#Danny is in for quite the surprise when he finds out Clockwork called the space police on Amity Park

[phantomphangphucker]

Legless On Maim Chap. 9: Gifts Of Time, Science, And Space

ClockWork is surprisingly helpful. Danny’s surprisingly not. Jack and Maddie are surprisingly good at ethical(ish) human(ish) medicine(ish). Lewis is surprisingly not and accidentally makes a ghost. And the duo that is Venom are surprisingly... surprising.

ClockWork smiles fondly, leans over, and pats Danny’s head, “I’m perfectly sound of mind and Core, child”. Danny only groans loudly in response.

But this is enough to get Maddie and Jack to their feet and drawing weapons, though not pointing them because something’s going on here. Jazz practically bolting into the kitchen and looking like she’s ten seconds away from blocking their line of fire and screaming ‘NO!’, only encourages them to hold off more. They knew Danny was close to her, trusted her, maybe told her things they didn’t know?

The ghost turns to the pair of hunters, them floating over the table, and actually bows exaggeratedly with a cheeky smirk, “greetings, Madeline and Jackson”. Jack blinks, having not been called that since he was basically born and they had to tell the nurse what to put on his birth certificate. While the ghost looks to Lewis, “as for the who, Lewis-”, making Lewis quirk an eyebrow over them following Danny in using his last name, “-you’d be right in assuming I’m ClockWork”, looking back to the hunters, “the ghost of time, or spirit, as you’ve chosen to dub the created dead”, grinning, “we prefer neverborn ghost of course. Born ghosts prefer unlived ghost”.

Danny lifts his head off the table to the sight of his parents' open mouth gaping at ClockWork, groans and bangs his head on the table again. ClockWork patting his head with their tail before Danny lifts his head up, returns his chin to his palm and sighs, “ClockWork, there are days I really wonder if you just like making me suffer”, sighing again while his parents give him really weird looks. Danny glances from his folks worriedly to ClockWork, looking mildly unimpressed and exasperated, “you’re gonna make me explain all this, aren’t you?”.

Jack raises an eyebrow at Danny, “Danny-boy? Do you... know them?”.

Danny slips his head off his palm and lets his face bang into the table yet again, “ugh. Yes”, lifting a hand limply and gesturing at ClockWork, his face still on the table, “Clocky. Timepants. Pocket-watch. Timedaddy. Kronos, when they’re being a real old-timer stickler”, sighing, “they’re kinda my-”, he’s probably going to regret deciding that lying wasn’t worth the effort here, “-ghost parent?”.

ClockWork shifts to their elderly form, “you say that as if it is a question”.

Danny lifts up his head purely to scowl at them, “oh my Ancients”.

“Yes?”.

Danny’s scowl deepens but he doesn’t get to say anything as Maddie cuts in, managing to sound only slightly accusing, “what does he mean, ghost”, glancing at Danny and softening her expression a little, clearly silently asking him the same question but nicer.

Jack nodding stiffly, “uh, yeah”.

ClockWork says precisely nothing, instead shifting to a child and sitting on Danny’s shoulder. Danny turns his head to gape at them, “seriously?”.

Lewis chuckles, “well I certainly see where Danny gets his mischievous side now”. ClockWork was absolutely a trouble maker and prankster. And fine, if prankster god wasn’t slightly horrifying.

Resulting in Danny screwing up his face and giving Lewis the most overacted ‘you did not just say that’ face ever, that effectively conveyed ‘what the fuck is wrong with you’ in about sixty-nine different languages. ClockWork just pats Danny’s head.

Danny looks back to his folks at his mom clearing her throat. Him chuckling awkwardly, “uh”, deciding screw it, it’s way too bloody late for this to not be awkwarder than a snow bunny trying to relax in someone's venti cup filled with espresso shots. Gesturing with both hands from ClockWork to his parents, “ClockWork, my parents; not that you didn’t already know that”, gesturing from his parents back to ClockWork, “mom and dad, ClockWork; my ghostly guardian because I am a child and ghostly enough to qualify for this shit and my life is bullshit and the universe has a horrible sense of humour and yeah okay I’m exactly the kind of mess to have a technical god watching over me more literally and this probably makes, like, zero sense and I’d rather you not shoot them and I have no idea why they’re here now and I'm just going to shut up now”, clacking his teeth shut and leaning back against his chair with his arms crossed. ClockWork, now an adult, repositioning to appear to be sitting on the top of the chair back (obviously they are actually floating though).

Jack and Maddie blink, exchange a Look, and go back to eyeing ClockWork -who’s suddenly a child again- warily; though they look less like they’re trying to restrain hostility and more simply cautious. Maddie sitting down slowly and stiffly, effectively pulling Jack to sit down as well, “explain”, her then glaring/squinting at the ghost, “why are you here”. Both of those were technically supposed to be questions but that didn’t sound even slightly like questions.

Danny seriously resists saying ‘I kinda just did’ both because that wouldn’t do him any good here and because she’s asking to explain the explanation. Jazz gives him an encouraging nudge as she relaxes and sits down herself; now sure her parents aren’t going to attempt to attack.

Danny swallows, “um, like I said. Ghostly parent. Guardian. Mentor. Teacher. Guide”, oh he is so never going to hear the end of this. Of him having a Guardian and being taught ghost things, and not telling his ghost crazed ectologist/hunter parents. Never. But his parents, or his mom at least, seemed to understand him not being super open with his ghostly shit. With him hiding it. So maybe. Just maybe. They’ll get him hiding this too. Maybe. Hopefully. Probably not. Big difference between ‘my body does weird ghost shit’ and ‘I hang out with literal ghosts’. Massive fucking difference. Huge. And ClockWork’s over here being their typical calm collected self. Jerk. Though that was probably a way of saying ‘this is fine and will be fine’; not gonna stop Danny from being a paranoid little bitch. Danny breaks the silence by reopening his mouth, looking to his mom, “um. They’re who I meant by that wise ‘friend’ I mentioned”.

Maddie squints at him a little before nodding and glancing back to the ghost. So this ghost -spirit or ‘neverborn’?- loved the living? That was... arguably good... okay. But she’s still not sure what’s even going on here. How can he ‘have a ghost parent’? That makes no sense. And pointing that out just effectively made Danny repeat himself, so obviously this didn’t cross his mind as ‘not normal’. She’s pretty damn certain a ghost wasn’t present when she gave birth to him, and carried him, and literally everything else. And he wasn’t born like this, born with a Core and ectoplasm. She would have noticed something like that. So what really is this ClockWork to him? Or how do they have the familial relationship Danny’s saying they do. Again Danny didn’t find this odd, so do ghosts just... get assigned a mentor ghost? That makes zero sense. Ghosts knew how to be ghosts from the get-go... right? But also, what the heck was some ghost -maybe ‘needed’ or not- teaching her son?

Jack tilts his head, watching the currently child-like ghost give Danny a little head pat. His son glancing up with the typical scowl he gave to the two of them for doing that or ruffling his hair, even looking a bit fond? And that wasn’t something that could really be faked. So close for sure. His boy was close with a ghost! What does he even do with this? Is it good? Bad? Kinda cool? If ghostie really was friendly -huh, friendly ghost, who would have thought? Danny apparently- then it was cool. The things he could learn! But how? “How are you related?”, Jack shakes his head, “wait no, they said created so no relatives at all”. Then squinting and becoming just a little giddy. Wait! They confirmed a theory! Or more so Dan’s theory. Blurting out, “you’re needed!”, pausing, right no assumptions anymore, “or are you?”.

ClockWork grins, “ghost of time. The time stream would quite effectively collapse without me”. A truly unfortunate truth. ClockWork lets them sit on that for a beat before adding, “of course I am an unfade so that hardly matters”.

Jack and Maddie blink, “an ’unfade’”, attempting to take this in stride.

“Indestructible. Immortal. I am an endless thing. I have always been and will always be”.

Jazz decides now would be a good point to interject, before her parents start building a questionnaire, “alright, I’m sure you didn’t show up to answer questions. So why are you here and could it have waited till after everyone had slept?”, Danny especially needed all the sleep he could muster.

ClockWork grins, “they asked to meet a good ghost, so I decided to let them. Though I can be more of a neutral when it comes to the universe or existence itself”. Ultimately, seeking to extend the existence of the universe and maintain the stability of time, were ‘good’ goals and jobs.

Lewis can’t help but chuckle, that was so painfully mundane but with complete chaos as a result. Which gets Maddie’s attention on him, “you are... very calm”. Maddie officially feels like Dan might have a better disposition for her job than she does.

Danny grumbles, “tell me about it”, because seriously, come on! Looking to ClockWork, “for the love of everything, tell me you had more reason than that?”.

Jazz butting in again, “no. No more questions. You all need to go to bed. And I need to go back to it”. Earning some neck rubbing from Danny. Maddie and Jack just gesture -with both hands- at ClockWork like that is reason enough for them not to. Jazz stands up, hands on her hips, “no. Bed. Now”.

ClockWork smirks and closes their eyes slightly, “I’ll make sure to tuck Daniel in then”. Making both parents immediately exclaim, “no! You’re a stranger to us! And a ghost!”. Which Danny glares at them over a little.

Jazz throws up her hands, “why do I try”, and attempts to smack ClockWork over the head, “you’re as bad as Danny”, blinking at her hand, which of course had just phased through ClockWork.

Danny snorts, “why did you think that would work? They see the future”.

Jazz points at him, “proof we need sleep”.

Jack lifts up a finger and opens his mouth, though closing his mouth at getting a harsh glare from his daughter. ClockWork answer his question anyway, no clue how the ghost knew what it was though, “the time stream flows trough my Core, to be without me would be rather similar to brewing coffee without the filter and picking your beans blindly”.

Lewis mutters, “the horror”, sarcastically. While ClockWork continues, “the universe would get nothing short of a mess and would likely throw out the end result with haste. And Madeline? I have in fact been watching over him since before you had been born yourself”, looking with an almost mean smirk to Jazz, “preventing your parents from speaking will not alter the fact that they did speak in another time”.

Jack is almost smiling over the new info and Maddie just looks incredibly confused. While Jazz sighs and rubs her temples, “at the very least Danny should sleep. If you’re a ‘parent’ then shouldn’t you be focused on his heath?”.

ClockWork smirks more, “and I am. After all, there are some timely issues. What better to empower timing mechanisms than-”, shifting to an elder, “-old man time, the being that empowers time itself”. Danny puts a hand over his mouth and chuckles; not even attempting to figure out what ClockWork means.

Lewis quirks an eyebrow, “you’re referring to the timer I’m guessing? I find it interesting that a ghost would be offering to help ghost hunters with their tech. Which is usually used for ghost hunting”. This gets literally everyone else to raise their eyebrows.

ClockWork shrugs very subtly, “they could hardly do me harm, and ghost hunting is far from the purpose here”, grinning and side-eyeing Danny, “put that tail to good use, people do tend to keep around that which is useful”.

Danny’s pretty sure he’s the only one who got that. ClockWork absolutely was enjoying his effectively full-time tail. Cheeky bastard. Rolling his eyes a little bit with a small smile at ClockWork poking his tail with theirs; letting his tail uncoil from the chair and effectively wind around and fiddle with ClockWork’s a little. Then scowling at Jazz for giggling at him.

Jack is struggling not to grin, only even trying not to due to this being a ghosts that deserves suspicion. Maddie furrows her eyebrows, “‘help with the timer’?”, then sounding very suspicious, “how?”, then glancing at Danny’s tail basically wrapped around the base of ClockWork’s, whose tail tip is patting his. The ghost seemed to imply It-they wanted him to keep the tail; not that there was another option. But why? Though come to think of it, she hadn’t seen them with legs at all, “is your tail constant?”.

Danny honestly feels quite pleased with himself and proud of his mom over her being kinda freindlyish. Danny deciding to be forthcoming to at least attempt to make up for never telling his folks about his Guardian; leaning forward, “yup”. ClockWork adding, “it is a common theme for Neverborn’s, yes”. Which Danny nods over. Nocturne, UnderGrowth, Vortex, the Observants, Remi, Silver; none of them had legs. Pandora and FrightKnight were two exceptions he knew of though.

ClockWork nods to themselves when Maddie hums acceptingly and thoughtfully, rightfully coming to the conclusion that they liked Daniel being similar to them; though she blames at least some of Daniel’s tolerance of his tail on them, which wasn't wholly wrong. “And Lewis’s guess is once again, correct. As is your guess that creating a stronger timer is simply beyond your capabilities”.

Maddie can’t help scowling at that while Jack pipes up, “I’m sure we could with enough resources”, managing to keep his tone down.

Jazz leans her head on the table and sighs. She’s staying awake at this point to keep an eye on her parents.

ClockWork chuckles faintly, “for what you seek to achieve, you would need-”, digging in their pocket, “-one of these”, and holds up the time medallion. ClockWork wastes no time in explaining away the twos confusion, “this is a time medallion. Only I can create them. They can allow the wearer exclusion from time or the manipulation of it. To travel to points in time or alter the flow of time, if settings are right. Only I can alter their settings. Though I can also grant another the ability to. If fused to a being they could even give a slight awareness of the future”, grinning almost meanly, “something that can entirely stop the flow of time around a being can certainly keep up with your creation”. ClockWork pockets the medallion while the three adults all gape slightly, ClockWork pulling out their own little timer device -that effectively looked like a silver time medallion with clock hands for adjustment nobs in the centre, all inside a dark gray circle- and holds it out to Jack; the more likely one take it. Unsurprised at Maddie instantly snatching it right out of Jack's hands, curious and mistrustful.

Maddie flips it over, noting that it was already completely compatible and based on the alignments was designed for waist placement; slightly to the right though. Glancing back at the ghost and noting their cloak clasp was a fair bit on the right, they were setting up the CyberSteps to copy them; and she’s gonna bet her and Jack can’t modify this. But no way in Hell were they sticking something that was a near unknown on their boy, especially if it was designed by a ghost; trying out Danny’s ghost-friendly approach or not. But if this was genuine and this ghost right, then they effectively gave Danny back functioning ‘legs’. She should probably thank them, giving a very very very awkward, “thank...you?”.

Danny blinks, goes slack-jawed, and leans back against his chair, mumbling, “my folks just thanked a ghost". Sure it was ClockWork but still. He’s made way more headway than he thought or his folks were trying really hard to chill the ghost hate. Sharing a surprised look with Jazz, also gives him a little wide-eyed encouraging smile.

ClockWork smirks and leans towards Danny’s ear, “I also have something of a job for you”.

Danny muttering while side-eyeing them, “uh, does it involve shooting you”, because seriously ClockWork. Thanks but, fuck.

“You’re welcome to try, Daniel”. Making Danny rolls his eyes, while ClockWork gives him another head pat before simply disappearing; leaving slightly awkward silence in their wake.

Jazz, surprisingly, is the one to break it. Pushing herself to stand up and asking in a way that sounds more like a command, “so can we go to bed now?”.

Lewis chuckles into his hand, “do you really think they will with that”, and points at the CW timer. The parents looking to it, Maddie biting her lip while Jack just looks excited; clearly tired though.

Jazz puts her hands on her hips and levels them with a glare, “that is a complete unknown to you. Do you seriously think you should be messing with that without sleeping?”, them inventing/working on sleep deprivation lead to either really weird inventions or a lot of destruction. And that was a gift (technically) from ClockWork, in two years she only knows of one thing ClockWork’s gifted Danny; a necklace with a stylised ‘CW’ in silver. Danny absolutely will be possessive and territorial -he’d honestly probably try snatching it from them if he wasn’t sleep-deprived himself- of it. So no way he’d sleep if they stayed up tinkering with it.

Jazz decides to take the initiative when her parents nod. Her pulling Lewis to stand up and pointing at his face, “you, make sure Danny sleeps. Then sleep yourself”. Danny throws a pouty look at her so she glares are him before making shooing motions at Lewis.

Lewis shakes his head with a chuckle and waves for Danny to follow, “I guess the sister hath spoken”, earning a round of weak laughs. Danny does actually float after him though, glancing over his shoulder at his folks and eyeballing the CW timer.

Lewis speaking up again at Danny’s door, “working legs, no revealing your legs, ghost bonding; guess your life’s glass is looking pretty half full”.

Danny pauses and blinks at him, before smirking weakly, “I’m pretty sure the entire bloody glass got ground into my fucking eyeballs when I fucking died”. Lewis doesn’t really have a response for that other than a chuckle, because yeah Danny’s luck was pretty bad.

Jazz nods curtly at the stairs before rounding on her parents, pointing at the CW timer, “no taking that apart, I don’t even want to know what might happen”, sighing, “and that’s a gift from ClockWork. I think it’s obvious Danny’s close with them, so think how hurt he would probably be if you wrecked it”. She decides she made the right call at both grimacing a little.

Maddie gets up, cradling the contraption cautiously, and nods, “right, thanks Jazz honey. I’m... going to put it in containment though”. Jack scurrying after her as she heads down to the lab. Jazz standing in the lab doorway, arms crossed, and making it very clear she will try to physically drag them to bed.

Maddie, unsurprisingly, doesn’t sleep very long; waking around nine. She spends about half an hour making coffee and sipping it at the table, getting a little surprised when Lewis comes down the stairs and pours himself a cup.

Lewis answers her question before she even asks it, “I’m used to working late shifts and morning shifts back to back. The occasional emergency call”. One needed to be bendable with their sleep schedule to be in the medical field. Another reason Danny was well suited. Sitting, “I take it you don’t sleep well on an active mind?”.

Maddie sighs and shakes her head, “no. Especially with a ghost being able to get into the house without any warnings or defences going off. Things put in place purely to prevent that”.

Lewis chuckles, yeah he could understand why she might have a few issues with that. “That ghost seemed more akin to a god. So I doubt defences really matter”.

Maddie sighs again, that in itself was an issue. She had managed to scan the ecto-signature ClockWork left behind, twenty-eight. Twenty-eight. Pariah had been a twenty-five. This ghost was the strongest they’d ever encountered, almost the strongest possible. And had some kind of positive relation with her son. “ClockWork scans at twenty-eight, so you’re not wrong”.

Lewis quirks an inquisitive eyebrow, “Danny might have mentioned the ecto-scale but I can’t say I know what each level means”. Twenty-eight was obviously incredibly strong though.

Maddie nods, “it doesn't mean much, but it tells us how a ghost compares to others. It goes up in increments. Basically, a two is as strong as a one and a half. A three is as strong as two twos. A four is as strong as two threes and a half. And so on. So the higher the numbers the bigger the gap. So a twenty-eight would be fourteen and a half times as strong as a twenty-seven”, sighing, “a thirty though doesn’t follow the algorithm, a thirty is twenty times as strong as a twenty-nine. I’m not sure why Danny changed it for that level, but he’s got a good sense about more tech or biological ghost things”. Which just makes her wonder why the Hell they never listened to him before on the things that didn’t line up with their theories. But then again, Danny’s theory on power levels had been proven in the field. They hadn’t believed him at first because the algorithm he made was frankly terrifying. Sure the fact that Danny’s scale accounted for things like general ectoplasm (one), ghost plants (two), and whisps (three); helped but still. Technus was a seven and he could be tricky to beat when he didn’t sabotage himself. (Trying to use ‘proper pronouns’ for ghosts, which Danny always seemed to preach, was... strange). And this ClockWork was effectively six-hundred-and-twenty-two-thousand times stronger. Course ectoplasmic power only meant so much, Technus was generally easy to defeat; very easy.

Maddie speaks back up at Lewis’s impressed whistle, “what really matters is the class of a ghost. Class takes into account powers, enhancements, and restrictions. One through six. A six could effectively end the world easily”, furrowing her eyebrows, “ClockWork’s a five, which seems strange”, that kind of power, time control and omniscience, seemed practically like ultimate power. What was holding them back? Or maybe they lacked powers other ghosts had?

Lewis chuckles, nods, and sips at his cup. That kind of power was pretty nuts, and man was he glad Eddie just dealt with regular ol’ humans. No gods, no alternate dimensions, no royalty, no symbiote hunters. Danny was in a whole nother league. But at least Danny’s enemies kinda respected him or straight up seemingly liked him. And he had powerful allies. Anne was right though, Eddie will be so severely out of his depth, Danny very much being a teen will help with that though.

