Would You Like a Plush for These Trying Times?
Summary: Stuffie is being very patient, thank you very much, but this cage is small and they are bored. Taken is used as bait for their friend, Dani, they must come up with a distraction for themselves and the big robot man with many weapons.
Prompt: Your Danny Phantom OC has been kidnapped by Skulker, which cannon character is coming to save them (by @sailor-toni )
Ao3 link HERE
Bored.
Bored and cramped.
Cramped and bored.
Mostly bored.
Forced to wait in one spot and had to rock themself in place to keep from going insane.
Stuffie pouted as they wait in a small metal cage in the middle of a certain ghost who is a hunter's lair. Their plush companion, or familiar maybe, already left to get help.
...Which would be what metal-head would want now that they think about it.
Well, cant do anything about that now, I guess.
They can see him setting up traps like a kid giddy for Santa that it gives them an idea.
An excited grin forms on their face as the mental picture forms in their head as they prepare to get his attention.
The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and for once it feels like nothing will go wrong.
So of course something happens.
Dani was having a good day with her template when she got beaned in the head with something coming in fast, yet still very soft.
And said something was covering her face enough that she couldn't see.
It only took a few seconds to process what just happened before uproarious laughter erupted from her counterpart and she instinctively threw said projectile at his head instead. The force toppling him over in an admittedly embarrassing heap.
Now that was funny.
She was tempted to take a blackmail photo but wanted to keep their hangouts just between them.
Well, that and she wouldn't know who to share it with. Valerie? They're in human form and Dani doubts Valerie knows just yet and wants that drama to stay between her and Danny.
Didn't meant she couldn't taunt him, though.
"Ha! At least I stayed on my feet! Is my arm that good or are your reflexes suck that bad?" Dani paused for a second, "Wait, no seriously. Do they actually suck? Because I was joking but it makes a lot of sense!" She started to laugh a little to herself at that.
"Mmmm mmm!" His face, currently covered in soft plush, kept any word from being heard but the spirit of what he meant came through. That and the middle finger he raised at her after.
Picture for posterity it is. For scrapbooky memories of her travels and their days.
Which she keeps hidden in their mutual secret hideout. She's not in town most of the time so it's mainly Danny's but even he doesn't know where she keeps it when she really tries to hide it.
"Yeah, yeah. You love me. C'mon, don't deny it." She brushed him off with a cheeky grin and poked him annoyingly for a response. One photo flash or two later, Dani decides to help him. This is hilarious and also a bit pathetic. Not much in this day to take that seriously. At least until she takes a closer look at the soft projectile.
It didn't take long to realize it was a plush with a cape and very giraffe shaped and patterned and- Oh, that is a plush giraffe with a floppy neck holding itself up and looking at her a bit irritably.
She knew this giraffe.
Opps.
"C'mon, I heard tough guys like you love to have something made in your image." Stuffie wheedled him with their younger sibling-esque powers of annoyance. "Oh! Or! Or would you rather it be of your prey?"
They saw Skulker shift and they knew they have finally hooked him!
"The plush offering. Will it have a removable pelt?" The hunter asked them tentatively.
Hook, line, and sinker! This is going to be so fun!
"Oh man, I already have ideas!" Stuffie does a happy little wiggle before they take out the needle resting in their hair, "What if we gave it removable clothes or something to 'skin' its pelt?" Their eyes sparkled with inspiration.
Skulker sat down by Stuffie's cage as they opened their jacket and a cartoonish mountain of craft supplies fell out until the only thing under it was their graphic T-shirt that alternates when no ones looking. Their yarn, needles, hooks, and fabric all pushed aside for a piece of paper to brainstorm a new friend or two for the hunter keeping them hostage.
High pitched and fast squeak-yelling has been going on for, well, so long Dani lost track of time before the giraffe plush finally ran out of steam. This small giraffe has a lot of upset feelings she is making very well known.
"Ok, did you get any of that?" Danny ignorantly asked causing the ghostly plush to glare at him.
"Rude." Dani scolded the older boy as the giraffe hissed at him. "She wasn't even talking to you."
"How did that thing hiss without a mouth? Feels like it would have rabies if it bit me... Wait, she?" Danny was put off by the somehow sentient toy.
"Yes, she. And she has a name, too, y'know. This is Stuffie's little familiar, who almost never leaves their side, Raffi. Keep up."
"Wai-"
"Now that the big bore has been appeased," a 'Hey!' interjected in offense as Dani turned back towards the giraffe, "you finally got all my attention."
