Author's note: THIS IS NOT A NEW CHAPTER! Merely a redo of the first chapter. Let me know if you like this way better.
It was supposed to be simple.
When his ghost sense went off just before going to bed, he fully expected to have an easy fight, suck it in the thermos, and be home in time for a decent night of sleep. He was not however, expecting the fight to be so difficult and take up so much of his time. It was nearly three in the morning. If he was lucky he could finish this and get four and a half hours asleep if he completely ignored his homework. However, at the rate this fight was going, it was unlikely that he would finish in time to even crawl in bed for an hour or two.
Oh how he hated his job.
The ghost, whose face and body was completely hidden by the white cloak it was wearing, didn't seem to be particularly powerful, just incredibly evasive. It just danced around him most of the time, swirling some sort of glowing white spear in its arms. It made a couple of jabs at him, but he evaded both of them.
In short, the ghost just existed to annoy him. He had been growing steadily more annoyed with the ghost over time and had at one point attempted to give up and just go home. He had crawled in bed and pulled the covers over his head. Only to have his ghost sense wake him up moments later to prevent him from being speared in the chest by a persistent ghost. He dodged, but barely.
He'd been chasing the ghost around ever since, losing the ghost once in an abandoned warehouse. He'd only barely seen the ghost out of the corner of his eye to avoid yet another deadly strike.
The ghost was serious in taking Danny down, in an annoying and increasingly frustrating sort of way. Danny however, was incredibly frustrated with fate's refusal to allow him to live out his life normally. He had hoped to get some sleep.
"OH COME ON!" Danny yelled, thoroughly angered. "JUST LET ME SUCK YOU IN THE THERMOS ALREADY!"
The ghost had other ideas and made another jab at Danny's chest. Danny returned this attempt with a normal ecto ray quickly followed by an icy one. The ghost dodged both with ease.
He was so distracted with the ghost in front of him that he had no time to react when his ghost sense informed him of a second one.
So when a second spear burst through his chest, all of his anger and frustration dissolved into shock and pain. He hadn't been expecting that. Hours of fighting only one ghost had given him a sort of tunnel vision, in which he focused only on the ghost in front of him, losing his awareness of his surroundings. He was paying for it now.
As the spear slid through his chest, he felt his core grow shockingly colder and begin shrinking, which scared him to wits end. It was withering away and dragging him with it. With a sudden jolt of fear that made his body turn to ice, he realized that his core was ending, he was dying.
As a heavy buzzing began in his ears and his vision faded, he caught a glimpse of a ghost portal ripping into existence before him and an angry shout coming from within. Then all went black.
"TIME OUT!"
When he opened his eyes again, he was confused. Did he or did he not just die? Groaning and rolling his surprisingly pain free but stiff and exhausted body over, he pushed himself to his feet, only to stop halfway through and scream.
What the hell happened to his hands?! Leaping to the air and examining the rest of him-it seemed he was in his ghost form because he could fly-, he discovered that it wasn't just his hands that were weird. It was his entire body.
He screamed. Because even though waking up with a furry body and a tail wasn't all that shocking considering the insane train wreck that seemed to be his life, it was still unexpected. And not appreciated, because if the surrounding environment was anything to go by, he was tiny too.
Speaking of the surrounding environment, there was a heavy gear theme in the room he was in.
"CLOCKWORK!"
Danny was relieved to note that his voice at least was the same.
Being told that you were stuck being four inches tall for the rest of your life was one thing. Being told you were a magical creature that could grant a human powers if they were wearing a pair of sunglasses was another. Somehow fate made it exactly the same.
Danny was not thrilled about his situation, but he was pleased to note that Clockwork wasn't happy about the situation either. However, the time ghost did seem to be mildly amused by Danny's pouting at being a miniaturized bat. Oh how Plasimuis was going to get a kick out of this.
Danny was not thrilled that the observants were the ones to blame for this incident. Clockwork wasn't either. In fact, the stopwatch seemed downright pissed about the whole thing, even more so than Danny. It took several moments for Clockwork to calm himself enough to explain what happened.
