#Danny's fine. Vlad just needed to take over for him since he had to focus on schoolwork for a bit. Or maybe something else. It's up to you.

[lexosaurus]

Going Angst Week 2021: Birth

I wrote a short five part fic for this year’s Going Angst Week! Fair warning as the event suggests, no one in this fic will make it out on top.

Chapter One: Birth

---

“Don’t think of it as a death, think of it as a sort of rebirth.”

That’s what Vlad had told him anyhow, after he discovered who—or rather what—Danny was at their college reunion. 

“Who were you before this? A nobody, right? Just some little hormonal fourteen year old from the weirdo family, unpopular and bullied. No real hobbies or activities to speak of, aside from…” Vlad’s red eyes pierced down at him. “Video games, am I correct?”

Danny diverted his gaze to the floor. Vlad’s aura only increased in amusement.

“But now,” the ghost continued. “Now you’re something else. Something different, more powerful. The world is your oyster, and all you have to do is reach down and take it.”

“I don’t know,” Danny finally spoke up. He had been hoping that speaking to the older halfa would begin to patch things up between them, but so far every word out of Vlad’s mouth seemed coated in poison.

He knew that deep down he shouldn’t trust a damn word Plasmius said, but Vlad was the only person in the world who he could relate to. And according to the Vlad, there was no one else like them in the Ghost Zone either.

“What is there to be afraid of, Little Badger? You’re a half ghost, you can do whatever it is that you want and nobody, nobody can stop you.”

“It’s not that I’m afraid.” Lies, lies, all lies. “It just doesn’t seem right, is all.”

Plasmius leaned down, forcing Danny’s eyes to meet his. He grinned, bearing his fangs at the boy, as if he could see through all the fear that Danny was desperate to mask.

“Oh Daniel,” Vlad said. “Your parents will never accept you. No good you do in your ghost form could ever convince them that ghosts aren’t all evil, that some are good, that you are good. Don’t you see?”

“No, you’re wrong. My parents will accept me. I just have to—”

“Oh, will they?” Vlad laughed. “Your parents? The same ones who’ve dedicated their careers, their lives to developing ecto-weaponry meant to kill our kind? The people who have written countless academic papers as to the dangers of ecto-life on Earth?”

“If I can show them that we’re not all bad, then maybe they’ll see.”

“Ah, so I bet that explains why you haven’t told them about what really happened in the lab, right? You just wanted to wait for the ‘right time’ to tell them. Foolish boy, don’t you know?” Vlad’s cocky tone died down, as did the power of his aura. In the first moment of sincerity Danny had witnessed from the older man, he turned to Danny and warned, “Your parents are too blinded by their ignorance to ever see the truth.”

---

Danny had been alone the day of the accident. He wasn’t sure why he did it, why he strapped on the hazmat suit (not before ripping off the Jack sticker), why he stepped in the portal, why he tried to figure out how to turn it on. Was it boredom? Teenage rebellion? Curiosity?

But delving into his reasoning was too little too late. Because the moment he tripped over the wire and hit the misplaced power switch, his life ended.

Literally.

Dying hurt. It was terrifying, waking up as something else entirely, and passing out all over again.

At first, he could almost pretend that he was okay. But then he woke up the next morning and felt like he’d been hit by a truck.

And then he fell through his bed, hitting the wood floor below his bed frame.

And then he dragged himself out and saw the extensive scarring on his arm.

And then he knew. That what had happened in the lab wasn’t just a fluke, that whatever the portal did had changed him forever.

That he wasn’t okay.

Still, he tried to carry on as normal. Eventually, the lightning scars snaking across his arm faded (even though they remained when he transformed), and the aching of his muscles subsided (but the coolness in his chest never went away), and his relative anonymity at his school meant that people hardly noticed a change in him (even though his two best friends seemed to hover more now than before).

Everything was going to be normal. Even if he wasn’t okay anymore. Even if he wasn’t human, even if he was...some monster.

What even was he?

“Danny?” Sam poked his shoulder. “Hey, space case? You haven’t touched your food. Are you okay?”

The world snapped into focus, and he realized that he was in the cafeteria at school with his untouched lunch tray splayed out in front of him. He couldn’t even remember getting out of bed this morning, much less making it all the way till lunch.

Regardless, he picked the cardboard excuse for pizza from his tray and took a bite, chewing slowly, and tried not to choke as he forced the food down his parched throat.

“I’m fine,” he said.

He’d been saying that a lot lately.

“We’ve been trying not to pry, but…” Sam looked helplessly at Tucker. “Danny, is...is something going on with you? You’ve just seemed off lately.”

“No, nothing happened. I’m fine.”

“You sure dude?” Tucker asked.

Danny set his school-issued pizza back down on his tray. “Guys, seriously. I’m your best friend. If anything happened, I promise you’d be the first to know. I’ve just been stressed about school, it’s nothing.”

Sam and Tucker exchanged a glance, evidently not looking too convinced. Regardless, Sam gave him her best fake smile and a, “If you say so. Just know we’re here if you wanna talk.”

But he didn’t want to talk. They were human, he...wasn’t. They wouldn’t get it. They’d think he was a freak, they’d stop talking to him, they’d tell Jazz who would tell his parents who would kill him trying to save him.

No one could help him.

They finished lunch in silence, and then it was back to class where Danny managed to fall out of his chair twice and drop his pencil too many times to count. In biology class a glass microscope plate flew past his fingers, shattering against the tiled floor, and in English class when Lancer handed him papers to pass out he dropped those too, sending them scattered along the ground.

He saw the way Lancer peered at him as he stumbled to the ground, hands shaking as he desperately tried to grab the papers while everyone laughed at him. He felt cold—he was always cold since the accident—and he was sure that he looked just as much of a mess as he felt.

Mr. Lancer sent him down to the nurses office after that.

But he couldn’t go to the nurse because his heart rate was slower than a human’s and he didn’t need to breathe as much and he was so cold.

And he was fine.

So he took the hall pass and hid in the bathroom for the rest of the class period.

“Think of it as a rebirth,” Vlad had told him. 

Except Vlad was wrong. Danny wasn’t stronger now, he wasn’t more powerful. In fact, Danny Fenton had never felt more powerless, lost, and alone in his entire life.

If this was the start of a new life, then he was terrified to see what would follow.

---

next chapter>

#danny phantom #going angst week 2021 #birth #the life cycle of a half ghost #phicc #my writing

[shinygoldstar]

Midnight Snack

DannyMay Day 11: Midnight

(Also DannyMay Shadow, Scars, Power, Nature, Seasons, Teeth can you find them all?)

Word Count: 2271 (not beta’d. experimental writing)

Warning: mentions of ghost cannibalism, nothing explicit

@floralflowerpower ​ – for that ghost cannibalism post

(it’s 1 am so i’m gonna sleep now. might post on AO3 later)

Edit: AO3 Added!

.

It was mid-October. The leaves are starting to turn yellow heralding the approaching autumn. Danny was happy because that meant the unusually hot weather is almost over. It wasn’t that he’s melting from the heat- quite the opposite, he’s probably the only person in Amity that isn’t sweltering under the sun with his cold core. But due to this exact same reason, his cooler body temperature also drew in water vapor which condenses on his skin, pooling into beads of water dripping down his shirt, making him appear extra sweaty. He can’t wait for the temperature to be cool enough to not change clothes every few hours. Good thing his clothes are purchased by the dozen; no one really noticed him wearing new sets of clothes throughout the day.

.

It was the contaminated fridge foods that disappeared first. No one missed them. At least until they can’t find the mutated turkeys for their annual Thanksgiving hunting event.

.

Danny yawned as he and his friends entered Fenton Works. Autumn is comfy. Just the right temperature where he can wear loose clothing and not be stared at for being underdressed for the weather. No ‘sweating’ either. His mouth closed with a click, a bit too fast on his new fangs. Danny winced. The fangs seemed to have grown longer overnight again. At this rate Danny won’t be able to pass them off as normal pointy canine teeth for much longer. It didn’t hurt but the itch is annoying. Danny took a detour to the fridge, grabbing an ice cube from the freezer and popped it into his mouth, absentmindedly chewing on the cubes to take the edge off the itch as they walked down to the basement lab. His parents are at a paranormal convention at a nearby city and won’t be back until tomorrow. Danny and his friends gladly took the opportunity to do their ‘Danny’s quarterly fitness test’.

Danny flipped on the light switch and walked to the center of the lab, transforming into his ghost form. “Okay I’m ready. What’s first on the list?”

Tucker dropped his bag and took out a piece of notebook paper, “Okay, first we gotta do the baseline measurements. Height, weight, temperature, and the ecto reading.” Sam dug through her sports bag, pulling out the measurement tape. She held it against Danny, eyes scanning the tape measurement numbers. “Still the same height.”

Tucker nodded, noting down the measurement in Danny’s health notebook. “Next, weight.” Danny stood over the scale. “Yup, still the same weight too.”  

.

Then it was the ecto-samples that Jack misplaced in the kitchen fridge. Jack warned everyone a few days later (everyone knows to avoid glowing food on normal basis so the delayed warning is mostly just courtesy), but no one could find where it went and assumed it grew legs to join the other tiny ecto-samples lurking as their equivalent of household pests. (No matter how often Maddie tried to patch up the mouse hole it keeps reappearing in the same shape but in a different part of the house as if the original mouse hole got transplanted from its original location)

.

“Lunch Lady’s right. You need to eat more. You’re still as skinny as ever.” Sam remarked as Danny took the thermometer out of his mouth. “76 F. The ghosts keep attacking me all day and night. You’d think my parents would notice when a ghost sneaks pass them while they work in the lab but I triggered all their ghost alarms just by being in the house so they deactivated the system when I’m around. They must’ve kept it turned off during the day too.”

“Tough luck dude. Ecto scan next.” Tucker passed the scanner to Sam while Danny stood still for her to scan. The machine beeped, “Wow 6.8, that’s quite a jump from last quarter’s 5.1”

“Maybe it was from all the ghost fighting I did over the summer?”

.

As the leaves began to fall from the branches, ghost attacks lessened in frequency. Not looking the gift horse in the mouth Danny happily enjoyed the lack of ghost attacks to focus more on his studies. If he did well enough, he might even get Bs for his efforts. He also managed to avoid getting detention for the entire week much to the relief of everyone involved.

.

Two days before Thanksgiving, the Fentons finally remembered their turkeys. But by then it was gone. In a rush, they quickly purchased a pre-made turkey instead. While Danny enjoyed the fact that they’re having a normal family dinner for once, he can’t help but feel like there’s something off about the chicken. As if it’s missing a particular tangy or zingy flavor that would’ve made it richer in flavor. ‘Must’ve been because it’s overcooked.’

.

"Honey? Have you seen the new ecto-samples I placed in the basement lab fridge?" “Again Jack? This is the third time this month. Have you checked the upstairs fridge?” “I-ah was pretty sure I placed them in the correct fridge this time. Must be some no-good thievin’ ghost.” “I’ll set up the ecto-anti-theft, that’ll get ‘em good! No ghost can escape Jack Fenton for long!”

.

*Intruder Alert* *Intruder Alert*

Red lights peppered with robotic voice and alarm noises lurched Maddie into full alert mode. She quickly took stock of her surroundings and tried to wake Jack up. But Jack had his earplugs on and continued to snore blissfully. A loud knock on the door caught her attention. “What’s going on mom?” Jazz’s voice floated through the door. Maddie quickly rose to open the bedroom door, swiftly pulled Jazz in and locked the door. “Jazz dear, try to wake your dad up. I’ll go check on the intruder.” Maddie strode quietly to the door then paused, “Have you checked on Danny?” Jazz bit her lips and looked away for a moment “-ah yeah! Danny’s snoring so loud he can’t hear the alarm.” Maddie twisted the doorknob but paused, hesitating. “He’s fine mom.” Jazz reassures her. “If Danny wakes up, he’ll come here first. I’ll let him know what’s going on.”

The alarm rang loudly in her ears as she walked down the stairs to the basement lab, its loud ringing noise effectively covering up the sound of her footsteps. Reaching the basement floor, Maddie quickly crept over to hide behind the shelf on her left, eyes scanning the lab for the intruder.

The glass jars clinked as a shadow moved about the fridge. A very familiar shadow. That didn’t glow. Maddie turned on the lab lights. “Danny?” she started, carefully walking over to face him, her eyes still scanning him to check if he’s really her Danny. The faint, barely noticeable scar on his eyebrow from his attempt to fly off the tree when he was five is there confirming his identity.

“What are you doing down here-?” Maddie noticed the glowing jar in his hand, “and what exactly are you doing?” Danny hazily stared at her; eyes half-lidded. Maddie snapped her fingers to get his attention. Danny didn’t blink. “He's still not awake, Danny come on wake up!”, she shook his shoulders. “Huh? Wuzzat?” Danny groggily woke up. He blinked in confusion.

Finally aware of his surroundings, Danny looked down at his right hand that still held the glowing sample. “Aah!” Danny yelped dropping the sample, then realizing he dropped the sample, tries to catch the jar, fumbling clumsily. Maddie would’ve laughed if it was anywhere else but in this situation. “Danny, do you remember what you were doing?”

“I was doing my homework and was craving for a good cheeseburger?”

---

“And the half-opened jar of ectoplasm?”

“Pickles?”

---

“Dude are you for real? That was priceless!” Tucker crowed with laughter. Sam leaned away from Tucker to avoid the meat spittle, “Urgh! Gross Tucker! Swallow it before you speak!”

Danny grumbled into his glass of milkshake, “’s not funny Tuck. you didn't see her face. She was about ready to scan me for signs of ecto-possession. Good thing my lie about craving cheeseburger and opening the wrong fridge worked. Otherwise I’d be in big trouble if she scanned me now with my latest ecto-reading. Anyways I'm banned from the lab now.” Danny bit into his burger.

“So what really happened there dude? Did you seriously sleepwalk into the basement lab?”

“I think so? I don’t really remember anything before Mom found me in the lab. Only that I was feeling a bit hungry.”

.

The ghosts stopped coming. Everyone in Amity held their breath when there were no ghost attacks for two weeks straight, then a month. Then two months, three. No ghosts. They let out their collective breath. It might be too soon to hope but for now they will enjoy their ghost-free, perfectly ordinary life. It feels a bit strange to not have ghost related interruptions as part of their daily routine but they didn’t miss the ghost-related reconstruction expenses. The local insurance company employees received a nice bonus for the ghost-free month.

.

By the time March rolled in, Danny is restless. “Guys, there's definitely something big going on.”, he waved his hands for emphasis. “The Fenton portal is still open yet no ghost came through? Not even Boxy since the North District warehouse thing last month. There’s definitely something big going on. I've been taking the ghost-free break for granted for a while now and it helped save my grades but this is too big to ignore.”

“Dude, maybe it’s because you’re much more powerful now? Your latest reading last week is 8.2. None of the ghosts we’ve met so far is above 6 except for Vlad and the Ghost King.” Tucker suggested.

“You might have a point there, Tucker. We haven’t seen any of the ghosts bothering Vlad so far and he’s definitely higher than 6.” Sam added.

Danny frowned, “Maybe you’re right but I just have this nagging feeling that that’s not quite it.”

.

Danny entered the Zone with little fanfare. The area around the Fenton portal looked normal enough, the usual rocks and clouds of debris are still floating around in their usual areas. Danny aimlessly passed through the nooks and crannies, ducking under the endless spiral staircase, not entirely sure of what to look for. The Zone felt a bit quiet today but Danny haven’t been to the Zone that frequently to be certain about it.

.

The Ghost Zone, while still filled with random bits of odds and ends felt empty somehow. It wasn't until he sighted Skulker that he realized he hasn't seen any of the tiny blog ghosts nor the occasional passerby ghosts through his trip.

.

Luckily or unluckily, Danny quickly spotted someone he knew in the distance. As if called, Skulker turned his head towards Danny, then veered sharply to the left and flew fast in Danny's opposite direction, a first for the self-proclaimed hunter to not hunt his favorite prey. ‘Something's not right and Skulker definitely knows something.’ Danny thought.

Danny quickly chased after him; Skulker could never beat Danny at speed chase even at his best, and he won't be winning today's unplanned race either. “Hey Skulker! What’s going on?” Danny yelled over the gap between them but Skulker gave no reply, diving down deep into the reddish forest ravines of the island below. Not to be deterred, Danny did a quick aerial flip, adjusting his flight angle to follow down Skulker’s path. Danny soon caught up to Skulker and launched him into a nearby rock with sticky ectoplasm to hold him still long enough to talk. Skulker ejected from his metal suit but Danny was faster and caught the real ghost before he can escape.

.

(Why is Skulker fleeing?)

.

"Hey Skulker, not hunting me for once?" Danny asked teasingly.

Skulker paled (Danny never knew ghosts can turn pale) and squirmed even more. Danny's smile dropped.

"What’s going on Skulker?" he asked worriedly. “None of the ghosts have appeared in the human world and the Zone looks empty somehow”

Skulker squirmed a bit more but realizing he’s stuck finally said, “Ghost Child, haven’t you ever wondered why the Infinite Realms is never overcrowded?”

Danny frowned, puzzled as to where this leads to. “How is this related to this situation?” Skulker stared at Danny stunned.

“What?” Danny asked, suddenly self-conscious, “-was there something I was supposed to know about?”

Skulker sighed, unconsciously loosening a bit of his tension, “You’re so young. So very young. We Ghosts don’t fade as fast as Newcomers arrive from your world. In the Realms, there's a natural system that keeps the population under control. An ecosystem. There's predator and there's prey. And then there's the Apex Predator. There's a reason why Dark was feared. It wasn't just for his harsh rule. It was because he was the Apex Predator.”

Danny struck at the odd wording, "’Was’? Was that because he got sealed?” Danny paused, “But wait- if he's sealed, he would still be the Apex predator. So how-? Wait. Did I?"

Skulker nodded, "Good you're catching on fast. By defeating Pariah Dark, you have proven to the Realms that you're the best candidate for the Apex Predator. And with the new status comes sets of conducts, one your body instincts know well. You've been culling down the uncontrolled excess from Pariah Dark's sleep quite fast. Your hunger would settle down soon of course once balance has been re-established in the Realms."

“But- How- Wait- What-?” Danny looked down at his hand “Hey Skulker--!” but his hand is bare.

.

Danny’s lips tasted oddly tangy, energized.  

.

.

.

-----

(Skulker might've slipped out of Danny's slack hand while Danny is in shock. Danny might've bit his lips hard enough to bleed. It's not that hard with his new fangs. But this is just speculation...)

#midnight snack au #danny phantom #dannymay2021 #DP ghost cannibalism #goldpost #Skulker BS'd on the spot and I took it as worldbuilding material #the added last part is the original ending #interpretation of the final ending is now up to you #😏😏😏

[lexiepiper]

Unread

Dani visits the human world and notices some things that have changed since the last time she was there.

Phic Phight Prompt by @idiot-cheesehead-archenemy

Summary: What is there to say?

Dani slipped through the Fenton portal into the world of the living, and was immediately greeted by the feeling of cool air on her skin. She took a deep breath, hovering invisibly in the middle of the lab and slowly cherishing the sensation of fresh, living air filling her lungs.

The lab was… quiet. She frowned and spun on the spot, confirming that she was the only person there. The monitors lining the benches were dull, and there were no typical flashing lights or whirring electronics. The only illumination came from the portal. Dani didn’t know a lot about other people’s labs, but Vlad’s had always been full of soft noise, as machines hummed and blipped little tunes that had always soothed her back to sleep.

She pushed the memory away. Maybe the Fentons’ lab was just quiet when nobody was there? After all, it wasn’t like there were growing life forms that needed constant support and monitoring.

Still. It didn’t quite seem to fit the glimpses of this place that she’d had in the past, no matter how fleeting they’d been.

She phased through the ceiling, and the darkness was replaced by soft natural light that streamed through open windows. The glimpse of sunlight struck her with unexpected surprise, and Dani hissed in a sharp breath as her core hummed deep within her centre. She suddenly wanted nothing more than to fly out into the open sky, feeling the wind in her hair and the sun soaking into her skin for the first time in… wait, how long had it actually been?

She frowned, scrunching her face as she tried to track how long she’d been in the Ghost Zone. Surely it hadn’t been more than a few months, right?

Shaking her head to clear it, she glanced around the living room. Unease prickled down her spine, dampening her good mood, but Dani couldn’t quite place what was wrong. There was that same old couch and rug, a TV against one wall, and framed photos lining the mantelpiece. 

She was surprised that Danny hadn’t appeared yet. Shouldn’t she have set off his ghost sense by now?

Dani’s heart pounded against her ribcage as she floated up again, phasing through the floor of Danny’s bedroom…

This was Danny’s room, right? No, she must have misjudged the layout of the home. It appeared to be a guest room, with a plain mattress devoid of blankets or sheets on the bed frame, and empty shelves lining the walls with a clear desk tucked in the corner. The curtains were drawn, but they were so threadbare that there was no problem seeing in the bright daylight that shone right through.

She phased through the wall, and ended up in a room with a decidedly teal colour scheme. The curtains were closed in here too but enough light filtered through to make out the details anyway. It was as neat as one of those pictures of perfect homes in magazines, and the framed high school diploma above the study alcove suggested that the room belonged to Jazz. Or… it had? The air felt stale and dusty, like nobody had been in here in a while. Dani drifted over to the dresser and ran her finger across the top, coming away with a fine layer of dust.

She pinched her lower lip between her teeth. Jazz had been pretty close to graduation when Dani had gone into the Ghost Zone, so maybe she was at university now?

Yeah. That made sense.

Unease settled more densely over her, and Dani phased through the wall again. She passed through the linen cupboard and a bathroom in desperate need of a good clean, and then found herself in what was obviously Danny’s parents’ room. This one finally appeared to be lived in, with the duvet crumpled and left unmade, and glasses of water on bedside tables. The curtains were open in here, and the air felt fresher and less dead.

Dani didn’t really want to poke around through Maddie and Jack’s stuff, so she phased back out into the hallway. She tilted her head, scowling as she counted the doors in the hallway.

There were exactly five — one for each bedroom, and one for the bathroom and the linen cupboard.

Dread dropped into her gut, like she’d suddenly swallowed a bowling ball, and Dani crept back into the first room. She pulled back the curtains, and dust motes swirled in the beams of sunlight as the room was fully illuminated. She stood in the middle of the carpet, turning in a slow circle and reaching out tentatively with her core.

There were slightly darker rectangles on the wall where there used to be posters of star charts and band tours, and when she tilted her head back, Dani could just make out the tiny silhouettes where glow in the dark stars had once been stuck to the ceiling and the white paint had faded around them.

She couldn’t sense any other ghosts beside herself. There wasn’t so much as a glimmer of residual spectral activity aside from the steady hum of the portal two floors beneath her.

“Where are you?” she whispered into the still emptiness.

Maybe… maybe she’d been gone longer than she’d thought. Maybe Danny had graduated and gone to college too. She didn’t think he’d have abandoned Amity Park, but maybe he’d moved out with Tucker, or finally gotten together with Sam or Valerie and was living with them? She didn’t really know much about his friends, but that seemed like the kind of thing they’d do, especially if Danny’s parents didn’t know his secret yet. He was probably just too far across town for her to sense.

Dani shot up through the ceiling and broke into the open air. The sunlight enveloped her with sudden life, and despite everything she smiled and gave a deep sigh. The Ghost Zone had been interesting, and it certainly helped to keep her core stable, but her human half delighted in the chance to soak in the energy of the mortal world once more.

Making sure that she stayed invisible, Dani floated above the town in a huge, lazy loop, feeling for any sign of Danny. There was a gentle breeze, and she revelled in the way it stirred her hair and brushed against her exposed skin.

By the time she’d returned to Fentonworks, the contentment of being in the human world had once again been overrun by anxiety.

Dani debated dropping by Valerie’s house, before realising that she didn’t actually know where it was. She scowled, but after a moment of thought began to fly across the town again, this time with a clear destination in mind.

She touched down in the parking lot behind the library, using invisibility to mask herself as she changed into her human form before walking through the front doors just like any normal kid. Nobody even glanced her way, and Dani sidled over to the row of thick computer screens that buzzed almost imperceptibly and played screensavers of what looked like photos of community events. She picked the screen furthest from the library desk, as far away from prying eyes as possible but when she nudged the mouse the screensaver was replaced with a screen prompting her to log in.

Dani frowned and looked toward the desk. She didn’t have a card, but she didn’t really want to sign up for one either. Didn’t you need ID for that kind of thing?

An older man sat down at a vacant computer close to hers, and Dani slid out of her seat and casually strolled to the bookshelf behind him. She pretended to be scanning the titles while he slowly used pointed index fingers to tap out his login details, and Dani carefully repeated the details in her mind as she grabbed a random book and headed back to her seat. Her screen had jumped back to the screensaver, and she doubted that she could log in while the man was already suing his account, so she surreptitiously turned to the back of her book and used a glowing fingertip to etch the man’s username and password into the bottom corner of the final page. She flipped back to the front cover again and raised an eyebrow at the yellow smiley face and the large self-help title in raised gold block letters.

Oh, well. Whatever.

Dani thumbed through her book, skimming through some of the tips in the organisational section while surreptitiously stealing glances at the man on the nearby computer. Her fingers almost itched with anticipation but she held herself steady.

It didn’t take him long to leave, and Dani could only hope that he hadn’t used up all of the allotted time on his account for the day. She flipped back to the details and typed them in, relief pulling a sigh from deep within her as the computer opened up to its main desktop page. The little timer in the top corner indicated that the account still had twenty minutes, so she pushed the book aside and opened the web browser straight away.

It only took a few seconds to log into Facebook, and Dani felt a twinge of guilt at the sheer amount of notifications. She was tempted to check them now, but the steady timer in the corner reminded her to focus and she clicked into the messenger webpage instead.

There were only two conversations — one from Danny, and the other from Valerie. Val’s were bolded and unread, but Danny’s… 

Dani chewed her lip and brushed overlong bangs out of her face, trying to fight through the sudden heart-wrenching betrayal of abandonment.

Danny’s last message to her had been over a year ago, the day she left for the Ghost Zone.

She quickly opened the conversation, double checking that yes, he hadn’t messaged her since she’d left. It didn’t make sense. This was their only form of communication when she wasn’t in town! Did he really think so little of her, that he wouldn’t message her so that she’d have something to come back to? Was she really just a clone to him after all?

That last thought stopped her anger in its tracks. Danny would never think that.

She took a deep, grounding breath, and opened the unread messages from Valerie.

There wasn’t much there, but what Danielle did see turned her blood to ice.

How could I have known when neither of you ever told me?!

I’m sorry

Please, Danielle, I’m sorry!

I didn’t mean it

You have to know I didn’t mean it

I never would have done it if I’d just KNOWN!

I’m sorry

Dani swallowed, hard. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard but for a long moment she just stared at the screen.

She clicked back into her conversation with Danny. The last time he’d messaged her was only a few days before that frantic barrage from Valerie.

Just make sure you stay away from Skulker!

Frostbite will help you if you need it

Or Pandora

At the time, she was amused by his overprotectiveness. Yeah I know. See you later!

