#master is strange (fanfic) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sunnys567 · 1 year

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Friends in Strange Places, Ch 1

Summary: AU where Vlad turns out to be friendly instead of evil.

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All was quiet in Amity Park that night. That is, until the silence was broken by a 14 year old on an electric scooter.

"Finally!" he said, checking his watch. "It's only 9:57. I'm about to make it home one night without ghosts getting in the way of my curfew!"

Not 2 seconds after he said that, a familiar chill ran up his body and out his mouth in a puff of mist. Filled with a sudden mixture of dread and annoyance, Danny looked up to see three green birds whizz overhead.

"Ugghhhh, why??" he groaned as he ducked behind a car and transformed. It didn't take long for him to catch up with the birds.

They turned out to be three ghost vultures, who were all wearing red fezzes.

"Hey, any chance you guys lost?" he asked.

One of the birds turned it's head to look at the leader.

"Ask him for directions." It said in a Turkish accent. Danny hadn't expected an actual answer, he was just being snarky.

"Ve don't need any directions!" The leader answered. He suddenly dove out of the sky. The other two birds followed him, Danny not far behind.

The birds phased through the roof of a monorail train. When Danny entered the train he saw the birds perched on the seats, having a heated debate. It was a good thing this car was empty.

"I know vere I'm going!" the leader snapped, his head thrown up in indignance.

"Ve've been flying avound in circle for an hour. Ve could've been halfvay to Florida by now. Ask him!" The vulture pointed his wing at Danny.

"Ask me what?" Danny asked.

The birds phased through the roof and Danny followed them. Why couldn't they just stay still?

The leader ghost sighed in defeat.

"Ve are on a surveillance mission. Could you help us find dis guy?" He pulled a ripped corner of a photo out of his neck fluff and handed it to Danny. The person in the photo had much longer hair, but besides that he looked just like-

"Dad?" Danny exclaimed.

"See, I told you he'd know!" The bird with the glassed smirked.

The bird's smile was quickly wiped from his face as Danny threw and ecto blast at him. He managed to dodge and flew off, the other two trailing behind him. Danny gave chase.

The vultures manage to elude Danny for a bit, until they came to the clock tower. They tried to circle around it to lose Danny, but he saw what they were doing and circled the other way without them noticing. They squawked in surprise when they saw him, but before they could do anything, Danny managed to grab them all by the ankles. He swung them around his head like a hammer thrower and tossed them as far as he could into the sky. The birds were dazed, but they managed to fly off as fast as their wings could take them.

"And how about you do everyone a favour and stay lost!" Danny called after them. He'd forgotten the thermos at home, so scaring them away would have to do. They seemed pretty harmless anyway.

Danny pulled the photo out.

"I wonder what those guys wanted with Dad..."

His musings were interrupted by the chime of a bell. He looked over at the clock tower and saw it was...10:15! Oh no! He was late! Again! His parents were not going to be happy.

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Sure enough, they were not happy. They were waiting for him at the door with unimpressed faces. They brought him to the living room to have 'a talk'. Well, his mom talked, his dad was working on some green boiler-looking machine whose function Danny was too afraid to ask.

"Danny," she said "this is becoming a problem. You're constantly late,"

"You're shirking from your chores," his father popped his head out from behind the machine to say.

"You're grades are slipping," his mother added.

"You're shirking from your chores,"

"You already said chores." Danny raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but when you don't do them, I get stuck with them."

"The point is," his mother interjected "this behaviour is unacceptable and has to stop."

"Look, I'm under a lot of pressure." Danny knew that was a lame excuse, but he didn't have a better one prepared, and he certainly wasn't going to tell them the truth. "You guys have no idea what it's like to be a kid these days."

"Oh come on Danny, that's the oldest excuse in the book." His mom was rolling her eyes, so she didn't notice Danny's arm sinking through the arm of the couch. He quickly pulled it out and was relieved to see that Jazz was occupied with a book, so no one noticed. "There's nothing you're going through that you're father and didn't go through as well." "Oh yeah, I beg to differ." Danny muttered rubbing his arm.

"The reason Danny thinks you can't relate to him," Jazz closed her book "is because you never talk about your childhood."

"Jazz." Danny knew this couldn't go anywhere good.

"Did you ever tell him about where you grew up, your first date,"

Danny watched in horror as a thoughtful look crossed both his parents faces.

"Jazz!"

"Where you went to college?"

"You know, that's a great idea Jazzy-pants." Jack said.

"It is?" Jazz asked.

"What is?" Maddie raised an eyebrow.

"This is!" Jack pulled a gold-trimmed flyer out of his pocket. "Our old college bud Vlad is holding a reunion in Wisconsin! We can all go down together!"

"Wisconsin?" Jazz echoed, horrified.

"All together?" Danny horror equal to, if not greater, than Jazz's.

Jack pulled Maddie close to him. The kids could tell from her face that she also thought this was a great idea.

"Yup," Jack chirped, oblivious to their tone "Just the four of us in an RV for hours. And, while we're driving, your mother and I can talk about our college days, and I can blather on about ghosts!"

As if on cue, the boiler-thing he'd been working on sputtered to life and began lurching horribly. Green goo shot out of one of the pipes and landed on Jazz's face. She did not look happy.

"Awesome! It works!" Jack cried, seeming unaware of Jazz's predicament. "I cant wait to blather on about that too!"

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They managed to set off the next morning with only one semi-major incident (Jazz may or may not have gotten covered in ecto-goo again, and it may or may not have been Danny's fault).

Wisconsin was pretty far away, though, so they'd had to park somewhere to sleep for the night. The kids weren't exactly stoked about sleeping in the RV.

"It's the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle." Jack corrected them.

"And more importantly, hotels are a rip-off." Maddie said. "Why pay 200 dollars to sleep somewhere when an air-mattress for four only costs 80?"

"Aren't you guys loaded?" Danny asked.

"It's the principle of the thing, Danny." His mom replied.

"Alrighty, rest up everyone." Jack said as Jazz emerged from the bathroom. "I want you all bright eyed and bushy-tailed when we meet Masters tomorrow."

"Wait a minute," Jazz froze mid-step "Masters? As in, Vlad Masters? As in, Time magazine's billionaire of the year?"

"Yup, that's the one."

"You mean, you were friends with a billionaire in college?" Danny asked, suddenly getting Jazz's shock.

Jack seemed unaware of the looks of stupor on his kid's faces and continued speaking.

"Well, back then he wasn't 'billionaire Vlad Masters'." Jack said. "Back then he was just good old 'Vladdy'. Yup, we were pretty popular guys back then."

Jazz and Danny finally broke out of their shock to give each other looks of doubt.

"Back then, your mother, Vladdy, and I were an unstoppable team. We were the only ones brave enough to dive into the budding field of ecto research."

Danny resisted the urge to crack a joke. Jazz seemed like she was doing the same.

"Yes indeed, we even had our own research laboratory to build and test our inventions in!"

"Well, it was more of an abandoned classroom that no one stopped us from using." Maddie said as she pulled some pillows and blankets out of a compartment Danny hadn't even know existed until now "but, still, it was ours." She hugged the pillow she was holding with a far-away look on her face.

"Yup, we had a good thing going." Jack beamed. "That is, until the fat fingers of fate jammed themselves into Vladdy's eyes."

Maddie's dreamy expression turned somber. Jack started to tell the story:

"We'd finally finished the construction of our very first ghost portal."

Danny's eyes widened when he heard this. Jazz gave him a concerned look. She didn't like how easily her parents seemed to forget about his accident.

"Well, it was really more of a proto-portal. It was a lot smaller than the one we have back at home. We didn't know nearly as much as we know today about ecto-technology, especially not something as complicated as a portal. I also may have gotten a bit over-excited and rushed some of the calculations. The thing went haywire when I turned it on. Vlad was standing too close and took a blast of impure ecto-energy directly into his face. It resulted in a horrible case of ecto-acne."

"It devastated him." Maddie said. No one noticed that she had made up the air mattress while Jack was talking. "Vlad wouldn't allow any visitors in the hospital. Including us." She looked absolutely crestfallen when she said that. "The week after he dropped out without a word to anyone. We haven't spoken since."

"But the good news is, after all these years, I think he's finally forgiven me. Goodnight kids!"

On that note, Jack flicked a switch and the RV lights shut off.

Danny wasn't sure why, but he couldn't shake an uneasy feeling as he drifted off to sleep.

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When Danny first saw Vlad's mansion, he thought it was a castle. The building was constructed entirely out of grey bricks. Green and gold banners hung from four turrets as well as above the entrance. Actually, Danny wasn't completely sure it wasn't a castle.

As they all climbed out of the RV, the wooden double doors swung open and out stepped Vlad Masters. He was wearing a suit and had long silvery hair that was swept back into a ponytail. Danny was surprised by his hair colour. Vlad was the same age as his parent, but neither of them had even started to go grey. He wondered if it had anything to do with the portal incident. Not that he was going to ask.

"Ah, the Fenton family." Vlad smiled as they reached the top of the stairs. "Jack, Maddie. It's been too long." He looked down at Jazz and Danny. "And these must be Jasmine and Daniel. It's nice to finally meet you two. Come in, come in." He turned around and gestured them to follow.

An irritated look flashed across Jazz's face. For some reason, she didn't like being called by her full name. Danny didn't understand why. He didn't mind being called by his.

The entryway was also adorned with green and gold. A red carpet that led to the stairs. Pictures of football players lined the walls. The pictures simultaneously felt tacky and decadent. There was also a football resting on a pedestal near the end of the hall with a signature Danny couldn't make out.

"What's with the green and gold?" Jazz asked. "You're a billionaire, surely you can afford an interior designer?"

Danny hadn't realized the name thing ticked her off that much. Maybe the trip had made her irritable. Still, he felt Jazz was being pretty harsh to their host.

"Jazz, hello? Notice the football stuff? He's a Packers fanatic."

"Fanatic is such a...strong word, Daniel. But, yes." Vlad stopped by the signed ball.

"Oh yes," Maddie said "I remember, back in the day, you and Jack were always going on about football. Vlad actually played quarterback on the college team, kids."

Danny shuddered internally at the word 'quarterback'. Vlad seemed a lot nicer than Dash, but still.

"Yes, but that was a long time ago Maddie." Vlad said "I'm afraid my quarterbacking days are long over."

"Aw, come on V-man. Don't be like that." Jack grabbed the football off the pedestal. "I'm sure you've still got some old moves left in ya!"

"Don't touch that!" Vlad snapped, snatching the ball out of Jack's hand with surprising speed. His warm welcoming aura suddenly turned hostile.

Everyone stared at Vlad for a few seconds, not really sure what to do. Vlad's expression melted from rage to a dignified shame. He cleared his throat and straightened his posture.

"My apologies," he said setting the football back on its stand "I know that reaction was...inappropriate. The truth is I was forced to stop playing because of the accident." A look of guilt flashed over Maddie's face "I didn't realize it until now, but I think I was subconsciously viewing this football as a sort of..." Vlad spun his hand in the air, as if trying to summon the correct word "...consolation prize. It has always been my favourite piece of Packer's paraphernalia. It's signed by Ray Nitschke himself." The warm grin made it's way back to Vlad's face as he stared at the ball.

"It is also very expensive, and I'd rather it not be damaged." He added quickly, snapping his gaze back to his guests.

"That was impressive." Jazz said "You must be seeing a really good therapist."

"Jazz..." Maddie scolded.

"Quite alright, Maddie." Vlad waved his hand "It's been a while, but yes, I've had access to some of the best psychological minds in the field. The accident in college was quite the upset on my life, but it also gave me the opportunity to work on myself. In a way, that accident was responsible for making me the person I am today."

Danny wasn't sure why, but he felt creeped out by that last sentence. It kind of felt like Vlad was making a private joke to himself. Sort of like he was hiding something.

"Anyway," Vlad checked his watch "I'm afraid I can't stay for dinner, but I'll show you you're rooms before I'm off."

"Aw, you're leaving already, Vladdy?" Jack pouted. "But we've barely even had any time to catch up."

"Time is money, I'm afraid, Jack. Don't worry, we'll have plenty of time to catch up tomorrow."

Jack didn't look cheered up at all. Vlad came over and put a hand on his back.

"You know Jack, this house is very old. So old in fact that there's rumours that the ghost of the Wisconsin Dairy King himself may haunt these very halls." Vlad tilted his head upwards.

At the top of the stairs there was a rather large portrait of a stout jovial-looking king whose scepter was shaped like an ice cream cone. Jack's face was instantly lit up with glee, and he was suddenly gone.

"Thought that'd do the trick." Vlad grinned.

"Thanks Vlad," Maddie said "That really cheered him up. It'll be nice to talk properly at the reunion tomorrow." Maddie's voice was level, but it was hard to miss the manic look in her eyes.

"No need to be polite, Maddie. If I know you, I'm sure you're just as anxious to investigate this potential paranormal activity as Jack."

"Don't be ridiculous." Maddie cracked each of her knuckles individually as she spoke. "I, er, should at least see where are rooms are before I run off."

"Ah, yes. Right this way then. I'll make the tour quick."

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Danny was glad to finally be getting some sleep. His room was decorated in green and gold like the rest of the castle (Mansion? Danny wasn't really sure how to classify this place). His room had a purple double bed with drapes. There was a large glass door on one wall that led to a balcony. It was much more glamourous than sharing an inflatable mattress with your family.

Just as Danny began to drift off, he felt his ghost sense go off.

"Oh great," he said to no one "We go all the way out to Wisconsin and you guys still find a way to bug me." Danny focused and the familiar rings came (around the whole bed for some reason) and he was out of bed and flying through the wall in no time.

The mansion was big, but Danny's ghost sense gave him a general sense of where to look. It wasn't long before he found what he was looking for; three ectoplasmic-green ghost...vultures? They were turned away from Danny, various machine parts clutched in their talons.

"You guys again?" Danny exclaimed. The vultures turned around, startled. "Are you following me or something?"

"Aie! It's that ghost kid!" One of the vultures shrieked.

Danny charged up an ecto blast, but he was too slow. The vultures all turned intangible and flew off in different directions.

"Hey," Danny shouted "I want answers!"

"As do I." Came a voice from behind him. Danny spun around.

Floating a few feet away from him was a humanoid ghost. His skin was blue, his eyes were red, and he wore mostly white including a full-body cape. His pitch-black hair was styled straight-up, giving it the appearance of devil horns.

Danny had to admit, he looked pretty impressive, floating there with his arms crossed, cape flowing out behind him. The glare he shot Danny from his glowing red eyes was actually quite scary.

Not that all ghosts weren't kind of scary...

"I was aiming for the birds, but you'll do."

Danny charged at the ghost, fist-first. To his surprise, the ghost caught Danny's fist and redirected him, causing him to crash into a wall.

"You're a lot more competent than the other ghosts I've fought, I'll give you that." Danny said as he got up. He made another attempt at the ghost, charging straight for him. "But I'm done playing around."

Before Danny could hit him, the ghost caught him again, this time by the neck.

"As am I." The ghost said as he threw Danny to the ground. "Danny Phantom, is it?"

"You...know me?" Danny quickly recovered, floating back up to the ghost's level.

"Of course!" The ghost flew backwards, phasing through the wall behind him. Intrigued, Danny turned intangible and followed him. The room they ended up in was a giant library. There were so many bookshelves that it was more of a maze.

"Every ghost in the ghost zone has heard of you. You're that ghost child who's been defending the humans in Amity Park ever since that portal opened. Imagine my surprise to find you here, harassing my vultures."

"Hey, they're the ones that started it!"

"Is that so?" the ghost raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, and I intend to end it!" Danny said shooting an ecto beam.

The ghost raised his hand and Danny's beam bounced off of a pink square that appeared in front of his hand. Danny tried firing more beams, but the ghost simply moved his hand around, along with the pink square, deflecting all of Danny's blasts.

"Ectoplasmic energy blasts." the ghost fake-yawned. "So, year one?" he closed his fist and the square disappeared. "Tell me child, can you do...THIS???"

Suddenly, another ghost, identical to the one Danny was fighting, popped up beside him. Startled, Danny began to back away, but two more clones popped into existence behind him.

"N-no, I can't." Danny replied, gobsmacked. "How can you?"

"Years of practice." The four ghosts replied in unison. They all raised their right arm and fired their own pink ectoplasmic energy blast at Danny.

Danny crashed to the ground. He looked up to see the four ghosts fuse back into one, but it didn't matter. That last blow had knocked any chance of winning the fight out of him.

Danny felt his consciousness slipping away...

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"No, stop, get away!" Danny yelled as he untangled himself from the blankets, sitting bolt right up in bed.

"Everything all right in there, Daniel?" Vlad asked from the doorway.

"Huh, oh, uh, yes Mr. Masters. I must have just had a nightmare, sorry for disturbing you." Danny spoke quickly, still dazed.

"Quite alright my dear boy. You needn't worry, I was awake anyway. You're sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, I'm good now thanks. You can go back to bed."

"Yes, I think I shall." Vlad said, turning around "Sleep tight little badger. We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

Once Vlad was gone, Danny breathed a sigh of relief. So the ghost attack had just been a dream. It didn't feel like a dream, Danny thought, as he laid back on his pillow. Then again why would those ghost Vultures come all the way from Amity Park to Wisconsin?

At least he didn't have to worry about facing that terrifying ghost again, he thought as he drifted off.

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The next day went off without a hitch (aka, ghost attacks).

At the party, Jack and Maddie introduced Jazz and Danny to their friend, Harriet Chin. Danny cringed in sympathy when his dad made a joke about her name ("Harry Chin. Get it?"). Jazz actually seemed interested in Harry, though. The two of them talked for a bit about Harry's career with the Milwaukee Journal. It seemed pretty high-level.

After a while Harry and Maddie found some other old friends to catch up with. Jazz went to Vlad's home theatre (man, he was rich) to watch a documentary on the Packers. Danny popped in to check it out, but saw that the film was in black and white. It was a close-call, but he decided the get-together might be slightly less boring.

While most of the guests were getting reconnected with long-time friends, Danny sat at a table by himself, his chin resting on his hand. His eyes glazing over as he watched the various 30-something-year-olds "shin-dig" around the auditorium (seriously, who has an auditorium and a theater in their house?). The novelty of a bunch of adults with blocks of cheese on their head had worn off about an hour ago.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.

"Bored are we, Son?"

"Wha- uh, no sir, Mr. Masters." Danny startled "Also, it's just Danny. 'Son's' what my dad calls me."

"Hm, very well then." Vlad smiled. He was always smiling. Danny was sure if he found that comforting or creepy. "Anyway, I've got something upstairs that I've been wanting to show you. Interested?"

"Oh, um...sure." Anything was better than sitting around here.

"Excellent. Right this way." Vlad said, turning towards the auditorium exit.

Wait, Danny thought, was Vlad taking him up there alone?

"Uh, Mr. Masters," Danny said as he caught up with Vlad in the hall "Aren't you going to get my parents?"

"No, Daniel." Vlad said as they started to ascend a curling set of stairs "They're busy catching up with old friends, I don't want to disturb them."

"Oh. Should I get Jazz then? She's probably not doing much either."

"Oh no, don't bother her." Vlad said as they reached the top of the stairs "I have something that I'd very much like to show you, and only you."

"Why me?"

"Don't worry my dear boy, it will all make sense when we get there."

Something wasn't right about this.

Danny did not like how secretive Vlad was being. He probably would have run away by now, but his curiosity was getting the better of him. Besides, if things went south he had his ghost powers, something Vlad didn't know about.

They stopped in front of a statue of the Wisconsin Dairy King. Vlad put his eye to one of the buttons on his coat. A red beam shot out and scanned it.

"Personal Recognized: Vlad Masters" A voice said, making Danny jump.

"Sorry about all this security, little badger. " Vlad said, as the wall in front of them slid to the side, revealing an enormous safe-like door "I've got some...valuable things in there. Things I really wouldn't want others to find."

"Well now I'm definitley interested in what you want to show me." Danny muttered as Vlad punched in a code on a keypad.

The door slid open. Vlad walked inside and Danny followed, cautiously eyeing his surroundings. There wasn't much. Unlike the flamboyant decadence of the rest of the mansion, this room, although large, was empty besides for another keypad on the back wall. The floor was white and the walls were made of metal. It kind of reminded Danny of something, but he wasn't sure what.

