#he found a ghost and dragged them and all that jazz just give his friend a closure

[wandixx]

I just realized that there is literally zero fanfics with Danny Fenton/M'gann M'orzz pairing and idk, am I the only one who see nearly endless potential in it?

I don't know how they met but they're probably pretty fast friends.

With Danny being space nerd, he would ask M'gann all the questions about Mars. At the same time, from what little I know about Miss Martian, she is "Earth nerd" and would ask him all the questions about Earth and what normal teenage life is like, because YL team is not the best study case. Like, only Wally and maybe Artemis (I don't know a thing about her other than 'snarky/blunt archer') had normal human life. He is happy to answer, introducing her to his semi normal life before accident.

They exchanged stories about stars from their respective homes.

Just imagine, Danny binge watching "Hello Megan" just to know what she is talking about and it's not his thing, really, but he learnt to enjoy it because he associated it with M'gann (we can have Jazz being fan too and feeling 'betrayed' because she tried to strongarm her brother to watch it for years and all it took was to cute alien girl to mention it and he is pulling all nighters).

Just imagine, M'gann asking one of her teammates (probably Robin) to teach her to play Doomed, so she can play with her halfa friend and his friends and not ask about every controller. They don't really mind her being newbie but sudden progress doesn't go unnoticed or unpraised.

Everlasting trio inviting her to Nasty Burger every once in a while to talk about random, not hero related things.

Rest of the YJ may not even know about Phantom. They just know about this Danny, M'gann's totally civilian friend, who likes milkshakes and video games.

They share their stories and tips about heroing and powers they have similar. Mostly M'gann shares things she learnt from her uncle or in Mountain because let's be honest, self taught is rarely better than someone with proper mentoring. She for sure helps with ghosts if they attack during her visit, even if Danny tries to shield her from it. "I'm supposed to be your civilian friend, am I not?"

She definitely does what she can to help with his hero PR. She may or may not accidentally convinced rest of the Team she has celebrity crush on underappreciated ghost hero from the middle of the nowhere. They help her, spamming all negative news reports with praises for Phantom from both hero and civilian accounts. It caused some mess, Justice League had questions but Danny was happy so it doesn't matter.

If we go with ghost being super emphatic we can have Danny overwhelmed by everyone's feelings (honest hate his parents have towards his hero persona, confliction of towns people, concern of his friends, excitement of Casper students idk, EVERYTHING) and M'gann helps him overcome it. Later both of them being there for eachother when everything was just too much. Y'know just this mutual understanding that nobody else can really give them.

Maybe some communication troubles because M'gann prefers telepathy and Danny does not like it in a slightest (Freakshow flashbacks or something) but tries to accommodate. Or M'gann doesn't even try because idk, one of telepathy rules is "don't read thoughts of dying person unless they project it to you" and she feels it goes for dead (even if only halfway) too.

They're just vibing with eachother.

Then there is ghost attack outside Amity and Team is send to deal with it. M'gann is surprisingly competent at dealing with everything ghost does while evacuating civilians while someone magic competent is called. Suddenly she stops, gets her phone and makes a call:

"Hey Danny, do you have a moment?" whole team is too shocked to react, because in the love of whatever they believe in, why is Megan calling her civilian friend in the middle of the battle with unknown entity. "It's [insert whatever ghost you want] wrecking havoc. Can you come by at take them to the zone? I don't have thermos on me right now. Thank you."

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?

Que Danny flying top speed to wherever she is, fights a ghost and contains them. Que someone (maybe Wally) being like:

"When did you wanted to tell us that your civilian friend is a hero?"

M'gann honest to god forgot that Team thought Danny was a civilian.

"I worked quite hard to drag her into as little of my Phantom bullshit as I could. I am proud of being a civilian friend, thank you very much"

They all came in contact together after that.

Martian Manhunter tried to give Fenton a shovel talk but boy was too excited to meet his favourite hero and to focused on not making fool of himself to be actually scared or something. He deals with Skulker on a regular basis anyway, there are very few threats that could actually scare him.

Team members also tried to shovel talk him, just in case. They all failed for one reason or another

Or maybe Danny is already YJ member. Everything above can still happen just without ghost attack. Danny can have issues with Zeta Tubes though. That's a good stuff.

There can be a drama of "I'm your friend only because I'm alien/semi normal, am I not?"

Or we can go with space obsessed Danny going full Vlad on cute alien girl. Y'know, because "that's a halfa thing to do". M'gann is not into that. I'm not really excited about this take but that's a possibility too.

Use it as you will. Just please someone write it

#dp x dc #dpxdc #dcxdp #dc x dp #no other fandom tags to not iritate people in either fandom who aren't into dp x dc stuff #just let them vibe #danny fenton/m'gann m'orzz #they could be so cute together #danny's reveal to yj could be something like: #M'gann: shapeshifts into her civilian disguise #Danny: oh I can do that too #and then shifts into his human form #que everyone is shocked #everyone other than m'gann #she knew #Wally: Why are ghosts Martians on steroids? #i definitely don't have around 1000 if no more words of Danny comforting M'gann after she saw civilian die in car crash she couldn't prevent #he found a ghost and dragged them and all that jazz just give his friend a closure #but he was really sus about it so uncle J'onn does not approve #“M'gann what are martian funeral traditions?” #that's the question that started this whole mess #I know nearly nothing about dc martians so it probably doesn't make to much sense canon wise #that's the reason why i won't post it #probably #maybe I'll get myself to do research and edit what I have to fit #who knows #do i tag correctly? #idk how to tag

[nelkcats]

Bounty hunters and misunderstandings

After Vlad's failure with the million dollar hunt, the GIW and many interested in the "weird ghost boy" decided to give the idea a try and put various bounties on Phantom's capture. Since Amity was a ghost-infested town, most of them didn't go there and sent their own bounty hunters, some were interested on study the creature further, others wanted to prove his existence.

Danny realized that he could capture "Phantom" and escape multiple times to collect the money for all the rewards with his friends help, after all, the prizes seemed to be offered in cash. He had a good idea of ​​where he could spend the money and was so excited about it, he used a box to put the various envelopes and hide it on his room.

Jazz got mad at Danny for getting caught by bounty hunters to repeatedly collect the prize money. She didn't think it was safe and her annoying little brother kept talking about a new video game.

She saw him excited about the new game that had come out but she didn't see the point, he could play online! There was no reason to risk that much. That's why when Danny was very tired, out of ectoplasm and someone finally hold him with no chance of escape, Jazz refused to rescue him from his own mistakes.

But while visiting Danny's room, she noticed that the money was not for a video game but for her college tuition and future life. The box she found was decorated with small drawings of ghosts and a "For my older sister" written with a green marker.

Now Jazz has 24 hours to save Danny from Deathstroke's prison before he hand him over to his contractors. On his side, Deathstroke had successfully captured the strange creature; the inventions of the weird scientists who dragged him to their house had worked, and since he pushed up his deadline he would just wait for his contractor until the next day to collect his payment.

#dpxdc #dp x dc prompt #dp x dc #dc x dp #I think the notice of Phantom finally released to the outside world because of the bounty hunters #But people took it as a joke #except the ones who wanted to see the creature #I think Ra would be interested on him #So the LoA was also following Phantom #maybe they were the ones who contracted Slade #dp x dc crossover #Jazz tough Danny was being selfish #he was not #he was collecting the money for Jazz U #since she didn't want to ask their parents #they were already struggling with their inventions #And even with university help you still need some money #Danny wanted to help her #maybe give some extra money for her future necessities too #like the apartment and food since she is moving out of Amity #The misunderstanding with the video game was because Danny was excited to play it online with Sam and Tucker #And he didn't tell Jazz because he wanted it to be a surprise #Idk if one of the Bats can be Jazz ally or if she will be badass on her own #Phantom is making Slade a little uncomfortable #Because he looks so human and the description was about a creature #But he still needs to handle him to whoever his contractor is

[disillusioneddanny]

A Love Story for the Ages Day 1 firsts/lasts

Danny Fenton was nine years old when he met Bruce Wayne for the first time. Jack had decided that they needed to go to Gotham City to investigate ghosts. Danny was just happy to go on some kind of road trip and get out of dreary Amity Park. He had even somehow managed to convince Jazz to take him to the park to play while their parents were off running around and looking for ghosts that were nowhere to be found. 

It was at the park that Danny had met eight year old Brucie Wayne. The little boy was also at the park that day with his butler, Alfred. 

“Hi! My name’s Danny!” The little boy had said, running up to the little boy who was climbing up the jungle gym. The dark headed boy looked down at him and smiled. 

“I’m Brucie!” he said, waving down at him. 

“Can I play with you?” Danny asked, looking up at the child. Brucie just nodded his head once, a happy smile on his face, content with the fact that he was making a friend all on his own. Danny climbed onto the jungle gym and looked over at the boy. “Wanna race?”

“Yes!” Brucie cheered before the two continued to climb, higher and higher to see who could get there first. Danny let out a whoop as he made it to the top. He reached a hand down to help Brucie on the last step. Bruce took his hand and allowed the older boy to pull him up. 

“I’ve never gotten to the top before,” Brucie said, staring down at the ground. “I feel so tall!”

Danny giggled. “I do too! It’s so fun!”

“Can we be friends?” The younger boy asked, looking over at Danny with a hopeful smile. “I don’t have any friends.”

“I don’t have any either,” Danny said. “But we can be best friends! I can give you my parents number and we can call each other all the time after I go home on Friday.”

“You’re going home?” Bruce asked, tilting his head to the side. Danny let out a sad whine of confirmation and nodded his head. 

“Yeah, my parents are here for work and they brought me and my sister with them. I’m just here for a week,” he said, swinging his feet, the ends of his shoelaces dragged along the bar below his foot. 

“That’s okay, we can still be best friends! We can call each other all the time and maybe I can come visit you sometime?” Bruce said. Danny perked up and nodded his head once, agreeing with the plan. “Cool! I can’t wait to tell my mom and dad about you! I’ve never had a friend before.”

Danny laughed and looked over at his new best friend. “Wanna see something cool?” He asked. Bruce nodded once before he let out a gasp as Danny launched himself into the air and landed on the ground, letting out a happy whoop when he landed on his feet. 

“That was so cool!” Bruce shouted before following suit. The two boys continued to play until the sun started to set and Jazz and Alfred respectively told the boys that it was time to go. 

Every single day for the rest of the week, Danny and Bruce found themselves playing together at the park. They created adventures, and told one another stories. They fought imaginary monsters and saved fake princesses from dragons. 

“I’m gonna miss you,” Bruce said softly, a hiccup in his voice as he held back his tears. Danny wiped at his eyes and nodded once. 

“Me too, Brucie. But I’m gonna call you every single day!” Danny said. “And it isn’t goodbye, we’re gonna see each other again.”

“I love you, Danny,” Bruce said, finally letting his tears fall down his cheeks. Danny sniffed and hugged Bruce tight. 

“I love you too, Brucie,” the boy said, burying his face in Bruce’s shoulder. It was the first time that Bruce and Danny had ever told one another “I love you.” But it was not going to be the last. 

Once Danny left, the two had continued with their daily phone calls, spending hours talking about nothing of importance, just how their days were going and what they thought of school. Sometimes Danny would tell Brucie about the newest crazy thing his parents were doing. Bruce would tell him about the boring galas that his parents would drag them to. It wasn’t the easiest friendship with how far apart they were. But it was theirs and it meant the world to both little boys. 

That is, until the accident happened. 

“Brucie? What’s wrong?” Danny asked, listening to his best friend sniffle on the other side of the phone. It wasn’t their usual time to talk to one another. In fact, Brucie had called super late at night. Mom had only let Danny talk to him because he sounded upset. 

“Mama and Papa died,” he said softly. “I don’t know what to do.”

Danny felt his heart sink. “I’m sorry Brucie,” he said quietly. “I’m gonna ask mom and dad to see if we can come see you. It’s gonna be okay, Brucie, everything is gonna be okay.”

Brucie let out a soft sniff. For the first time in Danny’s young life, he felt absolutely helpless. A week later, Danny had managed to convince his mother to fly out with him to Gotham City for Martha and Thomas Wayne’s funerals. As soon as Bruce spotted him, he ran straight towards his best friend, Danny held the boy tight as he sobbed into his shoulder. 

“It’s gonna be okay, Brucie. Everything is going to be okay,” he said softly, hugging his best friend tight. 

After that, the calls continued on daily but the conversations turned into hours long conversations as Bruce told Danny everything going on in his life and his desire for revenge. Danny found himself treasuring every moment he had with Bruce as his own parents started to slip away from him, the neglect growing exponentially as they started to focus more on their experiments than they did their children. 

Bruce is thirteen when he gets the call from Danny. “Danny? What’s wrong?” He asked. At this time their calls had gone down from daily to weekly, high school and middle school now kicking their asses and keeping them busier than they would have liked. 

“Something happened to me, Bruce. I don’t know what to do,” Danny whispered, his voice shaky. “I was with Sam and Tucker in my parent’s lab and I was trying to impress them. Bruce, I think I died,” he said, voice breaking at the end. 

“What do you mean you died? I’m talking to you right now, Danny. You’re fine,” Bruce said with a frown. 

“No, you don’t understand. Something’s wrong with me. I keep falling through walls, I can fly now, I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I think it’s because of the portal. It opened with me in it,” he whimpered. “Bruce, I’m a freak.”

“Danny, you are not a freak. I don’t know what happened but you’re going to be okay, do you understand? Have you told your parents what happened?” He asked, glaring down at his desk and feeling utterly helpless. He hated moments like this where the distance between him and his best friend became a hassle and kept him from comforting his friend in the way that he would like. 

“No! They can’t know about this, if they find out they’ll try to experiment on me. You know how they are, B. If they find out I have powers, they’re gonna think something’s wrong with me and they’re gonna run tests and-”

“You’re catastrophizing again,” Bruce chided. “Look, you’re still coming to Gotham in a few weeks for Spring Break, right?”

“Yeah, mom already bought my plane ticket to come see you guys,” Danny said shakily. 

“When you get here, we’ll figure out what’s wrong. It’s gonna be okay, Danny. Everything’ll be okay,” Bruce said softly. 

“Thanks for letting me stay here with you guys,” Danny said, the bags under his eyes darker than ever as he set his duffle bag down in the foyer. Bruce frowned. 

Danny’s parents had learned about Danny’s accident. They hadn’t taken it well. From what Danny had said, they hadn’t tried to experiment on him or rip him apart molecule by molecule. Instead they had asked him to leave. His parents had kicked their sixteen year old son out of their house like he was trash. 

The fifteen year old simply pulled Danny into his arms and gave him a tight hug. “It’s gonna be okay. This can be your home now, me and Alfred will take care of you,” he whispered, holding Danny close. Danny sobbed into his shoulder, squeezing Bruce’s waist tight. 

Bruce is sixteen years old when he finally manages to get the nerve to kiss Danny. They’re curled up in the entertainment center watching some movie that Danny had been super excited about. 

“Danny, look at me,” Bruce whispered, watching the way Danny’s eyes shone in the dark room. His otherworldliness more prominent in the dark. Danny glanced over and smiled. 

“What is it, B? Are you getting tired? We can finish the movie tomorrow if you want,” he suggested. 

“Can I kiss you?” Bruce asked quietly, slinking his hand down to take Danny’s hand in his. 

Danny blushed a beautiful red. “I think I’d like that,” he whispered back. Bruce’s heart pounded as he leaned in close and closed the difference between the two of them. Danny’s lips are soft is the first thing Bruce thinks of. They’re soft and they taste like butter and salt from the popcorn  and they’re warm. Bruce never wants to pull away. It’s their first kiss, but it was definitely not going to be their last if Bruce has anything to say about it. 

“I have to do this, Danny,” Bruce said, glaring at his boyfriend. He’s twenty years old now and he’s ready to start training to get stronger, to become someone who can finally get revenge for his parents' murders. He was going to avenge them. 

Danny just gave him a small smile and cupped Bruce’s hand in his. “I understand. This is important to you, B. Besides, I can only put off the inevitable for so long. Clockwork is demanding that I start my training to be king.”

Bruce smiled and pressed his face into Danny’s hand. “Can’t believe you’re about to be the king of an entire dimension.”

Danny let out a soft laugh. “It is kinda crazy. Isn’t it?”

“What does this mean for us?” Bruce asked him, taking Danny’s hand and squeezing it tight. 

“It means that we’re just not going to see each other very much for a while. But I don’t think anything has to change. I love you, Bruce, distance and time won’t change that, either,” Danny told him. Bruce smiled and pressed a soft kiss to Danny’s lips. They taste like the vanilla of Danny’s chapstick and they’re just as welcoming as always. They remind Bruce of home. 

Bruce is thirty three when he sees Danny again. It hadn’t meant to be like this, their lives had become so hectic. Bruce had become Batman, he had an entire city to take care of on his own. Danny was a king, he had no time for himself anymore but he makes sure that Bruce knows he’s there. He leaves notes for Bruce everywhere, letting the Dark Knight know that he is watching. 

“What do I do, Danny? How am I going to take care of him?” Bruce asked quietly, watching as his new ward, Dick Grayson slept peacefully in the guest bed. 

“Make sure he knows that he’s loved, B,” Danny said, looking down at the boy. “His parents approve of you being his new guardian. They were beyond happy to know that you would be taking care of the boy.”

“Of course, as soon as you told me about him, I had to be there for him. I know what he’s going through, it’s so hard. I would have never wished that on any little kid,” Bruce murmured, still staring down at Dick. Danny twined their fingers together and led him out of the guest room. 

“It will be okay, Starlight,” Danny told him quietly. “I can pop in from time to time to check in on you guys. I’m tired of this distance,” he said. 

Bruce nodded tiredly. “I am too,” he murmured as they took a seat on his bed. Danny curled up around Bruce’s side and slipped a leg between the vigilante’s. “How are things going in the realms?”

“Exhausting. There’s just been so much to do and I’m only one person,” Danny complained. “How’s the vigilante life going?”

Bruce cracked a small smile. “About the same.”

The two tangled themselves into one another as they got caught up on each of their lives, feeling as though it was just yesterday when they had last seen one another.

Danny watched his lover laying on his bed, his family surrounding him. They were frozen in place. This was a moment between just Bruce and Danny. 

“Are you sure that this is what you want?” Danny asked, watching the man he had loved his entire existence start to fade before his eyes. Bruce gave him a tired smile. 

“I have lived a long life, Danny. I’m ninety years old, I let you have me for this long,” he rasped out, taking Danny’s smooth hand in his wrinkled and gnarled one. “I’m ready to move on. I want to see my parents again. I would like to see Alfred again.”

“But what about me?” Danny whispered, his voice cracking slightly. 

“I’ll see you again too, one day,” Bruce said with a certainty that Danny did not have. The Ghost King frowned down at his love, feeling selfish beyond words as he wracked his brain, trying to think of some reason to keep Bruce here, to keep him living. 

“I love you, Brucie,” Danny said softly, leaning down to press a kiss to the old man’s cheek. 

“I love you too, Danny,” Bruce told him, one last time. 

#Danny Fenton #Danny Phantom #Bruce Wayne #dpxdcshipweek2023 #dp x dc crossover #Danny Fenton x Bruce Wayne #spirit halloween #Day 1 #pop writes #dis writes

[its-rat-time-babey]

I adore Spectra’s first appearance in My Brother’s Keeper. In fact I adore My Brother’s Keeper in general, as it’s my absolute favourite episode in the show.

One thing that I confidently say about the series as a whole is that it would be instantly improved if it leaned towards the more horror aspects of its concept. The show as a whole would be way better if parts of it were played for horror, and that goes DOUBLE for Spectra.

And that’s because Spectra in canon acts extremely differently compared to the other ghosts that Danny faces. Instead of being loud and flashy like the others, Spectra is a slow, creeping force.

Basically all other ghosts in the series are, just like how I described them before, pretty loud and flashy with their actions and fights. When they show up, everyone knows pretty quickly and Danny gets on the case not long after. Even villains that try to hide their ghostly attributes like Ember in her first appearance very quickly drop that facade once they’re face to face with Danny or once they get decently close to their goals.

But not Spectra. The only thing that gets Spectra to reveal herself as a ghost is being directly confronted with no other choice. Instead of being loud and flashy with her plans and actions, Spectra maintains her disguise through everything and goes about things quietly from the shadows. When she needs something loud and flashy, she has Bertrand do it for her to stay out of the spotlight.

And the results are terrifying to watch. Spectra latches onto Casper High like a parasite and we see her influence slowly creep through the school as the episode progresses. Students become more depressed as Spectra gives them the opposite of therapy and encourages negative behaviours, made even easier by her negative emotion generating presence, starting with just a few and ending with the entire student body being depressed. All while Danny struggles to figure out why because Spectra did what no other ghost even attempted to do and found a way to trick his ghost sense.

