prompt: For centuries, the cult has anticipated the glorious rise and return of Lord Phantom. That time is at hand. All they need to bring him fully into the mortal world is the perfect sacrifice: Danny Fenton. @five-rivers
warning: cults, injury (but hes ok)
lol
Danny didn’t know how he got here.
One minute, he was walking down the streets of Amity Park. He was headed to the mall to meet up with Sam and Tucker. The next, a bag was being thrown over his head and he was being grabbed by two different people. His wrists were tied together and he was thrown into the back of a car.
Why couldn’t they have put him in the trunk? Then he could have just phased out. Here they could see him. They would have stronger suspicions about his secret.
He could hear the car doors close and then they were stepping on the gas. When the car turned, Danny fell to the left and hit his head.
They didn’t even bother putting his seatbelt on.
They were in the car for a while. He didn’t know how long it had been. But some time later, he could feel the car finally pull over. The car doors sounded again and then he was being pulled out.
“Hey!” Danny shrugged one of them off but they grabbed him again. “What’s the deal?”
“Quiet, child!” They hissed.
They shoved him forward by the shoulders. He stumbled and almost fell to the ground before they grabbed him by his arms again.
He could hear another door opening but this one didn’t sound like a car door. It sounded more like a cellar door. It sounded old and creaky.
They guided him down the stairs and into what felt like a hallway. He heard another door open and when it closed, cheers erupted in the room he was in.
Then they cut the rope that was binding his wrists together. Danny took the chance to try to swing at one of them. He felt his fist connect with someone’s face and he was being grabbed and dragged again.
This time they threw him back onto a table, holding his wrists down and tying more rope around them. They did the same for his ankles.
Then they finally removed the blindfold.
It was dark in this room. Torches were light throughout the space and there were many people down there with robes down there. He could see one with a black eye. That must be the one he hit.
In the center of the room in front of the table Danny was strapped to was another man wearing a robe. He stood on a platform to make him taller than everyone else in the room.
“We are here to grant Lord Phantom access to the mortal plane!”
A man in a robe held his arms in the air, speaking in a loud booming voice.
“We have finally found the perfect sacrifice to bring him to us!”
Danny snorted. And then it turned into a full on laugh. The cult members stopped to stare at him.
“Do you guys like, use the internet at all?”
“The Internet is sinful propaganda!” Another member shouted at him.
“How do you know about Phantom then? Are you even from Amity Park?”
“Lord Phantom has been a legend passed down through generations. He will serve his followers in exchange for a hefty price. Records of him go all the way back to Salem-”
Ah. That explains it.
They dragged their daggers down the inside of his forearms on both sides. Little did they know, the wounds sealed up almost as soon as they were cut. But they couldn’t see that through the blood that did come out from the injuries.
“Phantom! Please come and grant us with your presence and take our offering!”
“Phantom! Phantom! Phantom!”
They cult members chanted around him and Danny smirked as an idea came into his head.
“Ark! Ugh! Bleh!”
Danny made over the top dying sounds. He arched his back and fell back down, laying as still as he could. The chanting stopped and the silence that followed was heavy with anticipation.
Danny went intangible and floated up into the air through his restraints. The cult members gasped and watched as he raised higher.
Then he let out his ghostly wail and arched his back.
They covered their ears at the sound. Some of them even clenched their eyes shut. The cult leader was still staring at him.
Now.
Danny summoned his transformation as he continued letting out his ghostly wail. He tried to make the rings more sparkly, harder to see through. He let his wail die down as his transformation finished and he could hear the gasps of the cult members as they saw him floating in the air as his ghost half.
Danny concentrated on making his eyes flood with green and then he sat up. He glanced around the room at them and they kept staring at him.
“What am I doing here?”
He put extra echo into his voice and some of them shivered at the sound of it. He let his gaze land on the leader.
“You. Why have you summoned me?”
Now that they had Phantom there, he could tell that some of them were nervous. The leader was still composed.
“We have sacrificed child, Danny Fenton, in your name! Please, grant us your help and power!”
Danny frowned at him, furrowing his brows. He let more of his ghostly energy out to make him look more spectral, putting on the facade of fury.
“You sacrificed a child in my name? How dare you!”
His voice shook the room, just bordering on another ghostly wail. The leader’s eyes widened.
“But the legends-”
“The legends are wrong!”
Danny let a bit of his wail into that one. The leader cowered and many of them got as far away from him as he could.
“Let this be a lesson! Your hubris will be the end of you! You have earned my wrath!”
“No!” The leader shouted in fear. “Is there anything we can do? We only wanted to-”
“There is nothing to be done! You can only count your days!”
“Tell me what-”
“The end is near.”
Danny took all of the echo out of his voice with that last sentence and used his ectoblasts to disappear in a black and green ball, activating his invisibility.
The cult members started scrambling around one another.
“What do we do?!”
“We’re all gonna die!”
Danny covered his mouth to stifle his laugh and flew up and out of the building he was in. Once he was gone, the laughs burst out of him.
“Oh, man! That’ll teach them!”
He looked at the sky and was shocked to see it was already dark out. He’d have to tell Sam and Tucker about what happened when he saw them tomorrow.
~~~~~~~
“Dude, why’d you bail on us?”
Tucker shouted the question at Danny from ten feet away. Sam was standing next to him with her arms crossed and her hip cocked.
“Yeah, what was so important that you couldn’t even tell us you weren’t coming?”
“You’re not gonna believe this. I-”
Suddenly, he felt like he was being watched. He stopped talking and looked around him.
Danny made eye contact with someone as he looked over his shoulder. It was one of the cultists that tried sacrificing him to summon him. Their eyes were wide and filled with fear.
They thought Danny Fenton was dead. For all they knew, Phantom ate him or some shit.
Danny put on the creepiest, sharpest grin he could muster and made his eyes turn green. It must’ve worked. The cult member turned around and ran away down the street. Danny started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Sam shot him a look. He no doubt interrupted their conversation they were having.
“Man. I need to tell you about what happened yesterday.”
The GIW believe Danny Phantom is masquerading as a student at Casper High and the A-Listers are determined to discover his identity to help protect Phantom. What happens when Dash discovers the identity of no one, but two Phantoms?
ao3
ffn
i was able to work with my two artists this year :D heres @tired-all-the-time22 work and heres @friendzoned61 work. it was so fun seeing them bring these scenes to life
euhbvhsbdjj
Danny yawned as he followed Sam and Tucker into the auditorium. “Do we know what this assembly is about? I didn’t even know we were having one today. At the crack of dawn too?”