In short, the observants were cowards and didn't want to deal with the possibility of another evil ghost and had hired a pair of ghost assassins, given them a pair of spears that ended a ghost as soon as it was driven through its chest, and sent them after Danny. They also managed to somehow hide all of this from Clockwork using a stolen medallion and a whole ton of spells until the very last minute when Clockwork discovered the gap in his vision and broke through said spells, discovering the observants intentions and rushing towards Danny's aid, only to come just in time to see said half ghost fall to the ground, spear in chest, and managed to freeze time just long enough to cast a different spell, albeit more complicated, that turned Danny into a kwami.
Long story short, Danny was sure that fate was out to get him.
At least he wasn't the only one frustrated.
Apparently the assassins were frozen in time someplace in Clockwork's tower and the stopwatch, while he had no intentions of harming them, because technically it wasn't completely their fault, he was fully prepared to reactivate them and scare the living daylights out of them. And, the assassins, being MIA from the observants point of view, had not informed the observants of their apparent "success" or Clockwork's meddling. And Clockwork, being the spiteful old ghost he was at the moment, had completely trashed the observants' viewing screens earlier, shielding everything that Clockwork did from their view.
Danny learned that the observants were going to have to do more than just begging for a new pair of screens.
Clockwork gave a long drawn out sigh as soon as he had finished explaining everything. It was moments like this that made him wish he had chosen a more relaxing job like Ghost Writer had. It would have spared him so many fewer headaches. However, pranking was fun, especially when you could rewatch the outcomes so many times over.
He considered his job to be a sort of guardian ship. He kept an eye on things and guided it in the right direction if it strayed. The observants however, were professional stalkers in his opinion. They just watched and watched and watched. . . . and then messed everything up when they tried to play Clockwork and "meddle". . . Like right now.
Luckily the situation was somewhat salvageable. Danny wasn't quite dead just yet and could still change the outcome of the future. However, it would be far different than what he had originally predicted. He hated it when the future took unforeseen turns on him. It made him feel uneasy. He'd probably be spending the next few years binge watching the future-while using time manipulation to make that time actually a few months- just to figure out what the best course of action was on how to fix this mess that the observants made.
He swore he would never let the future be so dependent on one being ever again.
Of course that was an empty promise because he'd sworn that millennia ago and look what just happened. History had the annoying habit of repeating itself and being a pain.
Still, it wasn't really all that bad. Clockwork was merely upset that he'd allowed himself to be blinded. He had grown careless with watching the observants' every move. Usually they referred to him for a course of action, so he had not been expecting them to plan something so alarming. He would not make that same mistake again.
He didn't really need to spend so much time watching the future. It just made him feel better. It reassured him that such an event wouldn't happen again. Still, his priority right now was to take care of Daniel and he wasn't going to fail that job too.
"Clockwork?" Danny asked. Looking up at the time ghost in concern. Clockwork had been muttering angrily to himself for several minutes now, lost to his own thoughts. Being blinded must have had a greater effect on him than I thought, Danny realized. He's been staring off into space for quite some time now.
"Are you alright?"
Clockwork blinked at the question as his mind snapped back into attention and he looked at the floating kwami.
"I'm alright, Daniel. Just a bit distracted."
"If I may ask, what is going to happen to me now that I'm a kwami?"
"You find a holder of course," Clockwork stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"But who?"
"That, young Phantom, is something I cannot tell you at the moment, but you will find out soon enough. Before I leave you in your first holder's hands, it is for the best that you explain everything to your family and friends, which may take quite some time."
Danny gulped.
"Do not worry, Daniel. All is as it should be."
Danny gave the time ghost a curious glance. "You know that even though the future was all messed up?"
Clockwork chuckled and nodded. "Never underestimate the power of time manipulation. I am behind, yes, and I have a lot of work to do before I can safely meddle again. However, I have already seen much, especially for the possibilities of the next few years and I have selected not only the best possible holder for you at the moment, but I have also determined a rough estimate of your future. It will more than likely change, but I have determined it nonetheless."