High pitched squeaks and squeals sound more and more like words the longer the Phantoms listen. 'Stuffie', 'scary robot' and 'cage' managed to be deciphered with the ghostly giraffe plush emphasizes with urgency.
"Got it, Stuffie has been captured by Skulker and you came to get my help." She felt a bit smug that it was her who was called upon even if it's mainly because Stuffie and Raffi don't really know Danny. It made her feel important and needed, not that she'd admit that here.
"You know this could be a trap, right?" Danny, ever the worrier with her, of course brings up the obvious.
"Well, duh. Obviously. But Stuffie is my friend and I'm going. You'd do the same for your friends and I know I got my stubbornness from you."
"No offense taken, I guess." Danny stuck his hands up in surrender. "
"Good. Offense for getting called out on being stubborn is a pathetic look of you."
"Was just making sure you understood what you're going into." They both playfully stick their tongues out at each other. "Just so you know, I'm coming with you, I have more experience fighting Skulker and all."
Liar. As if that's your only reason.
Danny clearly pulling what he would call 'a Jazz' from what she knows of her. She shakes her head good naturedly at his obvious lie.
Dani knows her friend could be in danger, but more importantly the little giraffe was very worried and can't be reassured until she checks. Skulker won't harm them if he wants them to be an effective lure, after all.
She just hopes that they will be alright when they get there.
"Oh, what if we add a squeaker or voice box!"
"The whelp is a mouthy one."
Skulker has fully joined their brainstorming. The two on the ground, one still in a cage, kicking their legs like they're at a sleepover. Drawing in his prey has practically slipped his mind in favor of a new kind of challenge.
"When we're done with the prey, do you want one of the hunter?" Stuffie asked with an impish grin, hoping he'd say yes so they can also craft a plush Skulker. They have so many ideas for it.
"Well, it would help me design weapons better before making them for the hunt." Skulker agreed as his thoughts trailed off.
Stuffie did a happy little wiggle while laying on the ground and looked at him with stars in their eyes.
"Any details you want to share for it?"
By the time the Phantoms and giraffe arrived, the atmosphere was not how they expected.
No trip wires and booby trapped weapons or other such things. There were some, but not as much as Skulker's usual.
It honestly weirded them out a bit.
Especially the oldest.
"Strange, this feels very out of character for Skulker. He should be popping out of nowhere to gloat or something." He heaved a sigh. "Unless there's something worse around the corner."
He remembered the last time he was here, though that time was not of his own will and with someone who wanted him gone.
It was a situation.
Before either Phantom could think of a plan, Raffi flew off on her own. B-lining to her friend now that she brought help.
The jungley skull island made going even one direction feel like going in circles as they walked on, too dense to really fly through. Once they heard voices, the booked it, preparing for a fight.
Only, to their surprise, they found Skulker on his stomache kicking his legs like a schoolgirl talking about a crush right next to Stuffie themself. They seem to be fine, minus the cage, all things considered. Including Raffi nestled in their soft hair, purring.
And, by the looks of things, having craft time.
"Oh! Oh! What if the knife is more of a stiff kind of fabric. That way it will keep its shape better!"
The conversation, however, gives them pause.
"The whelp did comment on my new hunting dagger once." Skulker thought outloud. "It's rewarding when the prey acknowledges your efforts."
Danny lags behind while Dani jogs ahead as his brain rebooted at this ridiculous situation.
"What even is today?" he muttered to himself before catching up.
Just when it couldn't get weirder, he saw a plush version of himself with a removable 'pelt' 'watching' the mini Skulker got made.
That's gonna give me some nightmares.
Deciding not to think about it anymore, he went to the cage to help Dani get Stuffie out of it. This day was so weird for him he didn't even question Skulker not noticing him for... a plush version of him.
Of course this is how he first meets Dani's new friends.
Why not?
Epilogue:
Stuffie did such a good job, they couldn't stop smiling about it.
Smiling and kicking their feet and flapping their hands as they swap stories with Raffi on how their day went.
Skulker was so distracted with their project he didn't notice their rescuers until they were long gone and they cured their boredom.
It's so fun for them to get someone new to love a new plush friend or so.
Stuffie gets a good grade in keeping friends from getting hurt, which is a reasonable thing to strive for. Raffi said so, and they trust Raffi more than anyone!
And!
And they finally got to meet Dani's other 'Danny'. Raffi called him rude but they thought he was funny. He kept making this lost face like he's never seen a sentient plush giraffe before!
He also kept looking at the 'whelp' plush they made with Skulker.
What a silly boy.
Though, now that they think about it, he did look a lot like how the plush was designed.
Oh well.
What are the odds?