“I don’t think anyone knew about this until today.” Sam looked around them. Danny followed her gaze. Everyone was chatting amongst themselves, everyone was equally confused.
“It’s probably just another ghost drill assembly.” Tucker picked a row and they followed him and sat down in their seats. “They’re always updating procedures and policies and equipment. Maybe it's something about that again?”
Danny looked up at the stage as the GIW walked across it to the front where Mr. Lancer and Principal Ishiyama stood.
“I don’t know about that.” He pointed at them.
“What are the GIW doing here?” Sam glared at them. “They’ve never done an assembly here before. Usually it’s your parents.”
“Yeah. I’d prefer your parents' embarrassment over the GIW any day.” Tucker squinted up at them. Danny rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, me too, Tucker. I guess we’ll just have to see what they’re here to say.”
Mr. Lancer tapped the microphone and the auditorium hushed. There were some whispers here or there but the students went quiet to hear the news that awaited them.
“Hello, students. Today’s impromptu assembly will be about some ghost matters that relate to our student body. The Ghost Investigation Ward is here to discuss this with us.”
Lancer gestured to one of the agents who stepped up to the microphone.
“Hello, Casper High students. I’m Agent O.” He looked across the crowd menacingly. Danny could feel that he was searching for something. “It is to our understanding that your high school has one of the highest rates of ghost attacks in the city. We believe that the ghosts are coming here to target the ghost boy, Danny Phantom.”
Danny looked at his friends. This can’t be good.
“We have reason to believe that the ghost boy is masquerading as a student in this school.” Agent O looked over the crowd again as the students whispered amongst themselves at the news. “He’s a dangerously high level ghost and this situation is not to be taken lightly. Any suspicious activity is to be reported to Mr. Lancer or Mrs. Ishiyama who will then pass it forward to us.”
Danny saw as Mr. Lancer’s frown deepened and the look the two exchanged behind the agents. Danny had his suspicions that they wouldn’t be reporting much to the GIW.
“When we find the ghost boy he’ll be taken into our custody. Such a dangerous ghost shouldn’t be allowed to roam free.”
The students' clamor rose as Agent O backed away from the microphone. Mr. Lancer stepped forward again.
“Alright. You heard him, any suspicious activities or sightings of Phantom must be reported.” His gaze shifted. “We are required to pass the information along to the GIW so they can do their jobs.”
Principal Ishiyama walked up beside him. “Alright everyone, it’s time to head back to class.”
Everyone stood up and started filing their way out of the auditorium. Danny looked between his friends. “Do you guys think we should be concerned?”
Sam looked over her shoulder into the auditorium. “Everyone in the school loves you, Danny. Or at least your ghost half. There’s no way anyone would turn you in. They’re probably just going to report the bare minimum that’s required of them. No one’s gonna sell you out.”
“Yeah!” Tucker lightly elbowed him with a smile on his face. “You’ve come a long way from when Walker made you public enemy number one. There’s no way the GIW are gonna get you. Besides, no one has found out your secret identity yet, what are the chances that someone will now?”
Danny gave Tucker a look. “A lot higher now that you’ve said that.”
Tucker rolled his eyes. “I’m just saying it’s not very likely.”
“Yeah, well-”
Danny was interrupted by someone shoulder checking him hard on his right side. Danny stumbled and when he looked up he saw Dash smirking down at him.
“Hey, Fentina. You hear about the GIW?”
Danny rolled his eyes so hard he thought they’d pop out of his head. “Yeah, Dash. We were all just in the auditorium. What’s it to you?”
“We wanna know who Phantom is, if he’s really someone from school.” He gestured behind him at where Paulina, Star, and Kwan waited. “We wanted to know if your parents had any leads.”
Danny laughed. “Any leads? Do you think Phantom would still be flying around if they knew who he was? Of course they don’t have any leads. Besides, I doubt Phantom is actually a high school student. Who has time to go to school and fight ghosts?”
“What do you know, Fentina?” Dash bent down to get in his face.
“Not who Phantom is.” Danny crossed his arms. “Besides, why would I tell anyone who Phantom was if I knew? Wouldn’t that put him in danger?”
“It’s not like we’d tell.” Dash stood up straight and crossed his own arms. “We know how to keep a secret.”
Danny rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and pigs fly.”
Dash shoved Danny back against the lockers. “If you find out anything about Phantom you better not squeal about it to your parents.”
Danny glared up at him and Dash jostled him again. “Okay, fine, whatever!”
Dash shoved him one more time and let him go, walking away with his friends.
“Kinda weird to think he’s in your corner.” Tucker watched them walk away. “Kind of. Threatening you to not reveal yourself? Peak irony.”
“It’s not good that they’re trying to figure out who Phantom is though.” Sam started walking in the direction of their first class. “What if they plant cameras somewhere? Or they start noticing that Danny disappears for every ghost attack?”
“I think someone would’ve connected the dots on that already if they were going to.” They turned into their classroom. Danny looked up and saw Mr. Lancer had somehow beaten them here. “I think we’d have to worry more about cameras or snoops.”
“Well if we find any cameras I can hack into them and make it look like they’re still recording, but instead it’ll be a still image.” Tucker boasted pridefully. “Maybe I should do that with the school’s cameras they have outside.”
Danny nodded. “You could put it on a twenty four hour loop.”
Tucker pointed at him and opened his PDA and jotted something down. “Good idea. I know what I’m doing tonight.”
The bell rang and Dash walked in right as the sound was dying down. He made eye contact with Danny and squinted, pointing at his eyes and then at Danny. He sat down in his seat at the front of the class.
“Great, this is just a new reason for him to pay even more attention to me.”
“Okay everybody, settle down.” Mr. Lancer tapped a ruler on his desk and set it down. “I know the news from the GIW has everyone riled up but school must continue on as normal if we don’t want them to disrupt our school days. Now let’s open our books and pick up where we left off yesterday.”
Danny opened his backpack and pulled out his book, sighing as he set it down on his desk. Out of the corner of his eye he saw someone walk by their classroom door. A GIW agent.
