Hi, I'm Kat. This is my writing blog- currently it's still under construction so please excuse how empty it is. I decided I needed a dedicated space to put my writing so it doesn't get buried on my main blog where I mostly just reblog things I like. I'm also hoping that having this blog will help me stay motivated to keep writing and give me a way to see myself grow as a writer. I'm going to be posting a mix of fan fiction, original fiction, and non-fiction. As this blog grows this pinned post will be used for navigation.
Out of all things that Danny thought would have caused him to be noticed by another superhero, he didn’t expect it to be his ghostly wail. One moment he was using his wail against Dan, the next moment Superman was at his side. Apparently Superman’s friend Jimmy Olsen’s has watch that was made to alert Superman to any danger and gives off a hyper sonic pitch that only those with superhearing can pick up. One of the many frequencies his wail creates is that frequency and caused Superman to come to his aid.
Asphalt dug into Danny's palms as he tried to get up from where he'd fallen. His family, his friends, still bound and moments away from death, needed him.
He tried to reach for his powers. If he could go ghost he could fly. He could save them. But he was spent. The fight with his older self had taken all he had and now all that was left was painful humanity. Muscles weak and burning lungs and aching ribs. All he could do was lift his head just high enough to see his future being written again. He'd fought for nothing.
The explosive end came all at once. Light, sound, and wind that swept him up and away and... gently deposited him back on the ground?
Danny opened his eyes and nearly fell back down in astonishment. Not only was he not where he was a moment ago, but he was surrounded by his parents, Mr. Lancer, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker, all shaken but otherwise not the worse for wear. All of them now a safe distance from the burning street where Danny had fought his older self.
"Wh-what? How, I- I...." he stuttered, completely perplexed.
"Thought I heard someone calling for help," a voice chimed in from above. Startled, Danny turned to see a man floating-- no, flying-- just a few feet above him. A man wearing red boots, a matching red cape and a blue costume bearing an unmistakable shield with an 'S' on his chest. Superman smiled, friendly and disarming. "Glad it seems I made it just in the nick of time. 'Scuse me one moment." With that he flew back down the street towards the fires. Danny watched as he made short work of putting them out with his super breath.
That is until Jazz tackled him in a bear hug, quickly joined by Sam and Tucker. In spite of the achiness in his everything he hugged them back just as hard.
"I won't be him," he promised again, just to make sure they knew it. "I won't."
"We know, little brother," Jazz affirmed.
When they finally extricated themselves from their group hug, a storm of relief and dread swirled in Danny's chest at seeing the adults. Poor Mr. Lancer seemed totally overwhelmed by the situation. He sat on the ground with his head between his knees. But then there were his parents. They were still here, and for that he was happy. But now they knew about him. They knew of his ghost half but they learned of it from the worst version of himself. The version that wanted them dead so he could exist.
His mom and dad stood awkwardly, seemingly just as unsure of how to move forward. Danny swallowed hard, wondering what they must think of him now. None of them got to be the ones to break the tension though.
"Glad to see that you all seem to be doing alright after your ordeal," Superman said as he landed among them. "The fire department and paramedics are on their way." For a moment Danny wondered how he could possibly know that, until he picked up the distant sound of sirens. Superman must've already heard them coming.
There was a starstruck silence until Maddie stepped forward and clasped Superman's hand in both of her own. Something he was probably used to from civilians from the easy way he let her do it.
"Thank you for saving us," she said sincerely.
Internally, Danny shared her sentiment. He still couldn't get his head around this turn of events. Superman, here of all places. Yet at the same time he felt the sting of rejection. His mom hadn't said anything to him yet, hadn't touched him yet, and in the end it had been Superman that saved them, not Danny. Again he had to wonder if she resented him already.
"Well, I'm never one to ignore a call for help, though I have to admit, I'm a little confused." He looked at Danny's parents oddly, then at Jazz in her Fenton Peeler armor, then at Danny with his ghost equipment still on his belt. "Which one of you sent the distress call?"
"Distress call?" Danny asked, bewildered.
Superman turned more fully towards him and looked him up and down, but Danny couldn't imagine what he would be looking for.
"Not a lot of people have access to that frequency," Superman said carefully. "Maybe it was just a coincidence, but if so, it was lucky for you all."
The emergency vehicles began to arrive along with a not insignificant crowd of onlookers. Amazed cries of 'Superman!' 'Look it's Superman!' 'What's Superman doing in Amity Park?' went up through the crowd. Superman gave a friendly, if somewhat sheepish, wave to the starstruck people.