Danny nodded. If there was one thing he had learned over the years, was to trust Clockwork. The time ghost often knew more than he let on and if there was anybody he should trust with his future it was somebody who could actually see the future.
Clockwork waved his staff and a portal materialized beside him.
"It is best that we get this over with quickly. You have been missing for several days and your parents are worried. I shall go with, if only to make sure that a few possible events either do not occur or do not affect the time stream too badly. I will explain a good portion of it for you, please stay in invisible while I do."
Danny nodded but gave Clockwork a worried glance. "Won't the observants see you meddling again?"
Clockwork raised an eyebrow and gave Danny a look. "With what viewing screen?"
Danny blushed and buried his oversized face in his hands. "Oh . . . sorry. That was . . . that was dumb."
Clockwork chuckled and gently patted the kwami on the head.
"Nonetheless, I am grateful for your concern, however pointless it seemed." Clockwork then gestured for Danny to follow as he stepped into the portal.
It had been four days since Maddie had last slept, since they'd last seen her son. He had disappeared in the night. How was still a mystery, but Maddie suspected that some ghost was involved. It just didn't make sense that he would disappear in the middle of the night. Sure, Danny had been acting strange lately, but she had chalked it down to teenage hormones and kept her worrying to a minimum. Of course, Danny probably didn't know she worried at all but that wasn't the point.
The point was her son was missing and there was no way in hell she was going to let some ghost-if it was a ghost- get away with it.
They had gone driving around all day the first day. Later that day, when nobody had seen him yet, they called the police. The second day, Vlad got involved and issued a state wide search for the boy. On the third day, Maddie was wearing herself ragged but still she refused to give up.
It was the fourth day now and there was still no sign of him. Maddie and Jack were down in the lab, hoping that playing around with their inventions would keep their mind off of Danny.
It didn't work. Maddie was working on her tenth coffee for the day, sitting at a desk, staring at a wall, her face contorted into a constant state of worry. Jack, seemed to be faring better, but his energy stated otherwise. His work, which he usually attacked with much gusto, was executed out in a slow and painful matter, slowly growing slower and slower until he finally quit, went upstairs to pull Jazz and Danny's friends downstairs and sat down next to Maddie, insisting that it was best they stayed in larger numbers.
For once, Jazz and Danny's friends didn't complain.
They were all there when the ghost portal activated and opened, despite the genetic lock placed on it. Their nerves, which had been strained greatly by Danny's disappearance, caused them to leap to their feet and grab the nearest ghost weapon.
Maddie determined that the ghost that came through would give her answers on her son's whereabouts or else.
Sam, however, dropped the weapon she was holding in shock when Clockwork of all ghosts came through and shouted for Danny's parents to stand down.
"WAIT!" She leapt in front of Maddie's gun and pointed it away from Clockwork. "I know this ghost," she explained. "He can tell us what happened to Danny. He's practically omnipotent."
Maddie blinked and then seemed to choke on her words. "Omnipotent?!" She had never even heard of a ghost that powerful.
Jack gave the ghost a warry glance, but otherwise chose to listen and stand down. He was exhausted. Maddie was exhausted. They were all exhausted. They wouldn't fare well if they tried to fight now.
The group had been so distracted with Clockwork's appearance that they failed to notice the small floating batthat had come in after Clockwork. It disappeared soon after.
"How do you know this ghost?" Maddie asked. Sam winced and spared Clockwork a glance who silently nodded.
"Tucker, Danny, and I took several trips into the ghost zone-"
"WHAT?!"
"Clockwork doesn't mean you any harm! Most ghosts don't! In fact, Clockwork usually stays in his lair. If he's here than that means that he had something really important to tell us! So just let him speak. He's not going to tell us what happened to Danny if you attack him!"
Maddie pursed her lips, but kept silent and nodded towards the ghost. Ghosts were vile creatures, but if she had to be cordial to one in order to find her son, then so be it.
"Thank you, Sam," the time ghost said. He then turned to Maddie. "Do you or do you not know the full effects of an opening portal?"