The door slammed shut behind him. Danny felt his eyes go green, as they sometimes did when he was startled. He quickly blinked them back to blue. He hoped Vald hadn't seen.

"Now then," oh good, he hadn't. "Now that we're alone, I wanted to ask you a few questions."

"Okaaaay..." Danny raised his eyebrow, what could Vlad possibly want to ask him of all people?

"Your parents did tell you about my little...accident back in college, didn't they?"

"Yeah, my dad says you haven't spoken since that day." Danny responded.

"Indeed," Vlad sighed "Jack and Maddie are dear friends, but it was hard to face them after what happened."

"So, you're still mad at them?"

Vlad laughed. Danny hadn't been expecting that reaction.

"Mad? Daniel I was never mad at them. I just called them 'dear friends' didn't I? What happened was an accident."

"You seemed pretty mad at my dad earlier."

"Sure, your father has always had a habit of getting on my and, frankly, everyone else's nerves." A far away look washed over Vlad's eyes. "But he made up for that with his sheer joyful enthusiasm. He may come off as an unaware oaf, but he really does have an incredible knack for ecto-technology. It could be hard, but it really was a delight to work beside him and Maddie."

Vlad sighed.

"Ah, Maddie, what a brilliant mind. You know, she could have chosen to study anything. Become a doctor in any field of her choosing. In the end she chose to pursue what mattered to her, even though the rest of the world called her work nonsense. That's truly an admiral trait, being true to oneself in spite of other's expectations. I don't know where she found the patience to put up with your father and me, though. I imagine she's an incredible mother."

"Um, yeah, I guess she is." Danny wasn't really sure how to respond.

"Anyway, enough reminiscing" Vlad said, returning to the present. "The past is in the past."

"Isn't reminiscing the whole point of this reunion?" Danny asked.

Vlad laughed again.

"Oh, Daniel. You're as clever as your mother, you know that? Both you and Jasmine." Vlad shook his head "Ah, look how easily I get distracted. This is what happens when you spend too much time alone. Anyway, I was wondering if they ever took up trying to rebuild that old portal."

"Um, yeah." As Danny spoke, Vlad turned around and started typing on the keypad on the back wall. "They actually got one working in our lab about two months ago." Vlad paused his typing, but didn't say anything.

Danny felt weird. It was odd to be talking about ghost stuff with someone who wasn't an immediate friend or family member. Usually that would result in him getting punched.

"Well good for them." Vlad's tone shocked Danny out of his stupor. There was almost something...forced about it. Maybe Vlad wasn't as over the accident as he said he was.

Before Danny could decide whether to confront Vlad about it, he pushed a green button on the keypad and the wall in front of him split into two and began to slide open, revealing a swirling pink, fully functional-

"Ghost portal?" Danny gasped.

"Yes, and that's not all." As Vlad spoke, tables began to emerge from hidden panels in the floor, and sections of the wall spun around revealing shelves. The tables and shelves were all filled with familiar green test tubes, as well as strange devices that glowed pink like the portal. If the devices had been green, and the whole space a little shabbier, it would have looked identical to Danny's basement.

"Wait, you've been a ghost hunter all these years too?"

"Well, more of a ghost researcher than a hunter, but yes, basically."

Danny walked up to the portal and brushed his hand against the metal frame.

"That's incredible. Do my parents know about this? This place would blow they're minds!"

"No, Daniel. You are the only other human who's been in this lab."

Danny stopped rubbing the frame and turned to face Vlad.

"Mr. Masters, why would you tell me about this place and not my parents? I mean, no offence, but they're the ghost hunters, and I'm 14. I feel like you'd get more out of showing them than me."

"Daniel when your parents got their portal working," Vlad's face suddenly turned serious "were there any...complications?"

Danny's eyes widened.

"I-"

Before Danny could think of an answer, he felt a familiar chill escape his mouth.

"Look out!" he shouted as an ecto-blast shot through the portal. Danny barely had time to jump out of the way as it whizzed by where his head used to be and crashed into one of the tables, shattering the beakers.

"Butter Biscuits!" Vlad cursed, grabbing an ecto gun off of another table and pointing it at the portal. "What is it this time?

As if to answer his question, three giant green yeti-looking ghosts with massive tusks lumbered out of the portal, the largest one leading the other two. They walked on all fours, and Danny noticed razor-sharp claws on their front paws.

The ghosts stopped to look around, and Vlad seized the opportunity and shot at the one closest to him. It yelped as the beam hit it's face and the front one (who Danny assumed, based on his limited knowledge of biology, was the Alpha) roared and swung it's paw at Vlad, launching him into the air. He crashed into the wall next to Danny and slid to the floor.

"Mr. Masters!" Danny cried, rushing to his side. Before he could help him up, Vlad brushed him away and pushed himself up into a fighting position.

"Alright," he grimaced "Time to stop playing around."

Danny gasped as a black ring suddenly appeared around Vlad's waist, crackling the air around him. The ring split into two and went up and down Vlad's body, changing him into the ghost Danny had seen last night.

Danny stood there, awestruck, as Vlad flew into the air. The yeti he had shot at let out a challenging roar. Vlad raised his arm and shot a pink ecto beam directly into it's throat. It let out spluttering yelp and ran directly back into the portal. The other two turned intangible and went off in separate direction. The Alpha one phased through the floor while the smaller one went through the back wall.

"Finger sausages! They've split up!" Danny almost jumped out of his skin as Vlad turned to look at him. "Daniel, the leader is headed to the auditorium. You distract it while I take care of the other one. Make sure it doesn't hurt anyone." Vlad said as he turned intangible. He flew through the wall before Danny had time to respond.

"Okay, not only is Vlad a ghost hunter, he's also apparently a ghost-ghost." Danny put his hand on his forehead "How long has he been a ghost? How is this even possible?"

Danny shook his head to snap himself out of his stupor.

"I don't know how this is even possible, but I'll have to figure it out later. For now, I'M GOING GHOST!" Danny shouted as he transformed. The rings had barely left his body before he was diving through the floor.

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Meanwhile, at the party...

"...And then I..." Harry blathered on about a story she was working on to Jack who, not possessing an ounce of subtlety, let his chin sink down into his cup.

"Am I boring you, Jack?" Harry asked, irritated by his lack of tact.

"Quite frankly, yes." Jack replied.

Suddenly, a giant green beast dropped from the ceiling and landed in the middle of the dance floor, silencing the chatting adults. They all stared at it for a moment, before it let out a terrifying roar, sending everyone into a panic.

"Suffering spooks! I didn't expect to see one so far out here." Jack immediately jumped into action "Maddie, get the RV! I'll hold it off!" he cried, pulling a mini ecto gun out of his jumpsuit pocket.

"Come on!" Maddie cried, grabbing the awestruck Harry by the arm as she ran by. "That gun won't do much, we're gonna need the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle!"

Harry was bemused, but intrigued.

Just as they left the room, Danny poked his head through the floor (or, ceiling, he supposed). Party guests were running everywhere, and his dad was shooting the yeti with a small ecto gun. The gun didn't seem to have much effect, in fact it only seemed to make it angrier.

This was bad news. The ineffective ecto gun meant Danny would need to help his dad fight the ghost, but unfourtunately Jack was likely to start attacking Danny as well if he saw him.

Danny had an idea. Turning invisible, he flew towards his dad and dove into his body. Blinking a few times to adjust himself, he raised his hand. Ever since he'd discovered that he could overshadow people, Danny had wanted to see if he could still use his powers while inside someone.

Danny aimed for the yeti and was pleasantly surprised to see a green ecto beam shoot out of his now enormous gloved hand.

"Yes!" he shouted as it made contact with the yeti, who yelped. The good news was that he now had a way to fight the ghost without his dad trying to kill him. The bad news was that the yeti now had it's attention turned on Danny. He barely managed to jump out of the way as the yeti lunged at him, crashing into, and destroying, another table.

"Woah," Danny wobbled a bit as he landed. "Jumping around in Dad's body feels so different." His musings were interrupted by the yeti throwing a chair at him. He ducked just in time. "But I better get used to it quick."

Danny looked around and saw that everyone had fled the auditorium, leaving him alone with the yeti.

"Perfect," he said, smiling at the yeti. "That means I don't have to worry about anyone seeing my dad do THIS!"

He punctuated his sentence by launching another ecto blast at the yeti. The yeti yelped again as it was hit. Danny launched a few more, but the yeti had wised up and began darting around the room, making it way harder to hit. It moved surprisingly fast for such a large creature.

Danny was so busy trying to hit the yeti that he failed to notice how close it had managed to get to him. Just as he realized what was going on, the yeti pounced across the remaining distance, pinning Danny's wrists to the ground with it's paws.

"Uhhh, any chance you want to just, talk this out?" Danny asked nervously, the yeti opened it's massive maw (which was uncomfortably close to Danny's face) and gave out another incredibly loud roar. "That's not exactly what I meant." Danny remarked, silently sweating.

Suddenly a pink ecto beam hit the yeti in the face, knocking it off of Danny. Danny pushed himself off of the floor. It took a second since he wasn't used to how heavy this body was. When he got up he saw Vlad had arrived, glove still smoking from that last ecto blast.

Before either of them could say anything, a loud honk stole their attention. He turned and saw the Fenton RV smash through the wall that used to hold the auditorium entrance. His mom's head was poking out through the driver window and she looked furious.

"Get away from my husband you filthy ecto abomination!" she shouted as three mechanisms that all looked vaguely like guns popped out of the roof of the vehicle. There was a brief whirrr sound before the one in the middle shot out a green ecto beam that was much bigger that the ones Danny fired. It his the yeti square on and sent it flying across the room.

"Way to go Mo- uh, Maddie!" That was close. It was weird how easy it was to forget you were in someone else's body.

Maddie got out of the RV, a much bigger ecto-gun than the mini blaster Jack had been using in her hands.

"Jack, you drive the RV." She commanded running past him, her goggles blazing with determination. "I'm going to give this ghost a piece of my mind!"

Danny looked around the auditorium. Vlad was nowhere in sight. He turned his attention to the RV.

"Ok," he said to himself "I'm technically too young to drive, and Mom and Dad seem to have this handled, so I'm going to go find out where Vlad went."

With that, he invisibly flew out of his father. Danny hovered near the ceiling and watched the panicked Harry yell Jack out of his stupor. Jack shook his head and jumped into the RV, weapons blazing within seconds.

"Wow, I almost feel sorry for the yeti." Danny cringed. "I wonder if Vlad went back to his lab."

Danny phased through the ceiling and turned visible. Vlad was indeed there waiting for him, still in his ghost form. Danny would've been lying if he'd said he wasn't a bit intimidated.

"I assume Jack and Maddie have the situation under control down there?"

"Yeah, and all the guests are safe." Danny looked around. He felt a twinge of guilt at the sight of the smouldering tables. "Sorry about the damage to your lab." he said sheepishly.

"Why apologize? It's hardly your fault. And anyway this happens every other week. Comes with the 'ghost researcher' territory." Vlad grinned "Fourtunately, I am immensely wealthy."

Vlad stared at Danny for a minute. It made him a bit uncomfortable, but he wasn't really sure what to do. What do you do when you're a half-ghost, and you meet your parents estranged college friend who also turns out to be a half-ghost?

"So I suppose your parent's portal did this to you?" Vlad finally asked. Danny's eyes widened.

"I, uh, don't know what you mean..."

"You can give up the ghost Daniel, I know it's you." (:D)

Danny sighed. There was no escaping it.

"Yeah," he answered, rubbing the back of his neck "Sorry, I just, you're the first person- I mean, I've...never really told anyone before. They couldn't get it working at first. One day I went inside of it, I guess because I was curious. I was kind of running my hand along the wall and it...turned out that they had put the 'on' button on the inside."

Vlad paused for another moment.

"Yes, that does sounds like Jack and Maddie. Well, maybe more so Jack, but your mother has her moments." Vlad mused. "So you've been like this for about two months then, correct?"

Danny nodded.

"And, how did you, you know..."

"The proto-portal from college." Vlad raised an eyebrow playfully "Duh.

"So that means you've been a half-ghost for, what, twenty years?" Danny spun that information around in his brain. "Oh jeez, that's a long time! I can't believe that's even possible! I thought I'd be the only human with ghost powers ever! I never thought I could meet someone like me!"

"As did I." Vlad said "Of course I'd heard the rumours of a ghost-human hybrid in Amity Park. In fact, it was these very rumours that prompted me to hold this reunion. Thinking of Amity reminded me how long it's been since I'd seen Jack and Maddie, or anyone else from college, for that matter. Imagine my surprise when I see the fabled ghost-child, the only other member of my kind, floating through my very halls last night." Despite his regal composure, Vlad's tone was filled with excitement.

"Oh, uh, speaking of which," Danny said "sorry for attacking you last night."

"I believe it's the vultures you owe an apology to."

"The vultures?"

As if waiting to be mentioned, an angry ghost bird's head suddenly popped through the wall.

"Yea!" he screeched as two more heads popped out above and below him " 'Vere's our apology?"

"Hey!" Danny snapped "You're the one's who showed up looking to attack my family!"

"Ve did no such thing!" the lead vulture retorted, phasing his whole body into the room, his two friends following him.

"Ve vere only dere for invormation on da Venton's, ve never planned on attacking dem!"

"Well how was I supposed to know?" Danny shot back "Every single ghost I've ever met wants to either kill me or my friends."

"Well not all ghosts are evil, doncha' know?"

Danny turned around and saw a stout kingly-looking ghost floating a few feet away. He looked familiar...

"The Wisconsin Dairy King?" Danny said, remembering the painting in the entrance hall.

"Aye." the king answered jovially "I, fer instance, have been roaming these here halls fer centuries, not bothering a soul."

Danny blinked at him.

"What he's trying to say Daniel," Vlad cut in "is that, like humans, all ghosts have different motives and desires. You tend to only see the evil ones because they're the ones who go looking for trouble. The not-evil ones tend to mind their own business."

"And how can you be sure of that?" Danny asked.

"I've been dealing with ghosts for 20 years, Daniel. I've learned a thing or two along the way."

"Well, how do you know which ones are evil and which ones aren't?"

"Same as you do with humans."

Danny bit his lip pensively.

"It seems," Vlad said as a black ring formed around his waist, morphing him back into his human form "that you have a lot to learn about ghosts. Especially if you're going to continue in the business of keeping the malicious ones out of Amity Park. Even though I live quite far from you, I'd be willing to offer my support where I can, if you're interested."

Vlad finished his offer by holding a hand out. Danny shook it and morphed back to human as well.

"It's kinda nice, not being the only one." Danny smiled as he let go of Vlad's hand.

"Likewise, my boy." Vlad beamed back. "Now let's head back to the party. I'm sure your parents are looking for you."

"And you. My dad's probably already started crying about how 'the ghosts kidnapped his best friend'." Danny said as the lab door slid shut behind them.

"Awww," The Dairy King cooed. "T'wasn't that sweet".

"Ve still didn't get our apology." The lead vulture griped.

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

"...and even if I did believe you, which I don't, why on earth would a ghost be a yeti?"

"I don't know Jazzy-pants. Your mother and I may be leading ghost experts, but there's still a lot we don't know. It's too bad the spook ran off, though. I'm sure we could've learned a great deal if we'd been able to examine that behemoth more closely!"

"Sweetie, all the other guests saw the ghost, too. Surely you'd believe over fifty eye witnesses."

"Sure." Jazz rolled her eyes "Why wouldn't I believe a bunch of drunk people who ran screaming from the room before they could even get a good look? There's not even enough proof for your friend Harry to write a decent story, and she's a professional journalist!"

Danny watched his parents and Jazz argue from the bottom of the mansion stairs. He'd known this was coming and did not want to get involved.

"I assume they don't know?" a voice said from behind. Danny turned around and saw Vlad standing behind him.

"No."

"Do you plan on telling them? Jack and Maddie are very loving people, you know they'd accept you, no matter what."

"Are you going to tell them?"

Vlad paused.

"Touché. I stand by what I said, but I won't push it."

The pair watched the argument by the RV ("...crowds can be susceptible to suggestion! A group of scared teenagers once managed to convince an entire town they were attacked by a giant alien that turned out to be nothing more than an owl!").

"I must say, it's rather nice having someone else who knows." Vlad said after a minute. "Well, someone who isn't a ghost. It's a shame you couldn't stay longer."

"Yeah," Danny sighed "but you know how my parents are. Can't stay away from their research too long. They didn't even change out of their jumpsuits for this trip."

"That's the Jack and Maddie I know. I wouldn't change them if I could." Vlad smiled. "Still, I'm sure we'd have had lots to talk about."

"Maybe...maybe you could come and visit sometime?"

Vlad made a strange face. It only lasted a second before it shifted back into his usual smile, although it wasn't as bright as before.

"Much like you parents, I would be remiss to leave my work for too long. Amity is quite a way's off from Wisconsin."

"Oh." Danny couldn't really hide his disappointment. A pensive look crept onto Vlad's face.

"Perhaps..." he hesitated. "I can't guarantee it'll work, and it would take some time to figure out, but now that your family has a portal, it could work as a much quicker route between our locales."

"Wait, really? How?"

"Well, the Ghost Zone doesn't follow the same logic as the human world. This, theoretically, could allow for faster travel between the two portals. However the Ghost Zone is also rather...difficult to navigate. Quite dangerous and confusing."

Vlad noticed the excitement on Danny's face.

"Now don't go getting your hopes up quite yet, Daniel. I can't truly guarantee there even is a quicker route via the Zone and, even if there is, it will take time to find."

Danny still felt pretty pumped at the possibility. He noticed a strange look on Vlad's face. It was hard to identify. It was like he was thinking about something that worried him. Danny wanted to ask him what was wrong, but that felt kind of awkward. He figured Vlad might not want to confide in some 14-year old he'd just met.

That being said, they were just about to leave and Danny wanted this visit to end on a happy note.

"Hey, um," Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously, not sure how Vlad would respond to this "How long did it take you before you stopped accidentally phasing though stuff?"

Vlad laughed loudly.

"Goodness, I'd forgotten all about that. Oh, that was awful. I lost count of all the things I'd dropped my first few months as a ghost. I remember once, when I thought I'd finally gotten my powers under control, a dear archeologist friends invited me over to see her research. She let me hold a genuine Ming Vase and it slipped right through my hands!"

Danny's eyes went wide.

"Did it break?"

"Absolutely shattered. The only positive note was that she was too stunned to notice my hands were translucent. We never spoke after that. I assume she was angry, but, truth be told, I was too embarrassed to ever check if she'd forgiven me."

Danny figured it would only be fair if he shared an embarrassing story of his own.

"A few weeks ago, I asked the most popular girl in school to the dance, and my pants went intangible fell off right in front of her. Well, her and the whole school." Danny chuckled hesitantly. It had been an incredibly humiliating experience, but enough time had passed that he could see the humour in it.

Vlad laughed hysterically when he finished telling his story.

"And that is why I locked myself in a castle for twenty years. I honestly don't know if I could have survived if I'd gotten my powers as a teenager."

Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by the most obnoxious car horn.

"C'mon Danno, time to hit the road!"

Danny sighed. He didn't want to leave, but he didn't really have much choice.

"I hope I get to see you again soon." he said to Vlad as he made his way to the RV.

"As do I, little badger." Vlad replied, following.

Unbeknownst to them, the three vultures had been perched on the banister, invisibly eavesdropping.

"I hope he does visit the kid soon. If you ask me, dat guy could really use some more human vriends." the raspy-voiced one said once they were out of ear shot.

"Yeah, I haven't seen Vlad dat happy in a vile." the one with the glasses added.

"That Plasmius is vun tough egg to crack fellas." The leader said. "but who knows? Maybe dat kid really can get trough to him."

Danny climbed into the RV as his parents said their goodbyes to Vlad.

"Well, Vladdy, it was good to see you after all these years." Jack reached his arm out the window and wrapped it affectionately, but tightly, around Vlad's neck. "It's like nothing's changed!"

"Yes, indeed." Vlad said, shoving himself out of Jack's grip.

"It's a shame we didn't have more time to catch up." Maddie sighed. "We'll have to get together again real soon, Vlad. Maybe you can come down to Amity Park next time."

"Yeah, V-man! You wouldn't believe the ghost activity down there!"