He’d responded cheerfully, but then had never messaged her again.

Okay

Stay safe!

I hope you have a blast

She read it again, and panic crept into her core. “No,” she breathed, and clicked back to Facebook’s main page, searching up Danny’s account.

The latest posts were birthday wishes from two months ago.

Dani scrolled down, numb horror cocooning her thoughts. The posts made by his friends and family all blurred together into a collage of soft wishes of peace and somber murmurs of sadness. Below his birthday wishes were a collection of posts from four months ago, and Dani’s hands trembled as she read every single one.

Sixteen months.

The ambient sounds of the library faded into static as she realised that Danny Fenton had been dead and buried for sixteen months.

She swallowed past the sudden tightness in her throat, and it was like fighting past hands that were clenched around her neck. Dani’s eyes burned and she dragged in a shallow breath, sharp with the strain of fighting back tears.

They slipped down her cheeks anyway, and she sniffed and took another strained breath, clicking into her messages once more.

She didn’t know what to say, but Dani knew she had to say something. It wasn’t right, to just leave him hanging like that.

Her hands clenched in her lap, and Dani rubbed the water off her face only to have more tears fall straight away. A sob clawed its way out of her throat and she pressed her fist over her mouth, muffling it as much as she could.

People were looking at her now, and she ducked her head and tried to hold everything in.

This wasn’t fair. How could she have let this happen? How could she have left him?

How could he have left her?

She clenched her teeth together. As tempting as it was to post on his page, she didn’t want to be public about it. What right did she have anyway, to freshly grieve him when he’d already been gone for so long? What right did she have to message his friends, who she barely knew, or his family, who she had never even met?! How could she drag them into her existence when it’d just dredge up the rawness all over again?!

Dani realised that she’d tensed her body so much that she was trembling with the effort and had forgotten to breathe. She took a shaky breath, and her tight muscles snapped into a loud, hiccupping cry.

Gritting her teeth again, tears streaming down her cheeks and dripping into her mouth and off her chin, Dani typed three words into the private message chat box.

I’m so sorry.

She closed the browser, and the screen went black and flicked back to the login screen as the timer hit zero.

Grief crashed into her with the force of a tsunami and Dani pressed her palms over her eyes and wept. Huge, gasping sobs tore from her chest, making her gut ache as her pulse roared in her ears.

“Miss? Are you okay?”

It was probably the stupidest question she’d ever heard, and Dani shook her head mutely, keeping her hands over her eyes as the tears continued to flood through her fingers and snot began to drip from her nose.

Someone nudged her shoulder. “Here,” the same voice offered, and Dani peeked through her fingers to see a tissue box. She squinted up at the librarian, and the tears kept flowing like a tap that had been left running.

Dani pressed her lips together and nodded once, grabbing a handful of tissues and immediately burying her face in them as she was hit by a fresh wave of grief. She knew that eventually she’d have to move, she’d have to stop crying and take the next step, but for now all that mattered was the way her head throbbed with every sob and how her eyes burned hotter and hotter the more she cried. She couldn’t breathe deeper than short, shallow gasps, and every time she tried to think, all she could picture was Danny’s face and her world came crashing down again.

It took her a long time to stop crying, but when she did she was left staring at the pile of soaking tissues next to the keyboard as the bright halogen lights made her eyes sting.

She had no clue what to do now.

He was dead, and she didn’t even get to say goodbye.

#Danny Phantom #Phic Phight 2021 #Phic Phight #idiot-cheesehead-archenemy #lexiepiper #I should probably tag this as angst so yeah #angst #This fic was an emotional journey to write and maybe I'm being a bit transparent but I hope you enjoy it

[kinglazrus]

Not Your Danny – Ch 2. Small Signs

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Word count: 3514

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

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

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

Another light tap comes at the door.

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

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

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

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

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

"Is something wrong?"

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

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

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

"What's that?" she asks.

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

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

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

"They're period pads," Maddie says.

"What are they for?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What what's like?"

"Being a halfa."

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

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

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

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

"But you have both forms?"

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

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

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

Another chop, another loud thunk.

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

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

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

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

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

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

—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Want some help?" Dani asks.

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

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

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

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

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

Instead, Dani looks around the room.

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

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

"Has a redshirt died yet?" she asks.

Jazz hits pause. "You know Star Trek?"

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

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

"So, what's this, then?"

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

Dani shrugs. "I don't care."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I'm not Danny, though."

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

"I'm not," Dani affirms.

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

—

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jazz keeps the remote after that.

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

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

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

A heavy, thumping knock comes at the door.

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

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

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

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom season 2, ep 12-16 thoughts! these episodes, in comparison to the first 10 or so, felt way more laid back and low-stakes, which I appreciate sometimes. I didn't appreciate how lazy jack's halfa design was in masters of time, it made me so annoyed I redesigned it. 👎🏻 u_u

see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3

-'picking a fight with me and my upgraded form!' 'you upgraded to a mullet?' DANNNNY. YOU CANT SAY THAT TO TECHNUS. YOUVE HAD A MULLET TWICE NOW ('fun' split danny, and evil future danny BOTH HAD THEM). I HAVE THE RECEIPTS.

-danny seeing technus hurting valerie and yelling I AM GOING TO BREAK YOU IN HALF. SAMEEEE <3

-axion labs is now a part of vladco. FUCK YOU VLAD. hes not even really IN this episode, but just thought I'd throw out a nice fuck you anyway.

-'capable of blasting a single person into space in (2) minutes!' tucker. that would kill someone. i mean yeah they might get to space, but theres NO WAY THEY WOULDNT CATCH FIRE, OR THEIR ORGANS WOULDNT LIQUIFY BECAUSE OF THE STRAIN. THEY'D PROBABLY PASS OUT BEFORE THEN, BUT. ...no, okay, I get why vlad bought this company. this is RIGHT up his alley.

-danny KNOWS VAL DIDNT DO THIS, THAT SOMEONE STOLE THE SUIT. AND SPENDING ALL NIGHT CHATTING WITH HER. <3 and val is a 9TH DEGREE BLACKBELT?? danny's mom is, too!! omg and she hunts ghosts, his parents would love her. and her fav fruit is kumquat bc its a funny word. im so with danny val is amazing. I love her and I Do Not Want To Hear It From Sam.

-I knew danny wanted to be an astronaut, but the bowling tidbit is like. yes give me more useless info abt these characters, I love tiny details that make them feel more human, and im glad hes got hobbies aside from ghost stuff, we dont really see a lot of that!!! (I mean, we knew 'fun' danny from when he split himself in half liked bowling, so obv it makes sense he LIKES it, but hes very GOOD at it. so proud of him, bowling king) val calling him neil armstrong and them teasing each other. LOVE THAT.

-technus you are my favorite grandpa for setting this up. SAM WHY ARE YOU BEING SO CREEPY BE HAPPY FOR YOUR FRIEND!!! STOP SPYING ON THEM!!! who actually cares if technus did 'set them up' together, theyre having fun and enjoy each others company!!! 'you think the universe wants you two to be together?' 'i dunno, but maybe /I/ do!' EXACTLY DANNY!!! SOO TRUE.

-and valerie being happy sam said she wants to try and be happy for them and make room at the lunch table for them. and hugging sam over it. VAL NEEDS MORE FRIENDS.

-VAL GOING AFTER TECHNUS IN HER SUIT WITH (1) MILK, AND (1) TREE BRANCH AND KEYS!!!. I LOVE YOUUUU BEST GIRL. her new suit kicks ass

-dannys like 'HEY IM AN ASTRONAUT :D' AW. ...HES IN SPACE... the fact he's actually intending to give her the ring. with SAMS NAME ON IT?? IM CRINGING DANNY NO. YOU CANT DO THAT...thank god he didnt. thank god valerie cut it off and said they can just stay friends for now. tbh, they both have a lot on their plates!! they obv both still like each other...it can be a future thing!! when she knows about phantom! youre 14 theres no need to rush. I just want her to have friends and be happy :(

-...danny struggles to do (1) pull up. SAME. but all the ghost fighting in phantom form REALLY doesnt carry over at ALL? that sucks

-sam being as fit as she is, is not just a goth. shes a goth jock.

-honey I Shrank Our Kid, One of his Enemies, and his Bully: the episode

-dash's crush on phantom is So Obvious. fitness buddies :) watching them interact always makes me laugh. also, phantom, with PANTS. 'how many costume changes you gonna go through, what is this, vegas??' DASSH DJKSFHASKDF

-MADDIE GOING AFTER THE MOUSE WITH A BROOM, WHAT THE FUCK. AAAH. JUST BUY SOME KIND OF MOUSE TRAP.

-danny likes lime and vinegar chips. which sound very good.

-'our boy finally has the physical prowess of a 60 year old president!' ...poor danny LMAO

-'what's wrong with beauty pageants' oh tucker you sweet naïve child. what ISNT wrong with them. who approved this for a high school?? (I mean, yes. unfortunately child pageants exist, but...) also danny and tucker once again treating the pretty girls like objects. I need to meet the grown man who wrote this, I just want to talk...

-prince aragon's dragon form reminds me of maleficent (color scheme wise) which is always a bonus. considering the episode is called beauty marked, I feel like the sleeping beauty references are deliberate

-sam with the fake fangs. once again her accessories never miss. hate the 'not like other girls, girls who get sucked into this kind of thing are all shallow and all want to be carbon copies' bs tho.

-sam trying to be the Worst Bride, being rude as shit. DORA IS GOING TO GET KILLED. DID YOU MISS THE PART WHERE SHE SAID THE PRINCE WILL HAVE HER HEAD IF YOU ARENT THE IDEAL BRIDE. YOU /KNOW/ DANNY WILL COME SAVE YOU. JUST ACT CHILL UNTIL THEN. even if you were doing fine to get him to take off the crown, consider maybe not letting his poor sister get punished also?? sure, she could also take off the crown and has dragon powers, but did you know that for sure?? dora didnt even really realize it until you guys talked!! (or at least, she was scared to stand up to him. you had no guarantee she would...) but. good for dora. ANOTHER friendly ghost to add to the List :)

-tucker is so under appreciated in his time. if he was doing a tech-based campaign today he'd have a better shot. people in 2004 had NO IDEA how much tech would be a part of our day-to-day lives...altho. tbh if you're going to be running for student council president, maybe you should..focus on things to actually improve the school? since he's going for a tech angle, he could say like, he would be running fundraisers for the schools computers to be upgraded, etc? we've already SEEN he can be good at money-making entrepreneur type stuff!!

-oh my god wait. this episode is JUST YUGIOH?????! A REBORN PHAROH USING A TEENAGER AS A VESSEL?? YESSSSSS

-tucker using his new minion to feed him grapes and carry him. AND LOCUSTS ONTO THE BULLIES. I love how when he's possessed, he gains winged eyeliner.

-this episode is giving me big 'plankton makes everyone in bikini bottom his slaves and build monuments of him from the spongebob movie' vibes. and the pharaoh has a traitor who works for him? VERY big yugioh vibes. aknadin confirmed

-I like that danny is still completely exhausted after using ghostly wail. (still patiently waiting on him to get duplication)

-LOVE the fenton's 80s outfits. I get hes 14 and embarrassed by everything they do because theyre his parents, but. cmon, this is one objectively cool thing theyve done. love 80s fashion.

-...was vlad just standing on that streetlight waiting for danny to come out? how'd he know they'd be coming out the back? how long has he been up there???

-oh, wait, his ecto-acne has flareups? that SUCKS. danny was...well I dont want to say he was LUCKY HE HALF-DIED, but he was lucky his was pretty instant (I'm assuming that had to do with the power/scale of the portals being different?) I remember in the ep we met him, vlad made a point of saying he was stuck in a hospital for a long time, so. that really actually sucks and I feel bad. not that it excuses anything he's done...but like. it does suck.

-vlad being so sure danny wouldnt help him he made it somehow contagious to his friends to make sure he'd get help? danny is a nice boy, he wouldve helped if it was anyone else. the only reason he wouldn't have is because of the shit vlad did to him, on purpose. vlad 100% dug his own grave by being the biggest asshole, so it is very hard to feel bad for him.

-clockwork is back!!! and making danny learn lessons The Hard Way. Uhhh, okay. I kind of get Danny’s logic, that time traveling this far back would prevent vlad from becoming a halfa also, ergo no arch nemesis or ectoacne to worry about. But the fact that was basically the first solution Danny came up with to solve this problem is actually so funny. It’s so extreme

-APPRICIATION FOR THESE 80S LESBIAN BG CHARACTERS.

-vlad telling maddie in the lab (in the 80s) he has something he's wanted to tell her 'for a long time'...how long have they known each other? I assumed they met in college, since jack always calls vlad his college buddy/roommate, so jack and vlad for sure met in college, but did vlad know maddie longer? thats surprising if so. Tho we don’t know what year of college they’re in so they could mean they met as freshmen and a few years have past…speaking of maddie shes crushing the 80s look.

-vlad blames jack, but. maybe dont stick your face 2 inches from the portal??! THIS FEELS LIKE LAB SAFETY BASICS. IF SOMETHING HAS POTENTIAL TO BE DANGEROUS, DONT GET NEAR IT. WITH YOUR FACE UNPROTECTED IN ANY WAY. (altho jack didnt really give a Big Warning besides screaming BONZAI. so. also that, but cmon.) also, they need gloves, goggles, and to pull all of their hair back tbh. but fuck lab safety, I guess!

-cryyyyinnng at how lazy they were with jack's ghost form design, its just plasmius' design on jack!!! you couldve given him his own design!!

-there. I did that in about 10 minutes and its somehow less lazy than what made it into the show. embarrassing! better yet, I think the episode would've been better if maddie would've gotten the ectoacne. or maybe its just me, wanting to see her design! anyway. I'm sure people have already done redesigns of them both as halfas. I have to go look after I finish this watch through. Also mildly frustrated jacks resentment and bitterness is basically also a copy paste of vlads backstory. They’re different characters, I really don’t think jack would stew in bitterness and jealousy the same way vlad would!! I also don’t think he’d give up after one time of trying to hunt ghosts and getting laughed at. Our canon timeline says different…I dunno, I get it was for laughs, but I’m annoyed because the POTENTIAL this plot has…

-did vlad really wear a stupid cheese hat to his wedding. ok actually that kinda rules. and the cheese door knocker. the dairy-only buffet table. vlad still got rich, just on being the New Dairy King. (Assuming that means he owns a lot of dairy businesses?) ok! this actually is great. hope maddie isn't lactose intolerant!

-'no matter how hard I tried, I could never get rid of my ghost half, the half I knew Maddie could never accept' ohh, ouch, what a horrible thing to say to her HALF GHOST SON. 'YOUR MOM WILL NEVER ACCEPT YOU' BASICALLY.

-maddie strapping danny to the table with a lazer pointed at him in a secret lab she keeps from vlad that she makes a point of saying is sound proof so he can scream all he wants...CHRIST. DANNYS POOR PYSCHE.

-also, not to feel bad for alternate vlad (because, he did lie to maddie saying jack blames her and never wants to see her again...) but. being married to a woman 20+ years and she immediately goes back to jack? if she didnt love vlad and feels like she had to hide shit from him, and says she wasted her best years with him, WHY MARRY HIM. it feels like leading him on!!! cannot believe im feeling bad for vlad, but. this alternate timeline vlad is significantly Less Horrible than Our Vlad. did she not think she'd get funding for her ghost stuff? (which, fair assumption since they're considered 'ghost fanatics/nuts in canon...but...) why did she think jack or vlad would be her ONLY OPTIONS? be like your sister. be single. Actually, this au could’ve been really interesting if after the accident, vlad lied to her and said jack never wanted to see her again, but she stays single. Imagine how much that would bug vlad… like, in her mind, it was never a competition it was jack or no one type situation…

-danny being like 'leave him ALONE' this jack is a HOMEWRECKER, DANNY. let them go to court and settle this at the least. ...or just throw vlad into the portal. (100% human, defenseless vlad) CHRIST, MADDIE THATS BRUTAL. THATS MURDER.

-danny seeing his mom immediately accepting him and his dad being half ghosts in this universe, if I was him this would be a great sign that his universe's maddie would also.

-*maddie voice* "clockwork will help!" *2 seconds later, with clockwork* "I will Not Help." TOUGH LOVE KING. YES LET DANNY SEE THE SODA HIMSELF AND DEVOLP BETTER OBSERVATION SKILLS.

-when clockwork ""reset time to the way it was"" just before danny "meddled"" ...did he really erase a whole alternate timeline? ...damn. because maddie and danny both called it an alternate timeline by name, it splitting when the college incident went different, so it wouldnt have really mattered if he reset it, right. like because danny's timeline is on a different stream? why didnt clockwork just. show danny a replay and not Reset That Timeline. wh...I wonder how many people that Erased From Existence. Anyway! once again stating clockwork is casually terrifying!

#danny phantom #dp thoughts #sanchoyorambles

[darks-ink]

Darkness - Ectoberweek 2020

Yes I wrote this one because I just really wanted to write Vlad and Danny meeting in Antonym-verse, shh. Don’t say anything.

[first part]

Rating: Gen Warnings: - Genre: Supernatural Words: 2,147 Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Sequel

[AO3] [FFN]

---

“Well,” Danny said, humming thoughtfully.

“Well,” the other person agreed, his bright red eyes absurdly visible in the dark room they were in.

Since the man didn’t seem inclined to talk, Danny didn’t bother to, either. Instead he started peering around, blinking his own vivid green eyes. Even though his retained night vision usually did him little good, he was glad to have it, now. He highly doubted ordinary humans would’ve been able to see in the pitch black they were in.

Unfortunately, the room did not include any hints as to where he was, nor why he was here.

“You’re Danny, aren’t you?” the man suddenly asked, his red eyes narrowed. “The Fenton’s adopted son?”

Danny hummed. He wasn’t sure if he was legally adopted, the human world had so much complicated paperwork, but they certainly seemed intent on counting him as their son. “Yeah,” he finally agreed, figuring he should vocalize. “But I don’t think I know you. Do I?”

The man visibly considered that, weighing options against each other. Finally he offered a hand to Danny. “Vlad.”

“Well, you already know my name, obviously.” Danny shot him a grin as he took the hand and shook it. “But I’m Danny.”

“And you’re half-ghost,” Vlad said, a strange emphasis on the ‘half-ghost’. “Aren’t you?”

“Yeah, well, so are you,” Danny pointed out with a shrug. “I think that the more pressing questions are “where are we?” and “how did we get here?”, don’t you?”

Vlad hummed at that, expression somewhere between pleased and aggravated. Someone was digging for information, huh? “Yes, I suppose you’re right. You don’t know either, then?”

“Nope,” he agreed easily, taking his eyes off of Vlad to look around again. The room was empty and featureless, absolutely non-distinct in how bland it was. “But! I don’t think we’re in the Ghost Zone.”

“How can you tell?”

“Not nearly enough ectoplasm in the atmosphere.” Danny leaned over to knock on the wall. “And these are solid. Humans can go through walls in the Ghost Zone.”

“You seem to know a lot about the Ghost Zone.” Vlad’s eyes narrowed once more.

“Yeah, well.” Danny paused, reconsidered. Vlad didn’t seem like a ghost, not like him. Vlad seemed like a human. If Danny could become part human as a ghost, why couldn’t a human become part ghost? “I guess I spent a good bit of time there.”

“And your parents?” Vlad pressed, cold disinterest in his voice.

Danny snorted, dismissive. “You mean my biological parents? Dunno. Can’t remember them. That’s why the Fentons took me in, y’know? Now can we please focus on getting out of wherever this is before we continue the interrogation?”

“Yes, of course,” Vlad said, graciously. Like this was anything to be gracious about. Danny bet that if he’d been in full control of his powers he could’ve beaten the other half-ghost easy. But, alas. He was still fighting to control his core, never mind use his powers properly. He would have to settle for civilized human behavior.

“Good.” Danny turned away from Vlad, walking along the wall, one hand trailing over it. The whole thing felt solid in a uniquely human way. Definitely no ghosts involved here.

The door, when Danny reached it, was no less solid. He grabbed onto the rounded doorknob and jangled it, but there was no give. Definitely locked. “Yeah, we’re not getting out this way.”

Vlad, who still hadn’t moved, the ass, hummed thoughtfully. “I suppose we will have to use our powers to leave, then. I see no cameras of any sort, do you?”

“No,” Danny admitted, releasing the door and looking around just to be sure. “I suppose you’re right. Some intangibility and invisibility should get us out.”

“Yes, indeed.” Vlad crossed his arms, waiting for a moment before arching his brow at Danny. “Well, go on then.”

“Me?” He scoffed. “It was your idea. You go first.”

The man stared at him for a moment longer, his red eyes boring straight into Danny’s, before he sighed. “Fine, then. But only because I suspect I cannot hope to out-stubborn a teenager, let alone one raised by Jack Fenton.”

Danny quirked an eyebrow at that unexpected hostility. Sure, he’d only known Jack for a month or two, but still. He seemed like a good man.

Vlad’s transformation was similar to Danny’s own. A spark of light from the chest, from the core, forming into rings which passed over the body, and shifted it from one state to the other. Admittedly Vlad’s were bizarrely black, while still giving off light, but it didn’t really matter. Not now, at least.

No, Danny was far more interested in Vlad’s ghost form. He looked rather like a typical ghost, up to and including a thematic appearance. And what an appearance. Vlad had gone full vampire on his looks, with pale blue skin, empty red eyes, pointed ears and sharp fangs. His hair, black in ghost form, was swept up into gravity-defying points, and his clothing did not match the suit he’d been wearing at all.

Hell, the guy even wore a cape. What kinda person did that?

But… Vlad had gone and shifted to his ghost form, so Danny supposed he’d better follow suit. Mentally crossing his fingers that his powers would hold—his core was still settling back into proper stability after his accident—he called his core to the forefront of his existence. Light flashed as he, too, transformed into a ghost.

Vlad quirked an eyebrow at him, judgment heavy in the air. “A jumpsuit, boy, really? You are certainly a Fenton, aren’t you?”

“It’s Phantom, actually,” Danny correctly idly. “The jumpsuit is just a coincidence.” He lifted up from the floor, trying to judge how well his core was doing that day. “Now come on, I don’t have all day.”

“And you think I do?” Vlad scoffed, but started floating as well. “I will go first. I expect I will be more likely to recognize where we are than you.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t have to be so haughty about it. “Sure, knock yourself out.” Danny swept out an arm in a wide arc to underline the statement, throwing in a sarcastic bow as well.

The gesture clearly wasn’t lost on Vlad, but he apparently made the choice to ignore it, flying towards one of the walls and flickering invisible before he hit it. With a roll of his eyes, Danny followed, focusing his senses on the feel of Vlad’s core so he could track the man while invisible.

Outside it was… also dark, admittedly, but not as hopelessly pitch-black as inside. A glance upwards confirmed that it was a regular dark—stars barely visible due to a nearby city, and the new moon that was supposed to come that night.

Vlad was still nearby, although invisible, so Danny let himself drift over. “Well,” he said when he was close enough, keeping his voice low since they were still invisible. “I don’t think we missed much time. The moon phase is correct.”

“Hm. And what do you know of where we are?” Vlad asked, a tone of curiosity layered under the smarminess of his voice. “Or have you spent all your time looking up?”

“I thought you were going to focus on our location?” Danny shook his head, realized Vlad couldn’t see, then decided to look around anyway.

And, huh.

“Well, at least we’re not far from home,” he said, feebly.

They were on the outskirts of Amity Park.

“You aren’t, no.” Vlad huffed, a sound of displeasure. “Unlike you, however, I live in Wisconsin.”

Cool. That meant very little to Danny. He was pretty sure that it was a state in the country he was living in, but where, or how far away it was? Absolutely meaningless.

“Okay, well… If you know the Fentons you can probably stay over?” He let his invisibility drop, since the strain on his core was rather unnecessary. The people of Amity Park didn’t look up enough to care about ghosts in the sky. “And if you didn’t… Well, they probably would let you stay over anyway. They’d love to talk more about your half-ghost-ness.”

“Joy,” Vlad muttered, and he could not possibly have put more distaste in the word. “And you do not care to stay invisible, then?”

“I can’t keep it up forever, dude.” Danny shrugged, letting his legs blend away into a tail as he drifted in the direction towards home. “Besides, I know Amity Park. It’s a safe place to fly without invisibility, trust me.”

Vlad scoffed, but dropped his invisibility as well. “Very well, then. Lead on.”

Danny nodded back, then shifted into proper flight, making sure to keep his speed fairly low. As annoying as it was to have to hold back, he knew he couldn’t make full use of his powers, not while his core was still recovering from the transition. One day, hopefully, he’d get back to his prior strength.

Still, that did make him wonder. It definitely seemed like Vlad was a human who’d become half-ghost. How did that work, compared to Danny himself? How strong was Vlad? Did he need to wait for his core to mature the usual way? That almost seemed easier to Danny than what he was going through. A slow progressive growth, rather than having all these powers and not having the power to use them.

And Vlad had conveniently skipped around explaining how he knew the Fentons, too. Honestly, he was kind of giving Danny the creeps. Something about his behavior was just… off. Weird.

Or maybe that was just how slimy he was, how haughty, how superior. Yugh.

Vlad didn’t try talking to him while they were flying to FentonWorks, although he did raise a questioning eyebrow at the neon sign when they landed behind it.

“The glow of the sign will hide our light,” Danny explained with a shrug. He’d been told by Jazz that the sign was an oddity among humans, but he didn’t think it was that weird. “We can enter the house through the door up here.”

“Why not phase inside?” Vlad asked, crossing his arms. “That way no one will see us.”

“True. But it’s also rude to go inside without announcing yourself.” Danny grinned at Vlad, displaying his own sharp teeth, before releasing his core to shift back to human form. The flashing light was barely visible beyond the glow of the sign. “Coming, Vlad?”

The other half-ghost sighed, making a motion like rolling his eyes—despite the fact that they were empty in his ghost form—but transformed back into human form as well. “I would’ve thought that using ghost powers meant we were no longer following human sensibilities, but it’s your house.”

Human sensibilities? What, has no one ever told this guy the rules of lairs in the Ghost Zone? Yikes. “You do realize that it’s a thing in the Ghost Zone too, right? Not randomly wandering into people’s lairs?”

“And how would you know?” Vlad sneered back, his eyes dark for the first time since Danny had met him. “You’re what, fourteen? And clearly new to being half-ghost, too.”

“Yeah!” Danny snapped, feeling his core kick up a notch. He was so tired of this asshole. “Yeah, I’m new to being half-ghost! Because I was a full ghost before this!”

He leaned in closer to Vlad, seeing the reflection of his glowing eyes in Vlad’s. “Just because you think you’re a big deal doesn’t mean you are. You don’t know shit, Vlad.”

Satisfied that he’d gotten his point across, Danny whirled around, pulling open the door and climbing down the stairs. After a moment, he heard Vlad follow.

“You are… a ghost turned half-human?” Vlad asked, quietly. “Not the reverse?”

“Not like you, no,” Danny confirmed, opening the door to the upper floor hallway. “But the Fentons will still want to talk to you.”

“No.” Vlad stopped before crossing the door. Danny, too, stopped, turning around to face Vlad again. “No, I don’t think that that’s going to happen.”