Maddie speaks up again, breaking the slightly comfortable silence, “I wonder if Danny knows any other ghosts personally”, it would seem logical that he did. Wouldn’t make sense to just be friends, family?, with one powerful one. People don’t start out befriending the top dogs, they start at the bottom. And she’ll admit to being suspicious that Danny might have befriended some of the local ghosts. Had worried his ‘too friendly’ attitude about ghosts had extended to actually being friendly. That worry was apparently founded, but... it really was seeming like Danny was right which meant that this wasn’t exactly bad. Just... concerning. And Danny hiding his friend(s), family?, from her, from Jack, was honestly more upsetting at this point. Even if she understands his reasoning. She had hid her relationship with Jack from her parents for somewhat similar reasons after all.

Lewis pointedly looks around and covers his mouth with the cup, he’s not saying shit. Though there’s really no point in saying ‘no’.

Maddie glances at him a couple of times and squints, catching him clearly trying to restrain a small smile, “he does, doesn’t he”, that was definitely not a question.

Lewis makes eye contact and smirks in genuine, “well, at least one other has checked up on him to my knowledge. And that Skulker one has approached me about his legs; Danny did say he makes good pie too”. Sure, it was for ‘his pelt’ but he’d bet money that ghost was really fond of Danny.

The first thing that goes through Maddie’s head is that one is a known threat, a ‘villain’ ghost, why and how had Danny made ‘friends’ with It- him? The second thing is... wait he bakes? And it’s edible? But ghosts don’t eat, right?

Lewis keeps going, “Skulker also seems to like the idea of Danny having my job, though that might have encouraged him to teach Danny knife skills or something. And the other ghost, Johnny I’m pretty sure, threatened me because he thought I might be hurting him”, might as well hammer home that ghosts at least kinda cared about Danny. Would help with the whole ‘getting them to not hate ghosts or think they’re evil post-human manifestations’ thing.

Maddie blinks and stares at Lewis a bit, what? “That... doesn’t make sense”. The biker was another ‘villain’ ghost. Less ‘villain’ more ‘delinquent’, but tried to use her little girl so he was pure evil to Maddie. And didn’t Danny punch It-him? They’re not friends, that wouldn’t make sense. So why would he be attempting to protect Danny? And she still couldn’t picture that metal ghost baking anything. Unless... going a little wide-eyed, “teaching. Feeding. Protecting”, shaking her head a little and sounding almost awed, “they view him as one of them... but weak... and small”, blinking and muttering down at the table, “like a cat taking in a baby squirrel”. Or like Tarzan or a human raised by wolves. Her awe getting an edge of horror because just what were these ghosts teaching her baby boy?

Lewis decides against saying anything, because Danny got the shit kicked out of him by these ghosts. He can’t point that out without being seriously suspicious. And it would be pretty pointless.

Danny sticks his head in the kitchen at that very moment, likely having heard Maddie’s entire comment. Okay, Lewis is sure he did based off of looking like he’s trying to force his smile to not look completely and utterly nervous; the little ‘shut the fuck up, what were you thinking’ look he throws Lewis’s way really emphasises that. Maddie looking to him still wide-eyed probably doesn’t help the kids nerves.

Danny gives a little stiff wave, which he’s hoping is blamed on the restrictive braces, as he goes to start up (much stronger)coffee for himself. Part of him is glad she gets up to try and help after a beat -trying to pick up cups with finger braces was not easy okay?- but also, he can do it himself thank you very much. “I’m fine”.

Maddie pulls her hands back, holding them to her chest, “right right”, that ghostly pride thing. Instead awkwardly watching him fiddle with the machine. Danny almost wants to beg her to stop hovering.

Danny clutches his cup like it’ll give him life as he sits down, tail curling up and tip flicking in the air, “so... dad still sleeping?”.

Maddie nodding and giving an awkward, “yup”. As silence descends, only broken up by the occasional sipping sound from Danny.

Danny practically launches himself out of his seat when Tucker effectively kicks in the door, “dude, weekend time so you know I ain’t leaving your as... butt alone”, and waves innocently at Maddie; while Danny reacquaints himself with his chair.

Danny chuckles faintly, “no Sam?”, he knew Valerie was working this weekend.

Tucker quirks an eyebrow at him as he plants himself at the table, totally obvious to Mrs. Fenton’s tension, “I’m surprised you don’t know? Her mom dragged her off to a gala”. Danny pulls out his phone and cringes at the wall of ranting all caps in the chat.

Maddie sighs and shakes her head, using this a conversational life raft, “I’ll make her cookies”, why baking never came to life but cooking usually did, she’s not sure she’ll ever know. Well there was that one time with muffins, but that was intentional.

Danny goes wide-eyed and pokes Lewis with his tail, “you. You owe Tuck food. Bake shit”. Lewis raises disbelieving eyebrows at him so Danny explains, “well technically I owe him your baking. Tomato potato”.

Lewis chuckles with a head shake and gets up, “I guess I’ll see what there is to work with here”. Maddie getting up to show him were everything was; still feeling stiff and a little freaked.

Tucker grins, free food! “Sweet!”, turning to Danny, “so hurry up and get leggy again. Vampire Dad two is coming out, like, now”.

Danny rolls his eyes and rubs at his neck, “eh, that might happen sooner rather than later”, glancing at his moms back as she stiffens a little and pulls out a square pan rather jerkily, “CW showed up and lent a hand”.

Tucker’s eyebrows shoot up, he glances at Maddie quickly, “shit seriously?”. Danny nods and nods again when Tucker side-eyes his mom, clearly asking if she saw them. Tucker shakes his head, “they’re as nuts and reckless as you. If that even applies to them”. Danny can’t help chuckling at that ’cause it wasn't really either when you knew the outcome beforehand.

Lewis mutters, “yeah sure fine, I got this”, as he looks over ingredients while Maddie turns to face the boys.

“About that... how do you know them? And the... family thing?”.

Just as Danny’s opening his mouth to answer Jack barges in, looking drastically more awake than everyone else, “without me, Mads?”. Making her blush.

Tucker pats Danny on the shoulder supportively, that just gets Mrs. Fenton’s attention on him though, “you know don’t you?”.

Tucker shrugs with very intentional nonchalance, “I doubt there’s anything me and Sam don’t know about Danny-dude”.

Maddie nods, resisting sighing. She’s not exactly surprised. A little bothered? Yes. But not surprised. Those three were close, closer than she thought friends could be. She hadn’t noticed until Danny seemingly knew Sam’s bra size like it wasn’t odd for him to know that. And she’s sure she’s overheard that Sam pays for Tucker’s replacement glances; she’s not sure how they get broken so much. Shaking her head, not important right now, “well I guess I’m glad you’re close then”, looking to Danny, “so?”. While Jack sits down looking a little over-eager.

Danny gives Tucker a nearly pleading ‘help?’ look, so he gives him another pat, “all you man, your parents”, shrugging, “and it’s not like anyone other than you knows much about them. In fact-”, getting up, “-I think I’ll go help Lewis”. Danny whips Tucker’s ankle with his tail for that, nearly making the boy face-plant. Tucker mumbling sarcastically, “you'll regret that one day when I’m mayor”.

Danny whispers in ghosts with a smirk, “p͘͡ri͝n̡̛c̢͘e͜͝”, knowing Tucker knows exactly what he said; regardless of not knowing the language. Then clearing his throat and looking to his folks, “heh”, shaking his head, “uh, anyways. I, uh, meet them when they kinda savedallourlives”, chuckling awkwardly and shaking off the unpleasant memories, he is not getting into that with his folks, “But they, well, broke the law? in the way they helped, so that pretty much made me their responsibility. And they’re, uh, how I knew the impurity in Vlad’s ecto-acne. So kinda saved him too”.

Maddie cuts in before he can continue, “so this ‘ghost parent’ thing wasn’t really intentional or... willing?”. Making Jack frown.

Danny grimaces, “not really? ClockWork knew what would happen, explicitly. So willing and wanted there. They could have helped in a different way. So, uh, also technically intentional. And for me?”, shrugging, “I didn’t know Guardians were a thing so really couldn’t be intentional. I guess technically not willing either but-”, smiling sheepishly, “-who the Hell gets to pick their family?”, shrugging, “and I like them”.

Jack can’t help but chuckle at that. Danny-boy did have a point there. He’s fairly sure almost no one would willingly chose them as parents. And wow, he effectively had ghost family! How weird was that?! ‘Cause Danny’s family meant Jack’s family. Period. And any ghost who saved his boy -and apparently his entire family and Vladdie!- certainly couldn’t be evil and deserved some trust. Though he can’t help worrying that this ghost wanted to be Danny’s ‘guardian’ intentionally for bad reasons. He’s sure Mads is worried about that too. “But son, there’s something I don’t get? Why? Why would they want this? Want you? Heck! Why and how is ghost adoption even a thing?”.

Maddie nods at Jack before looking to Danny and frowning a little, “you’re human; even if slightly ghostly. The child of ghost hunters; even if you’re probably not going to be one yourself. And they’re, well, ridiculously strong; wouldn’t it make more sense to want a, how do I put this? strong kid?”, furrowing her brows and knowing Danny’s probably not going to take this well, “it’s not because of us being hunters is it? Because sweetie, I very well could see a ghost trying to get to us through you and Jazz”.

Tucker, next to Lewis, having just nodded that ‘yes, adding fudge is a good idea’, very heavily cringes. Even him and Sam knew better than to question ClockWork’s motives especially regarding their fondness for Danny. That was a good way to get a pissed off Danny. Or in Tucker’s case, shot in the face -or the crotch, that one notable time- with an ecto-beam. He does not recommend.

Danny, surprising no one, scowls and actually snaps with a bit of a snarl and power behind it, “no”, making everyone jerk a little. Maddie and Jack going a little wide-eyed, and Tucker cringing more. While Danny continues, tail actively lashing at the air aggressively and occasionally constricting around the chair legs hard enough to make creaking sounds, “you have nothing to do with it. Nothing. So don’t go there”, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose and grumbling angrily in ghost, “sh̶͡ơ̶u̸̢͡l̴d̡͝ h҉͞av͢͠e ̷f̨įgu̢r̷͜͝ęd.̴͜ ̴̶O͠f̶͢ ̸͢fuc͘k̨̧i͞n̷̛͢g̸̕͠ c͏o̸u͢r҉se͞.̧̡ ̨G̶̢hos̷t̨s̸͞ ͟͡s̕t͢ill ̢̢c͘͟͝a̢͘n’̷͡t ͘͟b͡e ̛tru̷̧̧st̴ed̶̕ ̢͝hų̧h̴.̨ ̴F̕͜u͜҉c͝ķ͟i͡n̷̕g̴ ͘͞͞A͟͠n͝c̕͝i̸̵e҉͞n̨͜҉t͘s̕”.

ClockWork picks that very moment to appear out of thin air, smacking Danny (somewhat gently)on the head with their staff, “they mean nothing by it. One can hardly expect the uninformed to understand. So explain”, and promptly disappears... again; leaving everyone (but Danny) gaping.

Danny makes some kind of whiney noise, puts both his hands over his head, and turns to exaggeratedly pout at the air where ClockWork had been.

Tucker wheezes and slowly crumples to the floor, “you’ve been told! Ha!”.

Danny turns to scowl at him, hands still on his head, “shut it, Tuck”. Dropping his hands and looking to his still gaping parents, “so... that just happened”.

Lewis chuckles faintly at that, “kid, that was worse than the time a friend of mine literally got shot, just took a sip of some fruity drink and asked the guy how the weather was”.

“Well if there was a tornado, that would be logical”.

Lewis actually turns around and points the batter spoon at him, “no. No it was not. Now stop being a little shit and talk to your parents before they blow a gasket”.

Danny rubs his neck awkwardly and looks to his folks, “um... sorry for going a bit... ballistic there. But, uh, I don’t take well to that. So just don't, okay? Their intentions are good, let’s just leave it at that”.

Jack and Maddie make a few unusual faces before nodding a bit. Jack clearing his throat, “alright, son. Does... that happen a lot?”, and nocks on his head for emphasis.

Tucker lays on the ground laughing, making Danny roll his eyes but losing a fair bit of tension. Danny grumbling petulantly, “only when I’m being stupid...”, smirking slightly, “or trying to use them for a prank”.

Lewis smirks himself and speaks while spreading batter, “so all the time?”. Danny turns his head and gives the back of Lewis’s head an overacted scowl. Lewis only smirks more over that.

Maddie clears her throat, recapturing Danny’s attention. Danny chuckles awkwardly, “right, explaining”, furrowing his eyebrows and sounding sheepish, “what were the questions again?”.

Jack chuckles a little at that while Maddie smiles and answers, “just why would a ghost adopt, adopt you specifically. Would want to”.

Danny nods, “right. I guess that might be confusing”, seeing as they didn’t know he was a ghost. And huh, the whole concept of Guardians was probably foreign to them. Probably should have realised that sooner.

Lewis snorts, “‘might’?”.

Danny turns to him, “you’re Mr. Snark today, huh?”.

Lewis shrugs, “eh, friends didn’t react to the fact that I’m making brownies”, turning and pointing at Danny, “that’s concerning”, before turning back around to slide the pan into the oven.

Danny blinks, right Vee was chocolate crazy. Really chocolate crazy. “Fair”, Far be it for him to harp on someone for being paranoid and worried over someone’s safety. Then smirking a little, “though if they’re hungry they can just get a bowl of Symbi-oats”, he can read a tired sigh/groan in Lewis’s body language.

“They’re not huge fans of cereal. They eat a lot of Chinese though”.

Danny snorts, “everyone already knows they love rawmen, Lewis”, successfully getting the guy to choke.

Danny promptly looks back to his folks and rubs his neck, “it would be easier to just, well, explain Guardianship in general?”, continuing when they both nod acceptingly, “cool, um okay. Well, so like, when ghosts form they form all their ectoplasm and Core yeah? But, like, there are adult ghosts and child ghosts. Dead ghosts always start out as child ghosts whether they died a child or not. Ditto for born ghosts”, shrugging awkwardly, “created’s are a toss-up”, shaking his head, “anyway. Child ghosts have... immature I guess? Cores. They’re weaker, less powers, less stable, more unruly and reckless; lots of things. Usually kinda sucky at being a ghost and look more like when they were alive. Adult ghosts are just instinctively or naturally a bit protective or teachery towards child ghosts”, shrugging, “kinda like humans and babies really“.

Jack and Maddie blink, Maddie opens and closes her mouth a few times so Danny pauses to let her think. Her eventually speaking up, “so ghosts.... collectively care for younger ones”, and blinks in shock a bit more because that is so far out of alignment with what they thought of ghosts.

Danny wiggles his hand in the air, “ehhhhhh, I wouldn’t go that far. Child ghosts are the most likely to get, well, murdered”.

“Oh”.

Danny nods, “yeah”, clearing his throat, “most child ghosts will get taken in or under the wing of or whatever; by an adult they impress or that likes them or is just similar to them or maybe related in life”, shrugging, “eh, it varies”.

Jack butts in at that, “what one’s ClockWork?”.

Danny shrugs and rubs his neck, “the, uh, situation with us is a little, different”, straightening up, “they literally broke time and temporal laws for me. That’s kinda super serious. Though they did that because they like me and I impressed them. Some other things”.

Maddie and Jack decide against pressing him, since he didn’t exactly react well to Maddie questioning ClockWork’s motives before. Instead Maddie asks, “okay, but generally, why would a ghost do this? It just- I guess it just doesn’t make sense to us, sweetie”.

Danny bites back muttering about how that’s because of their bigoted opinions on ghosts, thinking they’re unfeeling uncaring evil chaos-loving monsters. Though the chaos-loving part was true. Monster was debatable. “Because they want an apprentice, or heir, or are lonely, or just genuinely care. Though I guess it does benefit the adult ghost some”, shrugging, “makes both adult and child stronger. If the child accomplishes lots, it makes them look good, y’ know like it does with human parents”.

Maddie nods, “for power I can understand”, making Danny roll his eyes a little. Which really just confirms that he still thought they were overly anti-ghost.

“Yeah well, it’s not much so it would be stupid to become someone’s Guardian purely for power. Stupid”.

Jack scratches his head, ignoring the banging of Lewis and Tucker cleaning up, “couldn't they just drop the... child ghost?”.

Maddie nods at him before looking back to Danny, “like with human adoption?”.

Danny shakes his head immediately, “nope. A bond thing kinda forms that lasts as long as they both exist; whether the child ‘grows up’ or not”.

Both parents blink, Jack mouthing ‘wow’. Maddie bites her lip, “so you are... bound to ClockWork?”, she’s not sure what to do with this information.

Danny gives an awkward nod, he gets that there’s really no way for that not to bother them, “yeah”, tapping his chest brace over his Core, “my Core recognises them as Guardian and reacts, um, accordingly”.

Jack and Maddie share a Look, and Lewis glances over pointedly curious. Maddie’s the one to speak though, “and what’s ‘accordingly’?”.

Tucker snickers and speaks almost meanly, leaning over at Danny, “like a little kid”, snickering more, “Sam has a few embarrassing photos”.

Lewis looks to him, “I’m curious”.

Danny turns to point at him, “no, bad doctor”, and subtly flicks snow from his tail at the guy’s legs.

Lewis rolls his eyes, “can’t be any worse than Vee covered in marshmallows eating chicken with a coffee mug on their head. Or literally any photo of a heavily drunk Eddie; the most recent featuring him trying to eat a tv and covered in party hats”. Tucker wheezes, Danny and Jack joining in after a beat.

Jack glances at the oven and back to Maddie, “cookies?”. Making her sigh and nod. Lewis shrugging and literally undoes all his cleaning to get ingredients and supplies.

Jack grins at the cookie sheets before looking back to Danny, “so you act like a child around ClockWork, eh?”. Danny just blushes and looks around anywhere but his dad at that; which just makes him laugh heartily.

Jack grins widely to himself, he’d kinda like to see that. Danny-boy had been a darn cute, goofy, and dramatic kid. That did explain all the banging his head on the table dramatics yesterday, or this morning technically. And the tail coiling was kinda like a kid grabbing at their parents' hands. Well shit, that’s adorable and makes him grin like an idiot a little. Little Danny did used to get mesmerised by Jack’s hands, mostly ‘cause of size difference though! And there was that pouting act he did! Maybe more genuine childish pout? Less mischievous drama? Jack’s attention getting grabbed by Lewis pulling out the brownies, “wait, is there fudge in those!”, and practically going to pounce on them.

Maddie shoos Jack off, “wait a little, dear. How about you and Danny wait in the living room till the cookies are at least in the oven?”. Jack groans but nods. Maddie speaking to Danny before Jack has a chance to drag him off, “one thing I still don’t get though? Core and everything else or not, you’re still human”.

Danny shrugs, “it’s like you said before I came in -yes I heard that- I’m ghost enough to ghosts. ‘One of them’”. Maddie nods acceptingly, though she doubts someone who would defy time would care about something like species.

Jack immediately drags Danny off to the living room as soon as his wife looks satisfied, because he knows she won’t put in the cookies until he leaves. Gotta love a tricky lady. Though a third the joy in baked cookies was how damn good she looked in her frilly apron.

Danny elects to just float around lazily a bit, it was still kinda surreal floating around his parents. His dad chuckling, “it’s like you were born with It”.

Danny stilling and shrugging, “well, uh, thinking of it, ClockWork might have something to do with that. All they’ve got is tail”.

Jack chuckles and nods a little, made sense. What with the bond influence thing. Which, yeah, still not that cool with but Danny seem cool with it; so he’s kinda cool with it too. ClockWork did seem nice! For a ghost at least. Mads would take a bit more, but Danny-boy’s not a little kid so surely he understands! Though thinking of her and that, this whole ClockWork situation wasn’t all she was fretting over... “so Danny?”.

Danny pauses in the air, “why do I feel like this is more heavy stuff?”.

Jack gives an apologetic shrug, “sorry?”, Danny just waves him off so he asks away, “so Maddie had been wondering to me about more than ClockWork”.

Danny makes a point to not seem nervous, “oh?”.

Jack nods, “yeah. She was thinking that maybe you had an Obsession. You know, like a ghostly one. She wasn't sure ‘bout asking, if you’d be cool with that. Since we’ve always talked about those being unpleasant”, chuckling and rubbing his neck, “not that there’s anything wrong with that!”, moving to sit down on the couch, “though they don’t exactly seem positive. But! I’m sure you could make things work for you! Right?”, rubbing his neck again, “Dan thinks they’re like a hobby! So maybe you like it- or would like it! If you had or have one that is”, giving another weak chuckle, “though we’ve always thought of them as controlling and inclined towards bad behaviours. Violent”, waving his hands pacifyingly, “not that you’re ever violent or bad!”, muttering to the side, “other than ditching class and shirking chores anyway”, looking back to Danny, “so if you do or did, then it totally can’t be violent, so we must be at least somewhat wrong about that! We’re definitely learning a lot from you”, waving his hands again, “not that that’s why we ask or want to know!”.