Not to mention that the final part of Spectra’s plan involved publicly killing Jazz (who from Spectra’s perspective is just some random student by the way) in front of the entire school to make everyone even more miserable.

When Spectra is defeated the school is described as “having a dark cloud over it lifted” because that sums up what Spectra is perfectly. A slowly creeping dark cloud that settles over an area and drags everything down.

My Brother’s Keeper is also perfect for Fridge Horror. Because I can point out three massive chunks of fridge horror right off the bat.

1. Spectra knows about Danny’s ghost sense and how to fool it, heavily implying that she’s been in the background for a while now stalking Danny from a distance to learn these things.

2. We very plainly see that this isn’t the first school that Spectra has visited and fed from, with multiple pictures of other schools that Spectra has worked at. There’s a 99% chance that those schools met the same fate that Spectra attempted to doom Casper High to, drained of all positive emotion with one or several student deaths before Spectra left. I say several student deaths because as Spectra states herself in the episode, one person’s spirit affects the next like dominos. The death of one student in a school full of extremely depressed and even traumatized teenagers depending on the circumstances could very easily lead to more deaths, which in turn lead to even more deaths.

3. Sidney Fucking Poindexter. It is very easy to understand the theory that he took his own life back in the 50s. He’s the ghost of a high schooler whose backstory involves constant relentless bullying with no friends or help, bullying so relentless that it became his main focus as a ghost. It’s all but directly stated that that’s the case. But stranger is the fact that a ton of his classmates also became ghosts. So many of his classmates exist in the ghost zone that an entire alternate version of Casper High exists there. So why are they here?

Because remember what I said about one student death causing several more? There’s a good chance that this isn’t the first time that Spectra came to Casper High. Sidney dying from suicide makes even more sense if Spectra was involved and a large amount of Casper High’s student body dying shortly after also has an explanation if she was there in the 50s.

——

I also really like My Brother’s Keeper because in my opinion, that’s the episode where Jazz’s character goes from her initial characterization as a Skeptic, Know-It-All and Perfectionist at the beginning of the series to her much better characterization as one of Danny’s best supporters and one of the best characters in general. It introduces her to ghosts for the first time for one, but it also reveals Danny’s identity as Phantom to her, and I’m obsessed with how good her reaction is from a character and meta perspective.

When Jazz learns that Danny is half-ghost, she doesn’t confront him for keeping secrets or anything like that, but instead quickly and easily accepts that Danny has his own reasons for wanting to keep his identity a secret and decides to let him come out to her when he’s ready to on his own. She also tries her best to make Danny feel comfortable with his identity around her with her “you can talk to me about anything” speech.

It’s an amazing bit of character that not only shows how much Jazz trusts, respects and just cares about Danny, but it’s also amazing out of universe because I seriously struggle to find any other character in fiction that’s acted this way when discovering someone’s secret identity, especially when that person is close to them.

Also the episode in general shows how much Jazz cares about her brother. Right off the bat at the beginning of the episode Jazz is talking to Mr Lancer about wanting to help him and Jazz mentions that she’s been worried about him ever since the accident (also giving us the lore that all the Fentons know about the accident and it wasn’t just a secret thing that only Danny, Sam and Tucker are aware of).

Also My Brother’s Keeper is absolutely RIPE with Trans Danny material. Jazz’s reaction to learning about Danny’s identity, Spectra’s quotes of “What are you? A ghost trying to fit in with humans? Or some creepy little boy with creepy little powers?” and “You're a freak! Not a ghost, not a boy! Who cares for a thing like you?”, it’s got some gems in there.

Also Trans Danny combined with Spectra’s quotes in this episode make her Danny’s only explicitly transphobic villain and that’s remarkably in character for her.

#danny phantom #My brother’s keeper #penelope spectra #jazz fenton #analysis #an I being pulled back into the Danny Phantom fandom? #I don’t know at all #enjoy word vomit about my favourite Danny Phantom episode

[half-deadmagicperson]

And He Answered

Chapter 1

For @phicphight

Words: 994 (For this chapter)

Prompt: Mermaid AU, where instead of being ectobiologists, Jack and Maddie Fenton study wildlife from under the sea— specifically mermaids. Amity Park is next to multiples large lakes and rivers, the Ghost Zone is underwater, all the ghosts are mers, and Danny is struggling to find a way to explain his sudden aversion to any things water.( By @erebecula )

Summary: Danny Fenton was just fourteen when his parents built a submarine. It was designed to travel to a world unseen. When it couldn't handle the water pressure, his folks quit, but Danny was stupid and went inside of it.

Warnings: Major Character Death, Drowning

This is chapter one of this series which will probably become my pet project this month.

Next | AO3

        Drs. Fenton are marine biologists who have been trying to prove the existence of mers for years. One of their pet projects was a special sub that could help them capture a specimen or two, as well as travel deep enough to find them. Danny was cleaning their lab when he noticed the sub in all its glory. He was curious about the strange vessel and decided to board it. While he was looking around the cockpit, he accidentally bumped a button on the control panel. An alarm blared as the sub was dropped into the depths of the surprisingly deep lake.

    The sub went down and cracked under the pressure. Water rushed in and filled the cockpit. Danny started to tread water. It was no use. Eventually, there was no air left in the sub. The lake water stung his eyes. Danny held his breath as long as he could. He needed to inhale, but he couldn't. Water rushed into his airway, and he started to choke. The lake filled his lungs and he couldn't breath. This was it. He was stupid for ever boarding the sub. His vision blurred. He'll never get to say goodbye to his family or his friends. Danny will never get to be an astronaut. At least, he'll be among the stars. Goodbye world. Everything went black.

     "We got a pulse!" A muddled voice spoke. Danny's eyes flew open as he lurched forward and coughed out a bunch of water onto the blanket on top of him. He was in a hospital, sitting on a gurney. He looked over to see a doctor and nurses as well as his family. His head ached like there was no tomorrow. How did they find him? He was at least 5000 ft below. 

    "What happened?" He asked groggily.

    "We were wondering if you could answer that," his mom said, "we found you washed up on the beach. You-you didn't have a pulse and you weren't breathing. Jazz called the doctor while I started giving you CPR. We were so scared Danny! We thought we were gonna lose you."

    At this point his mother started to cry and pulled him into a hug.

   "Those damned mer probably did this," his dad replied, "I, Jack Fenton, swear to tear them apart for what they did!"

    Danny knew at some point he had to figure out how he got on shore, but in the meantime he was tired. He decided to get some sleep. Hopefully tomorrow he'll be able to go home.

    A blue man with a whipy beard appeared. His complexion was both young and old at the same time. His form appeared to shift with the shimmering in the water between a child, an adult, and an elder. His face wore a gentle smile. He summoned a ball of blue light and blew it towards Danny.

  "You're destined for great things young halfa. You will unite the land and sea. It's only a matter of time."

    The man smiled and faded away.

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

    Danny woke up super thirsty. He looked around the hospital room for some water. Thankfully, he was given some breakfast which included something to drink. Today he had to do some final check-ups so he can go home.

    The day dragged on. Most of the time he spent texting his friends Sam and Tucker, telling them that he was okay. The doctors came and cleared him. The only concerning thing was his slightly colder body temperature, but that should hopefully go away soon.

    The Fenton Assault Vehicle (equipped with harpoons and nets) rolled up into the driveway of their house. It felt good to be home. Danny walked up to his room and pulled out some clothes for a shower. The grime from the ocean still clung to his skin.

    Danny turned on the faucet in the bath. He ran his hand under the water to see what temperature it was at before he turned to place down his clean clothes. Not a moment after he set his clean clothes down did he notice something shiny on his hand. Were those scales? Sure enough on the back of his hand was blotched with iridescent black scales. He rubbed his hand with a towel, and they disappeared. Maybe he should just go to bed. He's so tired he must be seeing things. Yeah that's it. Just tired.

     Danny laid down in bed and looked out his window towards Lake Amity. He watched the water lap slightly against the sand. It was quite peaceful. A sense of longing filled his heart as he stared at the still, murky waters. He wanted to be out there in the stillness. He has no idea why, especially since he literally drowned like two days ago. He watched the light shimmer against the water and the temptation grew worse. He NEEDED to be out there. The water was calling.

     Danny told his family he was going for a walk and strolled to the rocky beach. He walked over to a part of the cove where he could be alone. The water was calling him.

     Danny stepped into the water and walked in. Scales grew wherever the water touched. He felt rejuvenated. Finally, he walked so deep his head was the only thing above water. The supernatural draw of the lake caused him to go further still, until he was fully submerged. His legs fused and grew into a beautiful black tail with green fins. The black in his hair melted into a snowy white, and his eyes became an emerald green. Gills etched their way on his neck that enabled him to breathe. Webbing grew between his fingers. A dorsal fin sprouted on his back, punching a hole through his shirt. He was no longer just Danny Fenton, the son of  weird marine biologists . He was something new. He was a mer, or at least half of one.

   The water called him, and he answered her.

#danny phanton #phic phight #phic phight 2023 #fanfiction #mermaid au #and he answered #danny fenton

[hailkingphantom]

Unexpected ways

Chapter 1

After the fall of the wen dogs, Jiang Cheng assumed his responsabilities as the clan leader in a more formal way

Yes, he is already used to be the leader (to the death of his parents) but he was fighting in a war, rationing the food, giving new order to atack and defend, not talking about reform lotus pier or plannig new ways to recolects money to the constructions, he didn't feel ready.

So he decided take Wei Wuxian, and drag it on a night hunt

"Shijie! A-cheng is being bad"

"Wei wuxian! Behave! You are the principal diciple, you must be an example"

"A-cheng is right, you need to behave a-xian"

"buuuut~ shijie~"

"Ja! A-jie, I'll take wei wuxian!"

"Go ahead."

"Wai-it! Shijie shijieeeee!"

"have a nice hunt!"

---------

Jiang cheng was being bad!

he knows that he is stressed by his new responsabilities and that he wasn't being helpfull (and he'll never be) but ¡drag him to a night hunt!

"ahh.." he sighs at the thought

"don't be dramatic" he hear jiang cheng says

The night was quiet. The moon was full and light breezes dance around the cultivators, he could see how the new diciples try to hide their footsteps, something natural for jiang chengi and him.

In a second everything change.

The air grew colder, even for a night in autumn. The resent energy begin to go crazy in waves of... recpgnition? respect? Fear?. Before he could recognise what it was, a blinding green light apear in front them.

A green glowing circle appear, and two figures came out from it

" What the hel-!" He yell.

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

She don't know when everything begun go donwhill

No. Scratch that

She didn't expect that everything go downhill that fast

Danielle is used to surprise fights, its part of the curriculum being Danny's sister

Damn. She start most of her fights.

But that doesn't mean that she like fight with anyone (No matter what danny says, she love the caos but even her have limits)

They knew, even if danny denay it, when he defeat Pariah Dark, he did more than just defeat some random guy.

He gain the claim of a throne. Not any throne

The throne of the High Ghost king, ruler of the infinity realms and tecnically god of dead

Danny tried to ignore it, even if both saw how everything change

The ghost atacks dropped to almost no one, and the few that still happend were for challengers, ghosts who think that they were better than danny for the charge or that he wasn't appropiate for that status as a halfa or old resent enemies

So when she listen that Sam, of all of the people, capture phantom and give it to GIW she couldn't belive it

Jazz come to her almost crying and explain how the fentons discover that phantom ecto-signature is the same as danny and thought that phantom kill him

Then, they tell to danny's (former) friends

They belive it

She still furious for that. They didn't even tried to talk to danny first. Danny always talk about his friends antics, how thay always supported him, how they always stuck together in worst times, how they played, joked, met.

How they fall apart.

After danny's accident (dead) he have to deal with new powers, new ghost enemies and try to find a balance for his life. He was tired almost everytime, he was always late and never had time to hang out with sam and tucker.

They noticed. It was obvius, at first they tried to talk with him, give him space, help him with his chores and homeworks, but they were tired.

Danny too.

It was a normal day, breakfast, ghost atack, school, ghost atack, lunch, ghost atack. Danny was coming back from a bad fight with skulker, a new injury showing in his back. They found him, they were worried, sam try to help, he push her away, they argued, sam snap him, tucker give him a last look, he look away, they go away.

Danny cried while he told her the history, he said how much he wanted to tell them but ¿What if they don't belive him? ¿ What if they reject him, think he was a monster, a freak? ¿What if he put them in danger?

¿What if he can't protect them?

" I couldn't handle if they get hurt by my fault.." danny said to her, sobbing, and hugging her tigher

"I'll help you in whatever you need, I owe you that and more" she said with conviction to who she start to think as big brother (a brother that a imperfection as her don't deserve)

"Dani..I appreciate what you say, but you are my little sister. I would never want to put you in danger or tied you here" he said with a small smile and an eyes full of love that she didn't deserve

She love the freedom but sometimes she curse her innability to protect her family

Jazz is the only one who knows danny secret besides her (and the ghosts)

she expect that danny's friends not understood him.So, when he said her that they want to hang out with him, she suspects but his brother's voice sounded so exited (so desesperate), that she couldn't say nothing

She should know

SHE SHOULD KNOW!

After almost two years of silence they decided talk to danny. Unbeliable

When Jazz finish the history she go direct to pandora (their mother) and contact tecnus.

The GIW was going to fall. Now.

Technus hack the GIW defenses while they go in, she search danny everywhere, all the cells, all the registers, all.

She didn't found him

She was captured

When she wake up, she was with danny. He was full of bruises, most of his bones were broken and have a big scar in one eye

she hug him and cried.

The days past fast in a cell when you are vivisected. She saw her heart, ribs, core, everything insider her.

And inside Danny.

She threw up after almost every session.

She, for a moment, lost all hope.

But not Danny.

So, when they tried to use Danny as a new source of power for their weapons, he used it againts them.

He take her and run out.

Then plasmius appear and in a moment everything go black.

Why she was so useless?

When she wake up danny was covered by blood again, feet to head. His heart was so slow, even for halfas. She take him and fly direct to frosbite.

A random portal appear.

And now she was in front some purple chinese in a unknow forest

Fuck

Danny's luck is genetic

#mdzs #wei ying #jiang wanyin #ghost king au #danny phantom #dp x mdzs #danielle #no one knows

[the-b1ah]

This post is about a Danny phantom and Red hood(Jason Todd aka the dead robin) crossover because I think there should be more content of them. Also like all my knowledge of these characters comes solely from here and fanfics. I don’t claim to be an expert I just think their neat. I suck at spelling so beware. With all that said, I have this story idea…

So when Jason dies in the whole joker explosion there is just enough ectoplasm in the area for him to create a really shoddy core. Like all it does is keep his body from decomposing and if it didn’t get anymore energy it would fade in a couple of years.

But then superboy does that whole punch the universe thing and that gives Jason’s shitty core just enough juice to bring him back to life but not enough to really heal him completely (it’s trying its best ok). Then Talia dunks him into the pit which im headcanoning is ectoplasm a random portal had spit out that got super corrupted. For a normal ghost this wouldn’t really be a problem cause they can filter it but Jason’s core sucks.

The pit madness basically makes all Jason’s underlying ghost instincts go up to 20 which explains how he act in the whole make Batman kill joker thing(because his actions make more sense if you think of him as a ghost and not a human). And I headcanon(or maybe it is a canon im not sure) that jason did die again from the batarang to the neck (death part two the electric BOOgaloo(ha get it) )and when Jason’s little core brings him back there it also has the a side effect that it takes away some of the corruption making jason mellow out a bit.

Things go on as normal until the whole penguin thing where bats beats him to death (father figure 2 is a failure bring in the next one). After Roy drags him away and he heals up Jason runs into Danny. Literally…

Sooo Danny finally tells his parents (no phantom planet tho ) and they accept him. But all is not what it seems because Later that night though they bring him down to lab and try to “fix”and/or figure out if he is really Danny. Jazz is at college, Sam is at a galla somewhere out of state with her parents, tucker competing in a week long tech competition, and Ellie is exploring the ghost zone so no one notices Danny is gone.

The guys in white come to investigate the Fentons and when the find phantom locked in the basement they kill the fentons an take him. Danny is with them for three months before they try to vivisect him. They go to touch him core and even with all the tech they are using to weaken him,danny lets out a wail killing almost everyone and escaping. The surviving GIW hunt him down as he tries to get back home. Danny is able to avoid them for a couple days but they find him and try to corner him in an alley. As Danny is running for his afterlife he senses a ghost nearby and runs to them in the hopes that whoever they are can help him fight off the GIW.

this is where he runs into jason. Literally.

So they collide danny says “help me” and hides behind jason. The GIW come sprinting into the alley guns a blazing and demand that jason hands over the freak. Jason looks at the bloody scared kid behind him then at the adults calling a child an it and goes full protect mode and kills them. After that is taken care of he goes back to Danny an asks if he hungry. Danny nods and they go get chili dogs.

They get close as Danny heals up and they plan to kill the rest of GIW. Danny morals have been a tad twisted because A)These guys just experimented on him for 3month B) They where using what they found out from experimenting on him to find ways to destroy the GZ C)he knows if he doesn’t kill them they keep trying to kill him and destroy the GZ.

They take down the GIW(cool fights and explosions) and Jason thinks that will be the end of it since danny can go back to his sisters and friends. Danny has other ideas. He does go home and tells the phantomily(phantom-family) that he’s ok but returns to jason and just starts following him around. The confrontation just kinda goes like this…

Jason: kid what are you still doing here. I’m dangerous go home.

Danny: hey I can take these guys any day and maybe I like hanging out with you. Dead guy to dead guy.

Jason: go home kid. And I prefer the term zombie.

Danny: nah ill think ill stay! I can even help my powers are super useful!

Jason:… still too risky, i not going let you become a child soilder im not Batman.

Danny: awww come on plzzzzz

Jason: your parents are probably worried about you Go. Home.

Danny: NO THEY’RE NOT THEY TRIED TO FIX ME!! AND THEN THE GIW KILLED THEM. IM LEGALLY DEAD!! I CAN’T GO TO SCHOOL, OR NASTY BURGER OR STAY AT JAZZ’S COLLEGE . OR ANYTHING!! I DON’T WANT TO LIVE IN THE GHOST ZONE I STILL WANT TO BE ALIVE. BUT IM NOT IM JUST just *sob* a freaky little boy …with freaky powers. I thought maybe you would.. you might-

Jason *hugs him*: im sorry Danny you can stay.

So Red hood gets a partner in crime and Jason gets a family.

Phantom gets mentor who cares and Danny gets a new parent.

If you guys like the idea let me know! i’ll make more art and write more

Masterlist

#art #art stuff #fanart #animation #jason todd #danny fenton #danny phantom #dp x dc #red hood #dc fanart #dp fandom #dp fanart #danny and Jason are ride and die kind of friends #dead boy gang they should get t-shirts #or matching jackets #i would danny and Jason murder joker just as a treat

[dp-marvel94]

So I noticed that someone (I think it was @chaos-is-my-lifeblood) came up with a ‘Truman Show’ AU, and I found myself wondering what a ‘WandaVision’ AU would be like?

👀 That's a cool idea! So, I would have Danny be Wanda in the au. It was start after his friends and family (his parents, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker, and Valerie) die in some tragedy, where he blames himself for their deaths. And going with the idea of Fentonworks being Danny's lair... a lair is supposed to ghost's personal heaven. It's tied to the ghost's emotions, powers, and subconscious. So Danny's grief over the losses causes his lair to change. It creates false versions of his friends and family and desperate to have them back, Danny gives in to the illusion. Is he just acting like they're still alive or does he really believe it? Either way, the illusion spreads over Amity Park.

I don't think Danny would subconsciously make his lair mirror sitcoms. He's want an idealized version of his life before. His parents know about him being Phantom and they love and support him. The town knows and he's a hero. He's got a good relationship with Jazz. He's got his best friends. I think I'd have him and Valerie end up together. I feel like she would work best to Vision's place in the au. So she's the one who slowly realizes that this isn't real and that she's a copy of the real Valerie.

The GIW would be on the outside, unable to get through the barrier around the town. And who would be Agatha? Hum.... Vlad's the obvious answer but what would be his angle? He'd want to get Danny on his side but the two knew either other so there's not mystery there. I would have Vlad working with the GIW on the outside. The GIW blackmail him because they know he’s a half ghost; they claim they’ll let him go free if he helps them get Danny. But Vlad plans to double cross them of course. He and their scientist work on a secret weapon.

And on the inside, our Agatha stand-in. It's Clockwork. Clockwork for whatever reason is lingering in the background, trying gently to get Danny to come to his senses and accept what happened. He doesn't play a major part, just acting as voice of reason but he'll be important later for Danny seeing the truth.

Either way, the conflicts revolve around Danny's grief, Valerie figuring out the truth, and the threat of the GIW.

It would have to end with the GIW breaking in. At the same time, Danny and Val comes to their breaking points. Danny can't deny anymore, his anger is spent, he can't bargain. He's depressed, at his lowest point. And Clockwork intervenes, taking him back through everything, all the pain that brought him here.

