#jazz fenton bashing

[youcalledsworld]

Danny Phantom prompt

After becoming a teen again Dan, starts living with the Fenton's after Danny revealed his identity to his parents.

After learning of Dan's past Jack and Maddie start doting on him and on doing so they start to accidentally neglect Danny. Danny is a little ticked off but he understands Dan needs a lot of love and understanding from the people around him.

But then Jazz and his friends start to hang out with Dan more than him. It's got to the point where they dismiss his ideas for what to do or out right forgetting to invite him to hangout. It also feels like Jazz prefers Dan over him.

To make matters worse Dan is actually popular at school and all the teachers prefer him. He even overheard some teachers say they wished they had Dan at the start of school than him.

It all got too much for Danny but what broke the camels back is when he learnt that his family all went out together and didn't even realise he was missing.

So after talking to his family and friends about this and being told to stop being over dramatic. He packed his stuff and left home hoping to find the one person he knows loves and cherishes him. His clone sister Danielle.

#danny phantom #danny phantom prompt #jack fenton #dan phantom #teen dan fenton #maddie fenton #jazz fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #jack and maddie fenton know danny is phantom #jack and maddie fenton bashing #jazz fenton bashing #bad friend tucker foley #bad friend sam manson #danny fenton runs away #danielle phantom

[goggles-mcgee]

Desperate Pleas

This idea is, of course, based on Jack and Maddie finding out Danny is Phantom and not taking it well. They are so distraught though, and can't make the ghost talk and tell them where their baby is. He has his face. They can't bear to do anything to the ghost, so they turn to the GIW. They had partnered with them before, and they helped equip them with all their weapons, so it was only logical they hand over the...specimen.

Of course, the GIW experiments on him and gives a token try at making him admit to doing something to Daniel Fenton. Ellie finds out about Danny being captured and is planning to free him along with Jazz, Sam, and Tucker. Danny didn't know that all of them had prepared for a reveal gone wrong and made go bags.

But with not only Jack and Maddie being against him but also with Jazz, Tucker, and Sam being under suspicion of working with Phantom, it's up to Ellie to get things done. It's her turn to look out for her bro. So they enact their most desperate plan.

Plan W.

The rescue happens with thankfully nobody else getting captured but also with roaring success on all fronts. Tucker was able to scramble and destroy the GIW and the Fenton's data from the comfort of his home and his parents thinking he was playing Doom. Sam was able to help break into the base with Bubbe Ida being an alibi. Jazz was able to get the conjoined go-bags out by the town's welcome sign with the excuse of going on a college touring trip with her friends. (It was true it's just that she left the house earlier than planned and had waited on seeing Danny safe before leaving.)

They all needed to have alibis because of being under suspicion, and the only one who didn't was Ellie. They had to pretend to buy the excuse that Danny was visiting his Uncle Vlad that the Fenton's gave them (Jazz had already decided she would be changing her name when she left for college. They weren't her parents anymore. She already came up with telling them the wrong college from whichever she picked.) Thankfully or not, Vlad had no idea about Danny but Maddie had asked him to cover with Jazz if she called, she told Vlad they were working on a surprise with Danny and didn't want Jazz to find out. Of course, he had been delighted to comply. (Anything for his Maddie.)

Everything had gone off without a hitch...except.

Danny was very injured (Ellie couldn't make herself look at the y-incision besides when she patched him up as best she could.) but they expected that. What they hadn't expected was him to be so freaking tiny!! Seriously! He was a shrimp more than usual. Ellie made the very educated guess that he somehow got de-aged. That plus the green sticky note that had been waiting for her next to an unconscious Danny that told her he was about four years old now and basically eluded that their plan was going to work. The bonus, though, was that apparently the age change happened because of Clockwork and that Danny should be healed by the time they got to their destination. Something about time magic but Ellie wouldn't pay that any mind as long as it helped Danny.

Though she didn't really understand how him being 4 helped anything.

Anyway, besides that small hitch, the plan was going smoothly. They just had to meet Jazz at the sign and go from there. The flight was relatively short.

"Ellie? I wasn't expecting you for a while. Did everything go okay? Where's Danny?" Jazz, of course, was worried when she didn't immediately see her 16 year old brother.

"Sooooo...funny thing. I know we were prepared for him to be...affected by his time in the GIW labs. But uh...I don't think we planned on this affected. But don't worry! Clocky basically said this was needed, so...meet tiny Danny!" Ellie held out the very unconscious toddler so Jazz could see him from under the blanket Ellie had stolen to hide said toddler.

Jazz had been frozen in shock for a good minute before she slowly held her arms out for the toddler. Ellie easily gave her the dead weight and simply floated there awkwardly. "Oh baby brother..." Jazz croaked out as her eyes filled with tears.

"He's going to be okay." Maybe Ellie was trying to convince both of them of that.

Jazz just stood there and gently stroked Danny's hair despite it being sweaty and kinda gross. She did that for a while before an alarm went off, which Ellie guessed was for Jazz to keep track of the plan. So with a soft kiss to Danny's forehead and a small hug she handed him back to her little sister. She wiped her tears and handed over two large duffle bags. One for Ellie and one for Danny.

"I know I don't have to ask, but please...please make sure you two are safe. I don't know what I'd do...." Jazz shook her head. "Just let us know when you reach Gotham...and...and let us know if Plan W works. If it doesn't...we'll figure something out. "

Ellie choked back her own tears and nodded, not trusting her voice. She handed danny bag to Jazz briefly so she could cross the duffle bags on either side of her and took Danny back before Jazz decided to keep him and do who knew what. "I'll be in touch. I promise."

With that, Ellie took off. She couldn't open portals, and she couldn't exactly ask for help in the Zone since, by now, the portals to it should be destroyed. Yeah, even Vald's. All part of good ol' Plan W.

So she flew and flew as fast as she could with as few stops as she could allow before she reached her destination.

So that's how she found herself in front of the whole Wayne family who were all at the Manor conveniently for family dinner, with a laptop open to the PowerPoint that Team Phantom made together about why Bruce Wayne should adopt both Ellie and Danny. Well mainly Danny but like hell was Ellie going to leave him alone.

She had found out that Bruce Wayne was Batman and only told Team Phantom because it could be useful to their Save Danny's Behind Plans. Turns out it was useful.

Hopefully, Mr. Wayne agreed. The PowerPoint was pretty solid, so Ellie had faith. But she would definitely love some feedback from the gobsmacked family, please.

#dpxdc #dc x dp crossover #dc x dp #dc x dp ficlet #de aged danny #older sister ellie #jazz fenton #danielle “ellie” masters #danny fenton #danny phantom #sam manson #tucker foley #jack and maddie bashing #jack and maddie fenton #giw #ghost investigation ward

[phanboyo]

I know people have a right to disregard canon for the sake of the fic or whatever but every time I see "Bad Parents Jack and Maddie Fenton" on the same fic as "Good Parent Bruce Wayne" my brain goes a little bit fuzzy

#dpxdc #one of these days I will write a whole thesis paper with sources on why the Fentons are good (or at the very least not bad) parents #i get that you need an excuse for Danny to be adopted. have you thought of things such as: #a. danny is in a different dimension #b. Danny's parents are dead or otherwise incapacitated #c. danny is being a dumb teenager and thinks he needs to run away from home when he really doesn't #d. Bruce literally doesn't need an excuse to adopt people. see Duke and Steph and Barb and some variations of Tim #I'm sure a whole thesis paper will not keep me from seeing people say that Danny and Jazz learned to dumpster dive as kids #because their parents didn't feed them #please tag your fenton bashing im begging #okay sorry for ranting I'm finished now

[starwrighter]

I am not a baby!! (Yes you are)

Prompt   Masterpost  Previous   Next

 Part two people!!!

@zeldomnyo @bytheoldwillowtree @justwannabecat @molasses-being-slow @shepherdsheart @starlightcat04

Danny woke up with the smell of ash and burning plastic suffocating him. Beeps and whistles of malfunctioning machinery warning him of his eminent demise cried louder than he did. His body felt stiff and his head pounded like someone bashed it in with the creep stick. Something about him felt... Wrong like he’d been chopped and quartered but was somehow still partly alive.

With a gasp of putrid air Danny’s hand flew towards his face tugging at cheeks that were way too chubby with hands too tiny to be his. A slime-like substance clung to his skin pooling in a goopy mess below him. It smelled rotten like something dad pulled out the back of the freezer. The goop was reddish with bits of green shining through the foul smelling mess. His stomach churned the longer he stared at it and for a split second Danny swore he saw a melted finger sticking out of it. It melted into the gunk as quickly as he spotted it.The panel that’d previously been embedded in his flesh sat in the middle of the viscous fluid like a garnish for the worlds worst soup.

a crackling zap of electricity brought his attention back to the roaring flames only a few feet beside him. Danny strained, power buzzing at his fingertips cooling his palms but fizzling out with droplets of the gory fluid frozen to his skin. You’d get more cold air from a plastic pinwheel! Shoving his hands into open flames with an unknown fluid coating his body and no ice powers to back him up was a stupid idea even for him. He was all for the “Fuck around and find out mindset,” but not when there was nobody around to laugh at him for his dumbassery. 

Sam...

Tucker...

Jazz...

He’d never hear the end of it if he died from his own stupidity again. Now that he was pretty much powerless a fire extinguisher would be more useful than his hands for now. Alterra might be a little shady but it was a life pod, there had to be a fire extinguisher stashed away somewhere, right? 

Danny all but slipped out of the seat, the shoulder guards too wide to ever hold his now tiny body. His stomach lurched as his foot sank down into the viscous puddle. Searching around a burning life pod with what could possibly be his liquefied corpse was the scariest crap that would ever happen to him on this trip. A fire extinguisher sat propped up against what should have been the seat of another survivor. Danny snatched it up, the canister half his body size. Maybe when he wasn’t at risk of burning to death that’d be scarier to him?

Aiming at the roaring flames Danny squeezed the trigger so hard his hands shook. Instead of the messy thick foam he was used to back home, this fire extinguisher sprayed out a powdery mist snuffing the flames in seconds before dissipating into thin air like it’d never been sprayed in the first place.

…

Alterra was on another level.

Wait.

Why didn’t they have these at home?! 

Fires broke out several times a day at Fenton Works! You’re telling him instead of spending half an hour hurting himself cleaning  “Fenton anti-ghost fireform” he could’ve been using one of these babies?! There were barely any scorch marks on the walls! You could hardly tell that just a few seconds ago there was a wall of flames that reached the ceiling. This fire extinguisher was coming home with him, he’d make sure of that.

In fact, this fire extinguisher was his new best friend, his Wilson if you will. He and Wilson would be going on so many adventures from here on out. To any normal person, it might’ve seemed a little odd that he was humanizing an inanimate object so soon; but to Danny, it was just on theme. He hadn’t stepped foot outside but he could feel the life pod dipping rhythmically with what Danny hoped was water. 

The life pod hadn’t started melting yet so it’s probably not acid. If it did turn out to be boring old water it’d be immensely disappointing  He wasn’t saying he wanted to land in a viscous metal-eating acid... But landing on an alien planet composed mainly of giant seas of acid would be a pretty metal way to die a third time. Ancients knows he needed something cool to happen to him after dying from something as mundane as a panel flying off the wall. Yes, he counted that as a death, he was turned into goo and it smelled awful.

Danny’s eyes darted around the life pod. There’s a latter in the middle of the pod leading to the top hatch soft light from a clear blue sky shining through the glass. The bottom hatch was pure metal, the type of hatch you’d expect to see on a futuristic submarine. He didn’t want to leave the life pod, not yet at least. No matter how foul the life pod smelled, he would die if he left now.

He was naked as the day he was born with zero weaponry to defend himself. If his parents had designed these life pods they would’ve been armed to the teeth and stocked full of fudge. Toddling past the ladder Danny went about searching through the storage units he could reach. Nutrient blocks... Flares... Some water

Come on Alterra! 

Where was all the cool stuff? Propulsion guns, stasis rifles, teleporters?!! You’d think one of the biggest space exploration programs in the universe could afford to stock the life pods with something cooler than bricks of food and sparklers. Sure there were the futuristic-looking suits but those wouldn’t fit him in a million years!  Danny pulled a glowing blue tablet out of one of the suit’s backpack. Danny remembers being denied one of these things at orientation because “You’re too young Danny, there’ll always be an adult with a PDA on hand to help you,” Glancing around the life pod he gasps dramatically.  Oh no~ there’s no adult in sight guess nobody could stop him from using the forbidden blue tablet.

He snickers, and starts tapping his pudgy fingers against Alterra’s precious tablet. With his mocking taps the tablet jumps to life a bright blue glow flashed in his face as Alterra’s logo began to spin on it’s screen.

“Alterra~” The tablet sang in a robotic tone as it began to boot up.

“You have suffered minor head trauma. this is considered an optimal outcome,” Danny side-eyes the metal sheet on the ground as the PDA continues.

“This PDA has now been rebooted in emergency mode with one directive: to keep you alive on an alien world please refer to the databank for detailed survival advice. Good luck.” The robot lady finished her little speech leaving Danny to swipe through the tabs of the PDA. Tucker would kill to get his hands on technology like this! Apparently, the PDA monitored his vital signs, supposedly had hundreds of blueprints before the crash, is waterproof and temperature resistant had a pretty good microphone and camera. The PDA itself was easy to interact with or it was until Allterra's spinning logo of death decided to flashbang him again.

“ Attention. Alterra does not approve of child labor for those under the age of two years old,”

What.

“This PDA will bypass certain rules with the sole purpose of accessibility and keeping you alive. Alterra gives their sincerest apologies for your involvement,”

….

Okay, now he had access to the suits in smaller sizes. Only downside was now the entire PDA was babying him! He could read Ancient’s damn it! Rummaging through the settings for a few minutes, he finds he can turn off certain features of baby mode but shutting it off completely wasn’t even an option. Honestly, Danny was just happy he could turn the robot voice back on; it was better than baby mode’s default. He didn't know why the soft, loving tone mimicking that of a mother soothing her child made his eyes start to water. He just knew he never wanted to hear it thrown at him as a manipulative tactic to keep him calm devoid of any of the love it pretended to offer.

With a sniffle, Danny runs his hands over one of the suits. It's like leather, with a waxy silicone sheen. He drags it to the fabricator allowing his PDA adjust the proportions of the suit. The fabricator sparks to life dark blue lasers disintegrating the suit into nothing before reassembling it into something completely new in a matter of minutes. What Danny picked off the fabricator was a tiny wetsuit warm to the touch and easy to put on.

With his newly improved wetsuit, Danny sucks in a breath turning the valve of the bottom hatch. There was a hiss of air escaping and Danny was met with lapping ocean waters and colorful fish darting around what looked to be giant coral tubes. Danny dipped his feet in the water and when they didn't melt into a conglomerate mess of flesh and bone Danny grabbed Wilson to join him as he pushed himself out of the life pod.

Flying in the ghost zone could be just like swimming sometimes and while it was much harder to tread water with tiny legs and a fire extinguisher in your backpack Danny was doing just fine. Treading up to the surface he gasped for air clinging onto the orange airbags keeping the life pod afloat. It was then that Danny saw the wreckage of the Aroura engulfed in flames.

"The Aurora suffered orbital hull failure. Cause: unknown. Zero human life signs detected"

#dc x dp #dp x dc #dpxdc #subnautica au

[stealingyourbones]

I got the best fluff idea ever So

The giw reveal phantom to his parents by somehow forcing him into phantom form

Now everyone including danny and jazz were expecting 2 reactions denial then acceptance or denial then rage

What they didn't expect was for jack Fenton to immediately rush the officers and bash their heads together

Because if there's one true thing abouf jack Fenton it's that he loves his family

Basically instead of angst route or talking Jack's appropriate response to 2 governmental officers coming in a shooting his son is to knock them out

no time to think about the battles he had with Phantom. Right now he sees that these officers are going to hurt his son and he will not let that happen.

#bones replies #dpxdc #dp x dc #regonold #danny phantom

[decaying-enigma]

DP Crossover Prompt

DP x Harry Potter

Please bare with me as I begin:

We, as a collective, have established that it was Lily’s sacrifice, via when Voldemort killed her, that protected Harry and rebounded the Killing Curse back at Tom Riddle that night.

Yet, if I may take this a step even further. Some may ask, where did Lily possibly learn how to do this? Realistically, there’s no way that this magic was just something Lily invented, no matter how talented she was.

I am a little lazy, so it easier just to say she either found a book or scroll in the Potter library/vault or was somehow ‘mysteriously’ *Clockwork* led to find the ritual.

A very specific ritual that called upon the MONARCH OF THE INFINITE REALM to protect someone and place them under their rule.

This ritual was originally used by Parish Dark as an easy method to damning souls to eternal servitude as mindless drones in his army.

Lily didn’t see the eternal servitude part, as it was in the fine print, and honestly, who actually reads the fine print anyway. She did the ritual, but ‘accidentally’ mistranslated some words.

Who knew protection and adoption looked so similar in Ghost?

Anywho, by invoking the power of the Monarch of The Infinite Realm, Lily thought she put Harry under the Monarch’s rule and protection.

Which, if she translated it correctly, it would have. But since she didn’t….something else happened instead. Something incredibly unexpected.

For example, making a deal with the Monarch of The Infinite Realm to adopt her son.

Thus, enters a very confused and very tired Danny Fenton simply trying to get his college degree when, completely out of the blue, he can immediately recognize that he somehow just adopted an infant.

A actual human infant.

It’s a wizard and has magic, but still human for the most part.

*Cue Danny realizing this as a soul appeared in front of him*

Danny: “Fiddlesticks!”

*Immediately calls Jazz, the only Fenton with properly functioning brain cells*

Jazz: “What’s up?”

Danny: “I got another kid.”

Jazz: *Not even phased anymore* “What is it this time? Clone? Alternate timeline? Emotionally imprinted?

Danny: “A witch did a blood ritual invoking my status as Ruler of The Ghost Zone to save her kid’s life in exchange for eternal servitude. Now I kinda own her soul, and I sorta technically adopted her son.”

Jazz: 😐

Jazz: “…Huh. That is a new one. So when can I meet my new nephew?”

—————————

*Danny sending Harry off to Hogwarts*

Danny: “Okay, repeat everything I’ve said back to me.”

Harry: “If I ever see something dangerous, I shot it immediately then asks questions after.”

Danny: *nodding* “Good. What else?”

Harry: “If a evil person tries to make me their evil apprentice, I shoot them twice to be safe.”

Danny: “Better. And what if you discover someone is plotting to destroy the school or to use a powerful artifact to gain power and become immortal?”

Harry: “…I get the bazooka?”

Danny: *tears in his eye* “Your grandparents would be so proud of you.”

——————————

Requirements/Ideas:

-Harry will not, under any circumstance, stay with the Dursley’s (Not if Danny has anything to say about it)

-Lily will become a ghost/or shade that will help raise Harry. It takes a few year for her to fully form after dying and regain all of her memories.

-James Potter can either be fully dead or also become a ghost since his soul was technically involved with the bargain Lily made.

-Harry will be mostly raised by Danny, other ghosts, and the Fenton’s(debatable if you want Danny to have a good relationship with his parents) (#Dissection)

-Harry is not a Horcrux. None of that bullshit.

-Good amount of Dumbledore bashing, but not too much. Snape, on the other hand, will be crucified and nothing will change my mind.

-100000% see Danny as the Ultimate helicopter parent, but also be, like, super involved. I’m talking forming a Hogwarts PTA, randomly showing up to Harry’s Quidditch games and no one being able to stop him, and will for sure threaten anything remotely registering as a threat to Harry.

-Danny will become friends with Hagrid, and visit Hogwarts so Cujo and Fluffy can have play dates.

-Dani will be the Wine Aunt/older sister that randomly shows up sometimes. Clockwork is the fun grandpa that always gives out random fortune cookie advice. Dan is the weird uncle that likes to encourage mildly illegal activity whenever possible. And Vlad is just there.

-Daniel James Fenton/Phantom will not be nerfed in any way. My boy is the ruler of an ENTIRE DIMENSION. Ain’t no way some pasty dudes with sticks are gonna beat him or be even remotely close to his level.

You can fight me on this.

Like, Follow, and Share any suggestions!! Thx

#danny phantom #danny fenton #dp prompt #dp #ectoberhaunt22 #crossover #harry potter #jazz fenton #dp x hp #ghost king danny #teen mom

[miscmonstro]

The Uno Reverse Adoption Saga

First: You are here

Next: Chapter 2

Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman (DC)

Specifically, Halfa!Trio Au crossover with Batman

Current Characters: Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Danny Fenton, Jason Todd

Summary: Forced to attend a gala by her parents as she is every year, Sam Manson was resigned to suffer through the stifling three-night gala until something pulled at her core. The something turned out to be a someone. Just who is Jason Todd and can the trio gain enough of his trust and help him before his struggling proto-core collapses?