Danny interrupts, floating to sit down himself. It was weird when his dad was the one needing comforting, he didn’t like it, “dad, you’re rambling, I know”, shrugging, “sure you’re curious for curiosities sake, and it being ghost-related of course. But I know it’s more because you want to know me, that I'm your son. Family”. Jack just nods and rubs his neck awkwardly, so Danny continues after adjusting a little; trying to not be weird about this, and running his hands over part of his tail, “as for the, er, Obsession, thing-”.

Jack pats him on the back gently and cuts in, “you don’t have to tell me, tell us, if you’d rather not”. He hopes his boy doesn’t take the out though, he’s curious! And they didn’t fully understand Obsessions beyond them being called ‘Obsession’ for a reason, was related to their death, and largely what kept them around; blocked them from moving on. What ghosts Obsessed about was important them, so if Danny had one then it’s got to be important to him! And he definitely wants to know the things important to his boy! But Danny was clearly a bit defensive of all these things he’s been hiding, the ghostly things and definitely ClockWork; boy could be scary if he wanted to be! And also the Core, he has a feeling Danny didn’t just recently find out about that. And Obsessions could, and have been, used to a hunters' advantage. To trap or discourage or harm. he’s never even heard of a ghost being open about their Obsession! Even if it was obvious! Like with that Box Ghost. And ClockWork’s was probably time-related; or just was time as a whole! So it would totally make sense for him to what to hide his, if he has one.

Danny blinks, well honesty has worked for him with all this so far. But he never would have willing outed his Core to them. Parents or not, they were still ghost hunters. And even if they weren't, well Lewis only knew because he saw It. And Lewis had caught him off guard when he told him about his Obsession and was being kinda like him. Asking what he had to for someone else’s health and safety. Oh, and the drugs; that was definitely a factor. Now his folks? The only reason they had was curiosity and maybe some misplaced worry/fear over the idea of him having one. And his Obsession was absolutely one that could be taken advantage of. Lewis and his ‘it would be helpful’ shit made that painfully obvious. And him giving him an Obsessive Crisis, while an accident, had still been partly caused by Lewis knowing. So no, not happening. And his dad would just ask questions on top of questions, likely becoming completely oblivious to sensitivity. That was kinda his dad’s thing. And his mom, well she would wonder how he satisfied it; and that would lead to the big Phantom secret.

Danny rubs his neck, glancing at his tail swishing around and vibrating a bit, “I mean? Don’t worry about it?”.

Jack nods a little, that was as good as a ‘yes’. To both an Obsession and to not wanting to talk about it. He has no idea if this is cool or not. He should probably confirm though? No assuming. “So... yes?”, and making a point to give him a sheepish look over the tail giving a little snapping thrash; he had noticed Danny’s tail seemed to give away his emotions a little. Which actually did support the possibility that ghosts were actually more emotionally sensitive.

Danny looks around awkwardly and nods a little, “um, yeah. Do you, like, need to know the, er, ‘what’ though?”, and staring at his dad a bit challengingly. As if daring him to make up some bullshit reason. If his dad, the much more curious and knowledge-hungry one, can let this go then he guesses he can trust them a bit more. Can much more genuinely believe they care more about family, about him, than ghost hunting. He already knew they loved him more than they hated ghosts, them accepting his ghostly crap was proof enough of that. And they hadn’t, like, banned him from seeing ClockWork. Not that that would be possible.

Jack’s pretty sure some might find his sons staring a bit ‘creepy’ but he’s seen it a few times, usually aimed at his friends though... and Vladdie. Who, come to think of it, was pretty good at the unnerving stare himself! As for his boy's question? He definitely wants to know! but no way he needed to. Mads would probably worry it would make him misbehave or something, but Danny-boy said not to worry and he’s gonna trust his boy! “Naw. If you don’t want to then you don’t want to. I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with that!”, chuckling and smiling, Danny exhaling and smiling back after a bit. While Jack continues, “so long as it’s not making you sick or unhappy, anyway. And I’d be totally down with helping you with it! or maybe you need help figuring something out with it! Or even just wanna talk about it! I’m sure your mom would be cool with that too!”.

Danny cringes a little, “uh, sorry but no. I’d really rather not. It’s, uh, personal. Private I guess”, shrugging a little stiffly, “kinda like how I, uh, don’t want my Core being poked at”, clearing his throat, “but it’s fine. I’m fine. I keep it satisfied and in check. And it’s not something bad or anything”, shrugging and tacking on, “most generally aren’t”, partly to get away from his Obsession specifically.

Jack blinks and mutters to himself, “so Dan was right...”, making Danny cringe again as Jack shakes his head and speaks up again but at Danny, “good then. Well my offer still stands, always will!”.

Danny nods, “um, thanks”, and gives his tail a little, hopefully subtle, pat to encourage It to chill out. He’s gonna have to ask ClockWork for tail tips.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Tucker nudges Maddie, “when it comes to CW, take Danny’s warning and just don’t question their motives towards him. You know better now so he’ll be less... nice next time”.

Maddie blinks, stilling her mixing, “should I be worried?”.

(Lewis is firmly staying out of this)

Tucker chuckles and rolls his eyes, ��nope, it’s a bond thing”, shaking his head, “and ClockWork saved all of us, so questioning their motive is like questioning whether all of us deserve to live to him”.

Maddie whispers, “oh”, okay that was pretty serious. She knows how protective Danny can be, especially of friends and family, so Danny’s extreme reaction made much more sense now.

Tucker nods, washing out a bowl while Lewis spoons the cookies. Maddie sits against the table as Tucker continues, “yup. And ClockWork is just as defensive of Danny”, snickering, “did you know the government of the Zone put out a hit on him once”.

Maddie chokes, whisper yelling, “what???”. Lewis just steps to the side slightly, Danny’s friends are as addicted to chaos as Danny is; he’d like to not be in the splash zone currently, the peanut gallery’s pretty appealing though.

Tucker nods, “yup. ClockWork pretty much told them to get lost. And nobody says no to ClockWork”, tilting his head, “except Danny”.

Maddie shakes her head in utter disbelief, “they're that respected or powerful?”.

Tucker shakes his head and purses his lips a little, nodding at Lewis, “it’s not just simple little humans that look at them and think ‘god’, ClockWork’s the stuff of myths and legends to the spookies”, adding purely to cover his own ass, “according to Danny anyway”.

Maddie nods, that was a bit out there. Ghosts had their own myths? That also meant culture. Were ghosts actually... highly complex and sophisticated? shaking her head a little, she would have brushed this off days ago, and puts the cookies in the oven. Frowning slightly at overhearing Jack, was he asking Danny about Obsessions? She advised him against that! Apparently, Tucker thought the same. Him sounding slightly worried, “oh, uh, wonder if I should jump in? Obsession’s kinda touchy”.

Maddie blinks, looking to Tucker, wait what? “So he... he has that”.

Tucker makes a cringe showing all his teeth and even scrunching up his neck, “I’m guessing you didn’t know that”. Making Maddie sigh.

Lewis shakes his head and chuckles, again amazed Danny has held on to any of his secrets when none of them could even keep track of what they were lying about and what they weren’t; combined with talking about shit out loud.

Maddie checks the cookies, “well I’m glad you’re close and protective of each other. Though I wish we had been told about all of this”. Tucker elects not to respond to that.

A bit later Jack and Danny turn their heads at Maddie calling that the cookies are ready. Jack promptly jumping up and dashing to the doorway; eager for brownie and cookie alike. Looking back to Danny from the entryway, “you coming?”.

Danny smiles, “yeah. Yeah I am dad”, and flicking his tail before floating over.

Tucker effectively shovels food in his mouth, looks excited and excitedly smacks Lewis arms, “fugh mun”. Then finger-gunning at Danny, “weh, I shoe gwe giong”. Making Danny laugh and finger-gun back, “you just wanted me for my food. What? Do I only have half enough physical appeal for you?”.

“Yo oh ur zezz”. Danny just wheezes at Tucker’s wink.

Lewis walks up behind him, another coffee in hand, “did he just call you sexy?”.

Danny rolls his eyes and takes the second cup from him, “Lewis, doc man, Tucker thinks everyone’s sexy. All the time. Dead. Alive. Furry. Don't matter. Everybody’s sexy af”.

Lewis quirks an eyebrow, “furry?”.

“His sona’s an otter”.

“Well alright then, all the power to him”, and lifts his cup in a little salute.

Danny scowls slightly and points at him, “no matter how chill you are, I will always remember breaking your mind via duplication”. Lewis shakes his head with a little smile.

Jack walks up and ruffles his hair, “so Danny-boy? What should we call the ClockWork fellow? ‘Cause no offence, but ‘parent’ is taken”.

Danny chuckles slightly, “uh, dad? Guardian is the actual proper term”.

Lewis points up at him, seeing as he was floating slightly above their heads, “but ‘guardian’ is synonymous with ‘parent’ for us human beings”.

Jack chuckles, “so something else for the ghost guardian of our kid's ghostliness”. Making Danny tilt his head, “uh, I’m not even sure there is a word for that. But maybe... godparent? Sure you didn’t choose them, but?”.

Lewis snorts, “of course that’s the term you’d go with for a technical god who’s also technically a parent”.

Jack laughs, “true!”, patting Danny, “and they -like Vladdie!- aren’t actually related to you! so it would make sense!”.

Danny rubs his neck and floats slightly lower down, “uh”, and looking around awkwardly.

Lewis raises his eyebrows, a bit genuinely surprised because how???? “Oh really?”.

This gets Maddie over, “did I hear that right? Are you saying you are related? To a ghost that was never alive?”.

Danny gives an awkward shrug, “bond thing. I’ve got a little bit of them. They've got a little bit of me”.

Maddie and Jack exchange a major Look over that before looking back at him. Jack grins wide and smacking a fist into his hand, “well that settles it, that ghosts a Fenton”, tilting his head, “which is not something I thought I’d ever say”.

Danny’s grin is practically beaming, “well I’m happy to hear it”.

Maddie just grins and passes around the cookies.

It doesn’t take long before the parents' minds are firmly back on the ‘make Danny legs goddamnit’ train. Maddie eyeballs his swishing tail as Lewis has him doing (unnecessary)laps and what can really only be described as tricks. Maddie walks over, following her son with he eyes; it was almost weird how normal him floating around felt now, “so, up for installing the clock timer?”.

Danny pauses and shrugs, still a little too awkward about this to just float upside down and chat or something, “I mean? Sure?”. All three of them watching Jack practically launch himself at the lab door.

Maddie and Lewis watching Danny’s eyes widen a little, before he zips towards the door; absolutely beating Jack down.

The three adults getting down to the sight of Danny flipping over and inspecting the little device; Maddie’s not even going to bother wondering how he got that out of containment.

Danny absolutely knows there were little sparkles of green flecks in his eyes as he checks the trinket over, running over the curves and edges. Eventually lifting up his head and pursing his entire face as he hits a tiny trigger and the devices shoots out confetti everywhere.

Jack almost immediately begins laughing, “oh wow! They’re a jokester!”. Like Danny!

Maddie walks up and shakes her head at the mess, “well that was rather funny though messy”.

Danny chuckles, “well if you had tried to install this before I accidentally set off the little prank then the confetti would have probably fried things. So joke, but also test slash failsafe”.

Jack tilts his head, “but they see the future right? They already know our actions before we take them”.

Danny shakes his head, “no. They just see all the possible futures. Sure they can tell what’s most likely but that doesn’t mean much”, smirking, “and even they say I’m notorious for taking the less likely paths. They, uh, actually make bets on that”.

Lewis blinks, “you mean people bet against the guy that sees all the future?”, shaking his head, “how stupid do you have to be”.

Danny shrugs, “more like egotistical, they usually bet against other future seers, ClockWork’s got a better view than them though. So...”. Lewis shakes his head more.

Jack runs over snatching up the fully repaired CyberSteps, while Maddie holds her hand out to Danny. Danny glances from the (apparently dubbed)clock timer to Maddie, “okay. Just... careful”.

Maddie nods and takes it from him gingerly, “we will be, don’t worry”. Lewis walks over to look over her shoulder at the device before she takes it over to one of the tables to examine; leaving Lewis standing next to Danny.

Lewis watches the parents for a bit before looking to Danny, who of course is practically staring at them. Lewis knows they’re far enough away from the hunter couple to go unheard; even with sound travelling a lot down here. “So obviously I know ClockWork is immortal, but I remember you implying you were practically immortal yourself. Neigh indestructible, I believe”.

Danny glances to the guy, giving him ‘seriously?’ eyebrows, before looking back to his parents. Speaking quietly, “geez doc”, shaking his head a little, “ghosts are super hard to destroy in general. Halfas are just even harder”.

Lewis nods, “so Vlad too then".

Danny snorts, "he's weaker than me”.

“Yeah I think that’s obvious”, Danny was obviously stupid strong. This gets Danny to curl up a bit and laugh. While Lewis continues, “speaking of that one, just how dangerous is he?”, considering he might just have pissed him off. Lewis could do without more ghostly drop-ins.

Danny digs out his phone from his brace and flips through his photos while speaking, “he’s a nine. Lots of reasons for the lower level. Made by weaker and less ecto; contaminated ecto too. My age is a factor too and being exposed to ecto for, like, my whole life”. Glancing at him, “his real danger is he’s stupid smart and has enough cash to go nuts with”, chuckling, “like the cloning thing. That’s one way to get a kid at fourteen though”.

Lewis raises his eyebrows at that, again this kid’s life was ridiculous, “not sure that counts as ‘kid’”.

Danny smirks, “Vlad fucked up. We’re not identical, just closely genetically related”, chuckling, “she’s a little three-foot-tall twelve-year-old travelling nomad. In London right now I think”, tilts his head and shrugs.

Lewis shakes his head with a sigh, “congrats, just like Eddie you have a kid without getting anyone pregnant”., shrugging, “though Eddie’s is technically in the works”.

Danny laughs, “least Elle’s not natural”, holding his phone out to the guy, “here’s a pic of her kicking Vlad in the face”.

Lewis leans over, huh, someone would have to be blind to not notice the family resemblance. White hair, green eyes, black and white jumpsuit, DP symbol, stupid cheeky grin; a Phantom through and through. The other guy though, looks like a knockoff bramstrocker; the vampire jokes officially make sense. “Well alright, cute kid; I can practically smell trouble maker on her”, tapping his nail on the screen, “why’s Vlad look so different though?”.

Danny shrugs, “adult thing or something. Spookies change their appearance sometimes”.

Jack actually comments on that, “we’re honestly not sure at this point if they do that for aesthetic or it just happens because they got stronger!”. Maddie coming over as well, clock timer in hand. Danny’s more than a little pleased that it doesn’t look like they took it apart at all. Good.

Maddie holds it up, “I think I’m willing to trust this and it’s definitely compatible”, looking to Danny, “it’ll only work around the waist though and won’t function as a conductor”.

Jack nods and gestures with his hands a little wildly, “so we’ll just rip out the timer stuff from our conductor! And leave the conductor where it is!”, nodding curtly with a grin before pausing, “if that’s cool with you, of course”.

Danny smiles, “that’s fine, apparently I’m flexible enough to reach”, stretching to make a point, “even with the braces”.

Lewis grumbles, “just don’t break them”. Danny has cost the hospital a lot of money at this point. Sure medicine wise and room wise he saved them money, but all the braces, having to recast his arm, the extremely expensive wheelchair that he can’t believe Mrs. Levi actually signed off on (sure all he had to do was show the insanely high and unusual injures Amity Parker’s tended to get -especially minors- and she gave her approval immediately), the patient file bug Tucker made that the tech guy said he’d have nightmares over, and the fact that they got investigated by a very shady section of the government (that not-rain stuff almost forced the entire hospital into quarantine).

Jack beams and rushes off to the CyberSteps, dragging Maddie along with. Danny’s pretty sure the legs look more defined, more finished, than when he last saw them; or this was just a finished version since basically everything but the timer conductor was likely as perfect as it could be.

Danny makes damn sure his folks are preoccupied with the legs before looking back to Lewis, snatching his phone away since the guy started flipping through his photos, “seriously doc? Rude”.

Lewis just shrugs, “you’re the one who gave me your phone. Besides, you’re interesting and I’m curious. Nice castle. Doesn’t seem your style though”.

Danny huffs and rolls his eyes, “excuse me for thinking you, a doctor married to a lawyer, had some manners”, crossing his arms and muttering down at them, “sure I would’ve done the same but still”, looking back to Lewis, “and I didn't design that, Pariah did. I’ll change it when I take the throne”, shrugging, “it’s an automatic thing. Lairs are weird like that. Ecto-construct and all that”.

Lewis nods, yeah lairs bent to the need, personality, and somewhat the will of its ghost; if he’s remembering that correctly. Smirking a little, “let me guess, it’ll reholposter itself black n’ white?”.

Danny smirks right back, “what can I say? I know my colours and I wear them proud. The white of life and the black of death”.

Lewis shakes his head and leans against the wall, “speaking of castles and thrones, still can’t say I understand how a crown and ring could make someone able to absorb and feed an entire dimension. And if you’re the sorta will of Zone then could you modify it like a lair? And what about the Zone needing a king eventually? Is that a sooner or later kind of thing?”, tilting his head, “and with that, if you got destroyed would the universe eventually just die?”.

Danny gives him a truly pained look, “you wrote this shit down, didn't you”, scowling at the doctor's small nod. Danny side-eyes his parents to make sure they’re still absorbed in their work, before answering, “alright, it works like this: the ring has a negative glow so it can pass as a regular ring, because it -unlike other ecto things- strictly absorbs ectoplasm instead of shedding ectoplasm. While the crown is the opposite, it only sheds and doesn’t absorb; hence why it practically blazes off ectoplasm. The ring absorbs the Zone’s ectoplasm, the Crown sheds off the wears ectoplasm plus whatever they absorbed in from the Zone. Kinda like the wearers a heart and the ring and crown are valves”.

Lewis smirks approvingly, “that’s a very doctorly comparison of you”.

Danny snorts, “it works and you’re a doctor. Anyway. Yeah having that much energy following through a little tiny body’s a lot but-”, shrugging, “-like I’ve said, I’m used to dealing with things that are a lot. And my consciousness, sorta, would be carried though all that ecto. So I’d pretty much have an awareness of the whole Zone and every ghost. Which yes, means I could modify it like a lair. Not quite the same though. The Zone would be part of me yeah, part of my ectoplasm and what my folks seemed to have called my ecto-circulatory system; but the Zone wouldn’t be my lair, just an extension of my being. And I can’t just modify my body willy nilly”, tilting his head, “well it’s base state anyway”. Danny forms an eye on his hair to wink at the guy just for emphasis.

Lewis quirks an eyebrow, at least he was pretty immune to body horror shit, “so you’re effectively a battery, heart, and food for the Zone, but also are -will be- literally the Zone. You’re gonna be a dimension”.

Danny actually laughs a little into his hand at that, giving Lewis a little shoulder pat with his tail, “that’s a great way to put it!”, shaking his head with a smile, “yeah I’ve got a crazy future existence. And for that one question, it’s a long time in the future. The Zone’s probably good to run off the stockpile of Pariah for a few hundred more years. Well, unless something happens anyway”. Which, with his luck, was probable. Heck, he’s pretty sure Sam and Tucker have a bet going on whether or not it’ll happen before or after they graduate, before or after his parents eventually... pass away, or before or after they do. Shaking his head and firmly pushing away thoughts of anyone dying, “and no man, currently my destruction won’t end the universe. The Zone will latch on to someone else... eventually. Now if I was king, that would be an issue since the Zone would decay right”, chuckling, “though in that case the throne would just be passed down to Elle”.

Lewis blinks, “oh, so it’s tied to your lineage? Instead of exclusive to you”.

“Yup, the typical royalty shtick”, tapping his chin, “though I think Sam and Tuck are classed as my brethren so they might kinda have a level of claim too. Dora, FrostBite, and Pandora are sorta family too. But they’re all complicated. And course, if I married then whoever would have their own claim”, and shrugs, “I wouldn’t put it past Vlad to try and wiggle his way in too”.

Lewis sighs, “nothing is ever simple with you is it? And you have more ghost family? Really?”.