"Oh, I gave up the ghost research long ago." Vlad waved his hand. "But a visit with the Fenton family does sound enticing. Whenever I can find the time, of course. You don't become as rich as I am by sitting around all day, after all."

They did that thing that adults do where they talk about nothing for forever after they tell you it's time to leave. Eventually, Jack rolled up the window, and they were off. Danny waved at Vlad from the back window. Vlad waved back as the RV went around a corner.

Once Vlad had disappeared from sight, Danny sat back in his seat, beaming. Jazz raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't say anything, instead cracking open a book

Danny felt lighter than he had in months.

#danny phantom #dp #danny phantom fanfic #dp fanfic #fanfic #friends in strange places #fisp #danny fenton #vlad masters #good!vlad

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late-to-the-party-81 · 1 year

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Marvel One Shots - Canon Adjacent - Misc/Multi x Reader

Key: 🥰 Fluff 😭Angst 🍆Smut 🍑WLW smut 🌑Dark 🩸Violence 🌶 Suggestive

Peter (TASM): High heels 🌑

Dark!Peter x Reader -written for my 500 follower celebration

The awfully good, terribly bad day Part 1 Part 2 🍆

Steve x Bucky x Thor x Reader (Kinktober 2022 Day 12 and 13)

It's all about experience 🍆

Stephen Strange x Reader, Peter Parker x Reader (Kinktober 2022 Day 20)

To sleep, perchance to dream 🍆🥰

Eddie Brock x Reader x Venom (Kinktober 2022 Day 30)

A smile and a smirk 🍆

A Sam x Reader x Bucky drabble

Private Party 🍆

Steve x Reader but also Bucky x Reader x Sam

What's your price? 🌑(ish) 😭🌶

Soft!Dark! Tony Stark x Naive Reader

In Perfect Balance 🍆🥰

Tony Stark x Reader x Stephen Strange

Daddy's little cumdump 🍆

Tony Stark x Reader

#master list #Stephen Strange #Peter Parker #Eddie Brock #SamBucky #Thor #Steve Rogers #Bucky Barnes #marvel fanfic #Tony Stark

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brightlotusmoon · 2 years

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How Rise of the TMNT: The Movie Turned Michelangelo Into Doctor Strange

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie upgraded Michelangelo in a massive way, making him what the MCU's Doctor Strange wants to be.

#yay #rise mikey appreciation #i was right mikey has always had power #i think i started the psychic mikey fanfic trend in the 90s #rottmnt movie #rise of the neurodivergent teenage mutant ninja turtles #jokes on the haters the creators love the reboot #remember when you hated the previous incarnation and now love it #tmnt mikey is a sensitive #i love him okay #tmnt Mikey is doctor strange #doctor mystic master

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invye · 1 year

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The Actual Meaning of True Love's Kiss

(Stephen Strange/Wong, G, 4.6k, ~20 min reading time)

Summary: Stephen gets cursed. It's fine, not a problem, easy fix, Tina explains. Everything he'll need is a "True Love's Kiss." It's not fine, very much a problem, and not easy at all. Thankfully Wong is in the same room and having a couple revelations of his own.

Technically I wrote this fic as a gift for @sanctum-stinker at the end of last year, but that's not going to stop me from posting it as my entry for the March prompt "acceptance" of the @yearoftheotpevent now that I actually can post it! (Especially since time to write is tight right now and I want to focus on Unity of Magic)

This is very very self-indulgent and I'm not even going to try and hide it. Especially since this is the first time I actually gathered the courage to tag Master Jio, who is a recurring OC of mine you'll know if you've read my other works.

Enjoy, I sure know I did writing it!~

#you'll get to read the KT3 longposts soon #i gonna make my TAO/Hamir/Jio obsession all your problem as well and i'm not even slightly ashamed of it #WongStrange #wongrange #fanfic #read on ao3 #one shot #doctor strange #stephen strange #wong #master hamir #master jio (oc)#marvel #mcu #YOTP 2023

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mckiwi · 2 years

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Whumptober 2022 Day 4: Dead On Your Feet

Characters: Stephen Strange, Wong, Master Grimes

Summary: Stephen comes back injured and exhausted from a fight, but it can wait.

"Stephen, did you kill that Aswang?" Wong stopped him in the hallway to ask.

"Yes, it was posing as a nurse at a hospital so it could eat the newborn babies in the nursery," Stephen explained. "Also, quick question. Are they venomous?"

Wong turned away as a Master shouted his name. "Sorry, Stephen. I have to take this. You know how it is around this time," he said apologetically.

Stephen groaned, "yea, I know. The weeks before Halloween is always busy." Once Wong was around the corner, Stephen pulled up his sleeve to look at the two fang marks on his forearm. More specifically, he was looking at the swelling and redness spreading from the bite. He hissed at the sting of poking it with his finger then let the sleeve fall back down. It was probably nothing.

Stephen didn't need to have a doctorate to know something was wrong. He had just stooped down to pick up a book he dropped when suddenly his vision went black and his ears started ringing. He gripped the edge of the bookshelf as he started swaying and waited for the dizziness to subside. Blinking rapidly to clear his vision, he regained his composure and put the book back on the shelf. He'd look at the bite later, he had no time to waste at the moment. A Pontianak was hiding out in Indonesia and he'd rather get rid of it before it clawed someone's organs out.

The Aswang had been killed, the Pontianak was contained, and Stephen had learned a new exorcism spell. All before three in the afternoon. Even if the sun was still very much overhead, he felt exhausted. Not just the 'sleepy' exhausted, the 'I would sleep for twenty-two hours the second my head hit the pillow' kind of exhausted. The rational part of his brain told him it was his body fighting off the venom, or at least what he assumed was venom. It was hard to think with his thoughts echoing back at him. He pulled up his sleeve again to look at the bite. It was harder this time due to having swollen so much and he grimaced at even the lightest touch. Was that a blister forming? He should probably look at that now before it got any worse.

Master Grimes ran through the halls, skidding to a stop when he saw Stephen. "Master Strange! London is facing the wrath of the Black Annis's. Several mysterious murders and missing children have been reported in the news. We could really use some help tonight."

Stephen had hidden his arm under the table the second he saw Grimes, "yea, of course. Let me find out how to capture them and I'll come over right away." Grimes nodded in thanks and portaled back to London. Stephen noticed it was already sundown there, meaning more than just the Black Annis would be coming out soon to hunt. Just his luck. He glanced back at his throbbing arm. It could wait. He quickly searched the library for mystical creatures of England and used the gateway to London.

The next thing Stephen remembers is waking up. He felt something tight wrapped around his forearm where the bite was and there was a small cut on his head. His arm had probably been treated, then. Everything was still too bright to open his eyes, but he could hear a muffled conversation somewhere as if his ears were stuffed with cotton. "… fell… get back up, he just stayed down and… arm… sorry Master Wong, I wouldn't… had known." "That's alright Master Grimes, if… he tends to… I know you're awake, Stephen."

That caught his attention. He forced his eyes to open and would have much rather left them closed the second he saw Wong's face, "I did ask you if it was venomous."

Wong moved to speak but Grimes beat him to it, "you came to help me with the attacks despite knowing you were injured, despite knowing it was venomous, and despite knowing it would kill you if not treated within the first few hours?" Wong nodded in agreement at the exclamation.

Stephen sheepishly admitted, "I didn't know that last part actually, hence why I tried to ask if they were venomous." He shot a look at Wong. "Regardless, I'm thankful that you patched me up. Though I have to ask. What happened? Was I attacked?" It would explain the cut on his head and the confusion.

Grimes laughed, "no. You tripped on the first step of the stairway and passed out from exhaustion."

#whumptober 2022 #no. 4 #hidden injury #stephen strange #doctor strange #dr strange #wong #master grimes #supernatural elements #mystical creatures #fic #fanfic #doctor strange fanfic #marvel fanfic #mckiwiwrites

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bloodoftigers · 4 months

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Doctor Strange's apprentice attempts to heal the damage done to Matt Murdock's eyesight after hearing him yearn for the sky.

#one shot #daredevil #mcu #marvel #doctor strange #masters of the mystic arts #the mystic arts #charlie cox #benedict cumberbatch #fanfic #ao3

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kakita-shisumo · 1 year

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A possible explanation is found, a plan is made, and Victoria is very calm and rational.

#fanfic #fanfic announcement #life is strange #uncontrolled burn #pricefield #my one attempt at redeeming David #Max is not the goddamned Time Master #but she's going to have to learn that lesson again the hard way

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wryterofworlds · 1 year

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SOMEONE please write the Neverafter modern au fanfic where Gerard impulsively becomes a foster parent for Pinocchio and Ylfa after he and Elody “take a break” (it’s not a divorce, he insists, it’s temporary) and because of course he let Elody keep the mansion, he’s not going to make her move out he’s not a monster, he now lives in a little suburban house next to the overly indulgent Timothy Goose, his husband, his son Jack, and his incorrigible cat Pib. Soon after his cousin Rosamund turns up on his doorstep not offering any explanation, but her parents don’t seem to be looking for her and Gerard knows a little too much about parents who don’t look for their children, so she lives there too now and is helping out with Gerard’s strange little foster kids. Ft. Gerard sleeping on the couch every night because of course he gave the master bedroom to Rosamund and Ylfa and Pinocchio share a room with a bunk bed; Timothy helping out where he can, most often in the form of giving way too many cookies; Pinocchio dragging Pib everywhere and trying to use the cat as a scapegoat for half the mischief he gets up to (the other half is things Pib actually did but no one believes a cat would be capable of); the weirdly intense social worker Mr. Wolf; Timothy’s coworkers at the local school Scheherazade and Aesop; and Pinocchio’s ever growing collection of stuffed animals including Senator, cricket, Pinocchicrow and Spinocchio

#neverafter #dimension 20 #d20 neverafter #d20 #ylfa snorgelsson #neverafter pinocchio #neverafter pib #timothy goose #gerard of greenleigh #rosamund du prix #d20 Aesop #d20 scheherazade #pinocchicrow #senator the ram #neverafter elody

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klonoadreams · 1 year

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Hey can we bring back those baby ask for Goa and Venti again because lb7 characters being out? Because I want to do one with Camazotz.

BEEN SITTING ON THIS ONE FOR A WHILE, LET'S FUCKING GOOOO

You know how FGO!Noa got the triplets with Oberon????

YEAH, GUESS WHO ALSO GOT THE TRIPLETS HERE.

It's her. Your girl who keeps having this luck, and Camazotz is nowhere near sorry about it (hell, he might've even given her quadruplets, he legitimately tried). He's naming all of them, no exceptions, in exchange for dealing with most of the hassle when Goa needs a break from being overwhelmed.

They have his teeth :V At least one of them has the tongue, and hair color, while one has Goa's hair and eye color, and one is a mix of both (heterochromia) and mixed hair color. Eye shape varies tho lmao.

Tezcatlipoca is banned from being near the kids when Goa isn't around, mostly because Goa refers to him as "that one dude my mom would tell me to stay away from in Mexico", but also legit worries he might be a bad influence if she's not there.

Camazotz loves his children and will just grab them and Goa and just have them in his lap like, "MINE."

His legacy lives on. Everything he did matters, so now he can enjoy knowing that he is no longer alone. He just hugs them and sleeps with them, looking far more content, even though they are all smaller than him by so much.

it'd be something like this

Meanwhile Venti's got the twins and while her connection with Camazotz isn't the same as Goa's (since Goa is indigenous Mexican-Japanese, versus Venti's Indian-Japanese with Chinese ancestry, based off the Single Dad Waver Account), he still provides the comfort of finally no longer being alone.

His new legacy, with someone who understands his loneliness. Not to his exact extent, but Venti has always been so lonely, due to being passed around from family to family before she finally left herself.

Chaldea gave her some comfort, though she kept to herself at times. Like with Roman, who she couldn't find herself approaching without feeling like she's going to combust. She clings to Mash the most, because she wants to keep her safe, because she also sees a bit of herself in her.

She regrets not spending as much time with Roman before the incident that went down in Chaldea the first time. He didn't really know her, like...know her, know her through personal interactions. All he knows is what others have said about her, and what things he's seen of her, while looking at her file.

It's a regret she has that now influences the way she acts around others, which is why she'll do her best tor each out the moment she can. Camazotz is no different, and in this case with their kids, they just bond over the fact that they don't have to be lonely anymore.

Versus the slight chaos with Goa, there is tranquility with Venti, because she has such a better grip on her own emotions. Parvati adores the twins, and Waver just has to step in to keep Venti from thinking about having anymore kids, because he just KNOWS she'd want more.

He considers them a hassle, but you can still see him reading to them as they sit on his lap. :V

Tezca is still in the shame corner, but he's allowed actual alone time, since Venti trusts him to behave (this is where she and Goa differ, because Goa does not take chances lmao).

But yeee, those are the babbus

#ask #rogue crew ask blog #lb7 spoilers #camazotz #fgo #venti (oc)#fujimaru noa #bread and bitter (fanfic)#master is strange (fanfic)#family shenanigans

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sunnys567 · 1 year

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Friends in Strange Places Ch. 2

What if Vlad was good instead of evil? Link to chapter 1:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/39040329/chapters/97656390

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

Vlad was at the door with his suitcase, mentally double checking that he had everything, when the vultures phased through the floor. The lead one was absent.

"Vlad." the raspy voiced one said "Da tree of us just vanted to vish you varewell bevore you levt."

"I'll only be gone for a few days." Vlad said, putting on his coat. "And I notice there's only two of you."

"Ay, vell, he and Rochester vere fighting over da paper again."

"Oh for goodness sake." Vlad pinched the bridge of his nose. "Rochester only wants the comics section. Can't he just give him that?"

"Ah, you know how dat old bird is."

Vlad sighed heavily.

"You know what? I'm just going to start getting two newspaper subscriptions. The mail carrier will think I've lost it, but this is just getting ridiculous." He turned to head out the door.

"You're going to Amity, yeah?" The vulture with the glasses said. "Dat mean you're going to see da Venton's again?"

Vlad stopped with his hand on the knob.

"I'll...try to pay the Fentons a visit if I have time." he turned to look at the vultures "Although, truth be told, as much as I'd like to see Jack and Maddie, it might not be wise for me to just walk into the house of ghost hunters. Especially ghost hunters with as much...passion as them."

"An understandable concern, Vlad, but you know if dat ghost kid's been managing to live dere okay, you shouldn't have any trouble popping in for a quick visit. Just relax! Try to enjoy yourselv!"

Vlad considered this for a moment.

"Fair point, I suppose. Now, I really must be going. Remind Cecilia she doens't have to cook, make sure someone's keeping an eye on the portal, and- well, I suppose you the drill by now. I'll see you all in a few days."

Vlad opened the door and stepped outside.

"Oh, and Rochester had better not have any claw marks on him when I return. "

With that, Vlad shut the door and was gone. The two vultures looked at each other.

"You tink ve should go check on Rochester?" The one with glasses asked.

The raspy voiced one sighed.

"Yeah." he said.

They both phased through the floor.

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

"-and now I can't find that ghost dog anywhere!" Danny flopped onto his bed "It's like it just showed up to destroy Axiom Labs and then left!"

"Well, maybe that means it's gone forever?" Tucker suggested, swiveling back in forth in Danny's computer chair. "Problem solved!"

"Since when have ghosts ever decided to just leave?" Sam asked from her bean bag. "There's at least an 80% chance that dog is going to pop up again."

"And at the least convenient time, I'll bet." Danny added from the bed.

"Well, even if that's the case there's nothing we can do about it, so what's the point in worrying about it?"

"You know, you could stand to take this a little more seriously." Sam glared at Tucker.

"I am taking this seriously!" Tucker stuck out his tongue at Sam. "Look on the bright side, Danny. Sure, the security system got completely fried, but most of the projects were unharmed."

"And, more importantly," Sam shot Tucker another side-eye "You got everyone out safely."

"I guess." Danny sighed and sat up. "I just can't help feeling like a failure. If I don't find that dog, what's to stop him from doing the same thing to some other building when I'm not around? I barely managed to get everyone out in time as it was."

"Well," Sam said "He did come to you before storming Axiom. So maybe he'll come to you again."

"Even if that is true, I couldn't stop it last time, so what would I do if it did show up again." Danny massaged his face in exasperation. "I wish there was someone we could just ask how to stop it. It feels like we never know what we're doing."

Sam and Tucker looked at each other. Tucker got up and patted Danny on the back.

"Aw, come on buddy," he said "We'll figure it out. We always do."

"Yeah Danny." Sam cam and sat on the bed beside him. "You've got nothing to worry-"

"INTRUDER ALERT!!! INTRUDER ALERT!!! A GHOST HAS ENTERED THE BUILDING!!! INTRUDER ALERT!!!" A loud robotic voice repeated very loudly.

The trio rushed out of Danny's room to the top of the stairs. Jazz had clearly just run in from the kitchen and Danny's parents were standing near the door. About twenty different guns had popped down from panels in the ceiling and were pointed directly at-

"Vlad?"

"INTRUDER ALERT!!!"

"Hello Daniel, Jasmine." Despite Vlad's friendly composure, he was clearly uncomfortable with all the alarms and the guns pointed at him.

"INTRUDER ALERT!!!"

"It's Jazz." Jazz replied sharply.

"INTRUDER ALERT!!!"

"And can someone please turn that off!"

"INTRUDER ALERT!!!"

"Oh, right." Maddie pulled a device out of her bag and clicked a few buttons. The guns retreated back into the ceiling, the alarm went silent, and the voice stopped repeating itself. Vlad visibly relaxed.

"Perhaps the security system's a little too sensitive." Maddie said. "This isn't the first time it's been set off by someone who wasn't a ghost." Vlad subtly raised an eyebrow at Danny. Danny smiled nervously from the top of the stairs.

"To be honest, Maddie, I'd get rid of this system entirely." Vlad said. "It seems a little overkill. And besides, if a ghost did make it into Fenton Works, surely it'd be no match for you and Jack?"

Danny had to admit that that was pretty smooth.

"You make an excellent point V-man!" Jack beamed. "And we can repurpose the defense system into even better anti-ecto weapons!"

"Or maybe something a lot less dangerous?" Jazz suggested.

"Well, we can decide that later." Maddie said clapping her hands together. "Come on in Vlad! It's so nice that you could drop by! I'll put on the tea. I just made cookies this morning, so they should be cool by now. And these ones didn't come to life this time, so help yourself!"

"Sound delightful." Vlad said as the group walked into the kitchen. He glanced up at Danny as they passed by on their way to the kitchen.

"Okay Danny," Tucker said once the grown ups were out of site "So what on earth is Vlad Masters doing in your house?"

"Oh, I forgot." Danny slapped his forehead "Mom and Dad said he was coming over today. Kind of got distracted by whole ghost-dog thing."

"Okay, I have a follow up question." Tucker said.

"Apparently he was friends with my parents in college. They used to be pretty close until-"

Danny stopped himself. He didn't know if Vlad would be okay with Sam and Tucker knowing. They were cool with half-ghosts, sure, but Danny knew he wouldn't want Vlad telling anyone his secret without asking first. Even mentioning that Vlad had been in an accident involving a ghost portal might be enough to tip Sam and Tucker off, and he didn't want to risk it.

"-uh, until, you know, they split up and Vlad started his own company. Which, as you probably know, turned out pretty well for him. He just held a big college reunion about a month ago, and they're kind of reconnecting, I guess."

"Wait," Sam held up her hand "That's why your family went down to Wisconsin for the weekend? To hang out with the CEO of VladCo? Why on earth are we only learning about this now?"

"I watched a bunch of adults dance around an auditorium with fake cheese on their heads for four hours. It was boring. Not much to tell. At all." Danny wracked his brain for anything else to talk about, until he realized something. "Hey, how do you two know who he is? I only learned about him in the RV on the way up."

"Uh, tech nerd?" Tucker held up his PDA, as if to illustrate his point.

"Rich people know each other." Sam shrugged. "Not that I've ever met the guy. Apparently he's pretty reclusive. Very selective about who he'll see, but I've heard my parents say his name about five billion times. It's all about connections with them. Knowing someone who knows someone. The intricately tangled web the rich have woven to keep those below them in their place. I'd take a flamethrower to that that web if I could."

Danny and Tucker just blinked at her.