He hoped that this would blow over fast, that they would think they were wrong about Phantom being a Casper High student. It didn’t bode well for him if they kept looking.
prompt: Before becoming Phantom, Danny was just a normal teenager. Even with all his flippant attitude, bullying *would have* scarred him in some ways. Like when downed and concussed after a ghost fight, Dash would try to help him up, but he would flinch/recoil *hard* in an attempt to shield/defend himself. @jadenoryuu
i was picturing kinda like willows palisman when picturing this ghost
Dash was walking down the hallway to his next class. He was looking forward to chatting with Kwan about going to the Nasty Burger later that day. He really wanted to-
He lost his train of thought as somebody bumped into his arm with their shoulder. A scowl crawled onto his face and he turned to see who it was.
He scoffed.
Of course it would be Danny Fenton. Apparently the loser hasn’t learned yet where his place is.
“Hey, Fenton!”
Danny’s shoulders hiked up to his ears and he cringed at the sound of Dash’s voice.
“What do you want, Dash?”
Danny turned to face him, a scowl on his face. Dash poked a finger into his chest.
“You ran into me. I want an apology.”
Danny snorted and rolled his eyes. “Seriously? An apology?”
“Yes, seriously.”
“Will you beg me for one? Do you want it that badly?”
Dash frowned at him and reached his hands out towards Danny.
Danny’s eyes were wide when Dash grabbed him and lifted.
He held Danny up against the lockers by his shirt. Dash’s fists held the fabric tightly and he smirked at Danny.
“Well, Fentonia Anntoinette, are you-”
Dash jumped as something exploded inside the school. His grip loosened on Danny, sending him falling to the ground. He landed on his butt and hit his head on the lockers. Danny brought his hand up to rub at his head and glared up at Dash.
“You ass-”
Dash couldn’t hear Danny anymore over the sound of a giant dragonfly coming down the hallway towards them.
He stared up at it with wide eyes and took a couple steps backwards. Flashes of his time in that hospital where they were all infected by ghost mosquitos went through his head. He was afraid of most ghosts, but bug ghosts gave him an extra fear factor now.
He saw Danny shift on the ground and he finally looked at the ghost. Then he got a certain look on his face and stood up, standing between Dash and the ghost. His feet were spread wide and square and he looked like he was gearing up to fight it.
The ghost finally noticed them and it was going straight for them. Dash wanted to bolt. But first he reached his hand out to Danny’s back.
“Fenton, come on. We gotta-”
Dash watched the ghost hit Danny before his hand could reach him. He flew sideways into the lockers and hit his head hard. He was wobbly on his feet for a couple seconds, like he was desperately trying to stay standing, and his hand went to his head. A second later he collapsed to the floor.
Dash looked between Danny and the ghost. Danny obviously wasn’t getting up on his own.
He crept forward until he was just next to Danny. The ghost looked like it was studying a stain on the ceiling. As Dash moved the last step to Danny the ghost moved again.
The ghost was right above them now. It had already knocked Danny around pretty good and Dash knew that if he hit his head again that he would definitely be concussed, if he wasn’t already.
Dash reached over to grab Danny to pull him over to him so they could get away but Danny flinched and recoiled almost violently away from Dash’s hand. Danny’s eyes were wide and his chest was rising and falling quickly. Dash’s own eyes widened as he finally took in the consequences of his actions towards Danny.
Danny was afraid of him. Like really afraid of him.
Danny’s arm was lifted up in a blocking motion and after a second he lowered it and looked at his hand like he didn’t even realize what he had been doing. Dash held his hand out to him instead of trying to grab him this time. He wasn’t going to just leave him there and they really had to go.
“Danny, come on. You’re hurt. We need to get you out of here.”
He just looked at Dash like he didn’t know what was going on. Or like he was thinking why would he go anywhere? Maybe that was because it was Dash trying to ask him. But instead of accepting Dash’s help in getting off the floor, Danny started digging around in his backpack. Dash took both his hands and ran them down his face in exasperation.
“Fenton, seriously, we need to-”
Dash’s eyes widened when Danny pulled one of his parent’s thermoses out of his backpack and held it out to him. Why did Fenton carry one of these around with him anyways? He always ran away each time there was a ghost fight. This was the only exception because he got too hurt to run on his own. So why did he have it?
“We need to catch the ghost.”
Dash’s eyes widened at Danny. “Nuh uh. That’s what Phantom’s for. I don’t know how to use that thing. We should wait for him.”
Danny shook his head. “No. We can’t wait for Phantom. Ghost is too dangerous.”
He shoved the thermos into Dash’s hands. “You just push the button. Not too hard.”
“I can’t-”
The ghost made a noise above them and Dash looked up. It seemed to be done observing the stains on the ceiling and it was staring right at them. Dash swallowed.
“Hello there.” His voice shook as he stared up at the ghost.
Danny pointed at it. “This would be a good time to push the button.”
The ghost locked onto Danny again. Why did it have such an interest in him?
It was about to launch itself at Danny. Dash’s eyes widened and it felt like time slowed. He pushed the button just as the ghost reached Danny and he sucked it into the thermos in a beam of blue light. When the ghost was gone, Dash’s arms lowered and he could feel himself shaking.
“I hate the bug ghosts.” Dash breathed out.
Danny looked at him and shrugged his shoulders. “Me neither.”
Dash gave him a weird look. “Okay, Fenton. I caught your ghost for you. Can we get you to the nurse or someone now?”
Danny just stared up at Dash. He squinted his eyes a little. “I don’t like you.”
Rolling his eyes, Dash reached down to Danny again. “I don’t like you either. But I know how bad a concussion can be.”
Danny’s gaze shifted from Dash’s face to his hand. Thinking for a few seconds, Danny reached up and grabbed Dash’s hand. He tried pulling himself up and Dash did the rest of the work for him.
Danny was wobbly on his feet and Dash wrapped a hand around his shoulder to keep him steady.
“Surprised this is my first concussion.”
Dash gave him a look. “Why?”
“What with all the ghost hunting.”
Danny said that so matter of factly that Dash thought he must’ve been messing with him. But Danny’s face looked serious. Dash’s mouth opened to respond to him.
prompt: When he wound up on his parents' dissection table, Danny expected Jazz, Tucker, Sam, or even Vlad to show up to save him. He did not expect this person. @darthfrodophantom
warning: dissection obviously and injury
it didnt take long to do a fill with dash in it
Danny’s head swam. He was far too alert for what was currently happening to him.