Maddie paused, and then frowned. "How does this help me find my son!?" Clockwork held up a hand to steady her.
"Please be patient. I will get to that, but there are several things I must explain and make sure you understand beforehand." He waited for her to nod before gesturing to her to answer the question.
Maddie sighed. "It is incredibly dangerous to be near one when it first opens up. An energy output of that size destroys cells."
"But pure concentrations of ectoplasm puts them right back together right?"
"For a moment."
"The product is unstable. If you could stabilize it."
Maddie paused as she considered the possibility and gave her husband a glance. "Theoretically. . . . theoretically if you could stabilize it, you could have a being that is . . . . stuck, for lack of a better term, . . . between life and . . . death. What does this have to do with my son?"
"Everything," Clockwork stated. "Now this being that is stuck between life and death, Human DNA bound together with ghost DNA ,elaborate on that."
Maddie frowned and considered. If a human had ectoplasm bound to their DNA . . . "I'd imagine it would give said human ghostly properties. It would have the powers of a ghost and some. . . some of the ghostly instincts, but would be mostly human."
"It would show up on all of our ghosting equipment, wouldn't it?" Jack asked. Maddie blinked, then her sleep deprived mind halted with sudden realization. Danny showed up on all of their ghosting equipment.
"No . . ." Maddie stated. She glanced at the cloaked ghost in front of her in alarm. "You couldn't possibly be suggesting that . . ."
"I'm afraid that I am," Clockwork stated. "However, we are not quite done with this theory. This half human, half ghost, let's call it a halfa, what would it look like?"
Maddie swallowed and then thought about it. "Because human DNA and ectoplasm don't really mix, even if it is stable, there wouldn't be just one form that covered all of the properties of the being. There would probably be both a human form and a . . . ghostly one."
The pieces fell together slowly in her exhausted, coffee driven mind. How could she have been so stupid?! So blinded by her passion and hate for ghost that she failed to see the issues surrounding her own son.
"As you stated, this halfa would be mostly human. The only difference being the ghostly powers, the DNA change, and an obsession. However, the obsession can be changed much easier than a normal ghost and isn't as, for a lack of a better term, obsessive. Their obsession would be more of a drive than an absolute necessity towards life," Clockwork continued, but Maddie wasn't listening.
Maddie trembled, the flood of information overwhelming her as she realized several things. One, her son was Danny Phantom, a ghost that recently she and Jack had come to the conclusion, wasn't as evil as her previous theories had declared. Phantom, they determined, was a hero and a far better ghost hunter than they were.
Two, they had hunted their own son. Threatened to tear him apart molecule by molecule. Bile rose in Maddie's throat. Her own son.
She collapsed to the ground, shaking. Jack rushed to her side in concern, his large form nearly blowing Tucker off of his feet in an attempt to get to his wife.
"Maddie? Are you okay? What's wrong?!" Jack asked. Maddie gave him a teary eyed, horror stricken look.
"Our own son, Jack. OUR SON!"
"Maddie?"
"We tried to kill our own son!"
Jack fell silent as he forced his exhausted brain to put the pieces together just as Maddie had in an attempt to understand.
"Our son, was Danny Phantom . . . . and we hunted him," Maddie sobbed. Jack closed his eyes and hugged his distraught wife tightly. Clockwork, sensing the train wreck of emotions, decided to try his luck at reassuring the distraught couple.
"You have caused your son no harm besides a few scares," he started. He was cut off.
"PARENTS SHOULDN'T SCARE THEIR SON LIKE THAT!"
Clockwork sighed. "Your son is fine."
"Where is he?"
"I know this has been a really long past few days for you, but you must understand that Danny's current predicament is . . . unique. And ultimately life changing. I am sorry to say that while your son is still alive and can remain in contact with you, he is . . . unable to stay here."
At the group's confused stare, he turned to the empty space by his shoulder and nodded to the invisible Danny.
"Daniel, I believe its best you showed yourself now."
