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hopelesslyromanticgay · 11 months

Text

An Americano Please PT. 6

Words: 1400

Y/N's POV:

Not gonna lie, I'm kind of nervous to meet Jenna's friends. What if I fuck up? What if I'm accidentally a little rude? Or what if they all around don't like me?

God I sound like a teenager meeting their partner's parents for the first time.

I really enjoy spending time with Jenna, though, and I don't want her friends not liking me to mess that up.

My phone pings with a text from Nessa.

Nessa😝

Girl, pull your shit together and get your

ass into that pizza shop. No I'm not stalking

you, I just know you well enough by now.

OK fine.

I timidly step into the store, the warm scent of baking pizza wafting around me.

"Y/N, over here!" I can hear Jenna exclaim, waving me over to her table. She's sitting with a few other people.

"These are my castmates, Emma, Joy, Georgie, and Hunter. Castmates, this is Y/N," Jenna excitedly introduces us.

"Hi, nice to meet you guys," I smile, waving stupidly.

"Nice to meet you too," Joy says kindly, "Jenna's told us to much about you."

I can see Jenna hide her face from me a little.

"Oh really, what's she said?" I ask innocently.

"Just how pretty, funny and kind-" Emma starts.

"Hey, have you guys seen that new baking show with the engineers?" Jenna interrupts. Darn it, I really wanted to know where Emma was going with that.

"No, none of us have the time to do that," Georgie laughs, "I'm surprised you do, honestly."

"No I watched it before we got here," she says quickly.

"So," Hunter starts, immediately way better at changing the subject, "What are some cool sites around Romania I should check out. I have a lot more free time on my hands with this show because I don't have to learn new hobbies, so I wanna get to know the area."

"Oh, well Jenna can tell you I'm an amazing tour guide," I start, "You have got to go to Bran castle, after all, it's said to be the home of Dracula. In reality, it was just a castle that Vlad Dracul once went to, but Bran Castle is the place Bram Stoker based Dracula's castle off of. So that makes it pretty cool."

"That's so cool, I'll have to take Naomi with me," he grins, "thanks for the recommendation."

"Oh yeah, perfect for her because you know, who she plays," Emma winks, "Sorry, we can't share a lot of details with cast outsiders," she says sadly.

"We'd love to share more, but we're under legal agreements," Joy adds.

"I totally get it," I say, feeling the slightest bit left out, but otherwise enjoying myself.

"Hey, so what's the deal with queer acceptance around here?" Hunter asks quietly, "because I want to propose to my boyfriend when he comes to visit in a few months but I don't know how publicly I can do that."

"Oh my god you're gonna propose?!" everyone at the table shrieks, all congratulating him individually.

"I'd like to, but I just need to know from a local," he says, looking to me.

"So, people do have the right to discriminate against you for being queer, and you certainly can't do the actual wedding here, but most people in Busteni aren't that homophobic. And I'm a queer person, so I'd say I'm a pretty good source," I tell him, "I'd say the worst outcome is if it's in front of tourists, because you never know what they'll do."

"Thank you so much," he tells me, "you're awesome."

"Glad I can help," I say happily. So at least one of her friends likes me.

"So, Y/N, how long have you lived in Romania?" Joy asks.

"About three years now," I answer truthfully.

"Wow, so you came at sixteen?"

"Yeah," I say, eager to change the subject, "so how are you guys liking Romania so far?"

"People can definitely tell we're not from here," Emma giggles, "I mean, not speaking Romanian is a dead giveaway."

"Yeah, we're pretty good at being able to tell just from the language you speak," I laugh, "I only get away with it because I grew up speaking it."

"Woah, so you grew up bilingual?" Emma questions.

"Yeah, my mom grew up in Romania and my dad went to college here, so they both would speak it with me when I was a kid," I explain.

"Oh that's cool."

The rest of the night goes pretty similarly, all of us getting to know one another. I learn that Jenna used to autopsy little animals like the true Wednesday she is, which I found hilarious. I learned that Emma had to go to a werewolf bootcamp to get better at stunts. They were all such interesting people.

By the end of the night I think they actually might not hate me! Success.

"Hey, Y/N, can I walk you home?" Jenna asks.

"Sure," I smile. The rest of the group exchange looks, and file out of the pizza shop.

"I think my friends like you," she tells me as we get up from out seats.

"You do?" I say, surprised.

"Yeah, they wouldn't have talked to you as much as they did if they didn't."

"Well in any case, I'm glad they're okay with me," I laugh.

"Yeah, me too," she smiles brightly, wrapping an arm around my waist and leaning her head on the side of my arm as we walk down the street. It's fully dark out, and the only thing lighting the street up are the old gas powered street lamps. Oh my god I hope she can't see my blush. She's so adorable.

"I was so worried they were gonna hate me," I confess after a few minutes of silence.

"Why would they do that?" she asks, "you're a lovely person." Hearing her say that melts my heart. She thinks I'm a lovely person!

"I'm glad you think that, but I don't think everyone shares that opinion."

"Well they're stupid, but in any case, thank you for coming to dinner with me tonight. My friends really wanted to meet you."

"Yeah, I bet it's because you told them how pretty funny and kind I was," I tease her. I can just barely see the blush on her face under the soft glow of the street lamps.

"I can't believe she told you I said that," she shakes her head.

"Oh so you did say it," I inquire.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't," she confesses. Wow, I can't believe she really thinks all that about me.

"Well what else did you tell them?"

"You know, the usual stuff."

"Such as?"

"W-well you know, the things you tell your friends when you like someone," she starts, "like what we say to each other, or the jokes we have. Or what we do when we hang out. You know, that stuff." Oh my god, she likes me. Like, likes me likes me,

"So you like me?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Of course I like you!" she all but shouts, "your sense of humor is amazing, you're beautiful, you don't judge me for anything I say or do, and you always want to hear what I have to say." Well what do I even say to that? Saying I like you too feels cheesy and like something a child would say.

We've come to a stop now, right outside my apartment. We're only inches apart, her beautiful brown eyes glistening in the light.

"Please say something, Y/N," she says quietly.

"Can I kiss you?" I ask softly. She exhales in relief before nodding intently.

I cup her cheek, bringing our lips together. It feels like fireworks are going off with my stomach. She wraps her arms around my waist. I never realized kissing someone could feel this right. I can taste the tropical chapstick on her soft lips, and smell her subtle perfume.

What feels like both an eternity or also less than a second later, we pull away, both smiling.

"So I'll see ya for coffee tomorrow?" she asks.

"You can count on it," I smile. She pulls me into an embrace, burying her head in my shoulder. We stay like that peacefully for a minute, swaying in the wind.

"I have an early start tomorrow, so I should get home now," she tells me.

"Aww okay. I understand. Well, good night gorgeous," I quickly lean down to kiss her again. Her smile widens.

"Good night, Y/N/N," she blows me a kiss before walking off.

Wow. What a night.

A/N: I know Y/N is supposed to be mostly customizable, but I swear the thing with the parents WILL make sense later! love u guys, hope you enjoyed the chapter:)

Random Notes:

- I'm not making up that the lipstick jenna used on the set of Wednesday was in fact made from tropical fruit.

- Eidolon is actually a real pizza place in Busteni.

- I spent HOURS on the tour chapter learning about places in Busteni. Finding the places on SnapMap, reading their reviews, and cross referencing the information. I also spent a while learning about Romanian geography. Romanians, I'm so sorry if I'm not doing your country the justice it deserves.

- A lot of the laws around queer people in Romania are less than progressive, but being queer in itself is legal.

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0satellite0 · 1 year

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So i had this dream…and decided to sketch and write a fic about it lol

Danny was wearing this orange suit, Jack and Vlad were merged and Maddie was…chill? I didn’t draw it but Danielle was a baby lol.

Anyways the fic is pretty much the same as my dream, i didn’t change much.

————

When Dan had appeared upper-waist only through a portal and snatched Danny, he had been chilling with Sam and Tucker on his bed.

As soon as he glimpsed flaming white hair, Danny tugged at his core to transform. 'How did he escape the thermos?! Oh God, Dan probably wanted revenge and is going to lock me up, so he can kill my loved ones-“

With that thought, Danny couldn't help his shallow breathing and prickling eyes. Sam and Tucker's yells resounded as he was pulled through a portal, claws holding onto his stomach.

As soon as they were through the portal, Danny went intangible to get out of Dan's hold and flew away, back hitting a wall, eyes trained on Dan.

"Oh, dear...he's trembling, what did you do?!" Spoke a young, feminine voice. It sounded a bit like his mom, especially when scolding Fruitloop.

“Nothing, Mads!” Dan defended and- did Dan sound like he didn’t smoke 30 packs a day?

"???" Danny uttered, breathing audible.

"How in the butter biscuits did you make that sound?" Dan's eyes widened incredulously at him, brows furrowed.

'The Zone? When did Dan start saying 'butter biscuits'? Agh, Dan is other me and Vlad merged, whatever,'

"Listen, you're Invis-o-bill, right?" he woman spoke aga- yeah no thats his mom but also...not? Very Elequoent, Danny.

"I-", Danny took in a sharp breath, still eyeing Dan warily, "The press gave me that name. Phantom, actually,"

He hated how shaky he sounded. He defeated Dan, he can do it again. But...some things aren't adding up. He needed answers.

Dan looks different, and is wearing a tight shirt. The woman is real, he can hear her heartbeat. Yet, she precisely looks like his mom a few years ago.

"Sorry, Phantom. We need your help. Our daughter's gone missing," Not mom, replied with a soft tone.

"DAUGHTER?!" Danny shrieked, as his eyes widened, bouncing between Dan and Not mom. Oh God, is this the timeline you abandoned

(Not?) Dan shut his eyes as he rubbed his temple, "We're wasting time, Danielle is missing and I had to use the Fenton Location-Snatcher to grab you. We figured you could help us since I suck at my ghost powers,"

Yeah, no. That's not Dan. At least, not the one (thankfully) locked up in the thermos at Clockwork's tower. Dan spoke like Vlad i.e. like a rich bitch, and his eyes only conveyed the desire to see the world burn. This is an alternate dimension, then.

“Who are you?” Danny questioned albeit roughly.

“I’m Maddison Fenton,” Maddison cheerfully began, “And this…is…hm, we haven’t thought up of a name for you, huh?”

“I’m…Vlad? Jack? Vlack? Ugh, ignore the last one,” Jald, Danny decided.

Danny snorted, "Why not? Jald, Bald. If a strong breeze comes by, your hair would be put out, you would be bald, Jald,"

Maddison chortled behind her hand, Jald’s eyelid twitching in response.

“I’ll help you,” Danny floated closer to Maddison, “i’m not from this dimension, by the way,” he said offhandedly.

Getting closer was a mistake, as Maddison grabbed his arm and pulled him closer, “The Fenton Location-Snatcher can do that?!”

Danny leaned back, “Yeah, if it’s the same one as mine, which I destroyed for good reason,”

A lout boom! resounded, shaking the room. Jald and Maddie made eye contact as they let out a loud "DANIELLE!"

Danny grabbed them both, turning intangible to fly towards the sound.

When Nasty Burger came into view, Danny glanced briefly at Jald. He faltered slightly but shook his head and kept going.

Maddison gasped as she pointed at the ground, "There she is! She's gotten control of the condiments!"

Jald shook his head, "Thats why people were covered in red, yellow and that weird beige,"

Danny landed the three as they dodged flying splatters. As soon as they touched down, he brought up a weak ecto-shield over them.

"Neat," Jald commented with an unreadable expression.

"Danielle!" Maddison cried out in relief as a...baby? came into view?

Danny blinked in slight fear as his shield began to crack, how strong was this literal baby?!

"Shield's gonna break," Danny warned, "Can you get her to stop her battalion of condiments?"

“Danielle, look here!” Maddison cooed. It got baby Danielle to stop momentarily and search for her. Jald went intangible through the shield and snatched her.

“Surrogate ghost children will be fun, they lied. Give it a try, you won’t get attached and can give ‘em back, they lied,” Jald muttered in annoyance.

‘I should take pics, Elle would hate it when she sees them,’ Danny mused with a smirk.

He took down his shield, gazing around at the damage. Damn…if this is what baby Danielle did with condiments; what were his post-battles like?

Danny frowned as he caught his reflection in a broken window. Why is…his suit is black and orange like dad’s? His facial features are softer too…? What-?

———

Danny gasped as he sat upright in his bed. He threw the covers off and ran to his mirror, pulling at his core a bit too harshly as the rings washed over. He had to check…!

Danny sighed as his reflection stared back wearily.

Going invisible, he went intangible through the walls and reached his parents room.

He broke out another sigh of relief, just his mom and dad sleeping in their hazmat suits. There’s an OSHA violation or something with that…

Should he visit Clockwork and check the thermos? It was just a terrible nightmare but…

…Ugh, what did Jazz say about needing to check everything? That ‘He needs to be satisfied with partial confirmation, that is by proxy full confirmation’?

Whatever, he’ll just go back to sleep. He has school tomorrow.

Danny laid back, after de-transforming, gazing at the glow-in-the-dark stars. They’re accurate to the real constellations, thank you very much.

He slept soundly.

For a total of 10 seconds.

“Wake up, Space Cadet! It’s time for training at the academy! Wake up Space Cadet-“

————

I very much appreciate likes and will try my best to reply to comments, thank you for any reblogs as well! Ask box open to all ^_^

#danny phantom #danny fenton #dan phantom #kinda?#not really #maddie fenton #jack fenton #vlad masters #danielle fenton #why are jack and vlad merged? idk #english is my second language #my very bad writing #dp #dp art #sketch #someday i might write the og Fenton Location-Snatcher incident lol #more posts soon

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giggly-squiggily · 1 year

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Oh and you know for SURE that Otis will shriek when Vlad gets his shoulder blades. And Otis will deny deny deny DENY it. "Don't be ridiculous, Vlad. I am 300 years old, and I would never squeal like a little child. That's what you do."

Gonna answer the rest of your asks beneath the cut :D

AHH THATS SO CUTE!!! Not Otis absolutely calling Vlad out kljakeajkrjkej He's just: "I'm not the one who sounds like a baby when tickled, Vladimir." Our poor vampire boy would be absolutely flustered!

FOR REAL! Otis just radiates goofy energy, so finding out Vlad's ticklish is a treat! For every year he missed out he adds an additional tickle! It's highly possible they've lost count at this point on how often this game has gone on, but they're having too much fun to care!

Oh you absolutely KNOW she would! Vlad's laugh is godsend, and she just wants to hear her nephew giggle like he did when he was a baby. Things can get pretty rough for him, so seeing him smile and hearing him laugh is such a relief. She won't directly spill the beans, but it's little stuff like poking him in the ribs or grazing his neck as she walks by that tips Otis off. Or in some cases she'll "reflect" on a tickle spot Vlad has knowing full well Otis can read minds kjaerjaerjkk

JEKEKJRJK YES! Vlad is looking mighty sad, so Otis will tickle him to make him feel better. He's already bedridden from in story events, the last thing he wants to witness is Vlad being so anxious over his injuries. He'll pull him in and tickle his worst spots to- like you said- show him he's A-Ok!

And the revenge tickles are absolutely hilarious jaerjalkjejkajker Poor Vlad can never quite get away with making fun of (affectionately) his uncle!

#V.T #tickle #tickle talks #book talks #headcanons #nutzgunray lvt #friend :3 #tickle headcanons #fluff for days for our vampire boy

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resurrectedclones · 2 years

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The Clones

Ok I think it’s time I made a post to really clean up all the ideas I have about the clones.

Name: David Ecton Origin of Name: As the only clone that doesn’t look at all like Danny he wanted something to connect them and chose a D name to do so. Obsession: Fairness Powers: Standard ghost abilities, Ghostly Echo (can perfectly echo back anything ever said to him at various volumes.) Adopted by: Pandora Personality: David is responsible and caring. He is often looked to as the leader of the group and does his best to look out for and keep his siblings safe. However, he can have a bad habit of sacrificing far more than he gets from others.

Name: Jack “Jax” Shade Origin of Name: He chose it because he liked the name and knew it would make Vlad angry. Obsession: Horror Powers: Standard ghost abilities, minor illusions, Ghostly Shriek (paralyzes anyone who hears it with overwhelming fear.) Adopted by: Fright Knight Personality: Jax is a bit of a prankster. He enjoys giving people jump scares and creeping people out with his spooky voice.

Name: Kenny Specter Origin of Name: To mess with Vlad he chose a name that had a nick name that was longer than the actual name. Obsession: Growth and healing Powers: Standard ghost abilities, size changing, Ghostly Whisper (creates a very low or high pitch sound just on the edge of human hearing that can cause people to feel sick or damage machinery) Adopted by: Undergrowth Personality: Kenny is rather curious but easily spooked. He pretends to be aggressive sometimes, but in reality is actually very timid. He is often compared to a kitten because of this.

Name: Elle Spirit Origin of Name: Was named Danielle by Vlad, shortened to Dani, then changed it to Elle to be more independent from Danny. Obsession: Exploration Powers: Standard ghost abilities, switch between ghost and human bodies, Ghostly Mocking (can make people hear things that aren’t there.) Adopted by: Sojourn Personality: Elle is bubbly and playful, and often tries to look on the positive side of things. However, she can also be stubborn and strongly independent, often doing her own thing without Danny or her brothers involved.

Name: Liam (Need to pick a ghost name) Origin of Name: He found out that Danny used to be called Inviso-Bill and took the name William to mess with him, then shortening it to Liam. Obsession: Knowing the truth Powers: Standard ghost abilities, expanded senses (range of about 20 feet), switch between ghost and human bodies, Ghostly Command (can make a ghost obey any single verbal order he gives them.) Adopted by: Nocturn Personality: Liam’s got a strong sense of self preservation and tens to lean more towards selfish options than Danny does. However, he still wants to do the right thing and he deeply cares for his family.

#Danny Phantom #dp clones #jack phantom #david phantom #kenny phantom #elle phantom #liam phantom

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sansxfuckyou · 2 years

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Want to talk about what happened?

"Phantom." I started.

"No, I don't want to elaborate on what I let slip up last yesterday." Phantom said, slamming his cup down on the table, few drops of the pomegranate juice spilling.

"Can we talk about what happened later?" I asked taking a sip of my small glass of orange juice.

"Fine." Phantom said bitterly, grumbling a few profanities under his breath before gently nibbling on the silicone dog toy we ended up buying, chewing on stuff was one of his comfort mechanisms, where the coping mechanism stemmed from? We don't know, and neither does Phantom.

"Thank you." I said with a light smile.

"You should know by now that knowing what I went through won't make a difference." Phantom said before hearing a pop, making him jump a bit, all he did was pop the chew toy with his fangs.

"I still want to know what Vlad did to you." I said before standing up and heading back up to the room me and Phantom shared, Phantom following close behind.

"No you don't." Phantom said floating ahead of me and phasing through the door.

"Yes I do." I said with a singsong in the undertone of my voice.

"Pick a number, one to five." Phantom said with a sigh as he dropped down onto the beanbag he had gotten for a bed around two ago.

"One, I think thats a good place to start." I said sitting down on the edge of my bed.

"When I first ended up in Vlads 'collection' of test subjects, he tried to keep me in a decent conditions," Phantom started, kicking back to try and get comfy. "I had a few years of being able to free roam across his massive property, then I was only allowed to roam his house, after that the basement until finally, I was restricted to a relatively large cage." Phantoms voice managed to stay even.

