turned back to the main group of pirates and smiled when she saw the other two flying through the air.

She frowned when they seemed to fire on nothing. “What are they doing?”

Valerie looked up, then gave her an incredulous look. “Fighting the ghost captain.”

“I don’t see anything.”

“Weird,” she shot a headless pirate and Jazz sucked him in. “Can you hear him?”

“No.”

“Lucky you. He’s a brat. Maybe eight or nine years… Okay, so he’s eleven. Like that makes a big difference,” she snorted. Then her eyes widened and she barrelled into Jazz.

Something exploded behind them.

“You’ve never babysat, have you? Jazz asked as they picked themselves up. “Kids don’t like to be told they’re younger than they think they are.”

“I’ve only babysat actual babies. They don’t talk back,” Valerie said.

The ghost ship flickered then disappeared.

“What happened?”

“Doppelgänger caught the brat.”

The sound of a guitar-strumming echoed around them and two of Danny’s trio slammed into the ground in front of the girls.

“Ember’s back,” they said, rubbing their heads. “You guys might want to either get inside or put on Specter Deflectors before you get hypnotized.”

“M. Bersback? The guy who gave us that awful Vapor Drone? He’s a ghost?” Valerie asked.

They stared at her blankly, then one threw their hands in the air. “Oh come on! That's not a clue. That's a billboard! We really got to start paying more attention to these things!”

{Reign Storm, Part 1}

“Did you get the book report done?” Valerie asked as she passed Danny a water bottle.

“Mm-hm.” He took the bottle and tried to drink it.

“Lid Danny,” she chuckled.

He scowled and took the lid off. “I think you beat the ghost out of me.”

“Then I did my job,” she chuckled. “Seriously though, you’re doing really good.”

“Can I have my black belt then?”

“Not quite. Now come on, we’ve still got fifteen minutes before we need to clean up.”

He groaned, but pushed himself to his feet and followed her over to the wrestling mat. Jazz had somehow talked Tobias, the wrestling coach, into letting them use it for their sparring in the morning after Tuesday’s practice in return for cleaning up after. It was a lot better than sparring at home, even if it did mean getting up way too early.

Of course, being at school meant there were sometimes distractions.

“Think fast, Fentoni!”

Danny turned just as Valerie caught the football that was headed for him.

“Unless you’re here to spar, then get lost, Dash,” she huffed, tossing the ball to Kwan.

“Spar with Fenton?” Dash laughed and Kwan joined in.

“You’d snap him in half before he could even throw his first punch!”

“I thought I said to get lost,” Valerie growled stepping between them and Danny.

Dash leered at him. “You gonna let a girl fight your battles.”

Danny raised an eyebrow as Valerie stiffened. “Now you f-ed up.”

“And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean, Baxter?” she asked, cracking her knuckles.

Kwan grabbed Dash’s shoulder and whispered something that made Dash pale.

“J-just that Fenton’s too weak to fight his own battles, he has to rely on his girlfriend to do it for him. I did-din’t mean, you know, that a girl couldn’t kick butt.”

“Nice save,” Danny said and Dash gave him a death glare.

“Leave,” Valerie said.

They did.

“I’m definitely going to pay for that later,” Danny chuckled as he got into position on the mat.

“If you’re not going to fight back then stop antagonizing him,” she said.

“I’ve considered fighting back.”

“Then why don’t you.”

Danny raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t met Sidney Poindexter, then.”

“Who?”

“He’s the ghost who haunts my locker. He gets huffy with me if I try to get back at Dash. I was putting my annoyingness to full use on Dash when we first met and Sidney is paranoid I’ll do it again. According to him, I’m just as much of a bully as Dash if I do and he hates bullies.”

“Need me to take care of him?”

“Nah, we’ve got a truce. He’s not too bad. I just can’t pull anything on Dash without risking a lecture from him. And he’s still learning modern slang so a lecture from him is even worse than one of Lancer’s hip and funky fresh talks.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Do you guys know why Nathan’s been giving me evil eyes?” Danny asked as the trio walked home.

“He’s got a crush on Valerie. He’s ticked you and her are dating,” Tucker explained.

“He came up to me the other day and tried to tell me I needed to, Get your cheating boyfriend away from my Valerie! It took me fifteen minutes to get him to back off and I think he still believes you’re two-timing Valerie and I,” Sam said.

“We’re dating? Sam, why didn't you tell me? I'd have put my book down.”

Sam shoved him towards his stoop. “I want to break up. It’s not me, it’s you.”

“Okay, but I get Tucker in the divorce.”

Tucker shook his head and linked arms with Sam. “Sorry, Danny, but you knew I was a gold digger going into this.”

Sam shoved him away as well. “You can have him.”

“Changed my mind, he’s yours now.”

“You’re both awful,” Tucker fake whined and marched off.

“See you tomorrow,” the two yelled at his retreating back.

Danny turned to Sam. “Are you going to head out for patrol or do you want a snack first?”

“Depends, what’s the likelihood your food’s contaminated?”

“My mom and dad are partway through a new invention.”

“Pass.”

“You guys are ridiculous,” he called as she went to the nearest alleyway.

“Ectoplasm’s not a veggie,” she called back.

“Okay, fair,” he snorted and opened the door. “I’m home. Anything happen while -”

Danny cut off as he saw his family in the living room surrounding a certain fruit loop.

“Ah, hello, Daniel!”

“You!” he shouted, tossing his bag aside and marching up to the group. “What are you doing here?”

Some of his anger lifted as he saw his mom accidentally poor tea right onto Vlad’s lap. “Totally valid question.”

“Still steaming?” Vlad asked in his creepy stalker voice.

“You have no idea,” she growled.

Vlad turned his attention to Danny. “I was just, you know, passing through. And then I saw that marvelous battlesuit and thought, since I can't just destroy Jack and take it, I suppose I'll steal its secrets right out from under his nose!”

Danny’s fists clenched as Vlad met his dad’s eyes with a smile and the two started laughing.

“Oh I swear, I am such a josher,” he held his cup up to Danny’s mom. “More tea please.”

She poured it on his head.

“Not there! Ooh!”

Danny’s mom stomped off and his dad followed.

“I don't know what you're up to, Plasmius,” Danny started in a whisper, then blinked. “Actually, I do. You just told me.”

“That’s right! And say a word and I'll share your secret with your little friend.”

Danny stared at him blankly. “What friend?”

“Miss Gray.”

“How do you even -”

Danny was cut off when an alarm sounded through the house. His dad ran back into the room and hit a hidden button to bring up a radar system.

“Galloping goblets, it's the Ecto-Exodus Alarm!”

“The Ecto-whaty-what?” Jazz and Danny asked.

“The Ecto-Exodus Alarm! An alarm that only goes off when we're about to face a massive ghost invasion!”

Danny faked reaching into his pocket so he could grab the Fenton Phones out of his Space Fold. “I need to make a call!”

He felt Vlad’s eyes on his back as he ran upstairs, but ignored them.

“Sam, Tucker, please tell me one of you can hear me?” he said into the phones and through their link as he shut his door.

“What’s wrong?” Sam said.

“Ghost invasion. Big one. Coming right at us,” Danny said and transformed. “We need to get back here right now.”

Danny’s ghost sense went off.

“Too late.”

Danny flew out of the house as ghosts came pouring out of the portal and onto the street. His eyes landed on Johnny and Kitty and he flew towards them.

“Hey Thirteen, what’s going on?” he asked as he came level with the bike.

“You mean you haven’t heard?” Kitty said, turning to him. “Pariah Dark’s back.”

“Who?”

“If you don’t know, we’re not going to tell you,” Johnny snorted.

“Come on. We’ve been letting you mostly run wild as long as you don’t hurt anyone or destroy anything. Can’t you just tell us?”

Johnny growled and stopped the bike. “Look, we don’t know too much. He’s way, way before our time. All we know is that he’s called the King of All Ghosts and someone woke him up. Now he’s trashing the zone and looking for some ring that will give him ultimate power or something when paired with his crown. He’s powerful so everyone’s getting while the gettin’s good. Speaking of which.”

Johnny took off, but Danny didn’t bother to chase him. Instead, he turned to Sam as she joined him.

“This is bad. No kidding.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tucker flinched as his ghost sense went off for the fifteenth time. Where were all these ghosts coming from? He hoped he got into range of the mind link soon. Sam at least should be transformed so he should be getting close. Why did he have to choose today of all days to visit the gaming shop in Elmerton?

Someone blasted him and he groaned. He’d wanted to regroup with his partners before picking any fights. He turned to his opponent and groaned again. “What are you doing in town, fruit loop?”

“Haven’t we already been through this, Daniel?” Vlad asked flying closer and Tucker rolled his eyes.

So Danny or Sam have talked to him then. He hoped they were okay. “Refresh our memory.” Goosebumps swept over him and he gestured towards the ghost. “Are you the reason all these ghosts are around?”

“I’m flattered you think I could organize all this.”

“You’re right. We forgot you put everything into intelligence and strength. No way you could convince all these ghosts to listen with your charisma being a dump stat,” Tucker said, nodding. “Our bad.”

Vlad looked confused for a moment, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m not here to play games, Daniel.”

“Then you’ve got the wrong half-ghost.” If he didn’t want jokes, he should have gone with Sam.

Vlad scowled at him, then he was being grabbed from behind. He looked up to see another Vlad holding him. The older halfa pinned one of his arms behind his back and held the other out to the first Vlad.

“Let go of us, creep!”

“Calm down, Daniel. I’m not going to hurt you,” Vlad one said, flying closer and grabbing his wrist. “I simply need you to hold onto something for me.”

“And why would we ever help you?”

Vlad one disconnected his glove from the hazmat and pulled it off, revealing green skin and black nails.

Wow, Sam would like those.

“Because this is a powerful relic,” Vlad two explained as Vlad one slipped a green and black ring onto Tucker’s middle finger. “One which I’m sure you’d want to keep safe and out of the hands of dangerous ghosts.”

“Like you?”

Vlad one smirked and replaced his glove.

“If it’s so powerful, why would you give it up?” Tucker asked as the Vlads let him go and merged together.

“That is for you to discover on your own. Ta!” He teleported away.

“We need to get a restraining order or something,” Tucker muttered, rubbing his shoulder. He glanced down at his hand uncertainly. Vlad could certainly have been lying, but if he wasn’t, Tucker couldn’t just toss the ring and risk it ending up in the wrong hands.

With a sigh, he continued on his way. The trio could figure this out together. Thankfully he only had to fly for a few minutes before his mind connected to Sam and Danny.

