An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
After everything, talks need to be had in comfy environments
Danny sat in Jazz’s room, surrounded by a pillow fort put together in true sibling fashion, wearing his undershirt and his pajama pants with glow in the dark ufos on it. In his arms rested a teddy bear made by his dad dressed up to look like Buzz Aldrin, a soft orange and blue light radiating from it on the second plane that felt like a soothing balm and the soft hum of a lullaby that quieted the frantic buzzing in his skull. Jazz sat next to him in her peach PJs covered in waffles and holding Bearbert Einstein in one arm, the other wrapped around his shoulders. Everything was warm, soft and calm in a way that felt like it belonged to a lifetime ago, and Danny thanked the stars for an older sister like Jazz.
“So, you heard what she was saying through the smoke.” He tried to ask, but it wasn’t a question as they both knew it. They didn’t bring up the fact that no one else - from Sydney to Ishyama to Tucker or Sam - could hear or see through the oily thick shadows that Spectra had wrapped them all in.
“I did,” she answered anyway, brilliant fury and cool worry blending up in her aura and her voice and her eyes till he had to look away at his bear again to see anything clearly. “She’s wrong,” Jazz said after the room had gone quiet for a moment too long. “Mom and Dad do care about us, they love us, and I love you, Danny, no matter what.”
“Thank you,” he breathed, a whisper almost too quiet for her to hear but he knew she heard him anyway. He curled up closer to her and closed his eyes. “I love you too.” And he let that ring, like a thousand tiny bells, down their bond to fill her up with every ounce of sincerity and truth that he could muster and be sure that she knew that he meant it. The wetness in his hair needn’t be commented on, since the wetness in his eyes weren’t brought up. “You have questions, I’m sure. Ask away, Dr. Fenton.”
Jazz snorted at that and ruffled his hair before taking a deep breath. “How… how did you become as you are now?” If Danny were less tired, were he looking at Jazz, he’d have questioned the string between them being tugged on or the light behind her eyes. He didn’t, however, and instead, he reasoned that Jazz’s presence eased the dread that came with speaking of the night that he half joined the ranks of the dead.
“It all started with the portal. Yeah, I asked them about the accident for a reason. I’ll be great for the Halloween season. You know you’ve said peer pressure kills? Far as know you’re half right at least.”
Danny spilled to his sister his tale, holding back tears to no avail, and just as she had in that suffocating dark, Jazz helped Danny see the light, breathe and know that things would be alright.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Local Teenager has Trippy Dream and Realizations About Family Importance, Family of Local Geniuses not Aware of how Genius they Are, Deceased Poacher not very Smart, Attacks Local Ghost Hunters, Local Family Discusses the Importance of Failsafes
Voices, vaguely familiar and carrying warmth called out to him. They called his name, the sound distant and irrelevant, so small it is lost to the hearts of stars singing deep beneath the soil. Lost to the blooming nebulas staining the dark sky with color, miles upon miles of light and rivers of fire and the promise of something new. Danny can almost hear the words and language they speak; something so close, so distant, something he has never known -- but they ring with such magnificent, terrible truth that he thinks, maybe he has always known them. Maybe they have always lived inside him, alongside the bones. These melodies, these words, that burn with such ferocious clarity that if he just spoke them aloud then the far would become near and he could reach out and pluck the stars from the sky and cradle them in his hands.
Danny woke up in his bed, surrounded by the warm press of his friends. The music of his dreams fading to the farthest and darkest reaches of his mind and leaving Danny grasping at nothing for them. So instead of the music he could barely hear the faintest notes of, Danny focused on his friends. His ears had grown so capable that with some focus he could hear even their heartbeats, and at the moment he was glad. His friends’ pulses were a reassuring sound, as much as the feeling of them pressed against his body and breathing right next to him on either side - reassurance that they were truly there.
Slipping between the rhythmic dances of their ever vibrating molecules, Danny got out of the bed and landed on his feet near silently. A glance at the clock told him it was 7:10 AM and Danny was beyond glad that it was Saturday. Holding in a yawn, he walked straight to the bathroom, did his routine, and headed downstairs in just his binder and boxers, as everyone in the household had seen him in already.