"Anyway," Sam said, checking her watch "If he's here visiting your family, I guess we'd better go."

"What!?" Tucker said "And miss out on the chance to talk to tech giant Vlad Masters? I have so many questions for him!"

"He's a busy guy Tucker." Sam said, grabbing Tucker by the sweater collar and dragging him down the stairs. "He's probably too sick of work stuff to want to talk about it any more in his off-time than he does on a daily basis. Also, CEO's don't tend to know much about the tech side of the tech industry anyway. He probably just crunches numbers and pushes papers. Anyway, enjoy your visit Danny!" Sam waved pleasantly at him once she'd gotten Tucker out the door.

"Don't forget to check out that trailer for DOOMED I sent you!" Danny heard Tucker call before Sam shut the door.

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

When Danny entered the kitchen, Jazz was sitting at the table, a pile of closed books in front of her. Presumably she'd been studying before Vlad arrived. Maddie was talking as she pulled cups out of the cupboard.

"...so nice to be able to properly catch up with you without all the hubbub of the party. Ah, there you are Danny. Would you get the milk and sugar out?"

"Yeah, V-man, " Jack mock-aimed whatever device he was working on at Vlad as he spoke "I never got the chance to tell about all the cool new invetions Mads and I have been working on at the reunion!"

"Oh goodie." Vlad said dryly. "I simply cannot wait for that." He reached up and gently pushed the device away from his face.

"I simply cannot wait for that. Fear me."

The room went silent. Danny looked at the table and saw a familiar device amongst a small pile of Fenton inventions.

"Oh, great, you're working on the Ghost Gabber again." he said nervously, realizing his mistake a millisecond too late.

"You're working on the Ghost Gabber again. Fear me."

Jazz's eyes flickered between Danny and Vlad a few times before she pushed her chair back and stood up, an annoyed look on her face. She walked around to Jack's side of the table.

"I'm going to put this glitchy thing away." She said, snatching it off the table "Before it annoys us all to death."

With that she stomped down the stairs clutching the Gabber.

"Say," Jack rubbed his chin "That's a great idea! Why don't we all head to the lab! Maddie and I can show you how far we've come since our college days Vlad!"

"Oh," Vlad's smile seemed a bit forced and his voice sounded nervous "Erm, well, I don't know if-"

Before he could finish speaking, Jack had wrapped his thick arm around Vlad and was practically dragging him down the stairs.

Danny made to follow them, but he stopped when he felt his mom's hand on his shoulder.

"You mind helping me carry the tea stuff down, sweetheart?"

"Oh, um, maybe tea in the lab isn't a good idea right now?" Danny was desperate to get down there and not leave Vlad alone. "With Vlad here, Dad might get over excited and spill it on something important?"

"Hm, I suppose you're right..."

"We can just have it when Dad's done showing Vlad around. But we should go down and join them. Right now." Danny hoped his mom didn't notice the urgency in his voice as he pulled her down the stairs.

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

When they arrived in the basement, he found his dad giving Vlad a tour. To Danny's relief, Vlad's apprehension had been replaced with genuine interest. He examined various machine closely as Jack blathered on about them.

"This is quite the innovation Jack!" Vlad and Jack were currently looking over the still incomplete Spectre Speeder. "And it's ability to convert the ambient ecto-energy of the Ghost Zone into fuel, creating a self-sustaining perpetual energy source is absolutely brilliant!"

"It also ensures you won't run out of fuel if you get lost!" Maddie said, jumping right into the conversation. "We know so little about the Ghost Zone, so we want to be as prepared as we can be."

"Indeed. And, although I am of fan of the ample storage space, I'm wondering if the converters are able to generate enough power? Especially if you're going to install weapon functionality which, if I know you two, you will be doing in excess."

"Yeah, that's the tricky part," Jack frowned "We're a bit stuck on that, but if we can find a way to compact the circuitry, we might be able to disperse it in such a way to maximize the ambient ecto exposure the Speeder gets, but then there's the issue of excessive energy production, which..."

Totally lost by their jargon, Danny glanced at Jazz and saw her discreetly flipping some switches on a few devices. She probably didn't want something else to go haywire and disturb Vlad's visit. Or maybe just annoy her personally.

Luckily the thing that Jazz seemed to have dubbed 'annoying' were the same devices Danny tended to set off unintentionally. That was convenient. Sure, Danny knew which ones to avoid, but Vlad didn't. Now he wouldn't accidentally set them off and rouse suspicion. Danny silently thanked Jazz and her limited patience with their parent's ghost stuff.

"...and of course, there's out crowning achievement, The Fenton Ghost Portal!" Jack said, gesturing proudly to the portal.

"Oh," Maddie made a strange face. "We can just ignore that thing if we want to, though." she smiled nervously.

"It's kind of a little hard to miss, Mom." Danny said.

"Don't worry Maddie, I know exactly what you're thinking." He wrapped his arm around Vlad's shoulders. "Don't worry Vladdie, we perfected the design of this baby.

There's no way it'll explode in your face and leave you hospitalized indefinitely this time!"

Vlad smiled back at Jack, but it was very obviously strained. Maddie and Danny looked away awkwardly. Jazz glared at her father.

"Yes, well, as much as I appreciate the painful reminder and the concern," Vlad pushed himself out of Jack's grip "There's truly no need for it. We've come a long way since our college days, I'm sure you'll agree." Vlad walked towards the portal. He gave it a quick look-over. "It seems you two were more thourough with your planning this time. Unlike that prototype, this portal seems to be in perfect working order. In it's current state it holds no risk towards anyone."

Jazz flashed Danny a look that he almost missed.

"Besides, of course, for the ghosts that come out of it." Vlad added, running his hand along the metal frame.

"You know, it's funny." Maddie said. "We've had the portal running for a few months now, and barely anything's shown up. Of course, we haven't actually gone into the Ghost Zone ourselves, so maybe it opened on a deserted patch, or something. "

It took all of Danny's willpower not to burst out laughing.

"Probably wise." Vlad removed his hand from the frame. "Who knows what dangers lie on the other side."

Danny suddenly wondered if Vlad had been to the ghost Zone. He probably had, since he did have access to a working portal, and he'd sounded like he was familiar with the Ghost Zone when he was talking to Danny at the end of the reunion. He'd have to ask him about it when he got the chance.

"Of course, there was that kerfuffle down at Axiom Labs that sounded suspiciously like ghost activity to me." Maddie frowned.

"Oh, have you investigated?"

"Unfortunately not. Those darned security people wouldn't even let us take a look at the Axiom building." Jack stared into the distance, determination and frustration written on his face. "I just know it was a ghost that caused all that destruction!"

Danny wondered if anyone could here his heart rate increasing.

"Well, Jack, I am meeting with John Axiom today," Jazz's eyes went wide when she heard that. Danny had to admit he was a bit impressed too. Vlad didn't seem to be bragging, though. "Perhaps I'll be able to find out from him what happened."

"Ooh, good thinking V-man. You can come back to visit when you're done with all your business stuff and tell us what happened at Axiom."

"Oh, I don't know that I'll have time to visit again, but I will definitely get in touch with you and Maddie if I hear about anything ghostly."

Danny noticed both his parent's faces fall.

"Oh," Maddie said, the pep gone from her voice. "You're sure you can't-"

"And speaking of which," Vlad looked down at his watch "I'm afraid I'm due for that meeting rather soon, so I must be going now." Vlad started his way up the stairs. The others followed him.

"Oh, you didn't even have your tea yet." Maddie said as they emerged into the kitchen.

"I really would like to stay Maddie, but unfourtunatley, this is a business trip, and I'm afraid my schedule's rather tight." Vlad said as he opened the front door. "It truly was a pleasure seeing your home. And the lab is quite the upgrade from our old makeshift college one."

"Thanks Vladdie." Jack beamed. "And if you think that's cool, wait to you see the Ecto Annihilator!" Jack punctuated his sentence by pulling out a menacing looking box with many tiny flailing metal claws.

"Oh wow, look at the time, I really have to go right now!" Vlad almost slammed the door shut in his hurry.

"Awww." Jack's shoulders slumped and he threw the Annihilator over his shoulder. Danny zoomed as far away from that thing as he could without looking (too) conspicuous.

"Well, that was..." Danny started.

"Brief." Jazz finished.

"We don't get to see him for twenty years, and he still barely talks to us." Maddie sighed. "I get that he's busy, but he could at least return my calls."

Jack just sighed loudly. It was like looking at a kicked puppy. Danny and Jazz weren't sure what to say.

"Welp," Maddie clapped her hands, the smile returning to her face. "No point in standing around moping. It was nice to be able to see Vlad at all. Now, we've got some perfectly good tea in the kitchen that shouldn't go to waste."

"You know what, you're right Maddie." Jack's smile also returned and he wrapped an arm around Maddie's waist. "I finally got the chance to show Vladdie the new lab. And I think he was impressed. That's a win! Maybe later he'll be thinking about it, and realize it's so cool that he'll want to join us in ghost fighting again! I bet he'll be calling any day now!"

Danny didn't say anything, but that seemed a little optimistic to him.

"In the meantime," Jack continued "Let's have that tea. And those cookies you mentioned. And I can tell the kids all about the upgrades I'm making to the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle! To the kitchen!"

Danny glanced warily at the 'Ecto Annihilator' that was still in the way to the kitchen, but Jazz had already procured a set of tongs and a garbage bag and was cautiously approaching the device. Danny wasn't sure what it did, but he was very glad Jazz was the one dealing with it.

"That Vlad guy is pretty...interesting." Jazz said as she dropped the Annihilator into the garbage bag. " Wouldn't you say Danny?"

"Huh? Yeah, I guess."

Danny suddenly thought he felt something brush his leg. He looked down and saw a folded piece of paper sticking out out his pocket. He pulled it out and unfolded it, revealing a note.

Daniel,

I should be able to stop by tomorrow night sometime around 8:00. It would be good to catch up with you. Also I heard you may have been having some ghost trouble, and I'd certainly be willing to offer my assistance. I must say, I am impressed with your efficiency in evacuating the Axiom employees. You may be feeling discouraged by the fact that you weren't able to subdue the ghost, but it's important to choose your battles and have your priorities straight.

We'll talk more tomorrow, Plasmius.

It was actually kind of nice getting praised. Danny beamed to himself as he stuffed the note back into his pocket. He couldn't wait for tomorrow.

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

Of course, Danny hadn't considered that he'd have to see Valerie tomorrow. Or how defeated she'd look.

Danny stared warily at her as Valerie skipped the lunch line in the cafeteria. He noticed she was carrying a bagged lunch.

Did this have something to do with the ghost dog?

He felt his stomach sink.

Sam noticed his staring.

"You're not seriously thinking of asking out another popular girl, are you Danny?" she asked, disapprovingly "You know, considering how well the last time went."

"What?" Danny looked at Sam. "No, I- you remember that ghost dog?"

"Yeah?"

"Wait, that's Valerie Gray!" Tucker cut in. "As in Damon Gray's kid. I read about her dad getting in major trouble with Axiom Labs. They sued him for all he was

worth. The guy even had to sell his house."

Danny's stomach was absolutely churning.

"Wait, why'd they sue?" Sam asked "Did it have something to do with the ghost attack?"

"Well, according to official reports, Gray's so-called 'foolproof' new security system went haywire and caused a lot of damage. The building was practically unsalvageable. No one could figure out why, including Gray, so John Axiom made him pay for the damages. Which were pretty expensive, as it turns out. The security footage of the incident was toasted, and no one has said anything about seeing a dog. Some witnesses did mention getting save by 'a creepy teenager with super powers' though."

"I've been called worse." Danny shrugged.

"Wow, "Sam said "Billionaire sues hundred-thousand-aire for damages he could already afford to cover with what amounts to pocket change for him. It's a real dog-eat-dog world in rich people land. Well, more like dog-eat-flea-when-dog-already-has-a-steak world. The flea is Valerie's dad, in case that wasn't clear."

"And it wasn't even his fault." Danny said "It was that ghost dog that wrecked all the machines. It was weird, he seemed so friendly until we got near Axiom Labs. And tiny."

"Hey, " Tucker was staring beyond Danny "What's going on with Valerie's friends?"

Danny and Sam turned to look at the popular kids table. They watched as Valerie dejectedly skulked off from her friends and sat at a different table by herself. She pulled a sandwich out of her brown bag and picked at it.

"Wait, why isn't Valerie sitting with her friends?" Danny asked.

"If I had to guess," Sam said "All her dear A-lister 'friends' dropped her the second they heard she was broke."

"Oh."

Yeah, Danny wasn't eating the rest of his lunch today.

"Man," Tucker knitted his brow "Losing your house, all your money, and your friends all in one go? That's rough. We should go talk to her."

"What?" Sam rolled her eyes "And throw rich girl a pity party for finally getting a dose of reality?"

"She's still a person Sam." Tucker glared at Sam as he spoke. "A person whose going through a real tough time right now." He looked over at Danny. "You coming?"

"I..." Danny rubbed the back of his neck. He couldn't look Tucker in the eye. "...don't think that's a good idea, Tuck. It might be weird, cuz it's kind of my fault she in this situation in the first place, so..."

Tucker stood up.

"You two are unbelievable. Well, I'm going to talk to her whether you jerks come with me or not."

He walked away. Sam kept and impassive expression, but she didn't look at Danny. He also avoided eye contact with her.

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

"Hey Valerie." Tucker greeted her. She looked up from her sandwich and glared at Tucker. "Uh, I'm Tucker. Tucker Foley."

"I know who you are. You're in my PE class."

"We also went to the last dance togeth- never mind. You mind if I sit?"

She didn't say anything. Maybe this was a bad idea, but Tucker felt like he had to at least try, so he sat down.

"Sorry your friends are being such jerks."

"So the entire cafeteria saw my humiliating rejection. That's just what I needed."

"I mean, I just heard about what happened with your dad, and-"

"Great, so the whole school is talking about how much of a loser I've become?"

"No! I just follow Axiom Labs, being a tech nerd and all, and I read about the, uh, incident, and how they sued your dad, so I thought-"

"Thought what? That you'd just walk over here to nobly pity to the lonely loser kid? Ooh, lucky me! The biggest nerd in school wants to sit with me! How could my life possibly get any better! All my problems have been dwarfed thanks to the presence of Tucker freaking Foley everyone!"

Despite her harsh words, Tucker found himself having difficulty getting offended. Maybe he was desensitized from Dash's crew saying stuff like this about him all the time, but maybe deep down he understood that Valerie wasn't trying to hurt him specifically, she was just lashing out. She was at a pretty low point, so Tucker figured he could forgive her for this one.

"Look," he said firmly, but not harshly. "I know you're having a hard time. It's not easy, having your whole life upended by ghosts. But, and as weird as this sounds-" "Ghosts?"

It sounded ridiculous, but once Tucker said the word 'ghosts', gears started to turn in Valerie's head. The monster that had destroyed Axiom seemed able to disappear, and the kid that had saved her and the others could fly through walls.

They were ghosts.

Ghosts were real.

It sounded crazy, but, somehow, it was the only thing that made sense.

"Oh my gosh!" Valerie shot up from her seat "Ghosts!"

"Hey, hey, it's okay." Tucker said sitting down opposite her. "I deal with ghosts all the time, there's no need to freak out."

But it was too late. Valerie wasn't listening. She was running towards the cafeteria faster than Tucker had ever seen her run in gym class.

"Hey, wait!" Tucker called after her "You forgot your-"

But Valerie was long gone.

"-lunch."

Tucker sighed and stood up. Worried some bully might steal it, he packed up Valerie's lunch and headed back to his table.

"Well that went well." Sam said dryly.

"At least I tried Sam." Tucker glared at her, not at all in a joking mood.

"How is she?" Danny asked tentatively.

"Not good. She's really freaked out and upset over everything."

"I wish there was something I could do to help her."

"Me too. I think I just made everything worse, though. You gonna finish that?" Tucker pointed to Danny's tray. Danny shoved it over to Tucker.

Nobody said anything for the rest of the lunch hour.

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

They all split up after lunch. Tucker hated that they had separate fourth periods on Thursdays.

As he turned the corner he smashed into someone carrying a rather large stack of books. Tucker and the other person fell to the ground and the books they were carrying went everywhere.

"Oh jeez, sorry!" Tucker scrambled to collect the books. "I did not see you at all! But, maybe you shouldn't be carrying so many books that you can't-" he suddenly noticed a theme in the books he was picking up.

"Ghost Hunter's Almanac? Ghost Hunting for Nitwits? What's with the interest in-" he looked up from the books in his hand and saw Valerie picking up up the rest of the mess.

"Oh. Hey Valerie." What were the chances? "Um, here's your...ghost books back." he held them out awkwardly. Valerie glared at him and snatched her books back.

"What, are you stalking me or something?"

"No, I honestly didn't see you. You know, if you're interested in ghosts, Danny's parents are ghost experts. You could totally ask him for help. Or you could ask me and I'll ask him." Tucker gave what he hoped was a charming and friendly smile, but it just seemed to annoy Valerie.

"I don't know what your game is Foley." she said, glaring at him. "But you can quit now. I don't have any money left, and despite my new status, there's no way I'll ever be desperate enough to date you. So you've got nothing to gain from sucking up to me."

"Wait, what?" Tucker blinked in confusion. "Valerie, I'm not trying to get anything from you, I'm just trying to help. Honest."

"Great, I've even lost my appeal to the bottom of the barrel."

Wow, Valerie was making it really hard to be nice to her.

"Then what do you want? Why are you being so nice to me?"

"You just, seem like you could use some kindness, I guess." Tucker shrugged. "I do kind of know what it's like for ghosts to uproot your life. Adjusting can be...hard."

"Oh." Now it was Valerie's turn to be caught off guard. "Well, thanks, I guess."

"You're welcome, I guess."

Valerie started to walk away.

"Hey, wait!"

"Ha, I knew it! I knew you wanted something!"

"You forgot this at lunch," Tucker handed her her paper bag. "I thought you might get hungry later."

"Oh." Valerie took the bag. She and Tucker just stood there looking at each other for a few seconds. The bell suddenly rang, interupting their awkward staring contest.

"Oh no, I'm late!" they both said at the same time, sprinting off in opposite directions.

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

Valerie was having trouble processing her interaction with Tucker. It was weird. Her own friends had snubbed her, but the loser kid she (if she could help it) never talked to was helping her at her lowest point? Valerie didn't get it.

But at least he had reminded her of some valuable information; Danny Fenton's parents were ghost hunters. That meant some of the worlds leading ghost experts were right in her town. Ghost experts she could actually talk to. The books were interesting, but they weren't super helpful. If she wanted to protect herself from ghosts, she needed weapons.

And Fenton Works was just the place to get them.

Valerie rang the doorbell. She fixed her hair while she waited for someone to answer. She only had one shot at this, so she needed things to go as well as possible.

A large man in an orange jumpsuit, whom Valerie recognized as Danny's father opened the door. He looked back and forth a few times before looking down and spotting her.

"And who might you be?" on paper the question might have sounded rude, but the man seemed earnestly curious. "One of Danny or Jazz's friends?"

"I'm in Danny's class. My name's Valerie Gray." Valerie tilted her head slightly and used a voice she'd been perfecting since kindergarten to get adults to do what she wanted "I just heard that the Fenton's were top tier ghost hunters, and I was wondering if there was any way you could teach me so I could help fight against the ghosts too."

Jack absolutely beamed when she finished speaking. Valerie internally pumped her fist. That was a good sign.

"Well would you look at that." he said. "It's not often you find young people so enthusiastic about ghost hunting these days. Maddie! Come here!"

"What is it Jack?" Maddie appeared at the door. "Oh, are you selling cookies? I didn't know they let teenagers be girl scouts." Again, in theory that sentence could have been condescending, but Maddie sounded genuinely interested.

"She's not selling cookies Mads. Wait, are you selling cookies?" Valerie shook her head. "Darn. Anyway, this is one of Danny's friends. She came here to ask us about ghost hunting!"

"Ooh!" Maddie squealed. "That's exciting! What did you want to know Sweetie?"

"I wanted to become a ghost hunter, like you two." Valerie said, putting on her best smile and sunniest voice. "I want to learn how to fight ghosts so I can protect this town and myself when those menaces attack."

"Wow, such ambition!" Maddie beamed "Unfortunately we can't actually teach you to fight ghosts."