#danny phantom #valerie gray #jazz fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #Doppelgänger au

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ecto-american · 4 years

Text

If Found Please Return to Danny Phantom

Phic Phight Oneshot for @imperfection-at-itsfinest: When Jack manages to get his hands on Danny Phantom's ghost hunting logbook, an investigation reveals some information about ghosts and the infamous specter himself that a scientific study would never cover.

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It would be wrong of him to read it.

Jack kept staring at the book in his hands. It resembled a diary, the front design being colorless but a pressed design. The moon with stars, with no words, and the diary itself felt unusually thin. There was no lock, as if it was almost inviting him to just read it. Jack had, in fact, already opened to the first page, and the first words greeted him. In a standard font read: If Found, Please Return to: and the name scrawled, in surprisingly tidy handwriting, was the name Danny Phantom.

What an absolute find. It was pure dumb luck. He had seen Phantom drop it, but Jack had went looking for it in hopes that the ghost teen had dropped one of the stolen Fenton gadgets. Only to recover...this book that he had taken home and into the privacy of his lab for study.

The idea of Phantom keeping a diary was kinda funny. He never struck Jack as the type to write down his deepest darkest secrets or teenage embarrassments in a book. That would imply that the ghost had some kind of emotions. They didn’t. They were blobs of ectoplasmic energy.

So it should be okay for him to read, right? Why was he so hesitant? Well...it was an invasion of privacy. But it was fine. Phantom dropped it in the park. Phantom was a menace to society. There was likely evidence in this journal that could explain all of the ghost boy’s terrible deeds, that could prove that he truly was evil. This diary could change everything.

...Jack had children though, and he knew both were avidly creative. Scrapbooking, drawing, painting, writing. They were stress outlets for his girls, and he wouldn’t ever dare dream of invading their privacy like that. So he couldn’t. He shouldn’t. Phantom deserved privacy, right?

“Jack? Are you coming to dinner?” Maddie’s voice snapped him from his thought process. She hadn’t made a noise as she came down the stairs. But Maddie was a much better stealth hunter than him.

“Yes, yes! Sorry, I was distracted,” Jack apologized. He set the book down on the table. Maddie rose an eyebrow at him.

“Did you get a new ectobiology book?” she asked. His eyes glanced to the book, and he shook his head no. Maddie came over to him, studying the book cover. Of course, it didn’t resemble any of the scientific texts that they owned.

“I don’t know how to explain it…” Jack said slowly. He held it out to her. Maddie accepted it.

“This looks like it belongs to the kids,” she stated. She opened the first page, and Jack saw her eyes widen. Her breath hitched, and she looked up to him “Jack...where did you...get this?”

“He dropped it during a fight,” he replied. “I thought it was Fenton tech, but…”

Her eyes sparkled, and she shut the book. A wide grin had appeared, and she threw her arms around her husband.

“Oh Jack! This could teach us so much! If this really is a journal or some kind of diary, then he may have recorded motivations! Thoughts! We can really get into how Phantom thinks and a raw, honest, firsthand account from Phantom himself! This changes everything!”

She was right. She was absolutely right, and he hugged her back. They were scientists first and foremost, and this journal could fill in so many missing blanks about ghosts. It was a starting off point. Jack’s mind raced with all the things they could possibly learn. Just from a simple peek of the book. That was worth more than the invasion of privacy of a ghost that caused so much havoc, destruction and pain.

“We should look at it right now!” he exclaimed. Maddie pulled away with a small frown.

“After dinner,” she reminded him. “I finally got everybody corralled upstairs for a family dinner. It’s nearly impossible to get either of the girls at the same time.”

“Oh, right!” Jack nearly slapped his forehead. Yes, they were scientists first and foremost, but before even that, they were Mom and Dad. “First thing after dinner.”

“First thing after dinner,” she agreed with a smile.

Upstairs, he saw that Jazz was already serving herself. Chicken, mashed potatoes and peas. His youngest was pouring iced tea into glasses for everybody.

“Hey Ghost-kateers!” Jack greeted cheerfully with a grin. Both kids groaned in embarrassment. Perfect.

“Daaad!” his youngest complained, a whine hitching as she put the pitcher of ice tea back. “I told you, if I’m going to be some kind of ye olde soldier type, I wanna be a knight, like at the renaissance fair.”

“Ah, but if you’re a ghost-kateer, you can get an anti-ghost musket!” Jack teased. As he walked past her to get his own food, he playfully ruffled her pixie-cut hair. She waved his hand away.

“But as a ghost knight, I can get a cool sword!” she protested. Jack shook his head in fake disappointment.

“Never bring to a ghost sword to a ghost musket fight, baby boo,” her dad replied.

“Can’t shoot what you can’t see!” she shot back with a grin. Jack had to hand it to her, and he just chuckled.

“Can we please have a ghost free dinner?” Jazz scowled.

“Yes, yes, let’s save ghosts for after dinner,” Maddie agreed. Jazz shot her a grateful look, and Jack focused on getting his serving of dinner from the stove. His youngest pushed her sleeves up, exhaling. Jack stole a look at her and frowned. She had some sweat collected on her forehead.

“Honey if you're hot, you can just take your sweatshirt off,” he told her. She shook her head no.

“No, I'm fine,” she insisted. Jack was skeptical.

“You sure?” he asked.

“Mhm!”

Jack shrugged a bit. She was always insisting on wearing a hoodie, no matter the weather. If she got hot enough, she’d take it off. No need to force it. He got his food and took his seat.

“How's school going?” Maddie questioned. Jazz lit up a bit, and her sister flinched. She raised a suspicious eyebrow at her youngest.

“I managed to get a B on my chemistry test,” the youngest spoke up with a forced smile.

“That’s excellent!” Maddie’s demeanor shifted as she smiled warmly. “Keep it up!”

“Yeah!” The youngest seemed to visibly relax. “Sam’s been helping me study.”

“That’s good, I always studied better when V-man or your mom helped me,” Jack nodded at her as he cut up his chicken.

“Oh it’s true, I used to help your father study for all of our shared classes,” Maddie confirmed. “Otherwise he’d get so distracted.”

“Yeah, Sam just explains it super well,” their daughter agreed. “Tucker’s been going over math with me a bit, which helps some.”

“Well if you need a tutor, just let us know, and we’ll help you arrange one,” Maddie smiled. “What about you, Jazz?”

“Pretty good,” she replied. “Mr. Lancer asked if I wanted to be his TA this summer, which I really do. It’ll look good on a college application, and I might even get paid!”

“Have you been narrowing down where you might wanna go?” Jack asked. Jazz eagerly nodded.

“Yeah! Oxford is my number one choice, but I also would love to go to Yale or Stanford. I’ve been talking with the college counselor about what else might look good on an application for them that I can do over the summer. I wrote them down in my planner notebook earlier-”

“Hey, that kinda reminds me,” her sister interrupted. “Have you guys seen one of my notebooks? I think I lost it,” she asked them. Jack stared at her. The reminder of the notebook he actually had found. Maddie seemed unbothered by the question. This wasn’t unusual, for the parents to have to play “where’s my stuff?” with the kids.

“What notebook?” Jazz asked hesitantly.

“My important one,” came the reply. Jazz frowned lightly.

“Sorry, princess, haven’t seen any notebooks laying around,” Jack replied. He saw the briefest of a cringe cross his youngest’s features. “Did you leave it at school?” Her shoulders slumped.

“I don’t think so?” she said hesitantly. “I’ll have to check tomorrow. I was so sure I had it earlier…” Her voice trailed off before she forced a smile. “If you see it, let me know!” She picked up a forkful of chicken, only to freeze. The clattering made Jack glance up curiously as she was turning her attention to Maddie. “Can I be excused? I have some homework to get done.”

Maddie let out a soft sigh. So much for family dinner.

“Of course, just make sure you come back down before you go to bed to get your chores done,” Maddie nodded at her. The young Fenton snapped to her feet with a thanks, fully abandoning her dinner as she went to the stairs. Jazz stared after her sister, craning her neck to track her movements before hurriedly shoveling more mashed potatoes in her mouth.

“Uh, I’m not that hungry, and I totally forgot to do this online assignment,” Jazz spoke, standing up, taking hers and her sister’s plate. She was already walking away before either parent could truly give permission. “I’ll put our plates up and clean up in a bit!”

“A-alright?” Jack hesitated, watching his other child put the plates on the counter before rushing up as well. Another child down. They seemed to grow up so fast.

“Least they’re doing homework,” Maddie sighed lightly, shaking her head before taking a drink of her tea. “Oh well. Might as well take their lead and eat in the lab?”

“Please,” Jack agreed. He stood up, taking his plate. “I’m dying to see what Phantom has to say.”

January 10

Skulker: 1; captured

Ectopuss: 1; captured

Box Ghost: 8; captured

Ember: Fought; got away

Fenton Thermos: half-full

Fenton Fisher: untangled

January 11

Vultures: 1; got away

Cujo: 1; played fetch and he went back to the GZ

Fenton Thermos: Full

Ghost Bazooka: overheated and doesn’t shoot anymore, take apart and fix it

January 12

Skulker: 2; got away

Box Ghost: 3; captured

Sidney: 2; got away

Fenton Fisher: tangled, untangle asap

January 13

Skulker: 1; captured

Box Ghost: 4; got away

Fenton Thermos: damaged, won’t suck up ghosts

I met a new ghost today named Desiree. She got away, but it allowed me to discover a new ghost power. Ghost ray.

Maddie furrowed her brow as she studied the words. She stood at the table, her dinner half-forgotten as she thought on the words.

“It sounds like a record,” Jack mused, and he ate another spoonful of peas. Maddie nodded in agreement.

“I think we found Phantom’s logbook,” she agreed. “I’m assuming these are the ghosts he’s fought. And he seems to be recording his powers too. This is huge, we can match up what we know about his powers and what he’s claiming.”

“And he’s recording the status of our equipment.” Jack frowned. “Why would he care?”

“Yeah, he made note that he was going to fix the Fenton Bazooka too,” Maddie pointed out. The scientist flipped through the pages, only to stop at a page, staring curiously. Maddie laid the journal on the table, pressing the spine so that the pages stayed open. She read the page aloud to Jack.

December 19

I hate my life. I hate this existence. I look in the mirror and wonder why it has to be this way. Why am I the one cursed to be this freak? Why is everything about me and my body wrong? For once, I wish something about me was normal, that somebody about me could be right. If Desiree wasn’t such an unreliable asshole with wishes, I’d give everything I have to wish that life could, for once, allow me to be a normal teenage boy.