There was a shimmer and then a small black and white, floating bat appeared waving at them.
"Hey guys," the bat stated. Sam's mouth dropped open in shock, because that was Danny's voice that just came out of the hand sized creature.
"DANNY?!"
Maddie stared in shock and horror at the small floating bat like creature in front of her. For several moments her mind was filled with only one question, before her voice found the energy to speak.
"What happened?" The question was barely more than a whisper. Danny nervously scratched the back of his head.
"I got careless. I didn't think that after hours of fighting one ghost that there would be another one I would have to worry about. It was a stupid mistake on my part," Danny started. Maddie's expression failed to change.
"That doesn't explain-." Clockwork cut her off.
"My apologies, , but this event is mostly my fault. I-." Maddie returned the favor as she whirled on the elder ghost.
"Your fault!? My son is palm sized!"
Sam reached to grab the distraught mother's arm before she tried to strangle the time ghost, "Let him explain." Clockwork nodded to the teen in gratitude.
"As I was saying, I also, much like Daniel, grew careless. I became lax in keeping an eye on the observants and they decided to meddle behind my back."
"Observants?" Jack asked as he frowned. In all his studying of ghosts, he'd never even heard of that word.
"A council of sorts. They make the decisions regarding the future of ghost zone and sometimes, regarding the future of your own. They however, have a very limited foresight, like tunnel vision. My own abilities of future vision allow me to view every possibility, every twist and turn in the future. They however, only see one likely path."
"They're a bunch of one eyed jerks basically," Danny piped in from where he floated. Clockwork hummed in agreement.
"Even with my near perfect omnipotence, the observants managed to hide their actions from my sight. When I discovered the gap in my vision, I investigated, but only barely managed to make it in time to save young Daniel's life. Unfortunately, I didn't come fast enough to save his humanity, for lack of a better term. The spell I used to turn him into this may have saved his life, but it also subjected him to an entirely different life style. Because of this, Daniel will not be able to return home."
Maddie looked at the ghost in horror. "What do you mean?" Danny sighed and signaled to Clockwork that he would be the one to explain.
"I'm some sort of magical creature now. And with it comes new responsibilities and abilities. I won't be able to fight ghosts like I used to and I'm going to need to go to Paris," Danny explained.
"Why Paris?" Sam asked.
"Because that's where the others like me are and that's where I can be the most useful. I can't do anything by myself. I can't fight anymore. At least not directly. But I can give somebody else my powers through my miraculous."
"Miraculous?" Tucker asked. Clockwork hummed and pulled out a pair of sunglasses from his cloak.
"These are Danny's miraculous," the time ghost elaborated. He allowed the group to inspect them for a bit before he placed them back.
"What do you mean others like you?" Maddie asked.
"Have you ever heard of Ladybug and Chat Noir?" Danny asked. Tucker fiddled with his PDA.
"Their superheroes in Paris," Tucker stated. Danny nodded.
"Ladybug and Chat Noir can access their abilities through the help of a kwami, like me."
"Wait so you mean you are going to go to Paris and help those two?" Sam asked. Danny nodded.
"Beyond just the fact that that's where I'll be the most useful, that's also where the guardian is."
"Guardian?"
"Basically the guy who keeps track of the miraculous," Danny stated. The room grew quiet as the group processed the information.
Maddie frowned. "Is this reversible?"
Clockwork shook his head. "No. Danny's physical body was basically destroyed. Without it, his soul and energy has nothing to return to. I am sorry, but Daniel has no other choice."
Maddie nodded. "Will we see you again?" Danny shrugged
"If I can convince my future partner to come visit the U.S, then yes, we will see each other again," he explained.
His mother sighed, exhausted. "I don't like this."
"I don't like it either." Maddie looked at him and stepped forward to take her tiny son in her arms and hug him.
"Be careful," she warned. Danny smiled and nodded.
"I'm not really the one doing all the fighting anymore. I'll do my best in any case though," he responded.
"You'd better," Sam grumbled.
"It'll be different without you, little brother," Jazz stated sadly. Danny shrugged.