"What?" Valerie felt like a balloon in her chest had deflated.

"Yeah," Jack nodded solemnly "Those police officers warned us about giving out 'volatile energy weapons' to 'random teenagers' after the last time. We'd love to recruit you kiddo, but they said they wouldn't be so forgiving next time."

"But I'll be careful!" Valerie wasn't ready to give up "You could train me, and I promise I wouldn't use any of the weapons unless it was a real emergency, and-"

"Sorry Sweetie, I'm afraid our hands are tied."

Valerie face fell and her shoulders slumped.

"I'll tell you what, though." Valerie held her breath when Maddie spoke. "We can give you these."

She handed Valerie two small devices. One looked like a pager, and the other sort of like a shield handle without the shield.

"The Fenton Pager and The Fenton Hand Shield." Jack said proudly.

Well, that made sense.

"You can use the Pager to contact us if you run into any ghosts."

"Our number's also in the phone book if you have any questions." Maddie added. "Our message box is usually pretty empty, so we should be able to get back to you fairly quickly."

"That shield is also a piece of cake to operate." Jack said "You just use the button to turn it on and off. It's small, but easy to transport and conceal. The ghosts'll never suspect you've got it on you."

"The charge doesn't last very long, but you shouldn't need to use it much. For emergencies only."

Valerie lost all hope when Maddie said that.

"Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. I should really be getting home now."

"It was great to meet you...what was your name again?" Maddie asked pleasantly, as if she hadn't just crushed all of Valerie's hopes and dreams.

"Valerie."

"It was nice to meet you Valerie. Feel free to stop by anytime."

Valerie heard the door close behind her as she walked glumly down the stairs. She stopped at the bottom and stared at the devices in her hands. The shield was something, she supposed, but nowhere close to what she was hoping for.

She closed her hand into a fist and clutched the hand-shield.

"I'll find a way." She said looking up, determination burning on her face.

"Find a way to do what?"

Valerie jumped and turned towards the voice. Her thumb instinctively found the button on the hand-shield, and a translucent green circle about the size of a trash can lid sprung up in front of her face.

"Who's there!?"

The stranger stepped out of the shadows of the ally way.

"My apologies for startling you. I'm-"

"I know who you are. Vlad Masters. CEO of VladCo." Valerie clicked the button with her thumb again, and the shield retracted.

"Hm. I'm not usually recognized by people under twenty. Anyway, I couldn't help but overhear you've taken an interest in ghost hunting."

"What's it to you?" She crossed her arms and glared at Vlad challengingly. Under any other circumstances, she would've been excited to meet the famous billionaire, but not when she'd just caught him creeping in an alley, eavesdropping on her.

"Not many people take interest in that particular field. Most don't even believe in ghosts in the first place, let alone want to hunt them. Especially not your age."

"You...believe that ghosts are real too?" Valerie was surprised.

"My dear I've run into many ghosts over the course of my life time. Spoken to more ghosts than ghost-believers."

Valerie scoffed.

"Spoken? To those monsters?"

"Whether you believe it or not, it's true. However, as I'm sure you're aware, not all ghosts are friendly. I'd advise you to steer clear and leave the ghost hunting to the professionals."

"Professionals?" Now Valerie was seething. What right did this guy have to just show up and tell her what to do and not worry about? "You mean the same 'professionals' who stopped that giant monster from destroying my father's security system? The same professionals that saved everyone at Axiom Labs who was in danger? The same professionals who stopped my life from being completely ruined in front of me? Oh wait!"

"Tell me Mister Masters," Valerie took a step forward. Vlad stepped back. "What right do you have to just show up, out of literally nowhere, and tell me what I should be doing with my life. "

Maybe this had been coming. Maybe Valerie's fear and anger had been festering for too long and were finally boiling over the edge. Maybe it was because she was never going to see this idiot again. Whatever the reason, she let out everything she'd been carrying inside her for the past week.

"You haven't lied awake at night because you're too afraid to close your eyes in case something more terrifying than most people can even imagine shows up and destroys your life without warning. You haven't had nightmares about giant green faces that wake you up in a cold sweat at 3:00am when you finally do get to sleep. You haven't seen monster you know you saw, but can't tell anyone about because they'd think you were crazy!" She felt tears prickling the corners of her eyes, but she pressed on. Now that she'd started, she wasn't going to stop until she got everything out of her system.

"You don't have to look at your dad's face every morning when he smiles and tells you everything's gonna work out, when both you and he know the truth is that everything sucks, and it might suck for a long time! Maybe forever." Valerie's voice wavered, but she steadied herself. "Ghosts took everything from me! And that monster is going to continue to haunt my life until I do something about it!"

Valerie could feel herself shaking. She felt drained, but also lighter than she had in a week.

Vlad didn't say anything. He looked mildly surprised. Valerie found that she didn't care what he thought. She turned around to leave.

"You're right."

She stopped walking and looked over her shoulder.

"Ghosts can haunt you in more ways than one. I...have experienced the fear. I've lied awake worrying that what happened once may happen again. I've gone about my daily life on edge, worrying that they might attack out of nowhere. If anyone knows what you're going through, it's me. I have no right to tell you to just go back to living your life like nothing happened when I know that's impossible."

Valerie was genuinely speechless. She hadn't expected this old man to listen to her, to care, to understand.

"I know someone who can deal with the ghost that attacked Axiom. It will be dealt with, I can assure you."

Valerie nodded and bit her lip thoughtfully.

"But there's more, aren't there?" she said. "And don't you dare lie to me."

"Yes."

"A lot?"

"I'm afraid so."

"I know what they can do. The damage they can cause. I won't be able to sit by and watch ghosts destroy the lives of the people around me. I can't do nothing."

Vlad didn't say anything right away. He looked pensive.

"I'll make you a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

"The kind that will give you the tools you need to protect you from ghosts, and help you protect others."

"You mean ghost weapons?" Valerie raised her eyebrows.

"Yes. Weapons and armour, of sorts. But, you'll have to agree to a few conditions."

"What are these conditions?"

"Firstly, you must be careful. Ghost hunting is dangerous and the only reason I'm giving you the tools to do it is because you seem desperate enough to go charging in with or without proper protection. And if those are my only two choices, than I know which one I'd rather you do.

Secondly, as I told you before, not all ghosts are as dangerous as the one that attacked Axiom. Many are quite friendly if you get to know them. I imagine most of the ones you meet here in Amity won't be, but I'll have to leave that to your discretion. That being said, I believe you've met a ghost child? Looks about your age? Lanky, black hazmat suit, white hair?"

"Yeah, I've met him." Valerie knit her brow. She actually hadn't thought about that ghost kid much. She'd been too preoccupied with the dog.

"He's on your side. I'd strongly advise working with him if you can, but you are under no circumstances to harm him. He's been protecting Amity from a large sum of ghosts these past few months. Simply put, there might have been a lot more Axiom-situations if it wasn't for him."

Valerie's eyes widened. So ghosts attacks had been happening without her even knowing? She wasn't sure if she found that comforting or creepy.

"I'm afraid this part of the deal is non-negotiable. I'll need your word you won't harm him."

"Yeah, I'll leave him alone. I wouldn't go after him anyway. He...saved me when the dog attacked. He saved everyone. I didn't get his name, though. Do ghosts even have names?"

"Most of them do. I believe he goes by 'Danny Phantom'. Do me a favour, if you will, keep an eye on him for me?" Vlad seemed almost...concerned about this ghost. Valerie wondered why.

"Was he...close to you, or something?" she was trying to be sensitive, but truthfully this situation was kind of awkward.

"Hm? Oh, well, I've only met him recently. I just...see myself in him in some ways. He's capable, but what he does is dangerous. I'd rather neither of you involved yourselves in ghost hunting at all, but if you're going to either way, it might be good to have each other's backs."

A ghost who was a ghost hunter? With all the other craziness suddenly going on in her life, why not?

"I'll...think about it. I'd better get home before my dad starts to worry."

"Yes. It was very nice meeting you Valerie. You should receive something in the mail shortly. I'll send you something...appropriate. Goodnight, and do be careful."

"Thanks Mister Masters." Valerie said, turning away.

Vlad watched Valerie walk away into the night. Sure, he'd expected some excitement , but this was not at all how he'd thought his night to go. What had he gotten himself into with this teenager?

He'd worry about that later. Once he was certain she was gone, he stepped back into the alleyway and summoned the black rings that transformed him into ghost form.

Once the transformation was complete, Vlad floated up to Danny's window.

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

Danny jumped when he heard something tapping on his window. He almost fell out of his seat when he looked up from his homework and saw Vlad Plasmius's face behind the glass. He was waving and smiling politely, but seeing that face at your window was enough to stop anyone's heart.

He went over and opened the window.

"Vlad!" Danny said happily. "Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see you, but a little warning might have been nice."

"I did say I'd be dropping by. Are you available right now?"

"Absolutely." Danny said, transforming and flying out the window beside Vlad. "We should probably take this somewhere else, though. Wouldn't want to accidentaly get spotted by my parents."

"Yes, that would definitely be wise."

They decided to fly over to Amity Park Park (after Danny managed to convince Vlad that, yes, that was really what the park was named). They talked as they flew.

"So how long are you staying in Amity?" Danny asked.

"My business with Axiom is almost all settled. I'll be heading back to Wisconsin tomorrow."

"Oh." Well that was disappointing. "Hey, you've been to the Ghost Zone before, right?"

"Yes I have. Many times in fact."

"What's it like in there?"

Vlad thought for a second.

"The Ghost Zone, despite being intrinsically linked to the human world, is nothing like it. It is an endless swirling void of ectoplasm and chaos. It's like outer space in a way, only green instead of black and without stars. There are patches of land floating about. Islands, if you will, and they all seem to operate on different rules. If a human were to enter the Ghost Zone, they'd likely be stuck on one of those islands, since navigation is impossible without flight. Gravity does not exist and, of course, you are surrounded by various types of ghosts at all times."

"That sounds...terrifying."

"I'd say it's more confusing than scary. Sure, you have to be prepared for the unexpected, but that's what makes it interesting. The threat of death may be in any direction you look, but so is the thrill of discovery!"

Danny suddenly understood how his parents and Vlad became friends.

"Now it's my turn for a question. Do your parents often have their inventions around the house?"

"Um, yeah, I guess."

"Have they noticed that you seem to set all their devices off?"

"They always assume it's a glitch or something. I usually just pretend to be as confused as they are, and try to leave the room as fast as possible. They don't suspect anything so far."

There was a pause in the conversation.

"It's amazing how they can be so brilliant yet so dense."

"Makes my job easier." Danny shrugged.

"Still, it must be quite stressful, being constantly under the risk that someone might find out. Especially with no one to talk to about it."

"Well, I'm not totally alone."

"Oh? Does Jazz know about your powers? I didn't think to ask last time."

"No. Sam and Tucker were there when the accident first transformed me."

"Sam and Tucker?"

"My friends. You met them when you came over the other night."

"Oh." Vlad furrowed his brow. "So you do have people in your life who...accept you for what you are."

Danny thought that was kind of a weird way to phrase it.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Hm." Vlad had a strange expression on his face. Danny wasn't sure if he should say something. "That's...interesting. On another note, how have you been keeping up with the local ecto activity?" Vlad asked. "Any particularly troublesome ghosts?"

"Uhh, you know the whole Axiom situation? Well...there was this ghost dog that showed up and attacked Axiom Labs a few days ago. It hasn't really caused any trouble, you know, besides the whole destroying Axiom thing, but I'd like to track it down and get it back to the Ghost Zone anyway, just to make sure he won't cause more trouble, but he seems to have disappeared completely."

"Have you checked Axiom Labs?"

"What?"

"If the ghost has caused a disturbance at Axiom, then that place may hold some significance for him."

"But there's like, construction workers and stuff there. Surely someone would've noticed a giant green dog."

"Daniel, have you heard that demolition on the building was delayed?"

"Wait, what?"

"Well, this information hasn't been made public, but it has been delayed indefinitely. They haven't been able to extract the remaining projects because apparently anyone whose sent in reports being scared off by a horrible monster. They haven't been able to organize a proper investigation yet."

"Wait, seriously?"

"I was actually planning on asking if you knew anything about that."

"Well now I know where to look at least."

"Are you going after it tonight?"

"I mean, the sooner I get rid of it, the better, right?"

"I suppose." Vlad nodded. "Though, if this ghost has bested you before, perhaps it would be good to bring some extra firepower."

"Did you have something in mind?"

"Yes, in fact, I'd like to accompany you. If you're alright with that."

"Really? That'd be awesome!" Danny said. "Hang on, I just need to call- oh..."

"What is it?"

"Well," Danny rubbed the back of his neck "I just usually bring Sam and Tucker along on these things, but they don't know about you."

Vlad didn't say anything. Danny couldn't read his facial expression.

"I mean, it's fine, though. I take on ghosts by myself all the time, so they don't really need to be there."

"They can come if you like." Vlad said.

Danny might've jumped if he wasn't already in midair.

"Really? Are you sure you don't mind?"

"I'll admit it will be strange explaining my...situation to them." Vlad gestured to himself. "But I'd like to meet your friends properly. And see how you three do on the field."

"Huh. Wow. So no pressure or anything."

"I'll reserve judgments, but I may have some useful pointers." Vlad grinned. " There's a small thicket near Axiom's front entrance. You can explain things to your friends and meet me there."

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

"So you think the dog's still hanging out at Axiom?" Sam said.

"Wouldn't there be an excavation crew swarming the place? Surely we'd have heard if something ghostly was going on there?" Tucker said.

"That's the thing," Danny said. "There have been sightings. Specifically of a giant green dog monster. Sound familiar?" Tucker and Sam's eyes widened at Danny's words. "The higher ups have been trying to keep it quiet, so word hasn't gotten out to the press yet."

"Okay," Sam raised an eyebrow "So how do you know all that? You're not exactly the world's greatest detective there, Sherlock."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Danny asked.

"First off," Tucker cut in "the world's greatest detective is Batman, not Sherlock Sam." Sam glared at Tucker. "Second, yeah, how do you know all that?"

"You remember how Vlad Masters was visiting my family?"

"Yeah?" Sam and Tucker said together.

"Well, the reason he came down to Amity Park was because of the whole Axiom fiasco."

"Ah, that makes sense." Sam said. "The tangled web. Figures he wouldn't be down here just to visit old friends."

"So, Vlad was able to get the inside scoop and shared it with you?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"So the rich crone wasn't useless after all." Sam smirked. "That's a first."

"Well, what are we waiting for then?" Tucker said "Let's get down to Axiom and bust that ghost!"

"Um, first, there's, uh, something else you two should know. About Vlad."

Sam and Tucker both looked at Danny. Neither of them said anything, curious as to what Danny could possible have to tell them about CEO family-friend Vlad Masters.

"Um, well, you remember how I said he and my parents split up in college?" Danny rubbed the back of his neck. He hadn't really planned how he was going to break it to them. "Well, what actually happened was that Vlad was in an accident. See, he and my parents used to study ghosts back in college."

"Seriously?" Sam smirked. "Vlad Masters was into ghosts in his college days. He just became the slightest bit interesting. Wait, were you about to tell us that the he's going to Axiom to nerd out, or something? Ugh, that would mess with things."

"Er, no, not exactly. See, it's just that when Vlad got into his accident, he and my parents were trying to build a...ummm...a ghost portal. And it kind of went off on him."

Nobody said anything for a second. Then Sam's eyes bulged.

"Wait," she said "Hold on. Are you saying...what I think you're saying? No. No way!" Sam put a hand to her forehead, eyes fixed vacantly on the ground.

"Wait, what?" Tucker looked between Danny and Sam. "What's he saying? What happened to Vlad?"

"Tucker," Sam grabbed Tucker by the shoulders and looked him directly in the eye "Vlad had a ghost portal accident." she said, stressing each of the last three words.

Realization suddenly dawned on Tucker.

"Wait," wide-eyed, he pushed Sam off of him and looked At Danny "Are you're saying that...Vlad Masters is half-ghost too!?"

"Yeah." Danny confirmed. "Turns out there's someone else like me."

Danny felt a strange lightness in his chest once those words left his mouth. The feeling surprised him, but if was nice.

"Anyway," Danny snapped out of his daze "We should head down to Axiom. I told Vlad we were going to meet him there."

Tucker and Sam, still slack-jawed, just blinked at Danny.

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

The trio hid their scooters in some bushes once they got close enough to Axiom.

"Okay," Danny said "Now we just gotta find Vlad and come up with a plan."

"Where did he say he'd meet you?" Sam asked.

"Somewhere in this thicket."

"He couldn't have been a little more specific?"

"I'm sure he's around here somewhere. We'll just have to-"

"Good evening."

"AH!" All three of them jumped at Vlad's voice.

"How long have you been standing there?" Tucker asked, clutching his chest.

"Oh, not long." Vlad turned to Danny. "I assume you've explained things to them?"

Danny nodded.

"Excellent. I was floating above invisibly, waiting for you three to arrive. I wasn't going to stand somewhere in the middle of these trees and hope you'd run into me. That would be a little ridiculous. I did also scout the building while I was waiting for you. No sign of that ghost dog in my preliminary search, I'm afraid."

"Does that mean it left?" Danny asked. Sam and Tucker seemed to have lost their ability to speak, and were just staring at Vlad. He didn't seem to notice. Or he was pretending not to.

"I doubt it. More likely it's just hiding. We'll either have to do a more thorough search and hope to stumble upon it, or find a way to lure it out."

"Oh!" Sam suddenly gained her voice back "I actually brought something for that."

She swung her spider backpack off her shoulders and unzipped it. Inside were various dog toys and a small bag of dog treats.

"He may be a ghost dog," Sam pulled out a squeaky toy and squeaked it "But he's still a dog, right?"

"Excellent thinking." Vlad smiled "You seem to have a very good instinct for ghosts...Sam, was it? Well, we can talk more inside. I don't know how long this will take, so we'd better start searching right away."

The group began to walk towards the Axiom Labs building. They'd barely started down the hill when Danny felt a sudden chill and a puff of mist escaped from his mouth.

He looked around. There was no sign of a ghost anywhere. That was weird. Danny thought he was too far away, but maybe the dog had set off ghost sense?

Danny sighed. He'd had his powers for months and still couldn't seem to quite get how they worked.

He looked over at Vlad. Vlad's ghost sense must have gone off too, but he didn't seem concerned, so Danny figured it probably wasn't something to worry about. It was just the dog setting it off.

Yeah, that was probably it.

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

Danny pulled Tucker and Sam through the walls of Axiom intangibly. They both stared at Vlad as he emerged beside them.

"Wow," Tucker said "There really is another half ghost in the world."

"What?" Vlad raised an eyebrow playfully "You didn't believe him?"

"No! It's just, it's, weird, I guess." Tucker shrugged awkwardly.

"I understand that it can be a lot to take in." Vlad casually examined his fingernails. "I am open to questions, but we'd better start moving. As I said before, I don't know how long it will take us to find our ghost, so we'd better start now."

And so the four of them patrolled the building. Tucker carried the bag of treats and threw one on the ground every so often. Danny held the squeaky toy and squeaked it a few times whenever they entered a new room.

They walked in silence for a while, Tucker and Sam seeming to not want to address the elephant in the room.

"So, how long have you had ghost powers, Mister Masters, sir?"

Okay, maybe Tucker was actually fine addressing the elephant.

"Oh, about twenty years at this point." Vlad said "And just 'Vlad' is fine, son."

"Cool. And I go by Tucker. Tucker Foley."

"Noted."

"So...I was wondering, do you ever use your tech for ghost research? I've actually used some of VladCo's stuff to modify Danny's parent's inventions. The kritonic stabilizer really improved the Fenton Thermos. Danny could stabilize it with his ecto-whatever, but I noticed the KS did a similar thing, so that way the rest of us could use it too. Didn't take too long to solder, either." Tucker smiled a wide smile that made Sam silently glare at him.

"As a matter of fact, that's what it was actually initially developed for. Not that my employees knew that. I told them it was for improving cooling systems. Of course, PC's don't run on quite the same energy wave a lot of ecto technologies do. In the end it was rolled out onto very few models, since the impact on efficiency was negligible, but it was quite useful for me personally for its capabilities with ecto-energy stabilization."