“What?”

“I thought I had found someone like me. For that, I was willing to put up with Jack Fenton, at least for the moment. But now?” Vlad scoffed, a derisive sound. “For a poor ghostly imitation? No, certainly not. Goodbye, Phantom.”

With that, Vlad whirled around, vanishing from sight. Danny could still track his core—apparently Vlad had shifted forms almost immediately—but he was, in fact, leaving.

“Well. That just happened,” Danny muttered to himself as Vlad left the premises entirely. “Wonder what the chances are that the Fentons know more than one guy named Vlad.”

He shrugged to himself, continuing down to the living room, where his family waited. Guess he had some more mysteries to solve now.

Like that room. What the fuck was up with that?

#danny phantom #ectoberweek2020 #ectoberweek 2020 #dp fanfic #phanfic #danny fenton #vlad masters #whoo i finished 6 out of 7 fics for this event! #they're all kinda short but hush that's good #i wanted to stop writing monstrous one-shots that never ended #dark writes

[magicalmonsterhero]

Danny Phantom (Live-Action) trailer

It’s the 17th Danniversary, so here is my take on a live-action Danny Phantom movie trailer.

(Shot of a birds-eye view of Casper High School. Cut to the teachers’ lounge as three ghosts, clearly intended to parody the Ghostly Trio, enter through the wall. Catching sight of a table laden with a smorgasbord of meats, they grin in delight, the fat one drooling and the short one rubbing his hands together. Just as they are about to dig in, the sound of someone clearing their throat makes them pause and turn around. Danny, in Phantom form, is hovering a short distance away.)

Danny: Yo, whassup?

(Irate at their meal being interrupted, the three charge at Danny, who simply does an aerial backflip over their heads. The skinny one snarls before lashing out with extending arms, but Danny avoids this attack as well.)

Danny: Ah ah ah, not without a hall pass!

(As the fat one inflates himself like a balloon and the short one belches out a cloud of smoke, Danny curls his hand into a fist and prepares to throw a punch. However, he stops upon seeing his hand glow with green energy. Raising his hand with the palm facing out, he blasts the fat ghost, who goes rocketing around and deflating.)

Danny: Whoa, sweet!

(Nickelodeon logo appears briefly. Cut to Danny in normal form, sitting with Tucker at a table in the Casper High cafeteria. The two are watching Paulina chatting with Star and Valerie.)

Female voice: Mind if I sit here?

(The boys look up to see Sam standing by the table, holding her lunch tray.)

Danny: Uh...sure.

(Tucker gives Sam’s lunch a ‘what-in-God’s-name-is-that’ look.)

Tucker: Do I wanna know what that is?

Sam: Vegetarian option. My idea.

(Tucker hastily turns to focus on his decidedly non-vegetarian food. Cut to the Fenton lab, where Jack and Maddie are trying to turn on the portal as Danny and Jazz watch.)

Jack: I don’t get it. The last one worked just fine.

Maddie: Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll figure it out.

(They head upstairs, Jazz following. Danny is about to follow, but he catches sight of a white jumpsuit with black accents lying in a heap on the floor. Shot of a meter marked ‘Portal Charge’ filling up completely. Cut to Danny, now in Phantom form, looking nervous as he enters his room through the closed door. He lets out a sigh of relief and changes back to normal form, only to hear a crash behind him. Tucker is sitting on Danny’s bed, a broken plate and a mostly-eaten sandwich lying at his feet.)

Tucker: Are you...a ghost?

Danny: What? No! I...

Tucker: Dude, you walked right through the wall!

(Danny tries to speak, but only manages to stutter incoherently. Cut to a high-tech lab full of gadgets and gizmos, where Technus is hovering before a crowd of other ghosts, all in lab coats and similar attire.)

Technus: They called us crackpots to our faces while they stole the credit for our work, our blood, sweat, and tears! And those of us they couldn’t drive to suicide, they had disposed of like trash!

(He picks up a device resembling a high-tech flamethrower and pulls the trigger, releasing a bolt of electricity.)

Technus: Now, we’ll teach them a lesson they will never forget.

(Cut to Danny behind the Casper High building. He glances around to make sure no one's watching, then turns into Phantom form. Cut to Danny flying above Amity Park, clearly having a ball as he does a few loops, barrel rolls, and other aerial acrobatics. Swooping down beside a passing train, he waves to a couple of kids who are looking out the window. As he soars off, the kids watch in awe. Cut to Sam and Tucker in a large room with various bizarre gizmos and strange substances, as well as several weird-looking lifeforms in cages or glass tanks.)

Sam: What were these guys doing?

(Shot of two Guys in White attempting to stop a couple of Technus's henchmen from reaching a door marked 'Restricted Area,' only for the ghosts to pull out weapons. Shot of Technus grinning triumphantly as he holds a mechanical silver orb. Cut to Danny and Technus facing off.)

Technus: You picked the wrong side, boy.

(Shot of Danny carrying Sam as he flies down a hallway. Shot of Tucker hacking into a lab computer, the screen filling up as files are open. Shot of Danny blasting Technus's followers, trying to keep them away from the A-Listers.)

Technus: If you're going to protect these selfish, thieving pigs, then you too will face my wrath.

(Shot of Danny fighting back against a robotic monstrosity. Cut to title card.)

DANNY PHANTOM

(Cut to Danny, Tucker, and Sam sitting at a table at Nasty Burger. Tucker is holding a ketchup bottle like a microphone, Danny is covering his face in embarrassment, and Sam is just staring.)

Tucker: ...then Danny took a look inside of it

There was a great big flash, everything just changed...

(Sam facepalms.)

Danny: For the last time, Tuck, I don’t need a theme song!

(Tucker puts the ketchup bottle down and folds his arms with a huff.)

Notes

-In this take, Danny has known Tucker for some time, but Sam‘s parents previously enrolled her in several private schools, each one eventually kicking her out due to conflicts with other students. Since I’m not thrilled with her forcing her beliefs down others’ throats in ‘Mystery Meat,’ she’s not the one to incur the Lunch Lady’s wrath. -Considering that Vlad is Danny’s most prominent recurring villain, I feel that he is the type of villain who, as moviebob once said about Dr. Doom, is “too big to burn off in the first film.” (Mind you, I don’t know if I will compose any sequel trailers, but I think you get my point.) Since supertech features heavily in Spider-Man: Homecoming, I decided to go with Technus instead.

#Danny Phantom #fan trailers #live-action movie #inspired by the trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming #Danniversary

[datawyrms]

Expectations Fulfilled

Dannymay 2020 Day 18 : Horror (As a warning this is way too long? I don’t know how this happened. The answer is way too much setup.)

The last fight with Valerie had not gone well. Danny had hesitated a beat too long, seemingly frozen in indecision and took a nasty blow to the chest for it. That was their friend for you, get too worried about hurting the person trying to kill you and forget to dodge again. At least he’d dropped out of the sky over a wooded area, giving them a chance to pull him out of the fire yet again.

“Danny, you have to change back before she sees you!” Sam hissed at the glowing boy who was clutching his head. “Do you need us to carry you?” her eyes scanned the branches above, it didn’t look like he’d taken any down by slamming into them, but he could always just land badly.

“I will totally put you in this thermos over letting her drag you off to Vlad.” Tucker warned, listening for the tell tale hum of the ghost hunter’s jet board.

“I-I’m okay.” Danny finally responded, starting to get back to his feet. “Don’t soup me. Hate that,” he shook his head still rubbing at it with one hand. “I’m just a bit dizzy”.

“You’re not fooling anyone with that hero act anymore, you hear me?”

“Hurry up!”

The ghost gave a stiff nod, finally clear headed enough to switch back to human form. He stumbled, but the three of them had enough practice by now to get moving quickly. It wasn’t likely Valarie would connect the three of them with Phantom, but with their luck she’d assume a ghost was what had gotten Danny limping along.

“We really need a better plan for when she catches up to you, talking it out isn’t working.”

“What, I love being blamed for beating myself up.”

Sam scowled at her flippant friend. “I know you’re worried about hurting her, but she can probably take a few hits. Just so she’s a little more cautious about going after you so hard.”

“Probably wouldn’t take a fall from that high up very well though.” the half ghost grimaced as he watched the sky.

“Dude, you barely took that fall. Sam has a point.” Tucker handed over the backpack as his friend steadied, keeping close in case Danny was only acting like he was good to go again.

“I’ll think about it.” Which was basically Dannyanto for ‘no’, but there wasn’t much use in trying to convince him.

That is why it was so strange the next day in school. Tucker spotted Valerie running out of class with a flimsy excuse, but Danny hadn’t even made an attempt to leave. It could have been something that wasn’t ghost related, but spotting the large white and green serpent ghost slammed to the ground from the window confirmed it was indeed a ghost thing.

“Hey. Aren’t you gonna go out there?” he leaned over with a hiss, Lancer too distracted by the potential danger to his students to really be picky about talking in class.

“Huh?” Danny stared at him blankly.

“The ghost? That Val’s fighting?” he clarified, wondering if his friend had simply slept through his ghost sense.

Danny looked out the window, looking more bored than alarmed. “Nah. She has it.”

“Dude, are you okay?”

“You guys were the ones saying we needed a plan. So I’ll just let her deal with it,” he shrugged, slouching back in his chair.

That didn’t really seem like a plan he’d normally come up with. Sure, it was sensible, but that’s why it didn’t make any sense. Danny looked normal enough though, maybe he was just tired of getting yelled at by someone he was helping. “If you say so. It is just an animal ghost,”. He dropped the subject, taking several looks back as their teacher ushered them all off to a ‘safer area’. Valerie probably wouldn’t have any trouble alone, but his friend’s complete lack of interest was a little creepy.

Sam’s opener at lunch meant he wasn’t alone in that thought. “Aren’t you maybe a little too carefree about this?”

“No? If she gets beat up then it’s not my problem anymore,” he focused back on his sandwich, ignoring the twin looks of bafflement he was getting for a few minutes. When they continued he muttered “What? I’ll deal with it if it threatens you guys, you’re my friends”.

“Are you sure you’re okay? Your parents don’t have some weird ghost mood changer or something?”

“I’m fine Sam. I finally agree with you guys and now you’re surprised I’m not acting like a superhero, sheesh.” he rolled his eyes, irritation creasing his brow.

“You gotta admit it was pretty sudden. We know how stubborn you are,” Tucker crossed his arms, unable to shake the feeling that something was off.

“You said it enough that it made sense. She hates me and wants to waste me, so why keep bailing her out? See how she likes the ‘evil ghost’ not helping,”

“You’ll help if she gets in serious trouble though, right?” Tucker hesitated before asking.

“If I feel like it.”

Sam and Tucker shared a look, biting back any further questions. Whatever was up with Danny, they probably wouldn’t get out of the half ghost himself. They’d have to invite themselves over tonight and take a look around for anything new and dangerous.

“See? Totally fine.” Danny prompted them to look around, spotting the ghost hunter entering the lunchroom with a scowl.

“Uh Danny, she’s a little hurt. See her arm?”

He raised an eyebrow. “So? I take worse, you’ve taken worse. Why do you care?”

Sam really wanted to ask him why he didn’t care, but the elbow from Tucker had her reconsider. With the weird apathy, it probably wouldn’t be the best idea to get on his bad side.

Yet they couldn’t find any sort of weapon or tool that might have explained why their friend had flipped from being completely unwilling to aggressively defend himself against Valerie to ignoring ghost fights he had no interest in. Any questions or nudges to help were always met with reluctance, as if he resented the very idea of assisting. Sure, he’d go the second a ghost might threaten his family or friends, but otherwise he seemed to have set the rest of the town in a ‘not my problem’ box.

“Maybe he wants to focus on his studies. You know he can’t work for NASA if he keeps pulling his kind of grades.” Jazz was a little put off by his behaviour, but couldn’t deny that the increased amount of sleep and downtime was reversing her brother’s downward trend in school.

“Isn’t it weird though? It’s not like it was our idea for him to use his ghost powers to help people, he did that on his own,” Sam pointed out, frustrated that Jazz would just ignore all of that.

“You know I can totally hear you guys, right?” Danny called from upstairs, and they could swear the room had gotten colder.

“Yup! Eavesdropping is rude little bro”

“So is gossiping behind my back!”

Jazz gave a shrug, covering up a laugh from his irritated retort. “He’s not acting all that different guys, really.”

“Which I’ve been saying on repeat all week.” Danny groused, hands in his pockets as he slouched into the room. “I’m tired of pretending to be something I’m not. So I stopped. Is it really that big of a deal?”

“You weren’t pretending, you were really helping people,” Sam pressed, earning another eye roll.

“Sure. That’s why everyone hates my guts. Or wants to poke around in them.”

“Well it’s up to you dude. Just let us know if anything feels off?”

“I’m fine! Sheesh!”

-

Phantom had been strange since their last fight. In some ways it had been nice, not needing to constantly chase the pest down only for him to get away yet again. She was pretty sure she’d caught more than the glowing terror had this week, mostly because the ghost barely showed up. Perhaps it had finally decided the weaker ghosts were beneath it, or didn’t get it enough attention. She didn’t miss the ghost, but she could admit she was running more ragged than usual for it.

“Get out of my way.” the ghost had the audacity to bark an order at her after flinging Ember to the ground, making her completely miss her shot.

“You’re the one in my way Phantom.” she growled back, getting some satisfaction as the ghost’s eyes snapped to her hands and the ectogun she held. “You can’t fool me, I know you’re just an evil ghost”

The green eyed ghost glared at her for that “Am I now?” he paused in midair, eyes flicking between Ember who was getting back up for another go, and the red clad ghost hunter in front of him. “Hey Ember!”

“What! I don’t need any of your awful puns, dipstick”

“How ‘bout a truce? First one to get the hunter grounded wins.” he ducked quickly to dodge the shot Valerie fired.

“‘Bout time you learned what fun is, kid. You’re on!” the ghostly musician regained her place in the air, apparently willing to forgive a punch to the ground if it meant ganging up on a ghost hunter.

“Hey Val? I suggest you run.” With that he fired on her, only managing to dodge the blow by having her board stop floating. She always knew the white haired boy was evil, but she never really expected him to team up with another ghost. Still, she was a better ghost hunter than most. She could take them.

She flew low, counting on the extra obstacles to throw off the ghosts aim. The side benefit of not having far to fall was a notable one as well as the larger soundwaves Ember could launch kept clipping the sides of the board, a little too wide to completely dodge. She rocked wildly but was able to keep her feet, using the time in between volleys to launch a few attacks of her own back. Judging by the grunts she’d hit one or the other a few times, but not directly. She urged the board to go faster, eyes scanning for a good place to turn the tables on the ghosts. It wasn’t a great spot, but the two buildings could provide cover once she got behind one. The board shrieked at the hard turn she demanded of it, but managed to get down the alley without clipping the sides.

“Who’s the rat now, huh?” Ember’s taunt was infuriating, but she forced herself to wait. She had to take at least one of them out. The first shot took the ghost by surprise as she rounded the corner, but the second was a little too far down.

“The thing about corners is you can’t really surprise me if I don’t come that way.”

She jerked in surprise, trying to face the ghost who had somehow gotten behind her-though the building of course how had she been so stupid-? Yet she couldn’t dodge the punch that threw her off the board and on to the ground, skidding to where the guitar wielding ghost was waiting.

“Well, that was fun. Should do it again sometime!” she gave the ghost hunter a kick before taking to the air, eyeing Phantom a little warily. “Didn’t think you had it in ya.”

“Surprise. Touch my friends and I’ll kill you again. Got it?” he started cheerfully enough, but the warning was nearly a snarl.

“Chill out dipstick. Weird little humans off limits, got it!”

Valerie tried to rise as flame-head fled, but was forced back down by Phantom’s boot. She managed not to grunt in pain, but she didn’t have too many options to remove the ghost’s foot from her chest at the moment.

“As for you, Valerie,” he ghost was still clearly furious, but seemed a little lost now that he’d actually knocked her down. 

“Danny?”

Valerie’s heart raced. Tucker? He was a bit of a dweeb, but she couldn’t let this ghost scum hurt him. She struggled, trying to unbalance the ghost while it was distracted, rolling free and dragging the ghost down with a grunt.

“What now?” Phantom seemed peevish, ignoring the ghost hunter completely after getting back up. As if she was so little threat he could just ignore her.

“I think you might be going a little far dude.” Tucker really shouldn’t be trying to reason with this monster, but it was giving her time to ready her weapon.

“Hey, she wanted evil!”

Tucker looked incredibly uncomfortable, eyes darting between the ghost and his disguised classmate. “How about no more fighting for today, okay?”

“You can’t be defending this monster! It can’t hide what it is!” she aimed her reclaimed weapon.

The ghost’s more relaxed air died the second she finished speaking, temperature plunging as he whirled to face her. It was strange how he seemed more fixed on her hand than the barrel of the gun, but that didn’t really matter all that much with the ghost’s hands and eyes glowing a furious green.

She stuck to her guns, ready to fire and distract the thing so Tucker could run Yet he didn’t run, instead pulling a Fenton thermos quickly out of his backpack, looking more worried about her than anything else.

“Yeah okay, you need a time out. Sorry.” The ghost didn’t even react to the words, though it blinked a few times once it realized the Fenton’s invention was pulling it away from its intended target. Otherwise it didn’t struggle, leaving Tucker to quickly cap the thermos. “Okaaay. I’m just gonna. Go now. Bye!” he sprinted away before she could demand he hand over the thermos so she could dispose of the ghost inside. Didn’t he see how dangerous it was?

-

Thinking simply hurt. Tucker and Sam were worried sick, babbling on and on about how he was acting weird, that he could have seriously hurt Valarie. As if hurting her mattered. Maybe it did? Urgh. He just wanted them all to stop talking and let him figure it out.

“Danny, this isn’t normal. We just want to help,”

“Why is any of this surprising? I’m always like this.” he insisted, only earning worried frowns again.

“No, you don’t usually decide to attack people for calling you evil. What’s gotten into you?” Sam was looking him in the eye. She did genuinely seem to be concerned, even though it didn’t make any sense.

“Nothing? I’ve been half ghost for a while,” he crossed his arms.

“This isn’t getting us anywhere. We need to ask Frostbite to check him or something.”

“There’s no way we can get to the Farfrozen if we start now, and we can’t trust him to go on his own right now.” Tucker frowned, punching plans into his PDA.

“I’m right here guys.”

Sam dragged her hand across her face. “Danny, you were going to waste Valerie, we get to question your judgement right now.”

“Of course I was. I’ll show her a monster,” her muttered, eyes flaring green in annoyance.

Tucker paled a little, still looking at the PDA. “Yeah that? That’s what we’re worried about.”

“I wouldn’t hurt you guys.”

“Danny, that’s not the problem here!”

The half ghost sighed, slumping on his bed. They still weren’t making sense, and everything was starting to itch horribly. He rubbed at his shoulder, but it only seemed to make the itching sensation worse. Something was in the way of what needed scratching, but he couldn’t quite reach it. Very annoying.

“Can you stop dropping the temperature? It’s like a meat locker in here.”

“I’m not doing anything.” he stared at the stickers on the ceiling, idly wondering if something had happened to the others to make all of them make zero sense. Or to make them forget that he was a half ghost. Of course it was cold. He kept scratching at his shoulder, nails desperately trying to find whatever it was that was making him feel so uncomfortable. Something tight and restrictive that itched furiously.

“We go Friday. There’s no way we can sneak away that long until then.”

“You’re overreacting guys.” That, and a trip to the ghost zone would be pretty boring.

“No, you’re under reacting. Just trust us, okay?”

Sam and Tucker remained weirdly on edge, watching him like he was some sort of bomb that might go off at any moment. Shouldn’t they be used to all this by now? So what if he found it a little fun that people were too scared to keep eye contact with him for very long? They were only unsettled, and the fear always gave a welcome kick of energy. It distracted from the itching.

He wanted to be a little more scary than just simply unsettling, but Sam and Tucker insisted the school was a hands off zone now. Maybe he should have picked different humans to be so attached too, as these ones were being incredibly boring all of a sudden. Didn’t they want to have a bit of fun? Simply being unsettling with his presence was all well and good, but it wasn’t the same as a proper scared-for their-lives affair. They didn’t even approve when he went after Skulker for daring to set foot in his territory! He’d been ‘too careless’ for dragging the ghost near some of the fleeing humans while they fought. Of course he had! What was the point of fighting if he wasn’t going to get some good back from it? He could do what he wanted with his food.

Really, it just made him want to tear his hair out. They were the ones who had changed, but they kept insisting it was the other way around.

Valerie was incredibly weird though. She kept talking to him as if they were friends. It always made the itching worse, trying to pretend he was glad she was at school and not a smear on the sidewalk. Humans were stupid. It wasn’t like he was hiding what he was. Though it was one of the times that she approached him that he finally solved the itching problem, nails finally tearing through the obnoxious, too tight skin.

She’d backed away with a gasp, as if the green stain on his hands should be some sort of surprise. “What happened to you? Don’t worry, I’ll get help!”

She seemed confused when he laughed at her nonsensical question. Flexing his freed claws was fun, but he really did need to get the rest of this restricting mess off. His right hand clawed at his arm, the ectoplasm that oozed from his self inflicted wounds was both freeing and soothing at once. Stop hiding, stop pretending. 

“Nothing happened to me.” He flexed his freed arms,  green black skin more like tar than anything else, giggling when the girl recoiled from the new green eyes that bubbled to the surface to watch her squirm. 

Maybe she was that oblivious. “Someone will help you Danny, just hold on!” she insisted before sprinting down the hall. He’d chase her, but there were so many people simply watching in mute horror that he couldn’t resist trying to get a few screams out of them. No killing, Tucker and Sam wouldn’t like that, but a few scratches wouldn’t hurt all that much. Dash ought to know how kind he’d been in not retaliating sooner, really. The disgusted sounds they made as he clawed at his face was entertaining, someone fainting as he flung the discarded skin away. Some of his hair remained black, but the white went nicer with his pointed teeth, in his opinion. He let out a snarl, relishing in how they fled from some twisted half human ghost. Tucker and Sam were wrong, he absolutely should have done this sooner. Well, he’d let them know that when they showed up. They usually did. It really was a bit of a shame to just let them all run away though. Oh well.

Maybe he should free his feet, but getting through his shoes might be a bit of a pain. It was easier to drag his claws against the lockers and listen for the sounds of running feet and muffled screams. They were so scared they didn’t even need to see him.

“Danny, do you recognize us?”

Oh, there they were! “Hi. I fixed the itching.” he clawed idly at his neck, feeling more flexible with every scratch. It was much easier to keep an eye on them with the arm eyes, freeing his head to glance around the rest of the hallway.

“We noticed. Uh. I think you left half of yourself on the floor.” Tucker looked ill, pointedly ignoring a red and green splatter on the wall next to him.

“Finally. So much scratching. You have no idea how annoying that was.” They didn’t seem happy for him though. More worried. Why? They knew he’d never hurt them. They were his humans, his favourite ones. No one got to hurt them.

“Can you...change back?” Sam asked, approaching cautiously.

“Change back to what?” his brow furrowed, fixing the blue eyes of his face to double check he was seeing correctly. Was she upset? Weird. This was a good thing. 

“Back into yourself. Human, like us? Remember?” Tucker had taken one of his hands, careful of the claws. They were still the same general shape, even if Tucker’s skin was thin and weak and warm.

“I’m not like you though. You were there.” he tilted his head, wondering if they’d forgotten that too somehow.

“You’re still human, Danny,” Sam stepped in as Tucker seemed distracted in wiping the green and black film off of his hands.

“Nope. Something in the middle.” he let out a hum, sure he’d heard something. “Being split like that was wrong. Like playing pretend all the time.” The beast stretched, the cracking of his lower back like gunshots in the abandoned hall. Two more steps. So there was a sneak around!

“This isn’t you, you know that. You don’t want to hurt or scare people.”

“Mmm? That’s what monsters do, isn’t it?” Why did Sam decide to hug him now? He couldn’t get at the rest of his torso like that.

Tucker was very confusing, rubbing at the water from his eyes. “Just let us try to help you fix this, okay? You aren’t a monster.” 

“Sure I am. What else could I be?”

“Who told you that? Why would you listen to them over us?” Sam was brave as usual, shaking him a little instead of backing away.

“I told you that too! Are you sure you guys aren’t the ones forgetting stuff?” he frowned at the two of them, ear twitching. More steps. The sneak was close, and he was pretty sure he knew who it was.

“It doesn’t matter who it was. Can you switch to ghost form?” Tucker sounded calm, but his face was still leaking. Sam had joined him, though she was more biting her lip than dripping like a faucet. 

“I’m both right now. I just said that!” They really weren’t listening very well. “I’m done hiding what I am, it was uncomfortable.” The confused muttering from the sneak was fun to overhear, but it would probably be more fun if Tucker and Sam were in on it. “They don’t know what I mean by that, you might have to explain it for em.”

“Explain what? To who? No one’s here Danny. It’s just us.”

“Us and the sneakkkkk.” he sprang forward, grabbing on to the corner with his claws, twisting his neck to look down at the sneak who backed away with a yelp. “Hiiii Val. You gonna run again?” he snickered when her fear morphed into anger, apparently recognizing him now.

“You sick creep! What did you do to Danny?”

“Valerie! Don’t make him mad!” Sam called out, the two of them sprinting over to join the  sneaky ghost hunter.

“No one listens! I’m Danny. I’ve always been Danny. You just didn’t notice! That’s okay, almost nobody did.” Oh she was very funny when she glared at him like that.

“You’re lying. Danny is nothing like you.”

“Danny is everything like me. Right Tuck? She doesn’t listen to ghosts. You sure I can’t just kill her?” he glanced back at his friends, disappointed to see the no already written on their faces.

“No! That would be bad, don’t do that!” Tucker stammered, unsure where to keep his eyes. He’d have an easier time if he had eyes on his arms like he did now. Maybe his friends could be half ghosts too. Hmm.

“Valarie, I know this doesn’t make any sense, just listen and don’t set him off.”

“Sam, this thing has done something awful to your friend and you’re worried about the ghost’s feelings? What’s wrong with you?” the ghost hunter stood her ground even without her fancy gear, glaring up at the perching mutated mess above her.

“All of that up there is Danny, okay? Something’s wrong, and we’ll explain it once he’s better, but you just need to trust us right now.”

“Mmmhmm. A monster just like you said.” he rocked back and forth a little, blue eyes fixed on Valerie’s clenched fist. “You’re lucky my friends won’t let me kill you Val. Even though I’m not hiding anymore.”

Tucker noticed how Danny’s blue eyes seemed fixed on the girl he was tormenting, elbowing Sam to point it out.

“None of you are making any sense. He’s just possessed or something, why are you acting like this is okay?”

“Annoying.” Danny growled, showing far too many fangs. “This is what you wanted! You say I’m not a hero so I stop.”

Tucker and Sam looked ill. “Valarie, what do you have on your hand?”

“Why does my jewelry matter now?” she didn’t look at them, too busy scowling at the monster on the wall. “I didn’t say anything like that to Danny.”