👻 {Chapter 1 Below!)

Danny groaned within the confines of his mind, exasperation and irritation and just a bit of fear welling up in his chest. 

His disgruntlement did not go unacknowledged. Danny wasn’t alone, even in his mind, and he hadn’t been for quite some time. Somewhere in Amity Park Tucker sent a wave of comfort in return, and he too was uneasy of the trip Danny’s eccentric parents had forced him to accompany them on. 

Sam, on a plane to Gotham, had her own problems and replied with a simple vague sentiment akin to ‘what can you do’ with less words. Her weariness seeped into it, making it feel quite resigned. It was as though she was awaiting some awful fate she’d long accepted and… no, that's exactly what it was. 

Tucker broke the relative silence across the link with an unrepentant, “At least one of us is going to survive to Christmas.”

Danny responded with the impression of bashing his own head onto a wall and Sam began to seethe. Despite her best efforts, her mind circled back to the annual gala her parents demanded she attend alongside them. It was hosted by a different snob every year, and while the scenery might have been different, the atmosphere was always the same. Without fail it would be simmering with thinly concealed flaunting and heavy with thick lies pasted atop one another.

Sam wished she could tell her parents no. She wished she didn’t have to do this. She would never voice those complaints and misgivings about the Christmas gala ever again, and not just because of Desiree. 

Every year Sam wanted to scream and every year she smiled and let her parents pick her outfits and acted like the perfect daughter. She couldn’t afford to be anything less at the Christmas galas and it made her want to hurl at the plastic cutout she endured becoming for those horrid days. Hurl, or commit a murder.

“I’m doomed. You’ll have to break me out of jail,” Sam muttered in her mind as the second option grew in appeal. “I swear these rich assholes get dumber every year.”

“And my parents get more insane,” Danny added gloomily. 

There was a hint of something from Tucker that Sam could tell wasn’t thought out and she mentally kicked him before he could put his metaphorical foot in his unphysical mouth. Tucker swatted her in retaliation but understood, switching tracks.

“Uh… yeah. That sucks. But we’re halfway through our junior year and then one more year before we’re free from our parents!” Tucker tried to comfort. Danny’s gloom lightened ever so slightly. 

For a few minutes, Sam looked out the window and imagined that she was going anywhere else to do anything else. There was a growing serene calm shared across the link, the tinges of uncertainty ebbing away. She could hear keys clacking away as Tucker typed and she could feel affection for Jazz from Danny as he texted her. 

And then Mr. Fenton startled Danny and unveiled a new anti-ghost device and Danny’s mood plummeted like a twelve ton rock to the bottom of the ocean. 

Tucker winced and tried to think of any joke that wasn’t a pun to lighten the mood.

Sam sighed. It was going to be a long, long break.

👻 {Boo!)

All too soon the plane landed and Sam zoned out while her parents immediately fought over what she should wear like they hadn’t ordered whatever the clothes were weeks ago. Sam had mentally checked out for self preservation the moment she stepped foot off of the plane. This wasn’t her first rodeo and she had the act down pat. Giggle when she was supposed to as her parents showed her off and stand silently behind them when they weren’t. At the seamstress or at the hotel lobby chatting with other rich people, the script was the same. It wouldn’t change for the gala either.

At least the previous two years hadn’t been as horrible with Danny and Tucker a mere thought away. 

The days dragged like an ant crawling through molasses and then the dreaded day arrived. The first night of the gala. Wayne Manor was old, she noted as their limo drew nearer. She could appreciate the architecture at least, and maybe such an old house had a ghost. At least that would be interesting.

Danny pointed out that she didn’t have a thermos.

She quietly conceded his point and wished for something regardless while she smiled blankly as her parents greeted Bruce, the host of the gala this year. With a polite greeting of her own the Mansons departed from the entrance and swept into the manor.

Straight away her parents engaged in some conversation and Sam stood a step behind them. Allowing herself one sad, longing look towards the quiet corners of the room, Sam bitterly wondered why the Christmas galas made her parents fanatical every year. They let her get away with whatever she wanted within reason the rest of the year, but as soon as Christmas was involved they expected her to be a doll.

With that last break of character she let a calm wash over her, perfected from years of galas, and let her perfect daughter mask snap firmly into place. 

“At least they’re only like this once a year,” Tucker commented, trying to look at the positives. 

Sam agreed. If they were so controlling year round then she was sure she’d have run away from them.  

“And at least the fruitloop is a shut in,” Danny added. The three shuddered at the thought of Vlad at the gala, Sam in particular. She didn’t want to handle him alone. Even between the three of them it was tricky to drive him off sometimes, never mind one on one.  

The clock ticked on at an agonizing pace. Eventually her parents sent her off to dance with the son of some CEO they were chatting with and she used the opportunity to escape after the dance. So long as her parents didn’t see her doing anything “unseemly” then she’d be golden for the rest of the night. She made her way over to a relatively secluded corner and cursed at the dress limiting her movements. Just walking felt like a chore in the wretched thing. Sam might have come from a family with money but she rarely dressed it. 

“Mission accomplished for the night,” she told the boys. “If I have to dance in these heels one more time…”

“You’ve almost made it through,” Danny encouraged her.

“And now you can scope out the room! Are there any cute girls?” Tucker prodded cheekily.

Before Sam could mentally reply a strange sensation washed over her. It felt like a gentle tug at her chest, at her core. Her lips parted and a faint golden-yellow mist emerged. 

“Ghost. There’s a ghost here,” Sam said, head snapping up from her cup of stuff she technically shouldn’t have been drinking as she began scanning the room with a critical eye.

“Ask and you shall receive. You totally jinxed yourself Sam,” Danny said, though his concern belied the light comment.

“You can handle it,” Tucker added at her uneasiness. “You’re-“

“No, this is different. I- I feel something in my core,” Sam said with growing alarm as the feeling didn’t fade. “Guys…”

Now it wasn’t just Sam who felt alarmed but they knew by this point how to prevent a crippling spiral of positive feedback. Dread settled in her gut and Sam couldn’t even tell if it was hers. 

“I think it’s tugging me,” Sam noted after a moment of observation. She stepped toward the crowd, toward the pull, and Tucker recoiled. 

“Um, hello, reason here. Shouldn’t you not be heading toward it?” he said.

“But what if it’s hold on her core gets stronger? She needs to do something,” Danny pointed out. 

“It doesn’t feel malicious so I’m assuming the worst. I might need you guys to pull me out of a mind trap,” Sam relayed as she weaved between the other guests.

There were twin nonverbal agreements from Tucker and Danny. Being connected to two other people usually meant that items and people looking to ensnare the mind needed to nab all three of them for anything to take effect, and for that Sam was grateful. 

Sam paused as the pull led her to a wall. Wherever she was being led was outside of the main room. Glancing around, Sam spied a confectionery table and she ducked behind it. Without a thought she turned herself intangible and invisible and walked through the wall, following the pull. After several rooms, some occupied by guests and some not, Sam came across a balcony.

Hunched over the railings was someone wearing a tux. Sam couldn’t see anything spectral about him and that put her on guard more than anything. The ones that were strong enough to appear perfectly human were the ones that always brought the most trouble. She stepped into the empty hall and dropped the ghostly aspects from her human form. 

“Are you alright?” she asked. That was usually a good way to start with nonviolent ghosts.

The person stiffened and whirled around. The first thing that Sam noticed was the tuft of white atop his head and the second thing-

A small cry for help. The tug increased and it almost felt like it wanted to yank her core out of her chest. She swallowed thickly and stood her ground. 

He narrowed his eyes at her ever so slightly. 

“Fine,” he replied curtly after a moment.

Sam scowled in return, a spark of temper rising. “Obviously not.” As much as she’d wished for a ghost earlier she didn’t want to deal with one so late at night, especially not one that could do whatever this was to her core-

“Deep breaths Sam,” instructed Tucker.

Sam inhaled deeply.

Danny prodded her and she refocused on the ghost. He hated when their attention was away from potential dangers for too long. 

“Sorry, I’m a bit short after dealing with,” Sam motioned in the direction of the main room, “all that. But seriously, what’s up?”

The ghost man scoffed and eyed her. “I’m not keen on spilling my guts to a stranger,” he said, voice barely above a hostile growl.

“Fair enough,” Sam said, appraising him. She was given the impression that he too found all the rich people business distasteful. Striding forward, she noted how he tensed as though he was ready to bolt at the drop of a hat. Thrusting her hand out in a very ill-bred manner and hoping it would put him at ease, she said, “I’m Manes.”

The man snorted. “Jason,” he said, accepting the handshake. 

Several things became apparent one after another.

Firstly, she could feel his core as it reached for her. This ghost’s core was so weak, so fragile that it wasn’t even really a core. It was a proto-core, meaning that it wasn’t formed from a death, and this ghost shouldn’t even be outside of the Ghost-Zone. He was basically an infant.

Secondly, the hand was warm. Warm as a human hand was, warm like it was alive.

And with how solid the man was and how fragile the proto-core was, there was no way that he was a ghost.

Sam tried not to stare at the very human man who was also a baby ghost. 

Jason raised a brow at her and she yanked her hand back like the contact burned when she realized that she’d been holding his hand for longer than what was polite.

Danny seemed to be coming to some conclusion as he turned the information around in his mind and Tucker was rooting through what they knew about ghost formation from some of his files. 

“Are you sick?” she blurted. It was the only thing she could think of. If Jason was slowly dying and had something he was passionate enough about to become an obsession then it might be possible that a core had started forming.  

Jason huffed out a puff of air that might have been a laugh. “No.” One of his hands made an aborted motion towards his side, like he was going to grab something and thought better of it. “I just got out here. Can’t I get even a moment to myself?” he complained. 

She snorted. She would’ve been more than happy to leave him to his own devices and would have if it wasn’t for the fact that he was a baby ghost. “Guess not,” she replied instead. 

“Is he a halfa?” Danny wondered.

Sam immediately refuted it, but Tucker wasn’t so sure. 

“It’s better to check,” insisted Danny.

“How can we tell? I have no equipment,” Sam reminded them as she shifted her gaze out over the snowy trees surrounding the manor. Aloud to Jason she said, “This is a pretty spot.” 

She was skeptical. They’d been told over and over how rare halfa were. Besides the three of them, Dani-with-an-i, and Vlad-the-supreme-fruitloop there were no others of their species. The common denominator, excluding Dani who had her own circumstances, was Fenton tech. Sam couldn’t fathom how Jason might have been exposed to a portal unless he was a clone. Turning, she looked him over again.

He was well built, likely had an active lifestyle, and had black hair and blue eyes. Sam found her own eyes drawn to the tuft of white on his head, and now that she thought about it, Vlad had a streak of white in both of his forms. Yet, Jason didn’t look like Vlad. 

Tucker added that he could’ve been a test tube baby and you didn’t have to have one person for that. 

“I don’t think he’s a Vlad experiment. Vlad would’ve never let him go, weak core or no,” Sam pondered.

“Unless he escaped,” Danny agreed.

“But then how’d he end up here?” asked Tucker. That was the most damning question, but life was stranger than fiction. However unlikely it was, they couldn’t discount it until they had proof.

There was a mental knock from Tucker and Sam let him in. He was seeing though her eyes, she could tell, and she made sure Tucker could see Jason’s face.

“Wait- that’s Jason Todd!” Tucker exclaimed with disbelief.

“Who?” Sam and Danny chorused.

“One of Bruce Wayne’s adopted sons. He supposedly died before he turned up alive. Or well, maybe he’s not so alive…”

Danny’s presence joined Tuckers in seeing through her eyes.

Sam was going to have to look into more Jason Todd later, but right now she was incredulous. “He might actually be like us?”

“Or maybe that’s just typical of resurrection?” Danny tentatively offered. “It’s not like we know if he really died or not. And we deal with the already dead. Have we ever even met a resurrected person? Can you really resurrect a person?”

“What do you mean, might be like us?” Jason asked. The hard edge to his voice was back.

“I’m going to tell him,” Sam decided. 

Tucker agreed enthusiastically and Danny cautiously. Jason had a core, however faint, and that meant the Anti-Ecto Acts applied to him.

Sam looked around. “There’s no one nearby, right?”

“No, there isn’t,” Jason replied guardedly.

Sam squinted at him but decided to get on with it. “Alright. Look. You have a core. A weak one, granted, but that’s enough to get you captured and vivisected.”

“What the hell?” Jason asked, rearing back with wide eyes. 

“I have your attention? Good,” Sam said, leaning toward him. “You really died, didn’t you? And when you came back you… well look. Ghosts are real, alright? And you are basically a baby ghost. It… your ghost part is basically screaming for help, that’s how I found you. But!” she said when he opened his mouth, likely to interject, “This means a set of laws called the Anti-Ecto Acts apply to you. By law you are not sentient, never mind other rights. If you get caught you’re toast.”

“Lady you’re insane,” Jason barked, stepping away from her. His core was agitated. 

“I’m trying to keep you after-alive,” she corrected. “The government has these floozies called the Ghost Investigation Ward, but everyone calls them the Guys in White since they wear white. If you see them, run, alright? They’re the ones who will capture and hurt any ghost, even if you’re just minding your own business.”    

Jason shook his head and inched into the hall. “How drunk are you?” he asked.

“Not at all. Listen, just be careful,” Sam sighed.   

Without a backwards glance, Jason left her on the snowy balcony with a snickering Tucker and a pensive Danny.

“Dude, you scared him off,” Tucker chortled.

“I needed to give him the important stuff in case we never meet again,” Sam replied dryly. “Ghosts are hard to accept outside of Amity.”

”I think I’m going to look into how he died and how he might have been brought back,” Tucker announced. Sam could tell he’d already connected with his PDA and was delving into the web for preliminary information, looking for promising leads. 

Danny was nervous but determined. “That’ll help us figure out what he is.”

“It is a new situation,” Sam thought to them as she peered down the hall. 

With a sigh, Danny mentally flopped onto a floor. “I guess I could ask Frostbite about coming back to life and baby ghosts when I get back.”

Sam’s initial, knee jerk reaction was to object and say that they should all go together, but Tucker was already in Amity so Danny wouldn’t be alone.

The two would be fine.

Oh who was she kidding? This was Team Phantom she was thinking about. Something was bound to go awry and she was in no position to help them when the inevitable other shoe dropped.

White, misty condensation swirled in the air as Sam exhaled noisily. She hated this time of year with a passion.

👻 {Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.)

Next: Chapter 2

#Halfa trio pretty much from DarkNymfa's Third Time fanfic #I love that story #danny phantom #batman #dp x dc #fanfic #sam manson #tucker foley #danny fenton #jason peter todd #jason todd #crossover #Halfa!Trio Au #halfa biology #sort of? #but later so spoiler I guess #yeeting this into the tumblr void and hoping someone has a name for this trainwreck #fanfiction #miscmonstro writings

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Oh No, We threw the baby out the window

by Purplefox135

In which Ember and Youngblood accidentally preform the equivalent of throwing a young baby out a window onto a bus during a roughhousing session and are desperately trying to figure out where the baby went before Mom and Dad find out.

Team Phantom goes through different methods to find Danny.

Danny gets into Gotham shenanigans and Bruce’s adoption senses are likely to go off.

Words: 1654, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman - All Media Types

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M

Characters: Danny Fenton, Jazz Fenton, Ember McLain, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Youngblood (Danny Phantom), Johnny 13 (Danny Phantom), Kitty (Danny Phantom), Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, Duke Thomas, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Barbara Gordon, Batfamily Members, Ivy (Poison Ivy 1992), Pamela Isley, Vlad Masters, Rogues Gallery (Batman), Frostbite (Danny Phantom), Clockwork (Danny Phantom), Fright Knight (Danny Phantom), Jack Fenton, Maddie Fenton, Danielle "Dani" Phantom, Wulf (Danny Phantom), Cujo (Danny Phantom)

Additional Tags: Ghost King Danny Fenton, baby ghost danny fenton, Baby Jason Todd, Halfa | Half-Ghosts (Danny Phantom), Halfa Jason Todd, Jack and Maddie Fenton Bashing, Not Phantom Planet Compliant (Danny Phantom), Good Parent Clockwork (Danny Phantom), Good parent Frostbite, Kidnapping, I’ll add more tags as I go, Don’t know absolutely everywhere this is gonna go so strap in

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/43618222

#IFTTT #bruce wayne #batman #the dark knight #the cape crusader #gotham #dc universe #ao3 #ao3feed

[theshadowrealmitself]

Ah. Fuck.

Anyways, something hit me today, you see, in my family, every member usually goes “no one helped me growing up so why should I help you?” so you stop asking for help pretty quickly, but not my sister! She still feels comfortable asking me for help because I always help her, and I love it! It makes me feel like a decent older sibling

So I was thinking about it, and with Maddie and Jack being researchers and stuff, they probably also have that “help yourself” mentality, which puts another layer on Jazz wanting her brother to be honest with her, to ask her for help, because she’s not like them, she wants to help Danny

#maybe Jazz is out here trying to break the cycle #I didn’t like Jazz as a kid now I feel really connected with her as an older sibling #dp #danny phantom #jazz fenton #so much of my stuff seems like I’m bashing the parents but I just got issues with adults in my family I’m sorry #I just made that connection with my sister and that saying #I’ve stopped asking older family members for help but it just occurred to me that the younger ones aren’t like that #at least my sister and cousin aren’t #and I don’t wanna say that it’s because of me #but I like the idea that I may have done a good job as an older sibling that they still feel comfortable coming to me with problems #no shame!! just easy asking because they know I’ll try to help them #it makes me wanna cry in a happy way #and also a lil bit in a sad way #when I first did taxes it was so embarrassing I wasn’t sure what I was doing and when I asked for help I was told that stupid saying #but my sister called me today!!! wasn’t embarrassed or anything because she doesn’t feel the need to be embarrassed for help!!! #and I did my best to help her so it hopefully wasn’t as stressful for her!!! #people shouldn’t have to feel bad for asking for help

[quirkless-accident]

Tartarus pt 2

Yall are not out here being slick with you Fenton Bashing and Im kind of here for it. Bad!Fenton parents won out, but Ive got a plan for some good fenton parents later, I promise

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

Aizawa was a man on a mission, and that was a very dangerous thing.

When he was focused like this, he was calculated and cold. He only had the objective in mind-contain the bad guy and make sure nobody was hurt. But right now, his brain is having a hard time comprehending that because everything is out of order.

The civilian is contained. And he's not sure if the bad guys can be taken in, considering they're officially part of the government. He had to many questions, and all of the answers he was getting was just making him more confused. But the kid-Danny-had given him a name. Fenton.

It was, at the very least, a place to start.

The Fenton owned their own building. They were semi-known support specialists that were a little bit to invested in their pet projects. Aizawa's never been interested in learning more than that because he's never had a reason to. Not until now, anyway.

The giant neon sign flickering in the evening glow feels a lot more ominous now.

He knocks on the door, and he's greeted with a red headed teenager. She looks incredibly tired. There are large bags under her eyes and her shoulders are slouched forward with exhaustion. He vaguely recognizes her-maybe she's in one of Mic's classes? The last name is suddenly more familiar to him.

"Mr. Aizawa?" Jazz asks him. "I didn't know you were coming by, I'm so sorry. Here let me just-"

She moves out of the way and lets Aizawa in before rushing off to the basement where her parents are. The sounds of hammering and excited talking can be heard, but he can't understand what they're saying.

He makes himself comfortable on the the armchair that's sitting diagonally from the couch, and he takes a look around.

The Fentons are...Eccentric doesn't seem like the right word, but it's the only one Aizawa can think of right now. Genius, if the awards and multitude of framed handshakes are anything to go by. But there aren't a lot of family photos. In fact, the only one he sees is a small frame tucked away, holding a photo of all four Fentons-including Danny.

Why did he look absolutely miserable?

Soon enough the remaining Fentons met him in the living room.

"Hello," Mrs. Fenton said. "I'm Maddie, and this is Jack. You're one of Jazz's teachers at U.A? Is everything okay?"

"Everything is fine with your daughter, Mrs. Fenton," he said, casting a quick glance Jazz's way. "I'm here on official hero business."

"Oh?" Mr. Fenton asked. "How can we help?"

"When was the last time you saw your son, Danny Fenton?" He asked. He wasn't here to beat around the bush. He needed answers.