"Yeah, I actually got one of the PC's that implemented KS, and that's where I got the it for the thermos. I always wondered why they'd bothered with it. Worked out pretty well for us, though. I thought it was such a weird coincidence that something so useless happened to work so well for ghost hunting."

Danny squeaked the toy as they entered a large room through an mangled archway. He soon found himself unable to keep up with Vlad and Tucker's conversation. How did this always happen?

At least his friends were getting along with Vlad.

"Shh!" Sam suddenly stopped walking.

"What?" Danny asked.

"I hear something."

"What is it?"

"I don't know, shh!"

The rest of the group listened. Now that they weren't talking, Danny noticed it too: a soft crunching noise. The noise stopped after a second and then started again.

"What do you think that is?" Danny whispered.

"I think the dog found our trail." Tucker whispered back, holding up the bag of treats for emphasis.

A high pitched bark suddenly cut through the silence.

"Yup, that's definitely the dog." Danny said.

The barking started to get louder.

"Okay, I'm going ghost!" Danny held up his arms and transformed. He turned to Sam and Tucker. "You two stay back. This dog is not something you want to mess with."

Danny squared up, ready to fight. The barking was steadily getting closer, until around the corner appeared...

A small dog yipping happily. He turned the corner too fast and slipped onto his face, but quickly recovered and kept running towards Danny. When he got close enough, he jumped towards Danny's chest. Danny instinctively caught the dog.

"Oh yeah, I see what you mean Danny." Sam nodded "Reeeal Scary."

"I...don't get it." Danny said. He absentmindedly started to pet the dog. "He was like this when I first met him, but he turned a lot bigger when he got to Axiom." He tuned to Vlad "And you said he was scaring away all the excavation crew." Vlad nodded. Danny turned back to the dog. "What is your deal?"

"Maybe he just hates humans?" Sam shrugged. "He did seek you out when he came here. Ghost dog likes ghost?"

The dog lept out of Danny's arms, ran over to Tucker and stood up on his hind legs, wagging his tail. Tucker dug a treat out of his bag.

"Sit!" He said, holding up a treat. The dog sat obediently.

"Wow! He's well trained." Tucker tossed the him the treat. The dog caught it and happily wagged his tail. He got down on one knee and scratched the dog under his chin.

"Good theory Sam, but he doesn't seem to mind Tucker." Danny said.

"And if you can stand him, you can stand any human." Sam nodded.

"Hey!"

"But then why did he attack the Axiom employees?"

"Hey, check this out!" Tucker said. "On his collar! It's the Axiom logo!"

"What?" Danny and Sam gathered around the dog. Sure enough, the tag on his collar bore the atom insignia of the company.

"You know," Tucker said "I was doing some research, and Axiom did used to use guard dogs before Valerie's dad upgraded their security system. I have a feeling that might be relevant."

"So the dog came back to destroy Axiom to get revenge for being replaced?" Danny said.

"You're getting warmer," Danny had almost forgotten Vlad was there. "But there's still a hole in your theory. You may have noticed that the majority of the lab's projects are still intact. And, according to reports from various Axiom employees, our ghost doesn't seem to have caused any further damage since the initial attack."

Danny took a quick look around the room. The most prominent signs of the dog's earlier attack were a charred security camera dangling on one wall, and the doorway they had come through that was actually a large hole in a mangled steel security door. There were some gashes in the walls, but none of the computers or other furniture in the room had been damaged.

"It was also recently brought to my attention that it was mainly the security system that he went after."

"Hey, you're right." Danny said.

"And the only other time he was sighted," Sam furrowed her brow in thought "Was when the excavation crew came in to get Axiom's projects. Otherwise he seems to have stayed completely out of sight."

"Yeah, it didn't like those people, but it doesn't really seem to mind us being here." Tucker said.

"Okay," Danny said "So he destroyed the security system because it replaced him, but he hates the excavation crew because...?"

"Because they were trying to take Axiom's stuff!" Tucker snapped his finger "And it's the dog's job to protect Axiom's stuff!"

"Yeah!" Sam said "Cujo over here was actually just doing what a guard dog's trained to do!"

"So...he's not trying to get revenge?" Danny said "He's just trying to do his job?"

Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by a ghost phasing through the floor and snapping something around the dog's neck before anyone could react.

"Ha ha! At long last I, Technus, have caught the guardian of Axiom in it's smaller form, thanks to the distraction caused by you, ghost child, as well as you teenage friends." Technus seemed to notice Vlad for the first time. He seemed caught off guard by his presence. "As well as this senior citizen, I suppose?"

"I'm forty-two." Vlad said.

"I knew it wasn't the dog that triggered my ghost sense!" Danny said.

The ghost dog began to glow green, like the first time he transformed when Danny met him. He yelped as little sparks shot out of his collar and remained the same size.

Sam looked at the dog with horror in her eyes. She turned towards Technus and glared.

"What did you do to him?" She demanded.

"I have placed an inhibitor collar around this dog's neck, barring it's access to it's much larger and scarier form. For days that infernal mutt has been tormenting me! Biting and drooling all over my stylish trench coat whenever I so much as set foot in Axiom Laboratories. But, now that it has been neutralized I, Technus, now have unfettered access to all of Axiom's most advanced technologies!"

Technus finished his speech by thrusting his arms out to the side. Various machine pieces began to flow towards him from every hallway and swarmed around his body.

"Behold, my ultimate revenge upon this menace guard dog, Mecha-Kitty 5000!"

In about thirty seconds, Technus was decked out in a mechanical suit that looked like a giant cat. A giant metal cat with glowing green eyes and matching veins of energy running along it's body. It had razor sharp metal claws, and teeth fixed in an incredibly creepy smile.

"And now, before I use the technology in this lab to take over the world, I'm going to destroy you meddling kids and that pesky dog! And, also this elder."

Cujo whimpered. He looked at the ground and tucked his tail between his legs.

Danny clenched his fists and turned to face Technus. He began to fly towards him, but Vlad put his arm out to stop him.

"You three get the collar off the dog." he said. "I'll handle this." He turned away from the group and looked into the robot cat's visor. A black ring appeared around his waist, splitting into two and travelling up and down Vlad's body, transforming him.

Sam and Tucker stared at him with awe and a little bit of intimidation. This was their first time seeing Vlad in his ghost form.

"I don't suppose you're familiar with the name 'Vlad Plasmius'?" Vlad asked, floating up to Technus's level.

"I, Technus, am not familiar with the name 'Vlad Pasmius'!" Technus seemed surprised by Vlad's ghostly transformation. He quickly recovered, though, and the robot cat swiped it's claws at Vlad. Vlad managed to dodge them, though.

"That," Vlad began to charge up an ecto beam in his hand "Is about to change, then."

The robo-cat raised it's tail and began shooting electrical beams out the end of it. Vlad threw his charged up ecto blast at the robot before quickly swooping to dodge the electric blast. Vlad's blast hit the cat's cheek, but barely seemed to do any damage.

"Is that all you've got?" Technus gloated. He fired beam after beam at Vlad.

Vlad split into two while Technus continued to fire at him. The two Vlads flew in around in a random swirling pattern. Danny quickly lost track of which Vlad was which.

"Blast it!" Technus cried "Stay still so that I, Technus, master of all things electronical, can fry you with my electronic blasts already!"

The robo-cat began to shoot alternating electrical beams out of it's nostrils as well. The two Vlad's continued to swoop around intricately, making it hard for Technus to aim properly. They both stayed well away from the area where Danny and his friends were.

Danny turned away from the fight. He grabbed the dog's collar and tried to make it intangible, but was met with an electric shock. Danny and the ghost dog both yelped.

"Sorry boy." Danny said, shaking his smoulderding hand.

"If the collar's designed to block ghost powers, then ghost tricks aren't going to work on it." Sam said.

"Then let's try a tech trick." Tucker pulled a jack cord out of his backpack and plugged it into Technus's collar and his PDA. Green text that was incomprehensible to Danny began to scroll down the screen.

"Bingo! I'll have this collar off of him in no time!"

"Perfect." Danny stood up. "In the meantime, I'll go help Vl-"

Danny stopped mid-sentence when he turned. He didn't see Vlad.

Suddenly, Vlad appeared beneath the robo cat. He clenched his fist and charged up an ecto beam. At least, Danny thought it was an ecto blast. The aura around his hand intensified, and then spread down the rest of his arm.

With his other hand, Vlad shot an ecto beam at one of the robo cat's front legs. It struck it right in the knee joint, causing that leg to buckle. The robot was thrown off balance. As Technus adjusted, Vlad flew over to one of it's back legs.

He grabbed it just above the knee joint with his glowing hand, assaulting everyone's ears with a screeching cruuuunch. Pink energy spread around the area where Vlad was holding the leg.

The bottom half of the leg split from the top and fell to the ground. The part where it had been severed glowed red-hot, as if it had been melted off.

"Hey, hey! What's going on down there?" Technus said. "What did you do to my leg?"

Vlad's only answer was to unleash an onslaught of ecto beams at Technus's other legs. They weren't very powerful, but Vlad aimed for the knee joints, which kept knocking the giant robot off balance. Technus kept trying to adjust, but Vlad would not let up.

Danny suddenly noticed the cat's tail sneak under the robot's body.

"The tail!" He shouted "Behind you!"

Without even looking, Vlad went intangible and flew up through the robot's body, an electro beam barely missing him. He emerged from the top and kept flying upwards. Once he was almost at the ceiling, he swooped around, flying back towards the robot at top speed, both fists thrust out in front of him.

He turned solid again.

SMAAAASH!!!

The robot's remaining legs, still askew from the earlier ecto beam barrage, instantly gave out from Vlad's impact. The robot's body crashed against the ground, sparks and bits of metal flying off of it.

Vlad hovered above the wreckage. There were two large dents where his fists had made contact with the robot.

That cat was not getting up anytime soon.

Technus intangibly floated out of the robot's head. When he turned solid again, he looked furious.

"You fool!" he shouted "You may have destroyed this glorious creation of mine, but I am a master of technology, and we are currently amongst some of the most advanced technological devices in the world! What's to stop me from rebuilding my machine! Or perhaps something even more powerful!"

Danny suddenly felt something woosh by him, and Technus was bowled over by the ghost dog, now in his gaint form. The dog absolutely pummeled Technus. It was almost hard to watch.

As his finishing move, the ghost picked Technus up with his teeth, shook him violently, and let go. Technus went sailing straight into a wall.

Splat!

Technus actually stayed where he hit the wall for a second before slowly sliding down to the floor. He did not get up.

"I...got the collar off." Tucker said.

"Nice job Tuck." Danny pulled out the thermos and aimed it at Technus. The blue beam began to suck him in.

"Noooo! How could you have best me, Technus, master of-"

Danny slammed the cap on the thermos, cutting off Technus's speech.

The ghost dog turned to face Danny, panting heavily.

"The bad ghost is gone." Danny said. "You did a good job."

The dog shrank back to his normal size and barked happily. To Danny's surprise, the ghost began to disappear, seemingly dissolving into the air. Within a few seconds, he was gone.

"That's...never happened before." Danny said.

"Is he gone?" Tucker asked, looking around. "Like, he's not just invisible?"

"I believe so." Vlad landed on the ground next to Danny. "I haven't seen any ghost that disappears like that reappear. It seems when they do that, they're gone for good. I have no idea where they go but, and I could be wrong, but I think that when that happens it's a good thing for them. Nice job with the collar, by the way Tucker. I may have to hire you one day."

Tucker beamed when Vlad said that.

"All he wanted was to protect Axiom." Sam said. "Even after everything they did?"

"I think he just wanted someone to acknowledge the hard work he did." Tucker said. "Those dogs did a good job, and they weren't exactly rewarded well. Huh. I'm starting to get why you feel bad for animals."

"You three did well tonight." Vlad smiled. "I am quite impressed. You've picked up on the intricacies of ghost hunting rather quickly. Truth be told, I don't even think that I even really had to step in there when I did. You seem to work well as a team, you're all quite resourceful and adaptive, and I honestly don't have any major notes."

The trio all smiled at each other. They weren't used to getting praised.

"Of course, I'd advise you from letting your heads get too big. There's always room for improvement. I do wish I could stay longer, but I'm afraid I'm on a rather tight schedule and must be going now. It was a pleasure to meet you both. Ta ta!"

Before anyone could respond, Vlad went intangible and flew through the roof.

"Okay," Tucker said "I know he said the three of us were good, but we've barely managed to scrape out of half the ghost fights we're in, and that guy took down Technus like it was nothing! Like, seriously, did you see him?"

"Yeah." Sam turned to Danny "Like, we see you do some incredible things, Danny. But that Vlad guy? He's kind of...scary powerful."

"Maybe I'll get that powerful someday too." Danny said "It'd make our jobs easier. And I wouldn't have to keep bugging you guys with ghost hunting."

"Aw, come on Danny," Sam elbowed him in the side "Cut that out. If there's one thing your parents are right about, it's that ghost hunting rules. Please don't tell them I said that, though."

"Oh, absolutely not." Danny laughed.

"Okay, but now that the ghost is gone, we'd better get going." Tucker said. "It is a school night."

"Ooh, look at you being all responsible." Sam smirked.

"I want to be well rested for the release of DOOMED tomorrow."

"Ah, that explains it."

"You saw the trailer I sent you, right Danny?" Tucker wrapped an arm around Danny's shoulder "It's gonna be awesome!"

"Yeah." Danny took one last look at the ceiling. He wished Vlad hadn't left so soon.

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

Danny braced himself for the wave of guilt upon seeing Valerie the next day, but it didn't come. She looked a lot happier today. Her head was held high and she was even smiling.

Much to the trio's surprise, she stopped by their table.

"Hey Tucker." she said. "Thanks for the advice yesterday. It was the best anyone's ever given me."

"No problem." Tucker smiled warmly. "Glad I could help. Hey, you can sit with us if you want."

Tucker's offer earned him some raised eyebrows from Danny and Sam.

"Nah, I got some stuff I gotta research in the library." She turned around "Maybe some other time, though." she said before walking away.

"What'd you say to her anyway?" Danny asked.

"No idea, actually." Tucker shrugged "But she seems happy."

"That...might have something to do with her father getting hired by another company's security department." Sam said.

"Wait, really? That's great!" Danny smiled. "Wait, how do you know that Sam?"

Tucker leaned closer to Sam with a smug expression. "Would you know that because a certain heartless goth actually does have a heart, and put in a good word? Hmmmmm?"

"Someone had to do something." Sam pushed Tucker away by his by face "Since your efforts left her running out of the cafeteria. Anyway, enough about Valerie." Sam turned to Danny. "So, Danny, how long have you had a half-ghost billionaire friend?"

"Huh? Oh, I only found out about him when we met in Wisconsin last month. Honestly, besides last night, I haven't seen him since."

"But, still, it is really cool that there's another half-ghost out there. And one that kicks serious butt too!" Tucker said.

"I just wish he wasn't so busy. It'd be cool if he came around more."

"That's the life of a billionaire, Danny." Sam said "Although, if I were him, I'd be doing everything I can to clear up my schedule and spend time with the only other half-ghost on the planet, so who knows. Maybe you'll see more of him soon."

"Yeah, maybe you're right Sam." Danny didn't mention that Vlad wasn't returning his parent's calls. Vlad seemed to like his parents, but Danny wondered if he'd come around more often if they weren't ghost hunters.

"Yeah, and it's not like you need him anyway." Tucker added. "Sure, he's awesome, but you've been getting waaay better with your powers. I don't think you've fallen through the floor at all this month, and I've lost count of how many ghost-butts you've sent crying back to the Ghost Zone. You're not doing too bad on you own Danny."

Danny smiled. He was glad he had friends like Tucker and Sam. He had no idea how he would've survived becoming half ghost without them. Sure, Vlad made him feel less alone when he was around, but Sam and Tucker made him feel less alone in a different way. Maybe an even better one.

-------------------- Epilogue --------------------

It had been nearly a month since her dad had been hired by the Mansons. Thing were going well.

"I'm moving up the ranks pretty quickly Val! The Mansons are pretty impressed with my work."

"That's great Daddy!"

Even though it was Saturday, Valerie still liked to get up early to see her Dad off. It was worth it to see how excited he was with his progress at work. His smiles in the morning didn't look like they took effort anymore.

"Of course, I'm nowhere near my old salary, but at this rate, we should be able to afford to live in a slightly better apartment. One that's closer to your school. So, as soon as I find a decent one, we're moving!"

"Now that is good news." Valerie said. She was sick of killing cockroaches and getting up at 5:00am to catch the bus to school.

Damon glanced at his watch.

"But only if I make it to work on time. Gotta go Sweetie, have a good day." he kissed the top of her head. "Oh, by the way, that came for you in the mail from Wisconsin." he said, pointing to the package on the living room table Valerie had missed. "Might be that dress you ordered before I got fired. Anyway, gotta go. Love you!" he called on his way out the door.

"Love you too, Daddy!" Valerie called as she heard the door shut. She went over to inspect the package. There wasn't a return address, but Valerie had a pretty good guess of who it was from.

When she pulled open the flaps of the box, she discovered a note at the top of a pile of packing peanuts.

Ms Gray,

As promised, enclosed are two things: a protective suit and an Ecto Blaster. The blaster should be pretty straight forward to use, but the suit is much more advanced and, I imagine, much more helpful. It is made up of ecto-resistant material, and I've added a number of helpful ghost-hunting implements. I've included a detailed manual, and I suggest ample practice before taking on any actual ghosts. I would also appreciate you keeping this on the down-low. Giving volatile energy weapons to teenagers is generally frowned upon, and I am a very public figure. To be perfectly frank, I have my doubts about sending these to you, but I don't like going back on my word, so please do be careful, and remember, there's no shame in backing down.

The note wasn't signed.

"Very nice Mister Masters," Valerie smiled as she dug through the packing peanuts and pulled out a weird gun-looking thing. "Finally, I can get some sweet sweet payback. Things are finally looking up!"

The ecto blaster suddenly went off on it's own. The beam shot out an open window and hit a passing seagull, causing it to fall to the ground.

"Valerie?!" she heard her dad call from down the hall.

"I'm okay!" she yelled back, instinctively hiding the blaster behind her back.

#danny phantom #dp #vlad masters #dp fanfic #danny phantom fanfic #friends in strange places #fisp #fanfic #writing #danny fenton

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heyhoeudoin · 29 days

Text

LOYALTY BUILT FROM LOVE

"I will always be by your side."

pairing: senku ishigami x fem!reader

words: 5.4k

genre/s: fluff, mystery, storytelling in the third perspective (s1, s2)

warning/s: she/her, swearing, ambiguous/not direct ending

synopsis: there is always someone next to senku, all the time.

masterlist

a/n: i've been wanting to do something similar to my bakugo fanfic, "Indebted to you" for a while now, and i finally thought of one.

also woah, i posted... revolutionary!

ever since senku arrived at the newfound kingdom of science, he's always had someone next to him

that someone is you

you are never too far from senku

and senku is never too far away from you

when kohaku met senku under that log, that's when she saw you the first time

at first she didn't question it, thinking that you might've just not been there when she saw the fight, but after observing you and senku

she then changed her mind and thought it was strange that she didn't see you

the way the two of you worked together was mesmerizing; efficiently done in silence

she could see that the two of you have some sort of special relationship with that silent communication

you reminded her of her sister; almost princess like with the way you carry your knowledge and demeanor

that impression quickly changed when you flipped ginro and kinro to the ground when they tried to attack senku

it happened so fast that you were just a blur in the corner of her eye! you were faster than her and you took them both out with a single hand

at that moment she knew not to cross senku

she wasn't even sure if she could defeat you

she almost pities the long-haired man

when gen appeared, you didn't recognize him, but he had recognized you

of course he did

everyone in japan knows who you are and anyone who doesn't is living under a rock

he was confused on why a person of your caliber is acting like a servant

maybe for survival, but he's sure that you'd be able to survive on your own

but then he started observing the two of you and this master-servant relationship seemed normal on both end

it made him curious on just what exactly your relationship with senku is

his curiosity skyrocketed after he overheard a conversation between you and senku

gen stood at the bottom of the hut after you and senku climbed up. he was lucky enough that you didn't spot him (well, that's what he thinks).