Or so he thought. There was a woman in a purple suit with a tie and curly hair sitting in one of the chairs in his living room, holding up an electronic recorder. And his parents and sister were on the couch, everyone fully dressed. And staring at him. In his underwear. Considering he just let loose a string of swears therein, he hoped the lady didn’t speak Mandarin.
Three minutes later Danny came down in a purple shirt bearing the FMA logo on it and some sweat pants. “Uh, hi?”
“Danny, I told you about this interview already,” Jazz said through grit teeth. “This is Souda Ayodele from Genius magazine.” A quick look on the second layer of everything showed that her aura was one of angry beige bees.
Danny turned to stare at the reporter. “Hi there.” Ms. Ayodele waved back, and Danny walked past the entire event to the kitchen. “Eggs, or Cereal?” Danny hummed, before catching his mother’s voice pointing out that her focus was ghost hunting. “Oh, this will be hilarious.” Grabbing cereal, a bowl, and milk, Danny used his intangibility to speed up getting everything together and grabbing a spoon. He was on the couch in time to hear Jazz claim that ghost hunting was a hobby.
“What they’re really involved in is inventing.” Jazz smiled, trying to steer the conversation to somewhere safe and normal.
“True, we do invent a majority of the time. I’ve personally worked on improving the power sources for all of our things around Fentonworks. Though, we do mechanical engineering as well,” Mom said as Danny ate his cereal.
Dad pulled out one of their holographic projectors and hit the button to let it float. “I have a full inventory of our inventions right here actually! For instance-”
“Dr. Fenton” Ayodele said, clearly having been here long enough to know that if she didn’t just interrupt then Dad would keep talking. “Pardon the interruption, but is that...device, um...floating?"
Dad and Mom blinked, looking at each other. Even Danny and Jazz cocked their heads at the question. Their parents had been toying around with hover engines for years, what was the big deal about that?
"Well, yes," Mom began. "That's a patented Fenton Gravity Inverter."
"And...how much can your...um, Gravity Inverter lift?" The reporter asked again.
"Approximately one metric ton, depending on the model." Dad shrugged. "But the Gravity Inverter is only a small part of the FentonWorks itinerary, such-”
"I'm sorry, but just to confirm: your laboratory has successfully created a device which can lift a ton of weight into the air without the energy requirements being prohibitive?" The reporter asked finally.
"Yes," Mom explained slowly as if talking to a child. "It's a relatively simplistic application of physics. Both Danny and Jazz, our children, have been building them for us for years while my husband and I focused on more advanced applications of our research. The Gravity Inverter is, quite literally, 'kids stuff.' In fact, I think Danny built the model that we eventually decided on using for the Fenton Holoprojector."
“A waste of an afternoon since I coulda been working on my paints,” Danny muttered around his cereal.
Ayodele turned to the kids fully. “Mr. and Ms. Fenton, is what your parents saying true?"
Danny shrugged, clearing his throat as he nodded. "Ah, sure. I mean, those things are pretty easy, I could almost build one in my sleep nowadays. I’m even using one for a side project I’m doing with a friend. They're not like Physics Cancelers or anything, right Jazz?"
"I guess they're pretty easy," Jazz shrugged, uncomfortable with being the center of attention. "Mom and dad only ask us to work with the safe stuff anyway. None of this is too complicated." Jazz turned to her parents, "If you're using the Model II that Danny built for the Projector, why did you want me to put together a Model VI last week?”
Mom smiled, "Oh, that's for the Specter Speeder, sweetie. We'll be showing that off a little later. At any rate, though, we would like to get on with the demonstration now. Jack, honey, if you would?"
“Rightio Mads!” Dad pulled out a remote from his pocket and a projection of an oblong, missile-like object coated in shiny metal and streamlined with a flaming F decal on both sides. The projection spun in the air at Dad’s press of a button.
"The Fenton Ghost Zone Probe," Mom began, “When finished, will be launched into the Ghost Portal and take numerous measurements including temperature, ecto-thermography, radiospectronomy, and more...of course, this will include video and audio data!"