"I'd better help the firefighters with the clean-up," he said, turning to do just that. "Pleasure meeting you all, stay safe."
"Wait!" Danny suddenly shouted, surprising even himself a little.
Superman turned back, curious.
Danny looked down at the thermos that he had trapped his older self in. It might be crazy but... who else could he trust it with? He held the thermos up to Superman.
"This is going to sound crazy but, what's in here is really powerful and really dangerous. You can't let it get out. Ever. I don't need to know what you do with it but please, can you take it far away from here?"
Superman took the thermos and considered Danny's words. He nodded resolutely.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it for you." he said with another friendly smile. Then he flew off to help the firefighters just as he said, meanwhile the Fentons and all were swept up in the commotion of paramedics and police officers.
The story they ended up giving was simple, believable, and for the most part true. A ghost had taken them hostage and was going to let the ticking time bomb of the sauce vats at Nasty Burger do the dirty work for him. Who the ghost was didn't really matter, not that anyone would believe them anyway. The town might be ready for ghosts, but not time traveling ghosts.
Danny's parents seemed barely ready for time traveling ghosts. Because unfortunately, he, Sam, and Tucker did have to explain the whole story to them when they all finally had a moment to do so.
Danny did end up in the hospital after everything, with one cracked rib (and of course, the doctors were dumbfounded by the fact that he wasn't reacting to the pain all that strongly. To him, it felt more like a bruise.) and a mild case of dehydration.
He was honestly surprised they didn't have more questions about his ghost half. But then again, maybe meeting his time travelling evil older self is too many shocks all in one day. But maybe after everything he was kind of hoping to get everything all out into the open all at once. Now he's left waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Because the whole time he was explaining they just had this... look. One that he couldn't begin to parse. And not knowing scares him more.
Even when they said goodnight to him to finally drive Jazz home-- after Sam and Tucker's parents had come to pick them up-- it felt stilted. Something fundamental has shifted, and he doesn't know how he's supposed to deal with it.
It was then that a gentle tap at the window broke him out of his worrisome rumination. And for a second time that day he is completely blindsided by the sudden presence of Superman.
Danny hopped up out of the bed to open the window for him.
"Hope you don't mind a late night visitor," Superman said lightly as he gently landed on the tiled floor of Danny's hospital room.
"Uh, well, no, but...." Danny stuttered.
"But?" Superman gently coaxed.
"Do you pay personal hospital visits to every person you rescue?"
That at least got a light chuckle out of Superman.
"No, not usually, but I'm making an exception this time, if just to set the record straight."
"Huh?"
Superman sat in the room's corner chair so Danny plopped back down on the hospital bed.
"It was you that called me for help today." Superman said matter of factly.
"But, I- I didn't. I have no idea what you're even talking about."
Superman smiled slightly and held up what looked like a watch, but not quite.
"This is something I like to give to my friends. I call it a 'Signal Watch.' It emits a distress beacon at a very high frequency that humans can't hear, but I can." Superman fiddled with the watch for a moment, then pressed the button on its side. Danny could just barely hear a series of low rhythmic beeps going off in sequence before Superman turned it back off. "So imagine my surprise when I heard a voice in that frequency. A voice that sounded like someone in a lot of trouble who needed my help."
Danny brushed his fingers lightly at his throat. His ghostly wail. The power he'd unlocked ten years too early. He really did change everything.
"So then I take it that you are a meta-- the infamous 'ghost boy' of Amity Park?"
"Hey it's 'Phantom.'" Danny corrected.
Superman held up his hands placatingly.
"Excuse me," he said with a little laugh.
"No, no, I- ugh. This is my first time meeting another superhero and of course it's you and I'm blowing it."
"Well, I know I've got a reputation, but you don't have to worry about impressing me, kid. When it comes down to it I'm not really any different from anyone else."
"But you're, you know, Superman." To that, Superman just rolled his eyes.
"Not all the time, kid. You know a bit about what that's like."
"Can't argue with that," Danny agreed with a sigh. "But I can't say my track record has been all that great, especially after today." Superman didn't say anything in response, leaving air open.
"... My parents didn't know before today. This isn't how I wanted them to find out. I didn't want them to ever find out."
"... They're ghost hunters," Superman states. "Are you afraid of them?"
"No." The defense comes out quick but certain. He's not afraid of them but... "I'm afraid that they'll hate me. Maybe they already do."