"I, wasn't expecting that, now number two." I said, keeping some sort of eye contact with Phantom.

"The lab he kept me in was around somewhere with loads of gears and steam powered stuff, the grinding and constant shrieking of the steam started to wear on brain," Phantom told me, voice unwavering. "He gave me some sound canceling headphones to try and keep my mental condition in a decent state as I waited for my time."

"Damn, now the number three." I questioned with a light smirk.

"I had to watch him ruin all of my 'friends' by dicing them into pieces extracting everything that could be used for later tests." Phantom told me with a sigh, tears beginning to well up. "That was when I realized I was going to be dissected when my time came." he explained.

"Number four." I said cautiously.

"He fed me sludge, no taste, but one of the worst mouth feels ever," Phantom told me, shuddering ever so slightly. "You ever bitten cartilage before, that is what the sludge felt like, my mouth can no longer feel things properly." He further explained, I wanted to gag at the idea of eating sludge that felt like cartilage, god.

"How about number five." I said.

"You know the scars on my neck, chest, legs and wrists?" Phantom asked me.

"Yeah, looks like you got mauled by a bear." I said cautiously, slightly fearing what I was going to learn.

"He cut slices out of me, taking note of everything, trying to dissect parts of me, but choosing against doing so, he did remove my wisdom teeth out of courtesy for torturing me," Phantom said chuckling a little bit, despite green tinted tears slowly falling down his cheeks. "He also figured out how to cure cancer, I also have a scar that never fully healed in my chest, he yanked a rib from there and now we have an indent." Phantom pulled up his shirt and gestured to the indent in the middle of the left half of his ribcage.

"Phantom, what the jizz?" I asked trying to keep my voice even, I was this close to flipping my lid.

"Yeah?" Phantom asked, he just had a mental breakdown over this yesterday, and now he's fine with this.

"I don't understand how your ok with that, but do you want a hug?" I asked.

"One hundred percent, I'm shocked I haven't broken down yet." Phantom said before getting up and pulling me into a lung crushing hug.

"Yeah, so am I." I said, out of breath a little bit as I hugged him back.

"You ok if I sleep at the end of your bed?" Phantom asked with a light sniffle, his voice starting to waver, here comes the tears.

"Course you can." I answered with before falling back onto my bed.

"Sorry, just need some comfort tonight." Phantom said with a light sigh, loosening his hug a bit.

"Like I said before, I'm fine if you end up in the same bed as me." I said before trying to turn over on my side, because you know I do enjoy me some breathing and comfort.

"Thanks." Phantom said before flipping over to be beside me.

#danny phantom #danny fenton #phanfiction #phanfic #pitch pearl #tw fangs #tw trauma #vlad plasmius #tw tears #tw teeth #tw crying #tw scars #tw bones

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ecto-american · 3 years

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Humanity

Upon their arrest by the GIW together, Valerie learns something interesting about Phantom and herself that make her question just how human both herself and Phantom are.

note that this isn’t a phic phight thing, just something i wrote literally months ago for Lexx but forgot that i wrote

on FFN and AO3

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

They didn't even have the decency to arrest her before Mr. Lancer's class. Being arrested for...well, the Guys in White were never really clear as to why they showed up to Casper High to arrest her. But whatever the reason, that would have been one hell of an excuse as to why she was not just missing, but why she couldn't turn in that book report that she not only didn't do, but hadn't even read a single page of yet. Valerie had an inkling she knew why, but she remained completely silent the entire march out the front doors of the school. She wasn't an idiot after all.

The agent to her left opened the door, and the agent to her right put his hand on her head to duck her into the white SUV. The door closed, and Valerie glanced to see just how tinted the windows were, as well as the police-style framing of the windows and the separation between the driver and passenger as well as the backseat dwellers.

"Oh, I was wondering why we stopped here."

That familiar voice made her jump, and she turned to see Phantom. He was in the exact same predicament. Hands behind his back, leaning against the seat, though she could immediately tell that his handcuffs were much clunkier and glowed. Obviously anti-ghost.

"You!" Valerie hissed. She immediately leaned into the window, lifting her leg up, and she began to kick him repeatedly. "What the hell are you doing here!?"

"Ow!" Phantom hissed as she got him in the shoulder, and then his rib. She didn't stop, and she didn't miss. "AH! Fuck, stop it! OW!"

"Knock it off!" one of the agents boomed. The sudden, strict tone made Valerie pause. She kicked him one more time, square in the face, before finally stopping.

Phantom made a weird wheezing noise, and she saw him shift to rub his nose on his upper arm and shoulder. He frowned.

"My nose is bleeding," he complained.

"I hope your nose is broken!" Valerie snapped back at him.

Phantom glared at her. He made a weird noise in his throat, and it took Valerie a moment to realize what he was doing. Preparing spit. And indeed, the ghost teen stuck his tongue out, drool instantly dripping, and he leaned in. Valerie instantly leaned away from him.

"Ew! Gross! Get away from me!" she complained.

"Nu-uh!" Phantom replied, his tongue still out as he continued to scoot. He got close enough to open his mouth, and some of his saliva dripped onto her knee.

"Gross, gross, gross!" she shrieked. Valerie kicked him in the side, and Phantom let out a pained wheeze.

"Knock. It. Off," the other agent snapped at them. They had gotten into the driver and passenger's seat, and both were glaring at them.

"She started it!" Phantom accused. The driver frowned at him, obviously not amused. Phantom scooted back to his side of the backseat. Valerie stayed pressed against the window and door. She could hear the drive mutter something about hating kids before turning the vehicle on, and they drove off.

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

They made the duo sit in the interrogation room for three hours, according to the clock. They had, thankfully, just connected the teenagers to the table via a long chain and handcuffs, so that they could at least be a bit more comfortable, even though Phantom, and for some reason her, were both given anti-ghost bracelets to wear. A box of tissues were also tossed onto the table, and Phantom had spent the first half hour tending to his bloodied nose. He stuffed all the used tissues, grossly, into his pocket, though she suspected why he did that. It had his DNA on it.

Phantom nor her attempted conversation. Neither were stupid. They essentially stared at each other and the walls, their only words were occasional out-loud wondering of when somebody was going to show up to question them already.

Obviously her more pressing question was why the hell they were still together. For some reason, Phantom was with her every step of the way of their weird little field trip. They got escorted in together, processed together, and now were sat at the exact same interrogation table. Why? She had absolutely no idea. Didn't they normally separate people they arrested?

At exactly 6:38 PM, somebody finally opened the door, and she and Phantom sat straight up.

The agent that sat before them was a large man, muscular and tall with big hands and sunglasses that fully blocked any chance of the teens from seeing what he was looking at.

"We know you're both half-ghost."

Valerie's mind instantly went to Vlad. That must have been what he was...she had been debating with herself for weeks now as to what he was. A ghost disguised as a human? A human who had ghost powers?

She pushed those aside to look at Phantom. To her surprise, he was pale. Nearly as white as his hair, with anxiety sweat drops beginning to form. Her interest peaked instantly. Silence hung in the air. The man said nothing, simply keeping his attention intensely on them. Valerie

"That's ridiculous," Valerie finally said something. She nearly added that the entire idea itself was ridiculous too. Well, it kind of was. It was so weird to grasp, but it wasn't really something that she wanted to think too hard about these days, and especially now. There was nothing more that she'd love to do than to throw that manipulative old bastard under the weird half-ghost freak bus. However, not only was it probably not a good idea to start beef with a literal superpowered-villain billionaire...but Dani was still out there.

"Don't lie to me." The man sounded agitated. "Both of your ectoplasmic readings are abnormal."

Ectoplasmic reading? Her? Valerie stared at him as if he had grown a second head.

"I shouldn't have any ectoplasmic reading," she pointed out. "I'm alive. Alive people don't have ectoplasmic readings."

The man opened up his folder, pulling out a few choice pieces of papers to slide her way. Phantom silently watched them, his eyes wide and his face looking utterly blank yet...so fearful. Valerie opted to ignore him for a while, accepting the papers to hold as she read through them.

She was familiar with how to read ectoplasmic readings, charts and monitors by now. Green eyes scanned the data, frowning in confusion as she checked the details, and she could see out of the corner of her eye Phantom leaning in to read too. She adjusted her position so that he couldn't.

This description was definitely her, and...she was giving off ectoplasmic readings. Not really in the same way as a normal ghost; there was something distinctively different about hers that any set of trained eyes could pick up on. But how?

"I don't understand," Valerie spoke slowly. "I'm alive." She put the documents back down on the table. "You can take a swap or slap some ghost goop stuff on me. Hell, prick my finger." Valerie held her palm out to the man. Her anti-ghost bracelet sparkled a bit in the light of the room. At least she now knew why they made her wear the bracelets too. "I'm not dead."

The interviewer stared intently at her hand. He gave a neutral hum of acknowledgement, swooping the papers back up.

"Testing and experiments will be reserved for a later time," he replied. Valerie got instant goosebumps. Testing and experiments? "Maybe a few hours in holding will help you realize why you should just come clean to us."

"Can I get some water first?" Valerie asked. The agent snorted in amusement as he stood up.

"Ghosts don't eat or drink."

She felt numb, and she had no idea how to respond to that. Two more agents came into the room, and they silently took the teenagers further into the building until they reached a door. The third agent opened it, and Phantom and Valerie were ushered inside.

The room almost immediately led into bars, and the first thing Valerie could think of was just how much it looked like jail. Two uncomfortable looking bunk beds on either side, a toilet in the middle, a small sink, and no windows. The light was dim, and the room was cold.

Phantom was pushed in first, and then Valerie, and the bars clunked as they closed. She turned to see the bars begin to glow as the bars were locked.

And there was no goodbyes. The agents were eerily silent as they filed out, and the door was shut behind them. She could hear the faint click as it also locked.

Valerie turned to see Phantom's reaction, and he still looked shaken and pale. She already suspected the answer, but she needed to hear it.

"So...are you?" Valerie asked.

"No!" Phantom's answer was way too quick. "What about you? Don't you hate ghosts?"

"I'm not half ghost!" she snapped back. "I have no clue why they'd think that."

Phantom studied her for a moment. His eyes lit up.

"Your suit!" he declared. "The one Technus gave you. It must make your reading wonky."

The second he reminded her, she felt a cold shiver. Suddenly her heartbeat felt off, and she assumed she was colder than usual because of...ya know. That couldn't be true. It had to be wonky readings. The suit was so nice...so much nicer than the suit that she had made herself. It was so much more powerful, so much nicer, just flat out cooler.

She put her heart over her chest. She still had a heartbeat, right?

"What's your excuse?" she asked. Phantom didn't say anything. He turned his attention to the wall, staring blankly at it.

"...Why would they let us stay trapped in here together?" Phantom changed the subject. Valerie narrowed her eyes at him, but she had to admit. It was a good point. "Especially knowing that we'd just plot our escape together."

"Pump the breaks, Phantom. I'm not escaping," Valerie scoffed. "They'll realize their mistake and just let me go."

"Well, they're not gonna let me go," Phantom frowned. "The Guys in White don't exactly play nice with ghosts. And I'm not leaving without you."

"Not my problem," Valerie replied. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Unless...of course there's a reason for it to be my problem."

"You can't just do it out of the kindness of your heart?" Phantom sounded sarcastic, despite staring at her desperately. Valerie crossed her arms. "Please?"

"Give me one good reason to escape with you."

And thus began a staring contest. Phantom shifted from foot to foot, and he glanced at the floor. A lightbulb made the realization click. The GIW knew her identity. They arrested her at school. But they didn't know Phantom's. Nobody probably did. This was likely a ploy to get them to reveal themselves to each other. How or why, Valerie wasn't sure. But now it was glaringly obvious to her.

Phantom was half-ghost. Just like Dani. Just like Vlad. The Guys in White don't play nice with ghosts, and she had a strong feeling that they didn't care much about playing nice with humans either. Especially if they suspected that there was ghost within them.

"Nevermind," Valerie sighed. Phantom stared at her, and he...looked scared. "I can destroy ghosts…" But I really can't take part in destroying a human.

Phantom grew a bit pale again, as they both knew the unspoken words. He took a deep, shaky breath. His reaction was all she needed to know, that this wasn't some weird lie or ploy.

"So. What's our game plan?" he asked.

Valerie studied their surroundings. She reached out to touch the bars of their shared cell, taking immediate note that she wasn't shocked.

"Well, obviously there's that big shield outside," Valerie lightly mused.

"I can get past that shield," Phantom spoke up. "Under the...right circumstances."

Valerie nodded. If Phantom was able to turn human away from the prying eyes of cameras and more, they could both obviously escape right out the front door. Hell, they could likely utilize both Phantom and his? Human? Side? Whatever he was called.

"This facility was designed for ghosts, not humans," Phantom continued. "If we worked together, we can probably make a quick exit." Valerie hummed in agreement.

"That's not just enough," Valerie replied. "I'll just get arrested again. They know who I am. Like, they know Valerie Gray is the huntress." Phantom frowned, and he thought for a moment.

"We could maybe delete their evidence files or something?" he suggested. Valerie paced their cell for a moment.

"There has to be some kind of computer security room somewhere," Valerie spoke aloud to herself. "If we can find it, we can probably wipe evidence and also fully take down the shield."

Phantom leaned against the back wall of the cell.

"I don't think that's enough," he replied. Valerie stopped pacing to stare at him. "We need to make sure the Guys in White don't do this again. Ever. Never even have the chance to get to this point again." Valerie scowled.

"They help hunt ghosts!" she protested.

"And they'd consider Danielle a ghost and rip her to shreds," Phantom countered. The reminder of that little girl hit her straight in the gut. She sighed.

"I don't know," she said slowly.

"They're a government organization, they'll rebuild," Phantom pushed. "We just need to stall them long enough to buy time for us to figure out how to keep you, Danielle and I safe."

She hated it, but...yeah. She wasn't really in the best position either. Valerie had no clue what was going on with her, but the Guys in White were incredibly persistent...and she knew her dad wouldn't be able to afford a lawyer for her anymore.

Valerie held her wrist up. Her suit's bracelet was basically hidden underneath the anti-ghost one, but she could still feel it there. Her suit wasn't gone. She could still access it, and that made her feel more confident in that she was still human. Which she had to be. Right?

Valerie activated her suit, and she held her wrist up to read the screen. She pressed a few buttons.

"I think I can figure out a map of this place," she said. "And from there we can see where's what."

Her forearm glowed brightly as it gathered data. It took a few moments of calculating, but soon, she had her results. Phantom was soon peering over her shoulder, both of them studying the map.

"How accurate is this?" Phantom questioned.

"It tends to be fairly decent. Sometimes it's hit or miss with collapsed buildings, but overall it's spot on," she replied. She adjusted the screen, zooming it out. "I can only get the floor we're on though."

"That looks like it could be some kind of utility room," Phantom pointed to a specific room. Valerie zoomed in on it, studying it.

"Yeah," she said slowly. "Yeah. Gotta be. It's got a lot of power coming to or from there. Has to be a source, or at the very least some kind of major technology area."

"Either way, we should destroy it," Phantom said. Valerie frowned.

"I don't know," she hesitated.

"I mean, you can't even summon your powers."

Phantom glanced down at his wrists, glancing curiously at them before setting his sights on Valerie's arms.

"Can you shoot them off?" he asked.

Valerie tried to summon one of her weapons. She waited. And she waited. Nothing came, and her gut became queasy. She couldn't get her ghost weapon. None of them would summon. This had to be a bad sign. Or was it just the GIW prepared against humans too? That was the most logical explanation. She couldn't be…But also she could be...after all the ectoplasmic readings...

"Um, actually, I think I can…" Phantom's voice caused her to truly look at him again. The ghost was fiddling with his wristbands, using his knees to lock it in place as he attempted to slip his wrist through the band with no success.

"Here, let me try," Valerie interrupted him. Phantom glanced up at her.

"Can you shoot them?" he asked. Valerie forced a weak smile, but she held up a screwdriver.

"Got something even better. My travel tool kit," she replied. After too many breakdowns in the field, she had replaced a small pouch that previously held smoke bombs, something she rarely used, with a few small tools. It was easily one of the best choices she made.

Phantom held his wrist out to her, and she turned the bracelet around. Eventually she managed to pry a piece of the metallic covering off, exposing screws and a few wires. Valerie didn't undo or cut anything right away, both her and Phantom silently trying to make sense of the connection and mechanics behind it. Would really suck to find out the hard way that disconnecting a certain wire would trigger an alarm, after all.

"I think you shouldn't touch the red wire," Phantom lightly mused. "Pretty sure that's a power, and if you turn it off it'll be bad news."

"Mmm, yeah," Valerie agreed. "I think I can just unscrew this though, and we should just be careful to not slip the wires off."

Phantom nodded, and he waited patiently as she did just so. After twenty minutes of careful disconnecting, Phantom had two hands free, and he flexed his hands with a happy sigh.

"God, that just feels so much better," he told her. He motioned for her to hand him the screwdriver. "Here, I'll do yours." Valerie shook her head.

"I can't leave. I won't say anything if you escape, but they know my identity."

Phantom frowned.

"I'm not leaving you here. Come on, you saw your map. We can destroy their power. We can destroy this entire building," he began, only for Valerie to cut him off.

"And do more destruction? Is that all you think about?" she snapped. "You're safe. They know my identity. You want me to get more charges or something? I can't risk it. I'll just stay here. They'll figure out soon enough that I'm fully human." A full human who apparently had mixed logic as to whether or not they could use their ghost hunting suit. If she was fully human, she could summon those weapons, right? Unless it was specifically preventing any ghost weapon, regardless of the user, use it.

"Red, I don't think you understand," Phantom told her. "They're not going to go easy on you. Even if you prove you're human, they're not going to believe you. You heard them. They already denied you contact to the outside world."

That reminder sent a chill down her spine.

"Then tell my dad," she told him. Phantom stared at her. He began to unzip his suit, and she instantly began to look away. "Dude, what the hell?"

"Valerie, look at me," he demanded.

"You're naked!" she protested.

"I'm not naked, just look."

She decided to humor him with the intention of taking a quick peek. But when she saw him, she felt a cold sweat hit her. Phantom had only zipped enough to expose his chest, and there was a distinctive Y-patterned scar on his chest that stood out against the other scars.

"This is what happened last time I was trapped here. I'm not going to leave you alone here," he stated. He suddenly looked away, and he quickly zipped his suit back up. "There's no way in hell I'm going to risk this happening to you. Red, you need to come with me."

That urgent gut feeling of needing to go finally crashed into her. The GIW would never believe her. Not just because of stubbornness, but...Valerie herself wasn't even sure anymore.

She swallowed dryly, and she nodded. Her right wrist was offered to him.

"Do you know what to do?" she asked. Phantom scowled.

"I just watched you do it," he reminded her. She rolled her eyes, but held her wrist up for him, and a half hour later, she too, was free.

She wasn't sure if she was more concerned or relieved to instantly feel that distinctive rush of power back. The second Phantom removed her bracelet, she knew that she could summon any of her ghost weapons now at her fingertips. But she could still summon her suit regardless, and activate her GPS abilities. Was this normal? Valerie had no clue what this meant anymore.

"So, next step, I think we can escape through here."

Valerie looked up to see Phantom was now floating by the vent at the top of their cell. He was already using her screwdriver to undo the vent cover. She pulled her map back up on her forearm, glancing at it and studying it.

"I'm pretty sure the vent will go straight to that electric room," she told him.