“Did you say… Ghost Portal?” The woman looked remarkably uneased by the implications of there being a ghost portal, which was understandable. Danny wasn’t a fan of the fact himself. Just realizing how easily he slid through matter without even a second thought had Danny shuddering.
“Yup! We can’t exactly show ya that one just yet,” Dad said with a sigh. “We didn’t prepare for a presentation proper. We can, however, describe to you exactly how it works!”
And so Dad did just that and Danny tuned him out, eating his cereal since he’d heard this all before about six times. Instead, he focused on the look of mounting horror on Jazz’s face and counted the seconds before she interrupted Dad again.
“The portal isn’t what we’re here to talk about, Dad!” Wow, a full 36 seconds. Danny was impressed. “Can we talk about your work in energy? A self-regenerating energy source?”
“Ectoplasm, Jazz.” Danny pointed with his spoon. “They’re converting some of the nuclear batteries to use reactions with ectoplasm instead of the usual stuff.”
“Nuclear… batteries?” The poor reporter looked so lost and Danny had to wonder why. Did he say something about ghosts? Well beyond ectoplasm but everyone knew ghosts were made of ectoplasm. “Do the two of you work at a nuclear facility?”
“No?” Mom frowned. “We have nuclear batteries in our ghost hunting technology.”
“The entire facility is powered by a reactor under the labs.” Danny rolled his eyes. “And solar panels on the roof and a backup geothermal generator. Actually, all of our windows are solar panels too. I’m pretty sure Mom and Dad are just looking for ways to replicate those effects with ectoplasm?”
“Like we told you, Danny, it’s far more efficient in storage and output of energy than any material we’ve found on earth or any other dimension.”
“I know Mom, I just… I dunno, expected something new?” Danny shrugged and slurped up the milk from his now-empty bowl, relishing in Jazz’s glare. “Well, I’m gonna be upstairs having fun.” It was then that Danny spotted Tucker and Sam on the stairs, Sam in her black jeans and a Dumpty Humpty shirt she left last time she stayed over and Tucker in a button-up of Danny’s. “Guys, c’mon, ignore the interview we’ve got funner stuff to do.”
“That’s not a word, Danny.” Sam rolled her eyes. “This explains why English teachers hate you.”
“Oh please,” Danny chuckled as he headed into the kitchen, waiting for Sam and Tucker to grab their breakfast. “The teachers love me. Lancer’s just a pain.”
“Dude,” Tucker said as he grabbed a bag of bacon bits like they were chips and started eating. “You guys have nuclear reactors in your house?”
“Well not in this house specifically but yeah,” Danny shrugged. “Did you think we were on the city’s power grid or something?”
“Actually honey we’re supplying power to the whole town,” Mom called out, displaying that all mothers were supernatural entities that could hear anything.
“Huh. Well, there ya go.” Danny shrugged and headed to and up the stairs. Sam and Tucker soon followed, Sam holding a bowl full of fruit. “Did you put that there yesterday?”
“Yes, you need healthier food in this house, Danny - also why am I only just learning that you guys power the entire town?” Sam was scowling at him, and Danny wasn’t sure what he’d done this time.
“Because I only just found out?”
“What did you mean by This house, Danny?” Tucker sat on Danny’s bed while Sam got into his desk chair. “Do you guys have more than one house?”
“Yeah, FentonWorks is the entire block.” Judging by his friends’ expressions, Danny hadn’t told them this. “I guess it never came up?” Danny held up a game disc. “Did you think I built our HorrorStations in my room?” Danny slid the disc into the hand made console, grabbed his controller, and sat next to Tucker.
Before Tucker could respond, Danny felt a chill run up his spine, into his lungs and past his lips and he looked around on the second realm, but he was too late. The robot Sam had described appeared, right behind Danny, arm aimed point-blank at him. A net shot out and tangled around Danny’s body, throwing him off the bed and into his own console. In seconds, all three of them were bound in blue nets. “Hello, Ghost Child.”