Danny shrugs awkwardly at that, “kinda? It’s weird man and not to the level of Clocky. Not even close”, grinning a little, “Dora sees me as the good protective older brother she never got to have. Pandora sees me as like a nephew or sorta godchild, ever since I got her box back. FrostBite’s kinda a mentor in all things icy, kinda worships me as some kind of chosen one, and they’re my doctor too sometimes”.

Lewis blinks at that, “wait, you have a specialised doctor? Then why the Hell don’t you use them”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “of course that’s the part you care about mr. Doctor man. I can handle my own shit and I do go to him for serious shit I can’t just handle myself”. Making Lewis sigh and shake his head, completely unimpressed. The boy had access to medical care and just... didn’t use it. Thinking of the whole setting Danny’s arm after he literally crashed though the car. Or at least he didn’t take advantage of medical care unless it was literally within arms reach.

Maddie picks that moment to bolt over with a grin on her face, grabbing at Danny’s hand; Jack in the background looks to be throwing his fist up in a cheer.

Danny rolls his eyes with a smile and lets her drag him off; Lewis studiously following after. Lewis seriously hoping this time doesn’t result in yet another negative reaction.

Danny looks over the CyberSteps, floating around them quickly. Putting his hands on the waist and peering down, tapping the off-centre clock timer with his tail tip, “looks good”. The very tip coiling around one of the clock hands a little, he likes it; it kinda felt like ClockWork. Pointedly ignoring Lewis’s slight chuckle. Jerk.

Maddie and Jack both watch tensely but ridiculously excited all the while, as Danny grips the waist and slips his tail in, hopefully having to test out the ‘legs’ for the last time.

Danny glances over his shoulder brace as he activates the neuroreceptor strip, watching it all snap on over the back brace; which Lewis is probably still unimpressed about. Then tilting his head, the draining felt practically the same as before; and it didn’t seem to be making his ecto freak. So that’s a check on the conductor. Looking down at the legs and quirking an eyebrow at the little clock timers clock hands spinning around. His mom obviously noticing, “I’m pretty sure that’s what it does when it’s calibrating, sweetie”. Which Danny nods at and decides to wait, going to try moving the legs once the clock hands chill out. And the toes/boot tips successfully bend upwards.

And with that, one Danny Fenton was no longer legless on main

FIN.

JK JK JK

Lewis watches as Danny wiggles the toes and bounces up on said toes some, before actually taking a few steps around. The movements were definitely a little jerky and he wasn’t moving them quite right, it was very much like he was trying out limbs he hadn’t had before. If Lewis were to guess, he’d say that’s likely because these robotic leg prosthetics didn’t work exactly the same as natural legs; so logically he’d have to learn how to pilot them properly. Watching Jack and Maddie stand in-front of him and all three pretty well beaming at each other; Jack even doing a little jig or something (whatever it is, Danny clearly finds it embarrassing). It was obvious Danny was proud of what his folks made, even if he didn’t honestly need it. Frankly he’s pretty sure Danny’s proud of the things his parents make in general, he just hadn’t liked the anti-ghost foundation they were built upon. Sure seemed they had gotten better about that though. Which is good, since the universe -somewhat technically- depended on that.

Lewis nods once and walks closer -having given the family their little moment- and pats Danny’s arm brace, “well looks like you can walk upon this earth again. Though maybe practice”, pausing for a beat before adding, “no kicking people”.

Danny blinks at Lewis, “no kidding doc. Literal steel toes here”.

Lewis chuckles and gives his two (adult)friends pats, “congrats, you just made a breakthrough in probably a lot of fields, but most relevant to me, medical science. You’re officially scary smart. But-”, turning to Danny because the kid’s supposed to be injured and recovering. Gesturing at the neuroreceptor strip, “you. While this is great and all, you had back surgery. So I’m restricting use till your braces are good to come off and I check your spine out”. Honestly, he should outright ban it.

Danny sticks his hands to the side and pouts a little, “oh come on doc”.

Lewis crosses his arms, “most doctors wouldn’t have even let you test them or wear them at all”. Danny rubs his neck at that.

Maddie gives Lewis a sweet smile, “well thanks for letting us do this and I think we all understand”, looking to Danny, “right Danny?”. Danny grumbles incoherently but nods.

Jack taps at his chin, watching Danny walk around a bit more, “what I don’t get, is how you moved the ones that didn’t work at all smoothly but these ones are being a bit jerky or over-exaggerated? Even if you originally weren’t working them even close to smooth with the tail”.

Danny shrugs, “uh, well I’ve never had brain to mechanics connections like this before. My brain and ecto might just, like I don’t know, learn how these interpret stuff?”.

Lewis nods immediately because that was actually true really for learning how to work any prosthetic, “there’s a learning curve with any prosthetic, they never move the exact same as the originals”, tilting his head, “and if what you’re thinking of Danny’s ghost being somewhat active is right, then the tail wouldn’t be truly new; simply normally inaccessible. Which you’ve effectively already implied to be the case to explain his ease of adapting. So his fine motor skills with his tail should be quite good, which would allow for it to take very little time for him to figure out how to grasp or say, move things, with said tail”, and nods curtly to himself. Pretty content with his explanation.

Danny decidedly says nothing though Lewis just gave him a pretty damn good out. His parents' nods and smiles make that obvious.

Jack goes wide-eyed, coming upon an idea and blurting out, “ClockWork!”, then looking at his slightly confused looking son, “you said that ClockWork only has a tail! And that you’re basically related! Ghostly related!”. Everyone gives him slightly confused eyebrow quirks, so he explains himself, “so maybe your ghost took after them and just has a tail too!”.

Maddie blinks and grins, “that does make sense”, ruffling Danny’s hair, “so that explains that“. Danny just shrugs, ‘cause in their mind, there’s no way he should know what his ghost looks like. But also, yeah, him being so comfortable and good with this was totally ClockWork’s fault. And he totally loves them for it. Intentionally swishing his tail around in the legs, kinda weird that he could move his tail without moving his legs. How in the heck is his brain -or ectoplasm maybe, Core?- differentiating between tail and legs? He’s totally going to fidget with his tail during class. No one will ever know! “Well still too bad my walking skills have gotten a bit rusty”.

Lewis glances at his watch, pretty late; it would probably be the ‘responsible’ thing to encourage a normal -or as normal as possible for a teenage superhero whose enemies seem to prefer the night- sleep schedule.  “Alright, I know you probably want to celebrate all this but at the very least Danny should reestablish a proper sleep schedule. Sleep is vital for healing and health after all”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “all doctor, all the time, huh?”.

“Says mr. Helpful”. Danny scowls at that, because not the same. Not the fucking same. Though if the doc became a ghost his Obsession would probably be the same but maybe more curious ‘I wonder what will happen if’.

Danny looks around, “well first, can’t we at least have supper?”. Jack’s stomach growls as if being summoned, making everyone laugh.

While Maddie gets to work making food, Jack and Lewis basically talk each other’s ears off with how the legs even worked at all; ‘cause Lewis is just stunned but intrigued and Jack is utterly excited. Danny sneaks up the stairs, totally unused to how damn loud these feet were; he’s gonna have to work on that because he loves how easily he can even accidentally sneak up silently on people.

Danny stops in front of Jazz’s door and promptly kicks it in; the door simply opening loudly instead of being blown off its hinges purely because all the doors in the house were built to handle getting rammed and blasted.

“Zone! Danny! Why in the Zone are you kicking in doors!”. Jazz pauses, “wait, you kicked it in”, looking to his legs and leaping up, “holy shit Danny! You’ve got legs!”, rushing over and pinching the CyberSteps, “can you actually feel this?!?!”.

Danny grins stupidly, puts his hands on his hips, and poses ridiculously, “yup, totally can”, tilting his head, “not quite the same though”.

Jazz practically jumps on him and hugs him around the neck, “oh who cares! This is great Danny!”, letting go and brushing off his braces, “I bet mom and dad were just stoked”.

Danny nods almost sheepishly, “oh definitely”, cringing a little, “dad did a jig”, making her cringe as he continues, “Lewis also crushed their spirits a little by limiting my leg time. Though we are still baking eggies to celebrate my leggies”, and grins.

Jazz sighs with a head shake, “I was wondering if they forgot about supper again”.

“Oh they did”.

Jazz blinks, “of course they did”.

Lewis walks in, arms crossed and judgmental eyebrow raised, “there you are. You do realise I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on the kid who broke basically everything, should have died, is in braces and bandages, and is now trying out brand new experimental prosthetics that interact with his brain and the spine he broke”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “geez tell me what you really mean”.

Jazz pokes Danny, “he does have a point you know. You are supposed to be injured”. Danny scowls at her but rounds on Lewis, sticking his arms out to the side, “so when can I obliterate these things”.

“Never. They’re hospital property. Casts can’t be reused, braces can”.

Jazz immediately cringes at that, Danny’s the one to speak though, “you don’t want to do that. I bet you ten bucks these are all ecto-contaminated. And I doubt you want them coming to life, or death really, and trying to eat someone’s arm or something”.

Lewis blinks, “alright, you can destroy them”, that would be a lawsuit waiting to happen. A very strange lawsuit. ‘My arm brace came to life and ate my firstborn’, would certainly be a new one.

Danny grins wickedly and promptly bursts into blue flames, actually managing to make Lewis jump back and Jazz yelp.

Lewis watches the ashes of the braces flutter to the ground, before giving (the no longer on fire)Danny an exasperated look, “I didn’t mean now”, squinting, “and how did you not burn the CyberSteps?”.

Danny creates a flame over his fingers, “ecto-fire”, pointing the other hand at the CyberSteps, “anti-ecto”, then adding, “only a little though, otherwise it would be anti-me”.

Lewis shakes his head, “can’t have that now can we?”. Danny grins and points out the door, promptly walking off at Lewis saying, “so long as an adult who knows your ecto or tech is around you”.

Lewis looks to Jazz, “he certainly seems better for his ghostliness, doesn’t he”.

Jazz smiles soft and sweet, “I used to worry about him, even got the vice principal to force him to see a therapist. But once I found out, it made sense and I knew he was okay. That not only was he good mentally, or as good as he could be, but also just good as a person”, giggling a little, “now of course I still worry, that’s what sisters do after all. But he’s a day at a time mentally, there isn’t exactly a standard for a halfa, for being mentally two species that are really opposites; and Vlad’s not exactly a good example. He needs a therapist more than Danny does”.

Lewis chuckles at that and nods, “can’t say I disagree. Though I wouldn't say Danny particularly comes off as someone who needs therapy, he hides his traumas well. Which, well, hiding things from a therapist equals not getting effective therapy”.

Jazz gives him a smile that practically reads ‘you misunderstand’, “that’s because he’s at the stage of acceptance now”, Lewis quirks an eyebrow so she explains, “people grieve when someone dies, and I believe the dead grieve their death just as much if not more”, nodding a little to herself, “at first he tried to convince himself nothing had changed, the abilities would just wear off; he even went through an ‘I’m not dead!’ phase, that came later though”.

Lewis tips his head, “well to be fair, most people don’t expect to be dead but still walking around, and half-dead just sounds impossible. So thinking he’s not dead seems more like being logical than being in denial”.

Jass gives him an almost pitying look, “yeah but he was apparently pretty desperate and freaked about it. Less simple logic and having an issue with the impossible, more desperation to deny what they know is true”.

Lewis nods, ah okay Danny definitely had a harder time than he had thought. He’s kinda glad he didn’t meet Danny back then because again, he’s not good at dealing with freaking out breaking down emotional types.

Jazz nods and keeps going, “Sam and Tucker said they effectively had to convince him not to just tell his parents and beg them to fix him once he realised things weren’t going away. He hated the powers, the changes; that’s the point when I noticed something was up, that he seemed depressed. I pushed for the therapy when he started being just angry, all the time”.

Lewis nods, “ah, I guess that does sound like grieving. In that case, I’m glad he’s in the acceptance stage”.

Jazz grins, she certainly was, “same. His Obsession, his friends -especially the ghost ones-, the weird love/hate thing the town has for him; I think all that helped. Which is how I imagine it is typically for most ghosts; minus the last one”, pointing at him, “though I think you've helped with acceptance, he seems less affected by your name, and those blue flames he used there?”, grinning wider, “many times he’s refused to ever use that, so somethings happened there”.

Lewis blinks, ah the pyrokinesis was probably a power ‘Dan’ had and used liberally. “I may have effectively reasoned with his Obsession why he shouldn’t fear certain futures and that it would make him a shittier king. Used ClockWork too, or more so a quote Danny made of them”.

Jazz raises her eyebrows, “you must think pretty differently for that to have worked out”, frowning slightly, “I’d watch it, taking advantage of his Obsession too often will start coming off as malicious to the Obsession”.

Lewis shrugs, yeah he kinda figured that one. Like tempting Vee with chocolate. Eventually you’ll lose a few fingers. Literally. “I’m not one for social queues, living or dead ones. And he’d make a good surgeon, very helpful. And telling me things is helpful. And sure, I may have given him an Obsessive Crisis but my reasoning was sound”.

Jazz blinks, walks over, and smacks him over the head, “how has Danny not assaulted you yet?!?”.

Lewis takes it in stride, he had been smacked a great many times for insensitivity, and smirks, “might be that my whole career is helpful, I’m a helper all the same. Protecting people from the outcomes of their stupidity like shoving a cheese grater up their ass or eating nails”.

Jazz goes a little wide-eyed, “that actually makes sense. Obsession similarity is a major comradery thing for ghosts”, pausing, “also, is that really a common thing people do? Though the nails probably had something to do with pica”.

“We keep a white board of all the things people have shoved up their asses, one guy’s made it on the board multiple times; I admire the tenacity”, Lewis smirks as she gives him a strange look and just moves to head downstairs.

They come down to a slightly concerned-looking Danny sitting backwards on the couch but resting his chin over the back of the couch, watching his parents. Looking to Lewis when he notices them and making ‘psst’ noises at him; which makes Lewis wonder if he’s being hissed at for a bit, which considering the upstairs conversation would make some sense.

Jazz heads into the kitchen while Lewis walks over to Danny.

Danny scuttles over and hiss whispers, “so I wasn’t sure if me actually being braceless was, like, a good thing? ‘Cause, like, maybe you know otherwise and I, like an idiot, didn’t confirm things-”.

Lewis chooses to cut off what’s definitely going to be a ramble, “it’s fine, Danny. Honesty, I was considering removing them entirely pretty soon here. You’re fine”.

Danny grins and gives a little relieved sigh, before looking slightly freaked again and gesturing to his chest, his bare heavily scared toned chest, “also totally forgot about the bandaging. I mean what am I, a wire stripper?”.

Lewis is pretty sure most people would find how he goes from flesh straight to metal more eye-catching than the scarring; even if it was pretty major. Danny’s likely more worried about Jack and Maddie seeing though. And well, Danny being completely healed was very obvious this way. Which might be pushing it, “yeah, you look too healthy like this”.

Danny blinks, “I wasn’t actually thinking of that but point”. Lewis gestures up the stairs, so they head up to Danny’s (still uncleaned)room to redo bandaging.

Lewis shakes his head while unrolling bandaging, “you’d think you’d be encouraged to clean after your encounter”. Danny rolls his eyes and holds out his arms after disconnecting the CyberSteps. Lewis pauses and taps his chin, thinking of it, “actually, let’s just bandage where you had the most serious damage”.

So Lewis gets to work on the waist wrapping, again noting how strange Danny coming to a totally smooth flat end is. He’s going to have to pin the blame on Danny’s tail if his friends ask, because this is not only not medical standard but medically impossible. Not to mention physically impossible, so many half cut off organs and where the heck are his intestines? His poor digestive system; and that’s ignoring his lower excretory system being basically non-existent. He’d lose his license if he took credit here. Muttering mostly to himself, “how the Hell do you shit”.

Danny blinks before bursting out laughing, “did you seriously just ask that?!?!?”, shaking his head, “doc? Anyone ever tell you you’re weird?”.

Lewis smirks, “all the time”.

Danny smirks himself, “ghosts ‘excrete’ everything via shedding off ectoplasm, so what do you think”, and points at his tail, which is currently waving intangibly through Lewis. Danny, for kicks, makes It shed more noticeably; just to fuck with the guy a little.

Lewis pauses and side-eyes the tail, “is that... sanitary?”. Making Danny fall backwards on the bed cackling. Lewis has so many questions. Does his ectoplasm just burn it up? and it comes off kinda like smoke? Or does his ectoplasm digest it for fuel? Danny did imply he could get by on just ectoplasm (which a human can’t do) or just food (which a ghost can’t do).

Danny puts an arm over his eyes and wheezes, “nothing can survive the ecto, oh man. Haha. Does a better job than bleach”, and wheezes some more.

Lewis nods, moving to Danny’s chest -because honestly, what in there hadn’t been obliterated. Other than the Core and even that was hurt- and unrolling more, “well that’s good then”. Making quick work of the chest and grabbing Danny’s left hand up.

Danny chuckles, “yeah, I crushed, like, everything in that one”.

Lewis starts wrapping very quickly at the sound of an explosion outside and icy mist leaving Danny’s mouth. Ghosts and their timing. Managing to finish before Danny transforms and zips off through his window; leaving Lewis to stand up, put his hands on his hips, and shake his head.

Danny glances around, pretty sure he can smell something really strange that he’s never smelled before but ignores that at promptly spotting Red shooting at Boxy, Danny floats over, “I’m guessing you don’t really need or want my help here?”.

Red opens her visor purely to scowl at him and shoots the Box Ghost without even looking, “fuck off, Phantom”.

“YOUR DISTRACTION WILL BE YOUR DOOM!!!! AND MY BOXY REVENG-”. Getting cut off via a rocket to the mouth and both teens telling him to shut up. Red promptly capturing him and rounding on Danny.

Danny quirks an eyebrow because her just cutting off a Boxy beat down was weird. Red snaps at him, “obviously you've noticed shit’s up with the Fenton’s, so you better be leaving them alone, spook”.

Danny nods a little, “kinda easy to notice when those two are or aren’t out hunting”, continuing at it feeling like she’s squinting at him, “I ain’t pestering them, Red”. It’s true. Phantom wasn’t technically pestering his parents. Fenton was.

Red studies him for a bit before nodding and appears to sigh, “well the sons got a ghost tail now, like you guys”, Danny changes his legs to a tail for example, which she points at, “yeah, that. And you’re not too terribly evil and he slammed his face into a wall trying to use the thing”.

Danny gives a mock very offended, “hey”. Before blinking and going slightly wide-eyed at a realisation, “wait, are you asking me to teach him?”, how does he get himself into this kind of shit?

Red huffs, “you're supposed to be this town’s ‘protector’ and dealer with ghost shit, it’s supposedly your job”, then adding with bite and meaning, “unless you don’t actually care about people and just like fighting”, shrugging, “and even you wouldn’t be stupid or reckless enough to mess with the youngest child of ghost hunters”. Any ghost that did mess with Jazz or Danny probably saw Hell from the Fenton’s. And Phantom might be literally the only ghost Danny wouldn’t run away from. Maybe. And wasn’t there that time the house came to life or something and Danny and Phantom both helped with that?

Danny blinks, “yeah, I’m not stupid. Still remember Jack punching -yeah, punching, not shooting- Plasmius to a pulp for screwing with the Fenton family”. That was one of Danny’s favourite memories.

Red blinks, opening her visor again and just leaving it that way, “that really happened? Damn”, she’s never felt genuinely impressed by Jack before.

Danny nods, “yup, and Red? Our bodies, the floating, that shit comes naturally. It’s not taught”.

Red snaps, “but he’s not a ghost, Phantom”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “ghost body part. Same thing. And our bodies ain’t all the same you know”.

Red points at his tail, “well his and yours move similar, so there”.

Danny pointedly doesn’t look sheepish or anything at that, he should just agree -fuck his luck- before she starts pointing out other similarities, “geez fine”, pausing and floating a bit closer, “wait, you haven’t been just asking every ghost you see to play teacher, have you?”, for the love of the Ancients say no.

Red scowls at him and refuses to back up, “I’m not a moron either, Phantom. Just you”, squinting, “why?”.

Danny backs off a little and shrugs, “ghost social thing. It’s a few phrases shy of asking a ghost to adopt someone. Which would be kinda mean”, tilting his head, “if you asked Skulker that, you probably would never see Danny again”, if Danny Fenton was a regular human (with a ghost tail somehow) and couldn’t beat Skulker’s face in, anyways.