“Jack, he has a spleen!”
Maddie’s voice was shrill and he cringed at her words. They had discovered how much more complex he was compared to other ghosts but they hadn’t wondered about why he was so complex yet.
He had been here for days already. They were taking bits out of him and studying them and then waiting for it to regenerate inside Phantom again before they repeated the process. How Maddie hadn’t discovered his spleen before now baffled him.
His parents had managed to catch him at the worst possible time. Jazz was off doing some college tour a state away and Sam and Tucker were both traveling to visit their families. There was no one home to help him.
His parents hadn’t even wondered where he was yet. Their son hadn’t been home in days and they hadn’t noticed because they’ve been so caught up in tearing Phantom apart.
He wished this would be over soon but that was probably wishful thinking on his part.
“Yo, uh, girl Fentina?”
Danny’s head shot up at the sound of Dash’s voice. What was he doing here?
“Shit what’s her name?”
Danny could hear Dash’s steps through the door to the lab that his parents had forgotten to close.
“Oh! Jazz? Are you here?”
Tears popped into Danny’s eyes. Someone was here. He finally had help.
“The school year is starting soon and I really needed help with-“
“Dash!” Danny screamed at the top of his lungs. His mom slapped a hand over his mouth.
“Shut it, ghost!”
Danny bit her hand and she let go. He opened his mouth to scream again but he could already hear Dash heading down the stairs.
He could see his parents shuffling around him. He couldn’t see what they were doing though.
“Holy shit.”
Danny craned his head to look at Dash. He had a look of horror on his face and he looked away from Danny at his parents.
“Stay away from the ghost.”
Danny turned to look at his mom and his eyes widened when he saw her pointing a blaster at Dash.
Dash held his hands up and took a step back. Danny’s heart jumped. “Woah, what are you doing?”
“We’re not going to let you take our prize.” Danny felt chills down his spine at his mom’s words.
Dash looked at Danny again. Danny knew how much he liked Phantom. Danny knew Dash would do anything for Phantom. But with a gun pointed at him, he wasn’t sure if Dash-
All of a sudden, Danny’s mom was falling to the ground as Dash rammed into her. He’d seen how Dash would play football. That had to hurt.
Jack ran around the table Danny was strapped to and bent down next to Maddie, fretting over her. Dash took the opportunity to start trying to get Danny’s wrists out from the cuffs they were in.
“Jack!” Maddie shoved him away. “Don’t worry about me! We can’t let Phantom escape!”
Dash opened the last cuff around Danny’s ankle and it’s like he was able to breathe. He took a deep breath and he could feel his body working overtime as his healing powers kicked in.
Danny became more and more drowsy as Dash picked him up and ran up the stairs with him. He tried to keep his eyes open because he knew what would happen if he fell asleep while injured like this.
It didn’t help that Dash was so warm.
“Hey.”
Danny felt Dash jostle him and he peeked an eye open. Dash was still running, looking down at him with great concern. Danny shook his head against Dash’s chest and closed his eyes again.
“I’m sorry your hero isn’t who you thought he was.”
He could feel his transformation happening and heard a gasp come from Dash, but he never stopped running.
Danny drifted off and everything faded away.
~~~~~~~
Danny could feel as he drifted back into awareness. For a moment, he didn’t remember what happened. He could just tell that his bedsheets didn’t quite feel right. His room smelt different. Someone sighed next to him-
All of a sudden Danny was sitting up as he remembered what had happened to him. His parents had cut him up and dug around inside him. No one was coming to help him.
His hand snapped up to his chest, just to feel that it had been closed up. His eyes darted around until they met another pair of concerned eyes.
Dash.
That’s right. Dash of all people was the one to come and rescue him from his parent’s dissection table. Of all people, it was him.
Danny had to be thankful that Jazz put so much effort into helping Dash through tutoring. Without that, he’s not sure he would’ve made it out of there. Not alive anyways.
“Danny?”
It finally registered that Dash was trying to talk to him. He had lost his focus and his eyes darted back up to Dash’s face. His hand was now placed on the bed near Danny’s leg.
Danny nodded and swallowed. He was parched.
He looked around and after a few seconds Dash’s eyes widened and he picked a water bottle up off the floor. He handed it to Danny and he grabbed it from Dash’s hand.
He started chugging the water bottle. He’s realizing he hadn’t had anything to drink in days.
“Woah! Not too fast! You don’t want to throw it back up!”
Danny ignored Dash and finished the water bottle. He looked at him and held out the water bottle.
“Do you have another?”
Dash gave him a look and Danny could tell he wanted to talk about what happened but he just got up and left the room to get more water. Danny looked at his surroundings.
He was definitely in Dash’s room. It’d been awhile since he’d been in here, not since Dash’s party, and it looked a little different. He took a deep breath and could feel something pulling in his skin. He took another deep breath to steel himself and lifted the shirt he was wearing- Dash’s shirt- to look at himself.
There was still a Y incision over his entire abdomen. Danny wasn’t sure if this scar would ever go away. What was peculiar about it was the meticulous stitching that held the pieces of skin together. Who had done that?
“My mom taught me how to sew when I was younger.”
Danny jumped and looked up, dropping the hem of his shirt. He hadn’t heard Dash come back.
“It wasn’t long before she left. She would always sew my toys back together or any injuries I got from my dad. I should’ve known she was leaving.”
Dash looked in thought before he looked back at Danny.
“But I’m glad I had the skills to patch you up.”
Danny’s brain was still catching up. He looked down at the front of his shirt. “You did that?”
Dash rolled his eyes. “Yeah, dork. That’s what I just said.”
Danny continued staring at his shirt. He heard Dash sigh and sit back down in the fold up chair that was next to his bed.
“Look.” Danny’s gaze snapped up to Dash and for a moment he was scared. Scared that Dash wouldn’t keep his secret or that he’d give him back to his parents.
“I know we have a history. Pretty bad history.” Dash coughed and looked away from him. “A lot of animosity. But I think after this we’re like. Bonded together. Like bros but in a trauma kind of way.”
Dash butted the sides of his closed fists together. Danny kept staring at him.