Danny decides to open the barrier, freeing Amity Park’s citizens and letting the GIW in. Danny and Vlad end up fighting because Vlad wants to drag Danny back to Wisconsin with him. And the twist... 

With Vlad’s cloning expertise, they’ve made a clone of Valerie, equipped with the same ghost hunting suit that they salvaged from the real Val’s dead body. :( Illusion Valerie and the clone end up fighting, with the illusion Valerie convinces her counterpart to rebel against Vlad and the GIW; no version of Valerie Gray would let herself be used like this. An expression, a recognition flashes through the clone’s eyes with a hint of red, like her suit. And clone Valerie flies off, much like Dani does after Kindred Spirits.

Danny defeats Vlad and the illusion versions of Danny’s friends and family drive off the GIW. With the bad guys defeated, there’s a sense of heavy grief as Danny slowly lets the illusion his lair built disappear. He’s in the lab in Fentonworks when he says good bye to the illusions of his family and friends. They hug him and say they love him, just like his real loved ones had. But all of them know that this isn’t real. But the illusions remind Danny, even with them gone, he’s not alone. Through the portal, he has allies, mentors, and friends. He has Clockwork, Frostbite, and Pandora. He had Dora, Sidney, Johnny, Kitty, and Ember. And there’s still Dani, somewhere out there; he still has family. 

Valerie’s illusion is the last to fade. And it’s more about Danny grieving what could have been than what he’s lost with her; the two were just starting to get to know each other, finally on good terms after so much conflict. But still, it hurts so much. Danny wonders why Valerie was the one to figure it out, that this wasn’t real. But he doesn’t have time to ask and other things are more important. She gives him a kiss on the cheek and says to go find her clone and help her; she’ll need a friend. Illusion Valerie gives him a sad smile and disappears.

#Danny Phantom #My post

[datawyrms]

“Did you apologize to Tucker yet?”

“About what? Wait, are we talking again? I thought we weren’t talking.” The ghost circled back, blindly fumbling with the thermos lid, eyes busy squinting at the hunter’s mask as if it would let him see through it better. “You’re not gonna say it’s fine then shoot me, are you?”

“Why do you always remind me why I don’t like talking to you like this.”

“What’d you mean like ‘this’? Like I should pretend that isn’t a totally valid question?” 

Valerie groaned, gesturing at the ghost. “Like that sort of thing is normal!”

Phantom smirked, letting the edges of his boots hit the hoverboard. “Welcome to my life.”

“And how you just keep that stupid confident face up.”

“Uh huh. I thought you were lecturing me about Tucker, not my personality.”

She deeply considered having the board jar the ghost off, but that’d probably just amuse him more. “You seriously don’t remember why you should be apologizing?”

“Well according to you, I should basically apologize for existing. So sometimes I lose track on the particulars.” There was an edge there that the blithe tone couldn’t quite cover up, even as the ghost sat down. “Y’gonna enlighten me or what? I’m bad at twenty questions.”

“You broke your promise to him, remember?”

The blank stare she earned in response was absolutely infuriating. “Uhhh. Which one?” He had the sense to look embarrassed, hand glued to the back of his neck.

That wasn’t going to help him though. Shooting him was actually sounding like a fair idea if it was the only thing that would get him to actually learn and pay attention. “To stop possessing people. The big one? The really easy one that NONE of his other friends need to worry about doing ‘accidentally’?”

“Wow Val, if you just wanted to say you think I’m weird you didn’t need to drag Tuck into it.” The embarrassment slid into a scowl easily enough, arms crossed as if that would defend him. “I haven’t done that for months.”

“He’s been telling you he hates it for years.” Before she even figured out Danny’s dead man walking secret. Tucker was too good a friend to be ignored for literal years because a ghost conveniently forgot how fucked up it was to invade someone’s body and use them as an unwilling meat puppet if it was ‘helpful’.

“I try, okay? I’m not doing it to upset him!”

“Somehow everyone else can manage without doing it.”

The ghost tilted his head. “Well duh, you guys can’t.”

“Even if we could, we wouldn’t.” She snapped, the confusion and completely casual excusing of his actions just a little too much to deal with. “Heroes don’t control people.”

“Well excuse me for needing to protect myself. If what I am gets out to the wrong people, I’m dead. More dead.” He groaned face in hand “You know what I mean. Worse than dead. Dani too.”

“Do you really think Tucker’s dad would have ratted your whispy ass out? That he wouldn’t help you explain? Or was it just an excuse to let yourself do what you want?”

“Well you seem to have decided that it was! Which it wasn’t!” His eyes flared green with the defence, and Valarie had to work to not react to the impulsive want to get away from an angry ghost. “I just- reacted, okay? I told him that!”

“Well Tucker and Sam keep forgetting how much of a ghost you are, so of course they won’t buy that excuse.”

“Excuse? It’s not an excuse!” He was up, the offended squawk reminding her so much of how he was before. When they were all fourteen, and every uncomfortable problem could be chalked up to being ‘a moody teenager’ and ignored for a while longer. “And you could stop saying ghost like that, while you’re at it?” The glow dimmed, but he kept the distance. “Sound like my dad.”

“What, you want me to say it like you do when they keep coming here to threaten people? Deal with it.”

“There are plenty of ghosts who don’t do that.”

“Yeah. They don’t come here, and they aren’t my problem,” she shrugged, considering. “I’ll say it nice to them.”

“Oh, real funny.”

“You deserve it.”

She expected a scoff, at least. Probably a laugh, considering how often he’d joke about being the town’s public enemy for a time. Instead he averted his eyes. “Maybe we can finish this talk on the ground?”

It was easier to be ticked off at him when he was joking, or steamed himself. Phantom didn’t ‘do’ uneasy. Maybe it was a good sign that he was actually listening, if he wanted to continue ‘off the clock’. “Space cadet wants to land? Sure, if you want.”

“I wouldn’t go with ‘want’, but yeah.”

It wasn’t much trouble, in the middle of the day. A quick glance while hidden in at least one direction was enough. People who lived in Amity Park knew they should get out of the area of a ghost sighting at this point. Even if she and Phantom were trusted enough to deal with it, stray shots happened. Things fell. Not too many eyes to avoid, even if her identity felt like an open secret most of the time.

Danny had it even easier. He just had to think. It felt like a sick joke, that he could stop being dead on a whim and blend in fairly well. The gangly man leaning against the tree looked human. Black hair, blue eyes, needed a tan, unremarkable. Average. Unless you knew what to look for, anyway. How a casual slouch didn’t match up with how he was always looking for something, a tense energy that seemed desperate to crack free of that spine. That he could walk in winter with the thinnest of jackets and not shake from the cold even once. “Hey.”

Valerie rolled her eyes, sitting on the bench. “Hey yourself.”

Danny grimaced, looking up and away. “How much of a ghost I am, huh?” It wasn’t an angry question, exactly. He was still slouching, hands in pockets. Guarded and uneasy. How much of that fear and caution the person she thought she knew, and how much of it was just another part of his act?

“You’ve said you’re at least half of one.”

“Yeah. You just make it sound like that’s a bad thing.”

The whole crux of the issue, really. How no one really knew how to deal with Danny, his secret and how he’d changed. “It’s not a bad thing on it’s own.”

“So I’m the part you like to sneer at,” his brow furrowed, the creases and wrinkles more ominous as blue slid closer to green. “I thought we went over this. You know what actually happened. How I never really attacked people.”

She admired Tucker and Sam’s patience, she really did. “We have. It’s not about that stuff. That’s years ago, you know it. It’s the other stuff.”

The anger was gone in an instant. “What other stuff?”

He was a living migraine waiting to happen. “How you keep thinking things from seven years ago are more important than things happening right now?”

“Hey, you’re the one that held the grudge for two.”. 

“Months. Not years.”

He slouched more at the correction, apparently very interested in his own hands. “Oh. Right.”

“You haven’t been using the reminders like Jazz told you to, have you.”

“I can remember fine! I don’t need some box doing it for me. I’ve just been busy.”

Busy. That was his excuse this time? She crossed her arms and leaned back. “Okay, what year is it?”

“Uhm.” he paused to pick at a non existent loose thread “One starting in 2?”

“Danny.”

“What! Lots of people don’t care too much about the time.”

He didn’t even try to guess within ten years. There was living in the present, and there was this. “No, you know your ghost side makes you act in certain ways and keep denying it. So you still get the complete pain version of ghost. Get it?”

“I’m not that different.” He wouldn’t look at her, hand clenching. “I’m human too, you know.”

“Uhuh. The way your eyes flare up when you’re mad is super human.” She ignored his scowl, pushing forward. “I get it. You don’t like being reminded. Tuck and Sam try to ignore it for your sake.”

“Val, I’m not denying it okay? I know. It’s pretty obvious!”

“Then stop pretending you don’t know. They’re trying so hard to help you have a chance of getting a job that isn’t with your parents and you won’t even use the reminders to help you remember where in time you are!”

That got him to bristle, shaking off his slouch in a sudden reminder of how tall he really was. “Why does it matter? We’re all just kidding ourselves about me ever leaving here.”

“So you just won’t try? Just give up on finding anything else? For someone who keeps insisting he’s human, you sure seem eager to ditch that half of your life.”

“That isn’t what I’m doing.”

“Then what are you doing? Because all I’ve seen you do is get tetchy about ghosts and instinctively do ghost things. When you’re human.”

“I’m putting in the work.You know it’s hard to study or hold down a job.”

“So stop making it harder on yourself.They’ve found ways to help keep you grounded, so do it.” Sam should be saying this, of course. She’d heard it frustratedly repeated so many times, but she never dared to actually say it to the one who had to hear it. Because he was already prone to pulling away or vanishing when you pressed too hard, made things too uncomfortable. Ghosts didn’t do coping, and Danny was never great at facing personal issues head on before becoming a menace to her sanity either. “You think making things harder makes you more of a hero?”

“‘Course not.” He wasn’t looking at her anymore. He was looking for an escape, an out. “I shouldn’t need that stuff, alright?”

Now it was her turn to be puzzled. “Why shouldn’t you?”

A lopsided grin answered her question. “Who likes admitting they’re a freak?” The tree no longer had a human standing by it, but his voice was easy enough to hear. “ But I guess some people care about a freak like me anyway.”

(did Valerie use a tracker to smack him and say ‘you’re not a freak’ right after this? yes)

#Danny Phantom #valerie gray #dp side hoes week 2021 #i only did two prompts #because im bad #tbh should be fleshed out more #but them going into too much detail of what's the issue would be unnatural sounding #and already kinda is lol #but idk ghosts not really being 'down' with time was an interesting idea #to me anyway #my random thoughts are random #tbh so mucch good stuff around that im all 'lol why u adding' bu #content is content ye #i should stop musing in tags

[dannys-phantoms]

Gravity

DannyMay 2021 Day 8: Gravity

Read also on AO3

Danny starts finding it more difficult to stay on the ground.

Danny had taken to wearing lead in his shoes. Well, they weren’t lead, per se, but they were pretty damn close. The same website that Sam bought her platforms on had quite the men’s range, and this particular pair he’d found had extremely striking steel toe caps. They were thick and clunky, and even a month ago they’d have been too heavy for him to wear. Now, though, he was looking for something heavier.

It had started gradually. Little things, like having a little extra bounce in his step or being buffeted more than usual by the wind. He’d not noticed how much lighter he’d got until it became a problem. The first major sign was when he’d awoken to a sore head, having bumped it on the ceiling when he’d floated upwards during the night.

“Chains,” Jazz had said with a resolute nod. “You need chains.”

Soon enough, she’d tethered him to the bed with metal chains she’d found in the basement, which kept him in place just like a weighted blanket. It definitely did the trick for now, but would be hard to explain away if his parents were to ask. It took over an hour for the red marks to fade from his skin whenever he got up.

When Danny had started to drift out of his chair at school, Sam had yanked him back down onto the wood, and insisted on the shoes.

“People are going to see you,” she pointed out, and he had to admit that such thing was less than ideal.

And then there was gym class. The clod stompers weren’t exactly regulation, and Ms Tetslaff insisted he take them off.

“In my gym, it’s either you wear sneakers or you clean the bleachers!”

She soon changed her mind when he jumped to shoot a basket, and just kept soaring, up and up and up. Wes approached him later and suggested putting a few weights in his pockets – but only if Danny had a good belt. There was no need to repeat the ‘pants falling down' fiasco.

“I know you don’t want to hear this,” said Tucker hesitantly, “but this can’t just continue. It’s scaring us all, not just me. You’re going to end up disappearing on the horizon like a helium balloon.”

When it had become almost impossible to stay on the ground with heavy shoes, weights in his pockets, and chains around his neck, he had to admit he needed help. There were two options, and he was loathe to do either. Option A was telling his parents, something he’d never want to do in a million years, and option B was visiting Vlad, which might have gotten him killed.

He picked option B.

Sitting on (or rather, floating above) Vlad’s lab chair, he was poked and prodded for hours. He had both of his friends standing beside him, tapping their feet impatiently on the tiled floor.

“Yep, you’re still dead,” Vlad muttered, taking a reading from the thermometer under Danny’s tongue.

Sam scowled. “So what’s happening to him then?”

“I don’t know.”

“You just don’t know?”

“No,” he admitted with a sigh, and raked a hand through his hair. “This never happened to me. I certainly don’t know why it’s happening now.”

Danny rose higher.

“You should probably stay inside, little badger, lest you float yourself away.”

“But he can’t just stay inside forever,” Tucker pointed out.

Danny grimaced. “Might one of the ghosts know what’s going on?”

“God no,” said Vlad. “I’ll have a look in the library, but we’re the first of our kind. They don’t have anything on us.”

So Danny stayed inside. He pinned his blanket to the bedroom ceiling, and made sure all of the windows stayed shut. Jazz brought his homework up so that he didn’t fall too far behind. Jazz was confident that there must be an answer out there, somewhere.

He woke up in the middle of the night as a white mist rasped out of his throat. He looked around wildly, but he couldn’t see anything. Instinctively, he went ghost.

With nothing left to stop him, he phased through the ceiling and into the loft. It was full of old furniture and cardboard boxes holding childhood memories, but when he tried to grab something on the way past, his hands went right though. He couldn’t regain his tangibility.

He couldn’t actually feel the coldness of the air outside when he went through the roof tiles. But he could feel the wind. He was in his pyjamas, so he had nothing to weigh him down. He just kept going.

Wetness on his cheeks told him that he was crying, and as soon as the dam broke there was no stopping it. He screamed guttural, wordless screams, but there was nobody around to hear them.

The ground was so far away that it was barely there. It was dark on every side, and soon he wasn’t sure which way he was even falling. The air was too thin. Just because he didn’t have to breathe didn’t mean he didn’t want to. There was a weight on his chest preventing it from rising, and his lungs screamed just because he thought they should. It at least gave him something real to focus on.

There were stars all around him, blazing like beacons, but they didn’t give him the comfort they normally did. He wasn’t flying, he was falling, all of his limbs aching from the drag. He’d never reach the stars. There’s no way he could hold out long enough. Maybe he’d smash into the moon instead and give it a whole new crater.

He wondered how long it would take for his parents to notice. Would Jazz explain it to them, or pretend not to know? It didn’t really matter now, either way. At least nobody had to watch it happen.

He watched the sunrise and smiled sadly as the sky turned pink. It really was beautiful.

#dannymay2021 #danny phantom #DannyMay #danny fenton #gravity #fic #my writing #mine

[avaritia-apotheosis]

Phantom Children [DP x Batman Crossover]

Or: Once upon a time, Talia al Ghul gave her first child away to a family that would keep him safe. But Danny Fenton is more like his parents than anyone realized, and Ra's al Ghul is very curious of his grandson who defied death till the very end.

Posted onto ao3 but i also wanna share this here <3 Giving a huge disclaimer that it's been a while since I watched DP and the only Batman/DC stuff I've interacted with are B:TAS, the JL cartoons, and what I got from fandom osmosis so don't expect any sort of canon compliance.

CW for non-explicit mentions of a car accident and fake character death

| AO3 | [Prologue] | 1 |

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

DANIEL JAMES FENTON WAS DEAD. Or, at least, dead-er, though only very few people would know of that fact.

His body was found at the bottom of a cliff, under a particularly sharp turn on a very windy road. The car he had been driving crumpled like an assignment found at the bottom of a backpack that was two weeks due. He is found by a search party two days after he had been reported missing; the authorities ended up identifying him from his driver’s license, tucked away safe in his back pocket.

His funeral is a closed casket, attended by his family who grieves and two best friends who are vehemently in denial of it all. People from school came, too. By twos and threes, small groups coming too offer their condolences and say such empty platitudes of how he lightened up the room and was always there to make everyone laugh.

Here is one truth they say: Casper High will never be the same without him.

(It’s funny, isn’t it? For a school so enamored with ghosts, they rarely spared a thought for death.)

In the days after the funeral, Jack and Maddie Fenton will pour their souls over their research with renewed fervor. Heads hunched over jargon-filled papers. Mugs half-empty with black coffee microwaved for the nth time. Before, they viewed their hell-damned portal as a scientific marvel, a new era in the world of paranormal sciences. One to be measured and experimented on and scienced to exhaustion, until the mystery of ghost and everything associated with it can be explained by theorems and equations and diagrams.

Now, though. Now they look at the green depths with a glint of madness in their eyes. Surely not all ghosts are just ectoplasm with a conscience. Surely at least some of those ghosts might have been different—alive.

All those myths of traversing the realm of the dead had to come from somewhere, right?

Sam and Tucker think along the same lines, except unlike the Fentons they know much more about the secrets of the Ghost Zone. Danny Fenton was dead. But he was already dead, and it seemed too ludicrous—even for someone with Danny’s luck—to die twice. They search what they can of the Zone, call in favors from any of Danny’s ghostly contacts that they can reach to find him. Hell, they even worked with Vlad.

Jazz handles the news best.

No.

That’s a lie.

Her baby brother died and there is no way that anyone would take that news well. But she has to. Where Danny was the heart, she was the family’s pillar. The one that knows how to keep a level head, the one that kept their family full of eccentric geniuses and more-than-human children grounded in some sense of normalcy. She would drag her parents out of their lab and teach them how to cope. Coach them through their stages of grief because Danny wouldn’t have wanted this.

And Jazz was right. Danny didn’t want this. Any of this.

His friends and family are balancing on the knife’s edge and they don’t know. They have no clue.

“Daniel, you will exhaust yourself for tomorrow.”

Danny blinked, tilting his head towards the speaker, eyes glued to the multiple monitors that hung on the wall. “You promised me an hour. I still have ten minutes left.”

“And tomorrow’s training will be more rigorous than the last—but it is your choice, I suppose.” Strong, slender fingers trace the width of his shoulders. Thumbs circling the spot between his shoulder blades. “They will still be there tomorrow. And the day after that. And for many more days to come, I assure you.” Danny snorted. “But if you are not well rested, then there I can’t guarantee the same thing for you.”

Danny leaned away from her touch with a grimace. “You can’t kill what’s already dead, Talia. And besides,” he looked up at her, eyes glowing like the Lazarus pit, “you wouldn’t leave your son to die for very long, yeah?”

Talia al Ghul smiled.

Danny looked away, focusing his gaze back to the live feed of his parents being dragged out of the lab by Jazz. Their faces haggard and empty except for that manic glint in their eyes.

He missed them. Missed them so much.

But Daniel James Fenton is dead.

And forcefully torn out of his husk is Daniel al Ghul.

#danny phantom #batman #danny phantom x batman crossover #dp fanfiction #al Ghul! danny #because the lazarus pit reminded me too much of the ghost zone and because the concept sounds fucking cool that's why #also wayne! danny #because again. cool factor. and i wanted to contrive a way for them to meet without making the fentons assholes or killing dannys friends #and family #phantom children.txt

[megumisbimbo]

- One -

megumi fushiguro x reader

genre: fluff, slight angst

summary: (y/n) was nothing special. A human being who had no idea that curses walked the same earth they walked. But then they locked eyes with Megumi Fushiguro. Can Fushiguro focus on the task ahead or will he be distracted by the king of curses and his new love interest?

series masterlist

©️ @megumisbimbo — all rights reserved. Please do not repost, modify or translate my work. Reblogs and likes appreciated!

Credit for the main storyline and characters goes to Gege Akutami.

the songs are indicated throughout the story at certain points!

songs used:

sunflower - vampire weekend

turn back time - wayv

humble - kendrick lamar

look at me! - xxxtentacion

———— sunflower - vampire weekend ————

It was a normal school day. You sat through each of your classes bored out of your mind. If only something interesting would happen, maybe then you’d enjoy your day. Classes felt longer than usual and all you could think about was getting to the occult club and opening whatever Itadori found last night.

Classes had finally finished. You raced to the other end of the school and walked into the club room and greeted your two classmates.