"Oh, now you're finally seeing the big picture?" Phantom lightly teased, glancing over his shoulder as he popped the vent cover off. She nodded at him, but didn't crack a smile.

"...You and Dani may look just alike, but I never want you two to have matching scars," she said. Phantom's smile dropped, and he nodded in agreement.

He placed the vent covering on the top bunk, handing Valerie back her screwdriver. She slipped it back in it's pouch.

"Here, I'll give you a boost up," Phantom offered, pressing his hands together. She nodded, stepping a foot onto his hand. With ease, Phantom pushed her up, and she grabbed onto the vent, pulling herself in. It was surprisingly fairly roomy yet not, and she managed to get comfortable on her stomach, pulling her map back up.

"Ready to commit several federal crimes?" Phantom's voice half joked. She looked behind her the best she could to see the ghost right behind her. She snorted in amusement.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she replied. "Just follow me. It's time to give these idiots hell."

And hell they did. Who knew that the Guys in Whites headquarters could cause such a colorful explosion.

#phics #my phics #danny phantom #danny fenton #valerie gray #humanity

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five-rivers · 3 years

Text

Long Night in the Valley Chapter 15

It's been a bit, hasn't it?

Toshinori pushed himself up off the ground with trembling arms. Although, by the position of the sun, it hadn’t been for long, he’d blacked out when—

“Oh, no,” said Toshinori. His head throbbed at the sound, making the edges of his vision go dark and fuzzy.

When All for One had broken through into the shared mindscape.

“Oh, no,” he repeated.

Where was Izuku? He had to find—Oh, thank goodness, Izuku was right there. He let out a sigh of relief.

His relief was short-lived. Izuku, to put it lightly, did not look well. His eyes were open, but only glazed slivers. His breath was coming shallow and fast, not quite to the point of hyperventilating, but it was a close thing. His skin was pale, except for deep, bruise-like circles under his eyes. He was sweating more than Toshinori had ever seen him sweat (which was really saying something; Izuku broke out into nervous sweats with some frequency). Perhaps most concerningly, he was shaking like a leaf.

Izuku was, Toshinori realized, still maintaining the effect of Two’s quirk.

He tried to reach inside himself, contact his predecessors, but swiftly pulled his mental fingers back, as if they had been burned. Bad idea.

“Izuku,” he said, “can you hear me?”

Izuku made a small, pained noise that tore at Toshinori’s heart.

“I’m going to pick you up, okay?” he said. Izuku didn’t answer, but then Toshinori didn’t expect him to.

The simple act forced Toshinori to call on the embers of One for All. Not enough to make his muscles swell, but enough to give him the strength of an ordinary, healthy man. His muscles and his remaining intact lung screamed in protest, not to mention his scars. He ignored them.

He stumbled forward, priorities shuffling themselves. They’d been trying to escape, but if Izuku was this ill… he needed a doctor. An exorcist might be a good idea, too, what with All for One running around in their heads.

But to get a doctor, they’d have to put themselves in commission hands, and Toshinori could feel the echoes of Two and Three telling him exactly how stupid that would be.

The commission had sent Hawks after Izuku. Toshinori had no doubt they’d throw him in Tartarus, and the treatment of criminals in Tartarus was one of the few things Toshinori had publicly disagreed with the HPSC on in his hero persona. Not that it had gone anywhere. He simply hadn’t had the time to really push it and the commission had somehow managed to paint him as somehow too good, too forgiving, to be trusted when it came to the disposition of terrible villains.

“’ll be’kay,” mumbled Izuku, the sentiment clearer over their mental link. “N’ospital.”

“Okay,” said Toshinori, slightly breathless. “Let’s—Let’s keep going, then. Find a good place to camp out, far away from Todoroki Touya, here. Yep.” He was aware he was rambling, and needlessly at that, but he couldn’t help it.

One foot in front of the other.

Was that a car running?

Toshinori, keen on getting help and care for Izuku, even if it meant hijacking a car, changed directions slightly. Of course, it would be ideal if there were friendly bystanders who didn’t believe the hero commissions lies and had a medical license and a healing quirk, but Toshinori would be more than happy with—

He stopped. Laughed. Laughed some more, a little hysterically. There, abandoned in a ditch like a beached sailing ship, was Vlad King’s much abused car.

Sure, it would have been reported stolen by now, and the police and heroes would be looking for it, but that was a problem for future-Toshinori. Present-Toshinori, on the other hand, was simply grateful for the windfall, and wary – the presence of the car could indicate the proximity of the League of Villains.

He gently put Izuku down in the passenger seat, turned the car off and made sure it was in the appropriate gear, then walked around to the back of the car and lifted it out of the ditch.

If his muscles had been complaining before—

He staggered back to the driver’s seat, leaning heavily on the side of the car the whole time. Blood dripped from his mouth. “This is nothing, my boy, nothing,” he said in what he hoped was a reassuring tone, as he felt Izuku’s concern press heavily against him. “Used to have worse every day of the week.”

Toshinori got the sense that Izuku was not, in fact, reassured. Nevertheless, he grinned, pouring every drop of his fabled ‘everything will be alright’ smile into the expression. Even if Izuku couldn’t see it, Toshinori needed some of the comfort that came with donning a familiar mask

“Let’s see if we can get to the Wild Wild Pussycats today, after all.”

“Eri-chan,” began Abe, tapping together her papers. She’d drawn the short stick. Ito was interviewing one of the older students, and Abe got the feral child.

“No,” said Eri.

“I didn’t even ask you a question yet.”

“Only people I like get to call me -chan. That’s the rule. Prinzible Nezu said so.”

“Principal,” corrected Nezu, cheerfully, like the unhelpful rodent rat bastard he was. If only she could have gotten him kicked out… but, no, he and Present Mic were both sitting in on the interview.

“PrincipalNezu told me, and he’s in charge.”

“You tell ‘em, Eri-chan!” said Present Mic, just a little more loudly than was comfortable.

Eri nodded to let Present Mic know the noise-cancelling earplugs were working.

“In this situation,” said Abe, sternly, “I am in charge.”

The girl tilted her head, and suddenly her expression went from ‘pouting child’ to ‘superior being contemplating an uppity insect.’

“Eri-san,” began Abe.

“No,” said Eri.

Abe looked up incredulously. What was wrong with -san?

She decided to ignore it. “You spoke with—”

Eri began to scream like a teakettle whistling.

“Can’t you control her?” Abe demanded, turning to Nezu, who chittered.

“This is very good progress!” he said, barely loud enough to hear over the ongoing shriek. “Before now, Eri-chan was too hesitant to act out or misbehave in any way, fearing the punishment that her former and completely unqualified caretakers would inflict upon her.”

Abe didn’t know which was more longwinded, the still-screaming child or the rodent principal. Her body was so tiny, how was she still screaming?

Eri clicked off the Present Mic-themed combo audio recorder and player in her pocket at the same time she shut her mouth. Principal Nezu was right! This was fun! At least, it would be if Deku was here.

“I get to pick what you call me,” said Eri, patiently. Since this person wasn’t smart enough to see that Deku was only the best hero ever and not a bad guy, she’d have to explain slowly.

The person evidently wasn’t even smart enough to breathe, as she was slowly turning purple.

“What,” she said, in stilted tones, “would you like me to call you.”

Eri let the smile Aizawa had taught her spread across her face. “Eri-sama.”

“Is that a joke?”

“It’s very important to respect the boundaries children establish, Abe-san,” said Nezu.

Katsuki blinked. It was about time he woke up. Stupid dream time dilation or whatever. Stupid boring soy sauce face and his stupid boring mindscape dreamscape whatever hellscape. There was a limit to what you could do in a square mile that mostly consisted of a tape-covered jungle gym and a boring apartment building. Katsuki had found it, and, after spending a good period of time being angry about it, had decided to go to sleep.

Dream time dilation or whatever the commission proctor had been going on about after the first billionty-and-one stupid hours, it didn’t matter, Katsuki hated it, it was just taking too damn long. If he didn’t have to do this to keep his provisional license, he’d tell the commission to shove this stupid pointless training up it’s—

About a minute after he should have twigged to something wrong, Katsuki realized the ceiling was too familiar.

He sat up. Why the hell was he in UA’s infirmary?

And not just him, about half the class was here with him.

He scowled. So, something had gone wrong with the test after all, and it looked like Deku wasn’t involved. Stupid nerd would hold it over him.

“Hey!” shouted Katsuki, spotting Recovery Girl. “What the f—”

“Language!” scolded Recovery Girl, shrilly, practically teleporting across the room to jab Katsuki with her cane. “You’re in a school, young man.”

“I know that!” protested Katsuki. “But why the f—” he faltered under the force Recovery Girl’s gaze even as she started to run through the checklist she usually did for people who’d been knocked out like wimps. “Fudge. Am I here.”

“I think the more pertinent question is, how are you awake? There should be at least one more hour, if not two, left to that quirk.”

“I went to sleep,” said Katsuki, attempting to fend her off.

“Well, you wouldn’t be waking up if—”

“No. In the shhhtupid dreamscape thing. I went to sleep.”

Recovery Girl paused for a moment, then sighed. “I don’t suppose you were the one whose mind they were exploring?”

“No. That was soy sauce face. Why are we back here? And where’s the nerd?”

Recovery Girl seemed to droop at his question, and a heaviness filled the air. “That’s a long story.”

“Did we get attacked by Dusty McGee again?”

“No.”

“So, what did happen?” snapped Katsuki. “The nerd break out a new quirk in the middle of the training or something?”

Recovery Girl’s eye twitched, and she sat down on a nearby stool, taking a deep breath.

“The hero commission suspected Midoriya of working with the League of Villains and attempted to use the training to interrogate him. Under the influence of at least one mental quirk, Midoriya fled. At about the same time, All Might left and met up with him, after which the commission accused Midoriya of kidnapping All Might. They haven’t given him an S-Rank villain classification, but I suspect that’s just because the paperwork hasn’t gone through yet.”

All right. Honestly, with his creepy stalker notebooks and obsessive All Might shrine room, Deku probably seemed like a prime kidnapping suspect to an outsider, but considering that Katsuki had witnessed Deku and All Might’s sickeningly sweet interpersonal interactions, somehow managing to be a goddamn third wheel to some sort of surrogate parent-child found family drama nonsense…

“Has anyone told ‘em it’s more likely the other way around? And that if it was, it’d probably be for the nerd’s own good, too?”

Recovery Girl nodded tiredly.

“They hiding out here?”

“Midoriya is a wanted criminal.”

“So what?”

“We’re a school.”

“You’ve lost me.”

Recovery Girl sighed. “No, Midoriya is not here.”

“Well, that’s stupid. What are we doing about it?”

“Right now? You are doing nothing. Commission investigators are in the building, and it would be better if they thought you were still unconscious.”

Katsuki grumbled. “Should go and try to bring him back.”

“What, so he can be arrested?”

“No!” said Katsuki, defensively. “But he’s probably running around out there making everything worse!”

“Bakugo,” said Recovery Girl, patting his leg, “from what I’ve heard, the only thing that could possibly make this worse is being found.”

“Can you describe to me the circumstances under which you lost your quirk?” asked Ito, the other commission investigator.

“Sure!” said Mirio, hoping the man couldn’t detect his discomfort at the subject. Even if he’d made that split second choice to shield Eri with his body with full knowledge of the consequences, to jump in front of Nemoto’s bullet, it was still a traumatic experience. It still hurt, even if he didn’t regret it.

He took a deep breath. “Well, it was during the Shie Hassaikai raid. I had gone ahead to confront Chisaki Kai and rescue Eri. There were a few other yakuza with him, members of the Eight Bullets. Nemoto Shin, Sakaki Deidoro, and, ah, Chrono, I think. I can’t remember his proper name.”

“That’s fine. Please continue.”

“I engaged with Sakaki and Nemoto while Chisaki and Chrono went ahead. I was affected by their quirks, but managed to get by… It was a hard battle!” he interjected, suddenly. He belatedly realized he wanted to draw out this line of questioning, and dove into a supremely detailed description of his fight with Sakaki and Nemoto. It was funny, too, and he saw Ito getting sucked in.

Sir would have been proud.

“And then, I chased after Chrono and Chisaki!” said Mirio, gesticulating wildly to illustrate his movements. He continued narrating the battle, the wild swings of fate, Eri’s hope and fear, the strikes and counterstrikes! Just like when he’d first debriefed after the raid.

Weirdly enough, going through it like this also made him feel better. Less like he was reliving a terrible, painful moment in his life, and more like he was telling a very dramatic story.

“—aaaaaaand,” he wrapped up, “Chisaki tossed the gun with the erasure bullets to Nemoto – I hadn’t realized he was still conscious. I’d been too worried about getting to Eri.” He shrugged. “I got shot.”

“Despite your quirk?”

“I didn’t want Eri to be hit.”

“Even though the loss of her quirk might have been a blessing for her? Considering the difficulty she has using it and the pain it gives her.”

Mirio felt his smile settle into something blander and more dangerous than his usual beaming grins. “Are you suggesting that I should have let a six-year-old be shot?”

“Not at all,” said Ito, making a mark. “Now, where was Midoriya at this time?”

“He hadn’t caught up to us, yet,” said Mirio. “He was with Sir.”

“Who?”

“Sir Nighteye,” clarified Mirio. “Before that, they were with Rock Lock and some of the others, I believe.”

“But you don’t know for sure.”

“I wasn’t there, so… no, not really. But the exact situation should be on file, from our debrief, and Rock Lock can confirm or clarify.”

“Only the parts he saw,” said Ito. “Did you try to use your quirk after that? Or did you simply assume it was gone?”

“Of course, I tried to use it!” said Mirio, feeling somewhat offended. “I’d trained it to be reflexive. Right after, I kept thinking my quirk would protect me, and moving too slow to dodge attacks. I got really beaten up.”

“And was this before or after Midoriya Izuku arrived?”

“Before, mostly,” said Mirio. “It isn’t like the fight stopped the minute he showed up.”

“And you are certain your quirk stopped working before Midoriya arrived.”

“I’m sure.”

“How did you know you were hit by a permanent quirk-erasing bullet?” asked Ito.

“Well, when my quirk didn’t come back we were pretty sure,” said Mirio.

“But you didn’t know beforehand, for certain, that the bullets were permanent.”

Crap. Mirio had screwed up somewhere in there. He could feel it.

“I think Nemoto and Chisaki were shouting at each other about it during the fight,” said Mirio. “They were pretty proud of it.”

“But you did not know, for sure, that your quirk loss was permanent,” insisted Ito. “There was no way for you to know that their claims about the bullets were true.”

“I mean… not really,” said Mirio. “But, again, here I am without a quirk.”

“Yes… but that isn’t the only way a person can lose a quirk, is it?”

“The Scourge of Kamino was already in Tartarus when the Shie Hassaikai raid took place,” said Mirio. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”

“Did Midoriya Izuku come into contact with you before the end of the day?”

“We talked, yeah,” said Mirio.

“Physical contact.”

“Actually… no,” said Mirio. “After the fight, we were both whisked off to the hospital, separately. Midoriya came to visit me after we both got patched up, he felt guilty about not getting to me and Eri sooner, and--” Oh, dear, he’d have to think back on that conversation a bit more. Later. He swallowed. “--and… Sir’s death…” He looked down at his hands. “Sir… in retrospect, he didn’t like Midoriya very much, but his death hit Midoriya hard. First death in the line of duty. It… it was the first time I’d seen a hero die, too.”

“You’re quite certain he didn’t touch you? At all?” asked Ito, undeterred by Mirio’s not-at-all-feigned grief.

“Pretty sure, yeah,” said Mirio, now annoyed by the investigator’s callousness.

“I see.”

Ochako rubbed her eyes, but the darkness stayed. “What,” she said out loud, her voice somehow doing the opposite of echoing, “what happened?”

“I don’t know,” said Todoroki. He had positioned himself so as to guard her back.

“There was a bang,” said Iida, “and then…” He trailed off, clearly finding just as much difficulty in describing the event as Ochako did thinking about it.

“They were talking about All for One getting in,” said Ochako. “You don’t think…?”

“Maybe we timed out the quirk and we’re about to wake up,” said Iida, optimistically.

“Where’s Aizawa-sensei?” asked Todoroki.

“I don’t know,” said Ochako. “He was standing with us… I mean, I couldn’t see you guys at first, either.”

“I’m here,” said Aizawa.

Ochako turned to see their teacher methodically scanning their black surroundings, his eyes red. “Do you know what happened?” she asked. “Do you think this is just, I don’t know, a new transition? A memory?”

“I don’t know,” said Aizawa. He blinked, eyes returning to their normal colors.

“It isn’t,” said an unfamiliar voice. The figure of a young man with uncut white hair slowly faded out of the darkness. “Hello.” He raised a hand. “I’m One. Or, I guess, you can call me Kazuki. Sorry about the landscape. Most of our mental resources were just rerouted.”

“Does this have something to do with that vault thing Izuku mentioned?” asked Ochako.

“Yes, sadly,” said One. “My brother’s broken out. Which means you really shouldn’t be here. All our minds are about to become battlefields. I have some techniques that might help you get out, but--”

“Six told me there was something taken from Midoriya that we could get back, if the vault was open. Is that still a thing?”

One raised a fist to his lips, and pressed down. “You understand, don’t you, that to search for this is to go into my brother’s mind?”

“If it’s to help Midoriya,” said Todoroki, stepping forward, “we’ll do anything.”

“That is very admirable of you,” said One. “I do mean that, I really do, and I’ve seen your heroics and spirit through Izuku’s eyes. But I’m not sending children to fight my brother. Eraserhead, you’d be going alone.”

“I can work with that,” said Aizawa.

“But we won’t be in any real danger!” protested Ochako. “The worst that could happen to us is that we’ll run out of time and wake up. Right?”

“Don’t underestimate my brother. Judging from the fight at Kamino, he lost a lot of quirk control and strength after his first fight with Eight, or else he’d never have been captured. But that’s only if we take it at face value. I don’t doubt that he has five or six plans in place to escape Tartarus and steal every interesting quirk in there, thereby increasing his power exponentially, or even healing himself.”

Ochako blinked. How would anyone heal from… Wait. “Overhaul.”

One’s smile was a bitter thing. “I certainly wouldn’t have put the two of them in the same prison.”

The villain at Kamino, already strong enough to go toe to toe with All Might, with Overhaul's power? Ochako shuddered.

"What did he take from Midoriya?" asked Aizawa. "I'm going to need to know before I do this."

"You're sure you want to do this, then?"

"I haven't decided."

One sighed and pushed his hair back, out of his face. Ochako was struck, momentarily, by how the color of his eyes perfectly matched Izuku's.

"My brother took what he always takes," said One. "His quirk."

"But!" protested Ochako. "He has a quirk! He has..." she trailed off as another revelation hit her.

"He…" said Iida, next to her, "has several quirks."

"He has your quirk," said Todoroki with one-hundred-percent unwavering confidence.

"You had a quirk like All for One," said Aizawa. "But considering what we've seen… the quirk to pass on quirks?"

"That's why you call yourselves by numbers! Because that's the order you had the quirk in!" added Ochako.

"I prefer thinking of it as the ability to share quirks," said One, "but since everyone but Eight and Nine is dead, the distinction is academic."

Aizawa sighed and ran a hand over his face. "Okay, let me get this straight. You and... your brother both had meta quirks. He could… give and take quirks. You could just pass your own quirk on. He decided to become a criminal mastermind. You decided to, I don't know, invest your quirk until someone had enough quirks to fight your brother?"