“And you already knew this. Phantom’s my idol. I think he’s so cool.” Dash met Danny’s gaze again. “I want to help. I don’t want to keep making your life miserable.”
Dash held his hand out to Danny.
“So what do you say? Truce?”
Danny just stared at it and tears burst into his eyes. He grabbed Dash’s hand and shook it.
“Hey.” Dash looked like he wanted to reach out to him but hesitated. He tightened his grip on Danny’s hand.
It was all just starting to hit Danny. Everything his parents did to him. The way their hands felt inside his chest. How was he supposed to go home like nothing happened?
Dash finally pulled Danny towards him. How funny was it for the boy who wailed on him at school to be the most comforting presence in this moment.
Danny pushed his face into Dash’s chest and wrapped his arms around him and cried. Everything he knew had changed and he didn’t know how he was going to move forward.
He could feel Dash’s hands rubbing against his back. “We’ll figure it out. We can call your sister. Or your friends. Or all of them I guess. We’ll come up with a plan. We’ll figured something out.”
Danny nodded. He never thought he’d see the day where he longed so much for his sister to be home with him. He took a shuddering breath and Dash rubbed his hands along Danny’s back again.
prompt: Why are there two? *How* are there two? @anguishedlurker
by the seat of my pants
Jack peered into the sky. He did a double take at what he saw and shook his head. He squinted his eyes at the brightness of the sky but still, there they were in the sky.
“Hey, Maddie.” He nudged her with his elbow. “Why are there two of them?”
Maddie looked up confused but then her eyes widened when she saw what he was looking at. “What?”
“I know, right?”
“How are there two of them?”
“No idea.”
Jack looked away from Maddie back up at the sky where Phantom floated with another ghost that looked almost exactly like him. Except she was a girl.
“Has he always had a sister?”
Maddie shot him a look. “No, of course not. Not that we’ve seen anyways. It’s odd that they’re wearing the same outfit though.”
The two of them flew away. They hadn’t even reached for their weapons at all, too confused by what they had just seen to consider attacking them.
“That increases our odds though!” Jack shot Maddie a smile. “I bet she’s just as good a prize as Phantom.”
Maddie smiled back at him. “That’s true. We’ve gotta keep our eyes out for her. We need to try and get her ectosignature on file so we can track her.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “I hope she’s not too similar to Phantom on that front. His ectosignature has been deleted from all our devices again somehow.”
Frowning, Maddie continued walking down the path in the park. “I’m convinced Phantom is somehow deleting it. I don’t know how else to explain it.”
“Don’t worry.” Jack walked alongside her. “We’ll figure it out eventually. Our weapons, and why there’s two of them.”
~~~~~~~
Jack was following the ectosignature that was popping up on the tracking device in his hand. They’d managed to get the girl ghost’s signature saved in their devices. Jack hid this tracking device in his pillowcase in an attempt to prevent it from being deleted and it seemed to have worked. There were still two ectosigntures saved. This girl’s and Phantom’s.
They had been moving at a steady pace for awhile now but it seemed like this ghost was starting to move slower and slower. This was odd because ghosts didn’t really get tired, so why was the ghost girl slowing down so much?
The tracker said she had stopped moving altogether and soon they caught up to the dot on their device. It led them down an alleyway and as Jack and Maddie turned the corner Jack could see a faint glow. There laying on the ground was the ghost girl. Jack was about to let out a cheer at having found her when Maddie threw her arm out in front of Jack. He took a closer look at the girl.
She was just a kid, a couple years younger than Danny. She was smaller than him and she looked even smaller the way that she was curled in on herself, holding an arm against her middle that was covered in ectoplasm.
Jack’s heartstrings pulled. Whenever they came across a ghost with a younger appearance it always made Jack apprehensive.
The ghost’s eyes opened slowly and as her gaze moved to them and took them in, her eyes widened and she tried to back away from them but hissed at the movement her body put on the stomach.
“Of course.” She ground out.
“Are you okay?” Jack asked her. Maddie hissed out his name but he continued looking at the ghost girl.
She shot him a look that looked very much like Danny’s “what do you think” look. Jack nodded at her.
“Right. Dumb question. How’d you get that injury?”
She looked between the two of them. She looked worried but she still answered him. “A ghost got me. I was on my way to find Da- Phantom to get some- some medicine but I got hurt. I’m not going to make it.”
Jack turned to look at Maddie. She looked confused but he could tell something inside her had shifted. “What kind of medicine do you need?”
“It helps me from destabilizing. I don’t know what it’s called. I need to find Phantom.”
“We don’t know where to-”
“We can help you.”
Jack could feel Maddie turn to look at him. He knew she was going to say they didn't know how to find Phantom, but surely there was something they could still do to help this girl. If anything, they could bandage her wound until they found Phantom.
He walked up to her and she moved away from him just a bit. He stopped and waited. She studied him and found whatever she was looking for. She reached up her hand that she wasn’t holding against her stomach. Jack bent down and picked her up. She fit easily in his arms and he turned to face Maddie. She still looked apprehensive about helping a ghost, but she also looked like she wanted to putz over the girl.
The walk home was short. They were in the door to their house when Phantom floated down through their ceiling, a furious look on his face.
“What are you doing with her?”
Jack’s eyes brightened. This was perfect. This is what the ghost girl needed.
“We found her in an alleyway on the street. She said she was looking for you so we brought her here to help her. She said she needed some medicine that you had.”
Phantom’s eyes widened and he finally took in the ectoplasm that she was covered in.
“What happened? Did you do this to her?”
Maddie shook her head. “We found her this way. We wanted to help.”
Jack could see the ghost girl peek an eye open at Phantom. She looked worried and she took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry, Danny. I’m getting too weak.”
For a moment, Jack thought she was going to melt to goop in his hands but a ring of light appeared around her waist instead. As it traveled around her, Jack was worried about what effect it would have on him if it touched him, but the thought was gone when he got a look at her face.
She could have been Danny. She looked almost exactly like him. Except she was a girl. Maddie gasped and Jack saw her staring at Phantom. Jack turned his head to look at him as well. Phantom’s eyes were wide with fear. He looked like he was torn between bolting and wanting to get the girl away from them before he went anywhere.
“Why are they two of you?”