Jack listened to her in a stumped silence. This couldn’t have been a pre-death thought process of a moody teenager. It was written too recently, and the words hit a sorrowful chord to him. He didn’t intend to, but he quickly began to feel sorry for Phantom. He was very young. It couldn’t have been easy to lose everything at that age. His daughter was his age. Jack cleared his throat.

“It’s not just a log then?” Jack questioned. Maddie shook her head, flipping the pages back.

“No, I think it’s a mix. There’s still records of ghosts and FentonWorks equipment,” she replied. Using a leg, she pulled a wheeled chair to her to sit in. She leaned back, and she pulled the journal to her. After a moment of flipping through and scanning pages, she settled on a page about a third of the way through. “It seems like this is when he began to record things other than just ghosts.”

“What’s it say?” Jack wondered. Maddie read aloud the next few entries as Jack silently continued to eat.

April 4

I only fought this shitty panther today, and he still got away. I’m such a fucking idiot. I can’t believe he got away. I was too slow. All I do is fuck up. There’s ghostly activity happening around the school, and I just can’t figure it out. I feel like I can’t stop them anymore. I don’t know what’s going on, why I suddenly suck so much. I honestly probably just always sucked, and now it’s starting to hit me. [scribbles] and [scribbles] were trying to make me feel better, but I fucked up. It was only one ghost today, and I couldn’t catch them. It destroyed an entire store, and it’s my fault.

April 8

No ghosts today, surprisingly. But [scribbles] has been acting weird lately. The other day she poked and prodded me at dinner. No clue what that’s about. She also tried to give me this speech that I can talk to her about anything, and that she’d love me no matter what. That makes me think she found my binder. I’m honestly kinda freaking out. I knew I shouldn’t have left it out like that. She’s such a nosy know it all.

“Phantom must keep more records than just this,” Maddie lightly mused. “He has an entire binder full of information that somebody discovered.”

“Maybe on other ghosts?” Jack theorized. “He’s recording his fights, he must be also recording information about them.” Maddie’s eyes lit up.

“That makes so much sense,” she agreed. “He probably keeps so many kinds of things written down and logged. I wonder where he’s keeping it? Obviously paper, which is a bit odd. I figured a teenager would move to the digital age…” Maddie paused.

“Maybe he’s older than we think he is?” Jack suggested. “He could have died fifty years ago, and just be more comfortable with writing things down.”

“Oh, that’s true,” Maddie mused. She put down the notebook to take a long sip of her drink. Jack picked it up to observe the page she read.

“Phantom has neat handwriting,” he noted. “He’s not fighting ghosts when he writes these.” Jack’s eyes scanned the words. “...I wonder who he’s scribbled out.”

“Allies?” Maddie shrugged. “He probably went back and blacked out some of the names. Privacy. Especially if this isn’t the first time he’s lost this.”

It made the most logical sense. Jack skipped the purely log entries to one that had more written, and he read it aloud to his wife.

April 10

She was feeding on us. Spectra, the Casper High “psychologist” was feeding on emotions, like some kind of emotional vampire but she’s a ghost. It’s so scary. I saw her do it. She asked [scribbles] and [scribbles] about their lives. What made them unhappy, and why. And when they left, I saw her absorb? I guess how I’d describe it? She absorbed the energy into her skin and it just seemed to instantly revive her, and it made her happy. When she did it to me, I could just look in her eyes and know that she enjoyed every minute of my misery. I managed to stop her, with [scribbles] helping me. It was weird. She didn’t seem afraid of me. I don’t know why.

Spectra: 2; captured

“Ghosts can feed off of energy!” Maddie exclaimed. “Human energy! We always suspected it, but this is confirming something!” Jack glanced up at her excitedly. It was the first real, true ghostly discovery that Phantom was revealing to them.

April 13

All I do is fuck up lately. Because of me, this ghost dog just absolutely has been causing havoc on this girl’s life. She blames me. And I don’t blame her. I ruined her entire life. She lost her house because of me. I didn’t mean to. I tried to stop the dog, but he just won’t respond to anything I say. I can’t capture him. I’ve been trying. I’ve been just calling the dog Cujo. After the Stephen King book, because damn is this dog giving me one fucking nightmare of a time.

Cujo: 3, got away

April 16

[scribbles] kissed me. It was to force me to change back, and it worked, but she kissed me. It was great. She smelled like lavender. I don’t think my heart’s ever beaten so fast. Afterwards she clarified to me that it was just a fake-out make-out. It didn’t feel like it. I don’t want it to be. But she’s my best friend, and I can’t lose her. So I agreed, and when I came home I cried. My dad caught me, and I pretended it was just girl problems, even though that excuse made me feel even worse. He got me some ice cream, and we watched Star Trek together. It didn’t really help that much, if I’m being honest.

Anyway, apparently Cujo’s trained. He knows his commands. [scribbles] thinks it’s because he was a guard dog when he was alive for Axion Labs. For a guard dog, he’s such a playful puppy though, he loves his squeaky toy. And [scribbles] became a hunter specifically to kick my ass. It’s my lucky month. But I deserve it. Will there ever be a day where I actually can do more good than bad?

Skulker: 1; captured

[Scribbles]: 1 Red Huntress

Cujo: 1, got away

“Phantom has a family?” Maddie wondered. She chewed on her food as she thought. Jack shrugged, an odd, unsettled feeling hitting him as he put the book down for a moment. He used his spoon to push around his peas.

“I mean, we all do,” Jack reminded her. “Just...I didn’t think Phantom still talked to his family. After his death. Or did such...non-ghost things with them.” Watching Star Trek with his dad? Jack did that with his own kids all the time. It was his and his youngest daughter’s favorite show to watch together. Jazz typically preferred documentary series, and Maddie was too bothered by scientific inaccuracies to really enjoy science fiction. So it was always “their thing” and knowing that Phantom did it too was...too human.

“Yeah, I didn’t...really expect him to still be haunting them,” Maddie said. Jack could tell that this was disturbing her a little.

“But ghosts can retain their memories from life it seems,” Jack spoke up. Maddie stared at him. “The dog remembers commands from his life as a guard dog. What extent, I’m not sure.” Maddie hummed curiously.

Jack picked the book up again, skipping through more boring logs to other words.

April 29

Ember: 2; captured

Fenton Thermos: full, empty

The past few weeks have been terrible. I have definitely come to the conclusion that I really am developing a crush on [scribbles]. Or maybe I always had one, I dunno. Is this really just an effect from Ember’s supposed spell? Does ghostly mind control really last? I think I always knew that I liked her though. I mean, ever since I told her that [scribbles], she’s been so supportive. She even cut my hair for me, which really pissed my parents off, but they ended up admitting that I looked better with my hair short anyway. Almost like it’s meant to be, huh? Ha. [scribbles] is also one of the only two people who know my deeper secret. She’s been so supportive through that too. She calls me Danny, and every time she refers to me as that, it makes my heart go crazy.

But would she even like me? Would she even wanna be with somebody like me? I don’t think I’d be her type. Some other friends I met at this local support group have complained about the struggles of dating. The stories are depressing, and it makes me worried that while [scribbles] will always love and accept me as a friend, that she’d never be able to love me as a boyfriend. I hate my life.

“Aw, Phantom has a little girlfriend,” Jack half-joked, only for goosebumps to raise and an odd chill run down his spine. He looked to Maddie for her opinion, and her face was scrunched up.

“That’s a bit creepy,” she commented. “He’s pretending to be human.”

“I dunno, Mads,” Jack shrugged. He re-read the ghostly teen’s internal conflicts. “Why would he pretend to be human in a journal that nobody’s meant to read?”

“He has to be sharing it with his allies,” she argued. “Those people he’s been scribbling out. Phantom has to be pretending for them. To keep them around. He even mentioned ghostly mind control.”

She pushed her mostly-finished plate from herself, motioning for Jack to hand over the journal. He complied, and Maddie flipped through it. She stopped, and she set the journal down on the table once more. Leaning over, she studied the spine. A finger ran along the inner spine, and she frowned.

“Pages are missing,” she noticed. Jack pushed his plate out of the way to lean over as well.

Indeed, the top of the diary revealed that it was meant to be a normal, full diary. Now that Maddie pointed it out, it looked like well over a fourth of the diary had missing pages. Jack squinted, pulling his hood over his eyes. He used his googles to better examine.

“They weren’t ripped out, like in a ghost fight,” Jack told her. He pointed to what remained of a page, a barely noticeable strip. “It was carefully cut out.” Maddie narrowed her eyes to get a better look.

“You’re right,” she mused. “Phantom did this purposefully. Probably to hide stuff from his allies.”

“But why hide some stuff and not others?” Jack wondered aloud. “Clearly this girlfriend figure is an ally, but he can’t be...sharing this with her, right?” Maddie pulled back from the notebook to lean in her chair with a heavy sigh.

“...I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t think he would. But he’s also a ghost, they do weird things.” Jack didn’t know how to reply, and so he continued to read.

May 16

The past few days have been so full of drama. Walker ruined my life. He absolutely ruined it. He set out to make me the most hated person in Amity Park out of pure spite, and he succeeded. I’m public enemy number one. I can never win. For a while now, I had debated telling my parents, because I so desperately want their support, but they were part of the news coverage calling me a disgusting, evil ghost. I ended up crying yesterday. I don’t think they’ll ever truly love me if they knew. I also failed Wulf. Another failure on my plate. I’m just waiting for it to all crash down on me.

Walker: 1; sent to the GZ

Wulf: 1; sent to the GZ

Walker’s goons: at least 14, all captured

Fenton Thermos: overflowingly full

“Oh this is just becoming nonsense,” Maddie complained. “He’s lying. We were there, Jack! We saw him attack us.”

“I know, I know, he did, yeah, he did,” Jack tried to gather his thoughts. “But why would he lie in this? I don’t think anybody was meant to read this?” Jack flipped through the pages. The further he flipped through in, the more he could tell that some sections had more carefully cut out papers than others. Why was Phantom cutting out? What was he hiding? Why was he hiding it?

“He meant for somebody to read this,” Maddie lightly argued.

“Yeah, it seems like it, but…,” Jack trailed off. He shook his head a bit, flipping back to where they had left off. “I dunno.”

“Hold on a second,” Maddie urged him, standing up. “Let me get something to write with, we should take some notes.”

“We can just use the scanner to make a copy of the journal afterwards, and we can further analyze it afterwards,” Jack suggested. Maddie thought on this, and she nodded, but she still reached for some scrap paper and a pen.

“Good idea, we should probably read through it fully first anyway,” she agreed. “But I still want to jot down some thoughts.”