"And they're all related," said Todoroki.

"And you're all related," said Aizawa with an air of suffering.

"It was significantly less intentional and more complicated than that, but, yes, those are the basics."

"And, for some reason, All Might thought that it was a good idea to pick a teenager for the job."

"In his defense, Eight thought my brother was dead. The one you should really be throwing shade at is Seven."

"I have questions."

One tilted his head. "Normally, I would answer them, but we're running out of time."

Aizawa sighed. "Alright. I'll do it."

"We want to help, too!" said Ochako.

"Three will find a way to ghost murder me if I get you involved in a fight with my brother."

"So would I, incidentally," said Aizawa, "and then I'd expel all of them."

Iida cleared his throat. "Is there any way for us to help without coming into contact with All for One?”

“Yes,” said One, clapping his hands together. “Getting out before that Suzuki fellow does and giving Izuku some good publicity.”

One’s image seemed to waver and split, then, as if Ochako had crossed her eyes. She blinked, hard, but after that there were still two of them.

“I’ll lead you to my brother’s mind,” said one of the Ones, waving at Aizawa.

“I’ll stay and try to help the rest of you get out,” said the second One. “We should - Oh.”

“Oh?” repeated Aizawa. “‘Oh,’ what?”

“Oh, we forgot about someone,” said One.

“Oh,” said All for One, catching sight of an anomaly. “Who is this little intruder to our gathering?”

“Just some government lackey,” said Miranda, hands still for now, but in a position where she could likely summon ball lightning in a matter of minutes. “Not someone you can use as a hostage.”

“Actually,” said Ryuji, who, unusually, had yet to disappear from All for One’s senses, “if you could figure out a way to get rid of him, it would be convenient.”

“Two!” snapped Nana.

“Come on, we were all thinking it,” said Ryuji.

“You can’t use a him as a murder weapon,” hissed Nana. “Nine will get in trouble.”

“You’rethe one who repeatedly dropped him from a dozen stories up. And the one who was fantasizing about murdering him in real life.”

“That daydream could have belonged to anyone.”

“It had Gran Torino in it.”

“Eight knows Gran, too!”

All for One coughed, returning the full attention of the vestiges to himself. “Is this a pathetic attempt at a distraction?”

“Do you know any other adjectives?” asked his little brother, who was slouching off to the side with his hands in his pockets.

All for One sneered. “Are you not taking this seriously?”

“Not really, no,” said Kazuki, “and neither are you, or else we’d be fighting already. We both know that what you can affect here is limited.” He started counting off on his fingers. “You can’t bring us back with you, you can’t affect Nine’s morality, you can’t take the stockpile, you--”

“I knew it!” shrieked the little intruder, jabbing a finger at All for One. “I knew it! You’re All for One! Midoriya is working for you!”

“Hey, if you’re going to do the sibling thing and prove me wrong about the whole ‘can’t do anything’ thing, can I suggest you start with him?”

All for One narrowed his eyes and scanned his relatives. There was an uncharacteristic lack of protest.

“Are you briar patching?”

“No,” said Hibiki, “they’re quite serious. I personally would prefer it if you didn’t kill him, but not enough to risk myself.”

He could always trust Hibiki to be blunt and straightforward. He got it from his wonderfully forthright and businesslike mother. He hadn’t loved her like he loved his current, still-living spouse, but she had been refreshing.

“Mood,” said Rokuya.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” said dear, sweet Izuku, raising a hand, “but I’m not actually comfortable letting All for One kill him in front of us.”

“Don’t try that now! You’ve shown your true colors, traitor!”

“Don’t worry, kid,” said Daigoro, “we’re pretty sure he won’t be able to.”

“Torture, then.”

“Not sure he can do worse than Nana did.”

“All I did was drop him!” protested Nana.

“Repeatedly, from a great height,” Miranda reminded her.

Everyone was much more relaxed, now, and… were they ignoring him? They were!

“Are you all under the effect of a quirk?”

“Yeah,” said Kazuki. “How else do you think this is happening?”

“No, I mean… your personalities… they’re all…” He gestured at the One for All users who had stopped to watch him.

“Niichan, I’ve tried to tell you this before, but at least for me, I’m not all that great a person. You just suck so enormously that I look like a saint in comparison.”

“That’s not true!”

“It is,” said Kazuki. “I mean, think back to our first argument. I was less concerned with your overall morality and more concerned with the fact that the demon king alway loses--”

“Excuse you, but I’ve beaten every one of you.”

“No you haven’t,” said Hibiki. “I, at least, died with no input from you.”

“Killing you is obviously different from beating you,” said All for One.

“I mean, by the time you chucked me in that vault, it had evolved to a moral and ethical complaint,” said Kazuki, his one visible eye unfocused in remembrance. “But it started out with me worried about you getting yourself killed.”

“No it didn’t.”

“It really did. You know, I don’t think I ever told you this, but if you’d been twenty percent more ethical? I would have absolutely been on your side.”

“What.”

“I mean, it was you, the government, and ragtag resistance groups, and the government sucked.”

“I can confirm that,” said Miranda, “and it continues to be disgustingly corrupt. But since you’re also swimming through the human experimentation cesspit, we’re staying where we are. Don’t get any ideas.” She ended the sentence with a hiss and fog started rolling in.

“I agree that if you stayed away from the kidnapping, murder, and cult stuff, I would have probably stayed with you,” said Ryuji. “Except you did do all that stuff… Why are we even talking about this?”

“I would add personal freedom to the list of things I’d want from you in the hypothetical world where we stayed on the same side,” said Hibiki, “but, otherwise, I agree.”

All for One blinked several times, a small part of his mind cherishing the fact that he had eyes. “Do you all feel that way?” he asked, oddly touched but also strangely disturbed.

“No,” said Daigoro, “the rest of us hate you and the government just about equally.”

All for One turned his gaze to the quivering ‘government lackey.’ “I see. So, I suppose I have the government to thank for this turn of events. Hm? What did you do to have these soft-hearted fools so upset with you?”

The little man squeaked and jabbed something like an epi-pen into his leg. A second later, he vanished.

“Wait,” said Izuku. “Wait. THAT’S how to get out? That’s so stupid! Can we do that?” The last was said as an aside to Nana.

“Not with him here,” said Miranda. Her voice had dropped back into its more dangerous registers.

“Oh, so we are going to fight after all,” said All for One, clapping his hands and smiling. “What fun.”

“I can’t believe you distracted him and got Suzuki to leave like that,” said Aizawa as they stepped out of the fog.

“Well, my brother always did like to hear the sound of his own voice. And be a jerk, but I’m sure that was obvious,” said One. They came to a stop in front of a normal-looking apartment building. One sighed. “This is where we lived,” he said. “Before…” He sighed again.

Aizawa examined One out of the corner of his eyes. He looked tired.

“How much of what you said back there was true?”

“Huh? Most of it, really. My successors built me up as some kind of big good, but I was never anything but a normal guy with a slightly more functional moral compass than my brother.”

From what Aizawa had seen so far, he suspected One was seriously underselling himself.

“I’m sorry,” said One, “but I’m going to have to leave you here. Nine’s quirk should look like a younger version of himself. He couldn’t have been any older than five when it was taken.”

“Anything else I should know about?”

“Sorry, not really… I’ve not exactly been inside my brother’s head. If you manage to find a switch labeled ‘empathy,’ you might take a second to flip it on. Or not. Could be booby trapped. Wouldn’t put it past him.”

“Great,” said Aizawa.

“Midoriya-san,” said Mr. Compress. “We’ve been searching for quite some time now, I hate to say it, but I rather suspect that your son has thoroughly escaped.”

“Escaped,” repeated Midoriya. “Like a prisoner.”

Mr. Compress coughed into his fist. Tomura glared at him through a fog of exhaustion. He was wearing a mask. Why bother with the fist at all? Sometimes, Tomura felt like the only sane person on a planet of aliens.

“Honestly, we didn’t even know he was in the area, Midoriya-san. But… Perhaps at this point, the best course of action would be to return to our, uh… temporary base so that you can get some clothes. I’m sure Dabi will have something that can fit you.”

“Or maybe,” said Toga, hesitantly, “Magne might have had something?”

“Excellent idea, Himiko! Yes, I’m sure Magne’s clothes will be much more appropriate.”

“I don’t know that dressing her in a dead woman’s clothes is a good idea?” whispered Twice.

“Normally,” said Midoriya Inko, “I would say that the fires of my anger at Hisashi provide me with enough warmth to scorch the ground I walk on but—” she shivered, “—unfortunately you may be right. I’m not a young woman anymore, and Izuku would want me to be safe and healthy. So that I can give Hisashi a… firm talking to.”

Tomura shuddered. The ice in her tone was more frigid than the toilet seat in their stupid unheated bathroom at night.

… He hoped Sensei didn’t get a mind reading quirk in the near future. He definitely didn’t want him to know about that metaphor.

“Machia, will you be a dear and take us back? And Mr. Compress, would you put Dr. Garaki back in one of your marbles? I suspect he’ll be… more comfortable that way.”

At least Tomura wasn’t the doctor.

Machia leaned down and let them all get on, though not before fixing Tomura with a glare and delivering some glitchy threat about the ‘Little Lord’ and ‘playing nice.’ Completely redundant, what with Midoriya Inko’s much more pertinent and detailed threat regarding the same thing.

“Hey,” said Twice. “Do you guys smell--? It’s like a barbecue!”

Himiko sniffed the air. “It does smell kinda smokey, guys. Do you think Dabi got in a fight, too?”

“With who?” asked Tomura.

“Well, Izu-chan has to still be around here somewhere, right?” asked Himiko, putting a finger to her lips.

Machia sped up.

“It’s probably just the wind blowing someone’s bonfire smoke this way,” said Spinner.

Machia slowed down again.

Tomura frowned. “There shouldn’t be anyone close enough for that,” he said. If Dabi had set the forest on fire and given away their position, he was going to murder him.

Machia sped up again.

They came into sight of their current base and the source of the smoke.

These happened to be the same thing.

“I’m going to kill Dabi,” said Tomura.

“Are we sure it was him?” asked Twice.

“I don’t care.”

#bnha #boku no hero academia #fic #fanfic #long night in the valley

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ladylynse · 3 years

Text

Chapter 16 [FFN | AO3] of The Trouble with Ghosts: Lancer hadn’t realized how closely young Mr. Fenton’s school troubles–and the secrets he surely wasn’t telling his parents–were tied to ghosts until after that encounter with Phantom.

(beginning | previous)

Warnings: Torture and near drowning until the dialogue starts, more threats afterwards

-|-

Despite his distorted view, Danny saw the three figures enter the lab before Vlad did. Vlad was too busy watching him. Smiling. Waiting.

Danny’s heart thundered in his chest. He couldn’t kick or thrash. He couldn’t scream, at least not without burning up the last of his oxygen. He hoped Vlad would take his widened eyes as panic or pleading instead of surprise, but—

There must have been some sound that Danny didn’t hear. Vlad turned, flicking intangible as a blast from an ectogun shot through him and hit the door of Danny’s chamber, fizzling out into a shower of green sparks. It wasn’t enough to crack the door, unfortunately, but now he could hear yelling above the blood pounding in his ears, and he knew they must’ve seen him.

Black started to swirl in front of his eyes, and something within him tried to spark to life.

Danny pushed it down, trying to focus, but all he could see now through the encroaching black was glimpses of pink and green. Vlad wasn’t holding back, then. He wasn’t pretending.

Of course, he couldn’t, not with Danny right there in his lab. Considering he looked like Masters and not Plasmius, he’d have to play at being overshadowed to even try to get away with this. Not that it would work now that everyone knew the truth. They weren’t going to take Vlad’s word over Danny’s.

Danny’s chest ached.

Every heartbeat seemed like it was building up pressure, threatening to burst out of him—

That same something sparked again, white light filtering through the black, and he pushed it down.

His vision closed off completely, and he tried to listen, to follow the fight, only to start as something banged into the door of the chamber, sending a reverberation through the entire thing.

Liquid flooded into his mouth and filled his lungs, and Danny choked, spluttering and trying to move—

The spark came again, and he didn’t have the strength to stop it.

After the change had washed over him, his body didn’t protest the lack of oxygen. The fogginess lifted from his mind, and he could see with clear eyes.

Meaning he could see the snarling expression on Valerie’s face as she attacked Vlad, flanked by his mom. Not that attacking Vlad did much good, seeing as he simply stayed intangible. Valerie’s momentum from her punch sent her stumbling through him, and the rolling desk chair lying on its side in front of his chamber didn’t seem so out of place once Valerie grabbed a beaker from the table she’d hit and hurled it at Vlad’s head. Maddie danced out of the way—Valerie really wasn’t used to fighting with allies—and swept at Vlad’s feet with the Fenton Utility Weapon, but he still wasn’t tangible, and whatever setting she had it on wasn’t enough for shock him back to tangibility. Danny saw her changing the settings, spinning the dial on the side in between hits, but she hadn’t had success yet.

Most ghosts couldn’t stay intangible for very long.

It was incredibly draining.

Thinking back on it, Danny really should’ve realized that Vlad employed that tactic more than anyone else he’d ever fought. All those years of breaking into places, maybe. He wasn’t fighting back anymore, though Danny wasn’t necessarily sure that it was a good thing. It was Vlad. Having no scruples was kinda his thing, and—

Wait.

Where was Lancer?

It shouldn’t have been difficult to lose sight of a giant ball of green energy, but to be fair, Danny hadn’t expected Lancer to ever turn off the portable ghost shield. (Once Danny had realized that must be what Lancer was using, he really couldn’t see it being anything else.)

Of course, a ghost shield was only effective against ghosts.

Danny’s heart sank a little when he spotted Lancer a mere five feet from him, half-hidden behind an examination table but held in place by a second Vlad.

A duplicate in human form was still in human form. Truthfully, Danny wasn’t sure how that worked, but it was something he’d tested with Sam and Tucker once he’d gotten the hang of actually creating a duplicate. Vlad had had twenty years to test out his abilities, so he knew perfectly well that he’d only needed to drop his intangibility and invisibility at the last second to pass through the ghost shield.

For a moment, Danny didn’t know why Vlad wouldn’t just overshadow Lancer. A scalpel to the throat was a little much, even for him. Maddie and Valerie were too focused on the first Vlad to notice, and Danny couldn’t hear Mr. Lancer making any attempt to get their attention. It just didn’t seem like an effective tactic, so Danny couldn’t understand Vlad’s game. If it were just to keep Lancer from reaching him—and he had clearly been Lancer’s goal; Danny had no doubt Valerie and Maddie had agreed to something like that beforehand, letting Lancer do the rescuing while they did the distracting—there were easier ways to do that.

Holo-Maddie reappeared at that moment, causing the real one to freeze in place and stare as the hologram chirped out, “Sample processed, sweetums!”

Valerie was the first one to recover—unless you counted Vlad, who was already flying towards the computer console. The version of him who wasn’t holding Lancer captive, anyway. “What the heck is that supposed to mean?” Valerie shrieked, her words even clearer to him now that he was Phantom. She hadn’t taken her eyes off the hologram, but Maddie had the moment Vlad had begun to move. She was taking aim with her weapon, and—

Vlad screamed as the blast hit him in the back, throwing him forward into the console. His suit was smoking slightly at the edges, distinct despite Danny’s watery view. Maddie took another shot, this time hitting the computer in a flurry of sparks.

It was only once the Maddie hologram flickered that Danny realized that might have been his mother’s intention all along. Had Vlad let himself be hit? Had he been trying to protect the computer?

Valerie had her ectogun raised again, too. Except— It wasn’t the one she’d held earlier, the one Maddie must’ve given her. It was definitely Dalv tech, the same one he’d faced down only yesterday. She wasn’t in her suit—at least she knew enough not to trust that—but he knew that look on her face. She was a split second away from pulling the trigger, and Danny was sure that it was only Vlad’s voice from behind her when she could clearly see him in front of her that had her freeze before she could take her shot.

“I’d hold your fire,” the scalpel-wielding Vlad said, effectively drawing the attention of the others.

Holo-Maddie reappeared by the first Vlad at the computer console, but neither Valerie nor Maddie gave any indication that they’d noticed. Valerie took two steps towards Mr. Lancer and the Vlad who was holding him captive, still aiming her gun at them, but Maddie stopped her. She started trying to bargain, but Danny could recognize the distraction for what it was, and he looked back to see if he could figure out what Vlad was doing at the computer.

The angle wasn’t great; Danny couldn’t see the screen, let alone make out what Vlad was typing. Still, he could see Vlad pocket something—a flash drive, maybe?—before he keyed something into the computer. Holo-Maddie disappeared, and one of the large buttons on the console started flashing red.

Vlad changed into Plasmius, catching Valerie’s attention once more, but she only got off one shot before he flew through the wall.

It had missed him by less than half an inch, the tiny little dart embedded in the wall instead.

The remaining Vlad smiled before dropping the scalpel and vanishing himself.

Danny couldn’t make out Lancer’s gasping words, but he waved off Maddie and Valerie and pointed towards Danny. At a word from Maddie, Valerie nodded and moved towards him anyway, but Danny couldn’t see if Lancer had downplayed his injuries because Maddie was all he could see as she came over to examine the chamber.

“Hold on, Danny,” she said. “I’ll get you out of there.”

Either Vlad’s work was incredibly intuitive or he’d based it off an old invention with which Maddie was familiar, because the water was draining in less than thirty seconds. Danny might not strictly need to breathe as much in ghost mode (or at all? He always got really uncomfortable whenever they tried to test it, so he wasn’t wholly sure if it had a time limit), but he still sucked in huge lungfuls of air the moment he could.

“Thanks,” he whispered, just before the door’s seal released with a pop.

“Don’t thank us yet,” Maddie murmured as she pulled the door open and peered at the contraption sticking out of his abdomen. “Do you know what this is?”

“Vlad was trying to get…got…a mid-morph sample. Like, a DNA sample or something from the moment I changed.” Danny glanced down at it. “You can probably just pull it out without killing me.” Vlad didn’t know if the sample was all he needed, after all. At least, Danny hoped he didn’t. That doubt would keep Vlad from pulling anything worse right now.

“Let’s get you out of this first. Then I’ll take a better look at that.”

A detached part of Danny knew most mothers didn’t carry around lockpicks, let alone know how to use them. It wasn’t one of the things he could ever remember Jazz rolling her eyes over—being able to chase ghosts past the first locked door or gate or whatever was rather essential to a successful ghosthunter, and his parents didn’t exactly have a life of crime on the side like Vlad—but it was something he’d gotten used to long before his parents had ever opened the portal. He could still remember the look on Mrs. Foley’s face the first time he’d asked her where she kept hers if she didn’t have any pockets in her clothes. He’d been five or six, maybe, and she’d been too stunned by the seemingly random question to speak.

Tucker had been too busy laughing to realize Danny hadn’t been joking like he’d assumed.

Still, it didn’t take very long for Maddie to free his wrists, and by the time she dropped down to work on the lock at his feet, Lancer was hovering anxiously in the background and Valerie had gone to glower at the computer console.

“Thanks for coming,” Danny said, trying not to focus on the thin line of red where Vlad had scored Lancer’s skin. He really hadn’t thought Vlad would kill anyone—it was more his style to utterly discredit them—and seeing that this might not have been an empty threat on Vlad’s part made Danny’s stomach turn. He was fine with the danger being focused on himself, but everyone else, especially someone like Mr. Lancer….