"so," senku spoke. "do you know him?" then asked. there was a pause. gen thinks you might've gave a non-verbal answer. senku chuckles. "of course, i didn't think you would. he's just some tv show mentalist."

gen rolled his eyes at that, but agrees with what senku said. it would be very shocking to hear that you know of him. "so he's a psychologist?" the first words he heard from you.

"yeah," answered senku. "he wrote these magazines that some of the club talked about some times. it would have questions like "if you could only save one, would you rather save your mother or your partner?" how illogical is that?" he scoffs.

this time you chuckled at him. "but senku," you interrupted. "you do understand just how useful he is, right?" gen felt a chill run up his spine as his whole body tensed up. your light tone immediately changed to a more penetrating one. it almost feels like you're reminding senku of your authority.

"yeah, yeah, i know, and don't use that tone on me. you know that shit don't work," senku replies, dismissing your tone like it was nothing! and to which you giggled at in a playful manner. "so, your assessment of him?" he then asked.

"gen is like a stray cat; give him something to eat and he'll stay," you answered with smooth confidence. "sooner or later he'll ask you for something in exchange for his loyalty." you let out a chuckle. "isn't that right, gen?"

he quickly walked away and didn't look back

maybe you were the one to plant the seed in him

maybe it was senku with his fast-paced bringing back the modern world (and his charisma)

or maybe it was the both of you

but whatever it was, in the end you were right

gen became an important member of the the kingdom of science

although he still wants answers about the two of you

there's two stories that ruri likes out of all hundred tales

she loves sharing them the most

after all, it's the only two love stories from it

number ninety-eight: loyalty built from love there was once a girl who had everything everything but happiness the people around her always worshipped her like a god it made her feel lonely and dull but then she met a boy a boy who knew of everything everything except who she is she talked to him... she argued against him... she laughed alongside him she made him smile.... they were friends they were inseparable but then she felt love he didn't like love she was afraid he became distant she sought after him he stopped seeing her she went to him it was silent then she talked... then he shouted... then they confessed they were in love her love shined through the things she did for him loyalty knows no bounds when you're in love

number ninety-nine: learning to love there was once a boy who found everything interesting everything except love he thought it was illogical and he didn't want to feel it but then he met a girl a girl who can do everything everything except how to feel he talked to her... he fought her... he laughed with her... he smiled at her they were friends they were inseparable he felt different with her he didn't know what it was it scared him he tried to push her away she stayed he ignored her she confronted him it was silent then she spoke... then he screamed... then they confessed they were in love his love was seen from the way he treated her love wasn't so illogical than he thought he did

there was no names mentioned in the two love stories

ruri wished the founder of the village had included the names

maybe it did but was forgotten through time

kohaku didn't really care about her own romances

but if it's other's?

then that's when she's interested

she could never forget the scene she saw between you and senku after the grad bout ended

the placed turned quiet as the realization seeped in. the winner of the grand bout is senku which means... "the new village chief and the husband of the priestess is the winner of the grand bout, senku!"

"well, this is a pain in the ass," senku says as he stuck his pinky into his ear. "so i just have to marry ruri and the whole village is mine, right?" he approached ruri. "i'll do it then."

from the corner of kohaku's eye, she saw you hurriedly walk away with a tightly closed fist. you're actually walking away without senku. that's the first time she ever saw you go away from senku.

she turned back to senku who's staring at your retreating figure. he turned his head back and demanded, "wine! bring me wine!" then after that, it all happened so quickly. senku divorced her sister, took the wine, and ran back to the kingdom of science, dragging kaseki with him.

once they arrived, senku left towards the laboratory where you were, gathering the materials to make the sulfa drug. kohaku watched as you ignored senku. he reached up and flicked your forehead. the two of you talked, rather fast paced with how fast the two of you exchanged words.

senku gently reached out for you hand, bringing it up to his lay on his cheek. he turned his head and kissed your palm.

kohaku's eyes widen in shock.

it looked like you laughed and tackled him into a hug that almost caused you both to fall. you stepped back as you brought your hands up to cup his face. you spoke a few words, then brought your face down to his forehead, giving it a gentle yet light kiss.

kohaku's jaw slacked in shock.

she remembered being flustered, shocked, and confused from the sudden public display of affection the two of you showed

it changed the way she sees the two of you

she always thought that you were like a bodyguard for senku, but also good friends

but if that's how you two always act when you think no one's watching?

maybe the two of you aren't just friends

at first, homura went around spreading the fire to the village

then all she saw was black the next

when hyoga revealed that he was just a distraction, the fire wasn't as big as he planned it to be

in fact, he never planned for homura to be carried in bridal style by someone he didn't expect

did senku revive you? why would he revive you? wait, how did he even find you? your place is no where near where they are right now

it doesn't make any sense

but for now, he'll retreat

he'll surely be beaten by you in mere minutes

chrome admires you and senku, everyone could see that

senku taught him many things about being a sciencer and you'd teach him "life skills"

the two of you work so well together

there are times wherein he watches you and senku work in the lab and it would always leave him in awe

how can the two of you work that well and that fast without any talking?!

are you also a science user like him?

but senku said you weren't so that made him slightly confused

it became even more confusing when he saw you beat kohaku in a spar for the grand bout

just who are you?

and why are you so good at everything?

it reminds him of something but he can't remember what exactly

then he saw something between you and senku that he can't help but make assumptions from

senku turned away from the group after experimenting with the bamboo filaments. "damn it," he cursed out. "bamboo filaments are just fundamentally too weak for vacuum tubes." your shoulders dropped as you looked at senku in worry.

"i don't get science, but bamboo is too weak, is that right?" kohaku spoke up.

"what do we need?" chrome asked with desperation. "if we need something tougher, i'll go find it!"

"no..." senku turned around, showing his pained expression. "there's nothing better in this age."

kohaku and chrome gathered the baskets of rocks that he collected and placed them out in the open for anyone to look through. from the news that senku needed something other than bamboo, the villagers who were still awake gathered at the kingdom of science to help.

chrome turned to call for senku, but he hesitated.

you stood next to senku and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. he turned to you with eyes that chrome can't explain as he placed his hand on top of yours. you brought your other hand and took hold of his hand that was on top of your other one. you guided his hand to the side of your lips and placed a kiss on his palm.

chrome's bulged out of his sockets in shock. his face feeling a bit flustered.

you slowly went down his arm, leaving a trail of kisses. you stopped at his inner elbow and turned to his face. chrome thought you were going to kiss senku, but instead you left a peck on his cheek. you spoke a few words to him and he let out a small smile.

chrome knows that smile

it's the smile that he only gives to you

he never understood why that smile felt different from all the other smiles and smirks senku gives

but from what he just witnessed

maybe the two of you hold a special bond that he should've noticed sooner

it was senku's birthday

the entire village gathered at the kingdom of science

ruri stared at you from afar

you watched as senku was guided towards the newly built watch tower (observatory)

it was the first time she'd seen you not go after senku

after all, the two of you were inseparable

it reminds her about the two love stories from the hundred tales

you started walking away from her line of vision. ruri watched as you walked towards the watch tower as the main group of the kingdom of science left. she could see senku climbing down as well, then approached you. you immediately took his hand in yours and placed the other on his cheek. you spoke a few words then leaned down, giving him a tender yet short kiss on the lips.

on the lips.

AND HE DIDN'T PUSH YOU AWAY!111!1!!!

ruri doesn't remember what happened after that

she was too flustered over the sudden public display of affections the two of you shared that it was the only thing stuck in her head for a while

although, she now hopes that her two favorite stories were based off of the relationship you and senku hold with each other

if only

the first time kohaku, well, anyone, saw you cry was when senku's father relayed a message to you (instead of his own son)

"senku, it's you, isn't it?"

"—nah, you don't need that dramatic father-and-son crap, do you?" senku cackled from that. "but y/n better be there standing next to you like she always is." it was the first mention of you from the record. "i know rebuilding japan will be your priority, y/n, but i also know that you'll stay by senku's side to rebuild the world. take care of him for me, y/n!"

from the corner of kohaku's eye, she saw you raising your hands up to your face, covering it. she saw senku move his arm that lays on your lower back. it looks like he's comforting you.

something then happened that kohaku can never forget

it'll be embedded in her head for so long

kohaku walked towards senku about to call him out, but stopped mid walk. senku stood next to you; both of your backs facing her. he turned his head to look at you. you turned your head to look at him. a few words were exchanged. he raised his hand and gently held your chin. he pulled you towards him and gave a short peck, but then you took hold of his collar and smashed your lips back onto his.

...

kohaku paused for a second. "senku!" then decided to just call the scientist out and continued with what she was going to tell senku either way.

gen was about to go up the observatory when he heard you and senku having a talk

"hey, senku, how would you feel if i..." your question trailed off, hinting at something that seemed like only you and senku know about, or you did something non-verbal.

there was a pause; senku probably thinking over his reply. "but i thought you like playing this game?"

they were playing a game? at this time? gen thought to himself, confused.

"of course i do; it amuses me. this game can only be played a few times after all. i'm only asking because i thought it'd be my turn to do it," you clarified which didn't really make any sense to gen at all. what you said got rid of the image that you two are playing game. just what the hell are you two talking about up there?

there was another pause. "just come up already. what do you want?" it was senku calling him.

kohaku was never afraid of you

why would she be?

you're no enemy

"senku, let me make something clear," kohaku called out. "homura's movements are exceptional."

"gymnastics," says senku. "it's a skill that doesn't exist in your age. y/n can do them too." he jerked his head to your direction you.

"we won't be able to capture her unharmed, but i could behead her with my sword. am i free to kill her?" a serious question kohaku dropped. yours and senku's eyes narrowed at her.

"kohaku, have you ever killed a human being?" you asked kohaku, now standing in front of her. kohaku opened her mouth, but you raised your hand up. "of course you haven't—i know that—and you'll hesitate when the time comes, but, please, kohaku," you called her name with a shaky tone and a hint of guilt that she never heard from you. "never offer yourself to kill another human being. you need to keep that morality with you, it's what makes a person human."

kohaku understood what you said

but she was left with questions that hung in the air, afraid to be asked

were you surrounded by death through killing?

or were you the one killing?

she really wouldn't dare ask

gen knows just how formidable the people around tsukasa are

but the thing is the kingdom of science has you

and he kind of wants to brag about that

"i'm sure you guys know how strong tsukasa is, but it's not just him. the people around him are formidable as well," says nikki through the phone. she then revealed another of tsukasa's allies being someone of great hearing.

"ukyo?" senku asks, turning to gen.

"he was a sonar operator on a submarine," explained gen. "he's got insanely good hearing. that's why tsukasa woke him up."

"good hearing you say?" you piped up. "what a useful thing in certain situations. what are the chances we could get him to our side?" you asked senku with a carefree grin to which he just fondly smiles at.

it was then gen realized something after your comment. "y/n-chan, is it true that your family are...?" he trailed off, not sure how to ask and afraid that you'd be offended from him bringing up rumors about your family.

you understood what he was asking, but all you did was chuckle making senku sigh. gen smartly decided not to push any further. he also took your ominous chuckle as confirmation.

"wait," called nikki. "y/n?"

gen smirked. "yes, nikki! we have the l/n y/n on our side! tsukasa and his army may be formidable, but we have the most formidable on our side," he boasted proudly. "as everyone in japan knows, no one can ever beat a member of the l/n family."

you smiled knowingly, feeling a sense of control and pride at gen's comment making senku sigh once more. "can we stop feeding her ego?" he comments

"y/n!" screamed taiju, both as a calling out and a greeting. "are you taking care of senku?!"

"i am perfectly capable of taking care of myself," commented senku with a deadpan.

you howled out a laughter. "of course i am taiju. are you taking care of yuzuriha?" you asked back.

"yes i am!" he answered confidently to which you laughed fondly at.

gen's plan was to just brag about you

but he was not expecting to get something interesting out of this

he thought yuzuriha and taiju didn't know about you

but they do

which just brings him more questions than answers, honestly

when could they have met you?

actually now that he thinks about it, when did senku meet you?

when magma came back after escaping the hands of ukyo, he also relayed the message that chrome got abducted

kohaku immediately wanted to barge in and take chrome back

and she could never forget the humbling moment of when you instantly stopped her

"chrome's been captured by the tsukasa empire!" exclaimed suika in a fits of worry and panic.

"well, what's the plan, twig?" demanded magma towards senku.

a serious look on the scientist's face as you straightened your posture up, standing next to him. kohaku frowned then ran off with her sword in hand.

"kohaku?!" screamed ruri. "she's not going to help him by herself, is she?"

"she's so quick to act," commented kaseki.

"stop kohaku!" kokuyo commanded, pointing in the directed his daughter took off.

ginro looked at the former village chief in aghast. "but how?! there's no one in this village who can catch up to kohaku-chan!"

oh but there is someone.

"y/n." with one simple call from senku, you had already appeared in front of kohaku, disarmed her of her sword, and pushed her against the ground.

all in three seconds.

she was right from the start

she could never beat you

it really is a good thing you're on their side

of all the people he'd expect to be on the other side of this stone world call

he never would have expected you

in fact, ukyo never expected to to talk to you at all

but here he is

being reassured by you, of all people

"—if you promise to produce zero casualties, i'll cooperate with you. but if you kill even one person..."

senku starts cackling at his request. "sounds great! i'm in." gen shrieks at this. "no problem. we've said—" senku turned around to see your hand on his shoulder. he immediately moved away for you to stand in front of the microphone.

"i do not know what kind of person you are, ukyo, but you are naive to think that a war would not have any bloodshed." he freezes. he knows that voice... he knows it too well. everyone in japan knows it too well. "however, i know how senku is. i know that his plan from the beginning were to have zero casualties, and if that's the plan, then i assure you that there will be no bloodshed at all."

"that's gonna be a pretty tough battle!" exclaimed gen after your declaration.

ukyo believed you

he believed you immediately

he had no reason to doubt you... or senku

especially when you supported him that confidently

he feels relieved to know that you're not on tsukasa's side

if you were

then the ground would've been red

tsukasa never expected there to be a phone in the grave of senku

he never expected for some of his allies to turn against him

he also didn't believe hyoga when he said you were revived

but maybe he should've believed him

but at the same time, what good would it be if he had believed hyoga?

tsukasa is sure that no one can beat you

not even the strongest high school primate

"i can save everyone with this paper airplane dynamite," says senku as the nitroglycerin covered airplane exploded upon impact at a tree.

"what the hell was that?!" stammered ginro.

"anyone caught in that would be gone without a trace," commented kinro.

kohaku stared in awe at the leftover the explosion made, then smirked smugly. "human strength is laughable in comparison to the power of science."

senku laughs. "we made it just in time. you held out well, battle team."

"the kingdom of science has just completed dynamite! it has the power of ten billion megaton joules," gen boldly gave out a lie. senku glanced at him calling out for his bold ass lie to which gen defended that senku sucks at negotiating.

"whether i parry it or smack it down, it'll explode. there's no way to dodge a large blast." tsukasa hums. "yes, it's true that we're out of moves, but that would surely cause collateral damage and kill many people. senku, you're incapable of abandoning people. you would never sacrifice yourself either."

"well, well, it looks like we're both stuck. this isn't a victory; it's a stalemate," says senku. "in your eyes anyways." he moved forward and held onto another nitroglycerin covered airplane. "did you know nitroglycerin is y/n's favorite?"

tsukasa froze at the sudden information drop. so it was true? of all the people, why would you be on senku's side? in fact, why were you at this side of the country at all when the petrification happened?

"y/n, no bloodshed remember?"

tsukasa looked behind him to see you standing there with a knife against his throat. he didn't even hear you nor sensed your presence. is this the power you hold as a member of the l/n family? "are you going to take revenge, senku?" he asked.

"no, of course not," senku deadpans. "let's negotiate, tsukasa."

throughout the entire negotiation, you did not move one bit away from his neck

tsuksa knew of your abilities, but seeing it in person was a different experience

he had one question for you though

why do you let senku command you like that?

"what reason do i have to believe you?" he asked senku.

"all you have is my word. i don't lie when it comes to science," answered senku, cooly. "is that not enough?" tsukasa heard you softly squeal at the sight of senku. does senku really have you wrapped around his finger that quickly? no, that wouldn't make any sense. unless the two of you share some history together?

"no, that's plenty."

this would be chrome's first time watching someone get revived from petrification

instead, before that could happen, he revealed some information that he thought was common knowledge

it wasn't

as senku was about to pour the revival fluid, taiju stopped him. "wait senku! mirai-chan's naked," exclaimed taiju as he poked senku's eyes. "no! you can't revive her now!"

senku writhed on the ground in pain, covering his eyes. "here we go again with your absurd nonsense," he managed to let out. "we're in an emergency, in the stone world! who cares if you're buck naked or if your peepee's showing?" he raised his hand up, rubbing his eye to soothe the pain, then removed them showing his teary eyes. "you really like this plot twist, don't you? we'll figure it out once she wakes up—"

"but if it's y/n, would you be okay with it?" senku snapped his mouth shut at taiju's rebuttal. he turned over to you, who's standing next to him, to see a smirk growing on your face. he could already feel the headache coming from this small tease.

you raised your hand and casually revealed, "actually he revived me naked, so..." heads turned to senku who flinched at the sudden movement, all of them looking shocked (sans kohaku, she's actually mad).

"senku!" kohaku roared, drawing her dagger out.

"what's wrong with that?" asked chrome, breaking the tension. kohaku turned her head to glare at chrome who flinched at that hostility.

"chrome-chan, it's bad manners to see someone naked without their consent," informed gen, treating chrome as if he was an innocent child.

"no, i know that!" exclaimed chrome. "but they bathe together, so they see each other naked all the time," he then revealed. heads turned once again to senku, but this time to you as well to which senku sighs and you laugh at.

"and just how do you know that, chrome?" senku asks, then lets out a disgusted face. "don't tell me..."

"no!" denied chrome immediately. "i notice you guys heading towards the springs together a lot and y/n would be carrying a bamboo basket of like these cases and i also saw soap in it, so i assumed that you two would be taking a bath... together." he then realized the implications of what he revealed and turned red.

god bless yuzuriha on making a set of clothes for mirai, breaking the tension.

many things were revealed that night

under the curtesy of chrome

he never thought too deeply about the things he know, but saying it out loud made him realize some things

it made gen and tsuka understand just what of relationship you hold with senku as well (kind of)

and so the question changes

how did you and senku get to that point?

"senku..." chrome called out. "we're missing some dynamite," he shared with a serious tone.

upon hearing that you quickly scanned the area and noticed who are missing, and bolted off. a few minutes later, an explosion rang out, then you heard gen screaming out to the villagers to hurry up.

you snuck up on hyoga, bloodlust accidentally slipping which made him dodge, but barely. a line of blood forming across the back of his shoulder blades. he raised his spear and instead of aiming it at you, he aimed it at mirai. you moved forward, blocking the attack on hitting her. the spear pierced through you, but not as deep as hyoga wanted since you were able to stop it by holding onto it.

"so you're not impenetrable," he mused.

"go fuck yourself," you spat.

you broke the spear in half then pushed it through you, popping it out from the back. you spun around, catching the bloodied half of the spear, then turned right back around, using the momentum to throw it towards hyoga.

"get out of there! tsukasa! mirai!" you heard senku cry out from the distance. "y/n!" then you heard him let out this blood curdling scream.

you lost balance from the powerful throw causing you to slip and fall. tsukasa ran over. hyoga blocked the spear with the other half of it. tsukasa managed to catch you, holding onto your wrist. hyoga quickly picked up the bloodied upper half of the spear and aimed it at tsukasa. you swung yourself forward, your feet flat against the mountain wall and pushed yourself off, pulling tsukasa down with you. hyoga missed his stab, grazing the side of his torso instead. the sudden pull made mirai slip from the edge, but luckily senku caught up and pulled her away from the edge. however, hyoga then kicked senku off the mountain to which he jumped down afterwards.

senku's hands trembled as he held the wound, putting pressure on it. you could feel his fright against your skin, in fact, you're just as frightful as he is. the both of you can't lose each other. he can't lose you; and you don't wanna leave him. tsukasa kept himself busy as he fought against hyoga, but anyone with eyes could see that tsukasa is affected by the cut.

"you need to work with him, senku, i can survive for a few minutes," you managed to tell him as you reached towards your wound, holding it down with two hands. "you two can end this fight just as quickly as it started. we both know how bad water and blood is inside of a punctured lung." your breathing increased.

