Ectoberweek Day 31: He thought he'd been prepared to take off the mask on the hazmat suit and see what he looked like underneath. He couldn't have been more wrong.
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Organization for Transformative Works
Summary:
He thought he'd been prepared to take off the mask on the hazmat suit and see what he looked like underneath. He couldn't have been more wrong. The portal messed him up more than he thought.
Notes:
Finally finished Ectoberhaunt/Ectoberweek! I am SO PROUD OF MYSELF! This is the first time I've ever done an october/danny phantom event and I did EVERY DAY! A huge feat for me aaaaaa ;0;
Danny stood in front of the mirror, his fingers trembling as they hovered over the fasteners of his hazmat suit. His heart pounded in his chest, the rhythm unnatural, more of a low thrum than a proper beat. He had convinced himself that he was ready for this, that after weeks of sleepless nights, of nightmares and flashes of what had happened in the portal, he could finally face the truth.
Just a glance, he told himself. A brief peek to confirm that he was still himself under all of this — under the glowing eyes, the strange strength, and the eerie stillness of his pulse. It was just a precautionary suit, after all, something to contain his energy when he fought ghosts. At least, that’s what he had convinced himself it was. But now, as his fingers slowly undid the clasp, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something terrible awaited him beneath.
The latch clicked open, and Danny felt his breath hitch in his throat. He wasn’t breathing, not really — not since the accident. He was pretending to breathe. The reality of that settled in the pit of his stomach, cold and unyielding, like a stone lodged where his warmth should be.
With a slow, deliberate motion, Danny peeled the suit away from his body. His eyes, glowing a harsh ectoplasmic green, locked onto the mirror.
At first, he saw that he had unusual pale skin, the white hair that had replaced his once-dark locks, and the faint glow that always seemed to cling to him in his ghost form. But as the suit fell away completely, his reflection twisted. Shifted.
His skin… no, it wasn’t skin anymore.
Danny’s breath—or the shallow imitation of it—caught in his throat. His face, his chest, his arms, his entire body, charred and burned, was revealed. Blackened skin, cracked and mottled like the surface of scorched earth, stretched over his bones. Green ectoplasm pulsed through the cracks, like veins of molten fire running just beneath his surface. His fingers twitched, and the motion caused flakes of charred flesh to crumble from his hands, only to be replaced by more seeping ectoplasm.
Oh God.
His eyes widened, horror seizing him as he stumbled back, hitting the bathroom wall. His reflection followed, the sickening reality of what he’d become staring back at him. This wasn’t just a ghost form. This wasn’t just some new transformation.
This was him — his real body.
“What… what the hell…” Danny whispered, though his voice cracked, barely audible. He reached a shaking hand toward his face, his fingers brushing against the charred remains of his cheek. The sensation was numb, like touching something distant, not really his own skin. His heart, that dull thrumming echo of a heartbeat, sped up, each pulse a painful reminder of the accident in the ghost portal.
Memories flooded back in fragmented flashes. The screams, the burning sensation, the searing light that had enveloped him when the portal had torn open and ripped through his body. He had never really seen what he looked like after the accident — he’d never wanted to. He had convinced himself that his ghost form was just another side of him, a reflection of his powers, of the energy that had saved him from the brink of death.
But he hadn’t been saved.
He had died.
The boy who had entered that portal was dead, reduced to ash and embers. What stood before him now was something else entirely—something that only wore Danny Fenton’s face when the hazmat suit was on. But beneath it, there was nothing human left.
Just this… charred, hollow corpse.
Danny’s legs gave out beneath him, and he slid to the floor, his back pressed against the cold tile wall. He clenched his eyes shut, trying to block out the sight of his twisted reflection, but he couldn’t unsee it. The truth had sunk in, deep into his core.
He was no longer the boy who lived. He was the boy who had died. Everything since that accident, everything he had tried to hold onto—his family, his friends, his life—had been a lie. Phantom wasn’t just a mask or a persona. It was all that remained.
He let out a shaky breath, or at least tried to. It caught in his throat, more of a rasp than anything else. What would his parents say if they saw him like this? If they knew the truth of what had happened to their son? Would they even recognize him as Danny, or would they see him as just another ghost — just another monster to be hunted and destroyed?
He pressed his hand to his chest, feeling the unnatural smoothness of his charred skin, the faint vibration of ectoplasm flowing beneath it like blood. It was a grotesque mockery of life. He wasn’t healing, wasn’t recovering from this. This was him now. This was all he had left.
Tears pricked at his eyes, but even they were tinged green, drops of ectoplasm that burned as they rolled down his cheeks. He looked up at his reflection once more, his glowing eyes locking with the hollow, scorched thing staring back at him.
And for the first time since the accident, Danny Phantom understood just how much he had truly lost.
He wasn’t prepared to take off the mask — not now, not ever. Because the mask, the suit, the human skin he hid behind, was all that kept him tethered to the life he so desperately wanted to return to.
But the truth had always been waiting beneath. A truth as blackened and charred as the body he now inhabited.
Some people were wondering how he looks under the hazmat suit, and I was about to say the same as in canon, but who cares about the canon, let's have some fun design instead.