“The others are headed over,” Valerie said without turning around, and Lancer closed his mouth without speaking. “Good thing, too. I think Tucker’ll need to figure out whatever Mr. Masters did, because I definitely can’t.”

“Come on, sweetie,” Maddie said as she eased him free, keeping his torso straight even as she turned him, pivoting him out of the chamber without pulling free whatever was stuck inside him. “Just hold on a few more seconds while I look at this.”

Danny nodded and didn’t breathe, letting her work.

He felt like he’d lost. Mr. Lancer, Valerie, his parents— They all knew and accepted him, and now they all knew the truth about Vlad, too. That should have been a victory. Maybe it still was, of a sort, but if Danny had won that battle, Vlad had won the other one. He’d gotten the mid-morph sample. His play with Valerie had worked. He’d…he’d be able to create stable clones….

Would he even be satisfied with a clone? He might create the perfect half-ghost son that looked exactly like Danny, might be able to brainwash him or program him or whatever he’d done to Danielle to make the clone as like Danny as possible, but a clone would never be as good as the original, however perfect a replica it was. How far would Vlad get before he realized this wouldn’t make him happy, either? How long would it be until he came back? Tried to capture Danny again, tried to split his parents up and win over Maddie? If he did manage to create perfect clones, he could use them to his advantage—

“He won’t get away with this,” Maddie was saying. “He won’t simply lose his position on the city council; his estate—his entire empire—will come under scrutiny. I know he kept residences here and in Wisconsin, and there are all those hunting cabins, too. He won’t be easy to track down, but we’ll find him, even if he tries to hide in the Ghost Zone. In the meantime, we’ll make sure he can never come back and never hurt you like this again. It’s going to be okay, sweetie. He can’t fool us now that we know the truth, and he won’t be able to keep his political power, either.”

“We should perhaps focus on the most immediate problem—” Lancer started.

“I’ve almost got it,” Maddie said without looking up from her tinkering, but from the look on Lancer’s face, that wasn’t what he’d meant.

“Uh, guys?” There was a note of panic in Valerie’s voice that hadn’t been there before. “I think Vlad sealed us in.” Danny looked over at her, and she had her phone to her ear. “Jack’s outside in the office, and Jazz is headed back to school to pick up Sam and Tucker, but apparently this place is blast proof.”

“There should be a control panel on the wall where we came through,” Maddie said. “Get it open and I’ll come when I’m finished here.”

“I can bandage him up,” Lancer said with a touch on her shoulder. “First aid is within my skill set.”

Danny had felt the poking and prodding and pulling around his abdomen, of course, but he hadn’t realized his mother had tugged out the device—long and sharp with what might be electrodes hanging off of it for all Danny knew—until he saw it in her hand. She set it on the bench beside her and pulled his own hands to press against the wound before removing her own and straightening up. She pulled out a sample bag from one of her many pockets and put the device inside before tucking it away. As she stripped off her green-stained gloves and pulled another pair from a different pockt, she said, “Thank you.” Pointing with her free hand towards the wall with the portal, she added, “I saw the first aid kit over there.”

As she walked over to join Valerie at the far wall, Lancer dropped to a crouch to examine the wound for himself, gently nudging Danny’s hands out of the way.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Danny said after Lancer sucked in a sharp breath.

“I think I’ll be the judge of that, Mr. Fenton.”

“You don’t know what I’ve been through.”

Lancer closed his eyes briefly before standing. “No, I daresay I still don’t, but I do know it is not something I would wish on someone as young as you. Come along; I’ll see what I can do.”

“If it’s bad enough that you need to stitch me up, you don’t have to be that good at it for it to be good enough. Sam didn’t know what she was doing when she started, and all Jazz and I knew about sewing when we began doing this was whatever Dad had shown us, and that never involved stitching up people.”

“You are not making the situation sound any better, I’m afraid.”

“It’s just….” Danny bit his lip but let Lancer guide him closer to the portal and didn’t protest when the teacher bent to pick him up and sit him down on an examination table. Well. Dissection table, going by the bindings. He decided not to think about that, something that wasn’t hard to do when his wound was throbbing after the jostling, and instead changed back to Fenton before Mr. Lancer asked. The change, at least, came as easily as it always had. “It’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be once it started.”

“Should that not be cause for celebration?”

Danny wasn’t sure if Lancer was trying (and failing) to be facetious, so he shrugged and then hissed as the movement stung, stabbing into him with more ferocity than he’d expected from such a slight movement. “I don’t think it’ll be as easy as Mom thinks it is.”

Lancer was quiet for a moment, busying himself by grabbing the first aid kit from the wall, setting it down beside Danny, and looking through the contents to find what he wanted. Finally, “Things rarely are as simple as they should be, but you needn’t take it all on by yourself any longer—and, rest assured, I am not referring to your friends. I strongly suggest the matter be left primarily to your parents, with my assistance wherever I am able to help. If there are any legal proceedings—”

“Are you serious? We can’t take Vlad down using the proper channels. If he can’t buy people off, he’ll just overshadow them or get some other ghosts to do it for him.”

“Mr. Fen—”

“This isn’t something you can just fix. It’s not that easy.”

“I understand, but—”

“No, you don’t. You can’t or you wouldn’t be standing there talking about legal proceedings.” Danny started to sigh and then coughed as the pain spiked again. His healing was still too slow. How long was this thing supposed to last? He couldn’t remember Vlad helpfully monologuing about that little detail. Too bad Technus wasn’t likely to know.

“I’m sorry.”

Danny blinked and looked up at Mr. Lancer, who was still focused on disinfecting Danny’s wound. Danny hissed through his teeth as a new sort of stinging took hold, but Lancer didn’t pay that any mind.

“I should have done something before,” Lancer continued as he reached for some butterfly stitches, something that Danny knew from experience would hold well enough until he could get stitched up properly. They were better than nothing, anyway. Lancer held the wound closed as he put them in place, and Danny did his best not to wince. “I knew something had changed in your life, and it took me entirely too long to find out what it was. I allowed myself to be distracted, to neglect you in favour of the school—”

“What?”

Lancer had pulled out the gauze now. No big surprise there. When in doubt, cover it and deal with it later. It would not be the first time Danny had pulled that trick. With his usual healing rate, he typically only needed stitches and splints and stuff to make sure he didn’t heal improperly; he’d never had to worry about infection.

“Let’s just say seeing Mr. Baxter appropriately punished for his actions has been an ongoing fight, one I have not dedicated myself to as much as I should have, as you are not his only target.”

Oh.

Being Dash’s favourite punching bag wasn’t even on Danny’s radar right now.

“That’s okay. I’m used to it. But you—”

“You being used to it, as you say, is part of the problem—and, quite frankly, yet more evidence of my failing. Thankfully, that is a fight I am better suited for than this one has been.” The hand that had been tracking towards to the first aid kit—probably for medical tape to hold the gauze in place—jerked towards Lancer’s neck instead, no doubt pulled by the reminder of what had happened and the realization of what could have been, but it resumed course before it could make contact. “Just because you are used to something does not mean it does not need to be addressed.”

“I mean, I guess, but priorities, y’know? Vlad’s definitely worse than Dash.”

“And your parents will focus on that problem with the help I can give them, as I’ve said.”

“But it’s Vlad. It’s not just…. I mean, yeah, he’s one person, but he’s not one problem. He can create a whole bunch more problems really easily, especially now that he has a mid-morph sample from me. That’s what he needed to stabilize his clones. He can create a perfect clone of me now, at least once he gets a lab set up or overshadows someone in charge of one that does have the right stuff, and—”

“I am not saying that you are incapable of handling the problem—or problems—Vlad poses,” Lancer said delicately as he finished taping the gauze into place, “but you need to understand that you aren’t alone in this anymore.”

“Sam and—”

“Did I not tell you that your friends and your sister should not be the only ones facing the danger alongside you? You know that isn’t what I mean.”

Danny frowned. “You’re still seriously underestimating Vlad, even though he threatened you and you’re standing in his secret lab.”

“Which is one reason why I am not trying to say you should sit out all of this while the adults take care of the situation,” Lancer said, not looking the least bit surprised when Danny bristled. “You have more knowledge and experience than we do—even, I daresay, than your parents do. You may have fewer years of ghost hunting under your belt, but your perspective and the intensity of your, ah, training, for lack of a better word—”

“Experience is the best teacher.”

Lancer raised an eyebrow at Danny’s glib interruption but otherwise didn’t comment on it. “You should not be sidelined, but neither should you continue to be the one leading the charge and taking the heaviest fire. One of the reasons your parents fight ghosts is to protect you and your sister, is it not? Is throwing yourself into the most danger possible not against everything they are fighting for?”

Danny shifted and tugged his shirt down to cover up Lancer’s patch job as the teacher packed away the supplies. At least that meant his previous wounds must not look too bad; otherwise, Lancer would’ve insisted on redressing them. Of course, the one in his side was near enough to the one in his abdomen that Lancer could’ve done it at the same time. Danny had been paying more attention to what he’d held in his hands than where he was putting them, mostly because thinking about what Lancer was doing would just make it hurt more.

Still.

If Lancer hadn’t continued talking, that meant he was waiting for an answer. Danny took a careful breath, and it didn’t hurt this time. “Sometimes it’s necessary.”

“It is not necessary right now, and I am quite sure your parents will do everything in their power to ensure it remains unnecessary for you, your sister, or your friends to do that.” He glanced over his shoulder and added dryly, “And I am very much including Miss Gray in that assessment.”

Danny glanced towards Valerie. She was still hovering by the door, watching Maddie work on the panel. “Val’s a good fighter.”

“I never said she wasn’t. I’m trying to say that none of you should fight, but as you have the most knowledge of the situation, it is prudent that you help the adults—”

“But don’t you get it? Yeah, we’re kids, and it sucks that we have to risk so much to do this—but we aren’t the only ones in situations like this. Well, not like this, dealing with ghosts, but with high stakes. And it’s great that you care and want to take care of us, but we don’t need taking care of. Maybe you think it’s a shame we had to grow up fast or whatever to deal with this, but we can’t just pretend what we’ve gone through never happened. We’ve already had to learn to fight, so we did, and we’re good at it. It doesn’t make sense for you to just up and stop us and make us into, I dunno, consultants or something instead of fighters.”

Lancer blinked.

“We always knew there was risk. We accepted that, just like Mom and Dad did. Just like you did. We might not be legal adults but that doesn’t mean we don’t know what we were getting into with this. This whole thing with Vlad is messed up. We know. We know better than you do. He has what he wants, something he’s been trying forever to get, which is scary because it means I don’t know what he’s going to do next. And neither do you.”

Danny stared at his hands, not wanting to look Lancer in the eye after he’d let his tongue run away with him. “It’s just…. I can make a better guess of what this means than you or Mom and Dad can. And if you guys try to block us at every turn and insist it’s too dangerous to be directly involved ourselves just because we’re kids, we’re never going to stop him, and things will get worse.”

He pushed himself off the table, landing on his feet and wincing but holding in a whimper of pain. He’d get through this. He had to. Vlad’s drug had to work its way through his system and wear off soon, and then he’d be back to normal in no time. “I’ve picked up some things from Tucker, so I’m going to check out the computer. You can go through Vlad’s files or something and see if you can find the formula for whatever Val shot me with. Mom can probably make an antidote once she has that.”

Lancer made no move to follow as Danny strode off, and when he called Danny’s name, Danny pretended not to hear.

(see more fics | next)

#danny phantom #danny fenton #vlad masters #mr lancer #phanfiction #dp fanfiction #fanfiction #my writing #ladylynse #snippets #dp snippet #fic: the trouble with ghosts

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goldenchan-fx2thepeacock · 3 years

Text

Quick AU where Danny stays in town during Girls Night Out

Yeah, random thoughts spring into brain. Danny is trans. I think that's enough background info. Also, Tumblr got a new post editor, so I'm betaing it right now.

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Danny was supposed to go fishing with his dad. But something came up. AKA, Vlad wanted him to go visit him without Danny. So Danny was in Amity Park when he was supposed to be having dad bonding time. What could he say? His dad got that dumb book and everything. It was gonna be epic. Except stupid Vlad had to go and ruin everything. Whatever. Dad said they would go next weekend.

The first big issue was when Tucker disappeared. And he didn't. Might've been a dumb ghost thing. So he and Sam went to find stuff out. Except all the men in town were gone. It was glaring. "I-I'm sure it's nothing Danny!" Sam said nervously. "Yeah. It's gotta have been a stupid mistake. Maybe I'm immune cause I'm half ghost," Except there weren't any male ghosts either. "Yeah, that's gotta be it!" That when they heard Ember. "OH YEAH! NO MORE PESKY GUYS! IT'S A GIRL'S NIGHT OUT!" "Yes. You know, I'm surprised that worked. I was afraid it might've been a ghost only thing," Spectra drawled. "Of course it worked. The superior gender always prevails," Kitty replied. "And that's obviously female," Every vein in his body was pounding. "I think you might've confused sex for gender ladies," Sam said patiently. "We're not having sex!" Ember laughed. "You do realize how invalidating this can feel for trans people?!" Sam shrieked back. "If they're still here, that means it's a she," Spectra grinned. That was the last straw. He ran. As fast as he could. And for a half ghost that was fast. Once he got home, he slammed the door.

Sam saw Danny run off and knew how this was looking for him. "Isn't this rich? The ghost boy is really a girl," Kitty grinned. "I'm surprised I didn't notice sooner," Spectra laughed. Ember stayed oddly quiet for someone who was normally boisterously loud.

Danny curled in on himself. Herself. NO! Don't second guess yourself. It change the fact that it hurt. "All the men in town are gone!" He heard Jazz yell. "I realize that Jazz. Thank goodness your father is out of town," Mom sighed. "Wait, but Danny isn't! I really hope..." She was standing in his doorway. "FUCKING GHOSTS!" Jazz didn't swear. She never swore. "What is it Jazz? Oh. Danny, I'm so sorry," Mom pulled him into a hug. "I'll be fine," He grumbled. "Do you know which ghosts?" Jazz decided to change the conversation. "Spectra, Kitty and Ember," "Great. Spectra is going to use this horribly," Jazz grumbled quiet enough that only Danny could hear. "Listen, we have to get the guys back first," "Wait, if you're, that means any trans women in Amity are stuck there," Mom said. "Can we not talk about that? I'm seriously not in the mood," "At least pesky Phantom won't be here to get in the way," Jazz and Danny exchanged a look. Sam came bursting in. "Danny! Okay, I am going to make them even deader than before," Sam cracked her knuckles. "I'm fine Sam. Let's just find a way to fix this," "I have an idea!" Jazz said. "No," Danny, Sam and Mom said in unison. "Oh come on. Don't be like that. Not all my plans are bad," Jazz protested. "Speaking from experience (of being trapped in a thermos way too much for one night), that is completely untrue," "What was that about thermoses Danny?" Mom said. "Jazz put soup in my Fenton Thermos!" "I couldn't tell them apart! We really need to label things," "Like with a massive sticker that say Fenton?" "All our stuff has those!" "Fair enough," Danny conceded. It was the plan if anyone caught them talking about getting trapped in thermoses. It made sense because it actually happened. "Well, since Jazz's plan is out, I opt that we figure out how this whole thing happened," Mom said. "It's a combo between Kitty and Ember. Kitty has this thing that makes men disappear into another dimension. And Ember must've used her guitar to make it cover all of Amity. If we don't get them out in twelve hours, they'll be stuck there forever," "And I will have to resign to a life of raging dysphoria," "You were gonna have that anyways," "Times ten. This won't help anyways, but it won't be all bad," "Let's stop talking about you being trans. Danny, you're staying here," Jazz winked. He knew what that meant. They would get all the men back and Danny would keep the ghosts at bay. "Okay. So, from what they were blabbing, all we have to do is get them to do it again," Sam said. Once they had a plan in place, all they had to do was implement it. They left and Danny quickly transformed. Praying that Spectra wouldn't find a way to use this against him, he sped off. "Hey! Poo faces! I'm not gone, and it semi pisses me off!" He screamed. "Oh now sweety. Why would you want to leave behind the superior gender?" Spectra said. "Because it makes me feel horrible and like I was born wrong," "You were, weren't you," Don't let Spectra sink her claws in Fenturd! "Yeah, maybe I was, but if I work hard enough I can fix it," "How is Danny Phantom still here?" He heard Paulina say. Nope, not listening. "They're all going to know. You can't do anything about that," Spectra laughed evilly. "Now girls, follow the recipe! You too now," "I'm. NOT A GIRL!" The wail was probably ill planned, but Danny wasn't thinking straight. Shit, humans. He cut himself off. "Oh come on now. No matter how many times you tell yourself that, you still have to cover parts of yourself. Don't tell me you don't wake up every morning and wish you were a real boy?" "I am. I am a real boy. I just have to take a few extra steps to get there," "Oh come on now. Stop lying to yourself. Maddie, how can you possibly call these eggs? They're green," Okay, maybe dealing with Spectra first was a bad idea. But she was also taunting his mom. Deal with Ember. She must be better than this.

So he flew to a stage. Ember was rocking out with a bunch of girls. Sam was in the background. This was probably one of the less dangerous problems. "Listen, if you're going to taunt me for the fact that I'm still here, do it already," "Hey, listen kid. I'm not actually going to taunt you. Kitty and Spectra are being complete jerks, but I'm not going to judge you for being trans," "Y-you're not?" "Heck no! I'm doing this because I wanted to have a fun night without guys. You included. I'll just have to take a few extra steps to get rid of you!" Danny dodged the guitar strum easily. "Are you planning on bringing them back at the end of the night?" "That's really up to Kitty," "I guess," Sam could deal with Ember.

Next up was Kitty. Oh great, makeup. (I honestly forget what Kitty was doing, so makeup works) "Now girls. All you gotta do is apply the bronzer like so!" "Kitty! How would Johnny feel if he knew you were doing this?" "Oh come on now Ghost girl, you can't be serious. Johnny is having a guys night in all due time," "HEY! Don't you dare. Transphobia doesn't help anyone," Jazz yelled. "Oh stop complaining. She knows she doesn't belong with the guys. From the looks of it, Spectra's already gotten to you. This'll make this so much easier,"

The plan backfired immensely. Danny and Mom were a mess, Sam didn't manage to get the guitar, and Jazz just got in a debate with Kitty. Danny, having to keep up a facade, came downstairs. "How'd it go?" "Terribly. Though, I did learn the Ghost Boy is trans," Mom said. "Fascinating," "It's, well it's oddly human. Why would a ghost even bother?" "Turns out gender dysphoria comes to the grave," "Danny, this is no time for one of your morbid jokes," Yeah, maybe it was morbid, but it wasn't a joke. "Whatever. I guess we get to use Jazz's plan," "All we gotta do is convince them that a cis guy is still in town. Like wandered in after the disappearing act," "Great plan. Sam can't pretend to be me though," "How did you know I was going to do that?" "Lucky guess,"

So that's how Jazz ended up wearing a baseball cap and a pair of men's jeans into Ember's concert. "Did we really have to use a pair of dad's jeans? These barely fit," "You know, the fact that they fit at all should be surprising. Dad was skinny at one point in his life. Which means that one of us could be on his end of the gene pool," "It's probably you," "Don't make me think about that. Hiding what little chest I have is hard enough. If I got dad's genes, I'd honestly be terrified," "We haven't seen the women on his side of the family. And besides, you got the blue eyes black hair thing," "You are honestly scaring me. Now, I gotta scram before someone sees me talking to you. Mom or the ghosts," "Fair,"

And thus, the plan worked. Kitty, adamant that no men be left in Amity, blew another kiss. Ember amplified it. The men came back. The three got thermosed. Jazz laughed at their faces when they honestly though she was from out of town. Danny once again didn't get taken, even in ghost form.