Red blinks, “what? You’re not ‘adopting’ him“.

Danny rolls his eyes, “well obviously. What you asked could just be taken that way. But I’m still a child so it don’t matter”.

Red shakes her head, “you ghosts are strange. Don’t adopt Danny, just give him tail tips or something”.

Danny snorts and chuckles, “just the tip?”, and pokes her board with his tail tip quickly before zipping away cackling. Red growls and shoots at him while shouting, “you disgust me!”.

Lewis had eventually wandered down into the kitchen, everyone raising the eyebrows at him, probably over Danny’s absence, “decided to take the chance to check up on Danny’s healing and wrapping. He’s stretching out his new bandaging and taking a break from the prosthetics”, nodding curtly, “the braces aren’t really needed anymore”. Jazz giggles quietly.

Maddie and Jack beam, Jack practically cheering, “awesome!”. Both of them super glad to hear that he genuinely as okay as he keeps insisting he is. His ecto likely being to blame, which is okay.

Just then Danny comes back, sticking his head through the kitchen doorway before pausing, “shit! Forgot my shirt”, and ducks his head before zipping back upstairs. Shouting down at everyone laughing or giggling or snorting, “its been a while since I’ve worn clothes alright! I’ve got hardware and software, but no underwear!”.

Lewis actually laughs at that, “pretty sure that’s one thing you don’t need!”, and speaks up again as Danny renters, “you know, a stripper that crushed both her knees said that to me once”. Making pretty much everyone choke.

Maddie steamrolls right over the adult implications of that and plates the eggs. Lewis raising an eyebrow, “eggs for supper? That’s weird”.

Danny coughs and gives Lewis an ‘I can’t believe you just said that’ look and promptly takes the opening, “that's not weird, your pants are weird”.

Lewis looks down, “they’re just sweat pants”, then pauses, wait that sounded familiar. Looking back up and shaking his head, “you really just quoted a commercial for eggs at me”.

Danny grins like he’s the cat that caught the canary, “you started it, doc”.

Maddie grins, digging into her food. Danny seemed more confident. She’s not sure if Lewis just had that effect on him or if it was because of him not utterly hiding his ghostliness around them anymore and them giving the good ghosts thing a real chance. Which made her think it’s all worth it. Trusting a ghost or too, being more neutral about ghosts, rethinking the science; and getting her son back more genuinely, knowing him better, was a great deal. Even if that meant her and Jack had practically been villains to Phantom and other maybe good ghosts; which was an uncomfortable thought. Because really? if ghosts could be good then Phantom being a hero was practically undeniable. And who shoots at a hero? Villains.

Seeing Danny in a loose long sleeve makes her unable to really feel bad though, he looked genuinely like himself again. His hand being bandaged up was a reminder of his injuries however; and she can see a bit peaking out of his collar. Glancing at his other hand, when had he gotten scars there? Though more importantly, how had she never noticed??? Or did his recent injuries scar over that fast. Both were a little concerning. Though she knows he’ll have scarring, Dan said as much.

Lewis’s phones goes off with a big fat ‘fuck you’ from Eddie for not saving any brownies and a pic of stew which was probably meant to be some kind of ‘well look what I made and you can’t have’. Lewis just sends back ‘who did the cooking? ‘Cause if it’s you Eddie, I think I’m good’ predictably getting swears in return. Lewis decides to take a photo of what he’s eating, answering Danny’s raised eyebrow, “Eddie made stew and is attempting to brag about that”.

“I hope there wasn’t any potatoes or baked beings”.

Jazz smacks him over the head while Lewis scrunches up his eyebrows, because that... that was actually something they would do. Getting a response from Vee reading ‘FRIED BABY BIRD NICE' didn’t help. Lewis shakes his head at Danny, muttering, “don’t give them ideas”.

Danny rolls his eyes, “well then I hope you don’t let Vee near your feet”, Lewis gives him some confused eyebrows so Danny smirks and continues very smugly, “they might want some men toes for their breath afterwards”. Lewis sighs. Jack and Maddie just look confused though.

While Danny finally wakes up the next morning, Maddie watches Lewis start breakfast. Jack is attempting to wake up himself with a cold shower. And Jazz has been up for a while sipping tea and reading in her room.

Danny stretches out a little, telekinetically dragging over the CyberSteps and slipping in; this was basically what he was going to be doing for however long in place of underwear. And fuck it, he’s not gonna bother with pants. Kinda pointless and he’s owning his metal. Might as well. Nabbing up his comfortable sweater, the one that never catches on bandaging. Twisting his upper body back and forth, didn’t seem like it would catch on the neuroreceptors either. Nice.

It was honestly still kinda strange walking again, using metal to do that was just a little bit weirder. Cool as shit too though.

Danny turns to the door at hearing a shout of: “IT’S NOT JUST US! YES!”. So he heads downstairs and thus walks into the sight of Lewis staring in confused curiosity at a pan he’s holding with three screaming grill-cheese sandwiches in it. One sprouts a little hand and tries to grab a fork, Lewis just bats it away like a misbehaving cat’s paw; a dirty look on his face all the while.

Danny walks in and looks down, “uh, congrats doc it’s a girl... I think”.

Lewis quirks an eyebrow, “you can tell?”.

Danny scowls, "no, I was making a fucking joke, doc".

Maddie puts her hands on her hips, "language Danny”. Catching Danny slightly off guard and making him blush, “oh um uh, sorry?”. Maddie just shakes her head.

Sam and Tucker barge in while Lewis lifts up the pan, “obviously this is inedible for us, but you?”. Danny gives him a serious ‘are you fucking me’ look.

Maddie immediately butts in, “why would-”, and cuts herself off, going wide-eyed. Looking to Danny, “actually, could you? Do you... want to try?”.

Jack practically bolts over, having just caught that, “oh that would be so cool! We wouldn’t have to scrap food so often!”.

Sam and Tucker come over grinning meanly at him. Tucker speaking up, “do it coward. Be a man”, Sam kicks him. Sam looks over the pan, unphased by the screaming and weird bubbling, but scowls at the cheese; or what once was cheese, “you already stole the poor cows milk, don’t insults them more by trashing it”.

Danny mutters at the floor, “I feel like I’m being ganged up on here”, though obviously not actually bothered. His mom makes him laugh though when she hands him a glass of ‘help you swallow it down’ milk. Danny takes it and looks to Sam with a smirk, “now I know you reject milk, but hopefully you’re not lack-toes-intolerant”.

The two teens look down at his feet, about to comment that he had those again, Tucker giving a little nod, “huh, no toes”.

Danny just chuckles, wiggles his ‘toes’, “hope you like roboots”, everyone sighs and the grill-cheeses scream a little more, which absolutely grabs Danny’s attention. Turning to the pan, “okay, now you are getting eaten. Feed my cyborgans”.

Sam mutters, “Ancients damnit, Danny”. While Danny grabs one of the sandwiches, smacks one of the other ones that tried to bite him, and cuts off the one he grabbed’s screaming by biting It with fake aggression.

Sam and Tucker both start laughing, while the adults all just kinda watch with bated breaths. Maddie’s pretty sure she can actually see him absorbing ectoplasm through his skin off the -what should they call It?- ecto-sandwich. Was certainly interesting that this was even technically safe for him. His Core would just eat all the ectoplasm before it could even possibly cause issues. And that ecto-immunity Jack considered him to have should mean all his human stuff can handle the ectoplasm; possibly even good for him. Feed his ghostly stuff, which probably only got anything from how contaminated the town and house were. Or maybe his Core could convert human food to ectoplasm, just like how food in general here could become ectoplasmic.

Jack sounds more than a little excited, “so! How’s it taste!?!”.

Danny rolls his eyes, slightly embarrassed, “spicy cream cheese”. Jack looking excitedly giddy just makes Danny genuinely blush, though a bit happy that he made him happy. And he was actually hungry so fuck it, he’s eating his sandwich; that much ecto making his eyes green be damned.

Maddie makes a point to not react to his eyes going green -like they had when his ectoplasm was overcharged she notes- as Danny finishes off the ecto-wich. Lewis laughs and just shoves the pan at him.

Danny grumbles, “anyone else would get burned you know”. Lewis just shrugs with a grin as he moves to make something else, but vegan suitable; which hopefully won’t come to life. Everyone else -except Sam who chooses to lean against the wall- sit around the table. Jack and Maddie making a point to ignore the oddness of Danny woofing down the other two plasumwiches -much better name- straight out of the pan; the cold of his skin contacting the pan making a little bit of steam. Lewis attempts to take a subtle photo but of course Danny notices, giving the most suspicious sounding, “what's up doc?”, Lewis thinks is even possible.

“Eddie will get a kick out of this. Thing’s cropped, curb your paranoia”. Danny’s only response is a huff. The response Lewis gets back from Eddie nearly makes him choke though: Vee’s face sandwiched between bread and Eddie biting it/them; Lewis isn’t going to ask why he’s not wearing a shirt, but is wearing a tacky necklace (and of course his brackets, but he never takes those off). Lewis decides screw it, Danny’s friends knew, were just as weird, and that chat thing Tucker set up was almost disturbingly secure -yet they still used codes like paranoid little fuckers, and they were at least kinda cool with aliens; so he tosses the photo into the group chat, with a password to view though ‘cause why not be paranoid too; though it’s an obvious one.

Tucker, not surprising the doctor in the least, is the first to check and chokes on his food.

PDAXpda: @everyone

PDAxpda: what

PDAxpda: pray tell

PDAxpda: the fuck is that

Tiethief: space monster

Tiethief: and reporter mouth

NightShade: you suck at names

NightShade: @DPain do yer job

Just a little later Danny checks his phone and wigs out. His hair fluffing up a little like some anime bullshit, the legs swinging around probably ‘cause his tail is wiggling or something a bunch, the ecto in his eyes making tiny little sparks; Jack and Maddie watching the reaction more so with awe and curiosity than unnerved worry.

DPain: hdieksnhrjsHHUDJjhhudikwdhjHhdnsjdkoajbdhuejzk

DPain: zhHhudjnshakbusfjkabjhUSJJNhdkakbsjbuijdh

DPain: TINY MURDER COBOOB IS BLOB

DPain: TINY MURDERY ALIEN BLOB

DPain: FUCK ME DADSY

DPain: anyway

DPain: cjsinsbdhaihujsmkfhdkajhdnfcjai

DPain: space mon fine

DPain: othera meat puppet

DPain: djiafdwih

DPain: best blob be nommed

PDAxpda: first look at murder goo

Lewis looks up at the ceiling as he pockets his phone before spooning out the stir fry. Less breakfasty, but more edible. Giving Sam Tucker’s veggies and throwing some real bacon bits into Tucker’s. Danny takes a small plate even though he ate three bloody sandwiches -maybe the ectoplasm went somewhere else and thus didn’t fill him up?- and munches still looking overly excited.

Sam points her fork at Danny’s feet kinda bouncing around. He shrugs and snickers, “looks like I've got a few new roboticks”.

Which makes Jazz groan as she comes in, “ignoring that, what smells so good?”, looking Danny over slightly and quirking any eyebrow over his green sparky eyes.

Sam rolls her eyes, biting a pepper, “your parents’ made ghost food again”.

Maddie immediately sits up straight, “Dan did actually”. Jack practically cheering, “so it’s not just us!”.

Jazz mutters, “that’s not actually comforting”, because that means it’s either the house's fault or the utensils/cookware.

Sam huffs, “more reason not to have animal products”.

Tucker laughs, “more like reason to!”, and jabs a thumb at Danny. Who throws a quiet, “prick”, Tucker’s way.  

Maddie shakes her head a little as the teens poke fun at each other. Yeah they knew and were used to it. Which was... probably good for Danny. Hurt a little to confirm though. She understands though; her and Jack will just have to continue to be better then.

Not too long later, Lewis is putting away leftovers, Jazz and Maddie are on clean-up duty, Danny’s eyes are back to fucking normal, and Jack’s giving the CyberSteps steps a once over.

Tucker nudges Danny, ignoring Jack doing the typical ‘can you feel this?’ thing, “so theatre’s open. Feel like taking your limbs for a test drive?”.

Maddie immediately pauses with her washcloth, making a point to sound stern, “only if Dan okay’s it, sweetie”.

All the teens look to Lewis, who smirks and fakes being unsure, “oh I don’t know”, relenting at the scowls, “so long as he’s not left alone I don’t see a problem with it”. Tucker immediately high fives Danny, before Jack steps back with a smile; letting Danny run only kinda coordinatedly up the stairs to grab pants.

Danny decides fuck it and opts out of shoes; the CyberSteps toes/boots look like, well, boots. Heading back down and the three friends walk to the door. Jack and Maddie smiling to themselves over the fact that Danny can actually walk around town with his friends.

Just as Danny’s reaching for the handle there’s a knock and Danny’s pretty sure he smells smoke... and that weird new smell from yesterday? Shrugging and opening the door to the sight of a guy who looked like hot garbage yet healthyish. His hair looked like a comb would get stuck in it yet smooth. One bloodshot eye, yet they were also totally clear. Clearly unbrushed teeth, though white. In a leather jacket with burn marks, off-white t-shirt, and torn-up jeans. And a cigarette in one had, dirt under literally every fingernail and in the nail-beds.

“Wow someone’s speed lightning”, the dude looks around, “your yard’s kinda not shit so I’mma just put this out in my pocket”, and shoves the cigarette into his pants. Danny watches the pocket smoke and slowly gain a new hole as the guy speaks, “so if it ain’t obvious, name’s Eddie. Eddie Brock”.

Danny blinks, gapes a little -which the guy smirks over, and laughs. Because yeah, this is exactly his luck.

#danny phantom #phandom #danny fenton #jazz fenton #maddie fenton #jack fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #valerie gray #the box ghost #clockwork #dan lewis #crossover #venom #eddie brock #injury recovery #amputation #prosthetic #phan phic #fan fic #my writing #have a fic suck my dick #legless on maim #phantomphangphucker #clockwork being a little shit #ectology #ectobiology #reveal #character growth #family bonding

[darks-ink]

What A Nice Surprise CH.8

When will my linebreaks return from the war? Also more Valerie, whoo hoo, and a short appearance by Technus.

First Chapter - Previous Chapter - Next Chapter AO3 - FFnet

---

The Ghost Zone was dreary as always. Thick green ectoplasm coiled and misted, forming nebulous clouds that Danny easily passed through. His destination was a lair he’d never visited; he only knew where it was by chance. He’d seen the ghost exit it once before, while he had been fighting Skulker, and evidence suggested that it really was that ghosts lair.

And if not… well, it wouldn’t be the first time that he’d made a fool out of himself.

The door, exceedingly simple for the ghost it supposedly belonged to, appeared in front of Danny. He paused for a moment, hesitant. Then he braced himself. It had to happen. Jazz had really hit it off with Dora, but he couldn’t have her go into the Zone so often to visit her. And Sidney, too, would likely get along well with the two of them. The phones needed to be made, needed to work.

He knocked.

The door opened, a green-skinned ghost with a white mullet appearing in the opening.

“Ghost-Child?” Technus asked, frowning behind his glasses. “What are you doing here? How did you even find me?”

“I saw you leave here once, while fighting Skulker.” He shrugged, fidgeting with the edge of his glove. “I, um. Heard that you were working on getting phones working here? And I wanted to help, if I could.”

Technus eyed him, probably trying to determine his genuineness. Then he floated aside, gesturing for Danny to enter. “Very well! But, Ghost-Child, do you know anything about tech besides how to destroy it?”

“Eh, not really.” Danny grimaced. No, unless fixing the Ghost Portal per accident counted, he didn’t have much experience with it. “But I have some earphones my parents invented. When we tested them recently they worked across dimensions, so I thought they might be useful to you.”

Then Danny shrugged. “Plus I might be able to get you material by buying it or taking it from my parents, so you don’t have to come and steal it.”

The full ghost barked out a laugh. “Very well! I will gladly take a look at this tech of yours.”

Nodding, Danny dug out the extra pair of Fenton Phones from his pockets. He had originally taken an extra pair to give to Valerie, but after their recent confrontation she hadn’t exactly warmed up to him. Since no further truces had formed, he might as well sacrifice them for this.

Technus took them from his hand, turning them this way and that. “And they worked across dimensions? These don’t look like anything special.”

“Uh, yeah. We tested them, my parents on one side and me on the other, and they worked just as well as when we were all in the Zone. And that was with three of them in the Human World and me in the Zone.”

Nodding, Technus floated over to the closest desk. “Well, let’s see how your parents managed it, then. And I assume you’ll want access to the tech too, in return for helping?”

“I mean, ideally I would offer this tech in return for you no longer attacking Amity, but I don’t think that that’s gonna happen.” Danny floated closer as well, keeping an eye on Technus as he disassembled one of the earpieces. “So yeah, I’ll settle for some of the tech so I can stay in touch with the Zone-bound ghosts.”

“What, your human family and friends not good enough for you?” Technus didn’t look up at Danny, but his tone seemed light and joking. Oh, if only Danny was better at reading people he wasn’t as familiar with. “You need to have ghostly allies too?”

“Well, I am half ghost and not just human,” he joked back, hoping he was reading the atmosphere right. “And I’ve had my current allies for a while, you know? Wulf and Dora and Frostbite, among others.”

Technus stilled for a moment. Then he jolted back into action. “You know Frostbite of the Far Frozen? And Queen Dorathea of Aragon?”

“Uh, yeah.” Danny floated to the other side of the desk so he could watch Technus and the earphones simultaneously. “Dora is a close friend of mine, and Frostbite and his people worship me for defeating Pariah Dark. Why? Are they that well known in the Zone?”

The other ghost looked up from the gadgets to stare Danny in the eye. “Ghost-Child, your ignorance never fails to impress me.” Then his head turned down again as he continued working.

“What, you’re just gonna say that and not explain?” Danny’s spectral tail twitched in irritation, aura brightening slightly. “Should I have mentioned Pandora as well? I mean, it’s not like any of them are like Clockwork, right?”

Snorting, Technus shook his head. “Clockwork is just a legend, child.”

“Legendarily annoying, you mean.” Danny rolled onto his side, propping his head up on his elbow which rested on nothing. “But I was serious about those guys being my allies, you know? Frostbite taught me how to use my ice powers, even.”

“Yes yes, of course he did.” Technus glanced between some of the parts he had just pried loose. “Between their tech and these gadgets of your parents, I could’ve made functioning phones ages ago.”

“Really?” Danny blinked, eyeing the ghost suspiciously. “If it’s just that easy, we can go to the Far Frozen right now. They’ll want to keep a close eye on you to make sure you don’t steal anything else, but otherwise it’ll be fine.”

The tech ghost looked up, eye-lenses wide. “You were serious? Yes, yes, let us go immediately.” He dumped the partially-deconstructed Fenton Phone on his worktable, pushing himself up into the air.

“I don’t joke about these things,” Danny said, half-offended. “I really am allied with these ghosts, and friends with most of them as well.”

Technus nodded along as they exited the lair. Then he paused, frowning. “Wait. So what about Clockwork? He’s just a Ghost Zone legend, right? How did you even hear about him?”

“He kept sending ghosts from the future to fight me,” Danny explained with a lopsided grin. “Eventually I followed one of those to Clockwork’s lair, got into a bit of a fight with him, and fell through one of his viewing screens into the future. Found my way back, took out the bad future me that came along, and apparently that was Clockwork’s plan all along.”

Huffing out a breath, Technus shook his head. “Jeez, child. That sounds too crazy to be true, but even crazier to have made up.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Danny laughed. “Try living it.”

“Not exactly alive anymore.” Technus slowed, letting Danny take the lead. “How far is the Far Frozen anyway?”

“Well…” Danny rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, it’s quite a ways, actually. When I visited with my parents last week, it took over an hour at the Specter Speeder’s highest speed.”

Technus glanced over at Danny, narrowing his eyes. Then he sighed. “And you are, once again, serious. You’re lucky that the Far Frozen has such attractive technology and that I’ve wanted to take a look at it for decades.”

Danny’s grin crept back onto his face. “Gotta get some good luck to balance out all the bad, sometimes.”

“That’s depressing, Phantom.”

---

“Alright,” Technus mumbled as a bit of tech clicked into place. “This should’ve done the trick.”

Danny looked up from his book – English homework for Lancer – and at his fellow ghost. “So how did it work, again?”

“It’s a chip. It needs to be installed in a phone for it to be able to connect to any other phone carrying the chip.” He held it out to Danny, demonstratively. “I’ve got two of these so we can test them. After that I can easily replicate it to make more.”