“Of course, of course,” Jack replied. He knew that’s how she thought and processed information best, and it was always from her notes that he could visualize his own theories properly. He took a drink of tea before he continued reading the next true entry.

May 24

My entire relationship with my other crush (not [scribbles]) was a lie. She was being overshadowed by Kitty the entire time. This was my first real girlfriend, and it was all fake. I had assumed I was so lucky. I found a girl who knew and was okay with both of my biggest secrets. When I got home I ended up just going straight to my room. [scribbles] brought me dinner, but I didn’t feel like eating. Is this what life is going to be for me? I don’t want it to be like this. The only good thing is that [scribbles] doesn’t know either secret alongside our brief relationship.

Least Kitty and Johnny seem happy again. For now at least. I swear, they’re always breaking up and getting back together.

Kitty: 1; sent back to the GZ

Johnny 13: 1; sent back to the GZ

Shadow: 1; sent back to the GZ

Jack could lightly hear Maddie taking notes on her scrap paper, the pen scratching at the surface. He didn’t comment on it, silently flipping to the next page, and he continued to read.

August 19

I was forced to really face the reality of how much I fucked up [scribbles] life. I hate it. I’d do anything to take it back. It makes me wonder if I should just retire. Am I even really doing anything to help? Am I just a nuisance? Everybody thinks that.

Rationally I know I can’t. I’m the only one who can properly deal with the ghosts, who has the power and abilities to fight back without getting killed. I have to do what I can, but I just wish I could do it without making so many mistakes. [scribbles] said that it’ll be okay, and that it gets better, but it sure doesn’t fucking feel like it.

Skulker: 3; finished

Red Huntress: 2; temporary truce?

“He’s so full of...emotion for a ghost,” Maddie finally spoke up.

Jack glanced at the paper she had in front of her. There was some notes of what they had been learning so far, and there were emotions written in all caps with a line under, and a list of various emotions. Emotions Phantom seemed to be displaying. Guilty, despair, loneliness, self-hatred, self-doubt. Despite the few entries, it was already quite a list.

“It’s not just him either,” Maddie continued. Jack rose an eyebrow at her. She didn’t immediately reply, fingers on her lips as she stared down at the journal. “He’s giving emotions to other ghosts too.”

Jack stared down blankly at the journal in his hands.

“Where?”

Maddie began to write, and as she wrote, it clicked. Spectra’s joy in hurting others. Kitty and Johnny’s relationship. Walker’s spite. Cujo being a playful puppy. According to Phantom, and against what they knew as scientists, ghosts were experiencing a wide variety of emotions and for different reasons. It was weird.

Jack continued to read.

October 17

I don’t know what happened the past few days. It’s this weird blur. According to [scribbles] and [scribbles] I did a lot of bad things under Freakshow’s control. [scribbles] hugged me and told me that it was nothing that we couldn’t fix, but I doubt that. Why does this keep happening to me? I don’t want to hurt people. I want to be a good person, and I want to help Amity Park, but I don’t know what keeps happening. Everything’s a fog, and I’m exhausted.

Freakshow: 1; arrested by APPD

Circus ghosts: freed from Freakshow’s control, went back to the GZ

Replace Fenton Anti-Creep Stick, print out another sticker to put on it

“Freakshow...that was the weird circus guy,” Jack interrupted himself. Maddie nodded.

“Yeah, and if Phantom’s right...he could control the ghosts,” she mused. “So there’s a way for humans to take control of ghosts...That’s something to look into. If we can control the ghosts into staying away, it’d be such a massive scientific breakthrough.”

“We should look into Freakshow more, and see if we can talk to him!” Jack agreed. “Maybe he’ll share something with us.” Maddie smiled softly.

“I doubt that,” she replied gently. “But there’s no harm in trying. What else does it say?”

November 8

I have to fight Pariah Dark. I’m terrified. I don’t think I’ll live through it. How can I live through fighting the actual ghost king? I may never see my family again, and I can’t even tell them what happened to me if I die. I’ve been debating telling [scribbles] that I like her, but I don’t think I could bring myself to do it.

What happens if I die? I have no clue. I’m scared to find out. I can’t die now. I have to make it back. I’ll go missing, and I won’t even be declared dead as my parents’ son. Nobody will know who to really look for. I have to come back. Maybe if I succeed, and people like me again after this, I can tell my family everything.

November 10

I couldn’t tell them. My parents still despise part of me, despite what I’ve done. I know they love me, cause my mom’s already been fussing over me like crazy because of my injuries. [scribbles] said she cried when they couldn’t find me, and that my dad had gone out looking for me all over the city, even in the dangerous parts. They of course love me, but do they really love me unconditionally?

Jack felt his voice trailing off as he hit the end. He coughed lightly, and he took a long drink. Maddie stared off into nothing. The only thing he could think of was his own search for his baby girl. He wasn’t alone, bumping into several other parents desperately looking for their missing children, and several children who got separated from their parents. The entire day was somber and frightening, and Maddie had spent the entire day glued to the phone. In case she called them.

It was all...too real, and Jack flipped past more logs. He couldn’t help but begin to take note of how every single day had a log of ghost fighting activities, even if Phantom didn’t write down his feelings every day. This was so much more than the ghost hunting duo ever expected, more attacks than they were recording.

His eyes rested only for a moment on December 19, and he decided to just skip it. They had already read it earlier. No need to refresh those memories. More logs, and more missing pages, and he came upon another one.

March 26

I ripped out a lot of pages, more than I intended. I can’t risk anybody finding out what happened, but also other pages revealed too much, so I kept them tucked away where nobody could ever find them. I’d burn them, but I don’t want to lose the ghost hunting data. It’s okay now. I fixed the problem and assured that everything’s going to be fine. Possibly better. I made the right choice this time, and now I know that one day, I will grow a sick beard.

I know somebody knows my secrets now. All of them. She had known for months but wanted me to tell her. She asked me if I had a name, and ever since I told her that it was Danny, she’s been calling me that whenever she can. It made me cry the first time. It’s so great to have her know everything now. She loves me no matter what. I couldn’t ask for a better person. Even though she found out because I’m an idiot. This entire thing also made me realize how important it is to keep those secrets, and how poorly I’ve been keeping them.

I didn’t ever mean for this to turn into a diary. I wanted to keep track of ghost fights. But it honestly helps with both the dysphoria and the stresses of being a ghost. I just went back and scribbled out names. Just in case. In the future I need to be more vague.

But this is also the end for one secret. If things go wrong then well. I don’t know. I’ll make it up as I go along. But I know that this is who I am, and that I’m hitting a point where I need help to just be me.

Him: 1; captured for good

Skulker: 2; captured

Desiree: 1; captured

Ectopusses: 1; captured

Cujo: 1, sent back to the GZ

Fenton Thermos: full

Fenton Anti-Creep Stick: destroyed, get new bat and sticker to put on it

Also learned a new ghost power: Ghostly wail. A scream that can just absolutely fuck somebody’s day up. I have to use it sparingly though.

Jack closed the journal, and he set it flat on the table. His mind was blank, and he couldn’t read Maddie. She continued to stare at the closed book, hand in pen but almost unsure as to what to even jot down as a note. He leaned in his seat, finishing his drink. Maddie exhaled deeply, dropping her pen in favor of stretching.

Neither said a word. Jack knew that this journal was not any kind of trick. It was too raw and emotional to be anything more than the thoughts of a teenage ghost. He regretted reading it. It held some interesting information, and he was sure if he dug deeper, that he would find more. But as it stood, his own intense guilt was settling as he knew that he just took too personal a look into the private emotional afterlife of Phantom.

“This is a lot to take in,” Maddie finally spoke. Jack only nodded.

The basement door opened, and they heard dual pairs of footsteps hop downstairs. Jack instantly brightened, and he turned in his chair to smile as his kids soon came into view.

“Hey, is this a bad time?” Jazz asked. She glanced between them, and Jack immediately shook his head no.

“No, no,” Maddie replied quickly. Jack saw her push the journal and her notes, along with her pen and a few spare lab tools, carelessly into a drawer to help assure the Fenton kids that they weren’t interrupting anything. “What’s up, sweetie?”

“Well, I have something that I wanna talk about,” their youngest spoke slowly. Jack noticed that she had finally taken off her hoodie, and that while she wore her normal tomboy attire, that something was a bit off about her. He couldn’t place it. Jazz stood close to her, an arm full of books clutched to her chest, though he couldn’t make out any titles. “It’s something important, and I don’t really want to put it off any longer.”

“Is something wrong? Are you in trouble?” Jack asked. His daughter shook her head no.

“Oh, no!” she said. “It’s just…”

She took a deep breath, and soon, their son began to explain.

#phics #my phics #phic phight #team ghost

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kinglazrus · 4 years

Text

Crystal Heart

Phic phight 2020

Submitted by @that-dumbass-on-a-horse: Ghost sickness. Maddie and Jack try to fix it, but make it worse instead

Summary: When a ghost boy becomes a ghost man, his body goes through certain changes. And when his parents find out and try to help him, they inevitably almost kill him in the process. Almost.

Warnings: non-graphic body horror (melting)

Word count: 7248

I had to look up pictures of blood cells under a microscope and that was actually super cool. I love it when fanfiction involves fun research

As soon as Maddie saw the green flush on Danny's cheeks, she knew what it was. Some dastardly ectoplasmic pathogen from the Ghost Zone had infected her baby boy. It must have been from all the time he spent in the lab. Too many times, Maddie had caught him sneaking up from the basement with a sheepish look on his face. Occasionally, Sam and Tucker were with him. Maddie would have to get them tested for whatever illness currently afflicted Danny.

"I'm telling you, I feel fine," Danny said, looking anything but fine. He lay in bed, cheeks flushed an unearthly green. Sweat shone on his forehead.

"Good try, mister. Maybe I'll believe you when you stop covering your mouth like you have to puke," Maddie chastised her son. Standing with her hand on her hip, she shook her head. She had heard of teens faking illness to get out of school; it was so touching to know her boy wasn't like that.

"Mom, really, I'm fine," Danny insisted. He covered his mouth as he spoke, earning a very pointed glare from Maddie.

"I've already called the school. They know you're staying home today. Don't worry, your father and I will get you fixed up."

Panic and desperation filled Danny's eyes. It warmed Maddie's heart to see it. Who knew he cared so much about his classes? With how his grades had been dropping over the past year, she thought he had given up on school.

After pinning Danny with one last stern look, Maddie left his room and headed down to the kitchen. There should be a few packages of chicken noodle soup in the pantry for her to make. They usually kept a well-stocked supply dry soups, pastas, and other side dishes for the days dinner came to life. Maddie scanned the shelves, dragging her fingers across the various boxes, and grinned when she found the one she wanted. Pulling it out, she saw there was only one package left. It looked like they would need to restock soon.