“Yes you did! You are awful at this. Phantom was Danny and vise versa. Keep up!” the hybrid snorted. “Both are me. Both are very, very tired of you and your orders.”

“It’s important! Where did you get it?” Sam had apparently decided she didn’t have time for Valarie to be confused, trying to grab at her hand and cursing when she saw it. “Nevermind, I don’t care, just smash it!”

“You still aren't’ making sense.” She was reaching for a blaster that wasn’t there, looking between all three now as possible threats.

“Then you say I’m evil. So I comply. Now I stop hiding and still you are complaining! Make up your mind! Or let me kill you, that’d be fun.” Plaster cracked beneath the creature’s claws as it leaned forward, uncomfortably close. The out of place blue eyes flicked from the red ring to her face and back again. “Isn’t this exactly what you wanted Val? Or should I call you master?”

(oh look a sort of continuation)

#dannymay2020 #Danny Phantom #Tucker Foley #sam manson #valerie gray #my stuff #why did i spend all day on this #i hope it was a decent buildup payoff #horror is a lot about suspense to me #but idono if i really got that part #there's some blood but it's pretty glossed over idono #please scream thoughts at me they make my day lol #body horror #if i should tag more things say so i am Bad At Tumblr :v

[a-closet-emo]

Phic Phight 2k20

Team Ghost

Title: Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda

Prompt: what was Valerie doing during ‘Reality Trip’?

Prompt by: @halfaqueen

Word Count: 4866

A/N: @seeminglynoticeable was so nice as to beta this for me! and what do you know, longest fic I’ve written. Enjoy!

----

Valerie picked up her phone and rolled her eyes at the unread messages.

Star: Valllllll

Star: Vaaaallllllllll

Star: why arent u heeerrreeeeee

Star: come onnn ur gonna miss the best parts it’s starting soooooon

Val: i told u, i’ll be there once my shift is over

Star: but Vallll we were supposed to hang and watch the concert why are you still working

We are not going to hang. I’m going to watch the concert from the nosebleeds while she’s in the front boxes with Paulina, occasionally texting me, she thought.

Typing her message, Valerie shook her head. Now was not the time for this.

Val: dude i have like 20 minutes left on my shift chill

Val: and u already know that i have a shift today, i can’t just back out of that

The unspoken (or untyped) ‘I need the money’ hung between them for a few awful seconds while the girl on the other end started typing then stopped. Finally, she sent a message.  

Star: ughhh fine. But you better not get caught up in a ghost fight and miss the concert entirely, i heard the band’s gonna come out of a giant egg on stage

“Excuse me? Lady?”

Valerie glanced up from her screen to see a customer waiting for her in front of the cash register. She sent a quick ‘gtg’ to Star before stuffing her phone in her apron, plastering a grin onto her face, and greeting the woman.

As the lady debated between six kinds of drinks, the phone in her apron pocket started vibrating like crazy. Was that Star? Ugh, she better not be calling Valerie to tell her about the concert, she already knew she was missing out. She pointedly ignored her phone (and the customer still eyeing the menu) as her eyes drifted idly to the Nasty Burger’s TV, which was currently turned onto a local news channel. She narrowed her eyes, putting more focus onto the screen.

Are those two on the stage… Sam and Tucker? She hadn’t decided what to do with this information when Phantom crashed onto the stage, literally, and narrowly missed hitting the teens. Her fists clenched. She was seconds away from vaulting over the counter and running out of the store to transform.

That Phantom... always stirring up trouble and ruining everyone’s day—

Valerie froze. So did everyone else in the restaurant, but that and her phone vibrating even more than earlier felt a million miles away. Her attention was focused solely on the screen on the wall.

The screen that was showing the Dumpty Humpty concert.

And Phantom… and Danny.

Danny, the ghost. Danny, the human. Danny, her ex.

Danny, who was now being chased by the GiW because he was clearly not human. (Like Dani and Vlad some part of her mind whispered)

Danny, her friend.

She backed away from the counter, the sound of her beating heart filling her ears. She backed up into a table, nearly toppling everything on it. It almost didn’t register, nothing was getting through to her.

One thought, however, made her shake herself out of her daze.

Valerie had to get to that concert.

She ran out of the restaurant and into the nearest alley, the suit already half on. She flew toward the school and the concert, at a speed she’d never reached before.

Some corner of her mind asked her what she planned to do when she got there. She shut it up.

——

Despite her state, Valerie had enough sense to fly high enough above the concert grounds that the GiW’s sensors wouldn’t pick up on her suit. She knew it had some sort of an ectosignature, she didn’t need getting kidnapped added onto today. Not that she thought they would keep her, but today had certainly thrown her world into chaos, so she kept an open mind.

She scanned the ground below for the trio (Sam and Tucker were never far; in fact, they were probably helping him right now) and Phantom’s ectosignature, unsure if she wanted to find either. She wasn’t thinking about the implications of Danny being like Vlad and Dani, nor of the implications of Phantom and Fenton being one and the same. And she was most definitely not thinking about the implications of all she had done to him in her revenge-fueled hunts. No, she was not going to think about any of that. She shoved those thoughts away and concluded that Danny and Co. were not on the concert grounds anymore, which were swarming with GiW agents and a few scattered groups of loitering teenagers. Her eye caught some movement a few hundred yards away, however, at the nearby forest.

Flying over to investigate, she retracted her board into the sole of her boots and stood at the edge of the woods. Her eyes caught sight of something shining deep within the trees. Squinting, she realized it was the glint of a PDA screen in the darkness.

And there he was.

Granted, he was turned away from her and wearing a football helmet, but her suit gave her the ecto signature she had dismissed so many times before as a glitch in the system.

Her eyes followed the back of his head as far as her sight would allow her. She wanted to call out, wanted him to see her, notice her, fight her but at the same time she wanted to remain hidden. To be acknowledged was to acknowledge everything that’s happening and everything that has happened. So she stood stock-still, watching silently as he and Sam and Tucker ran off into the woods and the night.

A branch snapped and Valerie let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She noticed the A-listers speaking in hushed tones as they made their way out of the forest. Her suit let her listen in to their conversation.

“I can’t get over how Fenturd - ah uh - Fenton has been Phantom all this time! He’s like, a full-blown superhero with the secret identities and shit!”

“He’s the most messed up superhero, though,” Valerie heard Kwan counter. She couldn’t get an angle on his face with the thickness of the trees and the dim lighting, but he sounded quiet, almost thoughtful.“How dark is that? He’s alive and dead? At the same time?”

“I don’t care if he’s dead, alive, or both. I’m still gonna marry him someday.”

“Even now that it turns out he’s nerdy loser Fenton?” Star teased.

“Especially now that he’s nerdy loser Fenton. Because I know for a fact that he has a crush on me.”

Then Star spotted Valerie and came to a halt, eyes widening. The blonde glanced behind her, after where Danny had gone, before turning back to the Huntress, turquoise eyes questioning.

The other A-listers stopped, having noticed Star’s sudden silence, and followed her line of sight back to Valerie.

“Not you,” Paulina spat out. “If you think you can hunt down my ghost boy and hurt him, then you’ve got another thing coming—“

“Would you hurt him now, knowing what you know about him?” Star’s voice rang out clearly. Paulina stopped, not even angry at being interrupted. Dash and Kwan stood still, waiting for an answer, but they tensed, willing to take the ghost hunter on for Danny’s sake.

The huntress swallowed hard and made no response, before taking off, no destination in mind.

——

Valerie huffed, her breath visible in the cold hours of the night, as she paced back and forth on her board. Having shortly gotten over her initial disbelief, she’d flown to Fentonworks not too long after watching Danny run away, hoping to find him home and demand an explanation from him, maybe at gunpoint. Instead, she had almost walked up to a house swarming with GiW agents. Then she had noticed the spidery metallic structure that usually stood atop the building was missing.

So up here, hours later and a good one hundred feet above Fentonworks, she continued to pace, her steps fast and forceful. That goddamned boy was going to hear it from her… as soon as she could find him, at least. She had no clue where he’d gone, and she’d already checked all his usual haunts. 

She pulled up her phone from inside her suit, debating on whether she should even try to contact him. Her lock screen showed her a lot of messages and missed calls from a few people, mostly Star and her dad. She put her phone away, not willing to talk to anyone.

Thoughts swirled around in a hopeless mess of a whirlpool in her head. Questions she didn’t want answered and realizations she didn’t want to face. Memories surfaced of countless fights, endless days of hunting, hours spent in seething rage at the ghost boy.

Hah.

Ghost-boy. The name was more fitting than anyone had thought.

All this time… he was Phantom. He had been the one in Axion Labs that day. He had been the one who ruined her life.

But he was also Danny, the sweet, caring, kind, geeky, normal guy she’d dated once.

Had he been lying to her? Which one was the act? Phantom or Fenton? Did she know him at all? Where would she even begin to… to what? Look for differences, look for similarities? Comparing the two got her nowhere, her mind supplying her with enough for it to make sense (especially with Dani and Vlad in the picture; she may not know how but she knows it’s possible). But her mind also couldn’t reconcile the two boys.

Valerie groaned and sat down, her hands twitching in agitation. She wanted to scream, she wanted to fight, she wanted to do something other than sitting up here and letting her mind run itself in circles, but she found that that was all she could do, given that she was pretty sure the trio wasn’t even in Amity anymore. She was not a fan of this rollercoaster of emotions she’d been experiencing since the reveal. They were all being translated into a shaky rush of angry energy that made her want to throttle the first ghost she saw.

Right on cue, the familiar inner alert of her suit told her there were a couple of them lurking nearby. Her helmet quickly formed over her head. She got up quickly and smirked, flying over to their location.

Finally, something she could do.

Her smirk fell when she spotted one of the spooks, not a block away from Fentonworks. Staring down at all nine feet of the growling ghost mutt that had had a hand (paw?) in turning her life upside down not a year ago, Valerie grit her teeth, charged up her weapons, and took aim.

——

“Get back here you mangy mutt!”

Valerie chased after it through the streets, her enraged state doing her no favors as she continued to completely miss the ghost with her haphazard sprays of ectogunfire. Each time the damn thing managed to slip away only got her more frustrated, screaming insults at the top of her lungs. She was sure she had woken up the entire neighborhood, but she couldn’t find it in her to care. What mattered was catching her prey and making it pay.

Following the spook to an alleyway it had just ducked into, she stepped off her board and marched right around the corner, not bothering with a sneaky approach.

Why couldn’t she just catch the stupid hellhound? She couldn’t believe she’d let this chase go on so long. She couldn’t believe this day she’d been having. She couldn’t believe anything anymore.

There it was, gigantic and foaming at the mouth. She summoned several missile launchers from within her suit, ready to unleash hell. The mutt crouched, and she could see its muscles tensing, ready to pounce. She was going to end this.

“Valerie!”

The Huntress’s head turned at the sound of a familiar voice. She suddenly choked; that couldn’t be Danny…?

In the split second that she spent looking around frantically for the owner of the voice, the ghost dog pounced, and she was forced down onto the pavement. Valerie went breathless as her body came into contact with the hard ground. Despite the pain, her first reaction was still anger, and she retracted her helmet so she could look the dog in the eye, her hair fanning out around her head on the pavement.

“Get off of me, you fucking mutt! Fuck you!” She shouted, beating her fists against the ghost’s chest as it simply stared at her, head cocked to the side like it was actually concerned. Angry tears rolled down her cheeks and onto the pavement.

Agh! Was she so distracted by Danny that she was imagining his voice now?

She continued to hit the dog and it continued to ignore her, though after a while her screams of rage became strangled sobs, and the punches themselves became nothing more than pathetic grabs at the dog’s fur.

This was all so stupid and dumb. How could she have not noticed anything? Was she that blinded by wrath? Was she that willing to ignore Phantom and his insistence of innocence just so she could have someone to blame for a bad situation?

She hated this. She hated this whole fucking day. She hated stupid Phantom. She hated stupid Danny. She hated them for being the same person, which was now making her break down in front of the stupid ghost dog that was definitely his.

She hated what had been happening between her and the ghost boy ever since the day he got her dad fired. She hated everything she’d done to him since then.

She hated herself.

She let her arms fall to the ground, tears falling freely now.

“Valerie,” the same voice as earlier repeated her name, concern overflowing from the single word.

She gasped, straining her neck to find the speaker. Dani stood a few feet away, staring with her eyebrows knit in concern. Then the dog started licking Valerie. And if she had been more open to the idea of it actually caring about her, she would’ve thought it was trying to comfort her. She wondered for a brief moment when it had changed into its smaller form. But before she could protest to the equal amounts of slobber and ectoplasm being slathered onto her face and hair, Dani intervened for her.

“Cujo, no! Stop!”

The dog (it had a name?) obeyed the order, though begrudgingly.

“Good. Now, get off Valerie, please.” After following the command of the halfa and stepping off of Valerie, Dani came over and held out a hand to help her up.

A beat, and she took it. Coming up to stand on shaky legs, a ray of sunlight hit her directly in the eyes. She winced and held a hand in front of her face. When had the sun come up? The first lights of day were pouring through the gaps between buildings, illuminating the sorry little alley they were standing in.

“So, I’m guessing you know.”

Her eyes were puffy and her vision blurry, but there was no mistaking how much the girl standing before Valerie looked like Danny. From the blue eyes and the black hair down to the way she was rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly, waiting for Valerie to respond, the halfa was every bit Danny’s clone as she was Phantom’s. Wonderful. Another glaring clue she had so willingly ignored.

She rubbed tiredly at her eyes, not really trying to deal with the tears or the swelling, before shooting her as much of an annoyed stare as she could muster. She hoped she looked more angry than tired, but she had a feeling that wasn’t what was coming across.

“God, Dani. That was at a fucking Dumpty Humpty concert. With that many teenagers and cameras in one place, I‘d be surprised if the whole country didn’t know.”

She plopped down onto the grimy floor, head in hands.

“You’re here to look for him, aren’t you?”

There was a moment of silence. Clearly the other girl was trying to gauge how much to tell Valerie. Her spirits sank even lower. How many times had Danny or Phantom hesitated like this and she’d just written off as him being spacey and the other plotting something?

“Yeah. Cujo and I’ve been trying to sneak around, trying to catch his scent. But it’s been pretty hard, especially with all the Guys in White.”

Something occurred to Valerie.

“Wait, what if Vlad finds you?”

Dani’s bitter laugh made her look up. The halfa was absentmindedly scratching Cujo’s head, but she was looking away from Valerie, up at the pink sky.

“That old fruitloop? He’s probably trying to find a way to keep his sorry hide out of this, backup plans for backup plans and all. He’s not even going to think about… But he doesn’t matt— that doesn’t matter.”

Dani waved her hand dismissively.

“Look, Cujo and I better get going, we still need to find a way to follow that crazy cousin of mine. It was good to see you again.”

The two ghosts began walking out of the alley, when Valerie came to stand on her feet with a sudden decision.

“Dani, wait. Let me go with you.”

The girl and her dog shared a look. Valerie had a faraway feeling of annoyance at their distrust and doubt, but then she realized they had plenty of reason to. It hadn’t even been an hour since she had tried to destroy one of them. Besides, she was too tired to be angry.

“Please. I-I need to see Danny,” she paused. “I want to help him.” She was glad to find that she meant that. “I know that you don’t trust me, hell, you probably don’t even like me after all I’ve done, but—“

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. Of course I trust you, Val. You’re my friend. It’s just… Are you sure you’re ok? You were sobbing not thirty minutes ago.” Dani cringed. “And, well, you’re covered in ghost dog slobber, among other things.”

Valerie looked down at herself. Her suit was coated in goo and grime. Her hair was everywhere and was drying in clumps of slobber. She didn’t even want to think about her face.

“Cujo and I will keep sniffing around, you go home and shower, and then we’ll meet up—“

The sudden growing noise that erupted from Dani’s stomach had been too loud to ignore. The girl rubbed her neck sheepishly, starting to back away.

“We’ll just get going now—“

Valerie grabbed Dani’s hand and made the preteen face her. The huntress frowned. The other girl was too thin, too pale; she wondered when the last time Dani had gotten a good meal was.

——

Dani had eaten while Valerie had showered and packed a couple of bags for them, and now the older girl was sitting across from her father and bouncing her leg impatiently waiting for the halfa to emerge. She had been looking for some updates via social media on where the trio had gone, but it seemed they hadn’t turned up yet. She’d sent a couple of messages to Star reassuring her she was fine but she’d be out of town. The girl had yet to respond, but it was still early.

She looked at her father. He was an early riser, but it was early enough that he was still in his pajamas, having rushed out of his room when she and Dani had entered the apartment.

“... Dani,” she had introduced her, with the halfa cutting in to add “with an ‘I’”.

She hadn’t offered any explanation, but then again she rarely explained any of her ‘extracurricular activities’ to her father.

She winced inwardly at how tired he looked. She bit her lip guiltily at the thought of all the missed calls and messages she had seen on her phone last night… or earlier this morning.

“Val,” he started, but she cut in.

“I get it, dad,” she said, trying and failing to meet his gaze. “I messed up. I messed up big time, doing all the things I did, lying to you, disobeying you, hurting people. But I’ve gotta make it up somehow. I need to go. I need to find him.”

Her hands were curled into fists under the table as she glared at the wood. He wasn’t going to stop her.

He reached a hand out to her. “Baby, I was going to ask if you were alright.”

She looked up; there was so much concern in his eyes. She opened her mouth to respond, when Dani emerged from her room, freshly showered and wearing some of Valerie’s old clothes.

“So, are we ready to go, Val?” she asked, skipping up to them.

Valerie stood up and blinked hard. She handed Dani a backpack full of supplies and pushed the girl out the door.

“Thanks for having me, Mr. Gray,” the halfa called over her shoulder.

“We’ll talk when you get back.”

She turned and gave him a small, but sincere nod, then walked out the door.

——

They’d given the trio too much of a headstart.

Cujo had been able to pick up his scent not long after they had left her apartment, but by the time they’d gotten to the Cape Canaveral Space Center, Danny and his friends were long gone. Similarly, at Gothapalooza, news of the one halfa and two kids being in Hollywood was spreading like a wildfire.

Sightings of an unfamiliar jet zooming through the air near those locations had them pushing their limits in terms of speed and stamina. After the second sleepless night of flying, she had shaken her head.

Way too much of a headstart.

Knowing how the trio got around so quickly didn’t help in answering other questions. What were they doing? Why did they have to follow such a seemingly random path across the country to do it? From what videos they could find online, whenever Danny was spotted, he had gone after a small, shiny object. A cursed object? A gadget? An ancient artifact? Neither Valerie nor Dani had the answers, despite having conversation after conversation as they followed in the trio’s wake.

She had no idea what to think, but every hour spent chasing them only added to her worries and frustrations. She wanted to help already, she had been ready to help a couple days ago, but they still couldn’t catch up.

Valerie had been watching a no-longer-live-stream of the trio at a convention (that ended as Danny flew through the roof and out of the camera’s sight) as she, Dani, and Cujo arrived in the Place Where Dreams Are Made, according to a few signs she’d seen. They touched down on a rooftop near the convention.

Dani had changed back into her human form so she wouldn’t attract any unwanted attention in case they were spotted, given all the buzz about Phantom. She and Cujo were walking around, trying to find Danny’s scent again.

Another day, another occasion, and maybe she would’ve been enjoying herself, just hanging out with Dani. She still was, but the undercurrent of worry shared by the three of them kept things more professional.

She looked out across Hollywood's rooftops, then to the night sky, the light pollution completely obscuring her view of the stars.

She withdrew her suit and board and kicked the cement of the roof with a frustrated sigh. At this rate, catching up seemed almost impossible.

But they had to. She had to. She had to see Danny. She had to help him with all of this.

She had to say sorry.

Cujo whimpered, bringing her back to the present.

“What is it, Cujo?” Dani asked. Valerie took a step back when she saw what the dog was looking at.

A giant wave of red, unnatural and impossible, was washing over and enveloping all of the city. Any object it passed over (be it building, car, or bush) became a part of some dark carnival.

She took another step back in fear. The red swiftly engulfed their rooftop, turning it into an enormous elevated platform, like the ones circus acrobats would jump from, but this one was covered in dark colors and disturbing designs. No one on the streets seemed to be turning into creepy clowns or crazy circus acts, but that didn’t reassure her in the least. Her heart was beating right out of her chest. What kind of ghost was powerful enough to do all this? There was more to come, she was sure.

Then she caught sight of Dani, who was frozen in place, eyes wide. She stamped down the instinct to cower away from all this.

She grabbed Dani by the arm, and the girl jumped slightly.

“Forget about subtlety. We need to get to Danny now. I’m sure this has to have something to do with him. We’ll split up. I’ll fly around with my ectoscanners and you with Cujo. We’ll give the other a call if we find something.”

Valerie watched as the halfa’s expression shifted from shocked to determined. She shielded her eyes from the bright light that accompanied the halfa’s transformation. Danny’s had looked exactly the same, except in reverse.

She wondered if she would ever get used to it.

Dani called her dog over to her side and they took off, leaving Valerie to thank whoever that the girl was as brave as her ‘cousin’. She summoned her suit and took off in the opposite direction, parallel to the red line, her head whipping around as she used her ectoscanner to find the signature she knew so well.

She flew around and around for a few minutes, swallowing hard at the strange landscape. Giant circus tents and carnival rides stood in the place of the city’s high rises and other structures. People ran out onto the streets, their panicked screams filling the air.

Maybe if they’d been faster they could’ve helped Danny stop this.

She spotted a clown chasing a couple of kids into an alley and flew down to their defense.

Its face seemed to be fixed in a permanent smile; the only response to her arrival was a honk of its nose and a shift of its eyes.

From above, she summoned an ectogun, turning up the power and hoping that it worked on creepy clowns. It took a step forward, but she hesitated. What if it wasn’t evil? What if it was being controlled? What if it was a person? If anything, the past few days have opened her eyes to a world where not all ghosts were evil.

Another step closer to the two.

The gun hummed in her hands, ready to fire.

“Stop! I don’t want to—“

It ignored her and charged at the kids, a mad gleam in its eyes.

She hoped trusting her instincts wouldn’t lead her back to her bad habits.

Her finger was on the trigger, but another red light appeared on the horizon, turning everything back to normal.

Despite wanting to flinch as the red reached her, she took a shot at the clown that was still advancing on the kids.

As the light washed over them, the clown turned to a mannequin that clattered to the ground when her ectoblast hit it.

She took off without a word, too distracted by the knowledge that Danny had somehow found a way to reverse whatever had happened. It had to have been him, she was sure of it.

She flew around again, still reeling from the abrupt changes.

She spotted Dani sitting on the edge of a roof with Cujo by her side.  

“Why do I get the feeling we’re not going to find him?”

Dani shrugged. “Cujo found the rooftop he was last on, it was near the convention, but it seems like he just vanished after that.”

Valerie sighed and sat down next to her friends.

“I’m tired.”

Dani leaned back on her palms and looked up at the sky.

After some silence, she whispered, “Me, too.”

Valerie worried her lower lip. She wondered what she was going to say to Danny when she saw him next. What could she even say except ‘sorry’? But that didn’t even begin to cut it.

She looked up at the stars, too, and wondered if Danny could see them.

——

Star: which outfit do you think i should wear to the concert? A or B

Star: *sent two photos*

Val: B for sure

Val: but why ask me? wouldn’t you rather ask a certain Latina

Star: Val, i might sit with Paulina during the concert, but it’s you who im gonna hang out with after

Star: besides you said you’d be late to the whole thing anyway

Valerie sighed and stuffed her phone back in her pocket.

Something suddenly stirred within her. She looked around and, sure enough, the ghost boy was flying overhead. He whooped and made loop-de-loops in the air as he went, screaming something about summer that she didn’t really pay any mind to.

Valerie cracked her knuckles and summoned her suit.

A/N: I’m disregarding the order of the episodes so D-Stabilized happens before Reality Trip. I really liked this prompt and I loved writing this. Thanks for having me, Phic Phight.

#my writing #team ghost #reality trip #halfaqueen #seeminglynoticeable #valerie gray #dani phantom #danny phantom #my stuff #phic phight #phic phight 2020 #cujo

[lonely-bored-writer]

Is Everything Okay? Ch. 11

Danny yawned, leaning heavily into the back of his seat. Rubbing his bleary eyes with yet another yawn, dropping his pencil onto the desk. The week was finally over. Trial was supposed to start soon, it's been delayed because of everything that had happened. Even with everything looking up a heavy, gloomy sense of dread filled Daniel and wasn't going away. In the past few days the ghosts have been letting up... but that didn't mean his been having anymore sleep.

Every night, or should he say morning, around three AM something woke him. He doesn't know what, or why it was always at that time, but it kept happening. He'd stay up for two hours before his body finally decided he can sleep. That didn't make it any better. The sleep that followed was restless and fitful. He would wake up through out for brief moments, and he could stay still, always waking up in different positions

Danny jumped at the sound of a ping. His eyes landed on his now lighten up phone, a small smile slid its way on to his face. It was time for the one other thing that has become a constant for him. It happened every night after his dad without fail, and without planning. Every night around eight he would go down to the park, and usually Dash would end up showing up. It also helped Danny's mood that no ghosts would pop up during that time.

With a smile, the teen shrugged on jacket. A laugh escaped him when he realized the sheer size of the striped hooded jacket. Tucker had really thought he was going to grow into his dad's genes. Danny smiled when he realized that he never realized just how much clothing gifts Tucker had given him. Pulling the zipper up, Danny grabbed the spare key Lancer had given him. The older man had insisted Danny have one, after the teen kept declining his offers to drive him places.

Grabbing his wallet and phone, Danny slipped on his favorite red converses and made his way out the door. The smile still stayed sat on his lips as he plugged in his music and made for the walk to the park. For once, not in the mood to fly.

Danny hummed softly to the beat of the music, kicking his legs ever so softly. The chains still squeaked noisily into the night air, Daniel made a mental note to see if all it needed was oil. The young teen kept his eyes when he heard the shift in the swings beside him shift, the sharp shrill from the chains piercing through his music. His sapphire eyes popped open at the sound of the unexpected voice.

"Did expect to see you here, blue eyes." The purple haired teen smiled, flicking the died bud into the grass. Danny chuckled at the nickname Chris had given him, the older teen's explanation had been that he had eyes that almost seemed to glow.

"Didn't think you ever left the school roof." Danny joked, smiling back at the teen. That got hime a shove to the shoulder and a laugh from Chris.

"So..." Chris broke the growing silence. "How are things?" He questioned, starting to swing. The squeaking of the chains filled the empty park. Danny's the bought quickly supplied that every since he had gotten his powers and ghosts attack has raised, people didn't spend much time in the park after five.

"Things are starting to look up, so that's a plus" Danny shrugged, turning to face the other male. The rusty chains crossing before him. "How about you? How's skipping courses so far?" Chris released an exaggerated sigh, twisting slightly in the swing.

"Gotta start heading to classes." Chris grumbled, the corners of his lips tugging downward. "One of the teachers talked Principal Ishiyama into giving me a second chance. Starting Monday, I gotta go to classes or I'm expelled. Along with a shit ton of detention." Danny bit his lip to stop from smirking at the look his friend gave him.