Tucker and Sam found him curled up in his bed. "Hey man. I know this has gotta be tough for you," Tucker said. "Spectra had no right!" Sam continued. "Thanks guys. But I think I'm gonna take a few days off school," The trio heard Dash's voice outside. "Hey mom. I know what happened was scary. And I know it must've felt really bad, but I still see you as my mom," "Thanks Dash. I can always count on you to make me feel better," A woman's voice rang out. Danny looked over the window sill. "See Danny. It's not horribly weird. Just a few transphobic ghosts," Tucker laughed. "A couple," "What?" Sam and Tucker said in unison. "Ember isn't," "How do you know that?" "I talked to her," "Hey Fenturd! Don't you dare tell anyone about my mom! And don't be mean to her! I'm sure you wouldn't get it," "You'd be surprised Dash!" He grabbed his trans flag and hung it out the window. "I get it more than you seem to think!" Dash's mom smiled at him. "Y-you're trans? I thought you were just a loser!" "Yeah, and I had to talk to the transphobic ghosts. So I won't invalidate your mom!" Dash stared up at him. "Holy shit,"

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Praying that this uploads, cause I've got shoddy internet rn. And I'm working on my Gravity Falls crossover fic. I just had this pop into my mind. Prolly just gonna be a oneshot. I might make another fic about Jack's side of the family later, that's connected to this one.

#danny phantom #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #dash baxter #trans!danny #trans!dash's mom #maddie fenton #kitty (ghosts)#ember mclain #phic #penelope spectra #tw:transphobia #tw: gender dysphoria #jazz fenton

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mymadmedleyw · 3 years

Text

Portal

Summary: It represented something like hope, something unearthly, something worth examining, but now, for Maddie, it was nothing else just a reminder, telling that she failed.

(ao3 | ff)

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Maddie was staring at the swirling green madness, trying to recall the days when it wasn't a curse or seemed more than an acidic green-ness of doom, but- she shook her head, she couldn't tell. Now, at the present, she couldn't remember those days.

Her son was dead, and partly she had made it happen. And she called herself a good scientist! But, after all, she called herself a ghost-huntress too, and...

She bit her lips. She had been both at a certain moment of time and also a mother, who should have been a support to her little boy, but- now, who she was? But this damn thing couldn't answer her question either, it was wordless and- and just the shifting swirl was speaking in silence, telling a tale that she hated to hear, it told that- that she had failed. As a scientist, as a ghost-hunter, and as a mother too.

Maddie took a careful step closer, wondering. Had it been painful? Surely, it had supposed to be. It had killed her boy. But- she almost could imagine him, shrieking in pain and falling to the floor, unaware yet that his life had changed and that- that it never would be normal again. She had made it. She had let it happen. She had killed her baby. Just as-

"Mom!" a sudden shouting voice made her stop to take another step. And then, in the corner of her eye, a bright green light slowly was flying closer. "Come back, it's dangerous."

She had to laugh at the note – if she could have been able to crack a smile on it. Dangerous, he said, dangerous! It had been dangerous, a hazard too at the first place and-

Suddenly something grabbed her shoulder and then in a blink of an eye she was at the other side of the lab, being pushed down in a chair. A glowing green gaze locked her eyes, worried. "Mom, you're okay?"

Maddie had to blink a few, realising what had just happened, that she was placed – by flying obviously – away from the portal, because- because she had been standing too close to it, that- that she had been too close to harm herself with it, just like-

A little shake got her out of the thinking. "Mom! "

Maddie shook her head, trying to concentrate. It took a huge effort, but then she looked back at the bright gaze, nodding. "I'm okay, sweetie, don't worry, I was just thinking there."

Her boy – now in ghost form – moved backwards, giving a sceptical look, crossing his arms and floating in the air with spectral tails. "It's dangerous, mom. You can't just walk into the Ghost Zone. For humans, it's better to wear something like uh- sort of protection or else who knows how it could affect the body or even hurt you. It’s not safe for you, to walk in, just like that.” he lectured, but the only word she heard was the word ‘hurt’.

Hurt … not safe… just like that… dangerous. Fatal maybe even – not maybe, literally, because- because- Now, it reached the edge, Maddie buried her face in her hands, breaking out weeping. What had she done? He was- he was worried over her that she would get hurt by the portal and- and she supposed to be the mother, to take care of her son and- who was she now? Nothing else, just a failure.

For a moment there wasn’t anything else just her quite sobbing, and then something made a bright flash of light and a nearly uncomfortable cold something embraced her, flinching by the touch, but not releasing her otherwise. It took a second to realise what it was, what – who – was hugging her, comforting her. Maddie pushed him away.

“Danny, change back immediately!” Her son, confused and surprised blinked at her. Maddie stared at him seriously. “Now, sweetie!” The boy raised his arms in the air, giving up, but wincing in pain by the movement, only confirming by it, that him, being ‘human’ caused him indeed trouble.

“Okay, okay, gee!” rolled the human formed boy his bright blue eyes that were still dimmed by the hurt he still was in. “Ancients, if someone had told me a week ago, my parents would force me to stay Phantom, I would have thought they were too long in the Thermos and lost their mind.” he mumbled under his nose, but then the white rings appeared and his form changed back into the ghost-state. Maddie gave a sigh of relief and wiped off the remained tears on her face.

“Honey,” she turned to her baby, “just because I am still processing this whole, it doesn’t mean, you have to change back to human and comfort me, just because you assume I’d be less freaked out.”

The boy in embarrassment scratched the back of his neck, this time with a lack of frowning by the movement. “I thought- I thought…” but then, he stayed wordless.

Maddie reached out for him, slowly grabbing his uninjured hand, looking straight into the glowing green gaze. “Danny, you have to heal, and you said, you heal faster as Phantom. Staying ghost is obligatory till then, got it?” the boy sheepishly nodded, she continued. “I might not be able to protect you from everything, but I am your mother, and as a mother, I have to take care of you as much as I can.” she gave the explanation.

The boy pursued his slightly trembling lips, visibly near to crying, but he didn’t say anything, he was just quietly floating in the air, rubbing his upper arm uncomfortably. “Okay, but-“ he gazed at the floor, but then lifted his eyes, letting out a breath. “Just don’t go into the Ghost Zone without protection, okay? If you want to explore it or something, tell me and we’ll figure out how I can show you around safely later.”

Maddie stared at her son, shocked, he was- but after all, he was the hero of the town, the Ghost Boy, protecting Amity Park from the other ghosts and… even if she was his mother, she didn’t have a word who was in charge connected to ghosts. She nodded.

“All right,” he accepted it, and moved a bit backwards, giving a quick glimpse towards the portal. “You don’t might if I shut it off now, do you?” he flew towards the panel. Maddie shook her head, slapping herself mentally why didn’t she yet do it, after the other ghost had appeared and disappeared, and…

“Uh-“ she facepalmed, cursing herself that she hadn't been thinking at all. The ghosts were coming to Amity Park from the Ghost Zone, through their portal and- and if any showed up right now, Danny was still weak and healing to fight them and- she was so stupid not shutting it off immediately back then.

“Mom?” came suddenly a questioning voice. Maddie raised her head towards her boy, the lack of swirling green made the lab almost dark.

“Sorry, sweetie, I- I really need to get used to it. So, uh- if the portal is off, there wouldn’t be any ghost issues?” she wondered, the answer was a soft chuckle.

“No, unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.” her son explained. “But I guess, it can keep them away for a while, but for example for Cujo… well, he could slip out even if it is closed.” Maddie’s brows raised up, he continued, reading by her expression. “He is a ghost dog, harmless, mostly.” her eyes widened, by the last note, the boy waved in the air. “I mean, mostly, as a little puppy, mom.” well, that didn’t calm her down, but- after all, what she could do.

Maddie stood up from the chair and walked towards the stairs, but then she turned back to her baby who was now, floating thoughtfully next to the portal in his ghost-form. She had to admit, even if they were scientists studying ghosts, they would have never ever thought they would once actually meet with spectral beings and not even imagining that their town would turn out the middle of paranormal occurrences, and- and not even conceiving that their son would turn out half-ghost by their-

Maddie let out a shaky breath that grabbed the boy’s attention, making him fly next to her, examining her worried. “Mom, are you sure, you’re okay?” she couldn’t tell it or put it into words, but then seemingly she didn’t need to, namely suddenly he wrapped his arms around her. “I’m sorry, I know how hard it can be for you, but I- I don’t blame you, okay? I’m okay like that. And if- if I once had to do this again, giving up being Phantom or living a normal life, I still would choose this, no matter what.”

Her hands started to tremble, but then she squeezed her boy, realising that partly, he had been hiding this part of his life – or afterlife – because he felt it would upset them, blaming themselves for it, creating the portal and… then it clogged together. The portal. Now, it all became clear. Not only her son turned half-ghost but-

“This Wisconsin Ghost…” she started, recalling the ghost who had been helping her, patching her boy, keeping him alive and things – god, how many breakdowns she had had in one day…

Her son released her, suddenly, facing her. “You mean Plasmius?” Maddie nodded, yes, after all, only her husband called the spectre ‘the Wisconsin Ghost’, and in real, they hadn’t ever given a chance to ghosts to introduce themselves... They shot first and asked questions never, especially if that was about- about… Phantom. She buried those disturbing thoughts rather right now, in the back of her mind, only focusing on the current issue.

The boy ran his hand through his white hair. “Yeah, I should definitely thank him, saving my life…” he whispered, and then, his lips curled into a half-smile. “Gee, actually, I hadn’t even thought, he would help me, but-“ his expression fell into an unreadable one. “After all, he was right, if things turned bad, he would be the only person to understand me…” he pursued his lips to that note. Maddie was sure that note meant something to him, something deep, but she didn’t push it, just as he forced himself to leave that thought behind, turning to her suddenly. “Sorry, what you wanted to ask about Plasmius?”

Maddie had to think, what she wanted to ask, but then, it reappeared in her mind. “It’s Vlad Masters, isn’t it?” she voiced, her son’s mouth opened and closed a few times, putting together what she was saying.

“I- I didn’t- I don’t suppose to-“ he stuttered. “We- we have a pact not telling- well, not telling- I-“

Maddie put a hand on his shoulder, giving her a look, tilting her head. “You didn’t tell it. I figured this out myself.” she calmed her, and indeed it seemed his ghostly body released the sudden tense. “It was the Proto-Portal, right?” he didn’t need to give a nod, she knew it. Now, she started to understand the man too, not everything, but slowly, the things began to clear up. Especially the expression that had been readable on the ghost-man’s face as he had spotted the injured boy, and Maddie had asked for help. That had been fear, horror, if she had hurt the ghost-boy, because Vlad was aware of who her son was. The Wisconsin Ghost that had once attacked them, the man who had a clear obsession over getting her, had been worried over the other part-ghost, because- because even if they were each other enemies, they still shared the same fate, bonding over their state.

Maddie gave a quick glimpse towards the now shut-off portal, she wasn’t sure when she would be capable of stepping over it, but then she turned to her boy, making up a convincing smile. “Pizza?”

Her half-ghost son smiled back at her. “Pizza sounds good, I’m starving.” he said, phasing excitedly through the door of the lab. Maddie stared back at the cursed invention, but then, followed her boy, concentrating on preparing lunch instead and somehow making a promise to herself to never ever create another portal. She couldn’t even tell if she was once able to survive the guilt over this, or either the previous one.

#dannymay2021 #danny phantom #maddie fenton

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universe-in-the-void-in-the-cube · 3 years

Text

Misspellings

Day 12 - 1671 words

'Why in the hell did I cast that damn thing???' she thought to herself as she ran to hide behind a random door. 'I used all the right spell components; I cast it at the right place and time; I spoke the words exactly; and according to the spell they shouldn't be acting this way. So, what in the name of George Washington did I do wrong???'

She couldn’t understand what she did wrong. She was trying to a simple love spell. Just a tiny, itty-bitty love spell. Nothing more. Little did she knew she was quite mistaken. It all started when she was in her room that she stayed at while visiting the Nordic 5. Robin was studying magic under the tutelage of Lukas while she was there. Where he handed her a simple book of spells to learn and practice with. Little did she know that casting one simple love spell would only give her a mountain of problems that day.

Then hearing a familiar voice coming from the other side of the door, "Come on sweets, you can't hide from me forever you know?"

"Tino!" Robin squeaked as she started to back away from the Fin walking towards her with a look of lust in his eyes. “Stay back Tino, I am warning you.”

"You got that right Bobby babe; now why don't you stay here and give ol' Finny some lovin'?" Tino wooed as he strutted closer to her.

"Get away from me!" Robin shrieked as she bolted to the entry way like a frightened bunny escaping a hungry fox. As she ran out of the room and dashed around the dark hallways of the Nordic mansion to get away from Tino; to which she literally slammed into Emil.

Falling onto the floor Robin looks up to see Emil give her a sly wink, "Well, it looks like you have fallen for me." He flirted, "You have two choices, we can do it in your room or since you're on the floor already, we can do it here."

Recoiling in horror for the very fact of Emil suggesting making love right here in the hallway; Robin quickly jumped to her feet and skittered away from the horny Icelander. This day was quickly turning into a damn nightmare for her. Robin wondered what else this strange day had planned for her.

As she ran, she wounded up find herself in the exercise room to see Berwald pretending to be chained up by some of the weight machines. "Berwald! What the hell are you doing here???" Robin said dreadfully.

Giving her a dirty look with a facial exception to match, Berwald playfully cooed, "Punish me. Please punish me mistress because I've been a very naughty boy!"

"Oh, poopy on a pocky, not you too!" she flustered.

Letting go of what he was using to pretend to restrain him, Berwald move closer to the already skittish American brunette. "Please hurt me, Robin. Whip me, beat me, ravage me, and take me to your room so I can fuck you till my brains falls out."

"Sorry, not today pal!" she jittered as she bolted out of the room quicker than a flash flood till, she reached what seemed a darkened storage room.

'They shouldn't find me here for at least a short while. Maybe I mispronounced the incantation. That has to be it. There can't be any other explanation.' She thought about what she could have done wrong when she noticed a very faint glow was seen in behind a tower of boxes and crates. "What the hell?"

Robin quietly creeped to see what the weird glow was; she was surprised to see Vlad meditating in the middle of the room. As he meditated, he glowed red and as the red glow started getting brighter, the Romanian kept chanting to himself again and again, "Come to me Robin and love me. Come to me Robin and love me. Come to me Robin and love me."

Backing off quietly and quickly as she could, Robin was about to give out a big sigh of relief for the fact Vlad didn't spot her, when she hit something with a loud thud.

"Gotcha!" said Mathias who grabbed her and started to carry her back towards Vlad. "Hay, Vlad, I got that sacrifice we have been needing."

"Sacrifice??? What type of sacrifice???" she asks with eyes wide with alarm.

Looking up from his meditation, Vlad said seductively with a sly smirk on his face, "Why you will be a sexual sacrifice my dear Robin."

"Yah, I'm looking real forward to screwing you, sweetness." Said Mathias as he smiled suggestively as he let her down.

Standing between two nations with no means of escape; Robin tightly closed her eyes.

Feeling someone grab her and quickly let her go, Robin opened her eyes to see that she was in another room. The kitchen to be exact. It seemed that she was magically teleported there. That's when her rescuer spoke up.

"Don't worry, Robin. You're safe now."

Turning around, she saw her rescuer. It was Arthur.

Not too sure what to do next, Robin smiled warily at the Brit, with her finger twittering nervously in her hands as she whispered, "Thank you."

He looked at her warmly and with a polite, Arthur asked her, "What where Mathias and Vlad planning on doing with you in there?"

"They wanted to use me as a sexual sacrifice." She quietly mumbled to him, as he was still a bit on the wary side on what Emil was going to do next.

"Oh, I see." Replied Arthur as he walked up to the refrigerator and grabbed her a soda.

Walking to her, Arthur handed her a cube and leaned against the wall. "It looks like I got there just in time to save you then."

Taking a sip of her soda, she and said, "I feel like I ought' a reward you for saving me."

Walking back up to her and taking her soda and placing it on the kitchen counter, Arthur then lecherously replied as he walked with protease grace toward her. "Oh, I might have an idea on how you might be able to reward me. If you know what I mean."

There was only one thing she could think of and that was run. As she dashed out of the kitchen, upstairs to the hall, she quickly turned and ran down an adjacent hall to her bedroom, with Arthur trailing not too far behind. Opening her door and shutting it; Robin locked the door to her room and put a chair beneath the door handle and the same to her bathroom door that she shared with the Icelander so that no one could get in.

Leaning next to the door, Robin sighed as she sunk down to the floor with a bump. She was safe. There was no way on god’s green earth that anyone could get in there. Then crawling on her hands and knees and scuttled to the large pile of papers and books that held all the things on magick she was studying. As Robin rummaged through the piles, she noticed that the book with the love spell she cast was missing.

"Now where in the nine hells did it go!" she screamed in frustration as she kept searching though the piles upon piles of books

That's when somebody asked her, "Are you looking for this?"

Looking up towards the voice, Robin saw the Norway sitting cross legged on her bed and waving the spell book in question.

"You!" scowled Robin.

"Me." Lukas calmly mocked.

Stomping up to him in an inpatient huff; Robin held her right hand out in a proprietary gesture and yanked the book out of Lukas's hand and stomped across to the other side of her room next to her art supply rack. As she flitted through the pages of the book, she kept looking back at Lukas off and on to make sure he didn't do anything that would cause her grab a heavy art supply from the rack and throw it at him.

After what she experienced today with the other nations, she wouldn't pass Lukas to make advances towards her any moment. So far, she was quite impressed by him for mot trying anything…yet. Emphasizing on the word 'yet.' All he did was sit and looked at her.

"Ha!" Robin said face flushed with happiness. As she looked through the spell, she didn't see anything amiss. At first. Then a word popped out at her. 'Did I pronounce that word right? Maybe I should ask Lukas; he should know.' But before she could ask him anything, he was already in front of her.

"Is there anything you need help with?" he asked calmly.

Jerking in fear at his closeness, Robin then scolded him, "Don't do that! Anyway, since you are here, is this word pronounced with a short E or a long E?"

Looking at the word she was pointing to, he then corrected her, "The E is silent."

Now a feeling of stupidity came over her like a wave; Robin kept looking at the spell to find a way to reverse it, let alone figure out when the spell would end. Lukas was next to her now and was at least a least a paragraph ahead of her when it came to finding a cure; that's when he kissed her. As they kissed, they and the book started to glow red. Lightning flashed outside of Nordic mansion and the entire mansion's power went out.

Braking out of the kiss, Robin’s face flushed with a mix of embarrassment and arousal asked, "What in the hell did you do that for?"

The Norwegian, being the king of snark that he was, then said, "Keep reading." As he saw her reading the rest of the information about the spell.

As Robin read, her eyes started to widen.

Looking at her he smiled and said, "And all it took was a kiss."