Maddie quickly set to work making the soup, throwing the mixture of noodles and powder into a pot of water, turning the stove on low to simmer, and setting the oven timer to remind herself when to check it. With that done, she headed down to the lab.

Jack was hunched over his workstation, beakers laid out on the counter in front of him. Bubbling mixtures of various consistencies and colours filled the beakers, steam rising from more than a few even though they weren't set over heat.

"Danny's staying home today," she told Jack. "I think he caught a ghost bug."

"No son of mine is gonna get taken down but a ghost! I'll squash it like a fly!" declared.

Maddie smiled fondly and shook her head. "No, Jack. Not a bug ghost, a ghost bug. He's sick."

"Oh. Well, we'll squash that sickness anyway! And then we'll squash the ghost that gave it to him! And then we'll squash Phantom!"

"You said it, honey!" She kissed Jack on the cheek before heading to her own station. Taking a test sample kit out from the cupboard, she pulled out a Fenton Swab and a Fenton Tube. They were nearly identical to the standard cotton swab and sample tube they were modelled after, except the Fenton versions were designed to withstand ectoplasm's acidic properties. They also had the word Fenton on them.

"Whatcha doing, Mads?" Jack asked, briefly looking up from his work.

"I want to rule out environmental factors. Danny spends so much time down here, and he never wears a jumpsuit since his got misplaced. We need to make sure the portal doesn't contain any contagions that could make others sick," she explained. Sticking her thumb against the DNA scanner, she opened the portal doors.

Green light spilled over the lab floor, rippling over the metal panels. Carefully, Maddie took the Fenton Swab and stuck it in the portal's swirling mass. It wasn't like sticking something in water. The ectoplasm in the portal had no resistance. Even though it looked opaque from afar, up close it more resembled a colourful mist. Swirling her hand around, she dragged the swab through the ectoplasm, coating it thoroughly.

It was mesmerizing. Despite how long she and Jack had studied ectoplasm for, she still didn't understand how its state of matter worked. It could go from solid to gas in an instant, or hang in the air like a fog and become liquid the moment it touched something. Sometimes it took minutes to dissipate, other times it took hours. There were so many contradicting circumstances, it was fascinating.

Perhaps ectoplasm was its own state of matter that couldn't be defined by Earthly physics.

Maddie waited until ectoplasm was practically dripping off the cotton end before pulling her hand back out, dropping the swab into the sample tube. Analyzing it would be easy enough. They had studied samples from the portal before, but ectoplasm's most consistent trait was how inconsistent it was. You could take two ectoplasmic samples from a single entity one week apart and their surface properties would be completely different.

The one core characteristic was a unique pattern of crystallization, visible with careful observation under a microscope. Each ghost seemed to have their own pattern. In some cases, they were highly personal. The ghost who liked to shout about boxes all the time had a square crystallization pattern.

If she could isolate the ectoplasm making Danny sick, she could compare the pattern with the portal and see if they matched. If they did, then she could study the rest of the portal sample and see what was making Danny sick.

Maddie tapped her foot as she placed a drop of ectoplasm on a slide and put it under the microscope, setting the rest of the sample aside for later testing.

"No need for that!"

Maddie paused just before putting her eye to the lens, turning to face Jack instead.

He grinned widely at her, holding out one of the beakers from his desk. "I've got our solution right here!" He wiggled the beaker. The thick purple substance inside barely jiggled. "It's the newest version of ecto-dejecto. This time, it actually works."

Reaching out, Jack took the sample Maddie had put aside. He stuck the swab into the purple goo; it stayed standing upright when he let go. The goo around the swab hissed and steamed.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Maddie asked.

"Uh, maybe?"

Green bubbles bloomed across the top layer of goo, quickly expanding upward. Jack yelped and dropped the beaker as the ectoplasm foamed over his hand. The beaker shatterd as soon as it hit the ground, glass shards going flying. The goo kept expanding, fizzing and frothing as it changed from purple to green, growing until it was a mound as big as a medium sized dog. With a few final hisses, the ectoplasm settled.

"It doesn't work yet, but it will," Jack said, confidence unshaken.

"I know it will," Maddie said. She had complete faith in her husband. Jack might bumble around sometimes, but his mind was truly brilliant. Where other people looked at things and saw only what was on the surface, Jack saw everything. He always excelled more on the chemistry side of things, even if he had a few mishaps every now and then.

It's what made them such a good team. Maddie handled the math, physics, and most of the weapon construction while Jack handled the ideas. She brought his head out of the clouds when he went too far. He raised her up so she could see all the possibilities and push them farther.

"Well, hey, I've got more ectoplasm to test with now," Jack said. He bent down and prodded the quivering mass.

In the silence, Maddie heard the oven beeping upstairs.

"Oh, shoot, Danny's soup." Maddie leapt out of her seat. She snatched a spare swab and sample tube from the counter and took off for the stairs. "Don't forget to clean up the glass!" She tossed the words over her shoulder, hoping Jack heard her.

On the stove, the pot was boiling over. Water hissed as it doused the element, steam and smoke clouding over the stove. Maddie grabbed a tea towel and shoved the pot off the element, accidentally splashing more water out.

"Oh, no," she grumbled, shutting off the stove. She took in the mess with a defeated sigh. There was more soup on the counter than there was in the pot. The timer must have gone off some time ago, or she had set it for too long. Tossing the tea towel over the spilled soup, she left it there to soak up some of the mess and went to the fridge instead, hoping they had something she could give Danny.

Her prospects were slim. Some questionable lunch meat that was about to expire. A door full of condiments. A ceramic pot that rattled every few seconds. Its lid was tied down to keep the reanimated fruit cocktail from escaping. Overall, the fridge was woefully empty. Maddie really needed to go grocery shopping.

She ended up taking a carton of orange juice from the door, pouring a glass, and decided Danny would have to settle for this until she came back from the store.

"Danny, sweetie?" Maddie asked, gently knocking on his door. It creaked open. Peeking inside, she saw his empty bed. A clatter from the bathroom drew her attention. "Oh, Danny." She shook her head, setting the glass of orange juice down on his dresser, and headed down the hall.

The door was shut. Soft white light shone underneath it, not nearly as bright as it should have been. One of the lights above the mirror must have burnt out again. Gently, she knocked and called Danny's name.

"Uh, just a minute!" Danny said.

The light under the door flared, then settled. Maddie heard the toilet flushing, followed by a quick burst of water from the tap. Finally, the knob turned, the lock clicking out of place, and Danny eased the door open. He kept one hand over his mouth.

"Hey, Mom. What brings you here?" he asked. Behind his palm, Maddie saw his lips twitch into a smile.

"You do, young man. I told you to stay in bed," Maddie said, crossing her arms.

"Bathroom. Had to go. You know how it is," Danny said. Using his elbow, he bumped the door open wider, his other hand pressed against his head. He squeezed past Maddie and shuffled backward toward his room. "But bed sounds like a great idea. In fact, I think I'll have a nap. No need to check on me or anything. You don't even need to open the door!"

He chuckled weakly, sidling into his room, and kicked the door shut.

Maddie wasn't sure what to make of all that. Danny hadn't even shut off the bathroom light. Reaching through the doorway to do just that, she noticed something odd. The toilet lid was down. Danny had the habit of leaving it up, no matter how much she reminded him not to. It was a small detail, but an curious one nonetheless. She decided not to dwell on it. More than likely, he was finally starting to build up the habit.

Maddie was halfway down the stairs when she remembered she needed a spit sample from Danny. Heading back up, she paused on the landing when she heard Danny talking, voice low.

"I don't know what's wrong." He sounded panicked. "I've only been awake for a couple hours but it's getting worse."

Maddie stopped. Instead of pushing Danny's door open, she crept forward, holding her ear against it. While she would never let Danny get away with eavesdropping, as his concerned mother, she had the right to listen in on his conversation.

"I don't know. My mouth was kind of hurting yesterday, but that's a whole other thing, right?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Tucker! I'm being serious here! First it was the blush, and then it was my hair." Maddie frowned at that. "What's next? My eyes?"

Danny's dresser rattled—she hoped he saw the orange juice—and he groaned. "Yep, it's the eyes now!"

Maddie really should go in there. Her baby was clearly panicking and needed her help.

"I don't care about my teeth!"

In a minute. She would go in, in a minute.

"Ugh, fine, whatever." Maddie heard Danny shuffling around, drawers opening and closing. It lasted for a full thirty seconds before he spoke again. "Okay, I got it. Happy now?" His words slurred slightly, as if he wasn't closing his mouth all the way.

Deciding enough was enough, Maddie pushed the door open without knocking. "Sorry, Danny, I forgot that I... needed..." The excuse died on her lips as she got a good look at Danny.

Green swirled in his eyes and a white streak cut through his hair. Danny spit out the large Saturn pendant of his chewable necklace and whispered into his phone. "Tucker, I got to go." Tossing his phone back into his bed, he stepped forward and raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Mom, I can explain."

"Oh, my poor baby, you're so much worse than I thought," Maddie said. She rushed forward, taking Danny's face in her hands, and turned his head to the side so she could examine the streak in his hair. His bangs were white from root to tip. Using her thumb and forefinger, she pulled his eye open wide and examined his iris.

It looked like the infection was spreading. She thought it was a simple case of contamination, but that wouldn't do this. The green blush, yes, but changing his hair and eyes? Altering his physical and chemical makeup? This was serious.

"I'm sorry, Danny. Your nap has to wait. You're coming down to the lab with me now." Taking Danny by the wrist, Maddie pulled him out of his room.

"It's really not what you think!" Under his breath, he added, "I hope it's not what I think, either."

"Danny, your father and I are experts. Whatever you think it is, it isn't. Your dad is working on a cure right now. But at the rate this is accelerating, I can't let you out of my sight. I have to check all your vitals and keep detailed notes about how this progresses," Maddie said. "This is nothing like the ghost flu your father and I had."

"I still say that was just a regular flu."

"Now is not the time for your sass." Maddie dragged Danny all the way down to the lab.

Glass no longer littered the floor, although the blob of ectoplasm still sat beside Maddie's chair. Pulling the chair out, she pushed Danny into the seat and wheeled him across the lab to the medical station. Setting him out of the way in the hollow of the safety shower, Maddie opened the cupboard beneath the eyewash station and pulled out what she needed.

Beyond the run of the mill first-aid kit, the lab had a few tools you would find in a standard health clinic.