“Where’s Itadori? Shouldn’t he be here with the thing he found yesterday?”

“We thought it would be cooler if we broke into the school late at night and opened it then!” Sasaki says with a bright sinister smile. Iguchi sat next to her and nodded his head in agreement.

Just then, Itadori walked into the room with a bright smile and greeted you three.

“(y/n)-senpai here’s the thing I found yesterday. Sasaki-senpai said to give it to you so you guys can open it tonight. I’m not gonna be able to make it.”

“No worries Itadori, we’ll make sure to take pictures when nothing shows up.” You say glancing at Sasaki.

You had always been skeptical when it came to ghosts and monsters. Iguchi and Sasaki were your best friends so they always ended up dragging you on their haunted adventures. Itadori was the newbie first year who recently joined. He was happy to take the pair on their ghostly escapades when you weren’t available.

Sasaki ruffled through her bag and pulled out the ouija board you four regularly played with. Itadori turned to you and asked if you were ready to call on the spirit of the day. After asking your fellow club members, he called upon them.

“Spirits! Spirits! Please reveal an animal that the school council president is weaker than!” Itadori said giggling slightly.

You watched as the small coin shaped object wiggled underneath your finger.

Ku

Ri

O

Ne

“A sea angel?!?” Itadori roared.

Your giggles were interrupted by the door suddenly sliding open revealing the sea angel himself.

“OCCULT RESEARCH CLUB!” The council president yelled, startling you.

“Your club did not submit an activities report! We don’t have room in this school for such irresponsibility!” He yelled, anger dousing his tone.

He explained that the club was going to be used as a changing room starting today and your club was to find somewhere else to play.

“I wouldn’t mess with our members council president.” Itadori said smirking at you and your friends. Sasaki slams a book onto the table and pushes her glasses up onto her nose.

“Here’s your proof council president! As you know, our rugby field has been closed off. The students who used it started getting sick and some were even hospitalized. Don’t you think that’s strange? I mean we’re talking about tough rugby players here. WELL. Just before the players began getting sick, they stated that they heard strange noises and voices on the field.”

You stand up and flip through the book that had rested under Sasaki’s hand.

“That’s where this newspaper article comes in.” You say showing the president an old newspaper clipping from many years ago.

“Mr. Yoshida, a construction man, went missing and he was last seen here at this school during construction.”

Sasaki interrupted, finishing the riveting story you four had discovered.

“Which means. Mr. Yoshida’s body is buried in the rugby field and the sickness was caused by the lingering spirit!” Sasaki said with stars in her eyes. Itadori and Iguchi stood on either side of you two giving jazz hands for dramatic effect. The council president looks at you four with a blank stare, dumbfounded at the ridiculous story.

“No...” He started.

“They were caused by ticks.”

You felt Sasaki wilt beside you while Itadori argued with the council president, explaining that either way this was club activity. The council president interjected and rudely pointed out the fact that neither you nor Itadori were registered with the occult club, leaving the club with too few members.

“Itadori, (y/n)... I thought you said you put your names down.” Sasaki said with an evil glare plastered on her face.

“Sorry Sasaki... I lost the paper ehehe...” You said, staring down at your feet with regret and a bit of fear hidden behind your eyes.

“I did put down the occult club senpai! I swear!” Itadori announced.

“Then who changed it?”

“I DID.” A voice barked, alarming all the students present.

“Coach Takagi?!” You all yelled in unison.

“Itadori, we need your speed and strength on the track and field team.”

“I ALREADY SAID I WASN’T JOINING!” Itadori wailed, hoping the coach would get the hint.

“No can do. However I’m a fair man so I will let you go if you beat me in a fair fight.”

“You’re on!”

You all ran down to the track to see Itadori battle it out with the coach.

“You think he’ll win?” You say skeptical of Itadori’s strength.

“I’ve heard he won the Ninja Warrior contest and he’s the incarnation of Mirko Cro Cop!” Iguchi explained.

“But he’s not dead...”

You watched as Itadori threw the heavy ball the same way a pitcher would. It whizzed through the air landing at about 30 meters from where he started, demolishing the Coach’s record of 14 meters.

“He’s like a gorilla.” Sasaki says behind you.

Itadori then walked up to the three of you and you congratulated him on his impressive upper arm strength.

“You know you don’t have to stay in this club Itadori.” Sasaki said.

“Thanks Senpai, but as much as you guys love haunted places, you wouldn’t go if (y/n) or I didn’t go with you.”

“Being scared is what makes it fun.” Sasaki says, laughing nervously.

Itadori checks his watch and realizes that it was time for him to leave. He speeds down the stairs and out the gates of the school, dust collecting behind him from how fast he was going. Out of the corner of your eye you spot a tall, handsome ravenette. You stare at him a little and hear him call out to Itadori trying to stop him. Do they know each other? Maybe he’s a first year too. “I’ve never seen him. He seems interesting, and cute.” You think to yourself. He notices your stare and sharply turns away giving off an egotistical aura. You break your gaze and scoff. “Interesting, cute...and cocky.”

————— turn back time - wayv —————

The room was dark, lit only by the light of a single candle resting on the table that Sasaki, Iguchi and you sat around. You handed Sasaki the wrapped object and she began fiddling with the stained paper. There were weird symbols on the paper, it kind of looked like a talisman.

“This is creepy, I’m gonna turn a light on.” Iguchi said timidly.

“No no we need to keep the ambience.”

Sasaki finally gripped on to a corner of the paper and began unraveling. The unraveled paper revealed a dark crimson finger.

“Is it real?” Sasaki asks.

“Probably not. Someone must have put it there as a joke.” You say, the skeptical side of you hiding the real fear you felt.

Suddenly the room shook and the candle went out. You were frozen with fear. In all the times you’d gone out to haunted places, you’ve never caught anything, but this time felt different. A faint screeching noise startled you three. Slowly you looked up and noticed a giant monster coming straight for you. You grabbed Sasaki’s hand, the finger stuffed into her pocket, and ran for dear life, Iguchi trailing closely behind. You hear the wall of the club room burst, and glancing behind you a huge creature was seen, hot on your trail. Iguchi turns a corner separating himself from you and Sasaki. You pull her behind a wall and sit with your hand pressed firmly against her mouth. You wait there for what feels like hours. Iguchi walks toward you ever so slowly.

“Iguchi! Thank goodness!” Sasaki says naively.

As he walks closer to you two, you notice the small monster that has latched onto his face. Your heart drops.

“H-el-p m-e..”

Iguchi’s voice rang through the hall alerting the creature that followed you and Sasaki. Almost instantly, the monster picked you, Sasaki, and Iguchi up. You felt the monster feel you all over, as if it was searching for something. Your mind starts going blank. Thoughts of your childhood, your family, the memories you made at school, flood your head. Thick, hot tears stream down your face. You faintly hear the voice of a person yelling. Your vision faded and soon you blacked out completely.

Megumi pov:

————— humble - kendrick lamar —————

Running down the halls I find one of the curses that Sukuna’s finger attracted.

“Out of my way! Divine dogs! You can eat it.”

The curses were getting closer together.

The finger was close.

I turn the corner and find Itadori’s friends. The curse is trying to eat them and the finger?!

Wait.

I recognize one of them. The one that was staring at me on the field.

“I’m not gonna make it!”

A loud crash echoes through the hallway. The window was smashed by someone.

Itadori?!

I watch in shock as he scoops up his friends. The one I’d seen before suddenly falls from his grasp. I run over and catch them in my arms. My heart beats faster.

What was this feeling?

I hold them close to my chest as my divine dogs run over and eat the curse.

“Normally I’d be pissed.. but good job.”

“Oh thanks, but what are those munching on the curse?” Itadori asks.

“Those? You can see them? They’re my shikigami. Normally you can’t see curses, unless you’re facing your death or in special places like this.”

Itadori stands and Sukuna’s finger drops from the girl’s pocket into his hand.

“This what your looking for?” Itadori asks.

I drop the feet of the unconscious person, still holding them upright. I reach my hand out to grab the cursed object. Itadori reaches out to take his senpai from my arms. A loud gurgling comes from the ceiling, startling me.

“RUN!”

I cling tightly to sleeping body and protect it from the curse as I try to call for Nue. The curse picks me up and throws us both against the wall, waking them up slightly. The curse gets ahold of us once again and blows the whole side of the school out, exposing us to the cold night air.

(y/n) pov:

You wake up with a pounding headache. You feel two arms around your waist and the cold night air blowing on your face. Were you flying? You look up and see a different monster heading your way.

“Hang on!” A voice calls behind you.

You turn slightly and see the same black haired boy from this morning. Why was he holding you? And why were you flying through the air? Where is Iguchi and Sasaki?

Slipping from the boy’s grip, you land on the hard concrete behind him. He glances over to you, checking to see if you survived the landing. You looked at him with big tear filled eyes. He struggled to put his hands together to form a bird shadow puppet. What is he doing?

“Damn I can’t focus.” He says, frustration written in his defined features.

Itadori flies through the air and whacks the monster on what looks like the head.

“Are you guys ok?!” He screams aiming his worry at you.

“I thought I told you to run.” The boy asks with a harsh tone.

“No can do, You were in trouble and you still had (y/n) in your arms.”

He jumps back onto the monster and starts beating it ruthlessly.

“Stop! You can’t defeat it without cursed energy!” The boy says.

Itadori doesn’t stop fighting it. The monster grabs him tightly and pushes him closer to his mouth.

“Itadori!!” You scream, heart beating out of your chest.

“Then all I need is cursed energy right Fushiguro?!”

He throws the crimson finger into the air and swallows it in one swift motion. Your jaw drops as the black haired boy, who Itadori referred to as Fushiguro, screamed at him. Fushiguro turns to you and, noticing your shock, runs over. He uses his entire body as a shield over you while his eyes are locked on Itadori’s changing body. Your eyes peek over his shoulder giving you a clear view of Itadori. Dark tattoo like marks form on Itadori’s tan skin. He looked like himself, but different. His nails grow long and sharp. He turns to the monster and swipes his hand upward, causing it to disintegrate. Itadori, or what looks like Itadori, turns back to you and Fushiguro with burning scarlet eyes.

————— look at me! - xxxtentacion —————

“Finally! A cursed spirit’s flesh is no fun! What a wonderful age it has become, women and children crawling around like maggots! It’ll be a massacre!”

His voice is deep and there is no trace of Itadori in his tone. Your breathing is heavy against Fushiguro’s neck. His arms are wrapped protectively around you as you’re both crouched down on the floor. The strange man’s eyes lock onto you.

“You don’t look like a sorcerer, maybe i’ll kill you first!” He says laughing maniacally.

Fushiguro’s grip tightens out of anger, squeezing so tight it hurts. A familiar voice exited the tattooed man’s body.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing with my body? Give it back.”

The soft, sweet voice of your kohai calms your nerves ever so slightly.

He’s still there.

Fushiguro lets go of you and stands in front of Itadori.

“Don’t move! You’re no longer human. Under jujutsu regulations, I will exorcise you as a curse, Itadori Yuuji!”

tags: @xreemie @noyakura

big thank you to @noyakura for the banner :’)) ily

#megumifushiguro #megumi x reader #fushiguro megumi #jjk megumi #fushiguro fluff #fushiguro x you #fushiguro x reader #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen fluff #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk anime #jjk fluff #jjk imagines #itadori yuuji

[pitch-pearl-void]

Quick summary: Phantom gives Fenton romantic advice and gets caught in a trap of his own making

Fenton’s plans to bury his face in his pillow until Jazz or Maddie dragged him downstairs for supper died, decayed, withered away when he stepped into his room and found his pillow already occupied beneath the head of one Danny Phantom. Fenton groaned and slammed the door shut behind him. Phantom, his one-time other half, full time nuisance, looked up from the space magazine he had stolen from Fenton’s desk.

“What are you doing here?” Fenton demanded. “I thought we agreed this is my room?”

“Your room,” Phantom agreed easily. He looked back down at the magazine. “Tucker said you were turned down by one of the girls at your school. I thought I would visit you, make sure you’re okay, but now I can see you just need to be kept from moping.”

Fenton glared at him, but Phantom pretended to be engrossed in the magazine and thus blind to Fenton’s irritation. Fenton scowled and tried a different tact. “Did Tucker also say why she turned me down?”

“No. He wouldn’t even tell me who she was. Who was it?”

Fenton crossed his arms and scowled at his computer desk. That was at least one embarrassment Tucker had saved him from, not that it would do much good. Phantom would find out eventually. “Because she didn’t want me, she wants you.”

Phantom snorted. “Well, that narrows it down to just about everybody.”

Fenton forced a harsh laugh. “Wow, hey! Just rub it in! I needed a little humility today, thank you.”

Phantom sighed and finally lowered the magazine, laying it down on his chest. “This is not my fault, stop trying to pick a fight with me.”

“Yes, it is.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Yes! It is! Just!” Fenton uncrossed his arms and gestured both hands at Phantom. “Look at you!”

It just wasn't fair. From the casual curl of his spectral tail to the broad shoulders beneath a skin-tight jumpsuit to the effortless way his white hair had, at some point, artfully framed his eyes, his face, Phantom looked…hot, even to Fenton. If Fenton took a picture of him right now, the other kids would kill him for it.

“And you’re not even trying,” Fenton finished, groaning the words. “It’s so unfair.” Phantom cocked his head to the side. His white hair slid across his forehead, causing Fenton’s fingers to twitch. He snapped, “Stop that!”

Phantom lifted an eyebrow and his smile quirked at one corner. “I’m not doing anything.”

He even made laughing at Fenton look attractive.

Fenton crossed his arms again. “That just makes it worse. We’re supposed to be reflections of each other, why are you so much more…” He trailed off, searching for the word he wanted.

“Attractive?” Phantom suggested smugly. He sighed then and shrugged his shoulders. “I doubt it’s me. Humans just seem to have some sort of draw to ghosts, I think.”

“It’s you,” Fenton mumbled, refusing to look at him. “Trust me, it’s you.”

Phantom considered that, the words hanging in the silence between them for several long seconds. He morphed his tail into legs and sat up on the bed. He tossed the magazine onto Fenton’s nightstand. “Perhaps I can give you some advice?”

Fenton snorted. “What good is advice going to do?”

“It might help. Come on, sit down.” Phantom crisscrossed his legs under himself and patted the mattress invitingly.

Fenton warily eyed the sheets in front of Phantom. “She already turned me down,” he said. “It’s a little late for advice.”

“Fenton,” Phantom groaned, “stop being shy and get over here.”

Fenton blushed. “I’m not being shy!” He stomped toward the bed to prove it. “I just think this is pointless!” He flopped onto the mattress and crisscrossed his legs under himself, mirroring Phantom as they faced each other. “What do you know about romance anyway? You haven’t dated anyone, have you?”

Phantom only smiled knowingly. An “I won’t answer because it’s more fun to keep you guessing” smile.  

Fenton grumbled under his breath and hunched his shoulders.

“That,” Phantom said as he grabbed one of Fenton’s shoulders, “is the first thing to go.” He pushed back on Fenton’s shoulder. “Sit up straight.”

“What does it matter?” Fenton whined even as he forced himself to straighten his back. “You’re the only one here.”

“Thanks for that,” Phantom said dryly. He shook his head. “It’s a matter of habit, Fenton. The more you do it, the more natural it will feel. It’s an easy fix that is healthier and more attractive. You will look more confident. Confidence is key.”

Fenton blew out a breath and nodded. “Yeah. Okay, okay. I guess yours is always straight.” He looked at the broad line of Phantom’s shoulders and then away again. “What else?”

Phantom moved his hand from Fenton’s shoulder to his hair. “This.” Phantom ran his fingers through Fenton’s hair, and Fenton fought back a reflexive shiver.

“It’s not that different from yours,” Fenton complained. “Except that it’s black.”

“Exactly! It’s black.” Phantom pointedly shook his white hair around. “My hair is white, and it glows. It looks soft. It will always only look soft. Yours could look soft if you fluff it up more, run your fingers through it, make it look inviting, or you can smooth it out and make it shine.” Phantom paused. His fingers tugged a little on Fenton’s hair, and Fenton bowed his head a little to accommodate him. “It’s already trying to shine a little. It could look really pretty…”

“Thanks,” Fenton said, somewhat absently. He wasn’t really interested in fixing up his hair. “There’s no way I can compete with your perfect hair, though.”

“We are not competing.”

Fenton snorted. “That’s a relief.” He looked down at his ankles, tugging on the rim of his sock. “I would hate to keep losing to you all the time.”

Phantom sighed. “Have you considered, perhaps, that she isn’t worth it?”

Fenton pressed his lips together and didn’t reply.

“What was your approach?”

Fenton glanced up. “What?”

“How did you ask her out?”

Fenton shrugged. “I just…did?” Phantom’s fingers moved through his hair again, brushing across his scalp. It felt good. A little too good. Fenton moved his head back and Phantom’s hand fell away. “Does it matter?”

“It can.” Phantom untucked one leg and braced his elbow on his raised knee. Fenton cursed him in his head because of course Phantom would find a way to look attractive just by sitting. “Everyone has barriers to their heart. There are a couple ways for them to lower those barriers. The first and easiest is through attraction. If they’re attracted to you, that’s one barrier down, and they’re more likely to give you a chance.”

Fenton snorted and turned his head away.

Phantom’s fingers touched Fenton’s chin and turned his head back to face him. “You are hotter than you realize, Fenton. You just need confidence.”

Phantom’s fingers were lingering on his chin, so Fenton lowered his eyes instead, looking down and to the side.

“This is how many at your school have tried to catch my attention,” Phantom continued. “Especially Paulina. They think if I find them attractive, I will seek them out, but there are so many trying to catch me, my barriers have to be stronger than that. If it was Paulina you asked out…she would be the same. Was it…?”

Fenton kept staring off to the side and didn’t answer.

Phantom blew out a breath. His fingers finally left Fenton’s chin. “Well. If it were me, I would require more than attraction. Friendship is a suitable way to test waters because few people are willing to lower their defenses to strangers. Just understand a friendship is very different from a relationship and you can’t simply trade one for the other. You might even find you don’t like her as a girlfriend once you know her as a friend.”

“And after all that?” Fenton looked at his other half again. “What about that approach thing?”

Phantom made a face but shrugged. “It’s sort of the same concept. You want her to feel comfortable when you ask. You want her to want you when you ask. Whoever she is, if you just ask her in front of others, she’s going to be embarrassed and on guard. Your best bet is to wait until you’re alone, create an intimate atmosphere, and then propose a date.”

“What?” Fenton smiled crookedly. “Like invite her to my room, sit on the bed with her, and talk about romantic things?”

Phantom caught his reference and widened his eyes. He glanced around, seeming to notice for the first time that the sun was setting, that they were arm’s length apart, that the room was almost perfectly silent. He laughed easily, though, and reflected Fenton’s crooked smile. “I guess so. Give it a shot, then.”

Fenton’s smile faded. “What?”

“Pretend I’m the girl you wanted to ask out.”

Fenton frowned and leaned back. “No.”

Phantom’s crooked smile gained a sharper, mocking edge. “Shy, Fenton?”

“No!”

“Do you need me to show you how?”

Fenton’s cheeks burned and he glared at Phantom. “My ‘barriers’ just shot up and gained steel reinforcements.”

Phantom snickered a moment before shaking his head. “I can lower them again.”

“No, you can’t.”

“I can.”

“Nope.”

Phantom’s smile spread into a wide grin. “Alright. Watch me then.”

He slid his leg out, untucking it from underneath him, and pushed himself onto his knees. Fenton set his hands on the bed behind him and started to push himself backward, but Phantom was a ghost and much faster. He levitated off the bed and flew toward Fenton. His arms wrapped around Fenton’s shoulders, his legs around his waist, holding him in place. It wasn’t necessary. Fenton had frozen in place the moment he felt Phantom’s weight land on his thighs.

Phantom leaned into him and pressed their cheeks together, lips sliding toward Fenton’s ear. “Do you wanna go out tonight, Fenton?” he whispered. 

Fenton remained frozen in place, his heart leaping into his throat.

Phantom’s shoulders shook where they pressed against Fenton’s, and Fenton stiffened. Right. Phantom was playing with him, like always. Teasing was Phantom’s favorite pastime, he wasn’t actually serious, no matter how intimate it felt to have Phantom in his lap. Fenton pushed his hands between their chests and shoved the ghost backward as hard as he could. Phantom fell onto the bed, laughing and moaning a dramatic lament. His legs were still locked around Fenton’s waist, his butt was still cradled between Fenton’s crossed legs, and Fenton, his face flaming and no doubt redder than it had ever been, began tugging at Phantom’s legs, trying to make him let go. Phantom seemed intent on holding onto him for as long as possible just to make Fenton more flustered.

“Rejected!” Phantom moaned dramatically, one hand pressed against his forehead. “By my own other half! Who will love me if I cannot even love myself?”