“So I’ll still need to equip everyone with phones.” Danny took the small device from Technus, turning it around in his hand. It was small. Smaller than his fingernail, even. He glanced away from it, back at Technus. “Do you have a phone to test this with?”

The ghost scoffed. “Who do you take me for, Ghost-Child? Of course I have a mobile phone!”

“Right, of course, I should’ve known.” Danny shook his head, using his free hand to pull out his phone. “So where should I plug this thing in?”

“Just phase it in. It’ll work even while intangible.” Technus shrugged at Danny’s incredulous look. “Listen, most phones don’t have a whole lot of free space, yeah? Easiest way to make it as compatible as possible is to make it work while intangible.”

Danny paused, thinking that over for a moment. Then he sighed, phasing the chip into his phone. “Yeah, alright, I guess that that’s fair.”

Just then his phone beeped, and he looked down at the screen. A new text message from an unknown number, simply reading ‘hello world’. He glanced over to Technus, who was now holding a phone as well.

“Really?” he asked, unamused. “Was that really the most creative thing you could think of?”

Technus clicked his tongue. “You disappoint me, Phantom. Your little tech-buddy would’ve gotten the joke, I’m sure.”

Rolling his eyes, Danny stuck his phone back into his pocket. “Yeah, sure, whatever makes you feel better. I’ll send you a text when I make it back to the Human World, and then we can try calling after that?”

“Of course, Ghost-Child.” Technus sat down on the edge of his worktable. “But go and hurry, yes? I get bored waiting.”

“I’m not even gone yet!” Danny protested, floating over to the door. “But, just for you, I’ll fly at my top speed, alright?”

He didn’t hear whether Technus replied or not, as he’d already left the lair. True to word, he zipped to his parents’ Portal at top speed. He really hoped it had worked. Convincing Frostbite to let Technus access the Far Frozen tech hadn’t been as easy as he’d thought.

At least Technus himself seemed to have warmed up to Danny, now. Apparently his various Ghost Zone allies were too threatening for Technus to risk opposing. Well, if it worked, it worked.

Turning invisible just before he left the Zone, and intangible immediately after, Danny passed through his house unnoticed. He and Technus had decided beforehand that it would be best for him to put some distance between the phone and the Portal, as that might influence the reach as well.

He paused high above Amity Park, looking over the city. His city. With a grin, he pulled his phone from his pocket. First registering Technus in his contacts, he send a text back.

‘made it to amity,’ he simply said.

After a few long moments, his phone rang. Grinning wider, he answered it.

“Ghost-Child!” Technus said, his voice crackling like static – even worse so over the phone than in real life, but that might not be a side-effect from the chip but from Technus himself. “It worked, just like I said, didn’t it!”

“Uh, yeah. Your voice is kinda static-y, but you tend to sound like that while possessing technology as well so I don’t think that the chip is to blame for that.”

“Ha! No, it is not. My technology is flawless, Phantom! I, unfortunately, am not. But I will be, eventually!” Technus paused for a moment, a heavy rustling of his clothes filling the line instead. “I will have as many chips as you want for you tomorrow. Bring me a laptop like promised and I’ll leave your town alone.”

“And the rest of the Human World as well?” Danny’s grin fell a little as his eyes narrowed. Count on Technus to try for a loophole.

“Yes yes, of course. I might come visit Amity, but I will let you know beforehand and I will behave well,” the ghost promised.

“Alright. I’ll come by tomorrow, then.” Danny’s ears picked up an unfortunately familiar hum in the distance. “Anyway, I gotta go, Technus. I’ll get you that laptop, yeah?”

He hung up before the other could reply, just as Valerie entered his view.

“Phantom,” she growled, a gun forming in her hands. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Convincing Technus to stop attacking Amity Park,” Danny said casually as he pocketed his phone again. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

“I’m not falling for your charade, Phantom.” The pink elements of her gun started glowing, clearly preparing a shot. Danny got the feeling that she was glaring at him from behind her helmet. “Now release your hold on the Fentons and leave.”

“I’m not doing anything to the Fentons!” he protested, throwing his hands up. “Just because they’ve realized that I’m not the bad guy doesn’t mean that I did anything!”

“You’re just leading them to their deaths!” Valerie tensed, her fingers visibly clenching around the gun despite the thick armor around them. “And then before we know it, they’ll be gone or dead and you will be to blame!”

“If I wanted them dead I would’ve done it already!” Danny snapped before he could really think about it. Knowing he couldn’t take back his words, he continued at a quieter tone. “I’ve been in the Ghost Zone with them twice already. If I really did want them dead, wouldn’t that have been the perfect moment for it?”

Valerie snorted. “Like you ghosts are logical in any way. You’re not fooling me, Phantom.”

“I think that you said ‘I absolutely refuse you ever believe you,’ wrong.” He lowered his arms, crossing them instead. “But I’ve got better things to do. See you hopefully never, Val.”

Turning himself invisible, he dodged to the side in case she reflexively pulled the trigger. Sometimes it was hard to believe that the two of them had ever worked together. Multiple times, even!

He shook his head, flying away from her before she could get out her ghost scanner. Buying the laptop for Technus – and phones for his allies – would cost most of his saved money, but it would be worth it.

Now he just had to convince Jazz to let him phase the chip into her phone.

---

Danny left Sidney’s new phone in their shared locker at the start of the day. He had already added his own phone number, but otherwise the contact list was saddeningly empty. Soon, hopefully, Jazz’s number would join as well.

During lunch, his phone buzzed with a new text. Tucker and Sam looked confused, but didn’t say anything. Most of their lunches were spent in silence nowadays, anyway.

He supposed that they’d grown apart. One day, maybe, he could mend this relationship, too.

The text was, of course, from Sidney. ‘you really got me a phone?’

‘of course I did!’ he texted back. ‘has that new chip as well, so it works in both dimensions.’

‘holy moley!’ Sidney answered. ‘thank you! it is much appreciated!’

‘thank me when I convince jazz to get hers chipped as well.’

Sidney’s answer was a happy-faced emoticon. Danny felt his lip quirk into a smile, but caught Sam’s deepening frown from the corner of his eye and felt the happiness disappear again. Why couldn’t things just be easy for once?

Instead of explaining himself he took a big bite of his lunch. He had no excuses. None that wouldn’t involve a lot of lies, that wouldn’t just hurt them more.

When had his life gotten so complicated?

---

“Phantom,” Valerie said, sounding more resigned than angry. “What are you doing now?”

“Making imaginary friends,” he replied, dryly. He hadn’t looked away from the phones in his hands. There were several more lying scattered around him.

“Why.”

“Well, in actuality I’m working on being able to communicate with my friends and allies without having to travel between dimensions.” He confirmed the contact on the new phone, then looked at Valerie. “This way my friends can contact me without having to come to Amity if there’s trouble. Unless you prefer it when they come here?”

“So one of these,” she gestured at the wide spread of cheap cellphones, “is yours?”

“Uh, yeah.” Danny flipped the phone in his left hand closed, laying it down on the rooftop he was sitting on. “But don’t worry, these are all totally legit. I bought them with actual legal money.”

She snorted. “Yeah, uh huh. Like I would believe that.”

“If I was stealing them, would I really have gone for the cheapest phones I could get?” He raised a brow at her, wishing he could see her face to read her expression. “Come on. Do you really think that badly of me, Red?”

“Worse, actually, but good try.” She shifted, one hand resting on her hip and the other hanging loosely. It would look like a relaxed position if it wasn’t for the gun holsters attached to her hips. “Give me your number.”

“Wow, I thought you weren’t into me?” He wiggled his eyebrows. Hearing her growl, he raised his hands placatingly. “Yeesh, calm down, just joking. But, uh, no can do.”

“Why not?” she asked, voice still a low growl.

“Well, um.” Come on Fenton, think! You can’t give her your number, she’ll recognize it as Danny Fenton’s. Shoot, he really should’ve bought a phone just for Phantom. “Well, it’s… You see…”

An idea wormed its way into his brain, then, and he smiled. “The problem is that these don’t actually work with normal phones. They use a special chip, so they can only connect with phones that also have that chip. Not with actual mobile providers. Sorry, Red.”

She stood, unmoving, staring at him. Then she relaxed a smidgen. “Alright, fine. I’m willing to believe that, for now. But if I found out you lied to me…” she let the threat hang.

“I gotcha, I gotcha!” He glanced down at the phones. Only one more needed setting up, but that was Wulf’s and he had no way to reach the ghost anyway. Looking back at Valerie, he said, “I’m about done here, anyway. I’ll go and get out of your hair, deliver these to the Ghost Zone. If you run into Wulf, can you let me know or send him to me?”

“Who the hell is Wulf?” She crossed her arms, unimpressed. “Please tell me that you didn’t name your dog Wulf.”

“Nah.” Danny flapped a hand, using his telekinesis to gather the phones again. “Wulf named himself. He’s more werewolf-y. Big, with black fur and green eyes. Huge claws. Can rip holes into reality to create portals between this world and the Ghost Zone.” He shot her a lopsided grin. “Nothing special. You probably won’t run into him, but you never know with that guy.”

“There are ghosts that can create their own portals?” Valerie asked, apparently focusing on that specific bit. Danny hoped that she had heard the rest, too. “That’s not a common ability, right?”

“Nah, no worries.” He pocketed all the phones, thanking his parents for the many surprisingly roomy pockets on his belt. “Wulf is one of the few ghosts I know who can do it. And they’re usually not malevolent – they have no reason to cause trouble since they can avoid unwanted contact much more easily.”

Valerie shook her head. “Somehow, Phantom, every thing I learn about your kind just makes me more worried instead of less.”

“It’s a familiar feeling,” he assured her with a grin. “Trust me, I’m still learning more and more myself. Anyway, thanks for not shooting me, Red. See you around.”

“I hope not,” Valerie muttered as he flew off.

---

It was, once again, the weekend. Danny rung the doorbell, then phased into his own house, dropping his invisibility.

“Oh, Phantom!” Jazz looked up from where she was sitting in the living room, reading a book. “Come to kidnap my parents again?”

“Eh, not really.” He shrugged, floating closer. “A while ago we did some tests with my abilities, but we never did all of them, so I thought we could finish them today.” Then he curled his hand around his chin, in a thoughtful look. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you as well.”

“Me?” Jazz asked, intrigued. She put down her book, turning to face him fully. “What about?”

“As you might’ve heard, we’ve been working on getting phones to work in the Ghost Zone.” He sat down on the arm of the couch, his boots resting on the seat. “And, in part thanks to your parents, we did it! Dora really enjoyed your talk, so she was hoping to share phone numbers so you could talk more.”

“Oh! Yes, sure.” Jazz fished her phone out, flipping it open. “What’s her number?”

Danny made a face. “Well, it’s not quite that easy.” He pulled out a chip from his pocket – the last one that hadn’t been connected to a phone. “See, the phones can only connect with each other if they all have this special chip in them. It needs to be phased into a phone – your phone.”

“Alright.” She held out her phone. “If it won’t do any damage, go and phase it into my phone, then.”

“You sure?” he asked, taking the phone from her hand already.

“I trust you, Phantom.” She sat back. “If you say it won’t do any harm, it won’t.”

His lip quirked into a smile. “Thanks.” The chip was phased into her phone, and he handed it back. “I… I really appreciate that. Your trust, I mean.”

“Of course.” She glanced down at her phone, then back up at him. “Say, does Sidney have a phone as well? Since he spends most of his time around here?”

“I got him one too, yeah.” He smiled knowingly. “Let me guess, you want his number as well?”

“Definitely.” She nodded. “Say, have they ever met?”

“No, not yet. I’ve been planning to introduce them, but I haven’t had a chance to, yet.” He leaned back, his weight resting on his hands. “Why? You hoping to introduce them, too?”

“I think they would get along well,” she admitted, a somewhat hesitant grin on her face.

“And being a group of friends will be better for everyone involved as well?” Danny suggested, knowing that that was what she was planning for. Or so he hoped. It was definitely what he wanted to happen.

“Uh… yeah. Absolutely.” She nodded a little too enthusiastically. “And, um, Phantom?”

“Yeah?” He stopped digging through his pockets for the sheet of paper he’d used to write down the numbers for Sidney and Dora.

“If I give you my number, can you spread it among the ghosts?” She fidgeted with her hands, as if she’d suddenly gotten shy over asking. “When I met Sidney, he said something that really hit me. That happy people don’t become ghosts, that most ghosts have trauma regarding their life – or death.”

“I mean, I guess so…” Danny said, uncertainly. “But how does that relate to…?”

“Well… these ghosts don’t seem to have any psychiatrists or anything,” she started to explain, haltingly. “So I thought… I can help Sidney, and I can help Dora. But there are so many more ghosts that could use my help, too. And if phones become more widespread, they could text or call me for advice, or ask to drop by. And then I can do my best for them, too.”

Danny blinked, surprised. He wasn’t sure why this had caught him off-guard so badly; Jazz had certainly seemed intent on doing this for every ghost she’d encountered so far. “Um, sure, I guess? But you might want to tell your parents as well, if you plan on having ghosts come by.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess you’re right.” She stood up suddenly. “Come on, they’re in the lab. They might not have heard the doorbell, otherwise they would’ve come up already.”

Floating up from the couch, Danny trailed after his sister. “Say, not that I don’t appreciate you wanting to help ghosts, but… Are you sure you’re ready to deal with them? Especially ones that might’ve attacked Amity Park before?”

“Maybe not.” She shrugged, not looking at him. “But if I don’t try, who will?”

#danny phantom #dp fanfic #phanfic #phanfiction #dp fanfiction #fanfiction #danny fenton #valerie gray #jazz fenton #technus #he's got a first name but idk how its spelled off of the top of my head so eh #whos gonna search for him by full name anyway? #dark writes #what a nice surprise

[ghostboyconceps]

Fic, Clockwork

I haven’t been putting out much Danny Phantom fanfiction lately, what with the most stressful semester of my life coming to a close, but now I’m on vacation and get to do some writing. Woo!

Anyways, @danny-phangirl reached out to me with an absolutely amazing idea and requested that I write a fic for it. It was an amazing idea and I couldn’t say no.

The basic boiled down idea is this: This is a Danny Phantom/Doctor Who crossover and gives Clockwork a backstory. I really hope you enjoy reading this nearly as much as I did writing it. Story under the cut. 1,645 words. There is a death scene.

“Clockwork, can I ask you something personal?”

“Danny, at this point I doubt anything you ask would bother me,”

“Were you created as a ghost or like, did you die? I get if it’s too personal I’m just kinda curious,”

All of time and space. Right at his fingertips. This was madness. This was chaos. He didn’t dabble in chaos, but something had to be stopped. Something had to be done. Something was coming. Where and when he did not know, but time had to be preserved.

He pulled the switch. The fresh TARDIS jumped and leaped.

“There we go, girl. There we go. Let’s find the light,” Clockwork said, patting the console.

The doctor pounded the console.

“Oh, doctor what is it now?” Jamie asked. “Can’t we go one day without a problem?”

“It would appear not, Jamie,” the doctor said, rubbing his chin. “I’m going to have to make a landing,”

A familiar horrible grinding noise came from the center console. They checked the monitor.

“Now doctor, where is that?” Jamie asked, looking at the tiny screen mounted on the ceiling.

“Well, let me see. It would appear to be Earth, North America, possibly the early twenty first century,”

A knock came on the TARDIS door. The doctor hesitantly flipped the switch and the white doors flew open.

A middle aged man with short brown hair about the same average size as the bowl haired time lord dressed in a casual business suit walked in.“I would know that horrible noise anywhere. Now which face is this?”

“Clockwork! Now this is a surprise! Oh, it is good to see you!” the doctor cried, shaking the man’s hand.

They ended up sitting in the grass outside in the generic American public park, just talking for once. Nothing of importance seemed to be happening. Jamie, being the easily bored human he was, walked around the park.

“What brings you here?” the doctor asked of his friend.

“Oh, same as always. Looking for the light. Trying to stop the time-stream from changing. Though I don’t suppose I have to ask what brings you anywhere,”

The doctor smiled. “So, is there anything unusual about this place?”

Clockwork smiled. “Just tales of floating green people and ghosts, but I’m going to have to ask you to not intervene,”

“Oh, I’ll just come back later,”

“You probably will,”

So many years passed. How did any of them keep track of how old they were? Sometimes he wondered why the doctor counted his own age in Earth years. There weren’t many other rouge time lords out there. The master was the madman. The Rani was the scientist. The doctor, the rule breaker.

Clockwork was the searcher. The observer.

He traveled through countless planets and times, never intervening, obsessively searching for the time he had to. The time he saw in the tear. He had a vision when he looked into the schism. He knew it to be true. It had to be true. It was so incredibly real. He could stop it. It didn’t have to be a fixed point in time if he moved quickly enough. He had to find it.

He grew old looking. He regenerated. He got caught in the crossfire in a human war. He regenerated. He was suffocated by poisonous gas by some kind of crab person. He regenerated.

He found the master. Old and jaded with a young face.

“Whatever you’re doing you need to stop it,” he said.

“Aren’t you the one that doesn’t intervene?”

“Not when there is a paradox machine involved. Not when a TARDIS is being cannibalized,”

“You haven’t had it yet have you? Go on, Clockwork. Go find the light. See if you can stop me,”

For once Clockwork listened to the madman’s suggestion. He ran.

He was tricked. He made it back to his TARDIS. Human beings truly were puzzling creatures. As he regenerated he began to realize why the other runaways seemed to fascinated with them.

The doctor’s redheaded human was sleeping in the back. Clockwork ran his hand along the console of the old beat up TARDIS.

“So,” the doctor said, “You’re ginger now. That’s quite a development,”

Clockwork watched the man in the cricket gear twiddle with wires.

“And you’re blonde now. I thought you said you’d never go that way. You look a lot younger now,”

“Well, I figured it was time for a change. No more middle aged bones, try a new hair color, and wear some lighter clothes, you know how it goes,”

Clockwork ran his hand through his new hair and fixed his jacket. “Yes, I suppose you are right,”

“So tell me, what is it like? I have always wondered and no one ever explains anything properly in school, now do they?”

“I’m still getting used to it, honestly. I can see almost anything I want, but the light is still hidden from me doctor. There is something coming. Something that affects both of us. And frankly, I think you meeting other versions of yourself is not helping one bit,”

“You sound so much angrier with an American accent. And you know that was hardly my fault. Aha! There we go. Well, I must be off. Always a wonderful time seeing you,”

“Yeah, I guess it is,”

Every day blended into the next. There was a storm brewing. He could see so much. The light eluded him. When had his hair gone grey again? How many worlds and times had he been to and which ones had he just looked for?

It was time for constancy. It was time to go back home.

He was welcomed back without question. He regenerated as a redhead again and everyone held him in high esteem. The council called him a hero and asked him for advice.

Then war began brewing.

Young Gallifreyans died alongside old ones. They were shot down by ruthless killing machines that felt nothing but hate and knew nothing but war. Clockwork felt the light was coming. The time was coming to intervene.

The doctor himself joined the fray. The master returned home, and the Rani began using her experiments for the war. All of the rouge time lords returned home, and they came to fight.

The man who had never intervened but only watched became capable of more than he had ever thought or dared to imagine. He learned to shoot. He learned to fly a warship. He learned to fight alongside his comrades. The one who had observed time became a soldier.

He searched through time in his mind at every moment, looking for the light, looking for it. It was coming. He knew it, but he was too afraid to alter time to stop it.

The master and the doctor manipulated time like a tool. Clockwork still refused to do this. There were some things that needed to be stopped, but time had rules.

The doctor fought alongside his all-knowing friend in countless battles. In his final moments, it was obvious that the doctor should have been stopped, but in the moment, in every moment, the rules were sacred.

He forgot to cut his long scraggly red hair and began wearing it back. He learned to not feel when he shot. The doctor claimed he would never go by that name anymore, but clockwork knew better.

He was shot once and blasted a troop of daleks with his regeneration fire. He came back taller. Meaner. Stronger. He still let his hair grow long in his frantic new lifestyle and continued fighting.

The doctor stopped talking to him. He began doing more dangerous things.

Arcadia has fallen.

The council calls the heroes to themselves and ask for advice. Clockwork looks. He stops in his tracks.

The moment.

He tears from the war room, grabbing his gun as he goes.

Stupid, stupid time lord. Stupid. You could have stopped this. You needed to intervene. A TARDIS. Get to a TARDIS. This doesn’t have to become a fixed moment. Run you idiot. RUN!