“Who are you?” Danny arched a brow. He needed a moment to pull that power of brilliant, life granting stars into his muscles. If he transformed inside the house for a fight his parents would not only notice but come up and see his ghost form instead of him.
“I am Skulker,” the robot said, holding up a holographic projection of a cage filled with green abominations unto all gods Danny could think of. “A collector of things rare and unique. And you, ghost child, are that and more.” Skulker laughed, far more dramatically than he deserved to, and took a step, Danny’s rocket cracking and shattering into pieces.
“That’s my fucking rocket!” Green fire filled Danny’s veins and he tore the net off of himself, rising to put some dents in the robot. But when he reached into himself proper, that ice-cold void, heatless and full of lights that no other human being could ever claim to see, he was burned and staggered backward. “I built that! Just like this!” The Wrist Ray™ struck Skulker in the chest, burning a hole in him, and Danny felt that fire drain out of him into the weapon.
Sam and Tucker behind him used their own wrist rays to cut through the nets, and Sam’s shot from her crouch on the ground sailed over Skulker’s ducking head, leaving a dent in Danny’s wall. Skulker hit a button on his wrist and the nets began to snap and crackle. Danny reached out and snatched Tucker away before he could get zapped, and kicked the net away from Sam’s feet. He let go just fast enough that neither of them felt the shocks when they raced up into his body and forced his every muscle to tense up - nerves ablaze with screams that he couldn’t make.
Tucker raised his Wrist Ray ™ but Skulker shot it off of his wrist and he yelped. “Holy shit!”
“Come now, ghost boy, I expected this to be far more of a challenge. And yet here you are, easily cowed by the merest targeting of your little friends?” Skulker’s words barely reached Danny’s ears. All he could hear was the rushing of his blood and pain. Just as the current died down, Danny’s vision blacked out when Sam’s Wrist Ray shot missed the netting itself and hit his foot instead.
The door opened with a bang. “GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY SON!” BOOM Skulker was blasted back by Dad’s bazooka into the wall, and Danny’s vision slowly returned to him. “Jasmine, take your brother to the infirmary! Kids, get out of here!”
Skulker launched a net at Dad but Mom came to the rescue with her own cannon fire. It struck Skulker right in the net launcher and ripped off a piece of paneling on his arm. With a snarl, Skulker took in his surroundings and reached down to grab something purple, before fading from sight and quickly vacating Danny’s range of extra senses.
And soon that didn’t matter because Danny was being rushed down to the infirmary and he could hear Sam and Tucker telling his parents what had happened, ignoring the reporter entirely. Letting out a cough, Danny turned to Jazz and flashed a grin. It felt more like a grimace. “Hey, I stopped them from embarrassing you in that interview right?”
“You’re a disaster, little brother.” Jazz took a breath and carded a hand through his hair like she always did when he was hurt. “We’re gonna get you better, and when you’re better you’re gonna explain to me what the hell you were thinking.”
“Sure thing, Spazz.” Danny chuckled and sighed. “I think I need a nap.”
Danny reaches out, eyes transfixed on the distant hearts of stars. One whisper is all it needs. He could do it. He can. If he could just shape the cold clay of his lips.
Danny opened his eyes to the sight of Jazz, Tucker, Sam and his Mom all sitting around the infirmary and doing things. Sam was looking through one of her scrapbooks while Tucker did something on one of his PDAs - didn’t Skulker fly off with the other one? Jazz was reading a book about trauma and Mom was checking something on a holographic display. Everything was unnervingly quiet, and for a moment Danny considered going back to sleep. Rare and unique. Enough of a freak that some ghost would come hunting me down just to say to the rest of the Underworld ‘hey look, I caught the weirdo!’ regardless of who got in his way or what I have to say about it. Horologium, with how I rip apart ghosts that piss me off bad enough, I might as well be one of the weird Things that he was showing off in his little hologram.
Instead of dwelling on how his very fucked up existence that shouldn’t have been was putting his family in danger now, he sat up. His muscles were sore and stiff, and he let out a pained groan from the action, but Danny was at least relieved that he could move at all. “Okay, remind me never to touch another live wire again.” He saw his friends wince and shrugged before wincing again himself.