“Dude, I hate you so much right now!” Fenton groaned. He gave up on Phantom’s legs and rose onto his own knees above him, inadvertently raising Phantom’s lower half because the stupid ghost wouldn’t let go. “You made your point, let go!”

Phantom grinned up at him, white hair wild, green eyes bright. “What point was that again?”

That you can make my heart stop without even trying, Fenton thought but didn’t say. Would never say.

He groaned and fell onto the bed beside him, forcing Phantom to turn onto his side. They faced each other on the bed, Phantom still snickering. Fenton found something inside him responding to the longing buried deep within. His heart still beat fast, there was a nervous, anxious fluttering sensation in his stomach, but Fenton still reached for Phantom’s face. He had had dreams about cupping Phantom’s cheek before, but under this pretense, he was finally able to do it, sliding fingers toward Phantom’s ear, brushing a few errant strands of perfect white hair aside.

Phantom’s laughter trailed off.

Confidence, Fenton told himself, staring into the green eyes only a few inches away from his own. He said I’m hotter than I realize. I can do this. I want this.

“Fenton?” Phantom asked softly.

Fenton took a deep breath and whispered, “Go out with me?”

Phantom stared at him. His mouth opened, but he couldn’t seem to force a word out. He just stared into Fenton’s eyes, seemingly unable to look away.

Fenton’s confidence…broke. He forced a laugh and lifted his hand from Phantom’s cheek. “What? Did I do it wrong?”

“I…” Bright green light flushed Phantom’s face. “No!” His legs released Fenton’s waist and he began to scoot backward, pulling his left leg out from beneath Fenton’s waist. “No! That was…that was great! I—I don’t know why she turned you down? You seem to have a knack for this.”

Fenton pushed himself onto his elbow to help Phantom pull his leg out. He frowned, though, watching Phantom. He had never seen his other half behave so erratic. He wasn’t even looking at Fenton anymore. “Are you okay?”

“Fine!” Phantom finally met Fenton’s eyes and flashed a bright, false grin. “Everything is fine! Why? Are you okay?”

“Ye-yes?” Fenton replied, even more unsure now. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, you just got rejected by whoever it was you asked out, and I only came here to find out who it was and make sure you were okay, and if you are then…” Phantom trailed off. He stared at Fenton.

There was a thick, somewhat frantic tension in the air, and Fenton forced a laugh, trying to dispel it. “Dude, you look like you’re having an epiphany or something. Do you need me to call Jazz?”

“No!” Phantom stared at Fenton a moment longer and then looked away, shoving a hand into his hair. “Maybe...?” He shook his head. “I should go. Patrol. And. Stuff.”

“Okay,” Fenton said, still hesitant. “Will you come back? Later, I mean. Maybe if I told you who it was you can tell me where I went wrong.”

Phantom’s jaw clenched. “Yes. Maybe. Or maybe you shouldn’t tell me. I don’t think I want to know.”

“Why not?”

Phantom looked at him helplessly for a moment before shaking his head. “I might want to beat her up.”

Fenton snorted. “What, defend my honor after it was crushed?”

“Something like that.” Phantom laughed and ducked his head. “Or maybe just so I can feel sorry for myself.”

“Why? You’re the one she wants.”

“Well.” Phantom shrugged. He floated off the bed, his legs forming into a spectral tail. “That isn’t going to happen. Ever.”

Fenton sighed and fell off his elbow, landing on his back. “Thanks for that, I guess, but you don’t even know who she is yet. You might already like her.”

“I don’t like…” Phantom coughed. “I-I don’t like anyone.”

“Oh.” Fenton stared up at the ceiling. “That’s good to know.”

“Yeah…” A few seconds of silence passed between them before Phantom abruptly said, “Bye, Fenton,” and flew from the room.

Fenton waited a minute to make sure he was gone before he rolled over onto his stomach and screamed into the mattress.

#Danny Phantom #Danny Fenton #pitch pearl #mutual pining #I realized I hadn't posted anything in a while so here's a quick thing I wrote for a friend on the discord server #fanfiction #writing trance

[geekgirles]

Your Heart

Chapter 5 -- Research

Word Count: 12429

READ ON AO3

“Remind me again why we’re doing this?” Tucker complained for the umpteenth time. 

After realising the only way to end his regular meetings with Lady Arcana once and for all would be finding information on the portals she could use to help him close them, Danny took a very-Jazz-like decision; to immerse himself in countless moldy, old books in search for answers. 

Only he dragged Tucker and his sister along to put an end to the torture sooner. A decision which, whereas Jazz encouraged wholeheartedly, Tucker was none too pleased with. 

“Oh, quit your whining, Tucker.” Jazz admonished from the floor, a few volumes piled up around her. “Every time you complain, it’s precious time we’re wasting. Maybe I don’t mind being holed up here reading with you, but something tells me you’d much rather be tinkering with your PDA than doing this.”

Annoyed by Jazz’s accurate observation, Tucker, who was lying down on his bed, set the book he was reading down on his lap. “I’m just saying, a quick Internet search would give us many more results in a matter of seconds. If you’re worried about wasting time, then I think spending hours scanning for even the smallest piece of witch-related trivia is ten times more time-consuming.”

But Jazz wasn’t going to relent any time soon. “We already tried things your way, Tucker. Remind me again how much useful information we found online?” When her question was met by silence, she smirked, focusing again on the book she had open on the floor in front of her. “Thought so.”

“Okay, so the first few results were all about conspiratorial nutcases claiming the witches are actually aliens from a faraway galaxy and that what we call ‘magic’ is really superior technology our tiny, human minds can’t understand,” he paused to breathe, “but those were just the first few articles! I’m sure if we keep on looking, we’ll find something useful.”

“Do I really have to remind you that the most useful thing we found was a Satanist group’s website? I don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly looking forward to joining them anytime soon.”

Leaning back against his bed’s headboard, the techno geek crossed his arms, feeling defensive. “You’re never going to let that go, are you?”

“Will you two just stop?” Danny finally had enough. He slammed the book he’d been reading shut before setting it down on his desk, where his own pile of books lay. Leaning back on his chair, one leg over his knee, he crossed his arms as he sent a stern look at his sister and best friend; the kind of look a father would give when scolding his misbehaving children. 

Even though they had legitimate reasons to be cranky at each other, a selfish part of him thought the only one who could really act out of line was him. Tucker and Jazz tended to forget what really was on the line. True; if they didn’t find a solution to the random ghost portals soon, that could lead to severe repercussions on both dimensions, and dealing with Lady Arcana was both dangerous and nerve-racking in every sense of the word. 

But the real danger came from within. 

Although Danny had tried to limit their use as much as possible, the Witch Queen’s presence demanded he wore the Ring of Wrath and the Crown of Fire in hopes of forcing the sorceress to think twice before double-crossing them. But the mere use of the two mystical items was far more terrifying than anything the entire witch clan could have thrown at him. 

There was something inherently...evil encased in the ring and crown. Danny was sure of it. Damn, he could feel it with every fiber of his being. Even before donning the all-powerful objects for the first time during his coronation, the moment he held them after stripping them off of Pariah Dark’s form, they were already calling out to him. 

And the most horrifying thing was that he wanted to heed their call. The relics promised infinite power to whoever was in possession of them. When, ironically, the dreaded things took possession of their wearer! After a brief moment of doubt where he almost fell into temptation and gave in, Danny understood wearing the ring and crown meant the total enslavement of his soul. 

Ever since then, he lived in fear of succumbing to temptation and letting their sinister energy consume him. Whenever he had no choice but to wear the Ring of Wrath and the Crown of Fire, Danny found himself fighting an uphill battle against the hypnotising pull of power emanating from them. It was more tempting than using his powers to get back at Dash for all the wedgies. It was more inviting than dating Valerie, regardless of the very real possibility of dying by her hand. It was more dangerous than accepting to work with Vlad, who foolishly coveted the very same torture he endured every time he put those two horrid artefacts on. 

Because it was a literal deal with the devil; power in exchange of his soul. 

And to think he had to endure all that every time he met up with the queen of the two-faced creatures responsible for such evil in the first place, just to convince her against doing anything foolish...It was irony at its finest. 

With gentle spins of his chair, Danny kept looking alternatively at Tucker and Jazz, who were blissfully unaware of his inner musings, as he talked to each of them. First was Tucker. “Tuck, I know you’ve considered books a waste of time ever since we plugged you into the Cramtastic Mark 5 to break Ember’s spell, and I’m sorry for dragging you into this, but Jazz’s brought all these books from the library and we need as much information as possible.”

He then turned to his sister, who was laid facing down on the floor. “Jazz, same thing goes for you. Except the ‘book-hating' part,” he hastily added, “you know as well as I do that if there’s someone who can find anything on the Internet, it's Tucker. Just, give him time.”

His two teammates exchanged glances before giving up with an eye roll. “Whatever,” they said in unison before getting back to reading. 

Danny wasn’t quite finished, though. “There’s also the fact that I’m not even sure we’ll find anything useful in the first place. I mean, what Lady Arcana needs is either an explanation on what’s causing the portals to manifest, or a spell that can counter it. And I highly doubt we’ll find that sort of information in books from the public library.”

“Maybe if they were from Hogwarts…” Tucker snickered at his own joke. When he noticed the twin glare the siblings were sending him, he sobered up. “Sorry.”

Jazz rolled her eyes as she changed her position from lying down to sitting up, cross-legged. “That doesn’t mean we won’t find anything useful, Danny. If anything, just learning more about the witches should be of help when dealing with them, right?”

The halfa sighed. “In theory. But Tucker’s right; we’ve been reading for hours and we haven’t found anything useful, or even that we didn’t already know of.”

“Thank you!” Tucker deadpanned as he clapped his hands sarcastically.

Danny ignored him in favour of continuing. “I mean, what’s to learn about them? Their background is completely irrelevant to the issue at hand. Knowing of the Salem trials isn’t going to help me prevent disaster from happening!”

“And don’t forget we don’t even know how to tell true facts apart from naysay.”  Tucker pointed out, a finger raised in the air as if that’d give more credibility to his point.

But Jazz insisted. “All the more reason to find out more about them! For instance, Danny, what did you know about witches before meeting this Lady Arcana?”

Her brother gave a noncommittal shrug. “Only what Frostbite told me and what I read in the pages I found from Sojourn’s missing journalーand no, I’m not going to let you read them, Jazz; it’s too dangerous. Besides, I don’t even have them anymore,” he was quick to add, recognising the inquisitive look on his sister’s face all too well.

Annoyed at how well her brother knew her, and at Tucker’s ill-concealed snickers, the aspiring psychologist turned her head away in a huff. “Fine, keep your sister away from fascinating topics. It’s not like I’ve been keeping your secret for years; even from you.” She punctuated with a meaningful look.

If the look on Danny’s face was any indication, they’d had that same conversation too many times before. “Jazz, careful; you know emotionally blackmailing me will get you nowhere. It’ll make me want to keep more things away from you.”

The redhead stood up and got closer to him. With her arms crossed, she used her brother’s seated position to tower over him for once, since she had long lost the ability to look over his shoulder once Danny finally hit his growth spurt. “And you know trying to play hero and keep me away is going to solve nothing. If anything, it’s only going to make me want to help you even more.”

Watching the siblings from the comfortable distance his bed provided him, Tucker knew things would only get nasty if he let the tension escalate from there. He let out a wolf whistle, effectively capturing the Fenton kids' attention. “Wow. You know you two spend too much time together when you start using the other’s methods to get what you want.”

Danny and Jazz furrowed their brow in confusion. “What do you mean?” They asked in unison. 

Changing his position so his back was resting against his wall rather than his bed, which also allowed him to easily look them both in the eye, their friend just shrugged nonchalantly. He wasn’t going to say anything else; their attention was no longer directed at each other and that was enough. “Nothing. Hey, how about a break?”

“A break?” Danny echoed, incredulous. “Didn’t we just argue about wasting time? Tuck, we can’t take a break now!”

Seeing where Tucker was getting at, and that he had a very good point, Jazz sighed. Turning to Danny, she put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. “Tucker is right. We’ve been at it for a few hours now. We’d better take a breather and continue later, when our minds are sharper.”

Danny was about to protest when he noticed their matching expressions. They were both tired after doing nothing but searching for clues for hours and bickering with each other. If anyone deserved a break, it was them. And as his own exhaustion finally kicked in, he realised, so did he. 

Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s stop for a while.”

Satisfied, Jazz gave her little brother some space as she flopped down on his bed. “So, Tuck.” When his head snapped at the sound of her voice calling his name, she continued. “How’s your latest lady friend doing?”

It took the African American young man a moment to understand who she was talking about. “You mean Camille?”

“If that’s her name, then yes.”

“Oh, we don’t hang out anymore.”

“What?” Jazz gasped. “Why?”

Tucker looked at her uneasily. Danny, on his part, remained quiet, just listening to their conversation. “Uh, no offence, Jazz but...I don’t feel comfortable talking about this with my best friend’s sister; close as we may be.”

That made her frown. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It’s just...there’s things you don’t talk about with just anyone. And what happens between you and the people you choose to fool around with is one of them. I mean, how would you feel if my mum tried meddling into your love life?”

She just made a derisive sound at the back of her throat. “Excuse me? That is completely different!”

“It is not!”

“Oh, really?” Jazz put her hands on her hips, an eyebrow raised. “Please. Tucker, I’m Danny’s older sister, not our mother! Moreso, I’m the eldest by two years,” she put two fingers up to stress her point, “it’s not like I babysat you or cleaned your diapers. It can’t be that embarrassing!”

Refusing to say any more, Tucker just fell backwards on his bed, arms crossed. From his chair, Danny could only roll his eyes good-naturedly at their banter. 

After a beat of silence, Jazz tried again. “Was it your issues with commitment? Did she want more but you got scared?”

Exasperated, he pinched the bridge of his nose. Then, he turned to his best friend. “You can intervene whenever you like, you know?”

Danny just leaned back on his chair, his arms folded behind his head and an easy grin on his face. “Nah, I’m good.”

Abruptly getting up from his bed, unamused, Tucker walked over to his desk and turned his computer on. His back turned to the Fenton siblings, he started fidgeting with a program he’d just opened. He had no idea what to do with it, but he figured it’d be better than Jazz butting in on his love life. 

“So...is that it?” she ventured hopefully. 

Groaning loudly, he rubbed his eyes before fully facing the current thorn in his side. “Has it ever crossed your mind that the reason why I don’t feel comfortable talking about this with you is because you’re going to try and psychoanalyse me?” Seeing as there was no reply, Tucker took it as a sign that she’d finally let it go, so he turned to face the screen. 

...only to hear her whisper to Danny. “How much on them having trouble in bed?”

His face burning hot in embarrassment, Tucker slammed his head against the desk, startling the two other people in the room. At least Danny would never betray him, would he? No, he wouldn’t. It totally went against, like, fifty rules in the Bro Code. 

Unfortunately, Danny was having far too much fun seeing Tucker squirm under Jazz’s scrutinising, psychological curiosity. “Well, from what I’ve heard…”

Oh, no! No way in Hell was that traitor selling him out like that! If Danny wanted war, he’d give him war, Bro Code be damned! Getting up with startling speed, Tucker yelled loud enough to drown Danny’s voice out. “Danny’s met a girl!”

Both siblings blinked slowly at him before simultaneously screeching, “What!?” Although it was impossible to tell which of the two was more bewildered by the revelation.

In an instant, Jazz was on her brother like a vulpture on an animal carcass. “Danny, is that true? You have a girlfriend?” Suddenly, she looked much more offended than dumbfounded. “And you didn’t tell me?!”

“No!” he quickly denied, before all but flying from his chair and going over to his so-called best friend to smack him on the arm. Hard. “Tucker, what the fuck?!”

“Language!” Jazz admonished. 

“Where did you get the idea that I got a girlfriend? What, you’ve listened to me talking about how I fear for my life whenever I’m in the same room as the short-tempered, curse-inducing, infuriating Queen of the Witches of Amity Park and you obviously thought, Oh, man. That’s true love right there and then?!”

“Well, that definitely didn’t stop you from crushing on Valerie back in high school…” Jazz pointed out meekly. 

Seeing Danny’s eyes glow green for a fraction of a second was enough to make Tucker sweat bullets. “Jazz, you’re not helping!” He squeaked. “And, dude, you’re freaking me out a little with the way you’re burning holes in my skull. At this point, I really wouldn’t put it past you to have suddenly developed heat-vision or something…”

Forcing himself to take a deep breath, Danny finally got out of his best friend’s personal space. He was still pissed, though. “Talk.”

Straightening his clothes, Tucker rolled his eyes. “My, aren’t you sensitive today.”

“Well, duh! You just said I have a girlfriend! Could you be so kind as to tell me who so I don’t forget our anniversary or, I don’t know, her face!?”

The techno geek made a ‘pfft’ sound with his mouth, shrugging the notion off with a motion of his hand. “I never said you had a girlfriend. My exact words were ‘Danny’s met a girl.’ If you two are too obsessed with your love life to pay close attention to what other people say, that’s not my problem.”

“Okay, so who’s this girl?” Jazz asked, still curious.

“Yes, please, enlighten us, oh, King Tuck.” Danny quipped sarcastically. 

Tucker frowned, not appreciating the quip at his past mistake, but he spoke nonetheless. “Dude, it 's Sam.”

There was a beat of silence where brother and sister just stared at him before Danny whispered, shell-shocked, “Sam?”

Jazz, on her part, was both shocked and confused. “Wait, who’s Sam?”

He would’ve smacked him right then and there if it weren’t for his best friend having ghost powers he could blast him with. “Well, duh! Dude, have you or have you not met a girl named Sam recently? Because, I’m warning you, if you thought she was a guy, I’m telling on you. I don’t care if she beats your ass; you’d deserve it.”

“Ooh! A girl capable of kicking my baby brother's butt? Now I gotta know who she is! Also, Tucker, language.” The aqua-eyed girl half-heartedly scolded him, before her expression turned into a pensive one as she redirected her gaze to Danny “...are you sure you don’t have a type, though?”

“Sam and Valerie are nothing alike!” Danny exclaimed, throwing his arms up at his sides. Then he turned to Tucker, his hands now curled into fists out of sheer annoyance. “And of course I know she’s a girl. I just don’t understand how on Earth you’d come to the conclusion that I’m into her or something.”

Not for the first time, Tucker rolled his eyes before getting up from his chair and draping his arm around Danny’s shoulders. “And, again, I never said you were. I just said you’d met a girl…” Danny didn’t like that mischievous glint in his eyes one bit. “It just so happens I know you two enough to know you’d immediately assume I was talking about a lady friend, which would then make you forget all about moi.” Tucker explained with a cheeky grin. “And, lo and behold, it worked!”

Danny narrowed his eyes on him. He hated it when Tucker used their everlasting friendship to play him like a violin. Jazz, on the other hand, hated having her queries ignored. Taking a deep breath, she raised her voice to deafening levels. “Hello? Can anyone tell me who this ‘Sam’ is?”

“Agh!” Both halfa and techno geek exclaimed, taken aback. Nursing his ear, the youngest Fenton glared at his sister. “You're louder than my Ghostly Wail, you know that?”

“I can attest to that.” Tucker muttered, equally annoyed. 

Both sighed in defeat when Jazz limited herself to arching an eyebrow at them with her hands, curled into fists at her sides, stubborn as ever to get her answers. “Jazz, it’s no big deal. Sam is just a friend of Tucker’s who knows an awful lot about the occult and such. He thinks she might be able to help me with you-know-who.” He explained as he sat down on his bed next to her, Tucker following suit.

“Wait, Tucker is friends with a girl that’s not me?”

The aforementioned boy took offence at that. “Is it really that weird to see me hanging out with a girl because we’re friends and nothing more?”

The Fenton kids just stared at him blankly. “Dude, you literally hit on anything with a skirt. Remember the drag queen?”

The techno geek spluttered at that, while Jazz couldn’t help but chortle. “Dude, you promised to never bring that up again!”

Danny only chuckled at his best friend’s flushed face. “I don’t think you’re in any position to complain, Tuck. After all, you did break that poor queen’s heart...”

“Why, you!” Face burning hot in embarrassment, Tucker threw himself at Danny, ready to strangle him, ability to blast him to smithereens be damned! His own body reacting instinctively, Danny lay down on his back as he grabbed his best friend’s wrists. The two would’ve started roughhousing hadn’t it been for Jazz getting caught in between. 

“Hey! Stop it you two!” With a superhuman strength that could only be attributed to an older sibling separating her little brothers, Jazz shoved Tucker off of Danny, while she kept the latter down with a hand on his chest. A few minutes passed before the two calmed down. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she turned to Tucker, trying to keep the original conversation going. “So this Sam could be of help?”

Willing his own breath to steady, Tucker nodded. “Yeah. Sam’s a Goth, so she’s very interested in all that. In fact, she’s been of help before.”