"save your breath! y/n, please..." senku lowered his head, laying it against your forehead.

"then go and help tsukasa already," you forcefully told him with gritted teeth.

hyoga managed to get his way over to where the two of you were. he kicked you away from senku. "y/n!" he screamed out.

anyone could tell that senku was distressed

it was the most obvious thing

you've been unconscious for barely a few hours and yet he's become restless

the people who know senku well enough are shocked at this newfound side of his

then again at the same time, they weren't shocked

everyone knows just how much you and senku care for each other despite not knowing just what exactly the relationship the two of you hold

(there was assumptions of it, but that's all they were: bold assumptions)

"senku, you need to rest," advised gen, looking worried. "you took a beating as well."

senku shook his head. "what's the point of sleeping when i need to think of a way to save y/n," he replied, pacing in the cave room you laid in.

taiju and yuzuhira glanced at each other, worried for their long time friend. this was not the first time this had happened. they hoped it would be the last, but here they are yet again, watching senku worry upon hours for an injured you.

"senku, do you want to sleep in here?" yuzuriha asked softly. senku looked up at her and nodded, no words to be said.

"i'll get a spare bed for you senku! no worries!" exclaimed taiju as he ran off.

"has he ever been like this before?" kohaku asked, going straight to the point. gen and chrome walked closer to kohaku and yuzuriha.

yuzuriha's lips drew into a thin line, unsure if she should share. she knew about the game you and senku liked to play, after all, she was one of the first victims. "only when y/n becomes reckless and injuries herself, but this time it's worse. it's hard to heal an injury as severe as that in the stone world."

"it's obvious," mentioned gen. "i may not know what relationship they have together, but if my assumptions are right, then it makes sense. usually senku would've thought of something by now, but he hasn't. his mind is being blocked by anxiousness, panic, and worry. he needs to calm down."

"senku..." you weakly called out which caught senku's attention immediately, and crouched down next to you. "get your ass to sleep." the others were taken aback at the first sentence you spoke after you woken up from a short coma.

senku let out a huff of amusement. "of course that's the first thing you say," he mentions.

"you know me so well, love." a weak smirk formed on your face. if anyone picked up on the sudden affectionate name, they didn't mention it. "but seriously though, how can you save me when you can't even think straight. you know me well, but i know you just as well, senku."

senku furrowed his brows.

"you need to accept what you need to do, senku."

masterlist a/n: it's not as ambiguous as i want it to be, but i thought the ending seemed fitting

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talewrites · 2 months

Text

Fragile Part 6

😈😈😈

(This chapter got too long- I had to cut it short,,,, :]]] Enjoy!)

Generation: Bayverse TMNT

Tmnt x Reader Fanfic

Pronouns: Gender Neutral (except ‘dudette’, 'miss', and ‘princess’)

Warnings: injury, blood, electrocution, graphic depictions of torture, not proof read

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Today you were spending time with Donnie while he worked in front of his monitors. You liked it there much better than in his lab. He had a map of the city up with little marks indicating spots where the Foot had been spotted. But that wasn’t what he was working on right now.

No, you and Donnie were doing much more important things at the moment.

Like playing the new update in Stardew Valley.

“Fishing mods are cheating.”

You gawked at him in mock offense. “But you can’t pause in a multiplayer farm, there’s no time to play the fishing mini game!!”

“That’s why it’s more of a challenge!” He stuck his tongue out while he clicked his mouse rapidly to fight off a slime in the mines.

You pouted, adjusting the laptop in your lap. “I don’t need my cozy farming sim to be challenging…”

Donnie did not miss the cute grin that graced your face after, his heart fluttering in his chest.

These past few days you found yourself smiling more and more easily. Whether it was Mikey getting covered in flour while you baked cookies together, or Raph teaching you how to purl stitch, or Leo showing you how to wield a sword. You were enjoying spending more personal time with the turtles as you got to know them better.

Your toes curled where you were perched in the chair beside Donnie, glancing up at the map again. Your eyes always drawn to the blinking red dot marking the location of the lab you escaped only weeks before. The police had raided it and found it empty, which only increased your unease as to where Dr Stockman might be hiding. It already felt like a lifetime ago, that night when the turtles first found you.

You owed them your life.

“Hey (y/n), you almost ready for afternoon training?” Leo came over, snapping you out of your thoughts. Leo leaned against the back on Donnie’s chair, earning a dismissive swat from his younger brother.

“We’ll stop after we finish up this day, Leo.” Donnie said not even taking his eyes off the screen. You giggled and got back to fishing on the beach.

You were two hours into your training session with Leo.

“Okay, good. Now when you kick, focus on your balance. Stay firmly planted and your leg should have more power.” Leo coached you.

Master Splinter was supervising while sipping his tea. It had barely been 5 days since your mutant abilities had manifested. But you were already making astounding progress in unlocking its potential. Leonardo had played a big part in the process, being the one who had helped you work through your fears of using your mutant reflexes, so the abilities came more easily to you when training. He trained with you every day, while Master Splinter provided guidance. Everyone was doing their best to support you through all the changes.

Casey suddenly jogged in through the entrance of the lair.

“Guys! Just got word, the Foot are planning to rob a warehouse full of high tech weapons tonight. We gotta go intercept it.” He said waving around his cellphone.

“What? Where? Their communication frequency has been quiet since they moved those chemicals to the old Sacks building!” Donnie spun around in his chair to face Casey, you and Leo walking into the living room with Raph and Mikey close behind.

“Queens. Our contact in the Foot Clan leaked the info to us just half an hour ago.”

“Huh, that’s strange. That’s all the way on the other side of town. Aside from Sacks Tower, they’ve only really been active around the East Village and ChinaTown this past week. Maybe they changed their frequency again to throw us off track.” Donnie was quickly typing up info on his keyboard.

“Well, regardless, we better go check it out.” Leo sighed. He wanted to keep training with you, but it would have to wait.

“Heck yeah! I’m bringin’ the steak-out snacks. Who wants Doritos?” Mikey grabbed his ratty old Jansport backpack and started shoving cans of Orange Crush into it.

“(Y/n), you stay here and keep an eye on Donnie’s computer. The Foot might try to communicate about their raid tonight. Donnie’s program will intercept it. April will be here in about an hour, so just tell her if anything suspicious comes up.” Leo asked you.

“Right!” You said standing to attention and giving a military salute with a silly little grin on your face.

It made Leo’s heart melt in his chest and his expression turned soft.

“Just, stay safe, okay?” He patted you on the head then headed for the exit.

As the rest of the boys filed out of the lair, they each stopped by you. Mikey getting a high five, you quickly cleaned Donnie’s glasses for him, and Raph, always last, ducked down for a quick hug when his brothers weren’t looking. Casey rushed ahead of them.

Master Splinter waved goodbye to his sons next to you. Once the boys had left, he informed you he was going to go meditate, and to come find him if you needed anything.

About 45 minutes later, you were casually watching YouTube videos on Donnie’s computer when a flashing red light appeared on the screen. It was indicating that Donnie’s program was intercepting a message from the Foot’s closed communication server. A message popped up on the screen, and you gasped.

“We have captured the turtles. Continue with the plan.”

Then a video feed loaded up on the main screen.

Your blood ran cold.

It looked like the feed from a security camera, depicting Leo, Mikey, and Donnie all locked in glass cages, restrained with thin tubes of red connected to their arms. They looked weak, they looked bad.

“What….? No… No, not this… please no…!”

Where was Raphael? He was nowhere to be seen. How did they get captured so fast…? They had barely been gone an hour!

Your mind was racing. You recognized those machines. Dr Stockman used them to take blood samples from Bebop and Rocksteady. If that was the case, there was no time to lose.

You made up your mind.

You snuck past the dojo and muttered a quick apology to Master Splinter. You knew Master Splinter wouldn’t let you go, so you kept quiet. Then you grabbed the handheld GPS device Donnie left on his work table. You entered the location on the map where the message was sent from.

The old Sacks Tower.

Time to move.

April arrived at the lair much later than expected. She and Casey had just finished speaking to the commissioner about police activities being leaked to the Foot. When they entered the living room, they were confused to only see Master Splinter waiting for them. The old rat was pacing and anxiously stroking his beard.

“Splinter? Where’s (y/n)?” April asked, confused.

Splinter shook his head.

“You don’t know where they are?” April became concerned, walking further into the lair.

“It appears, that our greatest fears have been realized.” His expression deeply troubled. Before April could ask, she noticed what Splinter was looking at.

Playing in a loop on Donatello’s monitor was old CCTV footage from when the turtles had been captured 10 years ago by Shredder and Mr Sacks. April breathed a sigh of relief, immediately recognizing the scene.

“Splinter, the turtles are safe. I spoke to Leo on the phone only 10 minutes ago. They’re staking out a warehouse in Queens. This is old footage.”

Splinter’s eyes widened and looked back to the screen. His expression turned contemplative.

“If that is so, then perhaps Miss (y/n) has made the same mistake.” He spoke gravely.

April had a look of shock. She quickly pulled out her phone and speed dialed Leo’s number.

Leo thankfully answered quickly. “Hey April, anything new?”

“Leo, is (y/n) with you?”

Leo paused a long moment and sent a look over to his brothers, getting their attention. “No…. Aren’t they at the lair?” All of his brother's eyes were suddenly on him. Leo turned the phone on speaker.

“No!! They’re gone. And there’s a video playing on Donnie’s computer. It’s a recording of you Mikey and Donnie locked up at Sacks’ estate from over 10 years ago… I think this is what (y/n) saw before they left.”

“They left?” Leo felt his heart drop into his stomach. “To go where, Sacks’ estate?” His brothers immediately started packing up their stakeout equipment to leave.

“No I don’t think so, the sender’s location was tracked, it’s still on the screen. It says it was sent from Sack Tower in Times Square.”

Donnie came over and joined in the call, typing furiously at the keyboard on his wrist. “Sacks Tower. That’s where they were spotted smuggling those stolen chemicals into the other day…! From my notifications, it appears that the message was sent through an older Foot Clan communication frequency approximately 43 minutes ago.”

“Donnie, how long will it take (y/n) to get to Sacks Tower.”

“From my calculations, if (y/n) left the lair heading to the Sacks building about 40 minutes ago, going by subway, they should arrive in about uhhh, approximately 8 minutes.”

“And how long will it take us to get there.” Raph asked.

“From where we are now, if we manage to hitch a ride on the next nonstop train to Times Square…… about 1 and a half hours.”

“Shit!”

Raph cursed loudly and turned away frustrated, and Mikey put his hands on his head. Donnie was typing away at the keypad on his arm, trying to find any kind of faster route and muttering about how stupid he was for not making you a shellcell.

“We don’t have a minute to waste. Let’s move out.”

That’s all they needed to hear. Everyone sprung into action and booked it for the closest subway station manhole cover.

“April, we are headed to Sacks Tower as fast as we can. And get ahold of the police commissioner again. Whoever gave us the information to come to this warehouse tonight was intentionally planted with misinformation. There was no sign of the Foot at the warehouse. …..It was most likely a diversion.”

“Right. I’ll get back to you soon.”

Leo hung up the phone and jumped off the apartment building and dove down towards the street’s manhole cover.

Leo grit his teeth.

“Hold on (y/n).”

The halls of the building were eerily empty. This place made your skin crawl. The laboratory felt all too similar to the one you had been trapped in before. But this one had clearly been abandoned for a long time. Broken glass, graffiti, turned over chairs, scattered paper. But strangely the power was still on. You didn’t dare try to use the elevator in fear of giving away your position. But you were confused as to why you had yet to see any guards. This is where the message was sent from, the turtles had to be here, right?

You climbed the steps to another floor, but paused as you creaked open the door exiting the stairwell. This floor felt like a world apart from the previous ones. It was clean.

And the lights were on.

You kept low, and hyper vigilant. Steadying your breathing like Leo had taught you, you crept into the sterile white hallway. There were glass windows along the hall looking into different labs. One held chemistry equipment, another held big bulky medical equipment that clicked and beeped. Finally, the last room at the end of the hall, a room with no windows. You had a sinking feeling in your gut, but still you crept towards the door. Slowly and quietly you pulled open the heavy door, and revealed a large lit room with a high ceiling, and there you saw it.

“Guys….!”

There along the back wall were 4 glass boxes with 3 of the turtles strung up and being drained of blood. You had found them! Seeing no one else in the room, you rushed in.

“I’m going to get you out of here, just you wait!” You went to the first machine in front of Donnie and reached out to touch the screen-

Your hand passed right through.

“What…?” You tried to touch it again but there was nothing there.

The hologram distorted, and then the turtles disappeared. You gasped.

It was a trap.

You turned around to book it towards the exit, but the door was opening again. Bebop and Rocksteady squeezed through the small door one at a time, and blocked your exit. Then over an intercom you heard the familiar laugh that sent a shiver down your spine.

Stockman chuckled darkly. “Just how I planned it! Like catching a fly with honey. So predictable!”

You backed up slowly as Bebop and Rocksteady approached you.

“Did you miss us, little kitty?” Rocksteady sneered.

The intercom buzzed as Stockman spoke again. “Bebop, Rocksteady, keep them occupied until I arrive. I will be there momentarily. And let’s not have a repeat of last time, please!” There was a clicking sound and the intercom went quiet.

Bebop chuckled. “Hell yeah! It’s been so long since we last played! Let’s make the most of it.”

“That’s right! And we gotta pay you back for all the trouble you caused us! We missed you so much after you left. You wanna go first Beebs?”

“My man!” Bebop smiled at Rocksteady and clasped his hand, they both laughed.

You tried your best to steady your breathing like Leo taught you. Your hands were trembling. But you needed a way out. Bebop and Rocksteady were not fast, if you timed it right, maybe you can get past them to the door.

Bebop approached you. You stayed still and waited. Then when he got close enough, you ran right towards him, surprising Bebop. He reached out to grab you but you slid right between his legs, then jumped up behind him and tried to run past Rocksteady before he could react. He was still too close to you and managed to grab you from behind, but you were ready for him. Just like in training, you reached up and grabbed him around his neck, and taking a deep breath, you threw all your strength forward and down and managed to flip Rocksteady onto his back- stunning him. You quickly jumped over him and ran for the door, slamming into it fast and wretched the handle to pull it open.

Locked. (Warning for graphic depictions of torture ahead.)

“No…!” You felt a bruising grip close around your arm, and you were torn away from the door. “NO!!” You cried out as you were thrown hard onto the floor between the two oversized mutants.

“See? Now that’s your problem. You gotta go makin’ our job harder than it needs to be!” Bebop complained.

Rocksteady was picking himself back up, rubbing the back of his head tenderly. “Don’t let them get to ya Beebs, we’ll sort them out quick before Stockman gets here.” Bebop then reached into his pocket and pulled out an all too familiar black taser.

Rocksteady took the taser and chuckled. “Little kitty needs a check-up!”

You tried to get up and run, but Rocksteady stomped down hard on your left arm. There was a sickening snap and you screamed, writhing in pain. You were pinned.

“Tsk, tsk. You know what happens when kitty gets naughty!” The taser was flicked on, all you could do was close your eyes before a strong surge of electricity was shot into your ribcage and throughout your body. You convulsed as the shocks seized you, your shoulder getting dislocated from the spasms, then collapsed back on the floor.

“Just like good ol’ times!” Rocksteady passed the taser to Bebop.

Rocksteady laughed and removed his foot from your arm, then Bebop tased you in the ribs again. You yelped and rolled onto your stomach, tucking your very broken arm underneath you and tried to crawl away.

“Hey, where ya goin? We’re just getting STARTED!” Rocksteady punctuated his sentence by kicking you in the stomach hard enough to throw you across the room. You hit the ground and your body rolled another few feet until you stopped on your side and curled in on yourself, the air knocked out of your lungs.

Bebop took his time strolling over to you, and grabbed you by the hair to lift you up. You coughed and gasped for air, grabbing at his hand and tried to pry his fingers off of his grip.

“Think you can just up and leave whenever you want, do ya?” He growled in your ear, then dropped you down haphazardly to the floor. You were on your knees, buckled forward and holding your left shoulder, when suddenly Bebop’s foot stomped down on your right ankle and you heard a loud crunch.

You shrieked.

Exhausted and riddled with unbearable pain, you crippled to the floor. It took everything you had just to pull breath.

“Alright, I’m back! How is our lovely patient doing?” Came the cheerful sing-song voice of Dr Stockman entering the room through the locked door, Karai tailing behind him.

“Hey boss! Uhhh, we were just warming them up for ya! See? They can’t run away no more.” Bebop nudged your side with his foot, knocking you onto your side so Stockman could see the pain riddled on your face. You were barely conscious by this point.

“Excellent! Bring them to me.” Stockman ordered.

Bebop picked you up by your good arm and carried you over to where Dr Stockman was walking to in the back of the room. Karai stepped in Bebop’s way for a moment, taking in your beaten appearance, and back-handed your face hard for good measure, leaving a shiny bruise and angry red gash across your cheek. That woke you up a bit.

Just enough to retaliate.

You took a deep breath and tore your arm out of Bebop’s grasp and punched Karai in the stomach, hard enough to throw her into a large display screen next to where Stockman was standing. Stockman squawked in surprise. She rolled onto the floor, and pushed herself up onto her side. Spitting a bit of blood onto the ground and wiping away at her lip.

You tried to stand on your good leg but you were too weak and collapsed back to the floor. Bebop and Rocksteady grabbed you by each of your arms and brought you in front of Stockman.

He was looking at you in awe, and reached out tentatively to swipe at the blood on your cheek. He rushed over to his desk, jumping a bit in excitement. He put a drop of your blood onto a slide, and observed it under his microscope.

“Ha…! HA HA…! YES!!” Stockman shouted in excitement and did a little dance. Bebop and Rocksteady exchanged a confused look and Karai stood up and walked over to Stockman, eyeing you angrily and rolling her shoulder.

“What does this mean?” She questioned him.

“It means that the mutation was a SUCCESS!!! Those stupid turtles must have triggered it somehow. And now we can finally proceed with the plan!!!” He grabbed something off his desk and skipped over to the stairs leading up to the circular titanium base in the middle of the room. “Bring them here!!” He called over, waving his hand to Bebop and Rocksteady.

They dragged you over to Stockman, and were deposited on the round podium that sat under a large glass tube. Stockman started to pull down long rubber tubes from above, and attached large thick needles to the ends. You tried once again to crawl away with your good arm, as Bebop and Rocksteady retreated.

But Stockman approached you from behind. In a quick jab, he stabbed the two needled tubes deep into your back. You grunted and groaned in pain, but could do nothing, collapsing on the podium. Beaten, bruised, and bleeding.

When Dr Stockman was finished, he descended the stairs and rushed over to his computer, giggling excitedly he typed in a command and the glass tube descended over you until it clicked into place at the sturdy titanium base. Locking you inside.

“They’ll be placed in suspended animation. Once the tank is completely filled with the preservation fluid, they’ll become nothing more than a convenient blood bag, supplying an endless supply of mutagen for our mutant army.” Stockman rubbed his hands together evilly.

“And what about the turtles?” Karai asked.

“It is already too late for them to stop us. Even if they manage to get through your guards, they will be unable to free them from this tank. Once I start the filtration process, I will delete the programmed command to empty or release the containment cylinder. They won’t be able to free them without my help!” Stockman typed away quickly at his computer.

One of the tubes connected to your back began to pull blood from your body, leading up through a small opening in the top of the cylinder then down into a canister at the base. Then from the second tube, a white milky substance full of liquid nutrients began to filter through and down into your body. It did nothing to numb the pain you felt as you laid there in a state of half consciousness.

Suddenly, the loud banging of gunshots could be heard somewhere outside the door.

“We’re not ready yet! Hold them back!” Stockman ordered Bebop and Rocksteady, who positioned themselves between Stockman and the door.

The door suddenly blew wide open, and the four turtles rushed into the room, angry and weapons at the ready.

“Where’s (y/n).”

Part 7

@itsberrydreemurstuff @thecreat0r64 @eli-chris @kurlyfrasier @autisticnutcase @drenix004 @donniesgirlie @cherryp-op @foggyturtleknightangel @blackrockshooter780 @l-n-g-t @peachesdabunny @silverwatergalaxy @willy-the-witch @caeliasaida @veri-varily @xnorthstar3x

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