And just from that one question, he was getting some pretty unfortunate ones.

Mr. Fenton looked like he was going to break his wife's hand from gripping it so tightly. He was a big guy. He probably had some kind of strength quirk. Mrs. Fenton's lips turned into a thin, pale line as she looked at him with uncomfortable, calculating eyes, like she was trying to pick him apart right there in the living room.

"We haven't seen him in months," Jazz answers for them. Her parent's heads whip around to her, but she's got her gaze fixed solely on Aizawa, who holds it. She continues. "He was-he was kidnapped by some guys in white uniforms."

"Jazzy, that's enough-" Mr. Fenton starts saying, but it seems to be the breaking point for Jazz.

"No it's not!" She screams at them. Her glare is cold and icy and Aizawa is so glad that he is not the one on the receiving end of it. "He's out there missing and you two don't-you don't care! I want my baby brother back, and if I have to ask a couple questions to make that happen then so be it."

"If he's been missing for months then why hasn't there been a missing persons case filed?" Aizawa asked. He had Tsukauchi look into it for him after his conversation with Danny, and there hadn't been anything filed. It was a bit concerning to say the least.

"I did," Jazz said, her earlier fire taking a break. "But Danny-he was born quirkless. They probably didn't look at all, now that I think about it."

And man, wasn't that fucking heartbreaking to hear. But she had chosen her words carefully, Aizawa noticed. Born quirkless, implying that he was no longer-which, in this case was true. He met her eyes once more, and her gaze flickered up and diagonally where the loft was. A clear message once he finished playing his part with the Fenton parents. If that was anything to go by, they had no idea Danny had powers. And it was probably best that they keep it that way.

"I wouldn't worry so much about him," Mrs. Fenton said with a wave of her hand. "Our Danny has always been a trouble maker. Always starting fights, failing his classes. You're a teacher, you probably have enough kids like that already. Plus, this isn't the first time he's gone away for a while-"

"-He always calls, though," Jazz said. The bite in her words was back full force. "He calls me to let me know how he's doing. And where he's going. He hasn't-he probably can't! I saw him get kidnapped!"

"Honey, you're probably just overthinking things again," Mr. Fenton said, and man, that just made Aizawa's blood boil. Obvious emotional manipulation, and invalidating her experiences. And over something as important as this made it even worse. They were unfit to be parents.

"Where were you when you saw him get taken?" Aizawa asked.

"By the Red Star café," she answered. He knew that place. It was in the slums of Musatafu. Whenever he patrolled there he sometimes stopped by if it was a particularly rough night. That particular café though had a soft spot for quirkless people. It was no wonder that Danny and Jazz frequented it.

"Do you remember what day or time?" He asked. Without hesitations he answered him. And, briefly, he felt pity for her. He couldn't imagine what it must be like, living with parents that don't give you the time of day. Living with parents that don't care. And, judging from how protective of Danny she was, she probably raised him, too, more or less. It didn't paint a pretty picture. Even without the horrific example of negligence towards their son, they should have been removed a long time ago.

"Well, this has been a pleasure," Mr. Fenton said, standing up. He was looking at his watch with a frown. "We're running a bit late for a meeting and if we don't leave now we won't make it. If you want to talk again, please schedule a meeting next time."

"Of course," Aizawa said. He shook Mr. Fenton's hand, and the way it was nearly crushed in his grip did not go unnoticed. The same went for the others, though Jazz's grip was probably more out of worry and urgency and anything bad.

He quickly left, the Fenton parents close behind him. He made a big show of swinging over a few buildings over with his capture scarf and going to the roof before disappearing in the night sky. He watched and waited as they got into their van and drove off. Once they rounded the corner, he ran back to Fentonworks, where Jazz was shimmying open a window.

"They have cameras at the front and back entrances," she explained. "You can come in this way."

Once he was inside, it was right down to business. He respected that, and her for it.

"How much about Danny do you know?" She asked.

"I know that he definitely does have a quirk," he said. "And that he got dumped in Tartarus a month ago. I only just found out yesterday, when I went in on other business."

Jazz promptly burst into tears.

Aizawa has never been good with emotions, but the violent display of emotion just made it worse. Still, he put a comforting hand on her shoulder as she pulled herself together again.

"He's alive, then," she said. Her voice was nothing like it had been downstairs. It was small, and broken, and months of worrying was etched into every word.

Aizawa definitely had to get them both out. And soon.

"He is. He's being taken care of now," he said. Because as soon as he had gotten done with Tsukauchi he had ripped the warden a new one, and unless they wanted to face the wrath of Eraserhead-with Nezu right behind him-they were going to do as he said. "I just need to know the motivations behind the Guys in White wanting to kidnap him."

Jazz wiped her eyes and nodded, stealing her resolve. She led him downstairs-and then downstairs again to the basement. There were odd looking weapons that didn't look anything like normal support equipment, and they all had this weird, green glow to them. But on the opposite wall was a massive octagon with a swirling green something inside of it. It would have been mesmerizing if not for the circumstances.

"That's where it happened," she said, nodding towards the octagon. "Our parents built a portal to the Ghost Zone, where ghosts live. It didn't work at first," she walked over and pressed a couple of buttons on a control panel. Two silver doors slid shut, cutting off the eerie glow. "Danny and his friends were down here hanging out one night. I was tutoring some friends, and out parents were out. They wanted-" her voice cracked, but she didn't let it stop her from continuing. "They're just kids. Danny was fourteen when he-"

Aizawa could see it happening in his mind. Danny goes into the portal, and the portal somehow gets triggered. The activation while he was inside must have caused his death. And since apparently ghosts were real-it turned him into one. It was so bizarre, but it made a frightening amount of sense.

"It turned him into a halfa," he said. Jazz nodded, a grim look on her face.

"An incredibly rare kind of ghost," she said. "There are only three in existence-and one of them is a clone of Danny." Aizawa felt like getting punched in his gut would have hurt less than those words. Clone? Was there a third child out there that he was going to adopt now?

"Anyway, their rareness is why the Guys in White are so interested in Danny. Usually when people get electrocuted they just die normally. Danny has a theory about that, though. Something about life long exposure to ectoplasm being the thing that saved his human half. You'd have to ask him for details."

"What about details on the Guys in White?" He asked her. "Any kind of proof? Not that I don't believe you-I do. But it'll be easier to convince the warden and the courts to let him out with something concrete."

Jazz, as troubled as she looked by his statement, nodded in understanding. She pulled out a piece of paper from one of the shelves and scribbled a phone number and an address on it.

"Tucker is Danny's best friend, and he's the best tech guy I know. If anybody can get you details, it's him. Just-maybe go over the weekend or something. His parents are usually away then. They're really overbearing, and Danny is a really sore subject since he's-he was quirkless."

"This will be a big help," he said. He took out his phone and put the number in. And then, after a moment of thinking, he started taking photos of the basement. Even without the illegal experimentation with otherworldly things they've been doing, there were no safety precautions of any kind here. It was no wonder Danny died-sort of. This place was a ticking time bomb of half-finished projects waiting to blow up in somebody's face.

"Do you feel safe here?" He asked Jazz. His voice was quiet and low. It was a stark contrast to the bark of bitter laughter that Jazz made.

"I haven't felt safe here in a very long time," she said. "Those feelings were only cemented when Danny had his accident. I've been trying to save up to move out right after I graduate."

"Well, since you're a student of U.A. we as your teachers have partial custody of you, just in case anything happens to your guardians. With the photos I have and a testimony from you I could probably have them in jail by the end of the month. Maybe faster if I get help from Nezu."

He was expecting maybe a surprised look. Maybe a stuttered, "Oh-no that's not necessary I didn't mean it like that-"

But instead he got the wind knocked out of him from the bone crushing hug Jazz was giving him.

"Where would we go?" She asked, her face buried in his chest. He hugged her back, trying his best to be some kind of comfort.

"Well," he said. "We've got a spare bedroom. Though you and your brother might have to share until we can get a better place. But if you don't want that then you can stay at U.A. all year until you graduate."

Jazz only hugged him harder.

He had a feeling he knew what her answer was.

#jazz fenton #danny phantom #jack fenton #maddie fenton #bad!fenton parents #shouta aizawa #eraserhead #dadzawa #im sorry i just cant help it #we are always going to come back here #mha #bnha #my hero academia #boku no academia #tartarus

[ghostey-o-toby]

Details from the cannon designs that can help artists struggling with sameface/same body syndrome, in no particular order:

Danny Fenton slouches, although Phantom does not

Danny’s face is wide, shaped sort of like an upside-down pentagon

Sam’s face is more oval-y, like a football

Tucker’s face is chubbier towards the bottom, and he has a bit of a weak chin

Speaking of Tucker, he also slouches a bit, but usually not as much as Danny

Valerie is not skinny!!! She has a belly and some fat on her upper arms!!!

Sam has absolutely NO hips to speak of

Just like Danny, Dani slouches in human form but not in ghost form

Valerie’s face is literally a circle

Both Tucker and Valerie have wide, flat noses and full lips. Not all Black faces are the same, but those general descriptions fit a lot of Black people. Don’t shy away from drawing Black characters with Black features.

Like Sam, Jazz is more-or-less hipless

Also, since she’s sixteen, she’s almost certainly already at her full adult height. Keep that in mind for older!Jazz designs

Danny’s eyebrows are kinda thick

Also, his eyes are very big and round! Sam’s are about the same size across, but they’re narrower in height, and Tucker’s are just kinda small

Danny’s white and red shirt is a few sizes too big for him

Dani’s shorts go well past her knees

Mr. Lancer’s chin is a parallelogram and his neck is weirdly thick

Maddie and Jack both have big noses!!! Maddie’s is longer, and Jack’s is round and squat, sort of like bashful

Vlad’s arms are thicker than his legs. What the fuck

Kitty isn’t as curvy as the other thin female ghosts

Sidney Poindexter has freckles, a weak chin, buck teeth, and a wide nose that sticks up. These are all excellent features. Fight me

#Danny phantom #fanart #art #sam manson #tucker foley #danny fenton #danny phantom #dani phantom #valerie gray #jazz fenton #jack fenton #maddie fenton #mr. lancer #kitty (danny phantom) #vlad masters #sidney poindexter #art ref #I have no idea why there’s a gap at the end of the ones with bold text #toby has something to say

[princessfanonanona]

Sibling Shenanigans

Thank you to the horrible (most wonderful) goose, ln-ofx, who this is dedicated to 💜 who said “I think it would be SO MUCH FUN for collage shenanigans Danny to share college stories with his parents.”

This was a drabble that decided to eat my life so I hope you enjoy it.

---

Jazz bumps her shoulder against Danny in greeting as she sits on the couch next to him.

"Ugh," Danny whines, "What?"

"Should you be drinking as much coffee as you are?" Jazz says, sneaking the remote away from Danny.

"What are you even talking about?"

"The cost of feeding that caffeine addiction you have cannot be worth it," she muses.

"I don't have-"

"Although, considering the expected application jump, I can see them wanting to keep you around."

"Applications? Who?"

"It is rather impressive that you're as oblivious as you are."

"Hey!"

Jazz turns to him to meet his eyes, "I am so proud of you…"

Danny's cheeks darken from frustration to bashful.

"...but don't you dare think you're getting out of avoiding your own mental and physical check ups to let loose and become a local legend."

Danny swears in one of the more modern ghost languages, hissing and popping the noises.

She pinches his side and responds in kind.

"Ugh no," Danny leans away, swatting, "You're not allowed to know how to speak in dead languages, that's my thing."

"As if it's not more amusing to have someone understand the ridiculous puns you pull off."

Danny pouts.

"In all seriousness," she ruffles his hair, "I know I've been super busy with my classes but I'll always have time for you and keeping up with the antics of Coffee Ghost will always be the highlight of my day."

Danny groans dramatically, "This is the worst."

"Lies, you're actually quite pleased with yourself, aren't you?"

"Ehhhh…" he shrugs. "I mean it's kind of nice that my school is so blasé about it all."

"And that has nothing to do with becoming an internet sensation with a billion memes?"

"You're exaggerating."

"Oh, you don't actually know, do you?" She giggles.

"Know what?"

Instead of answering, she pulls up the yutube app and taps in a search for College Cryptid. The return search has well over five thousand videos. The first few videos all have Danny's face on the thumbnail with some neon color tag.

"Ancients, you're fucking with me aren’t you?" 

Jazz laughs and clicks on the one that's titled 'Danny Hates Stairs.'

"Stairs are stupid and a waste of time," Danny complains even as he watches himself flip over and parkour up various stairwells on campus.

"What's this about a waste of time?" Jack asks, walking out of the kitchen. He has a giant grease stain across his cheek and a small burn mark running up his arm.

"Stairs," Danny and Jazz answer in sync.

"What exploded?" Jazz asks.

"Incorrect wiring of the variable current discharge regulator to the raw ectoplasm battery feed," Maddie answers wiping grease off her hands.

"Why can't you just call it what it is?" Danny arches an eyebrow.

"Why are stairs a waste of time?" Jack frowns moving further into the living room. "Danno! You're on tv!"

The video boomerangs on a scene of Danny backflipping off of a stair railing onto the one under and back up.

"Apparently I'm famous," Danny says.

"Sweetie," Maddie starts, voice laced with parental disappointment. "That's so dangerous, you could get hurt."

The worst burnt, melted plastic and metal smell hits the younger Fenton's noses.

"Oh gross," Danny recoils, putting a hand to his face. "When you said you blew a capacitor, you should've mentioned size."

"What were you even working on?" Jazz asks, pinching her own nose.

"We were modeling a mockup of the Fenton Ghost Screamer," Maddie answers as Jack pointedly sniffs himself.

"Well that doesn't sound ominous or anything," Danny mutters.

"What is it supposed to do?" Jazz asks, elbowing Danny in the side.

"It should be able to capture the sound that ghosts make and return it as a specialized sound wave to paralyze the ghost," Maddie answers.

Jazz and Danny share a look as Jack bounces excitedly in front of the TV.

"Danno! When did you learn to move like that?" he asks.

"Uh...when avoiding the ghosts that attack the high school?" Danny offers.

"You learned how to clear a stairwell in a single leap running from ghosts?" Maddie makes a skeptical face at him.

"A large chunk of the student body became really good at clearing obstacles," Jazz says.

"Really?" Jack turns part way to the kids, eyes still watching the video of Danny pulling more and more absurd moves to avoid walking on stairs.

"I know Sam and I can jump pretty high on a good day," Jazz continues.

"How high is pretty high?" Maddie asks.

A loud ring is heard from upstairs.

"Oh shit!" Danny leaps to his feet, patting his pockets. "What time is it? I promised to meet up with Val."

"Language," Maddie chides even as she watches Danny take a running leap to clear the stairs and disappear down the hall.

"Wow," Jack whistles, impressed, "That was a heck of a leap."

Danny barrels back down the hall, leaps the landing and bounces out the door.

"Illbehomefordinnerbye!"

The door slams shut.

The video ends and gives two pop ups for similar videos.

"Where did my little boy go," Maddie muses to herself and heading upstairs.

Jazz flicks the TV off, getting up herself.

"Please air out the lab before dinner, I don't want to be smelling ozone while I eat," she comments to Jack as she passes.

"Where are you heading Jazzy-pants?" Jack asks with a frown.

"A walk, I think I might bother Spike and Cory."

"You'll be home for dinner, right?"

"Yep!"

---

"It's almost time," Maddie says, checking her watch again.

"They'll be here," Jack consoles from his seat, watching her pace.

"Jazz I'm not too worried about, she was always so punctual," Maddie taps her chin in thought. "Danny though?"

Jack catches her by the waist on her next pass, pulling her onto his knee, and presses a kiss to her cheek, "Relax, they'll be here."

The sound of the front door opening has them both on their feet.

"See! I bet that's them now," he beams and leads them out of the kitchen.

"-and that's when he said," Danny is saying before shifting to a low baritone with an obnoxious Boston accent, "Why, I left my khakis in my khakis, I can't drive!"

Jazz is giggling next to him and barely standing straight.

"Oh hey!" Danny greets when he spots his parents before pausing with a frown. "What's wrong?"

Jazz sobers up quickly to overlook them.

"Were you guys worried we wouldn't be home in time for dinner?" She asks, setting her bag down.

"Who? Us? Pshh," Jack waves off, "Nah, we just wanted to...uh…"

Jazz and Danny exchange a look.

"We're just so excited that we have you both home again," Maddie says. "Go wash up, I'm setting the dinner out now."

Danny shrugs at Jazz's questioning look and wanders to the bathroom. Jazz follows into the kitchen to wash her hands.

"Oh wow," she says, hesitating in the entryway. There's a whole roasted turkey being pulled from the oven and the table is set with dishes upon dishes of food. "That's a lot of food."

"Did we skip into fall?" Danny asks, coming up behind her, "What's with the Thanksgiving feast for 50?"

"That was fast," Jazz says and ducks from the immediate flick of water Danny sends her way. "How are you such a child?"

"Don't front, you missed me." Danny says, resting his arm on her head.

"I missed tiny you," Jazz says, poking Danny in the side to be released. "I didn't miss this bean pole version you grew into."

"Now, now, why don't we all sit down and eat?" Maddie asks, setting a gravy boat on the table.

"Without some new invention being worked on?" Danny asks, incredulous. "Someone pinch me, I must be dreaming."

Jazz pinches him and leaves for the bathroom.

"So Danno," Jack starts, taking his seat. "How'd you get on tv?"

"Well I'm not on tv," Danny starts, taking the seat across from him. "My classmates just like filming things and posting them online. It's kind of a meme to get the craziest thing recorded."

"Well when I was your age, we didn't have all that fandangled recording equipment," Jack leans forward, resting an arm on the table. "Heck, it would have made recording our experiments that much easier."

"It would have saved so much time recording the results and reviewing for flaws," Maddie agrees.

"You wouldn't have used it to record memories?" Jazz asks, returning and taking her seat.

"Oh that should go without saying," Maddie laughs, plating half the turkey onto Jack's plate.

"Heck, I think we still have our old camera equipment from our college days in a box somewhere," Jack says. "V-man and I had rounded up every spare penny to get the whole kip and caboodle."

"We captured our first evidence to support our theory on ghosts on that camera," Maddie says, taking her seat.

"Really?" Danny asks. "Why haven't you ever mentioned it before?"

"Well the originals ended up destroyed during one of our first experiments in college," Maddie answers.

"And the raw film went missing so we couldn't develop them again," Jack half whines, slamming his fist on the table rattling everything.

The rest of the Fentons grab their glasses to prevent spillage.

"Danny, pass the salt?" Jazz asks.

Danny tosses it to her who barely catches it.

"Danny!" Maddie chides.

"What? She said ‘pass it’."

"This isn't football!" Jazz snaps.

"Obviously," Danny beams innocently, "That's a salt shaker not a ball."

"I'm literally sitting next to you," Jazz says.

"So?"

"Oh sweet Ancients," Jazz mutters under her breath. Then, louder, "You're almost 19, not 9, college has been terrible on your developmental psyche."

"Wow, totally uncalled for," Danny puts a hand to his chest, "you've wounded me."

Jazz squints at him.

"Who's the terrible influence I have to complain to?" she asks.

"Anjie," Danny answers without hesitation.

"The tiny menace?" Jazz asks.

"That's the one," Danny points his fork at her before taking a bite. With a full mouth he continues, "Also Kat, cause she's an actual drama baby."

"Wonderful," Jazz's smile doesn't reach her eyes.

"Are these girls' someone you're interested in?" Maddie asks.

"Oh no, ew," Danny makes a face. "Anjie is nonbinary, meaning they don't have a defined gender and Kat is practically married to her girlfriend already. And even if they swung for my team, there's, like, negative attraction there."

"Furthermore, as previously mentioned, Anjie is a tiny menace," Jazz adds.

"Yeah they are," Danny beams. "They're like the second smallest person on campus and chaos just follows in their wake like nobody's business."

"Didn't they start that petition to bring their pets on campus?" Jazz asks.

"Didn't I already tell you that story?"

"You never finished it."

"Huh, okay," Danny shrugs, "So at some point, mid fall semester, they decided they were feeling homesick. So they started to petition for students to have their pets on campus which normally would have been fine if, y'know, they wanted a frog or a bird or something."

"Reasonable," Jazz says. 

"But is it really safe for the other students to have such animals on campus?" Maddie frowns.

"Not like we didn't see weirder pets in our day," Jack nudges her. "Don't you remember ol' Frank and Chuck? They had that llama living in the dorm with them."