Danny’s interest perked at that. “What do you mean?”

“Remember when I’d come up with a solution to defeat certain ghosts this past year? Like Medusa, or that giant Hydra, and such? That was all Sam!”

“Now that you mention it, it did take me by surprise that you’d suddenly know what a hydra even is…”

“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence…” he quipped, before shaking his head to keep himself focused. “Anyway, whenever those ghosts appeared, I’d remember Sam talking about her latest mythology-related acquisition she bought from her favourite bookstore. So I just called her up, used the very convenient ghost in case to ask about its weakness and, ta-da! You’d have your way to beat them!” He exclaimed, proudly puffing up his chest. After a moment, he deflated, another thought in his mind. “The only creature she never told me about are unicorns, though. I don’t know why.”

“Maybe it throws off her entire dark, cynical persona.” Jazz guessed. Becoming Goth was a common coping mechanism for when people lost someone dear. For all she knew, this Sam could’ve lost a loved one and abandoned all things traditionally cute and girly as a way to put up a strong, undaunted façade, constantly exposing herself to the darker side of life in an attempt to grow desensitised to such things. 

“Maybe,” the bespectacled young man shrugged, “but if you ever meet her, don’t go around saying things like that. Somehow, I doubt she’d appreciate having her entire identity picked out and analysed.”

As Tucker and Jazz kept on bantering with each other, Danny’s thoughts were elsewhere. If what Tucker was saying was true and Sam had indeed marked the difference between victory and defeat during those ghost attacks, then it really would be better to have her by his side. 

Despite his years fighting ghosts and what he’d learned from Frostbite, his knowledge was limited to the Ghost Zone, which was why the presence of mythological or legendary ghosts tended to demand more of him than, say, facing off against Technus, or Johnny 13. Magical artefacts and abilities fell under that category, as well.

Aside from the lack of portal-creating and visits to the Ghost Zone, the witches, on the contrary, seemed to be knowledgeable of ghosts. And that put him at a clear disadvantage he couldn’t afford. But if Sam also happened to know about witches, maybe even partake in rituals for the sake of it, then having her near would be for the best. He would only have to make sure to keep a close eye on her in case the witches found out and went after her in retaliation. 

And also, deep down, he was sort of looking forward to meeting her again. 

...............

The seemingly never ending corridors were doing nothing to alleviate her already suffering nerves. Despite the velvet-carpeted floor that would other times muffle her heavy steps, she now felt as if every step she took resonated throughout the manor like the screeching tiles of a wooden floor. From the rich, maroon walls were hanging the portraits of every astounding witch their clan had ever witnessed; from queens and Council members, to especially adept sorceresses or even heroines who had saved their sisters one way or another. All those women she usually looked up to for guidance in difficult times now seemed to be silently judging her with their cold, unforgiving eyes. 

She walked in complete silence, afraid to disturb the peace if she were to utter a word. After discovering the grimoire she used to travel to the Ghost Zone wouldn’t be of any help in her mission, Sam was blindly following the beginning of a hunch; the spark of an idea whose outcome she still knew nothing of. But, even if she wasn’t sure what she was looking for, it was all she had. 

Sam had no choice but to follow that inkling. 

Hurriedly trying to keep up with her, Star and Paulina were close behind. Once again, their position within their Queen’s inner circle allowed them to understand Sam’s thought process better than most. Only they knew the true reason behind the Queen’s unprompted visit to their clan’s archives. 

“Your Majesty, what do you expect to find inside thー?” Before Star could so much as finish her question, Sam interrupted her.

“Indeed, Star. I would appreciate a warm bubble bath with deadly nightshade leaves.” The queen said, not even stopping to look back at her ladies-in-waiting.

To any other person, that cryptic message would have meant nothing but the typical request one would expect a queen to ask her personal maids of. But Paulina and Star knew better. Asking for deadly nightshade was Sam’s way of telling them to keep whatever she was up to a secret. By asking Star for a deadly nightshade bubble bath, she was instructing them that absolutely no one should find out about the true reason behind her visit to the archives. 

Exchanging knowing glances with Paulina, the blonde lowered her head slightly, fully aware that her Queen was watching her from the corner of her eye. “Yes, your Majesty.”

And with that everything that had to be said was shared between them. 

Time was of the essence.

Aside from the evident danger she faced every time she travelled to the Infinite Realms, there was the added possibility of being spotted by humans, regardless of how far away from civilization their meeting spot was. If anyone ever took notice of the three mysterious figures fraternising with ghosts, Amity Park’s greatest known threat, questions would soon arise. 

And whenever humans had questions, they turned to the so-called experts on the matter for help. While Sam wasn’t sure those incompetent Guys In White even suspected their existence, she still wouldn’t put it past them to investigate for the sake of burning tax money in some new toys. Those greedy, government puppets… Worst of all, if they took a genuine interest in her kind, they might as well be done for, and not necessarily because the GIW were good at their job…

If word got out that witches were real and living among them, the citizens could get scared. And whenever humans got scared, especially if it was of things they couldn’t quite explain or understand, that fear turned into aggression. If they kept wasting any more time, one day she’d open her door to find herself face to face with an angry mob. 

And to think it’d all be because of a group of incompentent ghost hunters who couldn’t even drive away the very same treacherous creatures responsible for her people’s need for secrecy in the first place...it was irony at its finest. 

However, despite the spike of anxiety in her chest, Sam couldn’t help but go back to her last visit to the Ghost Zone. Phantom’s attempts at dissipating the tension had been, as much as she hated to admit it, a welcomed thing. And yet, it was a little unnerving to learn the Ghost King shared her views on formality and the power of intimacy, because it made him look more human than she would ever be comfortable with. 

In all fairness, it was difficult to imagine Phantom talking like anything but his usual, cocky self in the first place. From what little exchanges the news broadcasts had been able to catch on camera during the years, the white-haired spirit tended to get overly familiar with his opponents, getting under their skin with puns or witty comebacks thrown at their expense. Still, as unusual as it was, Sam couldn’t help but feel that, perhaps, it would’ve been better to keep on using their respective honorifics. Because Phantom addressing her like he would any other misbehaving ghost, like she’d seen him do dozens of times over the years, somehow made it all the more...real. She truly was talking to the infamous Ghost King on her own volition. 

That thought alone scared her more than she’d ever be willing to admit. 

Before Sam could dwell on the matter any longer, a grating, shrill voice snapped her out of her thoughts. A voice she knew all too well and would do just about anything to never hear again unless it was absolutely necessary. 

“Sammy-kins!”

Stopping in her tracks, eye twitching in annoyance, the lavender-eyed girl forced a smile to materialise on her face as she slowly turned around to face the mother of all monsters. Her own. “Hello, Mother.” She forced out.

Pamela Manson was an average witch; the only thing stellar about her was her ability to distract humans with her lavish parties and over-the-top socialite persona. A woman obsessed with social status and appearances, Sam’s mother constantly got on her case due to her own disregard for the very things Pamela lived for. 

Mother and daughter were opposites in almost every aspect. 

Whereas Sam prided herself in her individuality and ability to go unnoticed unless she truly wished to make her presence known, Pamela was obsessed with blending in a way that would always draw all eyes to her.

Sam believed in standing up for a change, without fear of taking big steps as long as they led her to a better world. Pamela considered things to be fine as they were, and that the only changes that should be implemented were small, insignificant ones; such as her daughter’s fashion sense.

While Sam was a rather cynical individual who still cared about everyone deep down, her mother was preppy and optimistic, but her aspirations were limited to what could benefit her and her family.

But what truly set them apart was Sam’s insistence on being inconspicuous to the human eye; her coven’s anonymity her top priority. As opposed to Pamela who, had she been queen, would’ve accidentally exposed their secrets in her first week after being crowned; tops. 

In all fairness, it wasn’t that Pamela didn’t care for their clan; it was just that she couldn’t resist flaunting what, she believed, made her better than everyone else. 

And, right now, she believed her daughter’s manners could be much better. “What’s with the cold greeting, Sammy-kins? We haven’t seen much of each other in over a week and that’s how you treat me?”

On second thought, Sam much preferred her chances against an angry mob over spending five minutes in the same room as her mother. “Sorry, Mother, but you caught me in the middle of something important and…”

“What could possibly be more important than what I’m about to tell you?” Pamela questioned, her hands on her hips. 

“Perhaps finding a way to save two dimensions or, at the very least, our people, but you’re right, Mum, what was it that you wanted to tell me?”, was what the raven-haired witch wished she could’ve said, but instead she opted for, “And what is it that you have to tell me?”

Instead of answering her daughter, however, Pamela directed an expectant look at her two ladies-in-waiting who, upon noticing her steely glare on them, immediately straightened up before lowering their heads in submission. “Greetings, your Ladyship.” Paulina and Star droned, their heads low.

Although Pamela was never queen herself, as mother of the current leader of the clan she was to be regarded with respect. A fact the woman would constantly revel in and fully take advantage of. Smiling in contentment, she sighed. “Ah, much better. Now, Sammy-kins, I was thinking we could take some time away from your schedule to have a little chat on your wardrobe choices?”

Ugh, not that again. Ignoring her mother’s offended gasp, Sam turned on her heel to make her way, once again, to her original destination. Star and Paulina hurrying up to leave ‘her Ladyship’ behind and keep up with their queen after flashing her mother a pair of matching sheepish smiles

Unfortunately, the one thing Sam seemed to have inherited from her mother was her stubbornness. Quickening her own pace, the clicking of her high heels behind her haunting Sam even in her dreams, Pamela caught up with them in a surprisingly short amount of time. Having no choice but to breathlessly talk to her daughter at the same time as she tried keeping up with her would not be enough to get her to give up on her pursuit. 

“Seeing as we have much more important matters to discuss, I shall gracefully ignore your previous insolence.” Luckily for Sam, her mother missed the way she rolled her eyes at her. “I know this...Gore style of yoursー.”

“It’s ‘Goth’, Mother…” Sam corrected her, but her efforts fell on deaf ears. 

“ーis just your way of rebelling against the world because things don’t go your way, but don’t you think enough is enough? You’ve been dressing like a mortician since you were twelve!”

“If you’re done patronising me and the way I choose to present myself to the worldーwhich, not only have you insulted in every possible way but, allow me to remind you, is not just a phaseー, I really do have more important matters to attend to.” 

And with that, she sped up past her mother. It should’ve been the end of that conversation, but Pamela always had to have the last word. “But what about the clan? Don’t you think it’s selfish to compromise us like that?”

That stopped the Witch Queen dead in her tracks, the unexpected stop causing Paulina and Star to tumble back a few steps. Once they registered what Pamela had said, their blood ran cold; the stiffness in Sam’s posture only confirmed their unspoken fears:

Sam’s mother had just crossed a line. 

Fists clenched so tightly at her sides she could’ve drawn blood, her teeth gritting in aggravation, Sam hissed, not even turning around to face her mother. “What did you just say?”

Brushing her daughter’s anger off as just another tantrum, Pamela calmly walked over to where she stood, looking over her handmaidens’ shoulders. Resting a palm on Sam’s shoulder, a hand that, although meant as comforting, came out as condescending, mocking; the older witch spoke up. “I’m just saying, you’re always advocating for our anonymity, yet you seem to ignore that people will immediately associate your obvious, stereotypically witchy outfits with real-life witchcraft. All that black and those dark colours, the ripped fabric, the metal ornaments… Sammy, don’t you see? That’s like wearing a sign saying ‘I’m a witch! Come and lynch me!’”

Taking advantage of her turned face, Sam narrowed her eyes on her mother. She dressed like a WASP housewife from the 50’s when she was a Jewish woman living in the 21st centuryーshe was in absolutely no position to criticise her looks! 

How dare she? How dare she?! Using her duty to protect her people against her just to get her to wear some frilly abomination because she couldn’t fathom the idea that her daughter would want to be her own person?

It was moments like these that Sam missed Grandma Ida the most. Her grandma would’ve guided her in her darkest hours, giving her useful advice to approach the situation, but never making decisions for her, letting her live and learn instead! Grandma Ida would’ve never tried to use her to push some personal agenda on the clan. 

But Grandma Ida was gone, and Pamela was there to stay.

As insulted and, although she’d never let it show, hurt as Sam was, going to the archives took priority. Stowing her conversation with her mother for another time as she resumed her march down the hallsーpreferably when she’d be alone in her roomーSam shrugged her off the best way she knew; through biting sarcasm. “Oh, please. If I were nearly as ‘obvious’ or ‘stereotypically witchy’ as you say, Mother, I’d decorate this place after the Sedlec Ossuary.”

Pamela furrowed her brow in confusion as she, too, resumed her walk. “What does that even mean?” 

“She’s talking about a Czech chapel fully decorated with bones and skulls.” Star helpfully supplied. 

Paulina, on the contrary, shuddered in disgust. “Ugh, I’d rather not. I’d feel like I’m always being watched…”

Star tilted her head to the side. “How? Skulls don’t have eyes.”

Ignoring the handmaidens, Pamela opened up her mouth to speak when a raised hand from her daughter, who had abruptly halted, stopped her from even getting a word in. “As lovely as catching up with you has been, Mother,” Sam started, voice laced with sarcasm, “I’m afraid I must go. I have important matters to attend to, as I already told you, that I must take care of, in private.” She stressed before turning the doorknob of the large door before her and walking inside, swiftly letting her bewildered mother out after she all but slammed the door shut in her face. 

Leaning  her back against the door, Sam let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding. No matter how much time passed, her mother would always be a she-demon worse than any ghost. God forbid Phantom ever met her; if he were to take a page out of her book, Sam would personally burn herself at the stake.

“Is Pamela too much for you?” A sultry voice coaxed her out of her thoughts.

Opening up her eyes, Sam could feel the relieved smile forming on her face at the sight of the witch she most wanted to see at the moment. “Delilah.” She breathed out as she separated herself from the door, walking over to her friend to grab her hands in hers. “You have no idea.” Sighing dramatically, she let her head fall on the crook of the shapeshifter’s shoulder, eliciting a chuckle from her. 

“Oh, I don’t need to.” She said, gently patting her queen’s head. “Just by looking at you I can tell; you look like you’ve suddenly lost ten years of your life!”

“Make that twenty,” Sam grumbled. 

Separating herself from her leader, their hands still holding each other, the turquoise-eyed sorceress got to the point. “Well, what brings you here? As much as I love your visits, I thought you’d be busy with your little escapes to the Ghost Zone?”

Sam averted her gaze, the wooden floor suddenly much more interesting than a few seconds ago. “It’s precisely because of that that I’m here.”

“Oh?” Delilah tilted her head, slightly. “Okay...So, what are you here for, then?”

To her bewilderment, her queen’s eyes continuously darted from one place to another, as if expecting to be ambushed any minute now. “Are we alone?”

An odd question, but not necessarily a bad one. Putting her fingers on her chin in thought, the Council member tried to remember if she’d seen anyone that day. “Hm, I think Stephanie might be somewhere around here, engrossed in a book. But you know her, it’d be easier to get me to leave the archives than not seeing that girl with her nose deep in a book.”

Stephanie was probably with them. That was not a bad thing. Stephanie ought to find out sooner or later. Wringing her hands nervously, Sam willed her eyes to look at Delilah’s own curious turquoise ones. “I need your help with something.”

That caught her attention. “My help?” Sam nodded. “My, Sam, you’re starting to worry me.” Delilah admitted as she got closer to the Goth, her hand hovering over her shoulder but never close enough to actually rest atop of it, afraid that the sudden contact would startle her. It was unusual to see her so suspicious of everything around her. Maybe… “Did the ghosts do anything? Are we going to war?”

That seemed to snap the younger witch out of whatever she was going through. She didn’t lower her guard, though. “No, no. We’re not going to war.” She shook her head as she let Delilah gently guide her to another section of the archives. “But in order to avoid just that I might need to do something crazy…”

Delilah wrinkled her nose at that. “Something crazy? You’re not going to marry that Ghost Punk, are you?”

Startled, Sam jerked away from her touch, shuddering in discomfort. Where would she get such a ridiculous idea? She and Danny Phantom? She almost wanted to laugh. Instead, she let out a derisive sound from the back of her throat. “Don’t even joke about that.”

“So, what is it then? I’m sorry, Sam, but you’re not making any sense right now.” The shapeshifter insisted. “If we’re not going to war, and you’re not going to marry the Ghost King, what do you need me for?” Taking a few steps, she got closer to the young monarch, their faces mere inches apart as she tried looking for answers in her amethyst orbs. “What could be so serious that you’re so unnerved, Sam?”

Delilah’s intense gaze made her squirm, but she had a point. She couldn’t expect her to help her, no questions asked. For instance, she wasn’t just the best shapeshifter of the clan, she was also a Council member, and the archives guardian. She was the one tasked with keeping their people’s most precious treasure, their history and knowledge, safe. And considering what she was gonna ask of her, Delilah was in her right to know exactly what was going through her head. 

Steeling herself for what was to come, Sam straightened her spine, returning the intensity of the older witch’s gaze in earnest. “I need you to grant me access to a certain type of book.”

Delilah’s posture relaxed. “Is that it? Why didn’t you say so sooner? Sure, just tell me what you’re looking for and I’ll let you take a lookー.”

“I mean,” Sam cut her off, “I need you to grant me permission to take the book with me, outside of the manor...and into the Ghost Zone.” Her voice wavered when she muttered the last part. 

“Oh...I see...” The guardian’s expression immediately sobered up. She cleared her throat, awkwardly. “And, what type of book are you looking for?”

Now things were going to get really ugly. “I need a spellbook detailing everything we know about the Ghost Zone, specifically, its portals.”

For a while, Delilah just stared at her, almost unblinkingly. The good news was she didn’t appear angry or outraged as Sam had predicted, the bad news, however, was that her empty, unreadable expression was much worse. At least she’d have known what she was thinking had she been yelling at her for her idiocy; questioning her mental health. But as it was, Sam was almost as lost as her.

After what felt like an eternity, Delilah finally found her voice. “So you…” she quieted down, trying to find the words. “You want to take one of our most sacred texts to the Ghost Zone?”

Sam winced. Somehow, it sounded way worse when she said it like that. “I know it’s asking for too much…”

“Saying that’s an understatement wouldn’t even begin to cover it.” The Council member scoffed. “Seriously, Margaret would have a cow! And don’t get me started on Wilhelmina…”

“I know!” Sam was quick to reassure her. She was perfectly aware what she was asking of her might be a little excessive, but she wasn’t completely delusional! She knew just what kind of reaction their fellow Council members would have... “I know, but...the only way to ensure our people’s safety is helping Phantom. And he needs help closing numerous unstable portals that are suddenly opening. I thought the book I’d been using to get to the Infinite Realms would have the answers, but its contents were thoroughly underwhelming.”

Just like she did in Phantom’s lair, Sam got the spellbook out of her skirt before handing it to the guardian. In turn, she inspected its pages, concluding that, indeed, the book hadn’t much to offer. “Please, Delilah, you know I would never ask this of you if I didn’t think it’s our only hope.”

Sam wasn’t one to plead. The young Council member knew this better than anyone. She was headstrong and determined; the entire clan knew there wasn’t much that could be done to dissuade her once her mind was made up. Margaret herself found it to be both a blessing and a curse, while Wilhelmina thought it was a curse. Period. And Delilah...

Delilah prayed to all things above her that she wasn’t about to make a mistake. Sighing in defeat, she flashed Sam a small grin, earning herself a triumphant smile in return. Rolling her eyes good-naturedly, she motioned for her queen to follow her with a slight jerk of her index finger. “Come with me, your Majesty. I know just the thing.”

Sighing in relief, Sam allowed her eyes to wander around the manor’s archives. She really couldn’t blame Stephanie for loving the place to the point of practically making it her second homeーthe sight was breathtaking. 

The circular room, surrounded by large panel windows, located right below the Council Room, which put it in the three-story manor’s second story, was one of the best examples of a Pocket Dimension Spell put to good use. Countless shelves filled to the brim with colourful, leather-bound books went on as far as reached the eye; hanging proudly from the ceiling, the arrow-shaped banners with her clan’s signature colour and emblemーa black rose over a royal purple backgroundーadorned the room; leaning against the shelves, golden ladders could be seen moving on their own accord; which was almost as impressive as the floating books that flew from one place to another by flapping their two covers like an eagle would flap its wings. 

Walking through the numerous aisles, letting herself be, one again, amazed by the sight, Sam caught a familiar figure from the corner of her eye. Turning her head to the source, she found Stephanie Baker, sitting cross-legged on the floor with her back against a shelf’s lateral plank, an incredibly dense book perched on her lap. 

Sensing someone’s eyes on her, no doubt, Stephanie lifted her head up and away from her book, before a grin was plastered on her face at the sight of her queen. Her enthusiastic wave was answered by Sam’s much more subdued one, alongside a small chuckle. “She’ll never change; she’s at her happiest when surrounded by books,” Sam mused to herself. 