So right after losing the suit he is in a form that has a lot of energy and also space themed bc why not
and as those energy levels stabilize, he starts to look more like a halfa
This has been probably done few times already but i wanted to share my take on uhh... different kind? of hazmat suit for Danny.
more ideas under cut:
This suit was made by and for ghost hunters, so it was made with anti-ghost technology. Because of that, after the accident, most of Danny's ghost powers, like flight, intangibility and invisibility, were sealed. The suit is keeping ghost energy from getting outside, the same way it is from getting it inside. Unfortunately, heat from electricity melted the zip and buckles, so he is stuck inside.
Danny can still use ectorays because of the damage on his right glove from getting electrocuted to death. Charging them takes some time, so his main strategy are singular but strong and well aimed shots.
Not being able to emit ghost energy like every other ghost, makes his attacks more concentrated and thus more powerful. This also lets him use powers in human form far easier, which is helpful when he needs to disappear. (and maybe he gets sick after not using them for a while? 👀)
The suit is oversized which makes Danny slow and clumsy in fights, so instead of using agility, he tanks most attacks. It can take it, but in every fight it gets slowly damaged more and more. This lets him slowly use more abilities in his ghost form, but also lefts him more hurt after each fight.
Danny thinks it's because he and his enemies are just getting more powerful, so it is a bit of surprise for him when in his final battle the suit finally falls apart...
the proper hazmat AU for danny is hurting my heart with all the potential angst. can you imagine people realizing he's a child when he finally pops out of the suit. h h h h n ng my heart hurtie
For the Hazmat/Containment Breach AU would Danny initially try to pretend to other people that he's just using advanced Fenton tech? Not his parents of course, scatter brained as they are they know what stuff they have created and put into every suit they make. But the civilian populace. Imagine an Amity that doesn't have a Ghost Boy protecting them, but a mysterious man with in a Hazmat suit a strange presence to him. Sure he helps and is a decent enough guy, but there's something off about him. Something in the back of your head that whispers that this man shouldn't be here. The slow creeping dread of the people as they watch his suit torn apart more and more, the rising evidence of inhumanity growing and growing, until suddenly they see the void of green stars in a humanoid adjacent form, and realise that whatever was in that suit was not a man, and had not been a man in a long time.
Also, just people initially thinking Hazmat Danny is a grown man because the suit masks all identifying features like build, voice, etc, that would show that Phantom is a kid.
Sidenote: When I read that the Suit heavily restricts much of his initial strength, agility, and mobility in favour of making Danny a tank what does that mean in the future? Does Danny struggle not weighing like a thousand pounds and being figuratively or literally weightless? Does he need to learn to adjust his fighting style to stop taking hits that he cannot afford to anymore? Does the suit act as a restraining bolt on all his abilities and the moment it is gone suddenly Danny has been thrown leaps and bounds ahead of all of his enemies because he has been wearing restrictive gear and now he is free and stronger for having trained under such arduous conditions. I just love the idea that someone breaks the suit and thinks it is an instant win now, only for Danny to suddenly be able to effortlessly kick their ass.
If Danny is catapulted to an insane level of power when the suit comes of, I do wonder how he and everyone would react to this? His loved ones are probably glad he might stop getting hurt so much. Danny might initially relish the power boost but learn to fear it because good god does he not know how to handle this. His parents and maybe even a lot of the people of Amity are probably terrified about what this means now that this super powerful ghost is no longer holding back, a fear only compounded by the inevitable rise in collateral damage now that Danny has lost all of his skill in exchange for absurd power.
Okay, heck yes thank you for this.
Because the suit blocks every power he uses to dissapear afer a fight in canon, here he has to literally walk away and hide so he can change to human form and then use his, slightly better then in canon but still weak, powers to get invisible and intangible.
So he quickly finds out it's easier to not fight in sight if possible.
Combined with how the suit makes his voice more muffled and echoing (can't be heard in fights means no quips, sorry), Danny is basically bearly seen, silent, all spooky and glowy in public. A cryptid.
That means when someone sees him they are more concerned about what they are even seeing and not the spicy details like who created the suit.
And even when people start to talk, there are so many theories based on single encounters that almost noone is even close to the truth.
Right after Danny looses the suit, he is overcharged, overpowered and totally not prepared.
As he stabilizes he has to relearn how to fight and for a bit he's basically a glass cannon. Good thing he has friends that can help.
Hey, about ghosts apparence being based on self perception, i read something similar to luciferisabag but with the regular suit. But you got me thinking, what if danny started with hazmat-ier suit & the more he realize hes being a hero the more superhero-y the suits become?
Hmm...
The ghost appearance would (and will affect) Danny, but only after getting out of the hazmat suit, as it would affect what he wears as a ghost. (Why not a cape, after a while?)
This suit is more of a container he died in, than a part of what he is as a ghost. He is just lucky that he can move in it (albeit slowly and clumsily), or he would be stuck.
Sgdhsh imagine if he somehow died in an anti-ghost-box, so after the accident he thinks he has now magic powers of turning into a cube.
His hazmat suit being so heavy he can't fly is great, but what if his flight had some effect? He can lower the gravitational pull on himself so he walks like he's on the moon. I just have this image of Danny the hazmat ghost skipping around like he's Neil Armstrong pretending he's on the moon.
The suit being made with anti-ghost tech prevents Danny from flying, not necessary the weight.
But.
In highly emotional situations the energy leakage from cracks is stronger, and with it his powers.
So in the middle of the fight you could see him doing longer jumps. (Maybe even whole suit becomes lighter?) And with more suit damage, longer and higher jumps 👀