#hetalia #hetalia nordic 5 #hetalia nordics #hetalia finland #hetalia iceland #hetalia denmark #hetalia sweden #hetalia norway #hetalia romania #hetalia england #nanowrimo

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angrypomerianian · 3 years

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it’s bring your sibling to school day and katsuki, monoma, toga, and hawks are siblings. todoroki gets the shovel talk. bakugou and fuyumi are best friends. chaos ensues. (todobaku~)

“alright,“ aizawa slams his papers onto his desk. “tomorrow is bring your sibling to school day. if you don’t have siblings, don’t bring anyone. if you do, then bring your siblings. simple as that.”

the class fell into an excited chatter as they started discussing who they were going to bring. kirishima bounded over to katsuki, “hey, bakubro! i’m going to bring my little sister. i’ve told her all about you, she’s going to love you!”

bakugou flushed at that statement. he could feel todoroki’s jealous stare. they’d been dating for a few months, but decided not to announce it. they didn’t think it was a big deal, so they decided it was nobodies business. “hey, who are you going to bring?“ kirishima asked.

“my siblings.“

kirishima nearly fell out of his chair, “you have siblings!? and you didn’t tell me!?”

mina bounds over, “who has siblings?”

“bakubro! and he didn’t tell us.”

she slams her hands on the desk, “you have siblings!? and you didn’t tell us!?”

“that’s exactly what i said!”

he rolled his eyes, “you’ll all meet them tomorrow if you wanna see them so badly.”

________

the next day, he was forced to wake up the birdie by himself. “BIRDBRAIN, GET THE FUCK UP!”

hawks fell out of his bed, squawking, “why do you have to be so damn loud in the morning...”

katsuki crossed his arms, “it’s bring your siblings to school day and everyone else is down in the kitchen.”

“fine...”

hawks and katsuki go down to the kitchen and see monoma chasing toga around the kitchen.

“i said i called dibs on the last bagel, you psycho!”

toga giggled, “i got to it first! finder’s keepers, loser’s weepers!”

katsuki rolled his eyes, “i picked up more bagels the other day, neito. look in the pantry.”

monoma sped off, mood suddenly lifted and katsuki turned to hawks, “keigo, we’re going to make an entrance at U.A. today. nedzu already knows about us, so you are going to fly us in last minute, neito and toga on your back, and you’ll be carrying me in your arms.”

hawks nodded, too dazed to compute what he just said. katsuki goes to grab toga, neito, and a bagel, and they are off.

hawks was to busy with work to be able to take them to school by flying, and katsuki missed this feeling. he missed the buzz while slicing through the air, wind tangling his hair even more, and the chilling air whipping at his face. he whoops, way too unhinged in the morning, and neito starts yelling, “katsuki calm the FUCK down! i don’t know how your classmates haven’t found out how unhinged you get in the morning.”

toga giggled, “i can’t wait to see izu-kun! and who’s the boy you’re seeing? shouto todoroki?”

hawks froze, “you like ENDEAVOR’S SON? WHY DON’T I KNOW ABOUT THIS!?”

katsuki’s face suddenly heated up, “BECAUSE I DON’T WANT YOU TO GIVE HIM A SHITTY SHOVEL TALK!”

before hawks had the time to retort, U.A. was getting closer. katsuki smirked, “alright motherfuckers, i know when homeroom starts so we’re going to enter the building right before we’re late.”

toga looked at him, “why can’t we be late?”

“because i need my perfect attendance.”

neito snorted, “that’s seems like the nerd you are.”

“you shut the fuck up. i’m not the one going on about how ‘class 1-b is more superior’ and all that bullshit.” neito pouts, and the three laugh.

it was 8:20, time to get this show on the road. hawks dives down, giving a feather to each kid. they stand on it, like a skateboard, and hawks controls the feathers. katsuki, neito, and toga are next to hawks, skidding across the ground with feathers. they all do flips, tricks, and jumps (like snowboarding) and laugh together.

they can feel people’s stares and hear their whispers, but they don’t care. they’re getting closer to the door, and they hear excited shouts and chatter.

neito glances at katsuki, “you ready for this show?”

katsuki grins “hell yeah.”

hawks zooms them across, and lets them do flips. they burst open the door, startling most people but they don’t care, and start flying through the classroom.

toga giggles, “that was so fun~!” there were yells in the air, but their kids calmed the siblings down. they’d wait for a little, as she didn’t seem like she was attacking anytime soon.

katsuki was still floating in the air, “keigo let me the fuck down!”

keigo crossed his arms, “no! i need to meet this todoroki kid you-”

“THAT’S A SHITTY SECRET, NO ONE KNOWS YET.”

“well everyone’s gonna know now!”

katsuki jumps off his feather, and lunges towards the number 2 pro hero. there are some shrieks, but he ignores them. “keigo- you fucker- shut the fuck- up!”

“where’s this todoroki kid you seeing?”

uraraka jumps up “you and todoroki are dating!?”

katsuki turns red, and todoroki flushes at the sudden attention. fuyumi and natsuo were staring at him with wide eyes, and todoroki shrinks away from their gazes. “this is all your fault, why’d you bring that up!? fuck you, toga! and get the fuck away from the shitty nerd!”

toga was leaning over izuku’s desk, all in his face. katsuki rolled his eyes, “i’ll call kurogiri if you don’t stop!”

toga squeaked, then pouted, “fine~”

“well, well, well! i hope you all remember that class 1-a is inferior to-”

“NEITO! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST YOU ARE ALL ADULT CHILDREN! WHY CAN’T YOU FUCKING BEHAVE FOR A SHITTY DAY!? I COOK, I CLEAN, I PAY THE FUCKING TAXES. ...shit.”

the class was silent. katsuki paid his own taxes? what about his parents?

“you extras weren’t supposed to hear that. ANYWAY! I ASKED Y’ALL TO BEHAVE FOR ONE DAY AND WHAT DID YOU DO? YOU FUCKED IT UP!” katsuki took a deep breath, “so, you’re going to behave, right?” his voice was dangerously quiet.

neito, toga, and hawks quickly nodded their heads. a quiet katsuki was an angry katsuki. “now, we have to go to neito’s class. come on.”

katsuki pulled hawks, toga, and neito all onto his shoulder, and walked out the door. “if aizawa-sensei asks, i went to 1-b’s class to drop this piece of shit off.”

kirishima was the first to get out of his shock., “alright, bakubro! hey, aiko, that’s bakugou! the one i told you about!” the little girl nodded, a little shocked.

katsuki slammed the door open, and strolled out. he was carrying them all so easily, like he was used to this. that’s what carrying nitroglycerin filled gauntlets does for you. he stalks to 1-b’s classroom. he could hear vlad king asking where monoma was, and took that as an opportunity to answer his question.

“your kids right here vlad, chill a little bit.” everyone’s eyes widened as katsuki entered the room, a villain, the #2 pro hero, and neito slung over his shoulders.

he plopped neito onto the floor, and puts his hand on his hips. neito looks up at him, dazed and looking like a lost child. “alright, before i leave, i got some shit to get over with.” he stalks over to kendo, gaze sharp and attentive.

after some silent moments, and throws the two other bodies onto the floor, ignoring their whines and protests, and puts his hands together. “i am so sorry that i had to burden you to keep neito in place. i lose about 100 braincells just talking to him on a daily basis, and i have no idea how you are even alive. i’d like you to pay you for making my life so much easier every fucking day.”

he hands her a 10,000 yen (about 100 dollars in usd) and grabs toga and hawks by the collars.

kendo starts stuttering, “i-i, you don’t have to give this to me! it’s too much, really!”

katsuki rolled his eyes, “girlie you probably lost about 200,000 fucking braincells, you deserve it. taking care of one monoma neito is like taking care of 20 problem children.”

“b-but! 10,000 yen!? how do you get that money?”

“i work. and aizawa-sensei pays me to take care of class 1-a on a daily basis.”

kendo mutely nodded. “anyway, neito don’t you have something to say to your classmates?”

“wha-! i thought you were kidding when you said that!”

“nope. saying this moment or i’m grounding you and prohibiting you from saying that class 1-b is superior than class 1-a.”

“he has power over that kind of thing...?” awase muttered.

monoma stands up and walks over to vlad king, “...thank you for being my teacher, vlad king-sensei.”

katsuki nods proudly, ignoring the adult’s spluttering, and picks toga and hawks up by their collars. “say hi to neito’s class.”

“hi~!”

“hello!”

katsuki nods in approval, “alright, neito i’m picking you up after school, you better behave. if i hear from anybody that this poor girl is losing her sanity over karate-chopping your neck today, i’m pouring salt in your water.”

neito nods feverently, goes to sit down, and katsuki leaves the classroom. he strolls back to the class, still holding the two adult-children by the collars, and plops them next to his seats, and stares at them. “what the fuck do you want now?”

“can i have some blood?” the students look at him in alarm, thinking that they were going to get some blood stolen from them, but katsuki takes a baby bottle out of his jacket pocket. it’s filled with... blood. toga starts drinking it, humming with content.

“uh, katsuki?”

“WHAT, birdbrain!?”

hawks is now petrified, “c-c-can i still give the shovel talk to y-your boyfriend?”

“ABSOLUTELY NOT.”

hawks pouts and todoroki breathes a sigh of releif. he does not need to be scolded by his father’s coworker, not today.

“katsuki-kun?”

katsuki looks up “hah?”

fuyumi looked at him, not at all fazed by his demeanor, “here’s the mapo tofu recipe you asked for!”

his expression softened just a bit, “thanks.”

she nodded, “no problem! remember the girl i told you about? sakura?”

“the one who glued the other kid’s hands to the table because he was being mean?”

fuyumi nodded, a smile on her face, “she, uh, she ended up kicking him in the balls and used some... explicit language the other day.”

katsuki starts laughing, “finally! the little fucker got what he deserved then.”

she started giggling as well, “i think some of the language came from you and your last visit.”

katsuki rolled his eyes, “i don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. i’m a fucking delight to be around.”

“you sure are! the kids want you to come back soon.”

todoroki takes this as an opportunity to interrupt, “ah, fuyumi-nii, how do you know katsuki?”

she turns to him, “katsuki-kun comes by my classroom and helps out sometimes!”

he nodded, “oh” he then proceeded to lift katsuki up, sit in his chair, and put him on his lap.

the reaction was immediate. bakugou yelped, “what the FUCK do you think you’re doing!?”

“since everybody knows i thought we could do this in public now.”

“you motherfucker! this is a classroom!”

todoroki pouts. “fine...”

he leaves the chair, and katsuki repeatedly bangs his head onto the desk, muttering about how, ‘stupid extras can’t give me a break for a day.’

aizawa finally enters the room, looks at toga and hawks, and wriggles into his sleeping bag.

hawks tugs on his shirt. katsuki rolls his eyes for about the 50th time today, “what do you need now, fucker?”

“when can i give the shovel talk to your boyfriend?”

he rolled his eyes, “because i have the feeling that you aren’t going to leave me alone until you say yes, just give him the fucking shovel talk now.”

hawks brightened. “thank you! now... shouto todoroki please come with me!”

he gulped, stood up, and stiffly followed hawks.

natsuo walks up to him, “hey, uh, shouto’s gonna be ok, right?”

katsuki passively waves his hand, “probably.”

the students’ eyes widen along with natsuo’s who looks towards his sister. she just shrugs her shoulders.

hawks and todoroki come back. hawks looks happy and bright, while todoroki looks like he’s about to throw up. he trudges over to katsuki, stands next to him, and immediately slumps over him.

“what the fuck did you do to him!?”

“i talked to him!”

“it surely doesn’t look like it.”

“what do you mean!? he looks fine!”

todoroki still hadn’t made a sound. he was just hugging katsuki as if his life depended on it.

“really now.” katsuki wasn’t impressed.

he patted todoroki on the back, “oi, big baby get the fuck up.”

he said something that sounded like a moan and gurgle.

katsuki pushed him to the ground.

he started pouting (again) and made grabby hands towards katsuki. he sighed, dragged todoroki’s body to where his siblings were, plopped him down, and went to his seat.

before hawks could say something stupid, he spoke in a low voice, “if you don’t behave yourself until the end of the school day, i will personally drag your ass to the league of villains and have toga drink your blood.”

toga spoke up, “that sounds nice!”

hawks gulped, sat down, and looked at the ground. the classroom was silent, and kirishima jogged towards katsuki.

“hey, bakubro! wanna meet my sister?”

“whatever, shitty hair.”

“hey, aiko! come over here!”

the little girl goes over to him. she has black hair and red eyes, just like kirishima without his hair dye. “hi, mister! eiji told me all about you!” her eyes brightened, “can i see your quirk?”

he wore a small smile, “sure.” he gives off small sparks, and no smoke was exerted.

“woah! they look like little firecrackers!”

the rest of the kids huddled around katsuki, and he showed various things he could do without making a big mess. he made a glowing sphere, firecrackers, and used some powder to make explosions of different colors.

the rest of the students watched in awe, and fuyumi and natsuo were studying him. “i think you chose a nice boy, shouto.”

todoroki was watching him fondly, “i know.”

class ended, and the rest of the classes were filled with chaos. the kids kept asking katsuki to show him his quirk, which he did, and during training they were amazed by the big explosions he could make.

hawks and toga also behaved themselves, hawks occasionaly getting lost from the amount of students asking for autographs, but toga could navigate without a hitch. students were still wary of her, and shrunk away when she walked near them.

at the end of the day, the kids asked katsuki for one more demonstration, todoroki hugged him until hawks started glaring at him, and they picked up neito. he, thankfully, didn’t cause any trouble and they all went home.

the four walked home in comfortable silence when hawks spoke up. “y’know, i think that todoroki kid is all right.”

“yeah.” katsuki gave them a smile, “thank you.”

they all split into aw’s and how ‘katsuki was getting soft’, until neito made a stupid joke about class 1-a and b.

#bakugou katsuki #hawks #takami keigo #toga #himiko toga #monoma neito #class 1-a #kendo itsuki #class 1-b #kirishima eijirou #todobaku #todoroki shouto #todoroki fuyumi #todoroki natsuo

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hamburgerhelpersotherhand · 4 years

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Château P3

Castlevania x Reader

Warnings: Threats of bodily mutilation.

Notes: 😔🤙 No words.

She’s angry.

Well, actually, she’s beyond pissed. Carmilla is stomping through the halls searching for a girl who seems to have just... vanished. She’s beginning to regret not ordering you to stay outside the door.

Her meeting with Dracula was poor, it didn’t seem to flow in her favour. You could say she was angry before finding out her ward was missing, but she always seemed to be a little angry about something.

“GODBRAND, YOU FUCKING PIG!” Carmilla shouted as she spotted the viking’s unkempt red hair from behind.

“What! What did I do this time?” He turns to face her as she makes her way toward him. Godbrand takes a step back, as Carmilla puts herself directly in his face; and gives him no space to breathe.

“Where is my ward?” She asks with a scowl on her face and a accusatory finger stabbing at his chest.

“Your ward? Oh! The little thing that follows you around? I haven’t seen her since you arrived.” He rubs his chin with a smile. “Did you think I had her for lunch?”

“Of course I did.” She scoffs. “You’ve never been above such an act.”

“But here we are, and here I stand: Innocent.”

Carmilla growls agitatedly and pulls herself out of his personal bubble. She hates to believe him, but she knows he hadn’t done a thing.

��You know, bringing that thing here doesn’t seem like a smart idea now, does it?” Godbrand grins wildly, finding amusement in Carmilla’s anger.

“Don’t be so amused. A high horse is nowhere for a gibfaced bedwetter like yourself.”

“You’re one to talk. You keep a human around, yet you think you’re all high and mighty telling Vlad what to do with that wife of his.”

Carmilla’s eyes dig themselves into Godbrand’s, as she takes long strides toward him. He mirrors her, taking just as many steps back as she had forward.

“Don’t fucking tell me what’s what.” She speaks harshly, yet just above a whisper. “If I find that you or the others are lying to me, I won’t hesitate to rip out each of your teeth, pop your eyes out of your skull and cut your FUCKING balls off.”

Godbrand’s face solidifies in an instant. He’s frozen as he searched her eyes. Carmilla wasn’t kidding.

“Do I make myself clear?” She asks and, after not much thought, he nods.

It’s dawn by the time you lot make it to the next checkpoint.

There’s no person in sight. It would seem that... this place which once called itself a town is long gone. Whatever is left stands frozen in time, with only the wind giving it a hint of life. You can’t even hear the morning birds! It’s actually very eerie in your opinion, but you don’t bring it to anyone’s attention.

The four of you are still seated on the carrosse, but it seems to be coming to a halt near what you presumed to have previously been a town square.

Trevor is the first to break the night-long silence. “Split up and look around. We need all the supplies we can get.”

You suddenly feel the carriage dip and watch all three hop off. You quickly shuffle to your feet.

“And what of me?” You ask.

Trevor looks at you with an air of annoyance. It would seem he had nearly forgotten you were there. “Right.” He inhales.

“You’re with me.” Alucard states and you look his way. He gestures for you to step off the carriage and follow him.

“Trevor and I will look through the abandoned farms.” Sypha speaks as you land on your feet. “There seems to be an INN over in that direction. Could you two scout it out?”

“Of course.” Alucard replies and looks your way, signalling for you to follow. He seems tired, despite being a vampire. Or, rather... a half vampire.

In the morning light, you begin to notice how brightly yellow his hair is. It’s almost reminding you of Carmilla, but she’s beginning to make less appearances within your head.

You look him up and down as the two of you walk in the direction Sypha suggested. His long black coat is dirty, he must wear it all the time. What a sad waste of such luxurious fabric!

As you observe him, you notice his glance. He knows you’re looking him up and down and now you know he knows you’re looking him up and down.

“I’ve never been outside this long.” You state out of the blue, your sight drifting away from him to observe the trees and cloudy pink sky.

“Never?” Alucard asks.

“Well, besides being on the balcony.” You reply with a sigh and a kick of the dirt beneath your feet. “I was never given the opportunity to walk through a forest. It’s not as appealing as I had hoped and I’m beginning to appreciate balconies a lot more.”

“If you didn’t go outside, how did you keep yourself busy?” He asks.

“Reading. Morana taught me.”

“Morana?”

“Oh, sorry. She’s one of my mistress’ colleagues.” You reply. “A very cruel one, too.”

Alucard hums.

“But I don’t only read! I also enjoy theatre and music.” You quickly say as you raise your voice.

“A fan of the arts, I see.” He replies softly.

His near whisper had caused you to realize the raising tone of your own voice. You didn’t mean to, you were just very excited to be sharing your interests with someone.

Alucard places his palm on the door of the abandoned INN and, with no strength at all, pushes the doors open. They fall off their hinges and flatly— and loudly- land on the floor, kicking up dust in the process.

You cover your nose and bat the air near your face. You remember reading about dust containing dead skin once. Gross.

Alucard takes a step inside, ignoring the dust and making his way around.

The awfully kept interior of the INN made it seem like a fight took place. There are many sharp pieces of wood and glass on the floor. The both of you decide to maneuver slowly with just a simple look.

“Adrian—“ Alucard cuts you off by pressing his index to his lips, a sign to be silent.

You’re trying to address the elephant in the room— the blood. There’s a lot of it, dried and blackened, on the floor and coating much of whatever was left of the furniture.

It’s... very gross. This whole place is gross.

Alucard stills for a moment, listening intently. What he’s listening to, you don’t know, but you stay still as well.

You both hear a creak and before you can look up, the ceiling above you comes falling down on your head. You could swear you heard Adrian shout as you hit your head on the floor and grabbed at the splintering boards crushing you down.

Above you and ontop of the boards stands an unfamiliar breed of... whatever the hell those creatures are supposed to be called. It shrieks in your face, slobbering as it does so, and you swear you’ve probably gone deaf.