"You'll be off to college soon anyways."
"Who's going to watch over the city now that Danny's gone?" Tucker asked.
"Most of the ghosts only show up to fight Danny anyways. Once they realize that Danny's not going to come back, they should stop coming through. The rest of them are easy enough for you five to handle if you split it up," the time ghost responded. Tucker nodded.
"We're going to miss you Danny," Sam commented. Tucker nodded in agreement. Danny smiled at them, but then frowned as he felt a tug on his soul towards the miraculous in Clockwork's cloak. He turned to Clockwork in confusion as he tried to resist the pull. The time ghost sighed.
"You're time is up. Most of the time, you can't materialize while your miraculous is not being worn. If you can, it's not for long. We need to get you to your holder now," Clockwork explained.
Danny turned back to his friends and family. "Looks like that's it then. I'll try to see if my holder will let me send a letter or something," Danny commented and then his form dissolved into white particles of light that absorbed into the sunglasses as Clockwork pulled them out of his cloak. The sunglasses' silver frames turned black with white ends and the lens turned neon green.
For a few moments, they were all silent, staring sadly at the glasses before Clockwork placed them back into his cloak with a heavy sigh.
"His holder will be a good one yes?" Maddie asked. Clockwork nodded.
"Daniel will have no issues with his first holder. In fact, my understanding is that they'll be quite good friends."
"Good," Maddie stated.
"I shall take my leave then. I've spent long enough here and there's much to be done," Clockwork added. "Farewell."
The group watched quietly until Clockwork's purple cloak had completely disappeared in the ghost portal.
"I really hope that Danny will be okay," Tucker commented.
"We all do," Jazz answered. Maddie and her husband merely stared forlornly at the swirling green.
Clockwork materialized in a small yet organized room. His gaze fell upon the many sketchbooks and art supplies scattered about on a well-used desk. Taking an elongated hexagon like box from the confines of his cloak, he placed it on the desk and smiled at it.
"All is as it should be."
He disappeared shortly after.
Author's note: THIS IS NOT A NEW CHAPTER! Merely a redo of the first chapter. Let me know if you like this way better. If you do prefer this one, I will replace the first chapter with it.
And guess what? This story isn't dead! My apologies for taking so long, but after deciding that I really didn't like the first chapter that I had, I tried fixing it and ran into so many road blocks, it wasn't even funny. Then I wrote this, and even though I'm not 100% happy with it, we're posting it anyways because I need some sort of a way to let you guys know that I haven't given up on this one yet.
ALSO: WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME WHY I CAN'T HAVE "Mrs." OR "Dr." IN THE STORIES WITHOUT THEM GETTING DELETED?! It really messed up a few of my lines. I have checked this several times but I may have missed something so let me know if you see an error.
Also, I apologize for any OOCness, but let's be honest, they're all dead tired, had a crazy reveal shown to them, and this chapter is WAY over due so it needs to just be published.
And in case you guys didn't know. I'm not a fan of OCs. My tolerance for them has been growing lately, but not enough to write one yet. Anyways, no, Danny's holder will not be an OC. Originally it was, but then I decided that I was being hypocritical and it was really way to much cliche work for comfort. The beginning of this story is already really cliche, but the OC was just too much. That being said, you can probably figure out who I will be using already.
I am not entirely sure where I want to start after this. When I first watched Miraculous Ladybug, I discovered that somehow, I watched the entire series out of order, even though I thought I was doing it right. So now my mental timeline is all messed up. It's up in the air for which episode I will start with this fanfic, but it's definitely not going to be the first one. I want Chat Noir and Ladybug to be established heroes before Danny steps in. Edit:If you read this note previously and now realize that a little statement I had about Gabriel Agreste is gone, forget everything I said about that. I managed to find the first episode on youtube and it basically contradicts everything I said previously. Long story short, I''m a bit dissapointed but its okay.
Edit 2/5/18: Replaced "badger" with "bat" but if there were other details that I missed, just let me know and I'll fix it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Miraculous Ladybug.