He stumbled over his own feet, blasting daleks as he ran, not bothering to help the innocent families that yelled for help. They wouldn’t question a red haired time lord’s motives. They knew everything after all.

Everything apparently, except this.

His red sweaty hair became untied as he ran. He had to get there. He could stop the doctor. He could save the time-stream. Gallefrey didn’t have to die. It didn’t have to be trapped. His best friend didn’t have to stay alone. Surely death was better than living in that kind of grief and loneliness.

The clairvoyant time lord didn’t think about or notice the peice of scrap metal jutting out of the dead dalek he was running past.

He fell, dropping his gun in shock. A green surge of electricity and plasma hit his left eye. Who shot it? Panicked ally or hate infused foe? There was no knowing, and it didn’t matter anymore.

Clockwork struggled to breathe and lay wheezing on the ground clutching his left eye. He wasn’t regenerating. Why wasn’t he regenerating? The beam was affecting his central nervous system. Movement became nearly impossible. His lungs struggled to work. Why wasn’t he regenerating?

Wait. How many times had he regenerated? He had lost count. Had he really just thrown away the final one?

You just watched. You just observed, waiting for the right time. Why didn’t you break the rules? Stupid time lord. Stupid red head. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The last thing he saw was that light. The light of the doctors.

“I think, Danny, that I died, though who or what I was, I cannot remember. No, I cannot remember,”

“Well that sucks,”

A flash went through his mind. He smiled through his confusion.

“Yes, yes it does. I do remember a light though. I’m not sure what else to tell you,”

#danny phantom #doctor who #clockwork #fanfiction #crossover #fanfic #fan fiction #fan fic #oh look it's mine

[thornfield13713]

So, how's Danny finding his first day in the new world?

Funny you should ask that, anon…The short answer is ‘not brilliant’. The long answer…