"You must be proud." Danny joked, receiving a cocky grin from the goth. "I'm surprise one of your teachers even knew you existed enough to vouch for you." A chuckle escaped both teens.

"I know! Can you believe they wouldn't even tell me who?" Chris laughed, shaking his head. "Then again I don't know any teachers. Great friends with the janitor though." Chris pursed his lips, a thought fall look taking on his features. Danny outright laughed, causing the purple haired teen to stick a pierced tongue out.

"You pierced your tongue?" Danny's laughter quieted, a questioning eyebrow rose. Even with the confused face, the playful tone was clear through cobalt blue eyes.

"I don't know what your talking about." Chris crossed his arms, a challenging look slid to his face. Danny narrowed his eyes, a smirk slipping onto his lips. However, before the raven haired teen could even utter a response, a blonde clad in red took his focus.

"Hey Dash." Danny greeted with a smile, his eyes flickered to the confuse looking goth before him. When his eyes landed back on the jock, the same look of confusion clouded his features. "Uh, Chris this is Dash... Dash this is Chris." Danny made awkward hand movements between the two polar opposites.

"Hey man." Dash greeted, he offered a smile even if his eyes shone with confusion and suspicion. Chris only nodded, seeming ready to drop the greeting at that. That was until a certain younger teen kicked him in the shin. Giving the older teen a pointed look.

"Yea, hey Dash." Chris nodded, a much less forced looking smile slid onto his lips when the jock relaxed. A few seconds of tense silence followed the trio, only the squeaking of the chains filled the stale air.

"So, what can you guys tell me about a 'Coach Tetslaff'? Apparently I have her for second." Dash and Danny shared a look, a laugh pulled out from both teen. Danny shook his head, clearing his laughter. But the smile couldn't be shifted off his lips.

"Oh, what can we tell you about her..."

Daniel shifted in his seat, pacing the cup from hand to hand, his leg bounced underneath the table. His eyes kept shifting around the office, even thought by now he memorized pretty much every aspect of the room. Without having to look he could tell you that the owl shaped charm that hung right below the poster of the cat hanging from a tree was a slightly off kilt, and looked ready to drop from it's perch. He could also tell you about how many holes from nails littered the pale green walls of the room. His ran a hand through his unruly hair, huffing slightly when it landed back in front of his eye.

"Sorry for the wait." Anderson offered an apologetic smile as he entered, taking a seat at his desk. He dropped a beige colored folder onto his desk, straightened his back, a somber look taking his features. "We have a case hearing this Thursday. You will have to miss school for this, and so would a few people who have seen you and Mr. Masters together." Danny's frame tensed almost instantly.

"I'll-I'll have to testify?" Daniel asked, his hands tightening around the mug. That same dreaded feeling curling around his chest at the apologetic nod the agent gave him. "But...But Smith said that the photos would be enough and I wouldn't..."

"I know." Anderson sighed, leaning back slightly in the chair. Almost in a look of defeat. "We tried to bargain the case to exempt from having you speak, but the defense has a strong case. We were able to get me as your lawyer, which is a plus seeing as I have been overseeing this case from the start."

"You're a lawyer?"

"Yup. I know, odd, but I am a pretty good one." Anderson offered a smile when he noticed some of the tension leaving the teen's rigid shoulders. "But we need to talk about tactics. You friend, Tucker Foley, he will be called to the stand. His mother had already given permission. Along with him, Lancer, your family, you, Vlad, and a Spectra will be called as well." Danny almost spit out the water he had been drinking at the name of a certain ghost.

"Penelope Spectra?" Daniel questioned, trying to keep his voice as unwavering as he could. He didn't do a very good job when Anderson's eyes furrowed, scanning the open folder before him.

"Yes, her. Child psychologist. Why?"

"She works with Vlad." Danny bit out, swallowing harshly around the lump that was forming. The familiar feeling of something clutching at his heart and lungs shot fear through him. He bit the inside of his cheek in an attempt to ground himself, he couldn't panic. He'll be fine, Spectra couldn't tip the scales in Vlad's favor... could she?

"Danny" Anderson's concerned voice broke through the veil of fear and paranoia that had started to clear Danny's thoughts. Taking a deep breath, the teen focused his eyes back on the man. "She won't be able to do much. She's only there to give her insight. We have one of our own, an unbiased opinion." The anxiety that had been building, ready to burst, calmed at those words.

Danny released a sigh of relief, even if he knew Anderson heard it, he couldn't care. Things seem like he could win. He could actually get Vlad out of his hair once and for all. His dad would be safe, his mum wouldn't have to deal with the man's intensive flirting. Danny didn't bother trying to squish down the hope that began to bubble, instead he gave Anderson a small smile.

"So, what do I need to do?"

#Danny Phantom #danny fenton #IM SORRY DANNY #danny phantom fanfiction #fanfiction #fandom #fanfic #fanfiction.net #Fandoms #Is Everything Okay?

[shinygoldstar]

Snowflake Part 8 (DannyMay Rain)

Part 1 | Part 7 | AO3 added | Part 9

**Jack and Maddie are probably OOC, the situation is so different from canon that it's difficult to guess how they'll react while keeping in character

for anyone who wants fluffy happy ending, previous chapter was your last stop.

.

The clouds are extra gloomy as of late. The people of Amity hasn't seen a dash of sunlight for several weeks now. Rain has yet to fall, the gloom continued to lower the temperature in the city. It appears things are only going to get colder. Danny shivers in his cocoon of blankets.

"Jack? Do you think we should take Danny to see the doctor?" Maddie asked, looking at Danny and his friends from the kitchen. Jack tinkered with a new invention in his hand, his brows furrowed deep in thought.

"I don't know Mads. His new average temperature is below normal human range, we're not even sure what temperature is hypothermia for him anymore. We've tried to warm him up but his conditions hasn't gotten any better. This-", Jack sighed "I think this might be a symptom from the ecto-radiation. I- our invention did this to him. I assumed it was a one-time thing with V-Man's case. I should've taken more notes, asked him more... I tried finding his phone number in our college stuff but his contact details were never updated." Jack cradled his head in his hands, "I should've been more careful about the portal with our kids in the house..."

"We should've been more careful. We never experienced any side effects for so long that we were convinced that ectoplasm couldn't harm humans." Maddie's voice cracked "Our sample size was just us two after Vlad left and we never had any reason to test ectoplasm at higher voltage- we should've been more careful- our children!"

Jack patted her back, eyes downcast, "We were wrong; it took Danny for us to see how dangerous it is, how little we know about it. We need to fix this." Jack said firmly, making a promise to himself. They'll get through this together.

-

Meanwhile in the living room, Danny and his friends were watching a movie. With Danny on unable to leave the house due to his condition, Sam and Tucker came over to keep him company. Danny shivered again. He quickly placed the mug of hot cocoa back on the table in front of him to avoid spilling the liquid.

"Danny- dude are you really okay? That's like the fifth time you shivered since we started the movie. Do we need to get your parents?" Tucker asked. Sam lowered the TV volume to focus on Danny.

Danny tried to hide his shivering, shoulders trembling under the blankets. "I'm fine guys, just a little under the weather today. It'll probably get better once the weather warms up."

Outside the window, rain began to fall.

A fleck of white.

#danny phantom #dannymay2021 #snowflake au #ooc characters maybe #goldpost

[ecto-american]

Like Father Like Daughter P2

On AO3 here || First Part Here

Summary: "Dawn, would you like to help Grandma and Grandpa figure out some things in the lab?" Dawn's eyes immediately flickered from that ominous glowing green back to baby blue in excitement over the idea of finally being allowed in the lab. She nodded eagerly.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

Danny openly stared at the clock, the voices of his coworkers muffled and blending together in his mind as they were contributing. He didn't care, quite honestly, about the meeting. About the subject matter, about the business contract being negotiated, the budget cuts and additions. He wasn't even sure what the meeting was about to begin with, just that he had to be there.

He tore his gaze away to observe the man who was talking at the moment. Some older woman, he could never remember her name, but he knew that she had a husband and three grandchildren that she gushed often about. The woman was going on and on and on for what felt like forever, about things Danny could have just read in ten minutes in an email. But then it would result in the dreaded "reply all" loop of technology illiterate businessfolk trying to communicate private matters. It drove Danny nuts.

He picked up the pen and glanced at the notebook in front of him. Everybody around him had been scribbling notes like crazy, numbers and key words covering pages of the pad they were supplied with, or even on the devices or within notebooks they brought themselves. Danny had doodled a spaceship with a dog astronaut that was exploring Pluto in his. He never bothered taking notes, he didn't see the purpose. The administrative assistant always emailed everybody a copy of what happened during the meeting anyway. He sighed, bored as he began to doodle a cat alien for the dog to battle against.

Wednesdays were Danny's least favorite day. In the morning, while good old CEO Vlad Masters was out golfing with his dad, of all people (Danny could never understand how that regular meetup even began, especially considering his Dad, in his neverending grace, always lost horrifically), while all the department heads had a meeting. It lasted all morning. And was followed by an all afternoon meeting with Vlad himself. Meaning, he couldn't slip away to go ghost to deal with a problem, leaving Team Phantom to pick up his unintentional slack. He did use a duplicate often, but it still left him very unable to focus properly on PowerPoint presentations about who knows what.

Danny wasn't even sure what he really did at the job half the time. Hell, if he didn't have a family, regardless of how much the other halfa had changed, he wouldn't have accepted the job offer. Damn, did it have pay beyond Danny could ever imagine making though, a generous amount of vacation time and benefits so good that even Jazz said he'd be an absolute fool for turning it down, especially since Dawn was still just on the way when Vlad had made the offer. Probably partly out of pity. The couple were making ends meet fine, but they definitely weren't living the high life in their old apartment in the not-so-great side of town. Not their fault that the town needed protecting, and that this cut deeply into work and sleeping hours.

But, especially considering the billionaire's weird midlife crisis of sorts some years back and all the therapy business he gave Jazz, Danny supposed working there wasn't so bad. Job was easy enough. He suspected Vlad just made up his job as an excuse to give him one. Danny couldn't even recall the name of his position. But in a half hour, catered lunch would be here, the only good part of the day. Then Vlad would drone for a while, and he could go home to his family.

He was already getting himself excited with his plans for the night. He was going to take Dawn to the park so they could play on Dawn's new favorite playground attraction: the jungle gym (something Danny, of course, also played on). Afterwards they were going to pick up pizza for dinner and meet her mom at home. Once Dawn was tucked in bed and a duplicate watching over her, the couple would go on their normal nightly patrol together. Dawn had surprisingly never woken up to her parents coming home, injured or walking in on them while they were bandaging up. Danny considered themselves lucky. Both of them wanted to keep the entire Team Phantom part of their lives a secret from her. There was no reason for her to have to know or understand.

Yet, despite this, despite the occasional tantrums, the exhausting pregnancy itself and the long nights of back to back ghosts with a colicky newborn, Danny was thrilled. They never thought that they could have a child. Well, meaning, they could, but the details always never added up to where it could be a reality.

He remembered that one night, a particularly bad one. The night had been full to the brim of ghosts, leaving the halfa absolutely exhausted. Even with the full support of a Team Phantom, whose membership had expanded since that first ghost fight in freshman year, he was still bloodied and bruised, barely able to stay awake when home. His new wife, the two having only been married for five months at the time, had to unlock the door to their shared apartment for him, her own body sore from the rough night. His hands were shaking so badly from exhaustion and pain.

"Sit," she told him, and she pointed to the couch. Danny didn't have the energy to complain. He sat, and she fetched the kit for them.

 Together, they began to slowly clean themselves and each other up. Occasional quiet requests to pass burn cream or to inquire if stitches were needed. To help with an injury that was out of their own reach. Once done, neither could bother cleaning up from their first aid. Danny just shifted to lean into her, and she wrapped her arms around him in a light hug. Soon, they were laying on the couch together, silent before they began to idly chat. The subject of Jazz and her growing family came up, and a thought hit them both.

"You know, I think I'm content with being an auntie," his wife said softly, and Danny nodded best he could. She sounded incredibly hurt, and Danny didn't blame her. Even though neither had really had their heart dead-set on children and a family of their own, it never being their biggest wish or desire, it still hurt to know that it was something they couldn't have.

"I'd worry too much," was all he said in response. Her loose hug around him tightened. "It's too risky."

It was unofficially decided that night, later confirmed in the following evening's conversation. The ghost fighting while pregnant, the reality that one of them may not come home one night at least half-alive, the child being a target for their enemies, and Danny's biggest concern, the inheritance of powers. Danny had the reputation for years now that he was clumsy, and he had time to master his powers and rehearse the lies and excuses.

Of course, it could never be truly confirmed unless a child came into play, but the possibilities scared Danny. Their childhood would never be normal, constantly struggling with this incredible power and all the intimate influences of ghosts and ghost hunting, saddled with the moral obligation to eventually begin protecting the city like their parents did. They could never have a truly normal life. The couple had their on and off days when it came to how they felt about the responsibility, but it would be awful to unintentionally pressure a child into accepting such a big commitment.

So they remained childless for years, until there was an accident. That's how almost all of Danny's biggest life changing events seemed to happen.

His wife had given him a small, sly but anxious smile when she had slipped an envelope across the table towards him at their little breakfast table. It was early in the morning, but the two were still awake. Danny from ghost hunting, her from a night shift job. Danny raised an eyebrow at it, picking it up as he sipped coffee.

"What's this?" he asked. He got a small smirk in response.

"Open it," she encouraged him. So Danny did, and it was a father's day card. He stared at her, absolutely baffled by it.

"Did you get me the wrong envelope?" he asked. She shook her head no.

"Nope. I just found out a few days ago. I figured we could go ahead and celebrate now."

 Danny's chair practically flew as he burst out of his seat. His wife was soon in his arms, both laughing as they hugged excitedly. At the time, they let themselves not worry about the questions that always plagued them. The couple decided to just enjoy the moment.

With the announcement came a whole new assortment of life changes. His wife ended up getting a new job, a better one. Vlad made his offer to Danny. That offer led them to move out of their apartment and into their first real house.

Danny watched another man contribute, droning on in the absolute most boring as fuck voice. How the man's family could stand to listen to it, he could never guess. Maybe he actually had some sort of life in his voice then though? Danny was now curious. While he was watching intently, putting up a good facade that he was paying any sort of attention, the man's voice was just muffled in his ears. God, this meeting was boring as hell. What was going on?

He stole a glance over at his neighbor's paper. Oh, they were discussing more budget stuff, numbers about increasing budgeting to more researching nano-whatevers with cutbacks they were making to uniforms because they changed sweatshops in China or something. Woooohooo.

"Mr. Fenton, you've been quiet. What are your thoughts on the matter?" Fuck, he was caught. All eyes were on him as the boring-voiced man stared at him, almost accusatory. While he did not fear for his job at all, Vlad made sure of his job security, he still squirmed a bit under the gaze. He sat up straight.

"You often know my stance. I think that we should put money towards raises," Danny pulled an answer out of his ass, giving a sheepish grin. "Money always encourages people to work harder, less motivation to leave."

The boring-voiced man still looked at him sketchily, but nodded.

"Yes, I suppose that's always an option," he said, tone a bit huffily. "So what you're thinking is when it comes to the new research budget, paying the scientists more as opposed to buying new lab equipment?" Danny felt a small bit of relief at his bullshit answer apparently being close enough to the topic to reasonably seem fitting.

"Well, depends on the need. I'd assume those scientists could give a proper answer better than I could. I don't really deal with the lab much. I think they'd also like their voice being heard and would appreciate being able to weigh the options for themselves," Danny replied. Boring-voiced man nodded in approval before beginning to drone on and on again before he was cut off by another man, who began a counter argument. Danny leaned back in his seat, sighing softly to himself as his eyes darted to the clock.

Danny noticed several other of his coworkers steal a glance at the clock, and thankfully, somebody else brought up the suggestion of taking the remaining five minutes before lunch came for everybody to sort out their notes. Danny glanced at his "notes". Maybe he should just buy a sketchbook instead of wasting Vlad's paper. Eh, who cared.

Everybody agreed, and people fell into a small explosion of shuffling and light conversation as his coworkers began to relax. Danny whipped his phone out. He scrolled to check his messages. Facebook telling him that Tucker had posted a photo of his son, Tucker Jr., a text from Jazz asking about if he and his wife wanted to do a double-date with her and her husband, a few other misc things. He ignored most of them for now in favor of going to his conversation history with his mom, sending a text.

 Hey mom, love you. How's Dawn?

Once sent, he replied to Jazz and liked Tucker's photo. It was a simple photo of Tucker with his son, posing together at one of his son's school events. He checked his other apps before he got a reply.

 Hey sweetie, Dawn's doing good. Love you too, have a good day.

He gave a soft sigh of relief. He was just constantly waiting, worried, for the day he'd get a text asking all sorts of questions. Why is Dawn glowing? Why are her eyes glowing? Why is she flickering invisible? A part of him secretly wished Dawn did have powers. Like father, like daughter. But with great power comes great responsibility. She didn't need to be pressured into taking on such a responsibility like protecting the town. However, Dawn was growing up, and she seemed perfectly human.

Of course, Danny watched her like a hawk for any signs the second Dawn was born, constantly hovering over her (figuratively and literally) for anything. Nothing, but Tucker had pointed out that it may be a while before they began showing up, assuming Dawn had any. Jazz agreed. Vlad had suggested that Danny did a few power demonstrations in front of her, including going ghost, to see if she'd copy him. Danny did go ghost, and he flashed his eyes, turned invisible (turns out it made for the ultimate game of peek-a-boo), made her icicles and showed off glowing concentrated green energy in his hands. All it resulted in was wide, delighted and fascinated eyes, an occasional soft baby coo and, later on, eager demands for him to teach her how to do that. But of course, he couldn't if she didn't have anything to work with.

Danny broke from his thoughts as he was handed lunch. Fancy sandwich and chips, with a drink. He smiled and gave a brief thanks as he accepted it, and he began to unwrap and eat it. People around him continued to talk, but Danny tuned them out. He wasn't actively trying to be unfriendly. Just that most people around him were so much older, outside of his daughter, there wasn't much for him to really talk with them. They were borderline retirement age, often talking of grandchildren and the weather being too cold here. Another reason Danny suspected Vlad just flat out made up his job. Everybody around him was easily in their sixties, and Danny was turning forty-four soon. To his delight though, due to all the ghost fighting, he was in pretty good shape compared to the coworkers within the office around his age. When he first started, people had assumed he was younger than he really was. It was flattering.

A thought hit him, and he paused. If Dawn even had powers, would she truly be delighted in having them? Would they just be a novelty to her? Danny always feared her constantly losing control of her powers, much like he did. Jazz had thankfully been so helpful through those negative thoughts.

"Danny, you've been a half-ghost for well over half your life now. You can teach her, assuming she even inherits ghost powers, how to control them. She'll grow up with parents who know about her powers and who will love and accept her no matter what, and even if something were to happen, would and could protect her at all costs, grow up knowing how to use and control these powers. You're also so good with the boys, Danny. Both of you are, I know you'll be great parents. You have very little to worry about. What children need more than anything is a loving and safe environment that nurtures and cares for what they need most. I have no doubt you can provide that. You save Amity Park every day."

But tricky obstacle to also overcome was not just the unknowing, but the very realistic possibility of Dawn getting powers when at a day care and absolutely freaking everybody there. Ghost powers were a huge deal, and it wasn't worth the risk if they were discovered. Dani suggested that he stay at home with a duplicate, but Danny reminded her that this would drain him completely very quickly if he was constantly duplicated to be with Dawn and at work full time, especially since he often duplicated to go and fight ghosts when he couldn't slip away for a while. Vlad had offered, but while Danny did truly believe that Vlad had his weird little redemption arc and was practically a new man, he was still not about to trust him alone with his little girl all day. His wife would have absolutely never stood for it either. She'd actually probably kill him if he even brought up the idea as a serious suggestion.

As they were still debating what to do, his parents had come to visit the couple. Maddie had taken a seat in the living room, in the armchair. Danny was already sprawled out on the couch, his little girl snoozing happily on his chest on her stomach. He had a hand on her back, protectively, to assure that she wouldn't wiggle off, or, god forbid, this be the time she used ghost powers and floated off.

Danny had casually brought up that they had looked into local daycares when Maddie had offered,

"Oh Danny, that's just silly. Dawn can come stay with us during the day."

 Danny immediately tensed up.

"Mom, I'm just not sure," he replied, and he knew that he sounded defensive. The idea immediately made him uncomfortable.

 Of course, he trusted his parents. His parents would never do anything to hurt Dawn. They absolutely adored and treasured their grandchildren, and they took great pride in the little crowd of "future ghost-hunters" as they put it. But his parents also didn't know his secret.

 "She wants to go back to work in the future, and we already keep the boys," Maddie replied with a frown. "Danny, it's not any problem to leave Dawn with us while you two work. We don't mind."

"It's not that," Danny replied, and it really wasn't that. What if her ghost powers activated, assuming they existed? What if they thought she was a ghost or being possessed? What if... His eyes flickered to the infant on his chest. She was making precious little noises in her sleep, oblivious to her dad's worries. "I-I-I, just, you know. It may not be safe for her. You and dad are so active in the lab, what if you accidentally spill something on her?"

 His mom looked a bit hurt, and Danny winced. He didn't know why he didn't just tell them. There was nothing stopping him. He knew his parents would love and accept him no matter what. He had confirmation of this multiple times. But how do you even begin to bring it up? After everything they had been through as Phantom vs FentonWorks? They never dissected or destroyed him, but they had come pretty damn close on multiple occasions. How could he look at his parents, who spent so much of his life, well over half by this point, hunting his other half down, and tell them who he really was? He wasn't sure. He wasn't ready. By now, he figured he never truly would be ready.

"We wash our hands religiously, and what would it matter anyway? She's human, even if, somehow, something got onto her, she'd be perfectly fine. Any and all chemicals and liquids and gadgets we have only target and harm ghosts," Maddie lightly argued. He flinched, and he gripped onto Dawn's onesie in worry. "Danny, we'd never let her into the lab anyway, and we've been keeping everything down there anyway. You know how nosy the boys are. They get into everything."

 "Uh...just...let me think about it. And we both have to talk about it, ya know?"

His grip around his drink tightened. He was...oddly very accustomed to lying to his parents. There had been many times that he had debated coming clean, from situations ranging from being so close to being dissected or experimented on while under their capture to just a heat of the moment feeling after a hard day and wanting their full comfort.

But now? How do you come clean to your parents after lying to them for over thirty years now? So much of his relationship with them was now built on a lie, how could you ever come clean from that? Recover from that? His parents could never look at him the same way again. Of course, Danny knew they'd still love him, but they'd be crushed to know how close they had been to destroying their only son, devastated at the decades of lies. Danny planned on taking his secret to the grave.

Soon, the door opened, and a familiar white-haired billionaire strolled in.

"Afternoon," he greeted the room, and everybody, even Danny, returned the light greeting. The billionaire gestured to the table still full of food. "Feel free to continue eating, I just wanted to get a small head start, see if I can end a bit earlier today."

Everybody murmured in agreement, and Vlad began to drone on and on. Annnnd now was time for Danny to completely tune out. He saw his phone screen light up on the table in front of him. It was on completely silent, no vibration, so thankfully nobody paid attention to it but him. He noticed it was a new photo message from his mother.

A smile broke, and he went to check it. He expected a cute photo of Dawn sitting in front of the TV, staring at Crash Nebula. What he got instead made his heart drop into his stomach.

A device screen's reading. While the device wasn't familiar, he recognized the general software. A ghost detector, and the words lit up on the display read:

 Name: Unknown

 Age: Unknown, est existence: 1wk

 Pwr lvl: ERROR 412

 Misc: ERROR 412

Another message came in.

Honey something's wrong with Dawn. Ghostly wrong.

Danny's heart pounded like crazy as he frantically typed back.

I'm on my way home. Don't do anything.

We're pros, Danny. Dad and I are going to check her out in the lab to figure out what's wrong. Don't worry, she'll be safe.

Danny's hands were shaking uncontrollably, but he still managed to response.

DONT DO ANYTHING IM ON MY WAY

"Daniel, would you like to rejoin us today?"

Vlad's annoyed voice caused Danny to jump to his feet, his chair flying backwards and his coworkers staring at him.

"Vlad, there'sanemergencyIgottagoit'sDawn," was half-screamed in a blurred sentence, but Vlad seemed to catch it.

"You owe me an explanation by tomorrow morning!" his voice shouted back. To Danny's coworkers, it was a threat. To Danny, he knew Vlad probably caught on exactly what had happened, it not, was close, and that he would let it slide. But he had to keep up a face at work.

Danny zoomed down the hallways, ignoring startled gasps and concerned questions. He managed to avoid everybody as he ran out to the front door of the building. Practically slamming the door open, he made a mad run for the parking garage. He ignored his car though, instead using the isolated building as a safe place to go ghost before flying at top speed towards FentonWorks.

Maddie had stared, dumbfound at the readings until Jack had come inside. Despite rescanning over and over and over again, the device would report the same information.

"Hey Mads!" his voice boomed, and he heard it accompanied with an excited "Hi Grandma!"

Jack stepped into the living room, along with her grandson, who immediately plopped down next to Dawn to watch the cartoon. They began an eager conversation/light argument about the cooler villain in the series. Jack came over, leaning over to give his wife a kiss. She happily returned it, smiling weakly as he took a seat next to her.

"Did you get the Fenton Finder 4.0 going?" he asked curiously, snatching the invention up before Maddie could even reply. He stared at the readings given, and his face fell into an immediate pout. "Aww, you and Dawn went ghost-hunting without me?" His eyes widened a bit. "Danny's not gonna be pleased about that. He doesn't even like the idea of Dawn going into the lab."

"Jack, can I talk to you in the kitchen," Maddie asked, her voice hushed as she glanced at Dawn skeptically. Jack gave her an odd look, but nodded.

She spared another glance at Dawn, who was oblivious to the situation as she and her cousin hummed the Crash Nebula theme song together as a new episode began to play. In the kitchen, Maddie glanced once more at Dawn.

"Mads, is everything okay?" Jack snapped her out of her trance.

"Jack, that reading...," she said slowly. Maddie was slowly connecting everything that happened that day in her mind. The eyes, the sudden disappearance while she was making lunch, the glowing. The revelation was slowly making her feel sick to her stomach. "It was reading Dawn."

Jack stared at her in bewilderment before glancing over at Dawn as well. She was pumping her fists to and from the TV, imitating Crash Nebula's hand laser noises as her cousin had begun to stand up, jumping up and down excitedly as he zoomed around the living room, pretending to fly.

"Are you sure?" he questioned. Maddie reached over to push the button to rescan, adjusting Jack's hand so that he was pointing the device towards Dawn.

Within moments, the reading came back. Same as before, reporting that the ghost was barely ten feet from them, in the exact same position Dawn was sitting. Jack swallowed hard, and he watched the little girl throw her hands up in the air, making an explosion noise to copy the TV.

"Maybe it's just like Danny," he tried to reason. "He set off everything. She is a spitting image of him." Maddie shook her head, biting her lip as she put a hand to her chest, watching Dawn.