“Danny! Oh, honey don’t try to move too much, alright?” Mom came to his side in the blink of an eye, checking him over for any signs of electrical burns. “Oh Danny, baby, are you alright?”
“I’m about as sore as Zephyrus was about Hyacinthus, but I think I’ll be alright. Though, I’d love to never have to deal with that again.” Danny let out a sigh and laid his head back. I’d also love to be done with this getting better thing. What was it that Mom and Dad said about ectoplasm? It can absorb electromagnetic energy? Danny closed his eyes and reached out for the dangling threads of buzzing whines in the lights and sockets, pulling it into himself clumsily. He bit back a yelp and felt his arm practically convulse when the electricity went the wrong way. Note to self, don’t try that in human form again. Human bodies are complicated.
“Flex your muscles slowly and methodically, Danny,” Tucker said. “Gotta get your blood flowing. And check for nerve damage, cause electricity is horrible for the body. Speaking of, thank you for pulling us out of those nets."
Sam came over and held out a hand, looking slightly unsure as to what she wanted to do. "Gods, I'm so sorry for shooting you in the foot."
Danny laughed, ignoring the pain of tensing muscles because that was the last thing anyone needed to apologize for as far as Danny was concerned. "You got the net off yourself by blasting it so you blasted the net on my foot, it's cool. Though, if we end up netted again, please just grab something non-conductive to knock the net away."
"There will be no Next Time, pumpkin. The anti-ghost defense grid is up and running and no nasty ghost robot is getting in here to target you."
"Thanks, Mom." Danny let out a sigh and felt something uncurl in relief. He was safe at home, at the very least. "So Jazz, I think I owe you a thought process."
"That is correct, Second."
"Well, False Maturity, I was thinking, 'that button has something to do with those nets. If I get them away from Sam and Tuck, he can't hurt them with them.' And so I tried doin that."
"My boy the hero!" Dad came barreling into the room and immediately scooped Danny up into a hug. "Gave us all a scare! That ecto scum will think twice before trying to attack FentonWorks now!"
“I’ve been told… lungs are important.” Danny hugged back anyway of course, he wasn’t going to leave this hug ever.
“Mom, Dad,” Jazz piped up. “The things that come out of the portal are clearly dangerous. One attacked Danny in his room! Why haven’t we shut down the portal yet?” The squeeze of Dad’s hug got uncomfortably tighter.
“We’ve tried, Jazzerincess, can’t get the darn thing to turn off.” Danny felt his blood run even colder.
“What?”
Mom sighed and ran a hand over her face. “We unplugged it, cut all the power from the portal but it seems to be self-sustaining. All we can do is block it up with those blast doors.”
For several moments there was silence while everyone digested that they had no solid way of keeping the ghosts out of their world. And I'm the one who opened the door in the first place.
Sam cleared her throat. "Drs. Fenton? I know who the ghost is. He told us during his monologing he died putting down the last female purple back gorilla in a hunt. Name’s Hunter Grosvenor.” Sam sneered around the name as though it were the most disgusting piece of meat she'd had to swallow in her life.
Danny covered his mouth with his hand, curling his fingers into a fist slowly. Blowing air into it, he resisted the urge to growl. Tucker glared at the sky, daring Skulker to appear so he could dismantle him personally. “I’ve not felt so incredibly violent in a while. I need videogames-"
"Actually," Tucker interrupted with a sigh. "Your Horrorstation broke in all the fighting. The scrap heap also stole my PDA."
"First he gives my best friend a burn on her stomach, then he breaks my models and now my videogames? When I next see Skulker, I'm going to burn a hole through his faceplate." Danny groaned, laying his head back. "Can I get a moment with Sam and Tuck?"
"Of course, son." Dad set him down and ruffled his hair, more gentle with Danny than he ever remembered him being. The air around Dad was vaguely orangish and Danny let the tiniest bit of ectoplasm reach his eyes. The orange air around his dad, probably an aura, was tinged with echoes of sour fear and boiling anger that had Danny ready to crawl out of his skin, grab a gun and hunt Skulker down himself. "You kids go on and do that research project of yours! Mads and I will hunt down that putrid undead creep and rip it apart on a molecular level!"