"They had an alpaca, dear," Maddie corrects. "And it ate Vlad's sweater."

"Which is a very llama thing to do," Jack waves a drumstick around to emphasize his point. "Alpacas just don't eat sweaters, everyone knows that."

"I have questions," Jazz states.

"Same," Danny follows up with.

"Finish your story first, sweetie," Maddie waves off.

"We're going to return to this conversation point," Danny allows, then thinks back, "Where was I?"

"You were implying that Anjie didn't want a normal pet to bring onto campus," Maddie says.

"Right, so Anjie gets this big petition under way, half the school signs it before Miles finds out."

"Impressive," Jazz says honestly because she has already heard some of the more insane things the two get up to.

"Right?" Dany agrees. "Miles, very understandably, is concerned and has many questions in regards to this petition that everyone is signing."

"It can't be that bad," Jack frowns.

"It was a 47 page legal document that entailed the rights of pet ownership into Angie's hands if they found the pet pleasing enough under the guise of allowing said pets on campus. There was a 13 page addendum stating the clauses in which ownership of the pet in question could be challenged so that the original owner could keep their pet, excluding the students who already signed the petition. Further details of the fine print was to allow Anjie, and any student who signed, to alter campus grounds to make a safe home for any pet being brought to school."

Maddie and Jack stare blankly at Danny. Jazz is barely holding in giggles.

"Please tell me you have a copy of that," Jazz squeaks, "I have a law friend that would absolutely adore that."

"All of the printed copies were burned but I can probably get my hands on a new set," Danny says, blue eyes shimmering the slightest amount.

"What happened next?" Jack asks.

Danny blinks, "Miles went through about half the book before declaring it not a legally binding document as there were too many issues with contradictions and such. This started a fight as Anjie argued that he needed to read it properly to see that it is a legally binding agreement as all the aspects of such a process were properly adhered to in the eyes of the law. 

"They ended up taking the whole thing to the law school down the road to have it looked at. A week later Anjie was told by the school to end the contract or face immediate expulsion and police escort off campus. Anje, obviously, chose to destroy the contract."

"Was it really that bad of a document?" Maddie asks.

"I didn't read it myself, but from what I heard, it was really nasty." Danny comments.

"What sort of pet did Anjie even want at the school?"

"A komodo dragon named Popcorn."

"A what?" Maddie half shrieks.

"Komodo dragon, y'know, those big oversized lizards that have so much bacteria in their mouth that they're practically venomous?" Danny says. His phone beeps.

"I know what a komodo dragon is, Danny," Maddie snaps, "What sort of person has one as a pet?"

"Anjie the tiny menace," Jazz says, "Wait, doesn't Miles call them something else?"

"He calls them a troll," Danny answers, reading the text. His eyebrows hit his hairline, "How do they do that?"

"Do what?"

"Anjie just texted me with a link to an article about the new study that declares komodo dragons are actually venomous."

"That's a fun fact and oddly unsettling...you said Miles calls them a troll?" Jazz asks.

"Yeah, why?" Danny pockets his phone again.

"Huh, just an idea," Jazz pushes her peas around in thought. She visibly files the information away before looking back up. Danny arches an eyebrow at her but doesn't comment.

"I don't think I like this person spending so much time around you, sweetie," Maddie says.

"Why not?"

"I feel like she's not a healthy influence on your person," Maddie comments.

"They," Jazz and Danny say simultaneously.

"Excuse me?"

"They're nonbinary, they use they/them pronouns," Danny says.

"Anjie is a girl's name," Jack frowns in confusion. 

"Anjie is a nickname, you don't say the same thing about 'Alex' or 'Sam' or, heck, even 'Danny' could be short for Danielle," Danny argues.

"But that's different," Maddie says.

"If we said Anje from the beginning, you would have assumed we were referring to 'Angelo' or something," Jazz states. "Names are important reflections of the personal identity, as are preferred pronouns. You don't have to understand the reasons or the why behind a person's choices so long as you respect them for who they are."

"Besides, how much impact on your personal life does calling someone with different pronouns cause?" Danny questions. "I would hazard a guess that it wouldn't change anything except make someone else feel, minimally, comfortable, at max, happy."

"Oh no, the horror," Jazz puts her hands up in deadpan fright, "You made a stranger happy."

"On an irrelevant note, Anjie is terrible but they're not actually a bad person," Danny pushes his mashed potatoes into a volcano.

"Miles has been an interesting influence on you," Jazz says, shifting the topic.

Danny barks a laugh, "Yeah, he's great. Just last week he sent me a video of him and Connor debating the pros and cons of setting up an American Ninja Warrior course in their backyard."

"Who won?" Jazz asks. 

"Miles but he was out voted by the rest of the family," Danny says. 

"I didn't think Connor and Miles were brothers?" Jazz asks.

"They're sorta technically dating? Not really?" He furrows his eyebrows in thought.

"How can you be dating and not dating at the same time?" Jack asks with a mirrored expression.

"Like they're together, but they're not together, they don't go on dates or hold hands or do other romantic things. It's weird but it works and makes them happy," Danny shrugs.

"Oh!" Jack has a lightbulb moment. "They sound like Carl and Bertie, you remember them Mads."

"How could I not?" Maddie half laughs, half sighs. "They were these two boys two years ahead of us that were inseparable. You would think they were joined at the hip, and everyone thought they were going to get married."

"Now, you gotta remember kids," Jack cuts in, "This was during a time that homosexuals were beaten in broad daylight for who they loved."

"Especially a mixed couple like them," Maddie agrees. "It was getting better but it wasn't the safest thing for them. It wasn't until tensions were high that someone demanded they prove they weren't in a relationship."

"So Carl goes 'Sure,' grabs the nearest girl and kisses her into next week. Bertie points to the girl and says, 'That's my little sister, and they're already married,'" Jack says with odd glee.

"The entire school was turned upside-down at the news," Maddie continues. "It took a week to settle down again, with Carl and Bertie continuing to be inseparable but no one questioned it anymore."

"That's amazing, can you imagine the balls on them to pull that off?" Danny says. 

"Danny!" Maddie gasps, scandalized. "Where in the world did you pick up that language?"

"What? Balls?" Danny blinks, confused.

"Daniel James Fenton!" Jack points a finger in Danny's face, "You watch that tone of yours right this instant."

Danny opens and closes his mouth with multitudes of emotions crossing his face. It eventually settles on complete bafflement.

"How do you watch an implied emotional inflection on sound?" he asks.

Jazz chokes on her drink, spitting it back into the glass. 

"Stop being dense," Maddie frowns. "You know exactly what we meant."

"Balls is now a bad word?" Danny asks and then, brightening slightly, "Balls balls soccer balls, footballs-"

"Danny, stop!"

"-racket balls, golf balls, tennis balls-"

"Danny!"

"-bowling balls, balls, bowls, balls, big balls, small balls, balls."

Jazz isn't even trying to hide her giggling at this point. 

Maddie and Jack are torn between laughing and being unimpressed.

"Hey, while we're at it, can we include stick, rod, shaft and member as suddenly bad words?" Danny continues. "Maybe toss in wands, baguette, baton, head, and pipe too, just to cover our bases."

Jazz has reached a point of giggle-laughter that is just this side of being considered a wheeze.

"Let's not be exclusionary though," Danny gestures to with his fork, "New bad words should also include flower, blossom, lips, bust, chest, chesticles-"

Jazz hiccups into a wheeze.

"-and that's not even touching the unfortunate names for so many birds. Tits, boobies, woodcock, shags, horned screamers, are these also suddenly bad words too?"

Jack has turned away with a hand to his face, shoulders shaking.

Maddie has a face of complete disappointment.

"Are you done?" She asks.

"Possibly," Danny smiles innocently.

Maddie's disappointment slips into looking absolutely done as Jack and Jazz slowly recover their composure.

"Ahem," Jack coughs into his hand. "Now that we've established that, I do believe you both made your points clear."

"Oh, I just remembered another funny animal story from school," Danny smiles bright.

"Oh, do tell, I'm so curious," Maddie says, voice stiff.

"So one of the girls from my astronomy club, Sophie, brought some of the animals from her family's sanctuary as an Animal Advocate" Danny says.

"Really?" Jazz asks. "What sort of animals did she bring? They'd have to be campus friendly, I assume."

"They were," Danny nods, "We had 2 hedgehogs, a capuchin, a boa, and the tiniest species of antelope I've ever seen."

"Antelope?" Jack asks.

"Yeah, it's about this big," Danny holds his hands up about a foot apart, "And you'd never guess what they're called."

"Ancients," Jazz swears, putting a hand to her face.

"What are they called, Danny?" Maddie asks.

Danny's grin turns mischievous.

"Dik-dik."

#danny phantom #college shenanigans #phanfiction #danny fenton #jazz fenton #maddie fenton #jack fenton #family fluff #this was supposed to be short #to the actual surprise of NOONE #it clearly got away from me #nona writes

[ladylynse]

Dimensional Displacement [FFN | AO3]: Danny has a love-hate relationship with the Fenton Booo-merang. This time, it didn’t do him any favours. This time, it knocked him through a portal—and from what he can glean from the Water Tribe siblings he meets, odds are, there’s a reason for that.

-|-

For @geronimo-alonzi as a thank you for donating to my ko-fi. (Yes, they won my fic giveaway, but I finished this one first.) Loosely based on this three sentence fic.

-|-

Danny had been clobbered in the head by the Fenton Booo-merang more often than he’d like to admit, let alone count, but this was the first time it had knocked him through a portal.

That wouldn’t have been a particularly bad thing if the portal hadn’t immediately closed behind him.

One minute, he’d been minding his own business in the Ghost Zone, coming back from a visit with Frostbite that Jazz must have forgotten about if she’d sent the Booo-merang after him. (Sam was stuck with her parents at some fancy dinner party thing somewhere and Tucker was working on designing a computer game for his comp sci assignment, a class neither Sam nor Danny was in, so it had to have been Jazz.)

The next minute, Danny was…. He didn’t even know where he was. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere. He’d caught the Booo-merang before either he or it had hit the ground, but once he’d righted himself to look around, there was no familiar skyline or something equally useful to him. There were only trees and rocks and dirt roads as far as the eye could see, even from a considerable distance up in the air.

Well.

That wasn’t quite fair. He could see a silver river cutting through the trees in a path roughly parallel to the road, but in terms of helpful things, he was coming up empty.

He didn’t even know which direction he’d need to fly to get to a city. It was too light out to see any distant glow of city lights against the scattered clouds, and all he could smell when he breathed in was fresh air and pine needles and something else—moss? The general mix that was pretty much mulch on the forest floor?—that was decidedly natural, not the signs of human activity he’d been hoping for. Sure, following the road or even the river would get him somewhere sooner or later, but what was he supposed to do, pick a random direction or go eenie meenie minie moe?

Danny did another loop above the trees, looking for some sign of anything, and came up with nothing.

“Come on!” Danny yelled at the patch of blue sky where the portal had closed. He spun in a circle, the Booo-merang clutched tightly in his fist, but it didn’t pull in any direction, and he didn’t catch so much as a glimmer of the familiar green of the Ghost Zone. “Just open up again already!” It was as effective as he’d expected it to be, which was not at all, but screaming out his frustrations made him feel a bit better. “Now! Please?”

Unsurprisingly, the portal didn’t listen.

Out of appealing options, Danny threw the Booo-merang. Logically, he knew it wasn’t the Infi-Map. Logically, he knew that the universe did not often do what was convenient for him, even if he sometimes got incredibly lucky in a fight. Logically, he knew that the chances of the Booo-merang deciding to reprogram itself to find portals just because it had done it this one time (likely coincidentally) were slim to none.

Illogically, he didn’t expect the stupid thing to circle around and hit him in the back of the head again.

Danny cursed and landed to retrieve the fallen Booo-mang from the roadway, muttering under his breath about how much he’d like to just dismantle the thing and hide the pieces. He wouldn’t, of course. It worked too well to risk Sam, Tucker, and Jazz losing the ability to find him if they really needed to. It had been dicey enough the few times his parents had decided to try to ‘fix’ it, only for disaster (Vlad) to strike in the meantime.

That didn’t mean Danny couldn’t fantasize about bashing it against a rock, though. There were plenty of those around.

“That’s a weird looking boomerang,” someone said from behind him, and Danny nearly jumped into the air right there.

He didn’t, mostly because he was getting used to Sam and Tucker trying to surprise him, but it was a near thing.

He wasn’t used to people sneaking up on him. His ghost sense was reliable, Dash made more noise walking around than even Jack Fenton, and, well, most of the people who hunted him couldn’t be subtle if they tried, especially since a good chunk of them liked hearing their own voice. He’d only ever really had to worry about Jazz, and self-preservation in the face of tickle attacks had given him the ability to be extra sensitive to her presence whenever she was in a certain mood.

The two who’d caught him by surprise now must have come from the trees on the other side of the road, and he hoped that meant they hadn’t seen him do anything particularly ghostly. Granted, neither of them was screaming, so he should be safe. They didn’t look terrified, either. Wary, maybe, but not scared.

Danny guessed that they were both somewhere around his age. Siblings, by the looks of them, but probably not twins even if they’d both decided to leave the house wearing oddly styled blue clothes today, at least compared to the usual jeans and T-shirt combo Danny was used to seeing. Unless he wasn’t anywhere near the States anymore? Or unless he’d been flung through to a different time. But the boy had spoken English, and it hadn’t sounded funny to Danny’s ears, no lilt of a foreign accent or strange phrasing that he associated with Shakespeare or something.

The girl was his height, the boy a bit taller, and they were both staring at him.

They probably thought he was the one who was dressed strangely.

The boy pointed. “Your boomerang,” he repeated. “It looks weird.”

The girl elbowed him in the gut—none too gently, judging by his immediate wheeze—and hissed, “Sokka!”

Yeah, those two were definitely siblings. And even if the girl wasn’t older, she definitely had the annoying (and annoyed) sister tone down pat. Danny had heard (and been on the receiving end of) the same from similar exchanges with Jazz more than once.

“Sokka’s going to apologize, right, Sokka?”

The boy frowned and then threw up his hands. “Right. I apologize for saying your boomerang looks weird. It looks interesting.”

The girl stepped on his foot, and he yelped. “What was that for?”

“You know what that was for!”

“It’s fine,” Danny said. He still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. Maybe the portal had dumped him out in the middle of some historical re-enactment thing. Granted, there should really be more people around if that were the case—or at least hidden cameras. He was better at spotting them now. Vlad and his creepy spy tendencies aside, Danny had gotten good at noticing (and avoiding) cameras so he didn’t let his secret get caught on tape. (There were a surprising number of places in Amity Park not under video surveillance, or at least not under real video surveillance even if they had fake cameras out; he could practically transform in the middle of the street sometimes.)

Still, nothing about this felt staged. It didn’t even feel like one of his enemy’s tricks, some giant setup that was meant to trap him or whatever. That’s not to say Danny was wholly convinced this meeting, whatever it was, was merely chance—he didn’t particularly trust Clockwork not to arrange things as he saw fit without warning anyone—but it didn’t feel overly contrived, either. There was just….

Something felt off, and he couldn’t explain what it was.

“It’s fine,” Danny repeated, since the two were looking at him dubiously, but the familiar phrase felt strange on his tongue, almost like—

Wait.

“Okay, this is going to sound like a weird question, but where are we?”

The boy, Sokka, blinked. “Did you hit your head or something? We’re in the Earth Kingdom. Or, wait, do you mean where in the Earth Kingdom? Look, if you need new supplies, there’s not much in the last few villages, but we’re about a day from—”

The girl elbowed him again, and he fell silent. Danny could see the growing suspicion on her face for what it was, could see suspicion settling on the boy’s face as well, but he wasn’t sure if it was because he’d asked the wrong question or because he’d asked something at all. He’d been paying attention this time, watching Sokka’s lips, and Danny didn’t have to be a good lip reader to know that he hadn’t been saying the words Danny had heard.

Well.

More accurately, he hadn’t been saying them in English.

And Danny, in answering, had somehow not been speaking English.

That was not, as far as Danny was aware, something Clockwork could do to him.

He didn’t know a ghost who had power over language, though, unless the Ghostwriter had something else up his sleeve and this mess was it. Nocturne would be able to pull anything in a dream, but Danny couldn’t see why he’d bother including something that would be an obvious tell like this, so it shouldn’t be him even if he had decided to come back. More likely, it was someone he hadn’t fought before, someone who had targeted him, seen an opportunity when the Booo-merang had hit him and seized upon it to throw him…here.

Wherever here was.

The Earth Kingdom, apparently.

“Um.” The girl still looked like she expected him to start fighting, and her stance…. Danny didn’t recognize it, but he did know that she looked ready to move at any moment. Her brother had taken her cue and, while Danny hadn’t been paying attention, pulled out a boomerang of his own. That couldn’t be good. “Look. I know how this sounds.” How he sounded, more like. If he had some accent he couldn’t hear because he wasn’t speaking their language properly, whatever it was, this had to be a setup after all.

Someone had sent him here to be dealt with. By this world, this dimension or construct or whatever it was, if not necessarily by these two people.

Granted, Danny wasn’t sure why someone would go to the trouble of letting him understand and be understood in the first place if that were the case, since he could get in just as much trouble without speaking the native language.

Surely he wasn’t actually supposed to help someone here, right? This wasn’t even his world. Or the Ghost Zone. Whatever was going on here was most definitely not his business.

Except now he was in the middle of it, so if there was something going on, it would be beneficial to find out what it was sooner rather than later.

This wasn’t some Jumanji kind of thing where he’d been tossed into a game and had to do whatever it was to get out again, was it? It didn’t feel like the time he’d gone into Doomed, but that had been intentional, and this….

Okay, no, he didn’t have enough information to speculate, which meant he needed to get some information out of these two in order to get somewhere. “I just…. I was kidnapped and dumped here for some reason, and I’m trying to find my way home.” That was close enough to the truth that it shouldn’t raise any red flags. Hopefully. “My name is Danny.” Introducing himself as Phantom, even in ghost mode, wasn’t something he wanted to do when he had no idea how these people felt about ghosts. Besides, it wasn’t like they’d ever see him as Fenton. He just needed to stick to the ground and pretend to be a normal human being, which he could most definitely do—at least when the sun was bright enough that his slight glow was basically nonexistent. He doubted it would be terribly noticeable even under the cover of trees.

“Danny,” the girl repeated, not relaxing her stance. “That’s an unusual name.”

Sokka just cocked his head at Danny. “Why would anyone kidnap you?”

It was spoken like it was an innocent, thoughtless question, something that could be brushed away with a laugh, but Danny could read an underlying tension in each of their faces. Sokka was waiting on his answer, and so was his sister. Danny’s response might very well determine what happened next.

Consequently, Danny didn’t miss the fact that Sokka didn’t offer up any potential explanations that he could jump on.

Another lie wasn’t going to do him any favours, not when he knew so little. “I don’t know.” He could guess, but he didn’t know. From the looks of it, though, these two wouldn’t be satisfied with that. Chances were good they wouldn’t be particularly satisfied with his suspicions, either, which was that someone wanted him out of the way for whatever they were planning—or maybe that someone had decided they wanted to have a little fun with him at his expense, if world domination wasn’t on the table. “My parents are inventors. Maybe that’s why?”

“That doesn’t explain why whoever took you would leave you here,” Sokka pointed out, and Danny wished these two weren’t so smart. “If you were taken because you were valuable, you wouldn’t have been left behind unguarded.”

“So maybe they kidnapped the wrong person and realized that I wasn’t who they wanted?”

Sokka exchanged glances with his sister before murmuring, “We can ask Toph. I mean, it’s possible they found us, but if he is really a Fire Nation plant picked solely for his eye colour, they’d have at least dyed his hair and given him some normal clothes.”

Danny decided not to ask who the heck picked people for something based on eye colour and not skill or merit or experience or something normal like that. Aside from derailing the conversation from anything potentially useful, Danny was pretty sure Sokka hadn’t realized he’d been overheard, and it wouldn’t be in Danny’s best interests to let them know how good his hearing was.

Still, he took the opportunity to tuck away the Booo-merang before they could ask any questions about it that he wasn’t up to answering. Maybe it would make him seem like less of a threat if they didn’t think he was ready to use it as a weapon—not that he knew how to use a boomerang as a weapon, but he was pretty sure Sokka hadn’t pulled his out to see which of them could throw it farther or throw it properly—and maybe then they’d trust him enough to answer his questions. Hopefully. He was perfectly willing to meet this Toph if it meant figuring out where he was and how to get home, especially since it would be easy enough for him to cut and run later.