Danny squirmed and tried to leave his seat a few times, but Maddie kept pushing him back down. She didn't let him stand until she had taken his vitals, checked his eyes, nose, and throat, and gave him a thorough physical exam.

"Mom!" Danny whined when Maddie lifted shirt. She ignored him, looking over his body for signs of discolouration. There weren't any, yet. She suspected it was only a matter of time.

"Jack, how's that ecto-dejecto coming?" she asked.

"Almost got it!"

"Ecto-dejecto?" Danny paled.

Maddie sent him a reassuring smile. "It's okay. We're fixing the recipe so that it destabilizes the ectoplasm rather than makes it stronger. It will make it easier for your body to flush out the toxins." Her eyes dropped to the pendant around Danny's neck, his conversation with Tucker returning to mind. "What was Tucker talking about with your teeth?"

She had only spared them a brief glance when checking Danny's through, more concerned with hidden rashes or pustules.

"You were spying on me?" Danny's cheeks flushed in anger. "So not cool!"

"Danny, I'm your mother and I'm worried about you. You're sick."

"I'm fine! That doesn't make it okay to spy on me."

"You'll understand when you're older."

Danny tipped his head back and groaned.

"Now, open your mouth."

Danny squinted at her, which earned him nothing but a motherly glare. Stubborn but relenting, he slowly opened his mouth. Maddie rolled her eyes at her son's antics. Once his mouth was open wide enough, she checked his teeth. Nothing looked out of the ordinary.

"What's bothering you about them?" she asked. The hair and eyes were undoubtedly ghost-related matters. So far, Maddie was inclined to agree with Danny that his mouth pains were simply a coincidence.

"My gums just started hurting yesterday. Like there was a lot of pressure or something," Danny explained.

"And the necklace?"

"Chewing on something kind of helped, I guess. That was the first time I tried it, but it felt okay."

Something about that resonated with Maddie. She leaned back, frowning. It sounded like what happened when children teeth. When Danny was a baby growing in his teeth for the first time, he chewed on everything to make it stop hurting. Maddie had to throw out so many of his stuffed animals because he chewed on them until they were too dirty to keep.

"Can you pull your lips down?"

Danny obliged, raising his chin so Maddie could get a better look. The gums looked fine, no bumps or bulges, and his teeth were still in line.

"Top lip," she said.

Hooking his finger under his lip, Danny pulled it up. Maddie's eyes widened immediately. On the left side, between his canine tooth and lateral incisor, the sharp tip of a new tooth poked out of his gums. It looked like it was growing over his other teeth.

"You have an extra tooth," she declared.

"A what?" Danny shouted. He ran his fingers along his top teeth, pausing to feel the new one growing in.

"It's fine," Maddie said, waving off his concern. "Your father had one growing behind his incisor in college. He just had to get it removed. It's not related to whatever this," she gestured to his hair and eyes, "is."

"Oh." Danny deflated, looking relieved, although he didn't take his finger out of his mouth. He kept touching the new tooth. Swivelling in the chair, he leaned toward the wall, examining his reflection in the shining surface.

"Mads! I did it!" Jack's heavy steps thudded across the lab as he pounded over.

Content that Danny was occupied and wouldn't slip away the second she took her eyes off him, Maddie focused on Jack. He bounced on his heels, holding out a test tube filled to the brim with a yellow-tinged liquid.

"It's all about using the ectoplasm's natural properties against itself. If we can lock it in a liquid state, the ectoplasm loses hold of its form and liquifies! Just watch." He scurried back to Maddie's workstation.

With a careful tip of his hand, he poured a single drop of ecto-dejecto on the solidified ectoplasm. Sickly yellow patches spread across its surface. The ectoplasm started breaking down. Sloughing off in chunks, layer upon layer melted away, dripping down to the floor until only a wide green puddle remained.

"It's perfect! Pass me the syringe."

Jack got the needle ready in record time. Maddie wasn't concerned about giving Danny the ecto-dejecto without doing trials on living creatures first. Anti-ectoplasmic agents, by their very nature, did not harm living tissue. They isolated and attacked ectoplasm and ectoplasm alone. For this reason, anti-ghost weaponry was completely harmless to humans. Ghost shields, ghost guns, none of them could hard people.

It was also was the very same reason why Maddie and Jack did not have strict rules barring Danny and Jazz from the lab. They wanted their children to be curious. What better way to promote an interest in science then let them explore it in a safe manner with chemicals and compounds that would not harm them?

Danny was still examining his reflection, although he was probing something on the right side of his mouth instead.

Maddie pushed up his t-shirt sleeve. "Hold still, sweetie," she said, and stabbed his shoulder with the needle. Pressed the plunger, she injected him with the ecto-dejecto.

"Ow!" Danny flinched, jerking around to face Maddie. His gaze caught on the needle in her hand. "What was that?"

"Don't worry, you'll be all better by tomorrow," Maddie assured him.

"No, really." Danny stood up. He swayed, careening into the wall, and gasped. Staring down at his hands, he flexed his trembling fingers. "Seriously." He looked up at Maddie, helpless. "What was that?"

His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed.

"Danny!" Maddie dropped to her knees beside him, Jack joining her a second later. Panic overwhelmed her. That shouldn't have happened. The ecto-dejecto was perfect. It should have worked flawlessly. Instead, Danny's skin around the injection site was quickly turning a dark, sickly green. His breathing was shallow, and his eyelids fluttered.

Pressing two fingers to Danny's neck, Maddie felt his pulse, erratic. What happened? What went wrong? What did Maddie do? She couldn't shake the feeling that she had just sent Danny to his grave.

"Mads." Jack's voice snapped her out of her spiralling thoughts. "We need to get him to the hospital. I'll carry him up to the RV. You call Jazz. We'll get her taken out of school."

"Right. Right." Maddie nodded, swallowing thickly. She had never been more thankful to have Jack by her side. Right when her vision started narrowing and all she could see was one outcome—Danny dead, Maddie his murderer—Jack was there to pull her up.

Moving back, she gave Jack room to gather Danny up. Jack was a big man, with thick arms and heavy-looking hands, but he cradled Danny so gently, as if he was a baby again.

"See the big picture, focus on the little steps," Jack said.

"Big picture, little steps," Maddie repeated. The words rang out in her head, over and over like a mantra. Big picture, little steps. Saving Danny, calling Jazz. Her phone was at her workstation. While Jack carried Danny upstairs, Maddie sprinted over to her station, snagging her phone off the counter. She easily found the number for Casper High.

"Casper High, this is Connie Burjan."

"H–hello Ms. Burjan." Maddie took a deep breath and smoothed out her voice. "This is Madeline Fenton, calling for Jasmine Fenton. I'm her mother."

"What can I do for you?"

"There's an emergency and we need to pull Jazz out of school. She needs to be with her family right now."

"Of course. I'll call her to the principal's office. I hope everything will be alright."

Maddie gave a rueful grin. "So do I." She hung up and headed upstairs.

Jack already had Danny in the back of the RV, laid out on one of the benches. He looked so small curled up on his side, shaking and shivering. Seeing him like that sent a surge of loathing through Maddie. She did this.

"You take Danny to the hospital. I'll pick up Jazz," Jack said, motioning to the little-used family car.

"No, we can't," Maddie said. She cursed softly. "We never got the transmission fixed."

They used the car so little. It was a relic from days past, the same vehicle Jack had in college. These days, they preferred the RV both because of its size and its ghost defenses.

"We pick up Jazz on the way," Jack said.

Maddie didn't want Jazz to see her brother this way, but she nodded anyway. They could leave Jazz at school for the rest of the day, but that didn't feel right. The whole family needed to be together.

Jack climbed into the back with Danny, sitting on the floor rather than the bench opposite his, while Maddie got in the front seat. Starting the car, she practically tore out of the garage, ripping through the back alley behind their house. She may have been a less hazardous driver than Jack, but she was just as fast.

"It's okay. You're gonna be okay," Jack whispered. Looking in the rear-view mirror, Maddie saw him running his hands through Danny's hair in a soothing gesture. It reminded her of when Danny was little. He used to get sick so easily, stuck at home for days on end with a cold or flu. One of them would sit with him until he fell asleep, reading books about astronomy and brushing his hair like Jack was doing now.

Maddie's grip on the steering wheel tightened. This was nothing like back then. The bruise on Danny's arm had spread, a spotty discolouration taking over the whole limb.

When they got to the school, Jazz was already waiting outside, standing on the front steps. She ran up the sidewalk the second the RV came into view, bounding toward the vehicle. Jack threw the door open for her.

"What happened? Ms. Burjan didn't say," Jazz said. Her gaze fell to Danny. She paled, cupping her mouth. "Danny!"

She clambered into the car, leaving Jack to shut the door again, and immediately knelt in front of her brother. Her hands hovered over him before she touched his forehead, feeling his temperature. "What happened?" she asked.

"He was sick. Some kind of ghost sickness. We– I gave him ecto-dejecto to flush it out," Maddie explained shakily. She couldn't meet her daughter's eyes.

Jazz stared down at Danny. Gnawing on her thumbnail, she kept swivelling her head back and forth, glancing between Danny, Jack, and Maddie. She looked conflicted.

"Jazz?" Jack asked, seeing the same indecision as Maddie.

"You can't take him to the hospital," Jazz said. She leaned forward, wrapping her arms around Danny, and pulled him into a protective embrace.

"Jasmine! Your brother needs a doctor!" Maddie said.

"No, you don't understand!" Jazz shook her head vigorously. "You can't take him, they'll– they'll find out."

"Find out what?" Jack asked.

She bit her lip, holding Danny closer. Whispering an apology in Danny's ear, she raised her head and glared defiantly at Maddie and Jack. "They'll find out Danny's not human!"

Maddie slammed her foot on the breaks. Jack's arms shout out to brace himself on the sides of the RV. Jazz yelped, sliding forward, and curled around Danny to protect him as he fell halfway off the bench.

Panting, Maddie turned around and stared at Jazz. "He's what?" she asked.

Jazz shifted, putting herself between Danny and Maddie, as if he needed protecting from her. "He's not human," she repeated. "He's... his accident. It did something to him." Shaking her head, she continued, "If you take him to the hospital, they'll report him. It's in that stupid ecto act the G.I.W. have. Any cases of ecto-contamination need to be reported so they can take care of it."

Maddie's mind refused to process that information. She heard it, loud and clear, but she couldn't comprehend it. Of course Danny was human. He was her son, her baby boy, her flesh and blood. She brought him into this world. To say he wasn't human was just ridiculous. Impossible. No accident could change someone that much. No accident could take away someone's humanity.