Danny had never felt so conflicted about something his Dad had said. On one hand, I'd love for him to destroy Skulker. On the other, the dehumanizing way he says it is disturbing as all hell.
Just as the Fenton Adults left the room, Dad turned around with a big grin. "By the way Danny, I'm proud of you for looking out for your friends like that."
A wave of something brilliant and blue and love pride relief joy slammed into Danny and filled him from the inside out. And as the door closed, Danny flexed his fingers and rolled his joints. Danny stood up and stretched. "Holy shit guys, I think that Dad just healed me up a bit."
"Sweet. Think he can spread that around or is that a You thing?" Tucker looked ready to take notes since Danny didn't have his notebook on him.
Danny closed his eyes and focused, gently pulling that cool void up and letting it fill his eyes and ears and every nerve on his body. He opened his eyes and Danny saw the world bathed in that extreme indigo-like color that seemed to come off of every person he looked at. Looking closer, he noticed faint blue strings leading from him to his Dad and Mom and Jazz upstairs and a silver string leading to Tucker and Sam each. Reaching out to grasp the one that he just knew belonged to Jazz Danny was floored by so potent and blended a mix of positivity, concern, and manic energy that he had to stumble back into the bed. "Danny?"
"Just a me thing. Definitely. I can see these… strings, connecting me to you guys and my family. Like spider threads. But like, made of emotions?" He rubbed his temples and hummed. "Ectoplasm is psychoreactive so maybe it's like, a connection between us made semi tangible to my ghost because of how much ectoplasm is normally around here? You guys definitely got hit by ectoplasm in spades when the portal activated, so that explains why I can see it linking me to you guys too…"
"Hey. Science boy." Sam nudged his hip with her foot and Danny arched a brow at her. "Save the theories for later. We need a game plan to deal with the guy as soon as possible. Grovsner was a very efficient hunter if a sadistic bastard.”
Danny sighed and nodded, sitting back down. “Well, what do we know about him?” Tucker began tapping away at his PDA, eyes moving quickly.
“I know that you’re probably not gonna find anything on the internet. I had done a report on his barbaric treatment toward animals for an extra credit project and when I looked back for them, on all the same sites as before. Nothing.” Sam groaned. “But, I do remember what it was he typically did on a hunt for a protected species. He had hunting dogs, laid all kinds of traps, the works. I’m not sure what kind of things ectoplasm can do to a net besides making it gooier, but being able to phase into walls and crawl spaces where you usually go to is something he’s definitely going to take advantage of.”
“So my locker is probably gonna be rigged to explode, I have to worry about hell hounds, and he has nets that might fall on me on the way to the library or just to like, GameStop.” Danny leaned back, closing his eyes. “That sounds fun.”
"You assume there are hell hounds," Tucker snorted.
"Of course there are."
"Because you so want there to be ghost dogs."
"Tucker. Imagine it. A dog that doesn't poop, just cuddles up with you and gives you infinite love."
"Don't all dogs go to Heaven, Danny?"
"I have strong evidence that there is no such thing as Heaven just like. A door down. Literally past that wall over there."
"Fair enough." Tucker sighed and laid his head back. Then he sat straight up with a grin. "You know what's a great way of being harder to trap?"
"Intelligence?"
"Mobility, Sam. If we finish those hoverboards we should be able to avoid most of his land traps!" Danny and Tucker beamed at each other and high fived each other.
"I'm good to go on that! Sam, wanna learn how to-"
"You guys can have your geek things, Danny, I'm heading upstairs to make use of all your handhelds." Sam smiled and held her hands up, walking to the stairs. "Scream if you need me."
"Same to you!" Danny grinned and headed to the door that lead to the main lab.
“You know how your gravity inverter™ works better than I do so I’m gonna work on like, an AI. No, Danny don’t give me that look, it’s just for navigation, it isn’t self improving or anything like that. I just want something to help me not crash into things when flying.”