The movement was enough to draw the attention of the siblings, though, and both pairs of eyebrows rose. Had they not expected him to make what he hoped would be taken as a gesture of trust or were they wondering how the heck he’d gotten it into his pocket? Maybe they thought he was trying to hide it, which wouldn’t help matters at all. Then again, if they thought that he thought it had been a subtle move, then maybe—

No.

He had to stop doing this. He didn’t know enough about these two to try to guess their thoughts, let alone what actions they might take against him.

Danny shifted on his feet, glad they hadn’t jumped to attacking and that they weren’t even asking questions about the Booo-merang, since practically anything about it would be difficult to answer. At least they hadn’t seen him flying. Even for people familiar with ghosts, unknown ones tended to be cause for concern until their threat level was assessed, and Danny didn’t want to invite trouble and immediately find out what this world had that messed with ghosts. Sure, he wanted to know what could hurt him here, but finding out while it wasn’t actively being used against him was infinitely preferable.

“Where did you say you were from?” the girl asked after a beat, even though they all knew he’d never said anything about that.

“Nowhere you would know,” he hedged, which was true enough.

“We travel a lot,” the girl said, and her brother snorted.

“What Katara means is, try us. If we can help you get back to your family, what do you have to lose?” Sokka offered Danny a grin, and his stance had visibly relaxed, even if he hadn’t put his boomerang away. It might be just for show, especially since he still had a weapon out, but at least the girl hadn’t drawn any knives or something like that. “Look, from one guy to another, you don’t need to make up some crazy story if you’re a runaway or something like that. We’re basically runaways.”

“We’re running towards something, not away from it.”

“We were almost runaways.” To Danny, Sokka added, “Gran caught us, but she let us go.”

Katara rolled her eyes, and Danny looked between the two of them as Sokka continued talking. It was obvious that they’d changed tack for some reason, no doubt trying to get him to trust them, but the blatant switch made him uneasy. Did they not realize how obvious that was or was this just their usual dynamic?

“I’m from Amity,” Danny eventually interrupted. He knew from the way that they were looking at him that neither of them had forgotten he had yet to answer the question. He’d already told them they wouldn’t know the place, so technically he could’ve said Amity Park, but for all he knew, these two had been sent to get information out of him, and the less he told a potential enemy, the better.

Come to think of it, maybe he shouldn’t have told them his real name, and maybe he should’ve just made up a village name rather than dropping heavy hints about his hometown.

“Which is near—?”

Danny ignored Sokka’s prompt. He didn’t even have a good enough idea of the geography of this place to make that up, especially when there was a chance they knew the area, runaways or no. “Do you know where I could get some water? I haven’t found any since I woke up.” That wasn’t true, but they wouldn’t know that unless they were getting some more intel about him from someone unseen.

The siblings looked at each other again, and then Katara faced him and said, “We’re headed to the river. Come with us. You can get your water, and we can share our catch if we get anything.”

“Wait, I didn’t agree to share my meat!” Sokka exclaimed. Katara’s only answer was a dirty look, but it was enough to have Sokka subsiding into grumbles.

“I’m not hungry yet,” Danny said, which also strictly wasn’t true, but he knew he didn’t need to eat much.

“You might be hungry by the time we’re finished,” Katara said over Sokka’s griping.

Danny hesitated, trying to figure out how weird it would be if he made up some excuse not to go with them. What were the chances that this was a trap when he’d brought up the river—or at least water—before they had? It wasn’t that he thought they’d be able to take him out if it came to that, even if Jazz had more experience fighting normally than he did, since he typically relied a lot on his powers when he could.

These two might be better fighters than him—there were almost certainly better hunters, given how silently they could walk—but he’d always have something like intangibility in his back pocket if it came to it, and they wouldn’t. Still, when it came down to it, he wasn’t used to fighting humans. What if he didn’t pull his punches enough and seriously hurt one of them?

“You can tell us about Amity,” Katara added. “We’ve never been there.”

Danny really hoped that was true and that there wasn’t a place in this world called Amity that they knew well. Still, when they started walking, spreading out so he was always in sight and they never had their backs to him, even when they hit the trees on the other side of the road, he kept pace with them. “It’s pretty much like you’d expect.” Except for the ghosts. At least his ghost sense hadn’t gone off here. Yet. “This is probably the farthest I’ve ever travelled from home.” He couldn’t get much farther away than a completely different dimension that (probably) wasn’t as connected to his world as it was to the Ghost Zone, anyway—unless he counted when he’d time travelled, but he wasn’t about to bring that up.

Katara opened her mouth to ask another question, maybe to press him for details, so Danny cut her off. “What about you two?”

They looked at each other again. How many times were they going to do that? Hadn’t they already decided how far to trust him? Danny knew it wasn’t very far, but they’d clearly decided he wasn’t going to straight up attack them at this precise moment, so even if they didn’t tell him the whole truth—

Sokka gestured at their clothes. “We’re Water Tribe.”

He said it like it was obvious, like Danny should’ve known already, but of course it explained absolutely nothing.

“Southern Water Tribe,” Katara added unhelpfully, despite Sokka’s frown. “We wanted to see the world, and now we are.”

As cover stories went, it was better than Danny’s. Barely. “Right,” he said, wondering again why he’d been dumped in the path of these two. “It’s a nice world to see.”

Somehow, that was the wrong thing to say, because they were both looking at him like they’d expected him to say anything but that. “What?”

“There’s a war on, you’re supposedly kidnapped and dropped off somewhere in occupied territory without any of the proper paperwork, and the best you can come up with is it’s a nice world to see?” Sokka turned his incredulous look from Danny to Katara. “He cannot be Fire Nation. This kid is more sheltered than Toph was supposed to be.”

Danny, who had stumbled at the word war, kept walking and hoped they hadn’t noticed. If they had, maybe they’d think he’d tripped over a tree root or fallen branch or hole or something. They weren’t following a trail, so that was a perfectly reasonable explanation, right?

“It’s all right,” Katara said as she reached out to touch his arm, and, okay, from that gentle tone, which was a complete change from anything earlier, it must mean she had noticed, knew he hadn’t tripped over anything in the terrain, and—from how she was looking at him now—thought it wasn’t surprise that had tripped Danny up, either. “Trust me, I know what it’s like to be a little naïve until you have a chance to leave home for the first time, but unless you’re got a camp around here, you’re not prepared at all.”

Sokka finally put his boomerang away and smirked at Danny. “We at least left home with supplies.”

“Did you have to run without any warning?” Katara asked, giving her brother a pointed look.

“Oh, uh, kinda.” Danny winced, knowing that had to sound like a lie. “I…I didn’t really plan on leaving when I did. This just…happened.”

Sokka raised an eyebrow, but Katara said, “You don’t have to worry. We’re the last people who would turn you in to the Fire Nation.”

Right. So the Fire Nation were the bad guys, at least according to the Water Tribe and, if he was putting things together correctly, the Earth Kingdom, where they were. Meaning the Fire Nation had invaded the Earth Kingdom if this was occupied territory. Danny thought about asking why these two had come into occupied territory themselves and then decided he didn’t want to risk getting into a discussion that would show off how little he knew. If they had decided he was a runaway who knew practically nothing about the world, well, that worked in his favour.

“Thanks.” Danny wasn’t sure what else to say. “Why are you helping me, though? Won’t that put you in danger?” That had to be a fair question in this situation.

“We can’t help everyone,” Katara said quietly, “but we can help some people, even if it’s just a tiny bit. Sometimes, that has to be enough.”

Danny really didn’t know what to say to that, because she certainly wouldn’t understand if he said he knew the feeling, so he smiled weakly in thanks and let the conversation drop.

They were still watching him, but they were more subtle about it now, and it didn’t look like they were watching him more closely than they were watching everything else.

Being downgraded from a threat was a win, though. Danny hoped he didn’t do anything to mess it up.

“There’s no shame in being a refugee,” Sokka said after a moment. “Being from a richer family might’ve bought you an isolated childhood, but it wouldn’t guarantee your safety.”

“We won’t try to hold you for ransom if you tell us where you’re really from,” added Katara.

Danny glanced at her. “I said I was from Amity.”

“I could say I have a platypus bear as a pet,” Sokka interjected. “That doesn’t make it true.”

“We know what it’s like, thinking you understand the way things are and then realizing how little you know,” Katara said quietly. “It can be overwhelming.”

“And it would explain why you’re in your nightclothes,” Sokka said. He’d come in range of Katara’s fist, but he danced out of the way as she swung in his direction. He hadn’t even needed to look at her to know it was coming. “You didn’t know enough to keep your valuables hidden and got robbed your first night on your own, didn’t you?”

“I—” Danny knew it was an excuse for his ignorance being handed to him on a silver platter, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep up with a lie like that when he knew so little. “These aren’t my pajamas,” he said instead. Let them believe what they wanted to believe; that would make his life easier. Even if it blew up in his face somehow, he could truthfully say he’d never said they were right.

They might be suspicious that he hadn’t outright denied it, but then again, he’d already told them something a lot closer to the truth.

“Uh huh.” Sokka glanced at Katara again, and she gave a slight shake her head that Danny didn’t understand.

“Let’s get you some food and water first,” Katara said. “Then we can see about finding you other supplies.”

Danny decided not to point out that they’d already told him it was slim pickings for supplies around here. Not that he had the money to pay for anything, but Sokka had already guessed that. Besides, they thought he was running around in his pjs.

Judging by the sour look on Sokka’s face, he’d evidently translated his sister’s words to mean that she wanted to give him some of their supplies, something Sokka clearly wasn’t sure he approved of.

Katara must have had similar thoughts on Sokka’s expression, since she murmured, “It’s this or bring him with us, and you know what’s safer.”

Katara might not have minded that Danny could overhear her last words, but Sokka closed the distance between them, pulling his sister farther away from Danny before hissing, “It’s not the only option, and you know it. We can’t afford to give away any of our supplies, and just because Toph can make sure he’s not coming in with the intention of stabbing us in the back, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t blab to anyone once he figures out who we’re travelling with. You know as well as I do that that wouldn’t take very long.”

“He’s just kid.”

“Technically, like Aang keeps reminding us, we’re just kids. Who very much cannot afford to so much as drop him off in the next village. Show him the river and teach him how to catch and cook his meals? Fine. Picking him up as a stray when he’s not bringing anything to the table? Not fine.”

“He’s lost.”

“So? He’s not hurt. He’s already in a better position than some refugees. He’ll survive until he can walk to the nearest settlement. Then he can try to get help from people who can actually give it.”

Katara bit her lip and slowed to a stop. “There’s something else.”

“What?”

Danny very much wanted to know the answer to that—what had Katara figured out?—but he tried not to react so they didn’t know he’d been listening in. He deliberately turned away and stared around the trees instead, a mix of deciduous and evergreen. He couldn’t pick out any specific types of trees—nothing distinctive like oak leaves that he could see—and, as far as he could tell, the woods were utterly devoid of critters. He had no idea if that was because this world wasn’t real or if it was simply because all the animals in the region had had warning of their coming and hidden accordingly.

Danny knew his disinterest wouldn’t be very convincing, but if he was lucky, they’d think he’d given up on trying to eavesdrop.

“There’s something…off about him. Not necessarily something wrong, but something different. I can’t…. When he asked about water, I wanted to make sure he wasn’t hiding any on him or nearby in case it was a trap, and— He didn’t feel the same as you or me. I can’t explain it. Toph might have a better idea than I do. Or…or Aang.” The last word was a barely audible whisper.

“You think this might be a spirit thing?” Sokka’s response was closer to a suppressed shriek than anything else, and Danny winced.

“I think he might be spirit touched,” Katara answered, and Sokka’s sharp inhalation was painfully audible. “I wasn’t good enough back then to notice anything about Yue, but—”

“Fine.” Sokka’s voice had gone flat. “I don’t want to shun someone and accidentally anger the spirits. I’ll teach him to fish. You go back and interrupt advanced earthbending practice and pick a meeting place, but make sure everyone’s packed in case this doesn’t go the way you think it’ll go.”

“I know to be careful.”

“We all know to be careful. Some of us just need more reminding than others.”

Katara didn’t say anything else, but she must have nodded or done something similar because Danny heard Sokka stalk back over to him. “Katara’s going back to talk to the rest of our group about what we might be able to spare,” he said as Danny turned back to face him, “and I’ll show you how to fish in the meantime. If you don’t catch anything, I’ll give you one of mine.”

Danny wasn’t about to admit that he’d overheard their entire conversation, so he smiled and said, “That sounds great, thanks.” It didn’t stop the uneasiness from settling in his gut, though. Sure, now he knew these people believed in ghosts, and Sokka’s response made it clear he didn’t want to get on their bad side, but Danny had no idea what being spirit touched meant. He didn’t know if that was seen as a good thing or a bad thing.

More to the point, if it was a bad thing, he didn’t know if these people had something suitable with which to attack spirit touched people, since if they did, chances were good that it would work on him.

He was not lucky enough to get a free pass here.

Still, the odds were good that he’d be able to escape if they did attack since he’d know to be on watch for something, and he wasn’t about to turn down an offer of food. He had no idea when a portal would open and he’d be able to go home. Until then, the best he could do was survive.

He’d survived this much, and his life had hardly been a walk in the park since the accident, let alone before. He wasn’t about to let some ghost fling him into an unknown world and succeed in taking him down. He needed to get out of this to kick their butt and prove to them that they couldn’t get rid of him that easily.

Assuming this wasn’t all a series of genuine coincidences and not the result of the careful manipulation of events.

Danny didn’t want to think about that, though.

He had a much better chance of getting home if there was someone he could beat, and he was going to get home.

Somehow.

(see more fics)

#danny phantom #atla #avatar the last airbender #danny fenton #sokka #katara #crossover #fanfiction #dp fanfiction #atla fanfiction #my writing #ladylynse #snippets #crossover snippet #geronimo-alonzi

[ecto-american]

Stuck (Stubbornly)

Phic Phight Oneshot for @deuynndoodles​ : Jack and Maddie are stuck in the Ghost Zone. Fortunately for them, Phantom's around and willing to help out. However, they'll rather be arrested by a ghost warden and put in ghost jail before they'd allow some teenage menace to help them. Oh wait...

Read on AO3 or FFN

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"Should we call Jazz or Danny?" Jack suggested.

Maddie stared out into the unending void of the Ghost Zone. It hurt to think that their voyage, a trip that they had been planning out for months, would end so soon already, but they had barely made any progress when they realized just how much fuel the Specter Speeder was guzzling. Something was wrong.

"...Not yet," she determined. "We should have emergency fuel. We should be able to get back without any problems. Can you refill?"

"You got it," Jack replied, and he got out of the co-pilot seat. She could hear him go to the back, and shuffling around. He didn't say anything for a while, and that immediately began to unnerve her, but she kept her attention on the dashboard, trying to think of what went wrong when building. Was their fuel lines loose? Was there gas leaking everywhere? "Uh, Mads? I'm not seeing it?"

Her blood froze, but no need to panic. Maybe he just didn't see…

Maddie walked to the back and checked. And checked. Moved some stuff around, checked some more.

They had no emergency fuel.

"Why don't we go outside and check the engine?" Jack suggested. "Maybe we can figure something out." With a dry mouth, she nodded, and they hesitantly went outside to check.

There were no ghosts around, thankfully, just an endless green void. They knew that they would be safe breathing in the GZ air, thanks to their prior tests and experiments. They hooked themselves to a rope using a carabiner clip, the other end tied tightly to the speeder. Floating unnerved her, and she kept a hand on the speeder as they went to the front of the speeder. Jack popped the hood, and smoke floated out, making Maddie's heart sink. This was definitely not a good sign at all, or something that could be a simple fix.

"Need some help?"

Maddie looked over her shoulder to see…

"Absolutely not," she scowled. Phantom was floating nearby.

"Are you sure?" he asked. He floated up a bit higher to glance at their vehicle. "Looks like you got. Well, uh, basically car trouble."

"Leave. Now."

Phantom opened his mouth to say more, but Maddie pulled her ecto-gun out.

"We don't want help from some lowlife ghost!" she hissed. Phantom put his hands up in surrender and flew away.

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An hour passed, and they decided to take a break working on the engine. Every possible problem that she could think of had been exhausted, and she had to take a break to both cool down and think. She sat on the steps leading into the speeder, with Jack deciding to lay on the floor of the inside.

"Fuel line wasn't broken, none of the lines were cut or had knicks. There's no reason it should be draining so much gas," Jack thunk aloud. "There shouldn't be anything besides the engine that the gas is going to, and there's no weird random connections to anywhere else. The battery's still good."

"And we forgot the emergency fuel," Maddie slumped over. Jack sighed.

"It's my own fault," he replied. "I should have checked to make sure Jazz and Danny had properly put all the supplies in. A proper exploration team always triple checks before a voyage."

Maddie could only give a low hum of agreement as she stared out into the zone. She felt somebody pat the side of the speeder, and she scowled as she saw Phantom grinning at her, giving a half way.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed.

"I brought help this time," Phantom told her, and he jerked a thumb behind him. It was finally then that she noticed the Red Huntress. Maddie raised an eyebrow.

"How in the world…" she murmured, only to trail off as she stared at the two of them. Jack sat up, and he poked his head out of the speeder.

"Oh dope! It's my favorite huntress!" Jack boomed. Red seemed bashful at the comment, shifting her weight onto her other foot and rubbing her upper arm.

"I mean, if you don't trust me or want my help, I figured you'd be willing to let a human help," Phantom explained, motioning towards Red.

"So, do you need help?" Red finally spoke up. She reached down to pat her left calf. "I have some tools with me, but I can always go and fetch more."

Something in Maddie's gut told her that this was very, very odd. Humans and ghosts working together so...willingly like this. She had taken note that Phantom and Red hadn't hunted each other down or fought like they used to, but she just assumed that they didn't quite run into each other that much anymore. Both were unpredictable with odd schedules and routines.

She glanced at Jack, who despite his initial enthusiasm, seemed to share her feelings, and she shook her head no.

"We'll be fine," she insisted. "You two should leave."

Red stared at Phantom, who shrugged his shoulders.

"So, wanna just go get some boba tea?" Phantom asked.

"And just leave them here?" Red scowled, motioning to the Fentons.

"They don't want our help," he replied. Red glanced from Phantom and the Fentons, who studied the two of them. She finally shrugged as well.

The two began to idly chat as they flew off, their conversation becoming more and more distant.

"That was weird," Maddie mused.

"Yeah, I thought she and Phantom were rivals," Jack mused. Maddie shrugged. Right now she wasn't too invested in the mystery. She'd worry about that later when they got home.

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Judging by their phones (which they had worriedly learned that they oh-so-helpfully had no reception in the land of the undead), another hour passed since Phantom and Red had left. Jack was deep into the engine, fiddling with a possible solution to the problem as Maddie stood nearby. She continued to think as she looked around. She was surprised that they hadn't been bothered by now.

"Trespassing in an unauthorized vehicle that is also a real world item," a deep southern voice boomed. Well, she absolutely spoke too soon.

They whipped their heads to see a huge, hulking figure, an all white man with a black hat, black gloves and wearing a suit of white.

"Ghost!" Jack squawked. He scrambled to grab his gun, Maddie already having hers drawn. The ghost frowned deeply. Maddie was finally very aware of just how many ghosts were surrounding them. Too many to count, but they all looked exactly like the ghosts that terrorized Amity Park years before, all identical and matching in uniform that resembled a SWAT team. There was also vehicles resembling police cars and police vans.

"Resisting arrest. That's against the rules," he continued. He opened a large green and white book in his hands, flipping to another page. "Assault and battery with a deadly weapon." He glanced up at them with an angry glare. "Y'all are going away for a long, long time."

"We're not going anywhere," Jack frowned. He charged up his weapon.

Maddie looked around, and she shivered anxiously. There was no way they could take on all these ghosts. She nudged Jack, and he side-eyed her curiously. She lowered her weapon, and she used her head to motion around them. Jack blinked as he looked himself, and all of his confidence left him. He also lowered his weapon.

"We'll go," Maddie finally spoke. The ghost smirked, and he knocked on the side of a police van. The back opened up.

"Surrender your weapons," he ordered.

One of the SWAT ghosts came forward with his arms outstretched. Reluctantly, the adults handed their weapons over, detaching themselves from the speeder and getting into the van.

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Their cell was a lot like a normal cell, and it was just them. Iron bars, no windows, single toilet, and four bunk beds. Jack was laying on one of the beds, facing the fall, as Maddie laid on the one across from him, staring up at the bunk bed above her.