"That's not it, Jack," she whispered. "Earlier, she...she seemed to be glowing. And, when I was making lunch, she was in time out, and she...she just vanished and reappeared, Jack. Out of thin air." Maddie took a deep breath. "And...her eyes. They...they glowed green. And..."

Maddie didn't know how to continue. Jack didn't speak. Both of the Fenton adults had their eyes locked on Dawn. Her cousin had lost interest in the show, having gone to get a toy from the toy box. Dawn was still glued to the screen, looking exactly like Danny did when he used to sit and watch cartoons. Baby blue eyes widely shining as she watched the spaceship take off, black hair fluffed up and fists clenched in excitement.

"Go Crash!" she squealed. Maddie exhaled deeply.

"Jack, she looked exactly like Phantom when her eyes glowed."

The statement clearly startled Jack, who broke his stare to gawk at Maddie. She tore her gaze away too to stare back at him. He was clearly disturbed by her announcement.

"Mads, that's crazy," he suddenly blurted out.

"I'm serious! The way she looked at me, she..." Maddie stole another glance at Dawn. "I'd know that face anywhere."

Silence fell over them for a while before Jack finally broke it.

"Where do we go from here then?" he asked. Maddie shrugged.

"I don't even fully understand what's going on. I don't know where to do if I don't understand," she confessed, rubbing the back of her neck as she cracked it. "I mean, to my memory, Danny never did anything like glow or have his eyes change or the like. It can't just be something that she inherited from Danny. So...what is this?"

Jack glanced anxiously towards Dawn.

"Do you think...she's a ghost?" he dared to ask. Maddie didn't answer. She didn't know herself. "We need to take her to the lab and just...check. She could be in danger." He quickly clarified, "of course, nothing dangerous. It's just...there's so many questions. Maybe we need a different scanner."

"I agree. I'm going to let Danny know," Maddie replied. She motioned for Jack to hand her the reading, and she took a picture of the reading before sending a message.

Honey something's wrong with Dawn. Ghostly wrong.

She slipped the phone into her pocket. Jack followed her into the living room. Maddie glanced at Jack, telling him silently to pay attention as her head lightly jerked to Dawn. She reached over and turned the TV off. Dawn's face immediately fell into a scowl, and she glared up at her grandparents. Jack gasped as he saw exactly what Maddie was talking about. Glowing green eyes glared at them, and Phantom's familiar scowl was on her face.

"Grandma! Stop that!"

"Dawn, would you like to help Grandma and Grandpa figure out some things in the lab?"

Dawn's eyes immediately flickered from that ominous glowing green back to baby blue in excitement over the idea of finally being allowed in the lab. She nodded eagerly.

"Yeah!"

Jack smiled, reaching out his arms for her. She eagerly jumped up and into his arms, and he picked her up, pecking her cheek. She gave an excited giggle. Maddie felt her phone vibrate, and she checked it.

I'm on my way home. Don't do anything.

In this instance, Maddie understood Danny's worry. He always seemed so fearful of ghosts. He seemed to always vanish and hide when ghosts came around. Great when he was a kid, and Maddie herself was fearful of his and Jazz's safety. But now, he still seemed to hold that fear and tended to run when ghosts came about.

We're pros, Danny. Dad and I are going to check her out in the lab to figure out what's wrong. Don't worry, she'll be safe.

Maddie was startled when she got a reply almost instantly. DONT DO ANYTHING IM ON MY WAY He was terrified of the situation. Not that she blamed him. She decided to not reply.

"Honey, do you want to come into the lab too?" Maddie asked her grandson, who was occupied with his toy. He shook his head.

"I wanna watch Little Einstein," he replied. Maddie nodded, and she handed him the TV remote. The boy immediately plopped to the ground in front of the TV. She pecked the top of his head.

"Stay out of trouble, if you need us just yell down, okay?" He nodded.

Jack carried Dawn into the lab behind Maddie.

Please be okay, please be okay.

Danny prayed to himself as FentonWorks came into view. He forced himself to go faster. Despite not needing to breathe, he felt like he was choking on his anxiety as he phased in. He completely ignored the entire home, going straight for the lab.

"STOP!" he shouted, coming into view as he skidded himself to a stop in the air of the lab. As expected, within moments, both Fenton adults had an ectoblaster in their hands and pointed at him.

To his odd relief, despite his parents apparent suspicions, they still had immediately put themselves in front of Dawn, who had been previously sitting on a lab table. She had moved to stand on the table when he shouted, peeking curiously over her grandfather's shoulder and smiling brightly at him. She knew who he was, but he looked at her desperately, shaking his head slightly no. She looked confused.

"What are you doing here spook?" Jack snapped accusingly. A free hand had moved back to place a protective hand on Dawn, assuring himself that she was out of harm's way.

"What are you doing?" he demanded to know. He mentally slapped himself in the face. Stupid, stupid Fenton. Would have been a much better move to come in as Fenton, not Phantom. The Fenton adults glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes.

"Phantom possessing her's out of the question," Jack murmured to Maddie, but it was loud enough that Danny could catch it.

"I'd never do such a thing to her!" Danny immediately blurted out. Maddie narrowed her eyes at him.

"Why do you care? You're a ghost." Danny had no clue how to answer that. Why would a ghost care about a Fenton kid? He had no explanation.

"Grandma?" Dawn's voice spoke up quietly.

"Not now honey," Maddie quickly dismissed her, and she pressed into Jack to better shield the girl from the ghost, but she never took her eyes off of the enemy.

Danny's eyes were trained on Dawn as he saw tiny fingers grab Maddie's shoulder so she could use her grandmother as leverage so she could look over at the ghost. Maddie used a hand to lightly push her face down a bit, protectively trying to shield her. Danny's mouth felt dry, and a strange rush of excitement ran through him as he noticed Dawn's blue eyes flash green in annoyance.

Dawn stepped back, huffing annoyingly. She sat back down on the lab table, stretching her leg out wobbly as she tested if she wanted to jump the long distance (for a kid anyway) to the floor. Soon, she decided it was worth the risk, and she hopped down. The noise made Maddie jump, and she spun around to see Dawn standing on the ground. Before she could do anything, the girl darted for the ghost.

"Dawn!" Maddie cried out. To her horror, Phantom held his arms out for her, and Dawn was eagerly running to him. No, no, no! She knew that Dawn was too trusting of ghosts.

Jack opened fire. Phantom yelped as it hit him square in the chest, sending him back into the wall. Dawn stopped in her steps, staring wide-eyed. Maddie reached out to grab Dawn by the arm, to pull her back. The girl jumped in surprise, but allowed herself to be pulled out.

"Honey, that ghost is dangerous!" Maddie scolded her, pulling her close to her chest as she knelt close to the girl's level. She took note of Dawn's confusion.

"But-" she began.

"No buts!" Dawn's lower lip quivered, and Maddie pulled her into a tight, protective hug. She must be scared.

Phantom was quick to recover from the blast, already on his feet and standing on the lab floor, eyes darting from adult to adult. His hand was on his chest, some smoke and a light burn forming from where he was hit. He was half-surprised that Jack even hit him.

"Look," he began, but he stopped upon hearing the ectogun in Jack's hand began to whine as it charged.

"Jack Fenton will not allow any harm to come to this family while he is alive!" he declared, narrowing his eyes. "Take your leave, spook."

"No!" Dawn yelled, and Jack spared a slight glance to his granddaughter. The child was distressed, wiggling in Maddie's arms.

"Dawn, it's not safe!" Maddie scolded her, and she let out a gasp when Dawn slipped through her grasp. Literally.

Maddie reached out to grab at her again, but Dawn was already running for Phantom. The ghost immediately scooped her into his arms, holding her tightly, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He shifted to move so an arm was supporting her, his other resting on her back.

"PUT HER DOWN RIGHT NOW!" Maddie yelled, holding her ectogun up to him.

Dawn looked at her with an expression she had never seen before on her. Pure fear. Her fists had begun to clutch Phantom's jumpsuit, and Phantom had shifted his stance so that if either Fenton shot at him, it wouldn't hit Dawn. Dawn was mostly hidden from view, but she could see twin glowing green eyes belonging to her peeking from behind Phantom. Phantom looked worried more than anything else, to her surprise. The resemblance was uncanny, and it unnerved her greatly.

Maddie's confident demeanor faltered, and her lowered the ectogun a bit. Jack glanced at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Jack, we can't," she whispered to her husband. "It only harms ghosts, but..." Her eyes flickered to Dawn and Phantom. Jack returned his focus to them, and he glared.

"You better explain yourself," he demanded.

Phantom looked at Dawn, who had begun to tear up.

"Daddy, I'm scared."

Maddie nearly dropped her ectogun, and Jack looked baffled. Phantom's hold on Dawn, tightened.

"I know, baby boo." Phantom's tone became eerily familiar as he comforted the girl. "I'm sorry it had to happen this way."

Phantom locked eyes with the Fenton adults. A flash of bright light appeared at his waist, and twin rings moved opposite of each other, leaving their son in Phantom's place.

#danny phantom #phics #my phics #oc #danny fenton #jack fenton #maddie fenton #dawn fenton #DP OCs #second gen #i'm going to become the queue

[kinglazrus]

Not Your Danny – Ch 3. Familiar

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Word count: 3814

The city had looked unremarkable that day. It shouldn’t have surprised Dani, considering Amity Park rarely looked remarkable, but it upset her anyway. After nearly three days straight of flying, coming all the way from Australia, she collapsed on the outskirts of the city, gasping for breath. Every inch of her body ached.

Flying wasn't like running or jumping; it didn't use muscles the same way. Being in the air for too long could make your head dizzy and your vision blurry. It gave her headaches and watery eyes and filled her with exhaustion so heavy she wanted to sleep for days on end. But, if Dani was desperate enough, she could push through that. This is exactly what she did when she found out Danny Phantom had died.

It was a long flight from Australia to Amity Park, over vast, empty expanses of ocean. She rested when she could, stealing a few minutes of shuteye whenever she came across land, but never more than that. She pushed herself in a way she never had before, until the headaches turned to full body aches, and every muscle in her body was tense and cramped, and she could barely stay upright when finally, finally, she saw the cheerful welcome sign of Amity Park.

On her knees in the dirt, Dani held herself up with trembling arms.

A Nice Place to Live!

The soft green letters loomed over her with their deceptive message. Nice for who?

She might have fallen asleep there, collapsed in the ditch, because the next thing she knew, she was face down in the soggy grass, her clothes damp from the drizzling rain. When she had arrived, the sun was nearing its peak. Now, it barely breached the horizon, warming her face even as the sunshower soaked her through.

It took her a moment to realize the sun was rising, not setting, and she had been out for a full day. Exhaustion still pulled at her, but her headache was gone, at least, and she had enough strength to take to the air once more. She flew around the city, not sure exactly what she was looking for.

(A lie. She knew exactly what she wanted to find, was so afraid of not finding.)

Below, the city looked the same as ever. Despite the early hour, people were already out, cars filling the road, a few stray souls strolling along the sidewalk. They didn't even look bothered by the rain, which was more of a mist, really. Dani tugged on her sopping gloves, grimacing at the squelch of water between her fingers. That's just what happens when you lie prone in a ditch for hours in the drizzling rain.

As she flew, she found no signs of spectral activity. No ghost attacks, no ghosts. No halfas. Her heart plummeted.

Fearing the worst—fearing the truth she didn't want to believe—she finally turned toward Fenton Works.

—

At the sight of the ecto-gun, Dani pales. She scrambles to her feet, shoving Danny's old t-shirts aside, and throws herself to the farthest corner of the room.

"I didn't mean it!" she shouts.

Jack blinks, confusion marring his smile until his gaze drops to the gun in his hands and his eyes widen with realization. He quickly hides the weapon behind his back. "Sorry! Didn't mean to startle you."

Dani doesn't step away from the wall. Her back tingles, itching to go intangible and let her disappear into the alley just outside, away from this potential danger. But Jack's apology feels genuine. He smiles at her, though he doesn't step any further into the room. That gets Dani to relax after a few tense seconds. The tingle fades, her desire to flee going with it.

"What's the gun for?" Dani asks. It is the first thing she has said to Jack since moving into Fenton Works, she realizes. This is the most they have seen each other in four days, and she does not know what to think about that. She assumed he had been avoiding her.

"Some of our weapons used to go off around Danny," Jack says. He pulls the ecto-gun out from behind his back, this time with the barrel pointed down, and fiddles with something along the barrel. "Never really thought about why. So, I've been trying to make them safe for you to be around. I can only do so much without an ectoplasmic sample, though."

Finally, Dani steps forward, skirting around Danny's bed. Still, Jack does not make a move closer, letting her come to him. Dani stops with a few feet left between them. "Is that what you wanted to talk about?"

Jack shrugs. "Partly. I also never said hello."

"Hi, I guess."

Jack smiles. "Hi, Dani. Nice to officially meet you."

Dani can only meet his gaze for a few seconds. He looks a lot like Danny, with kind eyes, but that is not what bothers her. Something about the way he looks at her is different. Over the past few days, she has gotten used to Maddie and Jazz, how they look at her like she is a ghost—like she is Danny.

She casts the thought out as quickly as it comes.

"So, about that sample?" Jack presses.

Dani rubs her arms, feeling phantom prickles along the inside of her elbow. If she were to roll back her sleeves, she could easily find the pinprick scars left by Vlad's needles. In fact, she does not even need to look. Skimming the sleeve, her fingers stop, instinctively, over each scar.

"What do you need it for?" she asks.

"Your ecto-signature, mostly. But we've found that a ghost's ectoplasm has its own form of DNA beyond the ecto-signature. If we can isolate yours, we might be able to make ammunition that won't harm you," he says.

Dani squeezes her arms tighter, memories of Vlad's lab flashing through her mind. No matter how rough the nomadic lifestyle got, nothing ever compared to those first few weeks of life when she spent every second being poked and prodded, not understand how wrong that was. It makes her shiver.

"Do we have to go downstairs for it?"

Jack looks about the room, taking in the mess of Danny's clothes, and the general clutter Dani hasn't bothered to clean up during her stay. "I don't see why not. I can bring the equipment up here."

"Please."

Jack nods and leaves, returning not even a minute later with a case. He must have had it ready to go. The case looks small compared to his large hands, but when he sets it down on Danny's bed, it is nearly half as wide as the mattress. Dani floats to the top of the bed, setting herself down on the pillows while Jack gets set up. Inside, the case holds a few packaged syringes, some sample tubes, swabs, and medical plasters. Hardly enough to fill it. Most space is taken up by the foam padding that holds the delicate glass tubes in place.

"I'll need to take two or three samples if that's alright. It's easier to work with more ectoplasm. And a blood sample." Jack grabs a syringe. "If you're comfortable with that."

"I guess that's okay."

He talks throughout the entire process, describing what he is doing. While he does, Dani fixes her gaze on the shirts laid out across the bed.

"This is called a phlebotomy," Jack says as he rolls up her sleeve. "It actually refers to drawing blood from a vein, but I think ectoplasm is close enough. I need to swab the area first; it might be cold."

What little tension remained in Dani's shoulders bleeds out as Jack talks.

"First needle. I'll use this one to get your ecto-signature. We have some devices that can focus on a ghost's signature without taking a sample first, like the booo-merang, but power use and exhaustion can actually alter those results. A stable sample taken in a relaxed environment works better. We can also use it to measure how a ghost's signature changes over time. Second needle."

Dani's eyes widen. Pulling her hand back from one of the shirts, she turns and finds Jack inserting a second syringe into her arm, the first already back in the case, filled with glowing ectoplasm. She hadn't even felt it. The second needle stings, although she blames that on her watching it go in, and she quickly focuses on the shirts again.

They're plain overall, basic colours with simple graphics, and a little on the baggy side. The one she likes the most is a button-up, one of the few Danny had, with short sleeves and covered in large stars. She pulls it closer with her free hand, tracing the stars as Jack finishes with the third syringe. It does not seem like the kind of shirt Danny would wear. Too gaudy for him. Dani likes it, though.

A tap at her shoulder distracts her.

"Can you change to your human form?" Jack asks.

"Why?"

"Can't exactly draw blood from this form."

"Oh. Right." Dani chews her lip, contemplating. Except for when she's asleep, she hasn't been in human form at all the past few days. Even then, the only reason she changes is that it is easier to sleep as a human. Jazz has not asked her about it since that first day, and neither has Maddie.

In the relative safety of Fenton Works, there is no reason for her to choose one form over the other. When travelling, it is easier passing along as a ghost. Fewer people bother her then—if they don't run away screaming—and her powers come easier. Making up her mind, she closes her eyes and lets the transformation take over.

It passes in a flash, her jumpsuit disappearing, replaced by the comfortable weight of her hoodie. Unable to help herself, Dani touches the star shirt again.

Jack doesn't go for the next syringe right away. His gaze lingers on Dani's face. The weight of his stare bears down on her, but she refuses to look up.

"Is something wrong?" she asks.

The mattress shifts as Jack moves, neither closer nor farther away. A nervous jump and nothing more. "No. Everything's fine."

He only needs a few seconds to take the last sample. He presses a cotton swab against her arm, blotting the fresh needle marks to wipe away the blood, then covers it with a plaster. That last part is unnecessary since all Jack did was prick her, but Dani does not say anything. It is too funny that the Fentons even have their own plasters, covered in little fiery Fs. They really know how to lean into a brand.

"What are obsessions like?" Jack asks.

The question takes her by surprise. "I don't know."

"Really? Don't all ghosts have obsessions?"

Dani shrugs. "Probably." She isn't a ghost, though. Not a proper one. "Nothing's ever compelled me the way an obsession is supposed to. There's stuff that I like, but none of it draws me in."

"Is that how it works?"

Dani frowns. "Aren't you supposed to be a ghost scientist?"

Jack chuckles. "True, but we don't know everything about ghosts. You can only find out so much through watching them." And experimenting on them, but he doesn't mention that part. Dani doesn't need him to. "Asking one about their experiences can tell us a lot more. I can only imagine what we might have known if... if we had known."

"I guess I can tell you about them," Dani says. A good part of her education under Vlad's "care" was about different aspects of being a ghost, prepping her for the rest of her existence. A good portion of those lessons were not as necessary as Vlad thought they would be.

Jack scoots closer, nodding enthusiastically. Suddenly, he looks less like a trained scientist and more like an enthused child. The thought makes Dani giggle.

"Okay, so. I was told that an obsession can be anything. Like, food, a specific colour, an object, a person. There are no limits. Most ghosts have more than one that helps sustain them. They don't need an obsession, or they don't need to fulfill it, but it helps keep them grounded. Really old ghosts have a lot of obsessions. Young ones might only have a few."

Jack grins as Dani speaks. Even though he doesn't write anything down, she knows he won't forget a single thing. He hangs off every word, taking in Dani's lesson as easy as air.

"They can also change over time. A ghost can go from having a lot of obsessions to only a few, or the other way around. It depends. If they lean into one obsession too much, it can completely alter their personality. Having only one can be dangerous, though, because it makes them unstable. If something happens and they lose that obsession, it can really unbalance them. I can't tell you what having an obsession actually feels like, though."

"Are you sure?" Jack asks.

"Pretty sure. I think I would know if I had an obsession. And if I did but I never did anything about it? I probably wouldn't be here right now." It comes out grimmer than Dani meant it to. A ghost doesn't die without an obsession, but the way Vlad explained it, existence became painful, confusing. Hard to cope with.

Jack leans back, nodding slowly. The room falls silent for the next minute as he absorbs everything Dani said. "Did Danny ever tell you about his obsessions?"

"No. It never came up."

The answer obviously does not please Jack. His hopeful smile slips away, and he falls silent. He packs away the sample case, locking it shut, and rises from the edge of Danny's bed. As he walks away, Dani can't help but think she did something wrong.

—

After Jack leaves, Dani stays in her human form.

When Jazz comes into the room an hour later asking for some TV time, a smile breaks out across her face. "You're human."

Dani shrugs, having no better response than that.

"About time," Jazz teases. Reaching out, she ruffles Dani's hair and gives her a playful shove. Dani doesn't find it as comforting as she should.

—

"Are you sure you don't have an obsession?"

Dani nearly jumps at how close Jack's voice is. She heard him coming, since his pounding feet were hard to ignore, but hadn't realized how close he got before speaking. The plate in her hand becomes tangible again as her focus slips. The water that had been passing through sprays outward, soaking the front of her hoodie. She ignores Jazz's snicker.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure."

Jack makes a disappointed hum. "Not even a little one?"

"Not even a little one."

He sighs but doesn't press her further. From the counter, he grabs one of the dinner plates set out, loaded with a stir-try that Jazz and Dani spent the last hour making. To Dani's surprise, he sits at the table rather than heading downstairs.

"Mads had a call, but she'll be right up," Jack says.

Dani nearly asks, "Why?" Ever since she arrived, everyone seems to have done their own thing, including during mealtimes. Having no long-term household experience, Dani was starting to think this was the norm. She looks to Jazz for an explanation but finds none.

Jazz already has her plate in hand and quickly takes the seat next to Jack. She waves Dani over. "Come on. Can't be family dinner if the whole family doesn't sit down." There is a twinge of sadness in her voice, one Dani completely understands. It's not the whole family, never will be. Jazz and Jack must be thinking the same thing, but none of them say it out loud.

Dani grabs her plate and sits down on Jack's other side.

"You don't want to sit here?" Jazz asks, patting the chair next to her.

"I'm fine here," Dani says. Her chair places her back at the wall, giving her a good view of the room. And, more importantly, the entrance. She doesn't expect a threat to come barrelling through, but it is instinct by now to keep an eye on things like doorways and windows. She can see both from here.

This is the only seat at the table she has sat at since arriving.

Jazz presses her lips together. "Are you sure? It was Danny's spot."

"Great. This is my spot."

"Jazz," Jack says. "It's just a chair."

Jazz has the mind to look embarrassed at being scolded. Dani thinks she is going to drop it there, but Jazz opens her mouth again, about to say one last remark.

A sharp intake of breath cuts her off.

Maddie, standing in the doorway, stares at Dani.

Jack and Jazz must see something Dani doesn't, because they both jump to their feet.

"Mads," Jack starts, but Maddie turns and flees before he can say anymore.

Jazz pushes her chair back. "Dad, I'll—"

"No, it's fine. You two eat." Jack goes after Maddie, leaving Jazz and a very confused Dani alone.

"What was that?" Dani asks.

Jazz sits back down. "She hasn't seen your human form before."

It hardly sates Dani's curiosity, but it's the only answer she gets.

—

Maddie's cellphone rings just as she's about to follow Jack upstairs. A glance at the caller ID shows it is an unknown number.

"I'll be up in a minute," she says.

She gets no answer from Jack, but that's expected. Ever since he came back down with Dani's ectoplasmic samples, he's been muttering about obsessions. When he gets like this, he rarely acknowledges the people around him, although over the years Maddie has learned that he still hears them. Answering them just is not high on his priority list.

She turns away from the stares and answers the phone. "Hello, this is Dr. Madeline Fenton. How can I help you?"

"That's an awfully formal way to greet a friend," Vlad says.

"What the hell are you doing, Vlad? I blocked your number."

"And I got a new one. Just hear me out, Maddie."

There's an edge of desperation in his voice. Maddie can't decide whether to roll her eyes, cuss Vlad out, or hang up immediately. Maybe all three. If he honestly tries to play that pathetic act again, she will be livid.

"You have two minutes," Maddie says. Better to hear him out now than hang up and have him leaving message after message again.

"I wanted to apologize for how I acted the other day. It was incredibly inappropriate."

"Yes, it was. And if you're looking for forgiveness, you won't get it." She shouldn't even give him the time of day.

"I understand. And I know we've grown apart these past couple years—"

"You mean when you finally wised up, stopped hitting on me, and left us alone?"

"Yes. But I wasn't lying before, Maddie. I need you!" His tone actually makes her pause. It reminds her, briefly, of the young man she used to know. One who had to beg his family not to cut him off when they discovered his chosen career. His voice now makes her think of the day she caught him on the phone, pleading with his mother.

They had only been college freshmen, then. Vlad was hardly more than seventeen at the time, having graduated high school early. Maddie had never heard him so distraught before, or ever since. But now, his voice cracks with distress. It almost makes her feel sorry for him.

"This has been hard for me, too, for reasons you can't begin to fathom. I wasn't lying when I told you about my friendship with Daniel."

Maddie's pity for Vlad evaporates in an instant. "Stop. Don't call me again, Vlad."

"Maddie, you don't understand—!"

She hangs up before he can finish. Disgusting. She can't believe she actually felt for him for a moment. She had half a mind to call him back and tell him the truth, tell him that she knew everything. But that would mean telling him Dani was here, and Maddie was not comfortable with that. Who knows what Vlad would try if he found out the clone he created was so nearby?

She takes a moment to compose herself before heading upstairs.

When she reaches the main floor, the smell of garlic, ginger, and spice greets her. It has been a while since they had stir-fry, and even longer since they sat down at a full table. Something like this is exactly what she needs after that brief call.

Maddie steps into the kitchen and sees Danny at the table. Her breath catches in her throat. The dark hair, the baggy hoodie, the sharp edge of his nose in profile. But then he turns and it's not Danny, it's Dani. In the form Maddie had yet to see, with a face so familiar that seeing it feels like a stab to the chest.

Jack stands, calls out, but Maddie doesn't stay to listen. She bolts. Her feet carry her to the back of the house, past the weapon's lab, and out the door into their cramped backyard. She crouches on the poor, one hand cupped over her mouth.

She knew, when they took Dani in, that she looked like him. Her face wasn't so different from Phantom's. A little softer, a little less worn, but with a wary edge. Maddie knew. But she hadn't known how bad it would be when she finally saw that face in human form. Not Phantom's face, who still felt so separate from her son, but Danny's.

Maddie's willing to bet that, when Dani was first created, she looked exactly like Danny in his middle school days, before he came out and started presenting as male. If Danny hadn't started taking hormones, would he have looked like Dani does now? On the shorter side, with rounder features. It's not the same as having Danny back, not even close. No clone can ever replace her baby.

But it still hurts so much.

Maddie squeezes her eyes shut, fighting against the burn of her tears. She can't stop them, though. No matter how much she tries, rubbing her eyes, pressing the heel of her palms against them. The tears keep coming, and a sob follows soon after.

Jack's arm wraps around her shoulder, pulling her into a tight embrace. Maddie falls apart completely, then, clinging to her husband and crying into his shoulder. It isn't fair. There was so much about Danny they never got to see, never got to know. All that time they wasted trying to hunt him down.

He died too soon, too young. But worst of all, he died believing his parents hated a part of him, and Maddie can never change that.

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#phic phight #phic phight 2021 #notyourdanny #phanfic #phicc #dp fanfiction #danny phantom #dani phantom #danielle phantom #danny phantom fanfiction #nyd chapter three #trans danny #trans danny fenton

[ibelieveinahappilyeverafter]

Your Words On My Skin - Chapter 7

AO3 FFN

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Summary: Danny Fenton was born with writing on his arms that proved he had a soulmate out there for him that was much, much older than his parents were comfortable with. The result was his skin being covered as much as possible and Danny warned that he shouldn’t look at the words or write any back. Danny has always been a little bit curious as to who his soulmate was, but he never thought on how curious his soulmate was about him.