Maddie’s whisper shook Jack to his core. This had a lot of implications that he couldn’t even begin to understand. His voice shook as he looked between Phantom and the girl in his arms.
prompt: Danny accidentally staples some extra pages onto his homework.
this idea was courtesy of my sister
Danny yawned and laid his head down on his desk in front of him. He’d been up late fighting a ghost the night before and didn’t get much sleep. And he’d rather take a nap than listen to Lancer talk about Romeo and Juliet.
He was almost asleep and he didn’t hear Lancer’s footsteps approaching. He jumped when he heard Lancer’s voice start talking to him.
“Mr. Fenton, while I do appreciate that you turned in your assignment this time, I would rather you make sure all you turn in is the assignment.” Lancer quirked a brow at one of the pages of Danny’s paper he turned in.
Danny whipped his head up at him. “What?”
Mr. Lancer squinted at the page he was reading. “It’s good to see you catching up on your Egyptian history, but a spell to summon the Egyptian god Anubis?”
The class around him snickered and Danny’s face fell.
Oh no.
“Mr. Lancer-“
He started reading the words off the page and the room dropped in temperature.
The students looked around each other uncomfortably and some were even getting up out of their seats already. Lancer read the final word and a bolt of lightning came through the ceiling and hit him. The students in the room ducked down and screamed.
The lightning disappeared and Lancer’s eyes were glowing yellow.
Mr. Lancer- or at least Danny thought it was Mr. Lancer- looked up at him and blinked slowly.
“You are not of this world.”
He summoned a scepter to his hand and pointed it at Danny. The tip lit up and Danny only had a moment to dodge before a blast was sent where he was sitting just a moment before. He hit the floor hard and turned to look up at him. The kids in his class were shouting as they tried to leave the classroom.
“It is time to move on. You have no place in this world anymore.”
Mr. Lancer- no, Anubis- took another step towards him.
“What are you talking about?” Danny pushed himself backwards across the floor.
“You’ve died. You don’t belong here.”
Most of his classmates had filtered out of the room by now but as Danny watched Anubis point the scepter at him again, he knew he’d have to take the risk.
He phased into the floor below him and he felt as another blast from the scepter hit the floor above him. He transformed and flew under the ground until he got a ways away and they pulled up into the air.
Then his ghost sense was going off. He groaned. What now? Who was this?
“I am the Box Ghost!”
Danny laid his head in his hands and groaned again.
“Fear me!”
“Boxy!” Danny shouted. “I’ve got a more pressing issue right now. Can you go back to the ghost zone?”
The Box Ghost stared at him. He raised his arms into the air as he shouted again. “I am the Box Ghost, and there is no issue more pressing than me!”
“No, seriously. I really think-”
Danny watched as the Box Ghost’s face suddenly dropped. He was looking somewhere over Danny’s shoulder. When Danny turned to look he saw Anubis floating behind him.
He heard the Box Ghost start to fly away and right as he turned to look back at him, Anubis was launching another blast from his scepter and it hit the Box Ghost.
He shouted and then he was disappearing. His form turned black and he faded to sight.
Danny took a sharp breath in and he couldn’t look away from where the Box Ghost had been floating a moment before.
“What did you do to him?!”
“He’s been sent to the Unworld.”
Danny’s head snapped to look at Anubis. He’d heard very few things about the Unworld, but none of them were good. The ghosts talked about it as if it were some kind of limbo. It wasn’t a place that anyone could ever escape from. They talked about it as if it were hell.
Anubis was readying another blast at Danny. He flew away before it could be launched at him.
Danny passed a couple smaller ghosts as he flew away. He heard a couple blasts be launched off and when he turned he saw that Anubis was shooting at them as well.
“Why are you sending the ghosts away?” Danny shouted as he looped through the air. “I know I send them back to the ghost zone, but I don’t send them anywhere permanently.”
“They’re not meant to travel between the world of the dead and living.” Anubis flew after him. “They were guided to the afterlife as their final resting place.”
“But I’m not dead!” Danny dodged another blast from the scepter. Anubis slashed it through the air.
“You are a ghost. You’ve been touched by death. You don’t belong here any longer.”
“But I’m still a human!” Danny paused his flight and tried to reason with him. “If half of me is still living, doesn’t that warrant an exception? I can’t survive in the ghost zone.”
Anubis seemed to ponder that. “It’s true, I’ve never met a ghost such as yourself. But I don’t believe that makes you special. You’re just an anomaly that was missed. You’re not meant for this world.”
Anubis threw another blast at Danny and he dodged the first one but a second one was coming too fast.
It was as if the world slowed as the blast hurtled towards him. Danny closed his eyes and braced himself for the impact. And while he was hit, it seemed to only push him back through the air. It didn’t feel like he went anywhere.
He peeked an eye open and saw he was still in Amity Park. A smile spread across his face.
“How’s that for an anomaly?” Danny shouted down to Anubis.
“How is that possible?” Anubis looked at his scepter. “It should have sent you to the Unworld.”
Danny pulled his thermos off of his utility belt and flew towards Anubis.
“I guess the Egyptian guide to the afterlife can’t guide someone who isn’t completely dead!”
He hit the button on the thermos and the beam hit Anubis. It pulled him out of Mr. Lancer and surprisingly sucked him up and he yelled the entire way into the thermos. Danny landed on the ground and looked at it.
“Huh.” Danny tossed the thermos up in the air. “Who knew it could catch ancient gods too.”
“What happened?” Mr. Lancer placed a hand on his head and shut his eyes. “Where am I?”
“Don’t worry, you’re okay.” Danny walked up to him. “You were overshadowed by Anubis.”
Mr. Lancer’s eyes widened. “Gulliver’s Travels! That spell was real?!”
Danny nodded. “But it’s all taken care of! Now if you’ll excuse me.”
He jumped into the air and flew away from him.
Now all he had to do was figure out what to do with him. He couldn’t just send him to the ghost zone. He could just come back and keep sending the ghosts to limbo.
Danny shook the thermos. That’d be a problem for future Danny.
prompt: On Dash’s 18th birthday he signs a scholarship to play football at the college of his dreams, three days later he and Kwan are hit by a drunk driver walking home from practice. @charcoalhawk
i wrote this in an hour and fifteen minutes
Everyone was giving him odd looks at school today.
Dash didn’t know what was up with everyone. Why were they all looking at him so funny? They all looked sad. Some of them even looked like they wanted to cry. Even Fenton seemed upset at the sight of him.