She and Delilah kept walking in silence, but with each step she took, the Goth couldn’t help but furrow her brow, anxiously. They were getting further and further away from the archives’ hot spot, the zone with the most activity disappearing in the distance until she almost couldn’t make it out anymore. Just where was she taking her?

Her question was answered when her guide halted abruptly in front of the wall. An empty space that, unlike the other walls encasing the archives, wasn’t even decorated by a portrait of one of the previous guardians. Not sure what to expect, Sam tilted her head to the side, speechless. “Uh...Delilah?”

But Delilah didn’t answer. Instead, she turned her back on her and extended her hands, palms open, in front of her. “Clavis mysteria!”, she chanted, her carefully coiffed onyx braid dancing around her, as if swayed by a sudden strong breeze. From her palms emanated a green fog that, as Sam could only look on in awe, speechless for an entirely different reason; seemed to open the wall in half, the resulting, uneven, wooden dents making way for it. 

An eternity or a few minutes could’ve passed, and Sam would be willing to believe anything she was told, when the green fog manifested again, carrying a rather large object with it. When the Witch Queen realised what it was, she could only gasp in astonishment.

Levitating before them was a royal blue, leather-bound book. Intricate designs were scattered throughout its back cover, engraved in gold. Two such designs, a pair of golden, twin swirls, flanked an equally golden fleur de lis on its spine. But the most amazing thing, what truly showed the book’s importance, were the golden letters, glinting under the light, on its cover: 

Arcana’s Grimoire

Mouth hanging open, the young witch could only gape at her friend, completely blown away by the revelation, as the grimoire landed safely on her hands. With a small chuckle, Delilah pushed some loose, black locks obscuring the right side of her face aside. “Sorry. No matter how tightly I tie my braid, spellcasting always messes my hair up.”

Her throat suddenly very dry, Sam swallowed before managing to speak, a finger pointing at the manuscript. “Is...is that…?”

With a knowing smile, Delilah nodded. “Arcana's Grimoire. If you want to find answers on what’s causing those ghost portals to open at random, this baby is your best bet.” Stretching her arms towards the queen, she handed the book to her, who held it with as much care as one held a newborn for the first time, almost reverently. “The grimoire holds the answers to all those questions time made sure to erase.”

“I-I…you...t-the book...” Sam stuttered, not sure what to say. “A-are you sure you want to entrust the g-grimoire, Arcana’s Grimoire, to me?”

“It’s risky, I know. But you said it yourself, you wouldn’t ask me to grant you permission to take a spellbook out of the manor if you weren’t convinced it’s our only hope.” Those few loose strands falling on her face, a stark contrast to her dark mane, she lay a comforting hand on Sam’s shoulder, a soft smile on her face. “And I wouldn’t hand the grimoire to you if I didn’t think it’d be safe with you.”

Eyes widening at the Council member’s words, Sam couldn’t do anything but send her a grateful smile in return. Clutching the grimoire close to her chest, she promised, “I’ll guard it with my life.”

Internally, she made another promise, only this time, it was much more violent than solemn. “And I swear, if Phantom so much as looks at it wrong, I’ll ask Danny to lend me some of his parents’ weapons and hunt him down myself.”

................

“You’re lucky this place sells some of the best pastrami sandwiches I’ve ever had, dude. Otherwise, you’d be on your own.” Tucker said in between bites of his heavenly pastrami with honey mustard sandwich. Wiping some sauce from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, earning himself disgusted looks from the two other people present, he wagged a finger at his best friend. “Seriously, though. Who would’ve thought Sam would have good taste in restaurants?”

He winced when the Goth in question elbowed him on his side. “I have excellent taste in food in general, thank you very much. It’s not my fault only 9% of the global population can appreciate it.”

Once again, they were meeting up at the You Mocha Me Crazy, which, at this rate, was going to become their new favourite hanging spot. Unless Sam was willing to forego her vegetarian ways and ask for a Double Meaty Nasty Burger with extra bacon with them. Somehow, that seemed unlikely. Luckily, during their first visit Sam had introduced Tucker to their selection of sandwiches and cold cuts, making it easier for the techno geek to warm up to the café. 

After that successful first meeting, the trio decided to hang out whenever Danny needed Sam's help to write his ‘paper.’ All they had to do was ring or text Sam, and she’d tell them when she was free to meet.

Today was one of those days she was free and the guys were in need of her help. The three were lounging around a small coffee table Sam named ‘her spot’, for it was where she usually had her coffee or worked on her assignments in peace. The fact that she was good friends with one of the baristas also helped keep the space free of any ‘spot-stealing-squads,’ as she lovingly referred to ‘those vultures.’

Nursing his aching side, Tucker rolled his eyes. He’d already lost count on how many times they’d had that same conversation. “Is there anyone free from your vegan wrath?”

“For the last time, I’m ultra-recyclo-vegetarian, not vegan.”

“What’s the difference?” Danny intervened, an eyebrow raised in confusion. 

“Vegans tend to waste almost as much food as non-vegetarians. Ultra-recyclo-vegetarians make the most of every single meal.” Sam explained, forking a piece of tomato from her salad. “That’s where the ‘recyclo’ part comes from.”

“I thought that was freegans.” Tucker frowned, still munching his sandwich. 

“I’m surprised you even know what that is.”

“You and me both.” Danny said, turning to look at Tucker with a curious expression on his face. 

Rolling his eyes, the techno geek shrugged them off. “You meet the craziest people on Tinder.” He explained offhandedly. When he took notice of his two companions’ horrified expressions, he almost doubled over in laughter. Clearing his throat, he turned to Sam. “And you still haven’t answered my question.”

Shaking her head to erase the traumatising image that was Tucker’s love life, Sam started. “What? Uh...oh! Right. Ehem! As a matter of fact, there are people excluded from my ‘ultra-recyclo-vegetarian wrath.’” She corrected. “I’d never force people without enough resources to go vegan. Such as the Inuit community. Besides, those guys barely hunt anything compared to rich jerks with questionable hobbies, and they use everything of what little they do hunt.”

“Handy people.” Danny mused, before returning his attention to his laptop, resting on top of his lap, one leg crossed over his other knee. “Now, I don’t mean to be a buzzkill, but we’re here to help me with my...with my homework, remember?”

If Sam thought the way he seemed to overthink his words was weird, she didn’t let it show. “Yeah, you’re right.” She said as she turned her torso around, reaching for her notes inside her spider backpack. “Okay, you two. Lay it on me; what do you want to know?”

Tucker and Danny exchanged a glance, before the blue-eyed boy ventured. “Well...Sam, you’re the expert. What can you tell us of...um...of the witches.”

Scanning through her notepad’s pages, Sam froze at Danny’s words. Could her people’s secret have been discovered already? Before risking compromising her sisters, she had to test the waters first. “Why are you doing your paper on witches in the first place?” Her voice came out a little colder than she intended. 

Tucker furrowed his brow, taken aback by her sudden guarded posture, while Danny just rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Uh...why not? The seminar I signed up for is on mythological creatures and folklore, and witches are one of the most legendary myths ever...right?”

Alright, that made sense. But she couldn’t be reckless, she had to make sure Danny didn’t pose a threat to her coven. “Yeah, they definitely are. I’m sorry, it’s just...with all the ghosts constantly attacking Amity Park, I thought, ‘why witches?’, you know? I mean, your parents are experts! If you just asked them for a little bit of help, your assignment would immediately turn into an easy A, wouldn’t it?”

Taking a gulp from his espresso, Danny carefully thought what to say next. He couldn’t let Sam think he had some sort of ulterior motive for asking about the mystical group of women; he’d promised Lady Arcana her people’s secret would be safe, after all. So he did the only thing he could; he expertly lied. “Well, I don’t really like having things handed to me, you see. What’s the point in signing up for a seminar if I’m just going to get an easy A thanks to my parents, you know what I mean?”

Tucker had to fight the urge to laugh at the irony of the situation. Oh, what Danny wouldn’t have given just to get easy A’s during high school... When his two friends turned to him, Sam looking at him in confusion and Danny quietly begging him to keep his mouth shut, he played it cool by taking a sip from his drink. 

“Anyway,” Danny continued, “I just thought ghosts would be...I dunno...too mainstream? The assignment is supposed to make me do research on mythological creatures, and nowadays it’s pretty obvious ghosts are anything but mythological.”

“Witches aren’t far behind, either…” Sam internally mused, sipping from her macchiato. Holding the carton cup with both hands, she decided sharing some information with Danny and Tucker would be safe. She’d just tell them the basics, debunk some Hollywood myths...the usual. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Danny echoed, hopefully.

“Okay.” Sam repeated with a smile. “Anything in particular you want to know about?”

“Just...anything you can tell us, really.” Tucker said, leaning forward with his hands between his legs. 

“You’re gonna have to be a tad more specific than that, guys.”

Crossing his arms, the Astrophysics student thought long and hard. What was it that he really wanted to know about them? Well, the answer to that was obvious. His only real question was why? Why did they do what they did? If only he could figure that out, then maybe he’d know how to approach Lady Arcana. But there was no way he could ask that without exposing who he was. And it wasn’t like Sam, of all people, would have the answer anyway. 

So instead he asked, “What’s their origin?”

That startled Sam, who almost choked on her lettuce, Tucker quickly coming to her assistance and patting her back. After massaging her throat and swallowing her food, she looked at Danny with an inquisitive eye. “Come again?” She croaked out.

“What’s their origin?” He repeated. “And...and I don’t mean this as in...as in a history lesson. Like, when did witches first appear or anything. If I wanted to know that, I’d just read a book or watch a National Geographic documentary. I-I mean, how is a witch even born?”

“Do I have to explain the birds and the bees to you guys, too?” She asked with a coy smile, having recovered from her coughing fit. Despite the seriousness of his query, the violet-eyed girl couldn’t help but tease him.

Danny flushed in embarrassment. He had to admit, he’d handed her that one. Shaking his head, he chuckled. “I’m good, thanks. You might need to talk to Tuck, though.” He joked, earning himself an offended gasp from his best friend, who punched him lightly on his arm in protest. “But, nah. I guess a better question would be, what makes a witch...well, a witch?”

Sam had to admit, it was a good question. Even if it may risk her people’s secrets, such depth earned the blue-eyed boy some respect from her. Not many people went beyond the basics when looking for information. Most would be content with reading the first few paragraphs of a Wikipedia article. But Danny… Something about the intensity of his ocean blue eyes made Sam feel he was more similar to his parents than he’d originally thought; despite having no interest in ghosts himself. Somehow, he shared their inquisitive and curious mind, albeit from a less scientific approach. Just by that question alone, she immediately understood Danny Fenton was much smarter than people gave him credit for. 

Exhaling, she began to explain. “Believe it or not, the one who got closer to the truth was Harry Potter.”

“You mean the children’s book with the extra creepy white dude?” The bespectacled young man raised an eyebrow, before exchanging disbelieving glances with his best friend beside him. 

She just chuckled. “Yeah. Witches are human women who were born with the innate ability to do magic, setting them apart from the rest.”

“So...this is witches vs muggles that we’re talking about.” Tucker insisted. 

“Yes, Tucker.” Sam said with a bit more bite than she intended. “Point is, being born different tends to alienate people, and considering we’re talking about magical-powers kind of different…”

“The witches were alienated and persecuted by society.” Danny finished for her. 

“Bingo.” The raven-haired girl picked up some photocopies with different articles printed on them and handed a few copies to both of them. “Although nowadays most people bel-know witches aren’t real,” she caught herself before her subconscious could rat her out, “some cryptology experts theorise they just eventually flocked together to keep whatever magical gene they had inside the coven. You know, as a precaution to avoid further persecution.” To this day, she still couldn’t believe a group of nutjobs would be right on the money. The sole idea was ludicrous, and yet…

“So, that’s it?” Tucker asked, looking up from his own set of photocopies, incredulous. “Witches are just humans who, inexplicably, won the superpower lottery?”

The Goth just smiled sheepishly at him. What could she say, anyway? Though witches weren’t against scientific discoveries or careers (Star herself was studying to become a mathematician), magic sort of was their thing; literally. So nobody had ever really delved on why or how they’re different from other humans.

Scratching his chin in thought, Danny tried reconciling what Sam said to his own encounters with the spellcasters. When he thought about it, Lady Arcana and her witches really weren’t any different from any other citizen of Amity Park; the only surprising thing about them was their Queen’s unique eye colourーher being breathtakingly beautiful didn’t matter since her personality needed an awful lot of workーand their characteristic ability to do magic...and maybe their questionable taste in pets. 

But that was it. 

Other than that they were as human as his own family. Even their hatred of ghosts was in synchrony with the town’s general opinion of him. Perhaps if he treated the Witch Queen as any other girl, things would smoothen between them. It made sense that part of her prickly personality was a result of him consciously treating her differently than he would treat others. Deep down, she knew they were unwelcomed, and therefore, built walls around her to avoid getting hurt. 

“Look at you, worrying over making the Witch Queen feel comfortable around you...You’re a lost cause, Fenton.” Danny resisted the urge to roll his eyes at himself, having more important matters to take care of. “Sam,” he called out to her, startling her and Tucker out of their own conversation, “is there a way you could tell us about their spells or something?”

It was a risky question, he knew. But, as useful as learning to deal with the witches was, what they really needed was a way to put an end to the crisis threatening both dimensions. And the only way to do it was by finding a portal-related spell. 

Eyes widening at his question, Sam could feel her stomach churning ominously. That question was a bit too specific for her liking. Depending on how she handled the situation, she could either masterfully take care of it or put her subjects in danger over a potential misunderstanding. “Their spells? What do you mean?”

Danny pretended to look through his own set of copies, trying to appear nonchalant, as if his question were born from mere curiosity, rather than a sense of impending doom. “Nothing, really. I was just curious. I mean, would witches even cast spells, or would they voluntarily just manifest their powers like ghosts do?” As he spoke, his mind raced back to the floating book Lady Arcana had, without any kind of warning, shoved in his face during her last visit. 

The Goth had to resist the urge to spit in disgust at the notion of being compared to those disembodied remains of human consciousness. She took a subtle breath to ease away her repulsion. “It’s hard to say.” She lied. “Since there’s no clear evidence that true, real-life witches ever existed, ーand I’m sure they don’t, obviouslyー.”

“Obviously.” The two men seated with her echoed.

“ーthere’s no definite hypothesis explaining if they truly casted spells or not. For all we know, their famous rites and ceremonies could just be that; ceremonies belonging to pagan religions that were thought to be witchcraft by Christians.” 

“Any chance we might be able to find any spell on the Internet?” Tucker wondered, readily taking his trusty PDA out of his pocket, causing Danny to sigh tiredly upon noticing the device in his hands. While Tucker used his tablet and computer when doing assignments or playing video games, that was solely because the screens were bigger. He’d actually been in a loving, committed relationship with his PDA since he first got it when he was 14. As time went by and technology evolved, instead of adjusting with the times, he put all his engineering knowledge to use with the sole intention of updating his baby and never having to part ways from her. 

It was both kinda cool and a little disturbing, to be honest.

Leaning back on her chair and crossing her legs at her knee, mirroring Danny’s own stance, Sam propped her face on her hand, a bored expression plastered on her face. “Although I do find your commitment to recycling that old thing of yours instead of falling for the capitalistic trap that is technology consumption commendable,” she said, and Danny was sure his eyes must’ve popped open at seeing her utter that long-ass speech without so much as pausing to breathe, “sometimes I worry about you.”

Offended, Tucker frowned at her, only clutching his PDA tighter in his hands. “I’m mercifully going to choose to ignore everything you just said except for the part when you call me ‘commendable.’ Now, can I look for information on the Internet or not?”

Leaning forward, this time resting her chin on her knuckles at the same time as she propped her elbow on her bent knee, Sam shrugged, not really caring. “You can try, but chances are you’re only going to find Halloween articles from children’s magazines, or weird Satanist websites asking you to offer a sacrifice in exchange for joining them.”

As Tucker flopped back down on his chair with his arms crossed, pouting and grumbling something along the lines of, “Damn it, Jazz…”, Danny tried fishing for more information. “So they don’t really cast spells?”

The discomfort came back. She knew Danny was only trying to be thorough with his assignment, but that didn’t change the fact that his questions hit a little too close to the mark. “The only way to find out for sure would be meeting one in real life.” She said in a voice so low, even with his enhanced senses Danny almost didn’t hear her. 

Noticing the tension suddenly coming off of Sam, her previously laid-back and even playful posture changing to a much more tense one: legs crossed tightly, her shoulders stiff, both hands clutching at the fabric of her shorts…; Tucker decided it’d be best if they let the topic go for a while. And so, he did what he did best:

He abruptly changed the topic. 

“So Sam,” he called out to her, quickly getting both her and Danny’s heads to snap to him, “I don’t think you’ve ever told me.”

“Tell you what?” What was he doing?

“What’s your deal?”

Sam blinked. “My deal?”

The teal-eyed young man just nodded. “Yeah, what’s your type?” He asked as he leaned forward, mindlessly toying with his PDA. “Because in all the time I’ve known you, I’ve not seen you once with a boyfriend, not even a fling.”

“Tucker, you’ve known me for a year.” She reminded him. “Not necessarily as much time as you make it out to be.”

“Hey, a lot can happen in a year!” He defended. 

“Tucker himself has had three different girlfriends in the last three months.” Danny added. 

“See?” Then, he turned to his best friend with an unamused expression on his face. “But, dude, don’t say it like that; you make me sound like a player.”

“I’m just saying,” the black-haired youth put his palms up in surrender, a lazy grin on his face, “it’s not bad for a guy who was rejected by every single girl back in high school.” 

Tucker just glowered at him, before turning his attention back to Sam. “So...back to the question; what’s your type of guy?”

She could not believe this was happening. Back when she was a teenager, a tinsy bitsy part of her she tried very hard to suppress secretly longed for talking about girl stuff with the other girls her age from her clan. Something as silly as talking boys, makeup, or any other teenaged-girl nonsense with other people would’ve made her lonely childhood all the more bearable, and now…

...now she was being offered to talk about boys...by other boys...at twenty-one. And the worst part was that she was actually considering it. Her life could not get any more complicated than that. Sighing through her nose, unable to believe how low she’d stooped, she gave in. 

Her type...that was a good question. Back when she was still in her early to late teens, she would’ve said she was looking for a unique guy. The type of guy who valued his individuality and who was above all the pointless trends dominating the public with their pre-fabricated, market-targeted predictability. A guy who didn’t fall into any of the classical high school cliques: someone who wasn’t a brainless jock, or a geeky kid, or one of those posers who hid behind a fake dark persona to get people to pay attention to him.

Someone who embraced being different rather than exploited it. 

Someone like her. 

But all those fantasies turned out to be nothing more than that; fantasies. Delusions. Sooner or later she’d have to open her eyes to the world. She just wished Gregor hadn’t been the one to open them up for her… After that fiasco, Sam finally learned what she was truly looking for in a partner. “...a good guy.” She practically whispered in the end. 

Tucker and Danny exchanged a confused glance once their initial surprise at Sam’s sudden reply, after several minutes of silence, had worn off. It was the former who spoke up, “...I’m not sure that qualifies as ‘a type.’”

“Of course it does!”, she protested. “Just like girls stereotypically fall for ‘bad boys’, we can also fall for ‘good guys.’ And I’ve had my fair share of bad boys, thank you…” she muttered before looking away from them. 

Something about the way Sam said those words hinted at a lot more going on than just a teenage girl crushing over a guy with a motorcycleーand hopefully not a ghost one who only wanted her as a vessel for his real girlfriendー, but she seemed to have closed herself off completely. Danny wanted to ask her about it, but something in the way her position stiffened changed his mind. No way would Sam open up to someone she'd just met over something so personal.

Instead he asked, "And how about looks?"

She flashed him a small smile and that alone made his entire week worth it. "I'll admit, I do have a soft spot for guys that aren't exactly average."

Tucker scoffed. "Well, duh! I'd also pick a supermodel over a plain-looking chick any day of the week..."

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

Despite the seriousness in her voice, she eventually broke down laughing, the other two joining in on the fun soon after. As her giggles quieted down, Sam stole a furtive glance at Danny. The way he seemed to sense her discomfort despite barely knowing each other and making an effort to keep her mind away from unpleasant thoughts was enough to make her heart flutter, making her blush slightly at the realisation. 

She shook the feeling off, though. Danny was sweet, and maybe a little cute despite his, apparently, natural awkwardness, but she wasn’t looking for romance, having much more important things to take care of. Besides, he really wasn’t her type, cute as he may be. Still, that didn’t change the fact that she wanted to thank him for his help in some way. And, against her better judgement, she knew just what to do. 

An hour passed by until Tucker had to bid them goodbye, saying he was going to be late for class if he stayed with them any longerーalthough he really, really wanted to skip that lectureー, and so, he left his two friends to their own devices. Another forty minutes or so later, it was finally time for them to go to their respective classes, too. 