Of course. Of course they ended up in ghost jail. It was just their luck. Though a scientist part of her was giddy at knowing that ghosts had some kind of legal system! Who would have known!

As she tried to start figuring out what on earth to do, she heard something banging against the jail bars.

She immediately sat up, staring to see Phantom making the noise by banging something in his hand on the bars. He was staring at them with a bright smile, and it only made her mood drop even more.

"Phantom!" Maddie hissed, standing fully and going up to the bars. "How did you find us?"

"We came back to check on you guys and see if you changed your minds," Phantom explained. Jack got up from his own bed to come over, looking surprised to see the infamous ghost teen. "Technus and Skulker were looting your speeder, and they said Walker arrested you. So we came by as quickly as we could."

The Fenton adults could see Red nearby, glancing around the corner. She was keeping watch.

"We're not going with you," Jack replied. Phantom rolled his eyes.

"Okay, and what? Stay here forever? Never see your kids again?" he asked. Their faces instantly dropped. "So do you wanna go home or not?"

Maddie narrowed her eyes at him before noticing that he was holding a metallic-looking cup of boba tea and raising an eyebrow.

"You brought a snack with you," she said. Phantom shrugged, offering it to her.

"Want a sip?"

"No! Just!" Maddie glanced at Jack worriedly, and he mirrored her expression. They, unfortunately, knew that they really...didn't have a choice. "Get us out of here!"

"Danny, you may wanna hurry it up," Red's voice called out softly to them. Maddie did a double take. Oh yeah. Danny Phantom. Huh, she kinda forgot about that.

Phantom nodded, and he dropped the boba tea, letting it float in the air as he phased them out of the jail cell. Maddie stared at him.

"Wait, you can just phase through?" she asked. Phantom shrugged.

"Uh, sorta yes, sorta no," he replied, grabbing his tea.

"Danny!" Red's voice hissed. Phantom glanced to her.

"Okay, so super quick rundown of Ghost Zone rules. In the Ghost Zone, you guys are the ghosts, so you basically can fly and phase through objects, so Red can phase through objects and you guys too, but this is also a human cell that only I can get you out, and speaking out getting out, we need to leave. Now," Phantom quickly explained. As soon as he finished, he motioned for them to follow him.

He began to fly towards Red, and they jogged after him. Phantom peered around the corner before pulling back. Red did too.

"How's our escape route looking?" Phantom asked. He took a sip of his drink as Red pulled up a map on her suit. She studied it for a bit.

"Hmm. We may run into some trouble," Red mused. "Best bet is for me to take Mr. and Mrs. Fenton and phase with them out of here, and…" She gave a weird pause. "We'll uh. Wait for you to escape on your own." Phantom sucked on his drink, and the sound of air coming through as he ran out of boba tea grinded Maddie's nerves.

"Oh would you just!" Maddie scowled, and she slapped the cup out of Phantom's hands.

"Hey! I paid for that!" Phantom cried out. He scrambled to pick it up. "They were having an unlimited refills special if you got that cup!" Red snorted in amusement.

"Danny, they kicked you out for getting too many refills anyway," she reminded him. Phantom made a face.

"Well maybe they shouldn't advertise it as unlimited refills then," he retorted.

"Most people don't drink twelve cups of boba tea," she replied.

"Maybe I should be rewarded for being able to drink that much then."

"Hm, we'll debate it later," Red replied. "Look, I'll get them out and meet you on the other side. Got it?"

"Got it," Phantom replied. To Maddie's horror and shock, Red lifted her visor up, but not all the way. Just enough to expose her lips, and she leaned into Phantom to give him a light peck on the lips.

"Be careful," she told him. Phantom nodded.

"I will," he promised. "If I'm not with you in five minutes. Just." He paused. "Leave without me, get the Fentons home, and then come back for me." Red nodded as her visor went all the way down.

"Grab my hands," Red instructed the Fentons. Maddie blinked, reluctantly taking one of her hands. Jack took the other. Red summoned her board, jumping in the air and allowing it to manifest beneath her. She held onto them tightly and flew through the walls.

Instinctively, Maddie closed her eyes as she flew through. Only to feel no impact. A blur of walls impaired her vision with constant flashes of the darkness of being in a thick jail wall and the light of the prison rooms and hallways. She blinked as the neutral green skies of the Ghost Zone finally greeted her, and Red continued flying until they were a decent distance from the prison. And now that she had a moment to think…

"What the hell are you thinking?" she exclaimed to Red. The huntress snapped her attention to her in confusion.

"What? You would have died if we let you stay in there!" she scowled.

"No, not that!" Maddie clarified. "I mean, thank you so much for helping us, but you? And Phantom?"

"Exactly!" Jack agreed. "He's an absolute menace! He's a danger! Don't you guys fight? What happened to all of that?"

She could see a glimpse of Red's face under her heavily tinted visor, and Maddie was sure that the girl looked embarrassed and was likely turning as red as her suit.

"Oh man, it's a looong story," Red sighed heavily. "Uh, best and easiest and quickest way I can explain it is; a lot of the things that made me angry with him was a misunderstanding, and I found out that he's...actually a really sweet guy. I know it's weird to say, but, um. Well, I've never met a guy who was so kind, thoughtful and romantic. My life's kinda hectic, and he just...he really goes out of his way to make it easier on me."

"How so?" Jack wondered.

"Well, like. He does a lot of my household chores and stuff like laundry, bringing me lunch when I have long shifts at work, listening to me when I have a bad day," she explained. "He makes life a lot easier and better."

How cute. If it wasn't between a dead teenage menace and this poor, obviously manipulated girl. It honestly reminded Maddie a lot of her own Danny and his little girlfriend, Valerie. Valerie told her a few times about Danny doing some of her chores at home since Valerie was so busy working and doing school. It kinda pissed Maddie off, since Danny never seemed to remember his own chores at home, but she never felt like bringing it up to him because, well, at least he was really good to her. She'd be ashamed of him if he was any lesser.

"Hey!" Phantom called out as he zoomed towards them. "Let's go! Quick!"

Red nodded. She passed Jack off to Phantom, and the two teenagers flew the Fentons home.

#phics #my phics #phic phight 2021

[darks-ink]

Absurdism Chapter 15

Vlad makes mistakes, and then makes some more mistakes, and then rounds it off by making even more mistakes.

Rating: Teen/K+ (a lil swearing, because teenagers, man) Warnings: - Genre: Family, Hurt/Comfort Additional Tags: Sibling Bonding, Family Bonding, Alternate Universe - Halfa Jazz AU, Jazz makes friends

[AO3] [FFN] [more Absurdism on Tumblr] First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

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Chapter 15: Reign Storm

Jazz walked into the kitchen and stopped dead when she saw him. Danny grinned, waving at her.

Next to him, the other Danny also grinned and waved.

“Why,” Jazz groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Couldn’t I have gotten a normal brother?”

The other Danny gasped dramatically. “A normal brother? In this family?”

“Did you two plan this out?” She dropped her hand to narrow her eyes at them. Danny was pretty sure that she was trying to figure out which Danny was which. “Because this is bullying. I’m feeling very bullied right here.”

“Take it up with Sidney, then.” Danny, still grinning, took a bite of his sandwich. He should’ve had lunch sooner, but in his defense, he totally forgot. Until the actual Fenton kids were returning from school, that was. “He’s the local expert on fixing bullies.”

“This isn’t bullying, anyway.” His human counterpart rattled his fingers on the glass he held as he spoke. “This is just sibling fun.”

Jazz huffed, chagrined. “Phantom, I’m glad you’re here, but sometimes I wish you weren’t.”

“Amen.” Other Danny raised his glass.

“Same,” Danny agreed, raising his sandwich.

She narrowed her eyes even further, sparks of gold visible in the teal of her eyes.

Danny flashed his own eyes green, and Jazz relaxed a little. Ah. She really hadn’t been able to tell them apart.

“So you two really didn’t plan this out?” She finally entered the kitchen proper, pausing next to the table where they both were.

“Just a coincidence,” Danny assured her.

Other Danny nodded, then gestured over at him. “This one forgot to eat lunch until he saw me come home.”

“My day-night rhythm is in shambles.” Danny shrugged, taking another bite of his food. Just because this dimension’s Fentons insisted he come stay with them didn’t mean it fixed everything automatically. “It already was before I came here, though.”

“Yeah, you’ve mentioned that before.” Jazz hummed, thoughtfully. “Something about being practically nocturnal.”

“You wouldn’t believe how many ghosts attack at night.” Danny clicked his tongue, chastising. “You’re gonna have your hands full when I leave.”

If he ever left.

“And you will have to get used to being the little brother again,” she jibed, equally willing to ignore the possibility that he might never leave. “Did you two leave me any food?”

Danny stuffed the last bite of sandwich into his mouth. Other Danny grinned and said, “Nah, unless you want the Frankenwienies.”

“You two are the worst.”

He opened his mouth to joke back, but felt his core stir in his chest. Far, far stronger than usual; more of a heave than a whir.

Based on Jazz’ startled expression, she felt it too.

Blue vapor misted from both their mouths, and Danny quickly sorted through his memories. What could possibly…

Oh no.

He threw out his arms as he shifted into his ghost form, a green shield forming around the three of them before the light had even faded away. The other two made noises of protest, but fell silent when the first ghosts started zipping past them.

No one said anything when the few ghosts made way for a whole stream of them. Humanoid, animals, every type of ghost flew past them, including familiar faces. One or two even bashed against the shield as they flew past, but were clearly unwilling to stick around to try and get at Jazz.

Good. At least she wouldn’t have to suffer through that gang-up like he had.

“What’s going on?” Jazz asked. Her hands were shaking, but Danny wasn’t sure if it was fear or just jitters from her core. “Why are all these ghosts here?”

“They’re fleeing the Ghost Zone.” He kept the shield steady, even as the flow lessened. “The Ghost King is awake.”

“The what?” Other Danny was staring at him, wide-eyed. “Ghosts have a king?!”

“Sort of. He’s been asleep for ages, locked in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.” Finally, the stream of ghosts seemed to stop, and Danny let down his shield. He didn’t shift back. “He is… extremely powerful, and a harsh king. The other ghosts are afraid of him, so they’re fleeing to the human world, where they don’t have to deal with him. Or so they think.”

“I really don’t like the sound of that,” Jazz grumbled. Her shivers had lessened already. Probably just the shock of her ghost sense, then. “Is he gonna come here?”

Danny grimaced. “Not… necessarily. He doesn’t care about the human world.”

“But?” Jazz prodded. “Come on, I can tell you’re leaving details out.”

“But,” he repeated, before sighing. “He’ll be after one of his relics, which increases a ghost’s power. It’s called the Ring of Rage.”

“How did he get out, anyway?” his human counterpart asked. “If he was locked up for so long. Did someone free him?”

“Vlad, of course, who else?” Danny sighed, running a hand through his hair. He really wasn’t looking forward to doing this all again. Last time it had nearly killed him. Yes, he was stronger now, he’d probably be okay, but still. “And he knows Pariah is after the Ring, so he’s gonna bring it here and pass it off to some unsuspecting target, like his pet ghost hunter.”

Jazz’ eyes grew wide. “Valerie. She’s in danger!”

“Not until Vlad leaves and gives her the ring,” he dismissed. Paused. Cast out his ghost sense to try and track down Vlad’s minimal presence in human form. “Uh. Is Vlad still here?”

Jazz hurried back to the doorway. “Valerie is gone too!”

“Well, crap.” Oh, and he didn’t know where those two had gone, either… but he did know where the first big showdown was happening. “Come on, we’d better get going. Pariah is gonna send an army of ghosts here, and I know where he’s gonna open the portal.”

She nodded, immediately shifting into her own ghost form. No hesitation. “Let’s go.”

“Stay safe,” human Danny demanded. “Both of you. Stay safe, please?”

Danny nodded back. “I’ll make sure of it.” He stepped forward, paused. “And, um. In case Vlad is back before us… he may or may not believe we are the same person.”

“Phantom,” other Danny sighed, loudly, exasperatedly. “Again?”

He shrugged, putting on an innocent face. “What? It’s just the logical conclusion here! Anyway we’d better get going, bye!”

Jazz followed him up. “Did you really have to do that?”

“No, but this way he’ll have something besides us to worry about.” He leveled out, slowing down a notch so Jazz could keep up. “We’ll be fine.”

He would make sure of that.

---

The fight was a mess, chaotic to no end. Danny lost track of Jazz quickly, darting between Pariah’s skeletal minions. He would just have to trust that she could take care of herself. Vlad and Valerie also disappeared into the mass. It was just him, and the ghosts directly around him.

He caught a flash of green, his eye immediately drawn towards it. The Fright Knight, the ghost’s first appearance in this world. Or, more accurately, the flash of green of his swinging sword.

“Don’t get hit by it!” he yelled at Valerie, already rushing towards her.

“Thought that that was kinda obvious!” She dodged the next swing, the green metal carving a deep slice in her hoverboard. “Hey, jerk! Do you know how expensive this tech is?!”

“It is worthless in comparison to the ring,” Fright Knight snarled back. He lunged towards her.

Danny grabbed the ghost by the armor, bodily dragging him away from Valerie. “That’s enough outta you, pal.”

“The ring?” Valerie repeated, blankly. “They want a ring?”

Fright Knight swung his sword down at Danny, and he rushed to form a shield to catch it. “Yeah, they’re after Pariah’s Ring of Rage.”

“Oh,” Valerie said. Danny heard the click of a weapon assembling. “Well, I’ll take care of that, then.”

“Wait, what are you—” The weapon fired, and he twisted around to look. God dammit, Valerie, launching the thing on a missile doesn’t help!

The pressure against his shield disappeared, and a quick glance back confirmed that the Fright Knight had summoned his mount and was going after the missile. Danny needed to get there first, but he couldn’t be seen taking it.

It had been months since he last used this power, but… He split apart, meeting the bright green eyes of his duplicate.

“You know what to do,” he said to it, and it nodded back. It shimmered, disappearing from sight, but Danny could still feel it as it raced after Fright Knight. He would just have to hope that all that speed training would pay off.

“Damn, Phantom.” Valerie whistled, impressed. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

He blasted one of the skeletons away from her, cursing the distraction of his duplicate. This was not an ideal situation for this. “I don’t use them, usually. Splits my attention.”

“Gotcha.” She cocked her gun, turning her attention back to the fight as well. “Now what?”

“My duplicate is gonna grab the ring, make sure that Fright Knight loses track of it.” An ice-ray stopped a large swatch of ghosts that were coming in their direction. “Shooting it on a missile is a short-term solution, and we do not want them to actually get their hands on the Ring.”

His duplicate had caught up with the missile, snatching the Ring before Fright Knight could notice. Danny instructed it to flee, to hide the thing in a place where Fright Knight wouldn’t be able to detect it.

“Wow, I heard the capitalization on that.” Valerie snorted, blasted a few more skeletons apart. “Why is it so important?”

“It greatly increases the power of a ghost wearing it.” He swept a disc of ectoplasm at some of the ghostly skeletons, watching the explosion scatter them. His duplicate had made it back to FentonWorks unnoticed, stuffing the Ring into a Thermos. Clever. With its job finished, it dissipated. “Pariah wants it because it’ll make him the strongest ghost in the Ghost Zone.”

He could see her mask crinkle as she made a face. “And how bad is that?”

“Well, I had to use a suit that increased by power hundred-fold just to match him, so…” He could see her fretting, now. “Don’t worry, my duplicate snatched it and hid the Ring. They won’t find it.”

“Good.” The ghosts around them stalled, all of a sudden, and she drew closer to him, warily. “I don’t get it. Why did my weapons supplier have that thing?”

“Long story.” Danny angled his head upwards, saw the Fright Knight coming down again. Had he given up the search so quickly?

“You know my weapons supplier?” Valerie asked, skeptically. She had caught sight of Fright Knight as well. “Oh, there’s that guy again.”

The Fright Knight dismounted, the clanking of his armored boots loud in the sudden silence. Over the still skeletons, Danny finally caught sight of Jazz and Vlad; they were on opposite ends of the field, both having apparently decided to move to the edges of the fight instead of staying in the center like him and Valerie.

“By the authority vested in me by my Lord and Liege,” Fright Knight started, raising his sword. Green flames engulfed it suddenly. Danny felt his heart clench, but there was no stopping it.

“I claim this town now and forever under the weather of Lord Pariah, King of All Ghosts!” And Fright Knight drove the sword down, sinking it into the ground. A wave of ectoplasm emanated from it, a secondary beam shooting straight up.

“Stay back, and stay calm,” Danny told Valerie, not taking his eyes off of Fright Knight. “He’s not going to attack.”

She nodded, but the tense line of her shoulders told him she wasn’t happy with it.

The beam of ectoplasm spread out, forming a dome around their whole city. Jazz shot over the motionless ghosts, joining up with him and Valerie. “What’s he doing?”

“Right now? Upping the amount of ectoplasm we have in our air.” Danny let his eyes wander back to Vlad, but the man made no attempt to join up with them. “And he’s not gonna do anything else, either, except give us his demands.”

Fright Knight turned to look towards them. Danny stepped forward as well, Valerie and Jazz staying behind.

The ghost angled his head, but took the hint—Danny was the leader. “The sword has sunk, your die now cast. The sword removed shall signal fast. Make reappear,” he gestured at their group, “the ring thou hast. Or your next day shall be your last.”

And without another word, he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

“That sounded… dramatic.” Valerie was clearly eyeing up the skeletons. “What about those?”

“They’re not gonna do anything for now,” Danny dismissed. “Pariah wants us to hand over the ring, he’s not gonna attack us until his terms run out.”

“Where is the Ring, anyway?” Jazz frowned at the skeletons, but turned to face him for his answer. “Why did they stop looking for it?”

“We hid it.” He shot a meaningful look at the skeletons below, and Jazz nodded in understanding. “You head back home, I’ll catch up with you in a minute.”

She nodded again, golden eyes darting between him and Valerie. “Gotcha. I’ll meet you there.”

“What was that about?” Valerie asked, skeptically, as Jazz left them. “Why not just tell her?”

“I didn’t want to risk the skeletons being able to listen in.” He shrugged, casting out his ghost sense. Vlad had also left, at some point. “And I wanted to talk to you about your weapons supplier, Vlad.”

“What about him?” Her posture was stiff, tense.

Danny rolled his eyes. “You don’t think that it’s weird that the Vlad Masters gave this kind of weaponry to a fourteen-year old? That he gave a powerful ghost artifact to you, knowing what—or who—was after it?”

“Ugh.” She sighed, shoulders slumping down. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it for a while. You gonna tell me he’s evil, now?”

“And also a half-ghost.” He grinned at her incredulous look. “That vampire-looking guy that was here with us? Vlad Plasmius, half-ghost. He’s been half-ghost for two decades, but he’s not as powerful as me, and Jazz will outpace him as well, when her core matures.”

She hummed. “And he’s no good?”

“And he’s no good,” Danny confirmed. “Told me—and Jazz, in this universe—to our face that he wanted to kill our dad and marry our mom. Most ghosts aren’t obsession-driven like people think, but Vlad? Absolutely.”

“Yikes.” She shook her head. “Now I’m gonna think of that every time I see my weapons. Big creep who refuses to deal with his own shit, got it. Anything else I gotta know?”

“Maybe get your gear checked out. I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him.” He frowned, one finger tapping on his cheek. “I know that your identity is a big deal, and I respect that, but the Fentons are probably your best bet. Well, after this.”

“Thanks for the head’s-up, anyway.” She turned her head, presumably to look at the dome above them. “Now what?”

“I’m gonna head back towards FentonWorks. You’re welcome to come along. Would probably comfort your dad, too, to know that you’re in the safest place in Amity Park.”

She nodded, shifting to follow him. “What kind of world do we live in where FentonWorks is the safest place in Amity?”

That startled a laugh out of him as they set off.

---

Danny stretched, hovering over one of the cluttered lab tables. His parents—or their counterparts from this universe—were hard at work on the Ecto-Skeleton, Vlad standing nearby. Not helping of course, God forbid. Just watching.

He was keeping an eye on Danny, but that was okay. Danny was keeping an eye on Vlad as well.

Once or twice, the man tried sneaking closer to him. Tried talking to him without anyone noticing. It hadn’t been very successful, not with Jack and Maddie in the lab. And hadn’t that been a surprise to Vlad? Finding Danny in his ghost form in the lab, his parents perfectly fine with that?

Jack sighed, interrupting Danny’s thoughts. “Let’s take a break, folks. Get some lunch.”

“I think I’ll keep working,” Vlad said, eyes on Danny the whole time. “I’m not hungry.”