What was going on?
And Kwan wasn’t even here for him to confer with. Where was he anyways? He had just seen him at practice last night. They-
His mind felt like it slipped for just a moment. What was he just thinking about? Oh yeah. Everyone was looking at him weird.
The bell rang throughout the hallways at school and everyone finally started heading to their classes rather than staring at Dash, but that didn’t stop all the stares.
He started making his own way to his english class with Mr. Lancer. When Dash got there, Lancer wasn’t there yet. Dash’s gaze moved throughout the classroom and saw Paulina. He lit up.
Paulina knew everything that was being spread through the rumor mill at school. She would know what’s going on.
He made his way over to her and sat in the desk behind her. Paulina’s back straightened so suddenly that Dash could hear it crack. It sounded like it hurt.
“Hey, Paulina. Do you know what’s going on today? Everyone is acting so weird and I haven’t seen Kwan anywhere. What is-”
Then Paulina was bawling into her hands. Dash’s eyes widened and he placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her but then she jumped up out of her seat and ran out of the classroom.
On her way she almost bowled right into Lancer but he turned out of the way.
“The Darkest Hour, Ms. Sanchez! Where are you going?”
Paulina did not answer him and he sighed. He turned around with a forlorn look on his face. When he looked up and made eye contact with Dash, he dropped his mug of coffee onto the ground.
No one moved to help him and Dash looked around at the class. What was wrong with them today?
“Are you okay, Mr. Lancer?” Dash got up from his seat and walked over to Lancer and bent down to start picking up pieces of his mug. He dragged Lancer’s garbage over to him and dropped them into the bin. As if the sound startled him out of his mind, Lancer shook his head and made a shooing motion at Dash.
“Please, Mr. Baxter. Don’t pick up sharp objects with your hands. Can you grab me a broom from the closet at the back of the room? And some paper towels?”
Dash stood up and walked to the back of the classroom. He could hear his classmate’s whispers around him, but he didn’t know what happened that was so gossip worthy. None of them were about to get up and help their teacher who looked like he had had some kind of episode.
He opened the closet door and grabbed the roll of paper towels that was in there along with the broom.
Dash really wished Kwan were here. Then he could-
A splitting headache shot through Dash’s head this time at the thought of Kwan. He clenched his jaw together and waited it out. When he opened his eyes again he saw the roll of paper towels on the floor.
He bent over and picked them up and brought them back up to Lancer. Lancer made quick work cleaning up the mess and thanked Dash for his help. Once everything was all cleaned up and Dash was back in his seat, Lancer cleared his throat and started class.
“Open your textbooks to page-”
~~~~~~~
For reasons he couldn’t remember, football practice had been cancelled all last week. He was excited to finally get back to it today. It was odd though. He still hadn’t seen Kwan anywhere this whole time. He wondered where he was. Did he get sick? Surely Dash would’ve heard from him by now if he had.
The other students were still giving him weird looks but they were mostly back to treating him like normal. Some of them were still wary but Dash didn’t know why. He could understand Mikey being wary of him but Paulina? She hadn’t talked to him all week. Every time he tried she would just start sobbing her eyes out and Dash couldn’t help feeling like he hurt her somehow.
Practice was odd too. Coach had them do more warmups than normal and they didn’t do any of their usual football drills. They just ran laps around the field and through the football back and forth. It was like they were in gym class instead of football practice.
Maybe he was just trying to ease them back into it after having not practiced all week long. Dash could kind of see that but it was still odd to him.
They finished practice early and Dash finished changing in the locker room. He grabbed his backpack and walked outside and away from the school. Even though he was looking forward to practice, he was ready to go home.
He came to the first intersection that was in front of the school and stopped. The light was still red and he didn’t have the walking symbol.
Time seemed to slow as he waited for the light to change and he was elated when it finally did.
Dash was about the step off the sidewalk onto the road when a car drove by really fast. He recoiled away from the road and he got another pounding headache on top of the rush of fear that had filled him when the headlights had filled his field of vision.
He was panting and Dash didn’t know why he was reacting this way. He needed to talk to- He needed to find Kwan.
The pain in his head pounded again and Dash sank to his knees on the sidewalk. With his head in his hands, Dash wanted to curl up right there until the pain stopped. But he couldn’t stop thinking about Kwan and-
Then somebody was tapping on his shoulder and that seemed to bring him out of whatever was happening in his mind. He lifted his head up out of his hands and looked over his shoulder.
Danny Fenton was standing there behind him. He had a solemn look on his face and like he had an idea of what was going on. Dash supposed everyone at school had some idea of what had been going on lately except for Dash himself.
There was something different about Danny than the rest of his classmates though. Dash couldn’t quite tell what it was. He felt like they were more kindred spirits than they used to be. That thought itself invoked a smaller headache than the near migraine he had just had a moment ago.
“Can you tell me what’s going on?”
Danny’s features softened just a little and he shook his head.
“You’ll remember in time. I don’t think you’re ready to process it yet.”
“Process what?”
Another set of headlights went by and Dash jumped at the sight of them but it didn’t invoke another headache. He climbed up off the ground, suddenly embarrassed for Danny to see him on his knees like that.
“Do you want me to walk you home?”
Dash didn’t expect the offer from Danny and was about to refuse it. He didn’t need Fenton to walk him home. But he looked at the road in front of him. It was such a short way to cross to get to the other side but it seemed daunting. Scary. For reasons he couldn’t quite place yet.
Dash nodded and followed Danny into the road once the other boy led the way.
~~~~~~~
Things were coming back to him in bits and pieces. His headaches lessened and he was finally starting to remember things instead of being almost immobilized.
It had something to do with a car. A car and headlights. Screeching brakes but it was too late.
Dash remembered that it had hurt. It hurt really bad. He couldn’t remember anything besides that. He couldn’t remember anything about the hospital or who had hit him.
He still couldn’t remember anything about Kwan. He really needed to know where Kwan was.
Soon it made sense why everyone was so shocked to see him back at school. They hadn’t really been acting oddly at all. Not given what Dash thought had happened. But he wasn’t sure. He was back at school. Surely he was okay?
Dash was stuck staring at the screen of the computer in the school’s library. Everyone else had already gone home except for a few students and teachers. Dash was alone in the library except for the librarian that had given him a sad look when he walked in. He tried to ignore it but it only made his stomach squirm more.