"Did they say that to you?"
"... Nooo, but... Ugh! I don't know. Everything's different now. The way they kept looking at me before like, like..." he swallowed hard, "like maybe they're afraid of me now." Because what else could they be? Now that they've seen the worst of him. They've seen what he could become. He might have changed the future but surely they must know that some part of him now was the part where the potential to become Dark Phantom lived.
The hospital bed dipped down with added weight. Superman sat next to Danny and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Speaking from personal experience, that look means they're afraid for you, not of you."
Danny just looked at him puzzled.
"Parents prepare for a lot of things. Their kid having super powers and running around town in a colorful costume to fight criminals- er, ghosts- is not one of them. Yeah, things are different, because it's always different to someone when it's their kid. Parents want to protect their kids from everything, so it kinda throws them when they find out you're the one protecting them. But they'll come around. It'll turn out alright."
He said it so confidently, some of Danny's nervousness did truly ebb away. There really was no going back now, they knew. Danny would learn to live with it. He offered a tentative smile back to Superman.
"Thanks. For... everything, I guess." he said sincerely.
"My pleasure," Superman replied. "And now I think I've kept you up late enough, you should get some rest." As Superman stood to leave the way he came, Danny did begin to feel his own exhaustion. Sleep did sound pretty good about now.
"Oh and, kid." Danny turned just in time to catch the watch being tossed at him. "Hopefully you won't need it, but just in case, and it's a lot more subtle." With that, Superman gave a two finger salute and flew off into the night.
Clark considered the thermos sitting on his coffee table. It certainly was an interesting choice on the part of the Fentons to make such a powerful piece of technology look so innocuous. Yet Danny had warned him of how dangerous its contents were. He still wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Whatever it was was difficult to make out even with his x-ray vision, and his infrared gave even more conflicting information. While just the outer surface of the thermos remained at just about room temperature the inside looked almost black. An absolute pit of cold that shouldn't be possible if the laws of thermodynamics had anything to say about it.
But that still left him with what to do with it. He could bring it to the Watch Tower to let Mr. Terrific analyze it, but he also promised Danny he'd keep it safe. Maybe the best thing to do would be to bring it to the Fortress and keep it under lock and key--
Clark leapt back as an eerily blue and wrinkled face suddenly appeared between one blink and the next. The old man chuckled dryly.
"Pardon, didn't mean to startle you, Man of Tomorrow." He said the nickname with a slight mocking tone.
"Who are-" Clark started but something was wrong. It was silent. True silence, the likes of which he's only ever experienced while traveling through the vacuum of space.
"I am Clockwork," the old man said. "To answer the question you never finished asking. And to answer your next question, you can hear nothing of the world because I have removed you from the linear progression of time, if only temporarily."
Clark shot a glance out his living room window. Sure enough there were the lights of a passing plane suspended perfectly still against the night sky.
"Okay," Clark said, "why?"
"Because I have come to collect this from you," Clockwork said, picking up the thermos from the table. Clark tensed.
"If you think I'm just going to let you take that-"
"Calm yourself," Clockwork said sternly, his face shifted into that of a young man. "I am not your enemy. The boy was well intentioned in entrusting this to you, but he is my responsibility and that makes the being trapped in this device my responsibility too."
"Your responsibility?"
"The boy has rewritten his fate, now this being has no place on the timeline. He exists outside of time. To leave him here is an aberration at best, a fundamental risk to the fabric of existence at worst. I cannot leave him here. The safest place will be in my clocktower, where I may watch guard over him for eternity."
Clark considers the man before him. It's a rare thing for him to know he's outclassed. But in this moment between moments, wrapped in the true silence that lies outside of time, he knows that this conversation is a courtesy.
"... Then I leave it to you," Clark said begrudgingly.
Just as soon, the cacophony of life returns in overwhelming, nauseating, clarity. Clark stumbled forward clumsily back onto the couch cushions, eyes closed 'til he realigned his senses the way he'd been practicing since he was young.
If this 'Clockwork' as he called himself had taken it upon himself to be responsible for Danny, whatever the hell that means, then maybe Clark should make it a point to visit Amity Park every now and again in the future.
So over on my main blog (@the-city-kitty) I started writing an AU fic for Sonic the Hedgehog 3, I think the title is self explanatory lol. I've written three chapters for it so far and I began working on chapter 4, but I hit a roadblock because I realized that in order to make chapter 4 as good as I wanted it to be, then the previous chapters needed a serious rewrite/edit. So I've been working on that for a little while now. I wanted to share some progress I've made on rewriting chapter 1. I'm pretty happy with this second pass so far, but once it's fully finished I'll definitely give it one more round of line editing.