Maddie threw him a skeptical look. “If you’re sure, Vlad. What about you, sweetie?”

Oh, he was so glad that his parents were playing along. Not using his name meant that Vlad had no idea of their knowledge.

“I’m good, thanks.” He flapped a hand. “You guys go get lunch, and Vlad and I will keep working.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, but nodded. With Jack right behind her, she left the lab.

“They know, don’t they?” Vlad turned back to him, meeting his eyes. “That’s why they are so nice to you. They’re afraid of giving away your secret to me.”

Well, no point in denying. He shrugged at Vlad. “They were already nice before they figured it out.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Vlad sneered. “But here you are, spending ages in your ghost form. Why not shift back?”

“Why would I? It’s not like my ghost form is hurting me.” He drifted closer to the suit, until he was above clear space again. “Or do you dislike it, Vladdie?”

“Don’t call me that,” Vlad hissed back, his eyes flaring red for a brief moment. Ooh, temper, Vlad. “It doesn’t matter, anyhow. The invasion will get worse when no one finds the ring they want.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Yes, because you’re not at fault for any of this, are you? Come on, man.”

“I don’t have the ring, if that’s what you are suggesting.”

“Yeah, because you gave it away to the Red Huntress.” He sighed, twisting until he was in a standing position, matching Vlad’s eye level. “Come on, I know exactly what’s going on. Just tell me why you thought it was a good idea to release a ghost of Pariah’s caliber, just to snatch a powerful artifact.”

Vlad flinched back, eyes narrowed. “How do you know about any of this?”

“Because people think I’m stupid when I’m not.” He grinned at Vlad, cocky. “What are you gonna do about it, Vladdie? Gonna tell my secret to my parents? Or, wait, what if they know already?”

“You little—” Vlad’s eyes flared red again, almost immediately followed by the dark-light rings that signaled his transformation. The other half-ghost didn’t wait a moment, lunging instantly.

Danny formed a shield, pushing Vlad away from the battle suit. “What are you really trying to achieve, man? You lost the Ring, you have no chance of getting the Crown, not while Pariah has it. Now what?”

“The suit will have to do,” Vlad hissed back, hands clenching. “But for now, I’m willing to settle for introducing your face to the floor.”

A bolt of green ectoplasm whistled past Vlad’s ear. Danny followed it back to its origin, finding the entire Fenton family at the bottom of the stairs.

“You talk too much,” Maddie said, almost complaintively. The glint in her eyes was angry.

“What?” Vlad’s eye clearly caught on Danny Fenton standing with his family. Vlad turned back towards him. “What’s…”

“You’ve been outplayed, Vladdie.” Danny shot an ice beam, freezing the older half-ghost to the wall. “Sorry, pal, but they heard everything.”

Pink flames formed around Vlad’s fists, and he started wriggling out of the ice. “No! I will not—”

“We know everything, Vlad.” Jack stepped forward, a disappointed frown on his face. “We’re sorry for the accident in college, for hurting you. But it’s not our fault that we weren’t allowed to visit you. It’s not our fault that you broke contact.”

“Being angry with us is one thing,” Maddie chimed in. “But attacking our children over it? Wanting to kill one of us? That’s too much, Vlad. You cannot honestly think that that’s okay.”

Vlad snarled, the ice around him cracking. “Oh, please. Like you know anything!”

“They know more than you do.” Jazz quirked an unimpressed eyebrow at Vlad. “They know everything, Vlad.”

“But we also believe in second chances.” Jack curled an arm around Maddie, keeping his eyes on Vlad. “We need to finish the Ecto-Skeleton, and we’ll need to fight that big ghost afterwards. Are you with us, or not?”

The ice cracked, Vlad almost completely free. “And what will you do if I refuse to fight with you?” he hissed, aura flaring bright. “Will you—”

The blue vortex of a Thermos interrupted him, wrapping him up entirely. Danny Fenton grinned, a close match to Danny’s own cocky grin. Other Danny capped the Thermos. “Now what?”

“We’ll have to discuss it later.” Maddie took the Thermos, carefully placing it aside. “For now, he can wait in there.” She sighed, clicked her tongue. “I can’t believe that man.”

“Thanks for telling us, Phantom.” Jack heaved a sigh. “And for helping us catch him.”

“Hopefully he’ll be more receptive to a stern talking-to than mine.” Danny floated closer towards them. “How’s progress on the battle suit?”

Maddie sighed, taking one last glance at the Thermos before turning to the suit. “It’s almost finished. If you two had any allies to gather, this might be a good moment for it.”

“Gotcha.” He nodded, and Jazz stepped up next to him. “Jazz, can you handle Sidney and Valerie? I’ll go get the others.”

“We have other allies?” she asked, one eyebrow raised skeptically. “But, sure.”

Light flashed as she shifted to her ghost form, drifting up. “I’ll be right back, then.”

“I might be a bit longer,” he admitted, both to her and to her parents. “I have some actual tracking down to do.”

Jazz nodded, flying off, and Danny quickly did the same. Some of these ghosts, he could find; he knew where they had been in his own universe. But others…

Well, he’d try his best, at least.

---

Jazz sighed, impatiently, watching over the people gathered in the lab. Both Sidney and Valerie had been reluctant to mingle, but had eventually caved to her insistence. Now Sidney was hovering next to Danny, Sam, and Tucker, talking about… modern schooling? And bullying? Hm. Well, at least they were getting along?

Valerie, on the other hand, had cornered Jack and Maddie, and was discussing ghost weaponry and gadgets.

Finally, though, Jazz’ ghost sense went off. She thought she could recognize Phantom’s signature, but she wasn’t sure… and it was far too strong.

But no, there he was. Phantom phased through the ceiling, followed by the allies he’d gathered. She counted… seven ghosts. Seven?! What the—

Phantom, floating above the rest of them, grinned. Threw his arms wide to gesture at the ghosts floating behind him. “Sorry it took a bit! Had to track down and convince all of these guys.”

Jazz went through the crowd, mentally. On the far left was a ghost she didn’t recognize; metal, humanoid, with green eyes and a matching flame mohawk. Next to him was Ember, followed by the Box Ghost, Lunch Lady, and then Desiree, and Dora on the furthest end, her amulet glowing brightly.

Another ghost she didn’t recognize floated up closer to Phantom. Big and bulky, a humanoid body-shape but with a wolf-like face, paws, and even a tail. The entire ghost was covered in thick black fur, and it had some dangerous looking claws on its front paws.

“Most of these are familiar faces, but I’ll introduce everyone anyway.” Phantom gestured at the ghost on the far left. “This is Skulker, Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter. Then there’s Ember, grand musician. The Box Ghost, self-explanatory. Lunch Lady, a killer cook. Desiree, wish-granter, and finally Dora, princess of Aragon.” He patted the ghost next to him on the arm. “And finally, this is Wulf! He only speaks a little English, mostly Esperanto.”

“You speak Esperanto?” Tucker asked, elbowing Danny. “Since when?”

“Since I befriended Wulf and realized I had no way of communicating,” Phantom retorted, rolling his eyes. “You folks wanna do an introductory round as well, or what?”

Jazz rolled her eyes, stepping forward. “I’m Specter, half-ghost. That’s Sidney, full ghost,” she pointed at him, and he raised a hand, clearly shy. “Next to him on the left is Danny, my brother. On Danny’s left is Sam, and furthest right is Tucker. They’re taking care of flight and small guns.”

She gestured at Valerie, who had stepped away from the adults. “That’s the Red Huntress, some of you might be familiar with her. She’s one of the local ghost hunters; she’ll be main fighter among the humans. Next to her are Jack and Maddie, my parents. They’re also ghost hunters, and they’ll be taking the big guns. Any questions?”

“Yeah, I got one.” Ember’s eyes narrowed, her hair flickering like a flame. “Why do the humans have specific roles when we don’t?”

“Uh.” Jazz made a face. “Honestly, we had no clue who Phantom was bringing. Also, you all know your skills best. The humans, we had to equip, but you guys can all work alone.”

Ember hummed, apparently satisfied with that.

Skulker, meanwhile, seemed to be suspiciously looking between Phantom and Danny. When Phantom noticed, however, he grinned widely at Skulker—all teeth and no humor. That was enough to throw the ghost off, who promptly pretended he hadn’t been doing that.

There was a story there, and Jazz wished that they had the time to go into it.

Something sniffed next to her, and she started. Jerked around to see Wulf next to her—and how had she missed a ghost of his size moving?

“Amika,” the ghost greeted her, before continuing in Esperanto.

“He’s pleased to make your acquaintance!” Tucker yelled, hurrying closer so he could help translating.

“Oh, uh.” She offered her hand to him. “Nice to meet you, too. Are you…” She ran over possible situations in her head. “Are you the ghost Phantom rescued in the Ghost Zone?”

Tucker spoke, presumably translating it. Wulf nodded, immediately.

“Apparently they are close friends back home, and…” Tucker paused, quietly talking back and forth with Wulf. “I guess Phantom asked Wulf to keep an eye on you, when he goes home?”

She blinked up at the large ghost and his bright green hoodie. Wulf’s tail wagged, slowly, hesitantly.

“I’m going to have to look up a course in Esperanto, then,” she said, grinning slowly.

They were unfortunately forced to end the conversation there, as Phantom cleared his throat. He was now standing on top of the finished Ecto-Skeleton.

With everyone’s attention drawn, Phantom spoke up. “So, everyone knows the plan?”

A general murmur of acknowledgment sounded.

“Good! Let’s get ready to go, then!” He underlined the statement by uncapping a Thermos; Jazz stiffened, expecting it to be Vlad’s, but no ghost came out. Instead Phantom shook out… a ring.

Or, no. The Ring, based on the gasps of all the other ghosts.

Phantom stuck it onto his finger, frowning down at it. Then, with a shrug, he phased into the Ecto-Skeleton, activating it.

“Is that safe?” Jazz asked, although she wasn’t sure who she was asking. Phantom must’ve heard her, though, because he shrugged—and the suit shrugged along.

“Safe enough,” he said dismissively. “The suit alone is too draining. It almost killed me in my own timeline, and I’m not risking that again.”

Phantom’s off-hand mention of his origin was… baffling. It also startled every ghost in the room except for Wulf. Well, now they were in for a quite talk, weren’t they?

But Phantom must’ve realized, because he grinned at the slew of ghosts. “How about this, folks. We take down Pariah, and then I’ll tell you guys all about it! And no one will be able to claim a role as Pariah’s Bane, because I’m not a local. Yeah?”

“Dipstick, you’re something else.” Ember shook her head, clicked her tongue, then nodded. “What are we waiting for, folks? Let’s go!”

The other ghosts cheered—or something close it, anyhow—all raising their fists. Phantom led them into the Ghost Zone, and Jazz only belatedly remembered that she was supposed to stay close to him. Quickly, she darted through the Portal as well.

Inside, the Ghost Zone was… vast. An enormous expanse of black, swirled through with green. It felt lighter than Earth. Not necessarily in a gravity way, but more… It was hard to explain.

“First time in the Zone, right?” Phantom asked, suddenly next to her. He grinned understandingly. “There’s more ambient ectoplasm, so you’re probably feeling that. I would offer to show you around, when this is all over, but…” He shrugged, making a face. “I’m not very good at navigating.”

Oh, yeah. That was how he’d gotten into her universe in the first place, wasn’t it? She’d almost forgotten. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

The Portal’s surface parted, and the cylindrical shape of the Specter Speeder burst through. Danny waved at her through the glass, with Sam behind the wheel and Tucker in the co-pilot seat. Not a moment later, Valerie flew through as well, her hoverboard loud in the silence of the Ghost Zone.

“Looks like we’re all here,” Phantom declared, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Specter and I will go at the front. Once we’re there, you guys will be in charge of clearing the way.”

“We know!” Valerie yelled back. “Let’s just go and get this over with!”

“I agree with the human hunter!” Plane-like wings folded open from Skulker’s back. “Go, whelp, and we’ll follow.”

Phantom rolled his eyes but did as said, taking lead. Jazz sped after him, forced to keep more of a distance than usual thanks to the Ecto-Skeleton.

Pariah’s castle is easy enough to recognize, a floating structure with the land in front of it filled with ghostly skeletons. Jazz lined up next to Phantom when he stopped, the others all coming to a halt in front of them.

“Showtime.” Ember cracked her knuckles, then swung her guitar to the front. “Let’s go, everybody!”

Ember’s dive was followed by the Box Ghost and Lunch Lady, side-by-side. Sidney and Desiree went right after them, Desiree’s hands glowing green. Valerie dove next, weaponry charging, and Skulker drew even with her, panels sliding open to reveal his own guns.

Dora shifted into a dragon, roaring, and Jazz could feel the sound reverberating in her bones. Wulf answered it with a howl, and the two plunged towards the ground as well.

Last but not least, the Specter Speeder swept forward, staying high where the ghosts went low. The doors on either side opened, Jack and Maddie leaning out, heavy weaponry in their hands. The built-in guns started charging as well—Danny’s work.

She and Phantom stayed behind, watching the skeleton army get eviscerated. Before long, even the larger guards at the door were cleared out—or otherwise drawn away—and Phantom nodded at her. “Road’s clear. You got the key?”

“Yep.” She patted the pocket of her belt that held it. “You take care of Pariah, and I’ll make sure he won’t get out again.”

“Good. Let’s show him what we’re made of.” Phantom dove before she could answer, so fast that Jazz couldn’t even keep up. But that was okay—he was supposed to keep Pariah’s attention.

By the time she made it to Pariah’s throne room, Phantom had already engaged the ghost in a fight. And, wow. For some reason she’d imagined Pariah to be, y’know, mostly human sized. Not this massive bulking ghost, with twisting horns and a crown made of literal flames. Yikes. She was kind of glad she wasn’t the one fighting.

Phantom split himself, three duplicates joining him. All four versions of him shot ecto-blasts at Pariah, and the ghost was pushed back.

“You miserable pest,” Pariah grumbled, shaking off the hit. “You think you can stand up to me?”

“Ha!” All of the Phantoms grinned, viciously, but only one continued speaking. “I know I can stand up to you! I am Danny Phantom, half-ghost hero from another dimension. Pariah’s Bane!”

That caught the full ghost off-guard, because he blinked. The moment of surprise was enough. Two of the duplicates grabbed Pariah’s arms, and the third pushed against his chest.

Pariah seemed to struggle, but the final Phantom shot an ecto-blast at his feet. Pariah stumbled, almost tripping, and the three duplicates shoved.

The fourth Phantom shot forward as well, sweeping around the Sarcophagus. After a moment of consideration, Jazz followed him.

Phantom’s duplicates gave another shove, and Pariah knocked against the back of the Sarcophagus. The moment he crossed the threshold, Phantom himself pushed against the door, shutting it.

Jazz darted around him, the key already in her hand. It slid into the lock easily, and she twisted it.

It clicked shut.

The three duplicates dissipated instantly, and Phantom sunk to the ground, Ecto-Skeleton and all. It disengaged, the top clicking open, and he cheered weakly. “Whoo, we won!”

“We won!” she cheered back, flying over to him. “Are you okay?”

“I need a nap,” he confessed, slumping against her. “But we won!”

#danny phantom #dp fanfic #phanfic #phanfiction #dp fanfiction #danny fenton #jazz fenton #jazz phantom #halfa jazz au #dark writes #absurdism

[ibelieveinahappilyeverafter]

Your Words On My Skin - Chapter 4

Bonjour, mes chers! Sorry for such a long pause between these updates. Real life decided to sneak it's way back in and let's just say it's not going down without a fight.

AO3 FFN

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Summary: Danny Fenton was born with writing on his arms that proved he had a soulmate out there for him that was much, much older than his parents were comfortable with. The result was his skin being covered as much as possible and Danny warned that he shouldn’t look at the words or write any back. Danny has always been a little bit curious as to who his soulmate was, but he never thought on how curious his soulmate was about him.

<<First Chapter>><<Last Chapter>><<Next Chapter>>

Chapter Four

::

“Fuck.” That seemed to be the only word possible to accurately describe Danny’s feelings as he stared at his arm where all of Andrew’s words had been cleaned away and replaced with a question that made him feel like his heart was being stabbed.

He had woken up and expected to see a ‘good morning’ or a new story idea that Andrew had scribbled down in the middle of the night - day? - and instead he was greeted with a heaping amount of guilt and irrational anger that it would be so much easier to explain all of this if Andrew had a phone. Right, okay, shower first and then brushing his teeth and then explaining why they had the worst luck ever when it came to soulmates. That was a good plan. Right… Explaining…

He could explain all of this, couldn’t he? It was pretty simple when he laid it all out neatly. He had just stayed quiet because words had appeared the moment he was born, and his parents had terrified him into never even looking at his skin. Right. Easy.

“Time to get up for school, Danny.” Hearing the knock on his door, Danny looked up as Jazz peeked into the room. Judging by her expression, Danny’s expression was even worse than hers. “Soulmate troubles or ghost troubles?”

“He just asked me why I never wrote back.” It seemed to take a moment for Jazz to understand what he meant, but when she did she gave a wince. “How do I even- I can’t- He doesn’t have a phone.”

“Okay, okay, don’t panic. Hey, it’s okay, we’ll figure this out.” Thank whatever fucked up deity was out there for taking pity on Danny and giving him a great big sister. “Has he written anything else, yet?”

“No, and he erased everything else, too.” Danny moved over as Jazz sat down beside him, chewing on her lip and, okay, good, she was thinking. Maybe she would think of a plan to get Danny out of this mess. “What do I say?”

“Well… There’s always explaining to him the truth. Does he know how old you are, yet?” Yes- No. Maybe? Danny couldn’t remember if he had ever actually mentioned his age. “That’s a no, then.”

“He might know. Maybe- Possibly.” He… He probably knew. Nn. “Okay, so, maybe he doesn’t, but does that really change anything?”

“Danny, that could change everything, and you know that.” Yeah, but… He didn’t want it to change everything. “I know your situation is difficult, but if you want it to work, then you need to communicate with each other.”

“Mhm, yeah, so, hey, can I get big sister Jazz back, please?” Therapist Jasmine made him feel bad about his life choices.

“Write to him, explain what’s going on, and if you need to then dump him.” Well, besides that last part, it was a pretty solid plan. “ You should probably take a shower first, though. You have school today.”

“Right- Yeah, that first, but, yeah.” Sliding out of bed, Danny quickly drew Jazz into a hug. “Thanks, Jazz.”

“No problem, Danny. Now go fix things so you don’t sit around here moping.” He hadn’t been- Okay, so he had been moping a little. He was good now, though! So good. Right. Shower and then talk.

Rushing through his morning routine more than a little, Danny was soon sitting on his bed in a tank top and staring at his clean arms before forcing out a sigh and uncapping his pen. “Alright, Andrew… I hope you don’t hate me for this.” If his soulmate was decades older than him, then… Well. He was about to be in for a very nasty shock.

Still. After everything the least Andrew deserved was the truth- Danny had been through fifteen years of silence, too, but his probably hadn’t caused the pain that it had to Andrew.

Danny made sure to not make any of it sound like an excuse as he wrote, because, well, he was just as much at fault as his parents were, really. Danny had put his soulmate through fifteen years of silence because he had been too scared to look at what might - or might not - be there. This- This was just as much his fault as it was theirs. All of it.

It took a lot of small writing and a lot of awkward twisting, but Danny eventually managed to explain everything. He explained about his parents, and how words began appearing when he was just born, and how he was scared to look because his parents made it seem like he just didn’t have a soulmate, and if he never looked, then it couldn’t be proven true, right?

He made sure to tell Andrew that he was fifteen, sixteen in April, and was currently a Sophomore at a high school in Amity Park, Illinois. He talked more about his friends, his sister, and- Well, he may have left his last name out. Andrew might not ‘believe in technology,’ but if he lived close enough then Danny didn’t want him to know that he was ‘one of those crazy Fentons.’

‘So yeah it kind of built up a lot over the years since the moment I was born really and it built and built and I know it’s not an excuse but for what its worth Im so so so sorry Andrew.’

It felt like an eternity before Danny began to see words written in purple pen that was squeezed in on his upper right thigh. ‘I suppose that would explain a lot.’ For some reason, Danny had a feeling that Andrew was very, very shocked by everything.

‘Im mature for my age?’ Jokes. Jokes would help. Right? Hopefully? Maybe? A moment passed by and the words were then viciously crossed out with the purple pen, and, right, Andrew was probably panicking a little bit. ‘Deep breaths??’

‘Is it too much to ask for some time to think?’ That- That was fine, honestly, because Danny sure as hell would want time to think- Hell, he had needed time to think after what his parents told him.