The screen was bright and he had a search engine open but he didn’t type anything in yet. Did he really want to know? He had a feeling he didn’t but he had to know about Kwan. Even if he learned something about himself that he didn’t want to know, he had to know what happened to Kwan.
“Hey.”
Dash jumped at the sound of Fenton’s voice behind him. The other boy had a real knack for sneaking up on people, but lately so had Dash. He turned to look at him and understanding dawned inside him but he couldn’t quite put words to what his brain finally put into place.
He just stared at Danny and Danny looked at the computer screen.
“Are you ready?”
Dash was stunned by the question and remembered back to the day Danny walked him home from school. Danny must’ve known he wasn’t ready to know whatever it was that the entire school already knew about. But that was a good question.
Was Dash ready to know?
His hands hovered over the keyboard for a few seconds before he started typing.
Dash Baxter and Kwan Huang.
He stalled over the enter key for another few seconds before he squeezed his eyes shut and finally pressed the button.
When he opened his eyes again the first thing he saw was a news article describing an event that had happened one night after football practice. After Dash had been awarded a football scholarship to the college of his choice.
Drunk driver.
He knew it had something to do with a car but he needed to know what happened after. Was Kwan okay?
Dash had a feeling he wasn’t. That neither of them were.
He read through the article and had a sinking pit form in his stomach. At the very end it had two links that would take him to the obituaries.
His stomach continued to fall.
He ignored the link that was attached to his name. He didn’t think he needed to click on that one. He clicked on Kwan’s and it popped up.
Kwan Huang. March 20th, 1990- April 17th, 2007
Dash didn’t read anything else beyond that. His eyes filled with tears and he let his head lean forward to rest on the desk in front of him.
Kwan was gone. Like gone gone. Not even gone in the same way that Dash was gone. And even more gone type of gone.
Dash’s shoulders shook as he tried to keep the sobs in, but he couldn’t hold it back anymore.
His best friend dead. They were both dead. Probably had been for weeks.
Then he felt Danny’s hand on his shoulder and he jumped. He had forgotten he was there. Dash turned around to look at him. Dash knew that Danny was different. Not quite different in the same way as Dash, but similar.
Dash sniffled. “Where is he?”
Danny shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Dash squeezed his eyes shut. “Why did I come back and he didn’t? Why isn’t his ghost here with me?”
Danny sat down in the chair across from Dash. “I don’t have those answers. I don’t know exactly what it takes to make a ghost. But I do believe he is at peace.”
Dash covered his eyes with his hands. Did that mean Dash wasn’t at peace? Why was Dash here?
Why couldn’t he have gone with Kwan?
Dash cried and cried. He didn’t know how long the two of them sat there for but he was sure they were keeping the librarian there. But she never came and told them they had to leave so she could lock up and go home.
“It hurts so bad.” Dash whispered to Danny.
“I know.”
“My whole life-”
“I know.”
Dash took a deep breath and tried to sit up. He felt shaky now but he knew he needed to get moving. He needed to do something.
Pushing himself up to stand he wobbled a bit but he made it. How odd it was for a ghost to be weak from crying, but what did he know about ghosts.
Danny stood up with him.
“Did you want to go visit him?”
Dash gave Danny an odd look before understanding dawned on his face. He nodded.
Danny led them out of the library. They passed the librarian again and she gave him a small nod. Dash didn’t have the energy in him to respond to her.
Once they were out of the school, it didn’t take them long to get to the cemetery. It was on the edge of town near the park. Danny led them through it. It almost felt like a maze.
Finally, Danny stopped at two headstones.
One had Dash’s name on it, and the other one was for Kwan. There was a plaque on the ground in front of both of them.
Best friends. You make my soul smile.
Dash could feel more tears spring into his eyes. It still hurt, but the message on the plaque brought him a sense of peace. It wasn’t much, but he hoped Kwan could see it where he was too.
prompt: Danny Fenton, what does it feel like to die? @bibliophilea
tw: character death, cancer
Danny Fenton, what does it feel like to die?
It was a question Lancer had asked him in a rare moment of vulnerability. He had just broken to the class that he’d been diagnosed with cancer recently and that he’d be going on leave soon. Lancer was one of the only teachers that was in the know about his secret and he had pulled him aside and asked him that question. Danny hadn’t known how to answer.
He knew Lancer was looking for an answer that would be comforting. Danny would be able to give him that answer. Danny’s death was painful. An accident. Full of electricity. It wouldn’t be a story he’d want to share with Lancer, an english teacher looking for comfort.
Danny tried not to linger on what it felt like to die either. Aside from the physical feeling of him either getting scorched and remade and stitched together by ectoplasm, it had felt odd, mentally.
He went through the trauma of dying, he would always remember what his own screams sounded like when he was inside the portal. There was no light. Danny could just tell for a moment that there was about to be nothing. That he’d be gone.
And then he wasn’t.
Danny came back to life right before he died and it changed him forever. But he was lucky. He got to come back. Mr. Lancer wasn’t that lucky.
So Lancer, laying here in hospice now, asked him again.
Danny Fenton, what does it feel like to die?
But he still didn’t have a good answer.
Danny wanted to give him something that wouldn’t scare him more than he already was in his last moments. Telling him about his death wouldn’t help with that.
So Danny lied.
He told Lancer that he could see a soft white light before he came back to himself in his parent’s lab. That he had almost felt at peace.
Lancer smiled at him. Danny could tell he felt comforted, but Lancer had no problems calling him out on his lie. He thanked him anyway.
Lancer told him he hoped they’d cross paths again once he was on the other side. Danny smiled at him. Lancer seemed too at peace with his death for his soul to hang around and take on a ghostly form. But Danny didn’t share that with him either.
Danny bid him farewell and Lancer asked him if he would visit him again. Danny promised that he would, but his core was telling him that Lancer wouldn’t last much longer. He wouldn’t last until Danny’s next visit.
As Danny walked away, he could hear the machine as it flatlined. A group of doctors and nurses hurried into his room but Danny knew they wouldn’t be able to bring him back.
It was his time.
Danny walked towards the door and he could feel a presence beside him. Just before he crossed the doorway, he stopped and stood there for a couple more seconds. And then when he stepped through, the presence was gone.