In a fair and reasonable world, Danny ought to have had at least a few moments of blissful ignorance before panic set in. Unfortunately, he did not live in a fair or reasonable world, and so there was no vague sense of bad news lurking somewhere in the back of his brain, no few moments of thinking the world was working as normal and the whole thing had just been a terrible dream. Danny went from being sound asleep to awake in a world where his parents were involved with Vlad in the space of about ten seconds. It was not, on the whole, the best way to wake up. He was tired, too, because he’d kept waking up at odd intervals in the night to panic about what this meant and how long he would be stuck with it, because Clockwork couldn’t have meant to leave him in this world forever, right? This was just one more test, he knew it. He just wasn’t quite sure what it was Clockwork wanted to test him for.The first horrible surprise of the day ought, therefore, not to have been a surprise at all, but was, because some things manage to be horrible surprises no matter how inevitable they are. When he finally went through to the kitchen, Vlad was there and so was Maddie, which he should’ve expected, but didn’t. There was no sign, now, of the ecto-acne. Not even a couple of lingering scars, which was unfair. There was something profoundly unnatural about the sight of Vlad making toast (ordinary-shaped toast, even!) while Maddie fussed with the coffeemaker, occupying the same space so easily and naturally that you’d hardly guess that in the real timeline, the one he had destroyed, she could hardly stand to be in the same room as him.“-tried reversing the polarity?” Vlad was saying. “It might limit the extent of the icing problem, if we can’t remove it entirely.”“No, I haven’t,” Maddie said, then frowned, “But that might make it harder to catch Plasmius and Phantom – the heat signature’s too variable, and they’re slippery enough as it is.”“True – but they’ve already shown they can slip out of containment easily enough,” Vlad started, and then spotted Danny. “You’re up early,” he said, “Sit down, breakfast should be ready in a minute – as I was saying, Maddie…”Danny stood frozen for a moment, and sat down less because he’d been told to than because he was afraid his knees would give out if he didn’t. He couldn’t breathe – his chest felt tight and painful, and he could only get out a few short, sharp breaths, which sounded too loud even to him.“Danny?” his mom asked, frowning, “Are you alright?”“Fine,” Danny ground out, staring at the table and trying not to see Vlad looking at him too, with concern written all over his smug face. Well, not so smug here, but that…that wasn’t something anyone should be asked to deal with first thing in the morning. It’s alright, he told himself. Dad’s here too, Vlad hasn’t won. It didn’t work. All it did was call up the memory of what else had changed here.He’d gone through yesterday like a sleepwalker. Vlad had still been too weak to join them for dinner, had slept through most of the evening, so things had been very nearly normal, and Danny had gone to bed still in too much shock to process it all. Now, apparently, his brain was playing catch-up and going too fast for his liking.“Uh…where’s Dad?” he asked, glancing up for a moment and wishing he hadn’t.Vlad looked up, “Down in the lab, I expect.”“Yes, that’s right – some damage to the Spectre Speeder,” Maddie added. “Not sure how that happened – we’ve hardly had the chance to try it out yet.”Danny looked down at the table to escape Vlad’s gaze. There was no way the frootloop could know, right? Ok, he seemed to know about Danny, but that didn’t mean anyone else did – he needed to ask Sam and Tucker about that, and about everything else he’d missed in this weird world he was supposed to be living in until Clockwork finally gave in.“I don’t imagine you have any idea, do you, Danny?” Vlad asked, in the same fake-casual tone he always used when hinting he might tell. Some things didn’t change no matter what shape you bent the timeline into, it seemed.Danny shrugged, “Nope. Nothing to do with me.”A plate of toast was deposited under his nose, and Danny frowned. Usually, it was kind of a given that he and Jazz could get breakfast for themselves, even if Jazz sometimes insisted on fixing it for both of them out of some misguided sense of responsibility. And if Vlad had made it, he definitely wasn’t eating it, even if it was only toast.“Vati! Have you seen my bio notes?” Jazz’s voice called from somewhere upstairs, which was probably the only thing saving Danny from being interrogated about why he wasn’t eating. Everywhere he looked, he saw something subtly wrong. Vlad in casual clothes and – had he needed glasses in the old timeline? Danny was pretty sure he hadn’t. The same cat he’d seen yesterday, sitting on the table and looking down its feline nose at him. Jazz, when she stuck her head around the door to say she’d found the bio notes, wearing a green-and-gold headband instead of her usual turquoise one. The utter lack of ectoplasm-powered equipment in the kitchen and the Packers figurine on the windowsill. His mom, leaning quite casually against Vlad’s side to let him look at her schematics and ask questions – Vlad talking to her at all, in a form that wasn’t awful, awful attempts at seduction. Because he didn’t need to seduce her – she was, through some horrific twist of fate, already seduced. And so was his dad, which…no. Just no. It wasn’t that Danny had anything against the gay thing. He’d met his mom’s ex-girlfriend Harriet at the reunion, and liked her well enough, and if his meddling had somehow changed things so that Maddie was suddenly a guy or Jack was a woman, that would have fazed him a hell of a lot less than this did. It was just…well, Vlad. It was only sensible to be worried about having screwed the world up enough that the guy who’d tried to kill his dad Danny did not know how many times in the last year alone was now involved with him, even if in this world those things probably hadn’t happened. ‘Probably’ being the operative word in that particular sentence. Possibly this Vlad was just a better actor than the one Danny knew, and had agreed to all this just so Maddie would agree to get involved with him. Maybe, even now, he was plotting to get Jack out of the way and what Danny had seen between them yesterday was just to lure Jack and Maddie into a false sense of security. Stranger things had happened.“-will want to come over to look at the new Fenton Wrist Rays,” Maddie was saying now, and Danny looked up hastily, trying to ignore the sight of Vlad Masters leaning against the counter eating toast behind her, “Danny, could you tell her they’re finished, please?”“Uh…sorry, who?”His mother gave him a reproving look, “Well, Valerie of course – who else! She’s been looking for a nice, portable anti-ghost weapon for weeks now – oh, she is going to be a magnificent ghost-hunter in a few years.”Danny shifted nervously. “Uh…yeah,” he muttered. “She seems pretty good at it now.”Vlad was trying to catch his eye again, but Danny ignored him. Whatever it was Vlad wanted to say to him, he could say it out loud and risk whatever Maddie and Jazz thought of it. Or, better still, he could keep it to himself and never, ever talk to Danny again. That would be pretty much ideal. Danny had bigger things to worry about. For a start, when had his parents started working with Valerie? Ok, they were roughly on the same side, but Val was a hell of a lot more likely to get a shot in at Danny than either Jack or Maddie ever had been.“She’s very talented,” Vlad agreed, in such a carefully neutral tone of voice that Danny knew something was up. Oh, crap, was Vlad still funding her? Ok, if he were, Danny didn’t see why she’d be after Fenton tech too, but it was a possibility, right? And Clockwork wouldn’t have left him in this world unless there was something he had to deal with here, right? “Bus leaves in ten minutes,” he added, “You’d better hurry.”It was at once a relief to be out of the house and away from Vlad, and horrifying to think of what he might be doing in their absence. He could think of at least a hundred things Vlad could do with everything in the downstairs lab, and that was without getting into all the personal stuff, which was enough to make Danny want to be sick all on its own. Less of a relief was Jazz shoving him lightly as soon as they were around the corner.“Give me a lift? The bus is a nightmare in the mornings.”“Uh…” Danny stared at her. “You…uh, you’re not worried about me doing that?”Jazz snorted, “Come on, Danny. It’s this or put up with Dash trying to come onto me all the way into school! Flying involves less unwanted groping and more fresh air.”“But wouldn’t that be…I don’t know…wildly irresponsible or something?” Danny tried, because the I-word was usually enough to get Jazz to lay off a bit.Jazz rolled her eyes, “You can tell Vati on me if you really want to, but can we just get to school? I have a presentation due, and since someone wrecked my car…”Truthfully, there was nothing Danny wanted less than to be around people right now. He needed – he didn’t know what he needed, but a bit of time in which to scream about this situation was probably pretty high on the list. And since when did Jazz ask for rides to school? She’d only found out about the whole ghost thing a couple weeks ago – should she even be this open about knowing, if the time-travel thing never happened? Mom and Dad clearly didn’t know, if they were still hunting Phantom. Vlad clearly did know, from what he’d been saying yesterday and all that meddling with Mom’s latest anti-ghost device over breakfast, and Danny had no idea how to even begin to pretend that this wasn’t the stuff of nightmares already, without a single ghost in sight.“Danny? Earth to Danny?” Jazz huffed out a breath, “Ok, fine, the bus it is. Traitor.”Danny made a noncommittal sort of noise, with the uncomfortable feeling that he was going to have to answer a lot of questions that way in the near future. He needed to talk to Sam and Tucker, pronto, before he gave himself away and ended up strapped to the operating table down in the lab. He didn’t know how this world’s Vlad had managed it for twenty years, but the fact that he had was pretty worrying all on its own. It was a bad lookout for Danny, when his own Vlad seemed so much less dangerous than this version was shaping up to be.The flight over to school should’ve taken him half the time it did, but Danny needed the time to himself. He didn’t know what else was wrong with this world. Jazz had been enough of a surprise, this version of Jazz who wore Packers jerseys and hadn’t started nagging him about his schoolwork or his safety or anything at all since he’d arrived here. The former, Danny could probably blame on Vlad and be reasonably certain that he was right. The latter was more difficult, but still, it felt lonely. He’d be lying if he said he never expected to miss Jazz’s overprotective streak, but she hadn’t so much as said he was acting oddly yet, and he knew he wasn’t passing well enough for her not to have noticed.Casper High looked just the way it always had done. So did the rest of Amity Park, so had the Ghost Zone. It annoyed Danny on levels he didn’t like to think about – his whole world had been turned upside-down, there ought to be more to show for it – and when he landed behind the trees out back he was already in a foul mood. It didn’t get any better when he saw Sam and Tucker waiting on the bench under the trees, looking rather as if they’d just been informed that the world was going to blow up in half an hour and there was nothing they could do about it. Granted, that sort of thing wasn’t all that uncommon in Amity Park, but you’d have thought Danny would have been the first to hear about it, what with the ghost powers and all.“Oh, there you are,” Sam said, rather coldly, when Danny appeared next to them. “Is Mr Fenton ok?”It took Danny a gut-wrenching moment to remember she meant Vlad. “Could you…not call him that?” he said, rubbing at the back of his head, “I keep getting mixed up. And, yeah, he’s fine. He was making eyes at Mom over breakfast.”What would in his old world have elicited at least a little bit of sympathy got him a disturbed look from Tucker here, and made Sam’s scowl darken.“That’s his name,” she said flatly. “And I’m glad he’s alright – no thanks to you.”“I’m sorry! I was a bit distracted by the whole ‘my whole world just got rewritten’ thing!”Danny raked a hand through his hair. He wasn’t sorry, not really.  It was difficult to feel sorry for anything right now, when he remembered how ready Vlad had been to let Sam and Tucker die just to get his ecto-acne sorted out. He didn’t even know if it would’ve killed Vlad himself – half-ghosts were hard to kill, Danny was living proof of that.“It probably wouldn’t have killed him,” he reasoned, “I mean…half-ghosts are hard to kill, and he’s had it before. You said he’d been having attacks on and off for years.”“Yeah, but…” Tucker shuddered, “It’s pretty gruesome after a while – I mean, you, uh, you must’ve seen your world’s version a few years ago, right? I mean, it had mostly cleared up by the time we’d turned ten, but before that? Looked like half the guy’s face had melted off him.”“I never met my world’s version until the reunion thing, I told you! I don’t know why he’s here! I mean…there’s only so much I could’ve done to cause this, right?”Sam and Tucker exchanged another exasperated look.“Guess it depends on what you did,” Tucker said apologetically.Sam was still glaring at him. “So, basically, you went back in time and now Danny – our Danny – is just gone?” she demanded. “Or – is he in whatever screwed-up timeline it is you come from?”“I don’t know, ok!” Danny snapped back, “I wasn’t trying to do any of this! Come on, do you really think I want to spend any more time with that frootloop than I already have to?”“Danny!” Sam glared at him, and then dropped her gaze to glare at his boots.“Look,” Tucker said, if only to fill the silence. “It’s not that we don’t want to help, it’s just…all of this is…uh…what’s a tactful way of saying ‘crazy’?”“I think ‘crazy’ covers it,” Sam agreed sourly. “And- Look, we’re not even sure we know you. I mean, you act a lot like our Danny, but…you’re not him. We don’t even know if half the things that happened to us happened to you. And- And if he really is…gone…”“We need some time,” Tucker finished.Danny stared at them, feeling as if, once again, the ground had been ripped away beneath his feet. “…time,” he said. “Right.”He wanted to scream at them. He wanted some excuse to punch Vlad Masters, even if it meant some new plan was in the works. He wanted to fly straight back to Clockwork’s castle and stay there until the ghost let him put things back the way they should be. Instead, he was standing here, watching his two best friends share awkward, guilty looks as none of them wanted to be the one to walk away first.Sam was the one who finally clinched it, and when the bell rang, Danny followed a careful distance behind, wondering if he could get away with claiming illness and get out of this whole mess that way. Of course, then he’d have to go home, but that just gave him more time to find Clockwork and- and do something to set this right.Instead, he had English first thing, and the odds of this world’s him having had time to do the homework were practically nil. Danny could barely keep on top of it even in his own timeline, and yesterday had been hectic enough even before the Clockwork thing got started. He didn’t even want to think what sort of havoc this world’s him might be wreaking in his own timeline – if it even still existed, that was. He could just imagine what Vlad – the real Vlad – would make of it. That would be an opportunity as good as gift-wrapped, and Danny was doing his best not to think of what he’d be going back to if it really was just a straight switch. Maybe, if he got to Clockwork soon, he could mitigate the worst of the damage.“Hey, Fen-turd!” yelled a familiar voice from somewhere behind him, just as Danny reached his locker. Danny groaned. Dash. Why couldn’t he be pretending to be friendly in this world? It’d save so much trouble. “Fail another spelling test?” he asked, turning to face Dash. Failed something, anyway, because Danny hadn’t been around long enough to do anything to piss this version of Dash off yet.“You bet I did! And I’m going to take every point of it out of your-”Someone behind Dash cleared their throat.“Dash, I hope you’re not giving my boy a hard time, there.” Danny froze. Ok, that was Valerie. A Valerie who apparently had no problem at all showing off those ninth-degree martial arts skills in public in this world, going by the colour Dash had just gone. Did that mean she wasn’t this world’s Red Huntress? Did this world even have a Red Huntress? Plasmius was more than powerful enough to deal with one lost ghost dog, if he really was on the right side – or, he corrected himself, pretending to be on the right side – in this universe.“What if I a-aaargh!”Val stepped neatly over Dash’s prone body and leaned against the locker next to Danny’s.“Hey.”Danny swallowed. “Uh…hey! You, uh, you didn’t have to do that. I mean…I appreciate it, but…I can handle Dash.”“Sure you can.” Val smiled at him, wide and slightly smug and bright enough to almost distract Danny from the rest of this crazy world.“Um…my mom wanted me to tell you they finished the wrist-guns,” he said, trying to sound nonchalant. “She wants you to come over for a field test or something after school.”“Cool.” Val stretched, revealing a strip of brown midriff, and caught Danny’s hand. “Maybe you ought to look into borrowing a couple, number of times you get mixed up with all these ghost attacks.”“Yeah. Maybe.” Danny hardly heard what he was saying. He was too busy staring that their linked hands, and putting the pieces together.Val grinned lopsidedly at him. “Carry on like that and I’m going to start thinking you don’t like me anymore,” she said, giving him a wicked look from under her eyelashes.“I…really don’t think that’s likely to happen,” Danny said, before he thought better of it. Val grinned at him, and bumped her hip against his.“Now, that’s what I like to hear. Come on, I’ll walk you to class.”Danny snorted, “Scared I’ll get attacked by ghosts before I get there?”“Happened before, hasn’t it? I’m beginning to think it might be genetic – ghost catnip or something.”Danny laughed, though mostly to cover that he didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. Valerie’s hand was still so, so very warm in his. It was- unfair, so very, very unfair. All this time wishing he’d had another chance with Valerie, and this was how it happened? In another world that would be gone soon enough, and where Val didn’t even know him, because one thing that was already perfectly clear was that the Danny Fenton everyone here remembered wasn’t the same person as the Danny Phantom who really existed. This whole world had sprung into existence yesterday, and yet Danny still felt like he’d been dropped into a surprise test on a subject he hadn’t even known he was supposed to be studying. Still, it was surprisingly comfortable to watch Val’s answering grin and walk in companionable silence to the door to Lancer’s classroom.“Guess I’ll see you after school, then,” Val said, “Your friends still not talking to me?”Danny smiled wanly, “They’re not even talking to me right now,” he said, which was broadly true. “What do they even have against you?”“Hey, I wouldn’t want my best friend putting a target on her back by dating a ghost-hunter either,” Val said, her smile dimming. “’course, with your parents already in the business, you’d think you’d already be in trouble there.”“Right…you’d think so.” Danny’s heart sank. He stared down at his shoes, wondering what on earth he was supposed to do with this.Val saw, but this world being screwy, she completely missed the point. “Still not past what happened this weekend, huh?”“Not anything like over it,” Danny agreed miserably. “I just- I can’t really talk about it, but…”“Yeah, I get it.” The worst part was, it really sounded like she did. Or at least, as if she understood what she must think had happened. “I’ll see you at lunch, then, if you don’t have other plans.”“I don’t!” Danny said quickly, which was meant to come over as an assurance but sounded a bit too desperate for that. “Uh…I mean, I’d like that.”“See you then, then,” Val said, and leant over to kiss his cheek before disappearing off along the corridor. For a moment, Danny just stood there, shell-shocked and wondering, absurdly, if there was any way to pick and choose which bits of this world to keep, if Clockwork ever let him try again. Probably not, because even if he’d done Danny a few favours, they were usually of the major, world-ending or life-saving varieties, not just…Danny tried to spot Val’s curls in the crowd, and let that thought slip away.“Fenton! Looking forward to the test this morning?”…scratch all of that. This world was a nightmare, and Danny wanted to go home.“Uh…”The test itself was worse. Ok, so it was going to happen in his own world too, and Danny had studied for it – sort of, as much as he could around ghost-hunting and the whole universe getting bent out of shape, anyway. Probably no-one would notice the difference between his crappy C-grade test and the crappy C-grade test his counterpart would’ve come up with. He’d almost forgotten there was going to be a test after the Clockwork thing, and surely having the whole universe get rewritten on you excused at least a little bit of distraction, right? Were these even the same books he’d had to read in his own world? He didn’t think he’d changed things that much, but given what else had apparently happened because of Clockwork’s slip it was an option worth looking into.By the end, he’d answered only half the questions, gotten most of those so wrong even he could see it, and was living in fear of yet another make-up assignment. He couldn’t even vent to Sam or Tucker about it, because neither of them were speaking to him. If there existed a hell beyond the ghost zone, it might look a bit like this.He was snappish, moody and generally intolerable to be around all through his next few classes, not that it mattered when nobody was talking to him anyway. It wasn’t as if it was his fault, he thought savagely. He’d never had a prayer of doing what he was supposed to in the past – not two weeks late and in the wrong place – and Clockwork hadn’t done a thing to help. If he’d only been able to get to the right day, they might not have had to worry about any of this. Vlad would still be the lonely, pathetic frootloop living all alone in the castle in Wisconsin, Sam and Tucker would be talking to him and uninfected with any form of ecto-acne, there might not be any such thing as ecto-acne.On balance, he probably ought to have expected getting cornered by Lancer just at the beginning of lunch, but somehow he didn’t even consider the idea until he turned around to see Lancer standing right behind him. He cringed, readying himself for…well, probably detention, possibly another re-take, but when he spoke, Lancer’s voice was almost gentle.“Your sister told me what happened,” he said. “And, under the circumstances, I am prepared to offer you a second chance on this test.”Danny very nearly panicked before he realised what Lancer meant. Val had gotten a few free passes from teachers before her mom died, though he hadn’t known then that was what it was, and having a- a- sort-of parent? Stepparent? Parents’ live-in boyfriend…he honestly wasn’t sure what the official line on the Vlad thing was except that he wanted no part in it and would like to go back to a world where it had never happened as soon as possible. Whatever it was, a near relative being seriously ill over the weekend probably earned the same sort of leeway. His mind promptly informed him that he had just described Vlad Masters as ‘a near relative’, and went on strike. “Uh…” he said uselessly. “Thanks? Wait…re-take the test? Again? I thought-”Lancer gave him a perturbed look, “You haven’t needed to re-take a test of mine yet. Unless you’re referring to your math grades, which could be higher.”“All my grades could be higher,” Danny grumbled. They hadn’t been great before, but he’d at least usually had a couple of B’s scattered in among the C’s before he started the whole superhero thing. Lancer nodded, “Probably,” he admitted, “But so could anyone’s, and this…” he held up the morning’s test, already graded. “Could be read as sarcasm if I didn’t know what caused it.”He didn’t, of course. No-one did. It was the only good thing to be said about the ecto-acne mess, and even that was undermined by the fact that, if it hadn’t happened, Danny wouldn’t have had to worry about this situation at all.“So…uh…when do I have to…”Lancer considered it. “Next Saturday should give you enough time,” he said after a few seconds. “But I expect results, Fenton!”Danny nodded, just wanting to get this conversation over with. “I…uh…I’ll do my best? Wait, why was Jazz talking to you about this anyway?”Lancer looked taken aback for a moment, then his face smoothed out. “Oh, some missed homework from my class with her. Still, she said Mr Fenton was recovering well.”Danny nodded, trying desperately to ignore the maddened three-quarters of his brain that was still stuck on ‘I am now related to Plasmius’ and ‘my parents are involved with Vlad Masters’, along with some speculations about how that worked that would have been revolting even if Vlad hadn’t been involved. And…wait, Jazz had missed homework? Jazz? Even the fact that Lancer seemed as surprised by that as Danny was didn’t do much to help with how little sense that made.Lancer gave him a long, searching sort of look, and sighed. “You can go,” he said, “But remember what I said about Saturday!”Danny was too relieved to question it, his mind still screaming at him about how little sense it made for Lancer to be this soft on him, seriously ill…relatives…or no. It was just one more thing that made him want to curl up and crawl under a rock right now, and he was supposed to be meeting Valerie.There was a bag lunch in his backpack, which was yet another of those weird little unexplained changes that didn’t seem actively sinister, but still made Danny’s brain itch, but Valerie, at least, was still at the table she’d adopted as her own after the dog thing happened. No-one else had ever even tried to sit there since, except during their brief relationship, and it felt weird to walk right by Sam and Tucker to sit with her. Neither Sam nor Tucker looked at him as he passed them, staring down at their food in that way that made it painfully clear they were avoiding his eyes.“Sheesh, what happened with them?” Val asked when he sat down, her eyes flicking over to Danny, Sam and Tucker’s usual table.Danny shrugged. He didn’t know what would count as a convincing excuse in this world, and the less than twenty-five percent of his brain still in working order really didn’t feel up to figuring it out. “I…uh…said something Sam didn’t like yesterday,” he settled on in the end.Valerie grinned. “Her loss.” She sketched an absent-minded pattern on the table. “So…”For the first time, Danny realised he had no idea what to say to her. That was wrong all on its own – it was what he’d liked so much about being with her, that he could never be at a loss for words, the way they had always found something to talk about.“I’m thinking of taking a trip up to the observatory tonight,” he said, mostly to provide him with an excuse for why he was going to avoid going home for as long as possible, and never mind the punishment for breaking curfew.Val’s eyes flicked downwards. “Yeah…I…probably won’t be able to make it. Patrol, y’know?”“I know?” Danny said without thinking. “I mean…uh, yeah.” He forced a grin. “You know that makes me sound like Lois Lane, right?”“I was thinking more Vicki Vale,” Val said slyly, “You don’t get kidnapped enough to be Lois.”Danny laughed, “How do you know? I could just be rescuing myself. It’s the twenty-first century, I’m allowed to do that now.”“Funny thing, actually,” Val was saying, “Still haven’t caught up to that creepy guy ghost on the motorcycle. He came screaming out of that creepy ghost world place-”“Ghost zone,” Danny corrected automatically, his mind already on what this might mean.“Yeah, that…came screaming out of there yesterday, and disappeared before we could get a clear bead on him.”Danny shifted uneasily, “So…you’ve seen this ghost before, I’m guessing?”“What- Oh, c’mon, Danny, I tell you all the good stories.” She elbowed him, sliding over to lean her shoulder against his.Danny opened his mouth to say something – he wasn’t sure what – and he could see his breath in front of him. Oh. Oh, no.There was a shrill beeping noise from somewhere in Valerie’s bag, and she fished out something that looked like a cross between Tucker’s PDA and the Fenton Finder to frown at it.“You would have to be a complete moron not to notice-” it began, but Valerie pressed a button on the side.“Looks like duty calls,” she said, and kissed him too quickly for him to try and reciprocate before hurrying off, probably to get changed into her Red Huntress gear and head out. Danny waited perhaps ten seconds before following suit.He spotted the shadow first as it flickered across the cafeteria, causing trips, stumbles, spillages and at least one compromisingly torn bit of clothing. Dash and Kwan somehow both managed to fall over their own feet and land in a trashcan, Paulina’s bag tore itself open and deposited all her possessions on the floor, which provided a big enough distraction to let Danny slip away and go ghost without being spotted.Johnny 13 was hovering outside the school when Danny got there, still on his bike and grinning.“Finally come out to play, kid?” Johnny asked, leaning one elbow on the handlebars.“Sorry, Johnny,” Danny said through gritted teeth, flying up to meet him, “Playtime’s over.”A burst of spectral energy from the headlight of Johnny’s motorbike made him veer sharply, twisting around mid-flight to put in some answering blows of his own. Another blast from Johnny caught him square across the shoulder, flipping him over in mid-air, and in trying to reorient himself Danny almost missed the shadow coming up behind him and had to turn intangible to get away.“So,” he called, “Working alone now? Kitty finally ditch your slimy-” “Shadow! Take him down!” The shadow lunged for him again, and this time it caught him, throwing him directly into the path of Johnny’s motorbike, which swerved sharply to catch Danny side-on, throwing him through the front wall of Casper High and into what looked like a senior biology class. It took a while to get out, but when he did, Johnny was still there, just waiting around. Which…ok, if there was any sort of plan here, it was either a pretty stupid plan, or Johnny was only here as a diversion. And Danny didn’t think Johnny had the sort of attention span necessary for that sort of thing.“What d’you want, Johnny?” he demanded, firing off another blast of spectral energy at that motorbike, sending the thing tipping perilously sideways before Johnny could right it again, and darting away from the school, Johnny racing after him.“Relax, kid, relax,” the ghost called after him, “Just blowing off some steam. Speaking of which…”Another blast from the headlight of Johnny’s motorbike, and Danny banked left, zipping around again to catch Johnny from behind with a blast of blue-white energy that knocked him clean off his bike-Wait. Blue-white energy?“Well, well, well. Looks like I got two for the price of one!”Danny groaned, and looked around to see- Ok, that was just unfair. And suspicious. Because there Valerie was, on a hoverboard and dressed in a red hazmat suit with a massive pair of goggles over her eyes, and armed with the sort of anti-ghost gear Danny was certain had come from Vlad in the original time. Was he still equipping her here? Oh, god, was it possible Danny not only had to deal with Vlad being involved with his parents but Vlad being involved with his parents and still trying to kill him? What- What did he even want? He had Maddie, as Danny had been horribly reminded that morning, wasn’t that the whole reason for the Plasmius thing?“I don’t want to fight you!” he called, hanging back a bit as Johnny looked from him to Val and back again.“So…what is this?” Johnny said, frowning. “Some kinda lovers’ quarrel? Because I know what those-”“We’re not lovers!” Valerie snapped at him. “Stop grinning, Phantom. I’ve got ten kinds of hurt for you right here!”She aimed…that looked like a Fenton Bazooka…at him, and Danny only barely had time to think that this was going to suck before she fired. Behind him, Johnny dived for his bike, and if Danny hadn’t turned intangible just out of reflexive panic the fight would probably have ended very differently as Johnny roared past them, driving directly upwards with his shadow screaming behind him.It was then, over Johnny’s shoulder, that Danny saw it – a blur of white, the shadow of dark hair that looked all too much like horns, the gleam of red eyes. It was instinct, again, which had him take aim and get off at least one blast of energy before Plasmius closed with them, even as Johnny spun his motorbike in mid-air and set off at top speed in the opposite direction, wild-eyed and terrified as Danny had never seen him before.“Another shot like that, and I might believe you wanted to hit me,” said Vlad Plasmius, with a distinctly superior air. “Really, Phantom, I know I taught you better than that.”Danny swallowed. One more shot like that, and he’d have given himself away. “Who says that wasn’t what I was aiming at?” he said, just from sheer force of habit. The unimpressed look he got in return was the most familiar thing he’d seen since he got landed in this crazy world.“Hey, freaks!” Danny’s head whipped around at the sound of the click and whoosh of a Fenton Bazooka being reloaded. He’d almost forgotten Valerie was there in the panic of Vlad’s arrival. Valerie was grinning, ear to ear, and…yeah, Danny would probably describe that expression as evil (or at least morally dubious) glee. “Lucky for me, I’ve still got two targets! Unlucky for you…”“Oh, crud…” Danny muttered. Vlad, apparently unbothered, flicked up a hand to create a shield, and raised his eyebrows at Danny, who scowled. “Show-off.”“Hardly. It only counts as ‘showing off’ if you are unable to do the same. Unless you’re forgetting all your lessons now…” There was an edge to his voice that wasn’t quite like what Danny was used to, but the words were familiar enough. If this was how things were between this world’s Danny and Vlad, maybe this world’s Vlad wasn’t as good an actor as Danny had thought. Not like it took much to fool his parents anyway, from how long Danny had been managing it.Vlad’s expression froze, however, as Valerie twisted around, and produced another weapon from the belt at her hip. This one was smaller, sized like an ordinary handgun, and next to the bazooka it actually looked pretty unimpressive.“Move!” Vlad snapped at him, and Danny almost wanted to stay in place just to spite him, but it was about then that Val levelled the gun at him, and maybe in this case discretion really was the better part of valour.Valerie’s grin widened, if such a thing were possible, still further. “Don’t think turning invisible will save you, ghost! This…” she twirled the gun casually in her hand, “Little beauty ought to put you down for good – rips you apart from whatever passes for the heart outward. Mrs F’s own design, this time, so no more little glitches for you to take advantage of.”“Maddie,” Vlad hissed, sounding so exasperated that Danny almost laughed.“Didn’t see this coming?” he couldn’t resist asking.Vlad shook his head, looking genuinely worried, which was strange enough on its own. “I thought we had more time,” he muttered, “She only mentioned having the idea a week ago-”“Never mind that!” Danny veered sharply leftwards, Vlad hurled himself to the right, as there was a sound like a gunshot – a real gunshot, from a gun meant to shoot something other than ghosts – and something whistled by, just overhead.“More where that came from!” Val yelled, zipping a little higher – where did she even get a hoverboard from in this world?“I told you!” Danny yelled back. “I don’t want to fight you! We’re all on the same side here-”“Oh, yeah? What side d’you think that is, ghost?” Valerie thumbed back the hammer, the hoverboard rising higher so that she could look down on him. She did not see Vlad rising up from behind her, and Danny couldn’t stop himself-“Look out!”Val snorted. “You’ve got to do better than that, ghost-” she started, and Vlad struck, knocking the hoverboard out from under Valerie’s feet and batting her away. It was over in a matter of seconds, and Danny didn’t even realise the gun had gone off until he was falling through the air, flickering from ghost form to human to ghost again, and cold…so cold. It was not pain, precisely. It was something so, so much worse than pain. It felt like – like melting, like being unmade…it was-“Phantom- Danny- DANIEL!”The rush of cold air and he’s still falling, perhaps he will feel the fall until it ends-“Danny! Danny, can you hear- What were you thinking- Danny? Danny?”He wasn’t falling. There was an arm around his shoulders, something red and glowing above him, and as he blinked his eyes and the world re-focused itself, Plasmius’s face came into focus, red eyes wide and- afraid. He’d seen Vlad afraid before – of Pariah Dark, of his future counterpart, of…well, the point was, he’d seen it – but never…never quite like this. Vlad’s hand was on his elbow, hauling him to his feet – Danny hadn’t even realised he was lying half-prone on a rooftop until then. He felt weak and dizzy and achy, and even if he knew that the sane, the sensible, the right thing to do would be to shrug off Vlad’s hand and try to reverse all of this, but somehow he just couldn’t find the strength. He tried to take a step and stumbled.“Steady,” Vlad said quickly, his arm tightening and sliding down to hold Danny up, just under his arms. “You’ve had quite a shock, little badger. Lean on me, now…that’s it…”“’m fine,” Danny mumbled, through a jaw that somehow wouldn’t unclamp itself.Vlad nodded – Danny felt his chin digging into the top of his head. “You’re fine. Of course. You’ve just been shot, but clearly, you’re fine. Don’t lie to me, Daniel. Don’t ever lie to me. If you’re hurt-” he broke off, looking pained, his eyes wide and his teeth gritted. And then, so suddenly Danny had no time to defend against it, Vlad hugged him, so hard that if Danny had been in human form he’d have had all the breath squeezed out of him.His brain came online again with an unpleasant squelching, jerking feeling that felt like some complicated mechanical creation with syrup in the gears. He could hear Vlad Masters muttering into his hair about he’d been so frightened, god, Danny, never scare me like that again, Danny, I can’t lose you, don’t ever-“I told you,” he said peevishly, slightly muffled against Vlad’s shoulder. “I’m fine, V- Vati.” As if the whole universe was conspiring to prove him wrong, another wave of dizziness washed over him, his stomach feeling as if it had been squeezed through a very thin tube and then tied into knots. He swallowed against the nausea that thought provoked and forced a smile. “Besides, what was I supposed to do? Val’s good.” He wasn’t sure if he meant that as ‘good at ghost-hunting’ or just in general – either seemed to apply.“Too good,” Vlad said grimly. “I’m going to need to arrange an accident for those guns. Well, I suppose it can’t be helped. Can you distract your father for me while I get them out of the way?”“Uh…”The instinct to not reveal himself warred with the instinct to not give Vlad an inch, particularly where Jack was concerned, both completely overturned by the memory of the warm, delighted look on Vlad’s face on the day Danny had come to this world, as he had leant comfortably back against Jack’s chest and listened to how the cure had been found. It was not a memory that felt quite comfortable in Danny’s head, and it made him wish that the inside of his own mind came with doors he could barricade to keep the thought of it out.Vlad gave him a sidelong look. “You’re meeting her tonight, aren’t you?” he said, and he sounded so tired that Danny could almost pity him. “Daniel – I realise I am the last person on earth with any right to give you this advice…”“Then don’t,” Danny said sullenly, pulling away. “I’m fine. I can handle it.”Vlad glared at him, “She nearly killed you just now! Not that that has ever seemed to concern you at all.” He ran a hand over his face and grimaced. “You’re too much like me.”“I am nothing-” Danny started, furious, but broke off. It was too easy to fall into old patterns, even when he could barely stand and Vlad was being…ugh…concerned. And paternal. It was weird. Incredibly weird. And deeply, deeply uncomfortable. Playing out a situation he had once described as literally his worst nightmare was meant to be awful – so what was Danny supposed to do when it wasn’t? Vlad was still looking quizzically down at him, but there was nothing of malice in his expression, still. Danny tried to remind himself that the only reason for any of this was that Vlad had won, that he had what he wanted, but that didn’t erase the fact that it was there, and Danny had no idea what to do with it.“I…uh…should probably get back,” he muttered.Vlad frowned at him. “You’re sure you’re alright? That was a very near miss you just had. If you’re hurt-”“I’m fine,” Danny said roughly, shrugging Vlad’s hand off his shoulder. “I don’t know why you’re worrying about it. It’s not like-” Not like you haven’t done worse, that sentence ended, and…yeah, Danny wasn’t going to touch that with a bargepole just in case it set Vlad off.Vlad looked him over, then sighed. “Very well. Go on, get to class so I don’t get another call about you skipping.”Danny went, feeling heavy and sluggish and dull and knowing that, if it weren’t for the effects of whatever it was Val had hit him with, he’d probably be screaming by now. Or maybe he wouldn’t. He might want to, but somehow no matter how much you wanted to, there was always something to stop you from just breaking down and screaming in the middle of town. What he really needed, right now, was some way of knowing what was going on. What Vlad’s scheme was, how to stop it, and then how to get out of here and back to his own world with the information he needed to cure Sam and Tucker and never speak of any of this madness ever again.There was still enough of lunch left to let him find an unused computer in the library, and even if Sam and Tucker weren’t talking to him, the internet ought to turn up something.It didn’t.Or at least, nothing useful. Searching for ‘Vlad Masters’ turned up a dozen people, none even remotely connected to Amity Park. And, when Danny got over himself enough to try it, ‘Vlad Fenton’ turned up nothing but Fenton Works itself and a Facebook page consisting mostly of family photos and pictures of the cat – Brie, he thought her name was –  that he’d seen at breakfast. He had to turn away for a few deep breaths when his hand slipped and brought up an old photo of his counterpart and Vlad at the Air and Space Museum, both beaming ear-to-ear and looking, to anyone who didn’t know how wrong all of this was, like an ideal family. People tended to look that way, in photographs, if you didn’t know everything that was going on behind that snapshot. He got more and better results for ‘Plasmius’, but that wasn’t exactly hard with how little either ‘Masters’ or ‘Fenton’ had turned up. Plasmius, the terror of Amity Park, subject of any number of weird old news articles about Jack and Maddie Fenton humiliatingly failing to capture what seemed to be almost a local bogeyman. And then, during the same fight with Walker that had gotten Danny branded as public enemy number one, the turnaround had happened and his counterpart and Plasmius were suddenly the town heroes after weeks for Danny and years for Plasmius of every paper in town accusing them of everything short of murder. The whole town thought Plasmius was…ok, not the best thing ever, but maybe more of a Batman-type, dark and sinister but probably on the side of the angels. And, what was worse, it was at least partly Danny’s fault. Two more follow-up searches also came up blank – no VladCo, no Dalv group, no anything. All the sub-companies of Vlad’s he’d ever heard of were owned by other people and, apparently, always had been. Danny refreshed the page a few times, but it didn’t seem to change the fact that there was absolutely no evidence online to suggest that Vlad was anything other than what this whole world kept insisting he was. Vlad had lost everything, essentially, between the real timeline and this one, and yet Danny didn’t think he’d ever seen him so happy. Trust the frootloop to come out on top even in this. He wondered if Vlad would see it that way.

#vlad fenton au #danny phantom #gray ghost #danny fenton #valerie gray #vlad masters