<<First Chapter>><<Last Chapter>><<Next Chapter>>

Chapter Seven

::

“So. You guys were saying something about a Christmas Truce?” Danny looked around the ridiculously large library he was in and wasn’t sure whether his Christmas was getting better or worse. On the one hand, he had been rescued from being torn to shreds by a pissed off robot. On the other hand, he was now trapped inside a crazy freaking library by ghosts. This… probably hadn’t been his best idea, really, to hide in the Ghost Zone. And what the heck was a Christmas Truce, anyways?

“Oh- Oh, yes!” Then there was this Ghostwriter guy. First glance and he looked like a nerd and Danny was so much more comfortable taking on a nerd in a fight than an angry Skulker, but then Danny was remembering the other ghost that had Skulker near running scared and he was a bit more cautious about all of this. “The Truce is one of the older traditions of the Ghost Zone. It comes from back when Christmas was still considered Yule and the changing of the seasons. Sources vary, of course, but it used to be that the truce lasted for twelve days as the old celebration did. It seems to have changed and adapted alongside the human world - which makes sense, really.”

Yeah, wow, okay. This one was a definite nerd. He wasn’t shutting up at all and just kept yapping about some stupid Christmas history. Ugh. They weren’t even walking, anymore. They were just in the middle of the stupid library with Ghostwriter talking- What kind of a name was Ghostwriter, anyways?  That was weird even by Ghost Zone standards. Probably. “-chasing you?”

“What?” Ghostwriter looked like he was ready to burst into giggles at any moment, which, yeah, that wasn’t creepy- Oh, chasing. Right. “Skulker was on the orders of Vlad Plasmius. I take it you know who that is?”

“Unfortunately.” Ah, now the ghost was acting more normal. Nice to know some other ghosts hated Vlad, too. “I didn’t take him for the type to go after teenagers with extreme force.”

“I’m special.” Then again, Danny had pissed him off more than usual, this time. How was he supposed to know those were business servers and not ghost servers! “Fruitloop will probably drop it after a few more days.” Hopefully.

“Yes, well-” Ghostwriter suddenly paused before smirking more than smiling as he looked just past Danny’s shoulder. “Have fun?”

“Mm. Technus will probably yell at me for destroying that suit, but it’s nice to be able to rip it to pieces.” Oh, jeez, that was harsh. Then again, Danny was sure Skulker was fine. Little roach could survive anything. “I don’t think he’ll be going after you anytime soon.”

“I could have handled it.” He didn’t need some crazy ghosts swooping in at the last minute to save him- Randy. Ghostwriter had called this guy Randy earlier and… That was Andrew’s brother’s name- Ah! No daydreaming. He needed to focus. “Right. If it’s safe then I can go home now, right?”

“Dunno. Can you even fly right now?” That… Hmph. At least Danny wasn’t looking between the two with narrowed eyes like this guy was doing. Maybe he was worried about Ghostwriter and that insane, giddy grin he kept getting. “How bad are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. I dodged the worst of it before you guys stepped in.” The look got worse and Danny tried to gather together just a scrap of power. “What.”

“I didn’t ask if you were hurt, I asked how bad you were hurt.” Huh. Danny wasn’t sure if he liked this dude or hated him. Ugh, reminded him of Jazz, though.

“We have first aid supplies that work well for wounds that come from a ghost fight.” Looking to Ghostwriter, Danny crossed his arms and yeah, right. Like he was ever going to buy that one. “They’re not poisonous.”

“Although we can find some that are, if you’d like,” Randy smirked, meeting Danny’s glare without a flinch. “Am I supposed to be scared of a teenager?”

“Dude, I wrecked Skulker’s shit even before you stepped in. He was barely together after my Wail.”

“That ‘wail’ left you unable to fight. Take it from me, petit mec, if you’re going to use some grand last resort power, then make sure it finishes the job.”

“Yeah, well…” Danny looked the guy over again before giving a bit of a laugh. Jeez, these ghosts were sane. This Randy or whatever really did remind him of Jazz - or maybe a combination of Jazz and Sam. Ugh, terrifying. “First aid kit?”

“It’ll look a bit weird compared to what you’re used to, but I made it all to treat the aftereffects of ectoplasmic energy. It won’t be dangerous to you. Plasmius has gotten after me to get some of it.”

“You work with Vlad.” What the hell? Just when Danny thought this one might have been cool!

“Correction, I sometimes work for him.”

“Yeah?” Danny barked out a laugh. “What’s the difference?”

“Working for him means I can betray him whenever I get sick of his shit - which is often, these days. Besides, I have to get to the human world somehow, and that ghost portal that your family has wasn’t always there.”

Hmph. Right. So cautious for now, but at least Danny wouldn’t have to worry about either of these two stabbing him in the back. Looking to Ghostwriter, who seemed to be nervously shooting looks between the two of them, Danny shook his head. Less sane than Randy, then. “First aid?”

“What? Oh- Oh! Right, yes.” Ghostwriter flapped his hands about for a moment before setting off down the hall, Danny shooting a confused look to Randy who rolled his eyes.

“I’ll be in the kitchen.” Ghosts had kitchens? Since when? “Don’t worry, Phantom. He’s not good around people, but he’ll make sure that you’re okay.”

“Right.” Danny lingered for a moment before quickly catching up to Ghostwriter, wincing as he shifted his shirt around and ah- Ah. Okay, then. He usually didn’t have scars and open wounds transfer over when he changed between Fenton and Phantom. God, what had Skulker even used this time? “So, uh, this weird first aid kit of yours any good?”

“Randy’s concoctions are made from flora that he finds around the Ghost Zone. Have you ever heard of blood blossoms?”

“Oh, um… Maybe? I think my parents mentioned it once or twice.” Some weird flower that was supposed to hurt ghosts, maybe? “Why?”

“Because that flower is one of the most well-known and, like other ghostly flowers, grows around high concentrations of ectoplasmic energy.” Oh, great. Ghostwriter was now ranting about ghost flowers just like he had been ranting about that Yule Truce or whatever it had been called.

At least the rambling wasn’t bad. His voice definitely wasn’t as annoying as some of the ghosts he had run into, and he looked to be genuinely happy rambling around the ‘living structure of a plant that thrives off the deceased-’ Wait, was he talking about graveyard flowers, now? Gross. Cool, though.

Alright, crash landing among a couple of ghosts and being unable to transform back wasn’t the best start to Christmas Eve, really, but at least these ghosts didn’t want a fight and were even helping him. Already better than the last fourteen Christmases. Shit, wait, was Ghostwriter still- Alright. Still talking. Made it easy to zone out, at least.

Shit, he should probably contact Jazz or his friends or something and let them know where he was, but… Jazz had been doing a massive study binge in her room and his friends were all with their families and he didn’t want to ruin their Christmas.

Maybe he could just stick around and check out what was up with these two ghosts and their giant library. Besides, Ghostwriter, at least, didn’t seem so bad. “-ah, we passed the room. Alright, that’s no problem, just, uh- Mm. Alright, yes, this way.”

Snorting, Danny followed Ghostwriter back the way they had come from, and, okay, the dude was weird, but he… He wasn’t bad.

::

“Jesus Christ.” Not even flinching at the startled shout, Andrew only kept a tight hold on Danny’s wrist when he tried to jerk his arm away. “What the fuck is that?!”

“A rather potent concoction of healing herbs.” Cutting off Danny’s next words with another dose of it, Andrew allowed himself a small wince at Danny’s pained expression. “Sorry. It’s… Well, put simply it’s meant to speed up the healing process by stimulating the growth-”

“Dude, English.” Oh, honestly, Andrew had been explaining it simply! How this teen could act like such a teenager and still rant about astrophysics Andrew would never know.

“You know the itching feeling you get when a cut is healing?” Waiting for the teen to nod, Andrew smirked. “This speeds up the healing factor enough that the itching feeling isn’t quite an itch anymore.”

“Is that safe? That sounds really unsafe. Maybe we should stick with the antibiotic cream and a needle, dude. Seriously, I don’t think this is the best- Ow.”

“There we go. Your arm is all taken care of!” Andrew wrapped a clean set of bandages around the arm before tying it off. “Now, I believe you still have a rather nasty wound on your back.”

“Oh, uh, not really, I mean, you’ve done enough, I’m sure that one will probably heal on its own-”

“It wasn’t a question.” Ah, the fear of a teenager caught in a lie. It really was a shame Andrew hadn’t had a chance to teach. “Come on, then. Shirt off.”

“I’d really, really, really rather not, if it’s all the same.” Dropping his hand and staring at the teen for a long few moments, Andrew finally darted out and phased the shirt off him, enjoying the indignant yelp a little too much. “What’s your problem!”

“As stated before, I’d rather not have you bleed out over my lair. Now, would you like to turn around or will I have to force you to do that, as well?”

“Jeez, and you call yourself a sane ghost.” Danny turned around on the couch they had tucked themselves away on, medical supplies currently scattered about because Randy had no idea of what organization meant. “It’s probably not that bad.”

“A wise lesson to know is when pushing yourself causes more harm than good.” Ignoring the muttered complaints from the other, Andrew’s eyes widened as he saw Danny’s back. “Well, would you like the good news or bad news first?”

“Bad news. Definitely bad news.” Resting his finger tips on some of the skin that didn’t look like it was torn to shreds, Andrew frowned at Danny’s flinch. “Well?”

“The bad news is that you were very much wrong about being ‘fine.’ It seems whatever he used to hit you is… Well, I would best describe it as skin being dragged across hot pavement for two or so blocks.”

“That’s… I mean, you could just take a picture and show me? Because that description probably makes it sound worse than it is, right?” Mm. If anything, that was Andrew being kind. “Okay. What’s the good news, then?”

“I was right.” Easily dodging the attempt to hit him, Andrew nudged Danny back into place and reached for some of the more potent of Randy’s poultices. “This… This is going to hurt.”

“Hurt? How badly hurt?” Well… “I don’t like the way you just went quiet.”

“Just… Try to stay still.” Mentally apologizing already and making plans to spoil Danny as much as possible later, Andrew began spreading the poultice on. It barely touched the teen’s skin before he went absolutely ridged, breath becoming ragged and loud.

Trying to keep his hand steady as he spread it across the torn and burned skin, Andrew started to speak softly about anything and everything he could. As much as he wanted to hug Danny close to him to soothe him, right now Danny saw him as nothing but a strange ghost he had just met. So, Andrew would soothe him in another away.

Danny had always loved the glimpses of his stories, so Andrew rambled and talked and slowly drew Danny out of his pained battle high - Lord knew that Andrew had enough practice with doing the same to Randy and with Randy doing the same to him.

It took longer than he would have liked, but Andrew was soon wrapping Danny’s back in bandages, careful to not make them too tight or too loose. Even with Randy’s excellent poultices, it would still take a while for this one to heal over. Poor thing.

“There we are. You should be back to rights in no time at all.” Pushing everything back into the first aid kit, Andrew paused as he saw Danny was looking down at his arms with a scrunched-up expression. “Are you alright? Does it hurt elsewhere?”

“What? Oh, uh, no.” Danny curled his fingers in, eyes darting to where written words were peeking out from under the bandages and oh- Oh! His sweet little mate. “It’s nothing.”

“Mm.” Andrew looked away for a moment before looking back and smiling. “I’m certain you can explain to your soulmate later what happened if you miss any messages.”

“That obvious?” Danny was blushing sweetly and hiding a smile, Andrew near overwhelmed with the affection he felt for his mate in that moment. “We just, uh… We haven’t really met, yet, so we rely on the writing more than anything, you know?”

“I understand that rather well, I suppose,” Andrew chuckled, feeling a touch of guilt that he hadn’t written back to Danny sooner, but… He could make up for it now. He could easily make up for it now.

“Yeah, and he- I mean, he says he doesn’t believe in technology!” Oh, dear, he was still sore about that, then. “Who doesn’t believe in technology- I mean, you’re a ghost and I bet you have a phone!”

“I- No?” At the horrified look, Andrew couldn’t stop his laugh. “It’s the Ghost Zone, mon cher.” Danny wrinkled his nose at the French, but luckily it seemed he didn’t know what it meant. Good. Andrew could have fun with that. “Cell phones don’t work in here, something I believe Technus is working on fixing, but for the moment, I’m afraid we’re rather without connection.”

“That’s why I never get any messages when I’m in the Ghost Zone! I thought my friends were just ignoring me.” Oh, goodness. This teen was utterly precious. “Actually, that explains why Sam was so mad at me that one day I got lost in here for a few hours. Damn.”

“A shame, but the Ghost Zone doesn’t have cell towers,” Andrew grinned, watching Danny huff and pout and get distracted by his bandages.

Andrew swallowed and… Danny was safe and smiling and tracing the words with his fingertips and this was- This was good, wasn’t it? This was the best. Danny was- His Danny was Danny Phantom. The teen was half-ghost and…

He would understand everything. Andrew’s age, the reason his words had shown up when he was so young, and why Andrew had been so afraid to try and connect with him. This… This was the best outcome Andrew could have asked for.

“D… Danny?” The teen looked over to him curiously, a frown tugging at his lips and curiosity almost drowning out the wariness in his eyes.

“What’s up?” All he had to say was his real name and Andrew was certain that everything would click into place and Danny would know in an instant who he was- Or at least, it wouldn’t take much more than his name and he would know. “You alright?”

“I…” This was the best he could have asked for and now, after so many years, his mate was in front of him and all he had to do was- “Would you like something to eat? Randy’s a rather good cook.”

“Oh, uh… Is it safe for humans to eat ghost food?” Danny gave a wary smile, Andrew standing up with a quick nod.

“Of course. Much of what he makes comes from supplies he gets in the human world. I’ll go see what he has made, so far.”

“Alright?” Danny watched him with an odd little look before his smile became a bit more real. “Thanks. For… you know.”

“Of course.” This was the best he could have hoped for, so then why was Andrew still so scared?

::

“Are you really gonna be alright with me staying here for a few hours? I mean, don’t you and that one guy have Christmas plans or something already?” Danny had finally managed to get his shirt back on and was now sitting on Ghostwriter’s stupidly comfortable couch as the ghost flew back and forth in dizzying little circles. Jesus, this guy was more hyped up than he was on a bad day.

“My brother and I are fine, Danny.” Brother, huh? Weird to think Ghostwriter had a brother named Randy, too, but Danny guessed that was a pretty common name. It was actually more weird to think ghosts had siblings. “Besides, you make a great excuse for me avoiding that horrid Christmas Truce party that the ghosts throw every year.”

“Ghosts throw parties?” That… Actually, after meeting Kitty and Ember, Danny could kind of believe that easily enough. “Cool. So, it’s fine, then?”

“Yes, Danny, it’s fine.” Ghostwriter paused before disappearing and reappearing a second later, Danny startling as a blanket was thrown over him. “There we are.”

“Uh huh.” Jesus. This guy was treating Danny like he was an abandoned puppy off the streets. “I guess staying here works pretty well for me, too. A place to hide out from Skulker is nice.”

“Will any of your friends or family worry about your absence?” Ghostwriter had hardly finished the question before Danny was laughing.

“Are you kidding? No one’s gonna notice I’m gone until the twenty-seventh at least. Christmas… isn’t such a great time of the year for me.”

“I suppose I understand how that feels.” Really? Yeah, right, yeah, of course. A few too little presents was probably the worst thing to ever happen in the history of the world.

“Nothing that’s happened to you on Christmas can be as bad as being peed on by a dog.” Seeing the other open his mouth, Danny narrowed his eyes. “As a baby.”

“Alright.” Ghostwriter crossed his arms and smirked and oh, no. “I was once shot in my shoulder on Christmas.”

“Like… Like with a paintball gun, or-”

“My brother had to dig the bullet out of my shoulder before we could wrap it.” Jesus Christ, this dude wasn’t messing around, was he?

“Okay. That’s a pretty good one. But have you ever had mad scientist parents bring the Christmas turkey to life?” The odd, disbelieving look he was given had Danny convinced he was going to win.

“I’m afraid not.” Ha! “Although I did spend one Christmas in an eight-hour church service. No food, no water, and no singing.”

“Fuck, okay, you win, Jesus, it’s not a competition, man.” Maybe it was the whole scientists as parents thing that had made him shy away from religion, but the idea of spending eight hours in a church service like that? Ugh.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t like to hear about some of my other Christmases?” Ghostwriter was grinning in obvious victory, Danny doing his best to not laugh.

“Yeah, yeah, no need to be a sore winner.” Maybe having another ghost as a friend wouldn’t be that bad. The two obviously were pretty okay if they jumped in to help out some random guy they didn’t even know in a fight. “How’s that cooking of your brother’s coming along, then?”

Ghostwriter sighed, looking exhausted. “There are times where he’ll scrap everything halfway through if he feels like he’s not doing a good enough job. I should probably go to try prevent that now, honestly.”

“Jeez, have fun with that.” Waiting until Ghostwriter laughed, Danny wiggled around in the blanket that had been thrown on him before managing to grab the first aid kit left behind, quickly opening it before finding some disinfectant wipes.

Tearing a few open, Danny took the chance to properly wash off all of the ink on his skin - or at least, wipe it all off as well as he could. He still needed to apologize, but… It didn’t seem like Andrew had written him back, yet. Not even a heart or frowny face or anything.

Jeez… Andrew was probably still angry at him for how hard Danny had pushed to try and find out his age. Maybe… Maybe it would be better to wait until Andrew wrote to him first? Let him set the terms and all that? After all, they had gone through fifteen years of silence before - Andrew even longer. Andrew would be okay ignoring Danny for a while.

Playing with the pen that had survived Skulker’s attacks, Danny finally uncapped it and drew a cluster of stars on the inside of his wrist before putting a heart around each one. That… That was something, right?

Dropping his arm and just staring at nothing for a few moments, Danny finally nodded, and, right. “I’m going to die alone.” Sighing, Danny capped his pen and drew the blanket over his head. “I’ll die alone with my friends arguing at my deathbed.”

“I believe the fact your friends will be there arguing will negate the possibility of you dying alone.” Damn Danny’s poor timing and his stupid habit of speaking out loud. “The actual food will be ready in another hour or so, but would you like some cookies?”

“Oh, uh, no thanks. I’m not that hungry, really.” Letting the cover fall back to rest on his neck, Danny looked to see that Ghostwriter had set a tray of chocolate chip cookies on the small end table next to the couch. He was pretty sure he saw steam, which meant they were fresh. “Thanks, though.”

“It really is no problem. Randy’s taking over the kitchen with his baking and I’m afraid that leaves little room for my things in there,” Ghostwriter laughed, finally sitting down on the couch. He still looked wound up and nervous, but he also seemed a little better. “How are you doing?”

“I mean, my back still kind of burns, but I figure that’s better than whatever the other outcome would have been. Thanks for that, by the way.” Because most people shied away at the sight of stuff like that and Ghostwriter hadn’t even seemed to notice some of the scars Danny had. It… It had actually been pretty nice.

“The sooner you deal with the pain now, then the sooner you can forget about it later.” Ghostwriter made an odd flicking motion, Danny’s eyes widening as he saw a cookie float over to him. “That’s a rather unique look on your face-”

“Dude, ghosts can levitate shit?” Danny looked between Ghostwriter and the tray and holy shit. “That’s so cool!”

“You… You didn’t know that?” Ghostwriter looked honestly surprised, Danny thinking about it and finally just shrugging.

“I mean- I’ve seen Box Ghost and his stupid boxes, but I figured that was because it was his power, you know? Moving boxes around?”

“I- In a way. Some ghosts find levitation rather easy and others rather difficult. I suppose it depends on the ghost, their power, and their obsession.” Obsession?

“Why do you say obsession like it’s a thing?” At the pained look, Danny snorted. “Hey, I didn’t exactly get a ghost education to go along with the powers.”

“Well… If you plan on staying here a few more hours, then I can answer some questions you have, if you’d like. I can give you a quick crash course in all things ghostly.”

“R… Really?” He had been trying to discover all of this out on his own and it was that easy to get someone to finally tell him some of this stuff? Like, yeah, okay, Clockwork had that whole wise mentor thing going on, but he was more for world ending stuff, but this? Finding someone to teach him the little stuff? That was…

“I… Yeah. Sure. That- That’s fine.” Danny quickly grabbed a cookie to try and hide the grin that was taking over, taking a large bite before pausing and staring at the cookie with wide eyes and holy shit. Holy shit. “Dude. How do you even make cookies like this?”

As Ghostwriter laughed loud and bright, Danny looked up to him and… A friend, huh? Danny could see it. He could easily see it- Really. If the guy made cookies like these, rambled like Jazz, and was willing to teach Danny a few things about the Ghost Zone, then how bad could he be?

Looking back down, Danny paused at seeing a few quickly scribbled hearts next to his own and oh- Oh. That… Hiding his beaming grin with another cookie, Danny had a feeling that this Christmas was starting to look up.

::

“And that’s why you should never ever go to the circus ever.” Laughing at that, Andrew decided that this was easily his most delightful Christmas, yet. Not only was he able to avoid that stupid Christmas party, but he had his mate happy and safe in his lair and laughing as he told story after story to try and match the ones Andrew told him. “I mean, seriously, that staff of his controlled ghosts. Dude was crazy.”

“At least you no longer have to worry about dealing with him,” Andrew chuckled, levitating another cookie over and hiding a grin as Danny watched with wide eyes. Even after explaining how levitation was done, Danny was still utterly delighted and fascinated by the concept. It was, in his words, ‘like something out of Harry Potter.’

“Yeah, no, dude’s probably locked up tight in a padded cell somewhere.” Danny grabbed another cookie himself, Andrew hiding a laugh when the teen near squirmed with how happy he now seemed. It was precious. “He better be, at least. I mean, dude was crazy.”

“Most likely it was where no one ever believed him about the power he could use,” Andrew mused. That would certainly make a great story idea. A man with power that no one believed in, but oh, he could make them believe- Dammit, of all the times he needed to write something down and he couldn’t- Actually, perhaps he could.

“I mean I guess. Ghosts kind of don’t really exist outside of Amity Park, I think. It has to do with the energy of the Ghost Zone and all of that.” Absently nodding along to his mate, Andrew tried to remember exactly where Danny’s bandages on his arm were placed as he pushed his sleeve up and quickly wrote down the idea before it vanished. “Uh, dude?”

“Hm?” Seeing Danny’s unamused look, Andrew gave a weak smile. “Sorry. I have a bad memory and if I don’t write things down when I can, I tend to forget them.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, that’s fine.” That… Odd. It almost seemed like Danny had been jealous for a moment or two. “My soulmate’s like that. He’s always writing down these ideas for stories he has.”

Finishing with a flourish, Andrew let his sleeve fall back into place as he capped his pen. Hopefully Danny hadn’t seen enough of his handwriting to find it familiar. “You were telling me about this… Freakshow?”

“Ugh, yeah, just his name is bad,” Danny grumbled, sticking his tongue out and causing Andrew to fight against a laugh. “I don’t know. After the last couple of fights I’ve had he just… doesn’t seem like much of a threat, anymore.”

“I can understand that. Once we face the worse, then everything before it seems like child’s play.” While Andrew was thankful that Danny could still act like a teenager, he… His smile wasn’t that of a fifteen-year-old’s. At least, not a normal one. It was a smile full of battle and stories he would take to his final grave and oh, his sweet mate. His past was one that was all too familiar to Andrew. “At least some of the ghosts you’ve managed to reason with, it sounds like.”

“Ugh.” Danny groaned as he reached for a few more cookies and oh, dear, Randy would complain that he was spoiling Danny’s appetite, but, well. He deserved a bit of spoiling. “I keep getting used for relationship advice when it comes to Johnny and Kitty and it’s like dude! What do I know about relationships!”

Smiling as he listened to Danny’s rambling, Andrew felt that smile slowly fall and he should… He should tell Danny who he was. It wasn’t right that Andrew knew his soulmate was sitting right in front of him and Danny… Goodness. Danny probably felt that he would never get to meet his mate. It wasn’t right that Andrew kept this secret to himself, but what if Danny didn’t want a ghost as a mate?

The teen’s life was already filled with ghosts day after day and he probably wanted nothing more than to have one aspect of his life be normal. Besides, they- They were getting along. They were becoming friends and that- That was good. Andrew could become Danny’s friend first and they could start something without having to worry or rely on the fact that they were soulmates. That would make it all the better, wouldn’t it?

Danny… Danny had kept his silence for fifteen years, so Andrew could keep his own silence for a while, couldn’t he? Just until he could figure this out and find a sensible way to approach it-

“Alright, lunch or dinner or whatever you wanna call it is almost done. Hey, Ghostwriter, can I see you for a second in the kitchen.” It wasn’t a question and the fact Randy had called him by that name meant that he was certainly going to get yelled at.

“Of course. Otherwise we might be here for another hour more.” Standing up, Andrew gave Danny a smile. “Feel free to have the rest of the cookies if you can manage it. They are rather rich.”

“Dude. You made that a challenge on purpose.” Laughing as Danny dragged the plate closer to reach the cookies, Andrew smiled and this… This was how he always wanted to remember his soulmate. Happy and safe and wrapped in a blanket as he grinned at being allowed to have as many cookies as he wanted.

Sighing to himself and following Randy, Andrew had a very bad feeling over what Randy would want to talk about. In private, no less! No doubt it was- “So, baby brother.” Ooh, it was bad. It was very bad and now Randy’s hand was on the back of his neck and dragging him down and oh, he did not look pleased. “Let’s talk, shall we?”

“Shouldn’t we be focusing on ‘lunch or dinner or whatever you want to call it?’” At the dark look, Andrew gave a weak grin. “You’re my favorite?”

“Really?” Randy let him go and crossed his arms and shifted in just the right way to let Andrew know that if he tried to leave he would be chased down mercilessly. “Explain. Now.”

Instead of explaining his perfectly sound reasoning and logic, Andrew stared at Randy and tried to figure out the best way to escape. “What would you like me to explain?”

“Why you seem to believe I’m an idiot who’s both deaf and blind.” Ah, well- Randy grabbed Andrew’s wrist and flipped it around, so the scribbled hearts and stars were in plain view. “You haven’t told him.”

“And who says I’m not working up to it?” Which he was. Slowly. Very, very, very slowly, but he was working up to it! In a way. “This- I never expected this to happen.” He had never even thought to give hope to the ridiculous idea that his mate - that Danny was half-ghost.

“You mean a miracle which you seem to be pretending isn’t there? You already know and he already seems to like you, so why haven’t you told him?”

“I… I feel like maybe it would be better if I didn’t. We can start by being friends. Wouldn’t that be better?” Oh, dear, Randy did not look pleased with him. “I’m going to tell him, just not… quite yet-”

“Andrew. Your mate is sitting out there on that couch with no knowledge of who you are. You can’t explain-”

“Mate?” Andrew saw Randy stiffen at the exact moment he did and oh, they had let themselves get far too emotional if they hadn’t even noticed the sweet little thing lurking in the doorway with narrowed and distrustful eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“I-” Andrew quickly looked to Randy and read a million different things in his eyes before he sighed and looked back to Danny. “The name Ghostwriter isn’t my real name.”