‘Take all the time you need Andrew Ill still be here’ A few seconds passed, and Danny couldn’t help but grin as he saw a few hearts doodled around what he had written down. Danny made sure to draw a few of his own before capping his pen and collapsing on his bed with a tired sigh.

That… It hadn’t gone bad, at least? Granted there were probably places he could have explained a little better, but overall it seemed like Andrew accepted it okay.

“At least it can’t get any more dramatic to-” A wisp of blue escaped out of his mouth and Danny groaned as he rolled over to smother his face into his blankets and why today of all days! Right, okay, time to go be a hero-

Ooh. He could work off some aggression depending on who it was… “Come and face me, whelp! Let the true hunt finally begin!”

“Oh, that is just perfect.” There was nothing for stress relief like bashing in a tin can a couple hundred times. Besides, Danny didn’t even have to feel guilt where Skulker’s suit, was, well, a suit.

Besides, it would be a nice distraction until Andrew wrote him back.

::

“Fifteen. He’s fifteen. My soulmate is fifteen-years-old- Randy, he’s fifteen-years-old.” Instead of looking appropriately horrified, Randy only stared at him before slowly raising his eyebrows in a rather insulting manner. “He’s fifteen.”

“You know, funnily enough, I figured that out myself when you woke me up screaming about how your soulmate was fifteen.” That- Andrew hadn’t been screaming, he had been… He had been loudly panicking, was all.

“Randy, my mate- Danny is fifteen and I’m- I’m-” He wasn’t even sure how old he was, right now! Fifty? Probably fifty- Actually, it might have been the late forties. Maybe. Somewhere in that age range, at least- He was old. “I’m a horrible, selfish, loathsome, despicable-”

“Would telling you to calm down do anything besides earn me a punch?” Turning to glare at his idiot brother who was not at all taking this matter seriously, Andrew looked around for whatever was closest that could be used as a weapon. “You’re not horrible. It’s not like you can control how old your mate is, Andy.”

“Yes, yes, I know, but he’s fifteen, Randy. That- That’s hardly anything!” Andrew remembered what they were like when they were fifteen and it was, well, it wasn’t the best. God, he had been alive perhaps longer than his mate’s parents had been alive. Oh, dear, that was such a horrible thought.

“If it helps, you’re technically twenty-two and, as far as we know, you won’t be aging again. That leaves Danny plenty of time to catch up to you, yeah?” Right- Right. Plenty of time to catch up and pass him and become even older than him and then Andrew would be the one so much younger and-

“That’s worse. That’s so much worse, Randy.” Because finding out he had been alive longer than his mate was one thing, but finding out that his mate would live, grow older, and die, and that Andrew would be left behind and forced to continue- Worse. Very, very much worse. “Please stop helping to make it worse.”

“Look, you two aren’t going to be solving anything by worrying and fretting and avoiding the important questions. You finally asked him why he never wrote back and now you know - which, really, this is a much better option than a sadistic, sociopath of a mate.”

“Yes, yes, I suppose you would be right, except that makes me the sadistic, sociopathic mate!” God, Danny would never want him once he found out his age- As well as a ghost? If that didn’t drive him off than the fact Andrew was a former assassin would. “Perhaps I can shift reality-”

“No using reality shifting powers to solve your relationship problems!” Making sure to be as petty as possible, Andrew collapsed onto the couch Randy was on and did his best to sit on the man’s arm. “Andy, c’mon, you’re a writer. You’re good with words. You two will find a way to work this out.”

“Yes, but- Oh, hold on.” Danny’s words from before had been messily scrubbed away recently, Andrew seeing a faint imprint of the explanation that he had been seeking for years. What was left behind had Andrew’s blood- Heart- Fuck.

“What is it? Did he ask you why you don’t believe in technology again? Or maybe- Oh.” There, written on his skin in words that were written too fast and too small, was a question that might damn it all.

‘how old are you??’ It should have been a simple question that would be easy to respond to, but- But if he said twenty-two, then Danny would be suspicious and think he was lying, now. If he said his true age, however, then Danny might never want to talk to him again because he was older than his parents, probably. 

“Any idea how to answer that one, then?” Mm, yes, see, now- Now that was the question of the day. How to answer this without driving Danny off. “Maybe if you just stretch the truth for a little bit-”

“Randall.” Andrew glared over to where Randy had his hands raised peacefully. “I am not going to lie to my soulmate about my age of all things! I don’t want to lie to him period!” Which, okay, the technology thing had broken that a little, but- But he only said that, so he didn’t lie to Danny further! Yes, okay, alright, he hadn’t exactly been honest with Danny about some things, but he had never lied about anything too important! He had just neglected to mention a few key points of who he was.

‘I suppose you would want to know- Don’t you have school this morning?’ Ignoring Randy’s snorting noise that was supposed to be laughter, Andrew sighed in relief when he saw swears scribbled out before Danny stopped writing.

“So, your plan is to distract him, instead?” Yes, well, it wasn’t a very bad plan, now was it? It had worked, after all! “He’ll ask you again eventually, you know. Especially when he doesn’t see an answer.”

“I know, I know, I just- I need to figure out the best way to answer, is all.” Standing up, Andrew chewed at his lip as he headed towards the kitchen. Maybe some baking would help clear his thoughts. At most, it wouldn’t hurt matters any more than they already were.

“You’re living off borrowed time, now, frérot.” See! That- That wasn’t helping. It was ominous, and worrying, and made Andrew wish he was still alive just so he could start breathing funny and distract Randy from his problem by making him think he had asthma or some such rot and- “Hey, hey, breathe, Andy, breathe.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t exactly need to breathe, anymore.” Andrew didn’t even complain as he was pushed towards a kitchen chair, instead just collapsing in it, propping his arms up on the table, and hiding his face.

He had spent years wishing and hoping and praying for a soulmate, and it led him to this. A fifteen-year-old boy who was scared too often, alone too much, and wanted to know his soulmate despite what his parents had told him. Danny has no idea that Andrew was a ghost. He probably thought Andrew was fifty - or at least near that age - and he still wanted to talk to him and spend time with him and get to know him.

“You know, there are some bonds that lead to platonic soulmates.” Randy’s voice was quiet, the man close enough to ruffle his hair. Andrew didn’t even bother to smack his hand away. “It doesn’t always have to be-”

“This is.” It was. Andrew knew it as well as he knew Danny knew it. They were meant for each other as soulmates often were. They- Well, Andrew wasn’t quite sure on Danny’s exact feelings at the moment, and his own were a little murky, but he knew it wouldn’t be long until he fell in love with his mate. “I want to tell him, Randy, but what if…”

What if he ran? What if he stopped writing again? Danny had always known silence, too. It wouldn’t hurt him to just stop writing and continue as he had been. Andrew… He had spent so long wishing and praying and if his mate just left out of nowhere- He hated it. He hated so much that he knew something like that would break him.

“Andy.” Feeling Randy’s hand on his shoulder, Andrew at least peeked his head up to see that Randy was looking serious for once. “Worrying yourself like this isn’t going to help either of you. I know… I know this is difficult, but wouldn’t it be better to let each other know the truth of everything at the start?”

“What if he runs away, though? Randy- We’re ghosts. We weren’t meant to have connections like this with the living.” It was so stupid. It was a trope that Andrew had never wanted. The dead in love with the living. Souls meant to be, but bodies that could never touch. Love for someone that they should never feel love to. Star-crossed lovers.

“What if he stays?” It… It wasn’t impossible. Oh, it was improbable, that was certain, but their situation- It didn’t have to be impossible. “You bought yourself some time for now, so take a breath, calm yourself down, and don’t fight back as I take over your kitchen.”

“Take over my- Randall! You are not taking over my kitchen!” Randy was already grinning and flying over to the fridge, Andrew loving more than hating how he was already laughing, and, right. He had bought himself some time. A little time was all he needed.

No matter what, he would find a way to fix things between him and Danny. Somehow.

::

“Danny… You’re in the library. You’re in the library during study hall- Are you studying during study hall?” Staring at his friends, Danny wasn’t sure if he had ever gone from surprise to annoyance as quickly as he had then. “Sam, punch me, I need to see if I’m- Ow.”

“You know, you’re usually supposed to be quiet when you’re in a library.” Was it petty that Danny hoped their school librarian would toss his friends out? It was probably petty, but dammit, it was earned pettiness. “And no, I’m not studying. Jesus, who do you think I am, Jazz?” The shared looks between Sam and Tucker were just insulting.

“Okay, you’re in the library during study hall and you’re not playing video games on the computer you’re using- It actually looks like you’re in a database- Hang on, what are you really doing?” And as usual, Sam’s judgement fell away to insatiable curiosity as she started pushing Danny and his chair out of the way.

“You know, this is why I have ghost powers.” Sam and her damn curiosity. “Not that you need to know, but I’m actually looking up people with the name Andrew Riter-”

“You’re looking for your soulmate.” That was a very judgmental tone, but considering Tucker was still rubbing at his side, Danny would rather not get punched. “And you’re not asking him where he lives because…”

“Because he won’t tell me? Because he figured out I’m fifteen and he’s not? Because I just told him why I’ve been avoiding him for all these years- Look, do you want a list? It’s a very long list- Okay, okay, sorry, no need for violence.”

“Oh for- Why do you boys never know how to communicate!” Sam grabbed his chair and pushed him back in front of the computer. “Why are you using a school computer to do this?”

“Because my parents and Jazz snoop. Look, soulmates typically live pretty close together, right? Only one out of every million end up living more than two or three hundred miles apart, so if I can find an Andrew Riter near Amity Park or close by, then I’ll find him. See? Easy.”

“Right, you just have to sort out one of the most common names ever. Easy as can be.” Huffing and nudging Sam out of the way, Danny went back to his very important research. “You know what I’m hearing? Stalking-”

“I am not stalking my soulmate.” That would require finding him, first. “Look, at least I’m not as bad as Tucker with his last few crushes-”

“Hey!” Taking the chokehold with grace, Danny squirmed only a little as he glared back up at Sam. “If I do this then I can at least find out what he looks like or how old he is or something. Sammy, he hasn’t even told me how old he is, yet. It was a battle to get his last name out of him!”

Glaring down at where his question had been ignored in favor of a short idea about star-crossed lovers or something, Danny spitefully drew a few stars over the idea. “Are you sure you wouldn’t just rather wait and have him tell you this on his own terms? What if he finds out you’re looking for him and he doesn’t want that?”

“Dunno. Haven’t thought that far, yet.” Danny hit print as Tucker finally let him go, Sam crossing her arms and looking at him. It was the look of guilt that usually had Danny caving, but not this time! “Sammy, c’mon. What would you do if you were me?”

Sam could claim she was uncaring about soulmates all she wanted, but Danny saw her clutch at her sleeves and glance to Tucker too quick for the other to notice. “I still think this is a bad idea.”

“We tend to excel in bad ideas, though.” Tucker grinned before snatching up the printed papers and going through them quickly. “Right, make a list of what you know, and I’ll start coming up with an algorithm to cross out some of these.”

“Wait- You’re helping me?” Danny looked between the two, not even flinching as Sam whacked him with her sleeve. “But you just said-”

“If it’s important to you than it’s important to us.” Sam took half the papers, flipping through them herself. “Oh, wow, that’s a lot of results.”

“Over a thousand,” Danny groaned, looking back down to his arms and biting his lip at seeing his stars had been scribbled in with a blue pen. Underneath that were words appearing about star travel and space and pretty much everything Danny loved and dammit. He was weak. He was very, very weak. “I just… It’s not even that I want to know what he looks like, but I want to know- I want to know he’s out there.”

“What do you mean?” Seeing a librarian lurking nearby, Danny logged off his computer and grabbed his bag, Sam and Tucker falling into step with him near at once.

“I mean it’s like- When it’s just writing back and forth on our skin, it’s- I don’t know. It’s weird. It’s like if I look away from his words, then they were never there. I know the words are there, I can read them and see them and everything, but it’s…”

“The words don’t make up for the rest of it,” Tucker finished quietly, Danny raising an eyebrow when his gaze slid to Sam and then back to him and oh. That- Alright, Danny would definitely be coming back to that, later. “I’m sure he’ll tell you who he is eventually, but until then we’ll help you as much as we can.”

“You are stuck with us.” Sam linked their arms together, Danny trying not to laugh as Tucker did the exact same thing on his other side. “And until your soulmate shows up to sweep you off your feet and steal you away, we’ll be here for you.”

“You want to encourage the three-way rumors between us, don’t you?” The two both grinned in the exact same way and oh, come on, they had to know they were soulmates. Fuckers. “You’re awful.” Danny loved them. “You think we can do it, then? Track down my wayward soulmate?”

“Dude, after what we’ve been through, I think we can do anything. I mean, this is nothing compared to some of the stuff we’ve done.” That was true, but it still felt- It felt bigger than everything they had done before.

“We’ll sort this out, Danny,” Sam smiled, kissing his cheek and smirking when Tucker raised his eyebrows and- Oh- Oh, no.

“I swear to god if you two start some fight on who can show me the most affection, I will be very upset with you.” Escaping out of their grips, Danny stuck his tongue out as he ran along ahead to class, trying not to laugh at their loud complaints about ‘leaving them.’ Dorks.

For as great as his friends were, though, there was still the fact that he wanted to know. He still knew so little about Andrew and not enough ink in the world could tell them everything there was to know about each other.

Looking to his skin, he saw plenty of new words, along with a small, scribbled little ‘sorry’ written on the back of his wrist. Danny slowed to a stop, staring at the word and quietly groaning. “Why do you have to make this so much more difficult?” Now he was feeling guilty.

‘if you could only be trapped in one place for the rest of your life where would you be trapped?’ Distractions. Distractions would help and learning about Andrew was always a great distraction.

‘My library.’ Whoa, wait, what, Andrew had a library? ‘Would I be supplied with food for this hypothetical forever?’

‘probably’ Most likely. Danny stared at the reply for a few moments, biting his lip and he could try asking again, but… ‘you can only eat one food for the rest of your life what is it?’ Not yet. Andrew would try to avoid the question, still, so Danny would just work up to it. Besides, if Sam and Tucker pulled through and they got lucky, well.

Andrew wouldn’t be able to avoid Danny’s questions if they were face-to-face.

::

Staring at where Randy was sleeping on a pile of books, Andrew frowned and very slowly and carefully pulled out one of his knives. Seeing Randy tense, Andrew threw it in a smooth, quick motion, amused when Randy’s arm snapped up to catch it as the rest of him stayed still. “It’s no fun if you make it look so easy.”

“You know, most people don’t find it fun to throw knives at their sleeping brothers.” Randy tossed the knife back to him, yawning as he sat up and stretched in a way that gave a few loud cracks that had Andrew wincing. “Alright, alright, next pile.”

“I know you agreed to help me with my research, but perhaps you should actually sleep in a bed instead of on my books.” Plus, Andrew was starting to feel a little bad about recruiting Randy into his soulmate research binge when he was fresh off a job.

“And perhaps you should worry less. Done stating what we’re never going to do?” Randy stood up and his back gave another crack, Andrew letting out a small whine. That sounded like it hurt. “‘M fine, ‘m fine. Besides, I’m not leaving you on your own again. When I got back you had worked yourself up into an attack.”

“It wasn’t an attack. I was just… I was a touch worried about not finding the materials I needed.” Ignoring his brother’s look, Andrew cleared his throat as he gathered a few more books to him. Surprisingly, he didn’t have that many books on soulmates. It was rather disappointing.

“Uh-huh. How many books have you read since I last asked you that question?” Oh, aha, wow, Andrew very much did not want to answer that question. “You’re obsessing.”

“We’re ghosts, obsessing is what we do.” Snagging one of the books Randy had been sleeping on, Andrew sighed as he brushed it off. “There has to be a case like mine and Danny’s documented somewhere, surely.”

“Yeah. Definitely a case where an alive kid ends up being soulmates with a ghost who’s been dead longer than both of them were alive for.” That… When said like that… “Ah, jeez, c’mon, don’t get the depressed look-”

“I do not have a depressed look, thank you very much. I’m simply concerned on the fact we haven’t found anything even remotely similar to my situation.” They had been through dozens of books by now and there was still nothing even close to what they were going through.

“Hey, hey, Andy, c’mon.” Randy threw an arm around him and trapped him in place, Andrew huffing and upset over the fact that he didn’t even try to escape. “It’s possible that all of this will work out-”

“I know that.” That was the part that was terrifying him. “This could all work out and if we do this right, then we’ll both be happy, and that’s…” It was terrifying because he knew what happened when he held hope.

“Oh, Andy.” Randy pulled him into an actual hug and oh, god, it was that bad, wasn’t it? If Randy was actually hugging him, then he must have looked more pathetic than he thought. “We’re not used to good things happening to us, are we?”

“I believe an argument could be made that such a statement is very much an understatement.” Andrew finally sighed and leaned against Randy, feeling more than a little hopeless at the situation. “I don’t know what to do, Randy.”

“Well, the whole research thing is a good start.” Yes, he supposed, but there was still… Randy was right. A situation like this had never been seen or heard of. A ghost being soulmates with a teenager who was still alive? It… No matter how one looked at it, there was nothing but heartbreak, except… There was still a chance of it ending happily and it terrified him. “What do you need?”

“I need- I need a book- I need something to help me figure this out.” Knowledge had never let him down before. There had always been a book to help him out of a situation. Whether it was to distract him, give him inspiration, instruct him on what to do next, or even just to give him an escape, there was- Books and knowledge had never let him down before.

“Okay, we’re off to a good start on the whole book thing.” Randy finally let him go before pushing him down into a seat, Andrew huffing as a pile was pushed in front of him. “These should be the last ones, yeah?”

“The last ones with an academic approach to the subject, yes. I’ve yet to go through and pull the books that have a fable outlook.” Watching his brother stare at him, Andrew huffed. “I am not simplifying that when I know for a fact you understood it perfectly.”

“Damn. You were so much more fun before you caught on to the fact I was smart.” ‘Smart.’ Randy was certifiably a genius if Andrew could just get him to sit still long enough to take one of the tests. “Okay, we have the nonfiction checked off, but maybe check fiction? Kernel of truth in every story?”

“That was my thinking, yes.” Andrew flipped open the book closest to him, staring at the blurry words before he was staring at the cover again. “That was rude.”

“You haven’t slept and for as much as you want to complain that ghosts don’t need it, you do need sleep if you want to stay sane.”

“I’m not tired. My eyes just need to rest, is all.” This time the book was pulled away from him, Andrew collapsing back in his seat and looking up at Randy as pathetically as he could. “Randy.”

“Five hours, one meal, and three brownies and then I’ll let you get back to work.” Mm… No. Andrew didn’t like that. He would just keep reading- “Andy. Do you really think Danny would want you driving yourself crazy like this?”

“That was low.” That was just- That was just mean. “You’re awful.” Completely ignoring his brother’s grin, Andrew pushed himself up and oh, alright, yes, maybe a bit of rest would be good if he was seeing that many black spots. “There’s still at least a dozen books-”

“I’ll keep searching.” Oh. “Hey, at least I know your crazy filing system, and I know how to take notes you can actually read. Just go get rest and I’ll take care of this.”

“You’re so awful.” Aiming for a hug, Andrew slumped more than anything, amused when Randy easily supported him. “You’re supposed to be an annoying big brother who never shuts up and ruins my hopes and dreams and-”

Andrew’s words were drowned out by Randy’s laughter, the sound making him relax more than anything else. He may have had horrible luck when it came to the soulmate area of his life, but at least it was made up for with such a great brother.

As helpful as Randy was, though, he had been right when he said this was a unique situation. Something like this… Stories, maybe, but it was doubtful this had ever happened before. That begged the question of why did this happen?

Maybe his mate was as cursed as he was. Danny seemed like a sweet kid, but even through written word Andrew could tell that he was hiding more than he wanted to admit to. They all had secrets, but Andrew knew what the ones hidden in darkness looked like in daylight. Danny was hiding, yes, but Andrew… He was doing so much worse.

Danny had been honest and told him so much, and yet here Andrew was dodging questions and avoiding answering due to not wanting to hurt their feelings. It- Was there any way out of this that didn’t hurt Danny’s feelings?

Randy had been right back at the start of this mess. Andrew was going to hurt Danny and break his heart because, well… Andrew looked down to where patches of stars inked with pen were scribbled across his words. He didn’t need Randy’s look to know there was a hopeless look on his face, and, really.

He had fallen so quickly, hadn’t he?

#danny phantom #iambic prose #soulmate au #words on my skin au