The streak in Danny's hair stood out, glaringly bright, against his dark locks. The bruising had spread to his neck now. It would only be a matter of minutes before it touched his cheeks, too.

"Jazz, what happened to Danny?" Maddie was afraid of the answer.

"I can't tell you," Jazz whispered. "It's not my secret. I already said too much. But anything that could help him? None of that is going to be at the hospital. If ecto-dejecto did this to him, he doesn't need human medicine."

Maddie paled.

"Jazzypants," Jack said softly, reaching out.

Jazz scooted back, taking Danny with her. "We have to go back home. And you have to promise me. You have promise that, no matter what you find out, you won't hurt Danny."

"Jazz–"

"Promise!"

"We promise," Maddie said.

"Okay." Jazz nodded. "Okay. Let's get Danny home."

Facing forward, Maddie turned the RV around.

—

The couch was hardly sanitary. Jack and Maddie had to carry it in from the garage, and it was covered in dust. Maddie told Jazz as much, but her daughter refused to let them put Danny on the examination table.

"I can't let him wake up like that, lying there, with you looking over him," Jazz said. "It's his worst nightmare."

It broke Maddie's heart to hear that.

Jazz sat with Danny, his head in her lap. She had taken Jack's place stroking his hair. Maybe that was for the best. Based on what Jazz said, Danny wouldn't react well to either Maddie or Jack being the first face he saw if we woke up.

When, Maddie corrected herself. When he wakes up.

The couch sat all the way across the lab, as far from Maddie and Jack as it could get. Not to keep Danny away from them, but because they hadn't cleaned up the puddle of ectoplasm on the floor yet. It was a medical hazard, not to mention an accident waiting to happen, but they had other things to focus on right now.

Maddie forced herself to look away from her children, a heartfelt scene, and turned back to her microscope. She had a sample of Danny's blood underneath it and was looking for signs of crystallization. If she wanted to treat him right, she needed to know just how ghostly he was, and if he was even sick in the first place.

Danny himself said he didn't know what was going on.

Zooming in forty times, one hundred times, four hundred times, Maddie scowled in frustration. She could see his blood cells, but she couldn't see any crystallization. It didn't make sense.

"Anything, Jack?" Maddie asked, pulling back from the lens.

Jack, sitting beside her, leaned forward and scrutinized the computer screen. It was plugged in to the microscope, showing the same view Maddie saw of the sample. He shook his head.

"I don't get it. It should be there," he said.

Maddie nodded. Switching out Danny's sample for the ectoplasm from the portal, she shifted closer to Jack and scoured the screen. The image was blindingly bright. Unlike human blood, which could be seen as individual cells when you looked close enough, ectoplasm remained one solid mass no matter how far you zoomed in. The only thing that seemed to change was how large the crystallization lines were.

In the portal's sample, they swirled together in spiral patterns. It mimicked the way the ectoplasm moved in the portal itself.

Maddie wondered how that worked. Other ghosts had some form of conscience that seemed to influence and be influenced by their ectoplasm, resulting in unique patterns. The portal, however, had no consciousness. Perhaps all ambient ectoplasm from the Ghost Zone would bear an identical pattern. It was something they would have to look into, once Danny was fine.

Staring at the bright screen too long hurt Maddie's eyes. She was forced to look away, rubbing spots out of her vision. There had to be something they were missing.

Jack drummed his fingers on the table and hummed.

"What is it?" Maddie asked.

"Ectoplasm isn't blood," he said.

Maddie blinked, confused. "Yes?"

"So, why are we looking at Danny's blood like it's ectoplasm?"

Maddie blinked again. Her thoughts snapped into place. "Of course!" she shouted. She switched the ectoplasm with Danny's sample once again, zooming the microscope in to one thousand.

"Enlarge the image," Maddie said.

On the computer keyboard, Jack tapped a few keys, doing as asked. The image blew up to fill the screen.

Maddie pointed to one of Danny's red blood cells. "There," she said. She traced her nail along a thin line just barely visible, cutting across the cell. "Ectoplasm is one solid mass, as far as we know, but blood isn't. The crystallization appears on the individual cells, not around them."

"You found something?" Jazz called from across the room.

"You betcha, Jazzypants!" Jack whooped, throwing up his arms.

Maddie left him to celebrate, focusing instead on the pattern she could see. It looked like starbursts. Of course they would, this was Danny. She expected nothing less from her space-loving son. Scanning the image over and over, she tried to see if she could tell exactly how ghostly Danny was. The crystallization appeared fainter, but there was just as much of it as any ectoplasmic sample, simply reduced to a smaller space. Maddie's gaze caught on one of the cells in the corner of the image.

"That's odd," she said. "Jack, look at this." She beckoned him closer, pointing to what had caught her attention. "That cell there. It's the same swirl pattern as the portal.

"You're right," Jack murmured, fascinated.

Tapping her finger on her cheek, Maddie kept staring. There was something else about the pattern, something that nagged at her. It was almost familiar, which should be impossible because every ghost was unique.

"Jack, compare this sample to other ones we have logged in the system," Maddie said.

Behind her, Jazz called, "You don't need to do that!"

"Yes we do."

On the computer monitor, Maddie saw Jazz's reflection. Jazz carefully lifted Danny's head, sliding off the couch, and set him back down. Scurrying across the lab, her socks slipped on the metal tiles.

"Jazz, be careful!" Maddie swivelled her chair around, reaching out to Jazz, but was too late to catch her. Jazz's feet shot out from under her and she hit the ground hard. She groaned, rubbing her backside.

"You should be more careful, you almost fell into the..." Maddie's words died out. The puddle of ectoplasm was gone. "Jack, did you clean up the mess from earlier?"

"Hm? The glass? Yeah, I got it all," he said.

"No, not that, the–" A green blur shot across the lab.

Maddie leapt to her feet, instinctively reaching for an ecto-weapon, but she wasn't wearing any. The green mass zipped back and forth, moving erratically, too fast for Maddie to see. Until it stopped over Danny, hovering.

The ghost was small, about the size of a puppy. It had no arms or legs, just a shimmering body. Spiral patterns danced across its skin, shifting constantly. Yellow rash-like patches smothered the spirals in some places.

Maddie's gaze fell from the ghost to where the puddle of ectoplasm had been mere minutes ago.

"It didn't work," she said quietly, gaping at the ghost.

"Maddie, you should look at this."

"No, Jack, it didn't work!"

"Baby, you really need to look at this!"

Maddie turned, annoyed Jack wasn't listening to her, and froze. The computer had found a match in the crystal patterns. Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom, one hundred percent.

—

There were only so many dramatic revelations Maddie could handle in one day. First Danny had a ghost flu, then it was worse than a flu, then he was dying, then he wasn't, and then it turned out he was dead all along. Her heart couldn't take it.

She sat on the floor in front of Danny's couch, watching him sleep. The reanimated ghost slept with him, curled up on his back. It was almost cute. Normally, Maddie would have blasted the thing to shreds by now for even getting close to Danny, much less touching him. But right now, that ghost was a sign of hope.

Not only did the ghost recover from the ecto-dejecto, but it gained consciousness. Unless, of course, the portal was conscious after all. That thought sent shivers up her spine. What did that say about Danny, who shared key DNA elements with the portal's ectoplasm? What did it say about the newly birthed ghost that already seemed so attached to him?

It was just Maddie, Danny, and the ghost in the lab. Jazz and Jack had gone upstairs to eat, at Maddie's insistence. It had been a harrowing day and it was barely past noon. Inching forward, she rested her elbows on the cushion beside Danny, folding her arms. The ghost on his back shuffled and yawned, but otherwise didn't acknowledge her. She took that as a good sign.

Danny had stopped shaking not too long ago. The discolouration on his skin had started fading, although not the way Maddie wanted it to. Rather than disappearing completely, it was turning a light salmon colour, a couple shades pinker than a nasty sunburn. Judging by the yellow stains that had yet to fade from the portal ghost, Danny's pink patches would not disappear completely. The sight of them sickened her. Not because they were ugly—Danny could never be ugly to her—but because they were a sign of what she had almost done.

The first few seconds after learning Danny was Phantom, Maddie felt betrayed. How could her own son not trust her with something so monumental? The second thing she felt was a cathartic realization as all the pieces fell into place. The failing grades, the absences, breaking curfew. All their inventions reacting to Danny. It explained everything. Looking back, she should have seen it sooner. Maddie really despised hindsight.

She reached out and brushed Danny's hair away from his forehead, briefly checking his temperature. Disturbingly cold, but Jazz said that was normal for him. Maddie had no choice but to trust her information.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. How many times had she threatened Danny to his face, without knowing it was really him? All the experiments she and Jack had proposed, all the ways they would take Phantom apart to figure out how he ticked. It was horrible.

"I'm so, so sorry." She ran her hand through his hair. Her palm came away wet. Confused, she stared at the ectoplasm streaked across her hand. Pushing Danny's hair back, she checked his scalp for an injury, finding a viscous patch of skin. Before Maddie could process what was happening, Danny was already halfway gone.

"No, no!" She tried to hold him together, but it didn't work. Beneath her helpless gaze, Danny melted, leaving her kneeling in a pool of his ectoplasm, horrified. Her voice caught behind her tongue and refused to move any farther. Cupping her mouth, she croaked pathetically, squeezing her eyes shut. A horrible sob tore through her throat.

Maddie gripped the edge of the couch, punching the cushion. The ghost laying there squawked in protest. Maddie's head snapped up.

"You," she said. Pulling herself up, she braced herself on either side of the ghost. "This happened to you. You came back. How did you do it? Make him come back!"

Crying out in grief, she lowered her head against the couch, shaking. Danny was supposed to be fine. He was supposed to wake up and realize Maddie and Jack knew his secret. He was supposed to wake up and smile because he didn't have to hide anymore. He wasn't... he wasn't supposed to... he couldn't...

A soft white glow filled the room. Maddie opened her eyes, nearly blinded by the light. It came from the ectoplasm. Bright stretching over the puddle, rippling outward from the center at Maddie's knees. The ectoplasm started rising, the rings rising with it, cascading downward.

Slowly, a shape took form, growing out of the ectoplasm. A faceless blob that quickly grew a head, a torso, arms. An achingly familiar form. The ectoplasm creeped back together, sucked inward as the last of the rings faded, and Danny Phantom fell forward into Maddie's waiting arms. She buried a hand on his hair, pressing his face against her shoulder, and let out a broken laugh.

Danny shifted, his arms raising, wrapping around her. "Mom?" he asked, lifting his head.