Alucard is quick to finish off the monster with a swift beheading.

Ah... blood gushes onto your face as you furiously attempt to spit it out of your mouth. The body is slumped over the boards which are currently crushing you, and Alucard takes his sweet time removing them both.

By the time you’re no longer under the rubble, you are drenched in blood. Your... your dress. The only thing you have to wear is now completely ruined.

“You smell horrible.” Alucard comments and you just stare at him, unamused.

#castlevania x reader #castlevania #x reader #alucard #dracula #sypha belnades #adrian tepes #trevor belmont #carmilla #alucard x reader #sypha x reader #trevor x reader #carmilla x reader

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thelazyhermits · 4 years

Text

I just thought of a scenario that’s both hilarious and adorable which I think y’all will enjoy XD I don’t know if it would be canon though since Fortune’s identity would still need to be kept under wraps, but I guess it would be fine as long as her identity isn’t technically revealed lol

This takes place during the kids’ second year Sports Festival.

So, y’all remember how around halftime there were several games that all the students could play just for fun? While the games were only shown briefly, it looked like one of the games they were doing was a scavenger hunt where the kids all get a piece of paper and have to find what’s on the paper. Like if the paper says “hat” then they have to ask someone in the audience if they can borrow their hat and bring that either to a finish line or to the host of the game.

Anyway, I was thinking it’d be fun if all the hero course students participated in that during their second year or like maybe it’s required for all the hero course students to participate in the scavenger hunt. The reason for that being that Nedzu, Midnight, & Mic come up with a devious plan for the game.

The plan? Make all the pieces of paper say something that would make the students think of Fortune like “pretty girl”, “favorite teacher”, “someone you respect”, etc.

Nedzu always loves to see a little chaos, so he thought it’d be hilarious to do something like this where all the students are trying to make a grab for Fortune and bring her to the finish line or to whoever is hosting the game. Midnight and Mic thought it was hilarious too and were all for it. They wisely kept Aizawa in the dark about it lol

Anyway, once the game starts, Todoroki gets his slip of paper which says “someone you love” and immediately he thinks of Fortune and starts looking for her. As soon as he finds her, he makes an ice bridge between her and him and asks her to slide down from her spot in the audience.

Never one to turn down the chance to ride on a fun slide, Fortune obliges, wondering what his piece of paper says. Unfortunately for Todoroki, before she reaches the bottom where Todoroki is waiting for her, Uraraka sweeps in and grabs her.

Uraraka’s piece of paper was similar to Todoroki’s and she decided to go after Fortune since picking anyone else would be super embarrassing for her. Plus, she’s always loves to compete with Todoroki.

While she tries to fly to the goal using her Quirk to cancel her gravity and Fortune’s, Uraraka doesn’t get far because Dark Shadow makes a grab for Fortune during the moment Uraraka gets distracted by Todoroki’s counterattack.

Tokoyami got a paper that said “someone you respect” and Dark Shadow immediately went after Fortune cause he knows that’s who Tokoyami respects the most out of everyone who’s present. Plus, picking Fortune would be less embarrassing than picking Hawks who is in the audience lol When Dark Shadow tells Fortune about what Tokoyami’s paper says after he sets her on the ground beside Tokoyami, Fortune gives her student a hug, flustering him.

Before Tokoyami can attempt to bring Fortune to the goal, Kuroiro takes advantage of this opportunity and merges with Dark Shadow before using the Quirk to grab Fortune. His paper said “favorite teacher” which is technically Vlad but Kuroiro thought Fortune would be easier to grab lol Plus, she is one of his favorites, so he figures that’s good enough haha

Kuroiro doesn’t get far cause Bakugou intervenes, attacking him and stealing Fortune. Bakugou’s paper is like Tokoyami’s. Technically, he could go after All Might, but his competitive spirit compels him to beat everyone else and be the one who successfully takes Fortune to the goal.

All the while, Fortune is having flashbacks to All Might’s lesson where she got to play the role of a football. Well, at least, she hasn’t hit the ground yet lol

Pretty much all the students get in on the free for all since everyone wants to be the one to succeed. At one point, Monoma ends up carrying Fortune, but he gets so flustered to the point Fortune worries that he’s having a heat stroke. Naturally, she makes it worse when she brings her face closer to his when she’s examining him. Kendou has mercy on him and takes Fortune from him before he passes out haha

Shinsou also gets involved cause he gets a paper that says “big sister”. He refuses to tell Fortune what his paper says when he’s carrying her after successfully taking her away from the student who had her last cause he’s too embarrassed to.

The only student not involved is surprisingly Midoriya whose paper says “your role model” which technically does describe Fortune but it obviously describes All Might too. While the craziness of the free-for-all is happening, Midoriya is having an internal crisis over who he should try to go after for the scavenger hunt. He doesn’t want to offend All Might or Fortune, and he’s also worried that it would earn him a lot of unwanted attention if he went after All Might since the last thing he wants is for people to have another reason to question their relationship.

So, Midoriya is just off to the side, mumbling under his breath, as he tries to figure out what the best solution for this predicament is. Eventually, he’s pulled out of his thoughts when he hears Fortune’s startled shriek.

While he was having his internal crisis, Fortune was getting passed around by the other students, and eventually, an accident happened which caused Fortune to get sent flying. Unfortunately, this accident caused all the students to get caught up in a pile up, so they’re a little slow to react.

Thankfully, Midoriya reacts instantly. In a blink, he has OFA activated and moves to catch Fortune.

Unbeknownst to him, he just so happens to land where the goal is, so right after he asks Fortune if she’s alright, Midnight asks him to show her his piece of paper. Without thinking, Midoriya obliges and jolts in surprise when she declares him the winner.

That’s when he realizes where he is and just stares, dumbfounded by this sudden turn of events. Wanting to reward him for winning and for saving her, Fortune gives him a peck on the cheek which turns his whole face scarlet. Rather than faint, Midoriya just becomes a statue similar to what happened during the summer camp.

Meanwhile, a lot of students are giving him envious looks. Needless to say, this scavenger hunt will go down as one of the most interesting ones UA has ever had haha

#TABF HCs #I just love this scenario so much #just think how hilarious this would be #nedzu would totally do this #just for the chaos #cause he loves him some chaos haha #aizawa is not pleased #fatgum who came to watch kirishima #was also displeased #hawks thought it was hilarious #dude was videotaping the whole thing #his hysterical laughter could be heard down from where fortune was #nighteye who watched it on tv was just shaking his head #tensei thought it was hilarious too #especially how tenya tried and failed to get fortune to the goal #a lot of people enjoyed that scavenger hunt as much as they did #the actual competitive parts of the sports festival haha

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five-rivers · 4 years

Text

Interview With a Ghost (part 3: Break)

(PART 1) (PART 2)

The call came shortly after Danny had informed Tucker of his (disastrous) interview with the police and had left to go fight a giant bird ghost that had made its way to Elmerton. That bird wouldn't know what hit it. Well, it would know that Danny hit it, presumably, but not that Danny was hitting it so hard due to repressed anxiety regarding his body and the fact the police had it.

Tucker had been, as it so happened, waiting for the call.

"Hey, Sam," he said, not bothering to so much as look at the caller ID.

"So, Danny's gotten himself into a mess."

"Yep," said Tucker. "A pretty big one. Not all his fault, though."

"He did make it worse."

"Yeah. What are we going to do about it?"

"How do you feel about breaking and entering?"

"You're going to have to be more specific," said Tucker. He rolled over on his bed to stare at the ceiling. "We do that pretty frequently."

"The city morgue. ME's office, specifically."

"There'll be guards," said Tucker, "what with the rumors and all."

"I've got the Box Ghost in my thermos. He's a good distraction."

"Transport?"

"Working on it. You'll take care of the security cameras and locks?"

"As long as they're digital," said Tucker, pulling up his data on the city cameras as they spoke. "The outside ones are, but I don't know about the insides. There might be analog machines in there. Tapes. Can't do anything to anything not on a network."

"I know, I know. Hey, maybe you could send a text to whoever's supposed to be guarding it tonight? Get them to leave?"

"Mmm. Maybe. If I could figure out who that would be."

"That could backfire, though," said Sam. "If they don't send messages like that. Sorry, I'm just thinking out loud."

Tucker pulled up a building map in another window. "I think we'll probably need more than just us, though. Remember the first time we had to move... it?"

"Yeah, but who else are we going to get to do this?"

"Jazz, maybe? She has a car, too. She can be transportation."

"Tucker, we're not looping Danny in on this. Do you really think that Jazz is going to be any more cool with this than Danny?"

"I don't know, Jazz can be pretty savage when it comes to protecting Danny."

The phone made Sam's considering hum crackle with static. "We do need transport," said Sam.

"Yeah. What were you looking into for that, anyway?"

"Ugh. Cult connections."

"Dude. Danny would not be happy if we gave his you know to a cult."

"Yeah, but he can steal it back from the cult with no guilt, unlike with the police."

"But what if he just gave it back to the police?" asked Tucker, looking up the city's purchasing records, trying to determine if they had any cameras that used tapes or that weren't internet connected in or near the morgue.

"Come on, he wouldn't do that."

"Probably not, but he does do weird stuff, sometimes. Like agree to an interview with the police and almost give away his secret identity."

"Yeah," said Sam. "You keep checking how feasible this is, and I'll call Jazz, okay?"

"Sure," said Tucker. "Talk to you later."

Jazz eased her car into the alley behind the building that housed the city morgue and ME's office.

"Stop here," said Tucker. "I can see their network."

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Jazz whispered, putting the car into park.

"You don't have to whisper," said Tucker, sitting in the passenger's seat and typing away at his mobile workstation (he insisted that it wasn't a laptop). "No one is going to hear you. Okay, yeah, I'm on their wifi. Give me a minute."

"Take your time," said Sam, who was lying down in the back seat, dressed in blacks and grays, thin gloves over her hands. "Were you guys able to sneak out okay without Danny?"

"Yeah," said Tucker.

"It was a bit trickier without him," said Jazz. She was lucky that her parents wore earplugs to sleep, and she was fairly certain Danny was out of the house entirely. Fighting a ghost, probably. She always told him to wake her up before he left, so at least one person knew where he was and could help him, but he never did.

"Okay, Jazz, you can get closer, now, then Sam can hop out and Box 'em."

"That was fast," said Jazz, starting the car forward again.

"What can I say?" said Tucker. "Pure talen-"

Something in the car started shrieking. Jazz jumped, momentarily pressing too hard on the gas, and the car lurched forward. Sam swore.

"What is that?" asked Tucker, hands over his ears.

"Who care?" shouted Sam, over the noise. "Turn it off, turn it off!"

"It's the- It's the anti-ecto alarm! I told them not to put it on my car!" She leaned across Tucker and opened the glove box. Sure enough, a sleek chrome-and-green monstrosity sat in her poor, innocent glove box, flashing screens, dials, and indicator lights at them. The car cabin lit up like a disco.

Jazz and Tucker jabbed at buttons until the thing shut up.

"Okay," said Tucker. "I think we're going to have to abort. I'm gonna bet my aunt in Chicago heard that."

Jazz blushed. "Sorry guys," she said. She was going to have words with her parents after this. What if she'd been on the highway when that thing went off? They really didn't think these things through.

"We can't abort!" protested Sam. "We need to get the thing! Before they start running tests on it!"

Jazz started backing up the car.

"Yeah, I know, but we needed stealth. We don't have that anymore. Hold up, Jazz, I need to erase my presence from their system."

Sam grumbled. "What set it off, anyway. Boxy?"

"No, it looks like this was calibrated to only go off for a class seven or above," said Tucker, peering at the alarm.

"Class seven?" repeated Jazz. "But... You don't think Danny-"

"No, he's in the suburbs, dealing with Skulker." Jazz looked over at Tucker's computer to see the Ghost Watch app icon blinking in the corner of his screen. "This is Vlad. Crap."

The door made a thunk when Sam swung it too far out and it hit a wall. Jazz winced, but rolled down her window. "What are you doing?" she hissed.

"We can't let Vlad get away with it!"

"And what are you going to do? Sam!"

"Getting back into the cameras," muttered Tucker, typing furiously.

"I'm calling Danny," said Jazz.

"Won't answer, he's fighting Skulker."

"Well, maybe he's finished!" said Jazz, dialing.

There was a flare of blue white light from up ahead and an angry shout. A glowing silhouette joined Sam's dark one. She had released the Box Ghost.

Jazz groaned. "Why did she do that now?"

"Shhh!" said Tucker. Something began to make little beeping noises. "Oh, jeez."

"What's that?"

"My ghost detector. It's tuned to Vlad." He opened his door half way. "Sam!" he shouted. "Incoming!"

She pressed herself to the side of the alley just in time to avoid a dark, horned figure swooping down on her from above. The Box Ghost was not so lucky.

"... and it's got a lower range," said Tucker, faintly.

Vlad Plasmius, rimmed in fuchsia light, floated twenty feet in the air. He had one hand around the Box Ghost's neck, the other full of neon pink fire. "Oh," he said, his voice echoing clearly in the alleyway. "It's you. What are you doing here, pest?"

"Uhhhhh," said the Box Ghost as Sam tried to make her way back to the car.

"And with Daniel's little friends no less?"

Sam broke into a run, slammed Tucker's door shut, yanked open the passenger door behind him, and slid in. Jazz wasted no time in slamming on the gas. If her car got a few scrapes, so be it.

There was a second Vlad behind them. She dropped her phone and slammed on the brakes. It was still ringing.

Smiling like a villain from a slasher movie, this second Vlad stepped intangibly into the car.

"Well, now," he said, smoothly. "What's this? Daniel's friends, but no Daniel? Whatever are the three of you doing here of all places? And at this hour?"

"What are you doing here?" asked Sam.

"No need to be rude, Samantha, dear," said Vlad. "Daniel doesn't know about your little excursion, does he? He's still across town, occupied with Skulker. You can tell him he won't have to worry anymore. I'll take good care of his body."

"Dude," said Tucker, "do you have any idea how gross that sounds?"

Vlad scowled and flicked his fingers. A ray of pink burned a quarter sized hole in the back of Tucker's headrest.

"If he had a problem with me taking it, he should have hidden it better," said Vlad. "I have no desire to have the existence of half ghosts revealed simply because Daniel hid his corpse in same park the police have their annual picnic!"

"Actually," said Tucker, "they usually have it in Marley Park. Aren't you the mayor? Shouldn't you know this?"

Vlad's scowl deepened further. "Drive safely, Jasmine." The duplicate dissolved into magenta and pink mist.

Sam sneezed. "Gross, I think I got him in my nose."

"Guys," said Tucker. "I've got alerts on the police lines, someone reported a disturbance. We really need to go."

"Vlad stole my," Danny waved his hands in the air in place of the word. "Are you serious? And you guys know, because you were going to try to steal it, and you didn't tell me?" His friends and sister looked sheepishly at the ground. "Why did you wait 'til now to tell me? I've been having anxiety attacks about it all night. I thought that the stupid ME had, I don't know, insomnia or something! It was Vlad?"

"Yeah," said Sam.

"Argh!" said Danny, starting to pace. Thank goodness his room was large enough to have a good pace in, even with three other teens in it. "I don't even want to think what he could be doing with it, but I am! What if- What if he goes full-bore Frankenstein and freaking reanimates it? What am I supposed to do then? And the police! They're going to think I did it, and there goes my credibility with the police!"

"You were on Ghost Watch fighting Skulker when it happened," offered Tucker.

"Ghosts can be in two places at once! The police know that! That's not a good enough alibi!" He put his hands on his face and groaned. "Am I going to have to break into Vlad's house? Again? He has to have a ghost shield up around it by now. And a human shield. And a ghost-human shield. I'm dead."

"You're not dead, Danny," said Jazz.

"I am dead. In ever sense of the word. Dead, I tell you, dead."

"Deep breaths," said Jazz. "You're hyperventilating."

It was true. He sat down on his bed and buried his face in his hands. "I don't even know what secret lair he's brought it to."

"Wait, you mean, you can't tell where it is?" asked Sam.

"No," said Danny. "If I could, I would have known when Vlad took it."

There was a howl from downstairs as someone rang the doorbell. Danny jumped up. "I'll get it," he said. The group bundled down the stairs, trying to keep up with him.

Before opening the door, Danny glanced out the window.

"Oh, heck, it's them."

"Them who?" asked Jazz.

"Them. The detectives!"

"Alright," said Jones, looking at the place where Phantom's body should have been but wasn't. "This is officially too big for just one team. Paterson, Collins, what were you going to do today?"

"Interview high school kids," said Collins.

"Right. You're still going to do that. I'm going to get Murphy and Madison on the break-in, talking to witnesses, but first, your opinions."

"It wasn't Phantom," said Collins. "He could have just come in and taken it, at any time, not just the middle of the night."

"And he wouldn't have needed to take out the cameras and security system," said Paterson, looking over her shoulder at the tech people set up in one corner.

"It was a human. Or a ghost who didn't want us to know who they are," finished Collins.

"Great," said Jones. "That's what I thought, too. I was hoping you'd tell me I was wrong."

"Sorry, cap," said Collins.

"Go on, get out of here," said Jones, making a shooing motion.

"Still can't believe that his name is Wesley Weston," said Collins. "Or that he has a record for trespassing and stalking a classmate and claiming that he's a ghost."

"Want to bet that the classmate in question is Fenton?" asked Paterson.

"No thanks," said Collins. "It would have been better if the victim's name hadn't been withheld." He avoided the word 'wish.'

"Yeah, yeah," said Paterson. She knocked on the door.

A balding red haired man with thick glasses opened the door. "Oh," he said. "Please tell me this isn't about Wesley again. Do I need a lawyer?"

"He didn't do anything," said Collins, quickly. "We just want to ask him a few questions."

"It's unrelated to the stalking charges, which were dropped," added Paterson.

"Great," grumbled the man. He turned. "Wesley! The police want to talk to you!"

"Well," said Collins, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. "That was enlightening."

"His room belongs on a movie set," said Paterson. "Jeez Louise, we're going to have to keep an eye on that kid. He has a freaking conspiracy theory board."

"It was pretty convincing, though. The kid can talk."

"We need to confirm his data, though."

"Yeah. Talk to more witnesses. See if Fenton really does run off whenever Phantom shows up."

"Fenton?" asked Paulina Sanchez, wrinkling her nose so prettily that Paterson suspected she practiced the expression in the mirror. "What about him? I thought we were talking about Phantom. Mi amor." She leaned a little farther into the doorway. She had not let the detectives inside. "Not Fenton."

"We're investigating a number of different angles, Miss," said Collins. "Now, if you could tell us, does he seem to leave class before ghost fights break out."

"Yeah," said Paulina. "He's got some kind of sixth sense thing going on, but he's such a coward. He only ever uses it to run away. Doesn't even try to warn anyone else! I don't know how his friends stand him."

"You're talking about Phantom?" asked Sophia LaMar. "You'll want my parents. I'm only an initiate. I'll go get them." She closed the door.

"Do we run away from the cult house?" asked Paterson.

"No, it'll make us look bad."

"You know," said Paterson, "if I'd wanted a lecture on how time doesn't exist, I'd drive over to the university and sit in on a class on relativity. Not whatever that was."

"At least now we know that ghosts can time travel?" asked Collins, weakly.

"Let's hurry up and get to Fenton's house," said Paterson. "Do you think he'll even talk to us?"

"Who knows?" asked Collins.

#danny phantom #dannymay #dannymay 2020 #day 25

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