Rolling her eyes at Danny as he opened the door for her, but thanking him nonetheless, Sam stepped out of the café, her companion close behind her. “About the spell thing you asked me about earlier…” she started, her words coming out of the blue and tearing Danny away from his own thoughts, “I guess, if witches are actually just humans with magical powers, then it’d make sense if they’d need some sort of way to activate said powers…”

Mouth slightly agape, he finally found the words, “You mean like a password or something?”

She looked over at him from the corner of her eyes, a cryptic smirk on her lovely face. “Maybe.” 

Turning to face him, her smile widening but never losing its mystery, she waved before walking past him, “See ya, Danny.”

Danny slowly waved at her in return, unbidden, too gobsmacked to form a coherent sentence. Because just like that, she was gone. 

#Danny Phantom #dp #dp fic #my fic #your heart #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #jazz fenton #paulina sanchez #dp star #pemela manson #oc #amethyst ocean #danny x sam #ghost king au #ghost king! danny #witch queen au #witch queen! sam #enemies to friends to lovers

[lanuvolanera]

Sept 19th - Cofession

Chapter 1

My first ever fanfic, lads, be nice and enjoy.

---------

Coming out of Casper High mid afternoon, Danny and Tucker made their way down the school steps. Students trickled out the front doors in small groups and split their own ways as the duo began their trek to Fenton works.

"Man, I'm glad Sam didn't come today." Danny said, grasping his backpack strap slung over his shoulder.

"I know, right? She would've been miserable." Tucker replied, pocketing his PDA with a light frown on his face.

The day went well. Steady, in fact. They seemed to have kept off of Dash's radar and stayed on Mr Lancer's good side with the English assignment. Not to mention that it was pizza day at the cafeteria, the only good thing that the cooks knew how to make. Yeah, today wasn't so bad, it just felt empty without Sam by their side.

"She should be feeling better by tomorrow, right?"

"Honestly, I think she'll take the rest of the week off. If it wasn't for that ghost..."

"Oh god, don't remind me, I still feel awful." Danny said with a look of mild horror, still traumatised from the night before.

A pause in their conversation prompted more memories from last night.

Phantom, two feet above the ground, felt paralysed as he looked on and watched as Tucker ducked undercover from the ectoblasts firing in all directions from what looked like a regular bedsheet type ghost, only this one was different, this one screeched and wailed and gnawed it's black teeth, blood dripping from its mouth, staining its torso.

"We'll give her a call tonight, see how she's doing." Tucker said, dragging Danny out of his thoughts.

"Or we could head over, see how she's doing in person?"

"Or we could leave her be and let her rest."

Danny didn't like that idea, he was worried and felt guilty and ashamed that he couldn't prevent her injury. As minor as it was, she couldn't find the strength to come to school the next day, when he'd hoped to apologise again and ask how she's doing again and to offer her anything she needs again. He made his mind up right then.

"I'll fly over tonight then, when everyone's gone to bed."

"Sure, don't forget to bring her homework and tell her you love her."

"What?" Danny gasped in shock, a deep red blush covering his cheeks.

"Nothing." Tucker looked away with a sheepish grin and quickly changed the topic.

"We still need to do some research about last night's ghost, I've downloaded some pdf's which I'll send to you and Sam to see if there are other ways to dispell it if the thermos didn't work."

They turn the corner and can see the large Fenton works sign in the distance, two blocks away.

"Race you." Danny smirked, and sprinted off before Tucker had a chance to realise what was happening.

With a loud "hey!" from Tucker in the background, Danny slowed as he neared the steps to his front door and tried the handle, locked. Hmm, his parents are out, Jazz would still be at school studying in the library, looks like he and Tucker have the house to themselves. Danny pulls out his keys and unlocks the door just as Tucker catches up out of breath.

"That's cheating, you had a head start." He pants.

"Come on, the computer in the lab is free, go down and fire it up while I get some coffee brewing."

"Sounds like a plan."

-------------‐-------------------------------------------------

Later that night, Danny flew Tucker back to his house.

They soared through the night sky, clear and full of stars, street lamps illuminating the buildings below them, his best friends arm slung over phantoms shoulders.

"Look, all I'm saying is if we go back tomorrow, what if we make things worse, pissed it off even more. If its trapped there like we think, what harm will it do if we leave it alone?"

"It's different though, what if when we found it there, we let it loose?"

"If we did then don't you think we would've seen it again by now?"

"I don't want to chance it, we need to find a way to deal with it permanently."

"Don't tell me you're going back there by yourself."

"No, I'm going to Sam's, like I said."

"You'd better."

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

Once he'd said his goodbyes to Tucker, and reassured him he wasn't going to do something wreckless, Danny took off into the air once more and set course for Sam's House.

With a backpack full with his thermos, his laptop, his phone, both his and Sam's maths homework, a couple of pens, pencils, markers and 2 cans of Sam's favorite soda, Danny sped across the rooftops when a blue puff of cold air burst it's way past his lips.

"Of course, I thought it was too quiet tonight."

Taking a quick glance of his surroundings, there was nothing to be seen in the empty streets. A brief pause, his breath held in his lungs, then glass crashing from a shop window a few blocks down caught Danny's attention.

Cackling laughter and bursts of light flashed from the window, Danny wasted no time reaching the building, turning himself intangible and flew through the ceiling.

"Oh, come on! What the hell are you doing here? In a pet store of all places?"

....

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

Danny finally arrived at his destination. Peaking through the window to find Sam laying on her bed, light from her laptop illuminating her face, in her black pyjamas and a cast on her leg.

He knocked on the glass, and smiled as Sam startled.

Waving him in, he floated through the glass and landed with a soft thump on the plush carpet, and settled on the edge of her bed.

"Hey, how're you feeling?" Danny said with concern in his voice.

"Fine. Hey, you need to sign my cast." Sam says with a playful smirk. Danny half expected her to be more upset about being injured, or at least, as upset as he is.

After the escape from the warehouse the night before, with Sam cradled in his arms and Tucker following not too far behind, all Danny could think was this was all his fault. Sam got injured because of him, because he was too late, too late to swoop in and protect her from the falling scaffolding from the ghost fight, that cost her her ability to run to safety. He's the hero, isn't he? And he couldn't save her from something as simple as falling debris? What kind of hero-

"Danny-"

Sam could see the distraught look on Danny's face and he caught himself looking down at her cast. It could've been a lot worse, but still.

Danny looks up at her, he needs to confess.

"I'm sorry, Sam, I'm sorry you got hurt, I should've been more careful-"

"Hey, don't worry about it, these things happen, right? It could've been a lot worse."

"I know, I keep telling myself that, but still-"

"But still, we need to figure out a way to get rid of that ghost, I've been doing some research on this specific type of ghost and I've read through the files Tucker sent me, and I think I have a good idea on what we're working with."

Sam brings the laptop closer and turns it around for Danny to see pages upon the screen filled with information from different historic and religious sites.

"Does it say anything about why the thermos didn't work?" He asked playfully. Of course, the Fenton thermos only being a recent invention, there wouldn't be any information that hasn't been put online by the Fentons themselves indicating its presence in the ghost hunting community across the globe. Sure, there have been other containment methods but for this particular ghost, the best method would be to remove it from this plane entirely instead of just bottling it up.

Other pages on the screen suggest cleansing treatments of the haunted area using a mixture of herbs, minerals and rituals, witchcraft. If that could work, maybe the Fentons have other means of ghost study to pursue, if they believed in that sort of thing, of course.

"Hoestly, this stuff is giving me a headache, I need a break."

"Good thing I have just what you need." Danny says, reaching for his backpack.

He pulls out his own laptop, the 2 cans of soda and their homework, which Sam gives a mild look of disgust.

"Great."

"You don't look at all enthused." Danny says with a cheeky smile, and pops open his can, passing the other one over to Sam who takes it gratefully.

A small awkward pause later and Sam has to snap Danny back to reality again.

"Look, I know you think this is your fault, so here's my obligatory I'm-not-a-damsel-in-distress talk, we're a team, we'll sort this out, and we can forget about it."

"It's not just that, I don't know, it's just that- I don't think I'll be able to forget about it. There's something about this ghost, it's terrifying." Danny says, setting his can aside.

"I know, ugly too." Sam smiles as Danny looks up, he remembers what Tucker said to him earlier.

Tell her you love her.

"I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if something happened to you, I couldn't imagine my life without you."

At this, Sam sits up and puts her can on her bedside table. They're face to face with each other now.

"I couldn't imagine my life without you either, and you're right, that ghost is terrifying, even more of a reason to fight it."

Tell her.

"This ghost fight seems to be putting things into perspective."

You love her.

"I know what you mean."

They don't know when they got closer, or when they started leaning in.

Danny lightly brushes his fingers across her cheek, tilting her head just so, and presses his lips to hers.

It's a little awkward at first, spending a few seconds in that position. Then someone, or maybe both, adjust their lips, and oh.

Oh wow.

The sensation is amazing, sparks running down their spines and they readjust again, and again.

Their arms begin to wrap around each other and oh god, they're actually making out, kissing. They don't even realise they've fallen onto their sides on the bed, eyes squeezed shut applying and reapplying firm presses of their lips together.

They stay that way for a few moments, or is it lifetimes, when a tune came from the bedside table.

They pull apart, dazed red faces inches from each other, before Sam sits up and grabs her phone.

"It's Tucker."

She answers.

"Hey, Sam, I know you're busy recovering and all and I know it's late but I think I have a lead."

"That's great, what've you got?"

"I've found a review online about a book at the town hall library, if we can get it checked out tomorrow we might be able to find a way to exorcise this ghost."

Sam and Danny look at each other with hope.

"What's the title?"

"Ghost hunting for dummies."

"Be serious."

"I'll make you laugh one day, I swear."

"Tucker."

"It's called 'witchcraft untold', there are only 2 copies in town, the other is at the 'Skulk and Lurke'. The review made it sound like a work of fiction, and maybe it is, who knows? But I think it's worth checking out."

Sam makes a mental note of the title. There are a few books she's planning on checking out, some including cultural and religious beliefs on the undead, magic and pagan rituals, and scientific findings surrounding ghosts. If this book Tucker mentioned is as promising as it sounds, things could be looking up.

"I've been meaning to go to the 'Skulk and Lurke' tomorrow anyway, so I'll keep an eye out for it."

"Thats great, we'll talk more later, get some rest."

" I will do, see you later, Tuck."

"See you, and say hi to Danny for me!"

Click.

They glance at each other, and Danny moves to stand up.

"I should get going, um..."

"Yeah, you're gonna need some rest too if we're gonna face this ghost tomorrow night."

"We?"

"Yeah?"

"No."

"What?"

Danny couldn't believe he had to say this.

"Sam, you're injured, there's no way I'm letting you come along..."

"You're not 'letting' me do anything, I'm going. We still need to figure out a plan before then anyway, when I get a chance to check out that book."

The air surrounding them starts to tense.

"How am I supposed to fight this ghost and protect you at the same time? Or have you already forgotten about last night?"

"Excuse me? Have you forgotten what I said only ten minutes ago? I'm not letting you go off and play hero all by yourself!"

"That is not-"

"Save it. I can take care of myself."

"Fine, I'll call you in the morning."

"Fine."

And with that, Danny turns towards the window and lifts off, phases through, and rises into the night sky.

#dp shiptember 2021 #danny phantom #sam manson #tucker foley #amethyst ocean

[octalove]

III: We Met

(Batgirl/Red Hood)

Description: Reader goes out, and finds herself in an alley with no one to call. An old memory is brought up. Part one and part two.

Who the fuck leaves a batarang lying around when they’re spying on a supervillain?

A week had gone by. A week where every day I tried to wake up and smile at my family and go to school and do calculus, but all I kept wondering was what kind of idiot leaves a batarang when they’re spying on a supervillain? I glanced over at it; I’d left it lying on my desk as a reminder. Every time I looked at it, I felt the sharp edges biting into my palm as his hands closed around mine. I smelled leather and the musty scent of unsettled dust in the warehouse. It was the same shape as the angry red bat on his chest- eye level with me.

How did he know who I was? How did he know I was there? How was it he just knew I’d show up to that same warehouse four days afterward in the middle of a school day?

“Tell Batman,” He’d said. If the secrets weren’t ringing around my head already- there it was. The line that kept echoing. Tell Batman, tell Batman. Telling Batman wasn’t an option. He’d lock me in the cave until I was thirty and growing liver spots. I’d never be Batgirl again. No way in hell was I standing before that black cowl and confessing two weeks worth of bad decisions.

That blue evening, Gotham was alive and breathing with the heat of something organic; rhythmic heart-beat in the muffled cars on the street, and the jazz clubs, eyes wide open in the bright, excited lights dotting the spiring skyline. The breeze bit subtly as the city shook the shackles of summer, and moved into early September.

I stuck close to Batman, almost apologetically obedient for the night as I tried to convey some sort of negotiation on my part; I’m sorry for acting weird, I’m on my best behavior tonight.

Robin didn’t so much appreciate that sentiment, because Batman’s side was his place, but patrol began civilly enough. Car theft on Nettleton (Red Robin dealt with), some questionable sex work in the Row (I oversaw and made sure the women were safe and willing), a robbery call (Batman and Robin checked it out- false alarm). By one in the morning, we were all mostly still in one piece, and lulled by the mildness and coolness of the night. I was dragging my gaze over Haytham Parkway when Oracle’s staticky voice came through the coms.

“Batman. There’s been a Red Hood sighting at the H&P in Gotham Village. It’s Falcone’s men.” Swiftly and gracefully, the three of us scaled rooftops, pillars and cell towers. We arrived within twelve minutes, and then planted ourselves like gargoyles. Listening. The Village was one of the more quiet parts of Gotham. It was all settled with blue collar, passive criminals, instead of outright violent ones. A few minutes passed. The building looked undisturbed.

“Do you think-“

Bang.

A gunshot followed by glass breaking. In a hair’s width span of time, Batman, Robin and I descended on the building and swung through through the shattered display window. Inside, broken glass littered the floor, along with disheveled items from the shop, stung around haphazardly. Two men were dead on the ground, blood around them like a premonitory chalk outline. They were unassuming men, but I recognized the patches on their matching shirts as Hadley’s Deli. They were Maroni’s men.

“Robin- the back rooms. Batgirl- check the perimeter. If he left the building, he won’t be far.”

I shot past them and into the dark, grappling to the roof for a better vantage point. From there I swept my gaze across the northern and eastern neighboring streets. Movement. Like a twitch in the darkness. I raced down a fire escape and into an alley adjacent east of the H&P. It was quiet. The sound of my own boots on the asphalt as I halted. It was small and enclosed- the shadows weren’t deep. If he was here, I’d know.

Click. And now I did.

“Easy,” He said, a rumbling, buzzing sound that was becoming familiar. “Easy.” The second order was much slower. I felt his presence as it drew closer, but I didn’t turn around. I was a damn good martial artist, but a gun would always be faster and deadlier than me.

“I just keep findin’ you, don’t I, little bird?” He stopped a couple feet away from my back. “Where’s Batman?” He asked. I scowled.

“He’s with the men you murdered.”

A deep chuckle. “You saw that? Maroni and I have been havin’ a… disagreement. He’s comin’ around.”

“What, he won’t submit to you?” I pressed, hoping since he was so keen on entertaining me, I might be able to probe for some information- figure out his long game.

“Something like that.”

“So all this. Is it just to get to Batman?” He didn’t answer. Instead, he stepped forward. I tried to look for something to catch his reflection in- a window or something. I felt the cool metal of his gun part my hair like a curtain and press against the nape of my neck. Then, slowly, his gloved hand ghosted lightly across the side of my face, slowly, slowly, upward toward my temple until he found the button. Click. And just like that, my coms were down. No Batman’s voice in my ear. No updates from Oracle. No calling for help. How did he know that was there?

“What do want? Who the hell are you?” I said, letting frustration and anger deep into my voice. I stood cemented to my place as he drug himself around to stand in front of me, until I was staring back at that angry red bat on his chest. He’d holstered his gun.

“Why don’t you find out?” It was one part threat, one part joke that I wasn’t in on, growled contemptuously in that electronic flare that masked his voice. Whether it was rhetorical, or a genuine invitation, I took the opportunity to cautiously raise my hands to his helmet, feeling along the edges of the jaw until I found a matching set of release triggers. The architecture of the helmet was oddly congruent with something Bruce would’ve cooked up. Another mockery- like the bat.

His passive stillness terrified me. Like he knew just what was under the mask and just how I would react. Like it was all part of his plan, and I was playing my dutiful role. I pressed. A hissing noise as the inner workings went slack and released, giving me the freedom to push it up and over. When I saw his skin, then his mouth, I stopped. I stopped because he was actually letting me- and there was no reason he should be letting me except if he planned to kill me afterward. There was a long strangulation of the air between us. Gotham City- the buildings and streetlamps and gaudy, glittering marquees- seemed to quiet just to watch in anticipation. In a very coy way, his lips battled a grin. I felt like saying something witty, but stayed silent for fear of pushing time back into motion. He leaned forward, and lightning leapt in my stomach, despite myself. The dusk had alleviated, leaving only black across the sky that was rather vapid in comparison to the shining city reflected on his helm, still covering his eyes and nose.

“Scared?” He asked; quite spitefully considering my hands were trembling. Of course I was scared. But his voice was so human- smooth, but a little raspy, like anyone who gave orders for a living might have. It was low and deep, and I preferred it to the voice scrambler.

A dog barked from somebody’s fenced balcony, and some passing car shook with jaunty bass. Loud engines, sirens, honking, distant voices. The sizzling of a street taco stand. And still, somehow I was close enough to hear his drawing breath as his chest rose and fell. I went to push my fingers along the bottom of the helmet, to remove it entirely, but he grabbed my wrist.

A tiny, pinpoint red light was flashing on the breast of my suit. Batman was trying to contact me- unable to reach my coms.

“Daddy’s calling.” He looked wolfish there in the dark; featureless but a mouth displaying a cheshire grin that was wickedly snide. In a fluid motion, he released his grip on me and replaced his helmet, turning on his heel into the shallow shadows.

*

6 years prior

I hated this. The music, the marble, the champagne- all of it. I caught Alfred’s eye as he exchanged formalities with some distant-cousin-twice-removed of Bruce’s. I knew what he was looking at me for. The glint in his eye said it all.

Please behave, was the message. I’d already heard it twice this evening; Bruce told me how important this party was for the investors (aka, please behave), and Dick gave me some casual line about how he’d been looking forward to tonight all month (aka, please, please fucking behave).

It’s not like I had anything better to do. I couldn’t drink (no, not even the wine), and the only thing I had in common with company investors was that I was under Bruce’s thumb, too. Occasionally, some sweetly overbearing lady would appear, pinch my cheeks and pat my head, then disappear just as quickly. Thirty minutes passed as I sipped my ginger-ale and counted untied shoelaces, until I decided to find my brother. It was easy, really- just follow the laughter.

Dick wasn’t born in Gotham- not like me- but his rearing in the city had no doubt left a strong imprint. Everything about him proposed Gothamite glamour- even his voice. Far removed from the expensive private grammar lessons Bruce had bought him, he swung his vowels, and let his ‘a’s hang in the air, leaving an irresistible air of cocky, laid-back swagger. Some equilibrium between wealthy socialite and ‘man of the people’ he seemed adept at finding.

I found him at the snack table. He wore a perfectly-fitting suit of all black with navy satin accents, dark hair slicked back, and a very beautiful woman (I would come to know as Maya. Or was it Moira? Mara?) on his arm. A couple of his academy friends stood around him- freshly graduated, and so much wiser for it. It all suited him well. Not as much could be said for me.

“Hey.” He said, throwing me a grin.

“Hey.”

Maya Moira Mara excused herself to freshen up for a moment, and Dick put his hands in his pockets.

“Make any friends?” That was always his first question. I rolled my eyes.

“No. But you have.” It was a pointed jab- he and Babs had just taken a “break” and Maya Moira Mara’s silky red hair marked her as a painfully obvious rebound.

He sighed, decidedly ignoring me. “What about uh... what’s her name?”

“Who?”

“Ah, I forget. Her parents are international law something or other. Bruce works with ‘em. They have a daughter about your age.”

I just grunted. No use in making it seem like I was desperate for company now, considering I’d spent the last hour alone.

“There-“ He pointed to a girl standing alone, apparently abandoned by her respective international lawyer parents. Before I could slap his hand down and tell him it was rude to point, she spotted us. Following that, I’d look even weirder if I didn’t say anything, so after a nudge from Dick, I walked over to her.

“Hi.” I said, immediately wishing I could take the monosyllabic word back and try again. “I’m Jason.”

The girl smiled at me. A small, bashful sort of smile that you give when you’re the only people your age at a christmas party, so you slam together like two magnets.

“I’m Y/N.” She replied.

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