If you haven't read the original version, you can read it here.
Below is part of the new version, hope you enjoy!
When she had been small and new and so very afraid in a world suddenly made uncertain— and Gerald had to learn to be a father again— he taught her how to measure the passing of a storm. In her little tremulous voice she would count the seconds between each flash of lightning and each roll of thunder. At first, as the storm approached she struggled to count even to two through her tears that always spilled over just as the rain poured down outside her windows. Yet she kept on counting as best she could until the time between strikes became long enough to know the storm had finally passed. Eventually she stopped crying through the count-down, comforted by the irrefutable proof of many weathered storms that inevitably they all passed sooner or later.
Maria Robotnik is fourteen years old now, and hasn’t needed to count through a storm in years. Even if, in her current home beneath a flower dotted hill, through fifteen feet of rock and reinforced steel, she could neither see nor hear the approach of an oncoming storm.
So when the screech of chair legs against linoleum rolled through the cafeteria as Grandfather sat to eat dinner with his children for the first time in weeks, she simply flashed an elated smile at him.
“I didn’t think you’d have the time,” she said. Her grin was from ear to ear. “You’ve been extra busy lately.” She glanced at Shadow across the table from her. He smiled lightly, eyes turned down to his plate.
“And I am so sorry for that my dear,” Grandfather said. “But I’ve only been so busy because I wanted to make sure we have this time now.”
“What’s so special about now?” Maria asked.
“I’ve been thinking,” he began, a glint in his eye. “I think it would be nice for us to spend some time at the old house— your father’s house.”
Maria nearly dropped her fork. They rarely spoke of her father.
She swallowed a mouthful of potatoes.
“You want to take me home?”
“I want us to go home.”
Beneath his bushy brows, Grandfather’s eyes sparkled with hidden meaning.
Shadow’s ears perked up. The children glanced at each other, then stared at the Professor.
“You me we—” she started excitedly. Grandfather cut her off, holding his index finger to his lips.
“I’m still taking care of the arrangements, so let’s take care not to talk about our plans too much. I want you to start preparing over the next few days, however.”
Maria beamed all the way through the rest of their family dinner. Shadow brightened up significantly, playfully sneaking spoonfuls of his mashed potatoes on Maria’s plate when she pretended not to look.
It was just a typical commissary dinner; brisket, mashed potatoes and green beans, but flavor manifested in good company.
After an extra slice of apple pie for the two of them, Shadow and Maria excused themselves to their blanket fort.
Maria changed into her pajamas and grabbed her guitar.
Shadow watched intently as she went through the routine of tuning it, as she plucked each of the strings in turn until the note struck.
“It starts with F.” She aligned her fingers along the frets, playing an F chord for him.Â
“Then C.” She continued along, beginning a slow rendition of “Hey Jude.”
He squeaked in surprise when the guitar landed in his lap.
“Your turn,” Maria laughed.
He tried his best to mimic what she’d shown him, but his gloves kept getting in his way. They had a small laughing fit when the fabric actually got stuck under one of the strings for a moment. He passed the guitar back to Maria.
“I’d rather just listen to you play,” he said honestly.
Maria started to strum a tune she’d been working on herself. She was happy with the melody, but the right words for the lyrics eluded her. She strummed the melody over and over to see if the words would come to her naturally. It was right at the tip of her tongue—
“Kids! We have to go. Now.”
Yanked up and out by the wrists, yellow warning lights spun and claxons blared.
No time to think.
Socked feet slipping along the tiles she barely heard herself ask, “What’s happening?”
Behind them, a shout. The thud, thud, thud of boots.
“They want to take Shadow away from us, Maria!” Grandfather hastily explained.
At the end of the warehouse the lift waited for them.
Behind them, someone took aim. Someone else panicked.
Lightning flashed.
Thunder roared.
From the dark she reemerged. Lying on her stomach, but when did that happen? ItÂ
was too early for bed, but….
Grit scratched at her cheek and palms. Each breath made her side flare. There was aÂ
persistent ringing in her ears.
Her eyes opened, grandfather’s face filled her vision, lying beside her.
Blood dripped in a thin line from his nose and stained his mustache. His mouth hungÂ
open, slack jawed.
Slowly, feeling like her bones were creaking, she reached her hand out to gentlyÂ