Maddie wiped her eyes on her sleeve and pulled back so she could see him. He looked different. Where white strands had glistened in Danny's human hair, a black streak now marked his ghost form. His eyes were brighter. Green flecked sparkled on his cheeks like stars. Two new, sharp teeth sat over his canines and lateral incisors on either side of his mouth. He even looked a little taller.

The discolouration remained, though. Grey instead of red.

He tipped his head down, focusing on his body. Startled into action, he yelped and scrambled away, putting distance between them. "I– I mean, Maddie. Madeline. Madeline Fenton. What are you doing here?" he said in a false, deep voice. "In your own lab. What are you doing here in your lab?"

Maddie couldn't help it. She laughed.

"Mo– addie. What, uh, what's going on right now? Am I being punked?" Danny floated back, casting a nervous glance around the room.

"I'm sorry, it's just." She paused to giggle. "How did you ever keep this a secret from us? That voice is so terrible."

"Hey! I like my voice!" Danny shouted, dropping the false voice. His eyes widened and he quickly resumed the charade. "I mean, I like my voice. This voice. This is my voice. And you... you are still laughing."

"Danny..." Maddie wiped her eyes again, this time tears of happiness. "We know."

"You... know?"

"We know."

Danny gawked at her. All it took was Maddie opening her arms and he flew forward, crashing into her.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I lied," he whispered.

Maddie nearly started crying again. "I'm sorry you had to."

"I just, you and Dad. Fighting ghosts is what you do, and I panicked and didn't tell you, and then it felt like I had waited too long. But I... how do you know?" He peered up at her, tilting his head.

"Jazz told us. We thought... we thought you were dying."

"I felt like it."

Maddie cringed.

"Oh, no, geez, I didn't mean it like that. I meant before you got me with whatever that was. I don't remember anything after that and now I feel kind of great actually," Danny said in a rush. Standing up, he flexed his fists and looked down. Following his gaze, Maddie saw he was examining his reflection in the floor. "Did I go through ghost puberty or something?"

Silence stretched between them for a second.

"Oh my god," Danny said, eyes widening. "I totally went through ghost puberty."

He leaned down to get a better look. Before he could, the portal ghost barrelled into his chest, throwing him back against the couch. The ghost zipped around him, nuzzling him and saying gibberish words. At least it sounded like gibberish to Maddie.

Danny caught the ghost in his arms, trapping it against his chest in a bear hug. "And who's this?" he asked.

"Your new best friend," Maddie teased.

"Damn. Sam and Tucker will be so disappointed." Danny flopped onto his back, holding the ghost above his head as if it were a cat.

Maddie felt a sense of calm wash over her. She didn't realize she had still been nervous, but hearing Danny's sarcastic voice, seeing him play with the new ghost, her worries finally disappeared. Everything was going to be okay.

#phic phight #phic phight 2020 #danny phantom #phanfiction #phanfic #phicc #tumblroneshots #hurt/comfort #reveal fic #ghost puberty #ghost sickness #slight melting #but it gets fixed

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kotalefanzu · 3 years

Text

Pitch Pearl ATUS AU- Part 3

ahahaha. i finally came back to wite the finale. WOOOO. im still sorry about waiting so long oof.

where we last left off, danny had a dream about phantom, in which he tells him about the creation of the natural portals. he leaves danny, saying that he’ll come running back soon enough. when he wakes up, jazz tells him that sam and tucker have gone missing.

danny takes a second to process that information along with the dream and his brain just shuts down. he goes on autopilot, acting like he didn’t hear a word she just said. jazz tries to snap him out of it to get some sort of reaction but when she actually looks him in the eyes, filled with exhaustion, fear, and helplessness, she realizes that he doesn’t need any more things to worry about and goes to tell their parents not to bother him.

when she leaves, he blankly goes through the motions as he normally would. just like before this all happened. he checks his phone with slight hope that they may have tried to contact him, but after realizing he spent ten minutes just staring at it, he puts it away and doesn’t check it again. the walk to school is nothing but a stream of consciousness and he doesn’t even really feel awake anymore. everyone is just a blur while his brain refuses to process anything around him.

he gets to class, looks at his friends’ desks, and notices two cleanly carved DP symbols on them. it makes him start giggling a little, then laughing loudly, before he sinks to the ground crying out of frustration and overload.

a town meeting is called in the middle of school. the missing children line up with the new influx of ghost sightings and they want to check to see if any more kids have gone missing. someone points out the danny got taken last and the two missing children were his friends. others bring up the lunchroom incident and start pestering him with questions, seeking answers. danny waits for his family to quiet everything down before explaining everything from his first day in captivity all the way to last night’s dream. many people want to push the blame onto danny for painting a target on their heads and force him to deal with it on his own while others want to use danny as a bargaining tool to save their lives.

the fentons reject every suggestion and say that the most important thing here to do if to protect the children and find a way to defeat the ghosts now that blocking their way into the human realm is no longer an option. they explain that giving danny up might be a trap if phantom was able to kidnap sam and tucker but didn’t head straight for danny. he is told to safe and not try anything.

the GIW are called in to work on locating one of the portals and storming the ghost zone to rescue the missing children. danny is desperate to help and spends most of his time reliving unwanted memories just to give any form of information that might be helpful. after a while they send him away to try getting back to normal life as he needs a form of distraction.

at lunch, he is cornered by the other teens who ask if he is really just going to sit there and do nothing. danny is hesitant to lead more children into the ghost zone where they could be hurt, but they are determined and at this point, he is willing to risk it. after stealing a bunch of weapons from his parent's old weaponry vault, he finds a natural portal and opens it. they get sucked into it and arrive in the courtyards of phantom’s keep.

the ectoplasm flooding his system is mildly overwhelming but he pushes through it and begins guiding everyone to the dungeons where they would probably be kept. he notices while navigating that strangely everything is the same as it ws before he left, from to the decor to the guard rotations. when they reach the dungeons, sam and tucker aren’t there. it confuses him. he tries to think about where else phantom could have put them and a small voice whispers, ‘check your old wing’. its actually easier to sneak back to his old wing due to all the times he has snuck in and out of it. while the rest of the group aren’t so used to the routes, following him makes it a lot easier. waiting in the common room of the wing are sam and tucker, posed like lifeless dolls and dressed in clothing uncomfortably similar to what danny once wore, though less extravagant. their skin is pale and lifeless and their eyes are glowing

perched on their heads are silvery circlets. danny motions for the rest of the group to stand behind him. sam and tucker slowly turn to look at them and another battle breaks out.

its obvious from how they are fighting that while they wont strike to kill danny, they dont care about sparing the rest. the group slowly works out a system of one half distracting sam while the other go to hold down tucker and remove the circlet. as soon as it comes off, the glow from his eyes fades and he stills like they pushed his power button. with one less person constantly firing at them, its a lot easier to do the same for sam as she can’t fight them all off. dash and kwan take up carrying the limp, unconscious people and they make off with their battle spoils to the portal.

danny reopens the portal and makes sure everyone gets through, doing a headcount. when he is sure everyone is accounted for and out of the ghost zone. he thanks them and seals it, locking them in the human realm with him on the other side.

it takes a while for the group to finally tell someone what happened and they start fearing how to explain to the two dead to the world people who still haven’t woken up yet. they finally fess up when jazz drives by and asks where danny is. they silently just show her sam and tucker and watch the emotions flicker rapidly on he face. in the end she settles on heartache and gives a weak smile, telling them that she’s glad they are back but wishes they could have brought her brother back as well. she is more forgiving when they explain that it was his decision and they didnt have time to stop him before it was too late.

back in the ghost zone, danny stares blankly at the sealed portal, wondering if he should just step through now before its too late. just as he reaches out his hand, he gets pulled in a tight embrace as phantom laughs in his ear.

“What did I tell you, Starlight. You would come running back into my arms soon enough. Let’s go back home. You’ll find I didn’t change anything when you left. We can go right back to how it used to be before. Like you never ran away from me.”

he stays huddled up in his room for most of the time, only coming out when phantom wants him to accompany him on an errand or when he has to attend meetings with phantom. the faces are familiar. he made a few friends during his captivity and while the circumstances are grim, its pleasant to see them again.

for starters, clockwork was a common face when danny began getting incredibly homesick. phantom had requested danny be allowed to view the present of his ‘loved ones’ lives and he had spent every moment he could watching them throughout the day and making sure they were fine. clockwork also had hilariously awful puns, though they werent allowed to actually say them anymore after phantom got jealous and forbade them from speaking to danny. danny still carried the one-sided conversations and it seemed to cheer clockwork up from the decree. princess dora, now queen dora, was also a good friend of his, often discussing with him the pain of living with overbearing nobility. she had done a double-take when he approached her and sat him down to calmly ask what happened, though he could see the tension laced through her. after recounting she took a long sip of her tea and looked him in the eyes. she told a seemly random story of her exploring her kingdom and hearing a bard singing about how the mighty dragon princess stole the dragon king’s crown and the mighty dragon queen took her dear brother down. the piercing look in her eyes before she moved to a new topic told him more than enough.

the few moments of reprieve they offered was not enough to outdo the lappet treatment of phantom that allowed for no rejection, but it was something and it was all he could ask for.

sam and tucker wake up finally after being in a coma for two days. after scanning the room filled with their classmates, parents, and the fenton family, they quickly realize the only one not there that should be is danny. sam is the first one to speak, immediately yelling at them for trading them for danny and going off about how they need to go back for him as soon as possible. dash defends them by telling her that its not their fault danny closed the portal before any one of them could drag his skinny self sacrificing ass through it. they cant reopen it without him.

sam quiets down after that and tucker takes out asking all the questions he can think of to find a way to fix this. there has to be a way to reopen the portal.

(a cut back scene to danny interacting with phantom. im not good with writing abuse mixed with love very well so go ahead and use your imaginations okay uwu)

sam and tucker also end up secluding themselves and working nonstop on trying to figure out how to save danny. jazz stops by every day to check on them and pass on homework and anything she hears about the ghosts to them. while they start cleaning up the room to take a break and finish schoolwork, sam trips on a piece of paper and is about to fall. only she is caught in mid-air and surrounded by a neon lime green aura, one similar to danny’s though his is a bluish mint. the aura dissipates and she hits the ground with a soft thud but everything stops as tucker and her look at each other in shock.

“That was you!”

“That was me!”

homework gets pushed aside again for experimentation and documenting. they might be able to reopen the portal after all.

#im so nice to characters #look at my kindness #arent i so nice #i edited this #less typos this time around owo #sorry there is going to be another part.#there is so much #danny phantom au #Danny Phantom #danny fenton #pitch pearl au #pitch pearl #tw: toxic relationship #tw: brain washing #part 3 #part 4 coming soon promise

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