“Uh, yeah, I figured. I mean, unless your parents really hated you, I doubt they’d give you a name like that.” Oh, Danny. Always making jokes to help the tension. None of them laughed. “Why were you talking about mates.” It wasn’t a question.

“Well, it’s because… My name isn’t Ghostwriter.” There was no other way around it. Andrew was terrified, but… His mate would know who he was. Wasn’t that a good thing? “It’s-”

“Andrew?” Oh, Danny.

“Hi.”

#danny phantom #iambic prose #soulmate au #words on my skin au

[darks-ink]

Rise Above Myself

Prompt: Danny is off to college, leaving Vlad in charge of keeping ghosts out of Amity park. Prompt by: @going-dead Word count: 3,532

[AO3][FFnet][more Phic Phight fics]

“You wanted to speak with me?”

Danny hummed an affirmative, patting the rooftop next to him. Vlad rolled his eyes, but sat down regardless. It wasn’t like anyone would see him up here, anyway. Besides, he didn’t want to drive the boy to anger any sooner than necessary.

In the years since they had first met, their relationship had become… complicated. They had surpassed the fighting, the whole ‘arch-nemesis’ thing, and had come to a truce of sorts. They were still in no way friends. Nor had he taken any sort of important role in the boy’s life, to his continuing disappointment.

But Danny would never join him. Vlad knew that, now. It was better not to fight, to be able to hold a conversation with the only person who would know what existence as a halfa was like. The only one who would be able to understand.

Besides, Vlad was no fool. He knew darn well that Danny had surpassed him in strength. And, for all the years of experience he had over the boy, he couldn’t beat the sheer combat experience Danny had, either. Even mentorship was a chance long lost – Danny seemed content with the mentors he could find for himself in the Ghost Zone.

“So, uhm.” Danny fidgeted, having finally broken the silence that had come over them. He started pulling on the edge of his glove – a nervous gesture he had taken up in his ghost form, Vlad knew. “I’m… leaving for college. This weekend.”

Vlad perked up at this. “Really? That’s excellent news, my boy!” And it was. He had long encouraged Danny to focus on his own life over Amity Park’s safety. He already sacrificed so much for this thankless city – he shouldn’t give up on college, too. To throw away his future, the remainder of his life, for people who would never appreciate what he had done for them.

“Heh, yeah.” Danny huffed out a laugh, a smile lingering afterwards. “I got my acceptance letter already – big fancy university a couple states away. Even at my current speed, it’s a few hours flying away.”

“Finally leaving the ghost hunting to the professionals then? Good for you.” Vlad noticed that Danny didn’t mention which university, or where. Still keeping secrets from him? Not surprising, but… a little disappointing.

“Something like that.” And now the smile turned a little malicious, a smirk instead. “You were part of the ghost hunting club, after all. And you study ghosts.”

“Me?” Vlad asked, incredulous. The boy was out of his mind if he thought that Vlad would take over for him. He had spend the past 4 years encouraging Danny to stop, after all.

“Well, yeah.” Danny’s posture remained loose, casual. Like he had no stake in this conversation – like he had already won the discussion. “You’re the only other half-ghost in the city. The only person who can fight the ghosts on their own terms – in the air, and without the need for technology.”

Then he leaned in closer, and added in a conspiring tone, “Unless you think you’re not up for it? I know that I’m stronger than you, but you should still outclass most ghosts that come here. And surely your incredible intellect will allow you to beat such pathetic enemies?”

Vlad sneered, baring his fangs in an automatic response. “Of course it’s not a matter of not being able to do it! But I am above such despicable, thankless work. To protect a city – a people – who would rather hate their protector than cheer him on. Please.”

“If that’s how you see it,” Danny responded with a shrug. “But just imagine what would happen if no one stopped the ghosts. You know that my parents will pick up the slack instead. Do you really trust my dad to keep Amity Park safe? To keep Mom safe?” He cocked his head at Vlad, that awful smirk still on his face. “After all, Valerie has already left for college. So has Jazz, and Sam and Tucker. It’s just my parents. And you.”

Vlad remained silent now. The boy, unfortunately, had a point. All capable ghost hunters had left the city – or would leave it soon enough. The Fentons really would be the only ones left – and as capable as Maddie was, Jack had an awful habit of getting in her way. There was… quite a risk of her getting hurt.

And while he knew he wouldn’t – couldn’t – have her, he still didn’t want anything to happen to her. Damn that boy for still knowing exactly which buttons to press.

But… perhaps he could make it manageable. Many of Danny’s enemies were humanoid – or at very least, somewhat intelligent. Surely he could get most of them to stay away by using his resources, rather than his fists? And being harsher than Danny against the ones that did come through would surely discourage them, too.

“Fine,” he finally hissed at the boy, glaring at him to drive the point home. “Fine, I will do it. But not for this accursed city – I’ll do it for Maddie.”

“Of course you will, Fruitloop,” Danny laughed back, grinning widely.

He shook his head, already making plans. If he arranged things correctly, it wouldn’t be much of a bother to take over for Danny. After all, how much time did the teen really spend on ghost hunting?

Unfortunately, as he soon discovered, Danny actually spend a lot of time hunting ghosts. Because while his most noticeable enemies tended to be the humanoid ghosts, the majority of his enemies were actually non-sentient. And while Vlad might’ve been able to sway some of the intelligent ghosts to stay away, it was the feral animals that took up so much of his time, now. They were neither strong nor threatening – to a ghost as powerful as him, at least – but they were common enough to be a bother.

A good number of Danny’s rogues gallery showed up as well. Skulker, once told that Vlad had taken over, seemed disappointed but left without resistance. Technus put up a decent fight, but could afterwards be convinced to stay in the Ghost Zone if Vlad paid him with bits of technology. He was sure that Technus would eventually assemble this into a mech before returning – which is why he only send the worst bits he could find.

One of the more notable encounters ended up being Ember, of all ghosts. She had put on quite a show – as she tended to do. When Vlad showed up instead of Danny, she had frowned at him and crossed her arms.

Before he could open his mouth to ask her to leave, she had irritably asked him, “Where’s the dipstick?”

He quickly connected the dots – and the less than stellar nickname – and answered. “Daniel has left for college. I’ve taken over for him.”

After this, she willingly left for the Portal. Vlad had felt accomplished over scaring off a ghost that Daniel usually fought – until he had heard her mutter, “Old man isn’t any fun compared to the kid.”

Really, all things considered, Vlad thought that he was doing a fairly good job. And perhaps Amity’s residents weren’t as happy about him as they had been about Daniel – surprising considering how badly they tended to think of Phantom – but that mattered little to him. Maddie was safe. Anything else was a lucky coincidence.

But of course, disaster always struck when life appears to be going well. And this case was no different.

The ghost of the days – or ghosts, this time – were known by Vlad. He had never faced off against them, but he was sure that he could handle it. The first, the weaker, was an easy catch. Bertrand, despite being a shapeshifter, was predictable.

Unfortunately, in catching the green blob first, Vlad had offered Spectra an opening.

Vlad knew how she worked, what she did. He was sure that he could deal with her. As another manipulative soul, surely she wouldn’t be able to do much to him?

But oh, he was so wrong about her. Her black wispy tail wrapped around him, sharp claws digging into his shoulders, and immediately all strength sapped from him.

“Oh, what’s this?” the specter hissed, her voice overly sweet and dripping with malicious intent. “Another little do-gooder, hmm?”

Vlad opened his mouth to answer, to retort – but the ghost dug her nails in even deeper and suddenly he just felt so tired.

“And you’re not even a real hero, are you? Just trying to impress someone who could never love you!” She laughed, but it was sharp and cutting and cold. “Just a sick old man desperate for things he will never get. Can never get!”

She shifted, angling herself so she was looking him right in the eyes. Faintly, he could see himself reflected in her empty red eyes – somehow hers looked even more soulless than his own. “And the only one who knows what you feel, who might understand, left you! And now there’s no one left to care about you, is there?”

He wanted to protest, but… she was right. Jack never cared – he was responsible for this whole thing, after all. Maddie had never reciprocated on his feelings – and she never would, now.

And Daniel… The only one like him… The boy had left him. Had dumped this miserable responsibility on him and left.

“This sickness of yours is your body talking to you, Vladdie.” The ghost leaned in even closer, her claws shifting from his shoulders and further up his body. Faintly, Vlad was aware of blood leaking down his neck – but he made no move to stop her from hurting him further.

Maybe… Maybe he did deserve this.

“You know what it’s telling you?” Her tone was conversational, honey-sweet. “It’s telling you that you should finish what you started and die!”

Her talon-like claw swung down. Vlad closed his eyes, waiting for the impact.

A whiz, like an ectoblast flying past. Hair-raising shrieking as Spectra released him, finally.

Vlad fell to the floor, looking bleary-eyed at the dark specter in front of him. Green smoke still spiraled away from her chest, where the blast must’ve landed.

Now that he was away from her constricting touch, Vlad’s mind started to clear. While Spectra had spoken the truth, she had twisted it – turned his own thoughts against him. She had only told him things he already knew – and things that simply weren’t true. Daniel hadn’t just left. Vlad himself had encouraged the boy!

And now the boy must’ve returned. As Spectra swiped away the last lingering smoke, Vlad realized this. Someone had fired at her, using green ectoplasm. That could only be a Fenton – either Danny, or one of his parents’ guns. And the parents wouldn’t have aimed for Spectra. Wouldn’t have saved him, at least.

He pushed himself upright, a retort fresh on his tongue. A tease to the boy, about how he could never stop his hero-work, no matter how much he might’ve wanted to. How he always protected everyone, no matter how bad they were.

And floating there was certainly a Phantom. Messy white hair, vibrant green eyes. Black and white jumpsuit – although this one a tad looser than the one usually seen.

“Leave him alone!” Dani snapped, green energy whirling around her clenched fists.

“Oh, and who’s this?” Spectra hummed, floating back a step or two. Her eyes were set on the clone now – she knew that Vlad was still weakened. “Another little failure who thinks she can stand up to me?”

Rather than take the words to heart, however, Dani smiled back. All teeth and no joy. “I don’t just think, lady.” She underlined the statement with a shot, a blast of superheated ectoplasm aimed straight at Spectra.

The shadowy ghost dodged, barely. “Is that so?” she purred, still eyeing up her new enemy.

Then suddenly she launched herself towards Dani. The clone wasn’t fast enough to evade her, and the two collided. Spectra pressed her into the dirt of the park, baring her teeth. “Do you really think that you can stand up to me? A little failed clone like you?”

Vlad had finally struggled himself back onto his feet, feeling his energy come back to him. But he hadn’t even recovered far enough for an ectoblast. Not yet.

An explosion of green, and Spectra was launched away. Dani pushed herself off of the ground, green energy still coiling in her aura. “Less talking and more butt-kicking!”

Spectra snarled, evading the follow-up blasts that Dani send her way. “And you really think that you can succeed where your original failed?”

She pinned the clone to a tree, leaning in close. “You really think that you can win, if more powerful ghosts, more experienced ghosts, couldn’t?”

Finally, finally, Vlad’s energy was back to a respectable level. Not one to be left out, he shot a blast of pink ectoplasm at the soul-sucking ghost. “It’s not polite to ignore your guests, Spectra,” he quipped.

She snarled, but Dani took this opportunity to blast the ghost as well. Confident that Spectra was finally pinned, Vlad used his telekinesis to draw the Thermos back to him. He had lost it earlier in the fight – although he wasn’t sure when.

The Thermos was an imitation, of course, but no less powerful for the fact.

“Goodbye,” he snarked at the ghost as he uncapped it. Dani gave her a short wave, as well. With a last shriek, Spectra was drawn into the ghost-catching device.

The fight was over.

And as little as Vlad wanted to admit it, the little clone had been an integral part of the fight. Without her contribution, Spectra would’ve killed him. And as much as he disliked her – her, and everything she stood for – he wasn’t enough of a jerk to ignore such a thing.

“I… thank you, Danielle,” he managed, finally. He could tell from her expression that she doubted the genuineness of his statement, so he added, “Without your help, she surely would’ve killed me.”

“Probably,” Dani agreed with a shrug. She looked away from him, her gaze turned downwards – she was kicking around a rock. “You were getting your butt handed to you pretty badly.”

“I– Yes, I’m afraid I was.” He frowned, confused by her blase attitude. And, now that he thought about it, her immunity to Spectra’s abilities. “Spectra’s insults have a way to… dig into one’s skin. Yet they didn’t seem to trouble you.”

Dani nodded, clearly catching on to his silent question. “Yeah, well. She didn’t say anything I haven’t heard before.” And now she looked back up again, her large green eyes locking onto his own. “After all, she didn’t say anything you haven’t said before. And your words were worse, because unlike Spectra, I actually cared about you!”

Her fists clenched, her eyes starting to look wet – but Dani was blinking away the tears before they could form. “You actually meant something to me! And yet you kicked me to the ground, like trash! Like I didn’t matter!”

He paused, taking in her emotional rant. He supposed that she had a point. He had cast her aside – she hadn’t mattered, because she wasn’t Daniel. “But then why did you save me?”

Shrugging, Dani offered him a wry smile. She swept a hand past her eyes – wiping away tears she hadn’t shed. “I’m not you,” she said. “I’m better than that. I won’t just let you die – especially if you’re trying to do the right thing for once.”

Then her smile turned a little more genuine. She added, with a joking tone, “But maybe you should leave the actual hero-work for younger ghosts, old man.”

“Maybe I should.” He looked at her, thoughtful. Sure, Danny had instructed him to keep Amity Park safe. But if he could convince Dani to take over instead… As long as Amity was safe, it would be fine, yes? “Perhaps we can come to an agreement, hm?”

The clone eyed him, now. She seemed to consider this. “What kind of agreement?”

“We can work together to protect Amity Park in Daniel’s stead,” he started to explain, folding his hands together. He was in his element now – the negotiation of tough deals. “You can take care of most of the ghosts, but we’ll work together against the stronger ones. In return for your efforts, I will pay you – both with money, and with a safe place to stay and food to eat. There is plenty of room in my mansion, after all.”

Then he quirked an eyebrow at her. “And, of course, I can offer training – guidance with your powers. Daniel never accepted – but you are not Daniel, are you?”

She rolled her eyes with a huff. “Now you’re getting it.” Then she fell quiet again as she thought over his proposal.

“Fine,” she finally said, nodding. “But the training won’t be set thing – only when I want to. All the other stuff sounds alright, but only if I get paid per ghost captured and for the amount of time it takes.”

“Very well.” He offered her his hand, and they shook on it. “Then I welcome you to Amity Park, Danielle. May it treat you better than it treated your cousin.”

He had initially seen it like hiring a professional ghost hunter. It was no different than when he had hired Valerie, after all. But that girl had been paid in equipment – this one was paid with food and a roof above her head, instead.

And it worked surprisingly well. Danielle, now that she was older and well-fed for once in her life, was a powerful ghost. She was intelligent and a quick-thinker – and had creative solutions to problems. The girl was a very capable defender – and Amity Park was glad to see a Phantom as their protector again, even if it wasn’t the same one.

Of course, Vlad had had a part in this. As mayor, he had announced the presence of the new ghostly protector of the town. Dani Phantom, he had explained, was a close relative of the Phantom that used to haunt Amity. And he assured the townspeople, that this ghost was certainly a good one. She would keep them safe.

Valerie dropping by didn’t hurt Danielle’s image, either. Her reputation as the Red Huntress was a shaky one, as the people who liked Phantom tended to distrust her, and vice-versa. But when she had announced that she was leaving Amity Park, many had mourned the loss of an excellent ghost hunter. Their only capable human protector.

So when the Red Huntress was spotted conversing with the new Phantom, people were quite curious. They were too high in the skies to overhear, but it was clear from their postures that they knew each other. They chattered on for quite a bit of time before Phantom flew off and Red lowered herself to the ground. She, too, announced that the new ghost was a good one.

The next few months passed with surprising ease. By the time Christmas rolled around, Danny returned to Amity Park to celebrate the holidays. The two of them met at the Christmas Truce party in the Ghost Zone, separating from the crowd so they could talk in private.

Vlad smirked at the boy – the young man, really. “Annoyed that I’ve found a loophole in our agreement, Daniel?” he asked, a taunting tone to his voice.

“What, do you think you somehow cheated our deal?” But Danny simply laughed, shaking his head. “No way. You did like, the complete opposite of that.”

Frowning, Vlad turned to face the boy properly. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Dude, you did all I wanted from you and more. I asked you to protect Amity Park for me, right? And not only have you done that, beyond what I asked for – you even helped Dani along the way.” He grinned at Vlad, expression brighter than Vlad had ever seen it before. “I just wanted to give you a second chance – I didn’t expect much from you except maybe the barest little bit of effort. And instead I find out that you’ve given Dani another shot, too. A roof, food, money – love.”

Vlad opened his mouth to protest this – he had only done what was necessary. Then he shut it again.

Because he hadn’t done just the necessary. He could’ve just offered Danielle money – she could’ve paid for food and a place to stay on her own. He hadn’t had to offer her his own house. But he did.

And… Danielle had grown on him. There were things about her, good things, that he had previously overlooked.

“I suppose that you’re right,” he finally grumbled.

Maybe… Maybe this whole ‘doing nice things’ thing… wasn’t as bad as he had thought.

#phic phight #phic phight 19 #danny phantom #vlad masters #vlad plasmius #dani phantom #danny fenton #spectra #phanfic #phanfiction #dp fanfic #dp fanfiction #dark writes #i wrote this in less than 3 hours and edited it right after #it's half past midnight so some mistakes might've slipped past me #but i wanted to get this done before Endgame so #might be the last fic i write for the Phight

[emilyelizabethfowl]

The Fire In Their Veins

Day 3, “fire” - enjoy!

Warning: A bit of swearing and smut. Pairing: Unidentified Flying Ship (Danny Fenton/Wes Weston)

He felt fire in his veins. It was even worse than that one time when he was trapped inside a circle made of Blood Blossoms. Only this time, he wasn't inside the poison, the poison was inside him. During their battle Skulker shoot him with some sort of dart. He didn't notice it soon enough, but fortunately for him the effects kicked in only when he already defeated the hunter, but he didn't manage to get home. He was writhing on the ground in some alley with a suspicion Vlad was the one behind that. He usually was the creator of the most lethal weapons. It hurt. He barely could think about anything. It hurt, and he had no way of informing anyone. Skulker oh-so-conveniently destroyed his phone during the battle. The only hope was that no one would attack him, he was practically defenseless, the most vulnerable he was in years. He managed to hide under some cartoons, but he couldn't use any of his powers, and it really sucked.   Footsteps. He heard footsteps over the blood pulsing in his ears, and he prayed to any deity existing that it would be Sam or Tucker, or even Jazz. Anything's better than his parents or another ghost or- "Fenton. You do realize there is like a bazillion of GiW out there?" -or worst case scenario. Only he wasn't sure anymore if he meant Guys in White or Wes Weston. "Gggryhuhfg" he so eloquently managed to spill. "Huh." The read head huffed and bend down. "I don't suppose you're in the position to care right now."

"Hhhhhelp" Danny tried. He had no hopes it would really work but, hey, miracles happens? It wasn't like he had any other option at the moment. "Yeah, sure. Help a ghost vigilante while the streets are swarming with GiW. What else?" Danny wasn't even surprised. He just closed his eyes, turned his head as far back as he could, and tried to focus on not moaning from pain. He started getting hot, which wasn't exactly safe with his ice core. "You... Really are out of it, aren't you?" He didn't dignified it with a response. "Fine." His eyes snapped open. Did he really... Wes was looking at him with that weird mixture of resentment and something else, something he couldn't really identify. He watched him crunching alongside and helping him sit up. Ashamed of the whimper he involuntarily let out, he tried to turn his head. His cheeks felt hot, he knew his whole face looked red and flushed. Wes thankfully ignored it. "Come on, I can't really drag you all the way home without any help. Can you at least turn invisible?" It took incredible amounts of power he didn't know he had, but he managed to make himself invisible and lighter by using his natural ability to float. He didn't pay attention to the road, he just wished it was all over. If he got home, Jazz would call Sam and Tucker, and then they would call Vlad and demand to explain what was that specific substance... The closing doors snapped him out of the stupor. Actually when he thought about this, his home was literally on the other end of the town from the place he fought Skulker, did Wes really dragged him that long- Oh. He managed to crack his eyes open. The unfamiliar ceiling told him everything he needed to know. He was lying on the bed- Wes's bed. The boy in question was sitting right next to him. Somehow he produced a wet cloth - maybe Danny was a bit more distracted than he thought. His mind get a bit clearer. "Than... qu..." He managed. Yeah, close enough to what he actually wanted to say. "Don't think you're outta the wood yet, Fenton." Danny's eyes widened at the casual use of his civil name. He knew Wes had some kind of suspicions, but he didn't know he was so sure of his theory. "What, surprised I figured it out?" The smugness in his voice was unmistakable. Something stirred in his abdomen.   "You're... Not gonna... Experiment... On me... Are you?" The redhead looked shocked. "Why would I? I'm not a... Oh." His eyes widened. "You're not trying to deceive people, you're just... Afraid..." Danny writhed and muffled a moan. The pain in his stomach started getting unbearable and he was pretty sure he felt something slick going down his thighs. It felt absolutely disgusting, he needed to know what it did to him NOW. "Pho... ne?" He asked weakly. "I have the numbers of your sidekicks, I can call them right-" "No... Vlad... Dart... Hurt... Must... Know..." Wes looked like he had no idea what he was talking about. "You don't want me to call sidekicke?" Danny shook his head. "You want me to call Vlad?" Danny nodded. "You got shoot with a dart?" Another nod. "It hurts, and so you must know what was inside?" Relieved expression on Danny's face spoke for itself. It would took a bit longer to figure t out if it was anyone else. Wes must've been really smart... He figured out his secret too, without actually seeing him transform... Something stirred in his abdomen again. "Okay, but I don't have Vlad's number. Can you punch it in?" Danny nodded shortly. "He... Can't know... You know..." He caught it right off the bat. "Got it. I'll put it on speaker and say i found Phantom, alright?" Damn, why didn't he make friends with him before, the boy was an angel in disguise! He put the phone right next to Danny's right hand but it still took a lot of effort to put the number in/ Finally after some very painful minutes Wes dialed the number. The signal sounded two times before Vlad answered. "Vlad Masters, hello?" He said shortly. Like he was interrupted something. Probably didn't expect Danny to call from different number. "Hello mister Masters," Wes took the cloth and checked his temperature. He was still burning. "I found Phantom in quite pathetic state and he insisted on calling you." "Ah yes." The tone changed immediately. "I suppose he would be unable to speak after the serum." "What was in the serum?" The redhead looked down. The halfa was breathing hard. "It's just something to speed up things a little." "Speed them up?" "Have you been aware that ghosts go through heat?" There was deaf silence. Wes's eyes locked with Danny's. He could feel his face getting flushed but, surprisingly, he wasn't embarrassed. "When will it stop?" Wes finally asked. "Oh it won't just stop." Danny could feel the smirk on Vlad's face. "To make it disappear, the ghost hunger must be sated." Wes stopped paying attention to the phone for a moment. "I can just call the chick you hang with and-" "Oh, I don't think it'll be that easy." Redheads eyes turned hard and all his attention was once again focused on Vlad. Danny felt even more slickness between his legs. Damn Jazz and her biology lessons, now he had some idea what it might've been. "And why wouldn't it be?" "Unless miss Manson grew a penis overnight, she's not what Daniel needs at the moment." The realization hit them both at the same moment. "Then I'll just call the other one..." "Ah, but mister Foley is out of town tonight, didn't you know?" The dark chuckle had more of an effect than usually. "Your presence is really quite unfortunate, I hoped nobody would find Daniel before the need turned him completely insane-" Danny's eyes turned all round. That was... Unusually cruel, even for Vlad. "Fuck you!" "Oh, I'm not the one who requires fu-" Wes hung up on Vlad and on one hand Danny was glad, but on the other, it was first time he heard Vlad saying something even remotely resembling a swear word. "Do you know anyone who might help you? Any other friends?" Wes asked, desperation clear in his voice. Danny could understand it, after all not every day you find a ghost in the alley and took it home just to be told it needs fucking. But he didn't know anyone. So he shook his head. The pain was getting worst with every second. Wes put a hand in his hair and ruffled it slightly. The halfa wriggled slightly to get closer to him. He couldn't contain the moan that left his mouth. "I guess it's just you and me, huh?" Danny starred at him. "You... Hate.. Not?" Speaking was even harder than before. The redhead barked out a laugh. "And I didn't believe when they said you were oblivious." He shook his head with a fond expression. "No, I don't hate you. In fact, I had a crush on you since the first day I saw you." He blushed slightly, his hand still in Danny's hair. "Actually, that's why I found out you were a ghost." Danny whimpered, getting even closer to him. "Okay." Wes slowly made his way on all four and over Danny's body. "Not the perfect situation. I don't really think it counts as a consent in the state you're in, but... Are you okay with that?" Danny got his hands around his neck and dragged him down, kissing feverishly. "I suppose this counts as a yes" Wes huffed out when he managed to catch his breath. He sat back on Danny's thighs and took off his shirt. When he looked at Danny again, the halfa was completely naked. "How did you-" he started baffled. "Intangibility. Duh." He didn't say anything else, as Danny got too impatient and used his powers on the rest of the clothes Wes had left. They were both naked, and the contact made Danny let out another whimper. He spread his thighs widely and huffed impatiently. "Alright, alright." Wes grinned. "But I gotta get you ready first." He reached down. Danny wriggled at the sudden feeling of the finger inside him. It was a bit weird, but the serum made him crave more of it. Soon another finger joined, then third. "That serum seemed to get you ready already." Wes commented. Danny wished he would shut up and get straight to fucking. So he brought him down and kissed again. Wes grinned against his mouth. "I'm on it, babe." He took the hand back and coated his dick with the slick substance. Lining up, he kissed Danny. He whimpered into his mouth when Wes slowly entered him, taking his time. Danny buckled up, making him push the whole cock inside. It hit something inside him that made him almost break his spine,his eyes clouded with the pleasure. Once he caught his breath, Wes sliden out and pushed all the way back again. Danny let out a moan, lost between the kisses. Wes kept the rhythm, kissing him along the jaw. He bit down on his collarbone and that, along with a particularly hard thrust made Danny go over the edge, which in turn made Wes go over it as well. They stayed that way for a moment, neither wanting to let go just yet. finally Wes slide out, causing another whimper from Danny. "Your temperature got down." He commented, setting his hand on Danny's forehead. Danny just busted out laughing. "You're impossible." He managed to say in between. "Oh, I see your mental capabilities got back to the normal level too." The smile was definitely a fond one. "Anything to say?" "Yeah." Danny dragged him down. "Come cuddle."

#Danny Phantom #DannyMay #DannyMay Daily #Wes Weston #Unidentified Flying Ship #I have no idea how did it happened #honestly #it was supposed to be short piece #around a thousadn #its nearly 2000 #seriously how #didnt even plan the smut at first #my writing #my art #Emily's writing