i love this trope so much and i wanted to get this done on april 1st lol it was so much fun to write
hope u enjoy, lurking!
Being snatched up on the street on the way home from school—walking, for once—was not how Danny expected his afternoon to play out, but, alas, here he is. At first, he was too shocked to do much except put up the token protests; yelling, kicking, the works. Then, as reality set in, he found himself too dumbfounded by the sheer audacity of these bitches to do much more than stare at them blankly.
"Huh," he says, the fifth time in the last twenty minutes.
"Would you knock it off?" one of his kidnappers snaps, slapping his hand against the table he's standing over. Tweedledee and Tweedledum are hunched over a tiny laptop screen while Danny sits, unwillingly, tied to a chair with the most weak sauce knots he's ever seen in his life. Seriously. Cujo might be able to tie a better knot.
"No, I don't think I will," Danny says, faking a yawn as best he can with his wrists tied behind his back. He leans back and kicks his feet out—his ankles aren't even tied. Amateurs. "Though, I gotta say… This is the worst kidnapping I've ever been a part of."
Thing 2 gives him a weird look, then returns to his scrolling and typing. Thing 1 groans and slaps a hand on the table again. "I'm getting sick of your mouth, kid."
"Hey! You're the ones that grabbed me. I didn't ask to get taken here against my will." Danny pouts and gives them his most pitiful look. "I'm just a poor innocent kid. A simple child on his way home from another day of school." He sniffles, forcing his eyes to go watery. "How could you do something like this to someone like me?"
The second goon scoffs. "You're the Fenton kid, yeah?" He looks up and pins Danny with a look. "Your parents are scientists. They're sure to pay a lot of money to get you back."
Danny squints at them. "If you actually knew anything about me or my parents, you'd know already how bad of an idea this is." He snorts. "My parents aren't the kind to just sit back and let someone else do their dirty work." He pauses and sits up straighter. "Wait. That came out wrong."
The two men don't seem to have been paying much attention. They both start laughing. "Yeah, right. All scientists are eggheads. What're they gonna do? Bust in here and rescue you themselves?" Goon One laughs even harder as if his own words are the best joke he's ever heard. "Give me a break."
Danny rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up now. You'll see." With the men distracted, he carefully phases his wrists out of the rope and crosses his arms in front of his chest. "Wake me up when they get here. Or rather… Don't bother. I'll know."
The laughter slows to a stop as Danny tilts his head back and closes his eyes. "Hey…" Grunt Dos starts, sounding confused. "How'd you get out of those ropes?"
"I was a scout when I was a kid," Danny says, lying. "Knots are easy."
He can hear the head scratching from across the room—the darkened room; these two really went all out with the kidnapper aesthetic, what with the single chair under a single lit bulb in a tiny, dank room. Danny thinks they might be in someone's basement. "I coulda sworn I tied those tight?" Number One mutters to himself.
Danny snorts and covers it with a cough. These two are just… so dumb. Even without ghost powers Danny doesn't think he'd be intimidated by the two of them. Barring the initial grab and the transfer from the vehicle to this room, neither of them had so much as laid a hand on him, not even to whack him upside the head for his unusually smart mouth. Even now, the two are keeping their distance.
Well. Maybe it's about time he turns up the heat—by turning it down, of course. These two deserved to get fucked with a little.
Danny takes a deep breath and focuses on the tight ball of ice in his chest. Usually, he keeps it under lock and key, otherwise he tends to shed cold like an open freezer. Now, however, he loosens his grip on and lets the ghostly cold rush through his veins. He keeps his eyes shut and his breathing regular as he slowly infects the room with his ethereal chill.
He moves a hand to the rope that held his hands and freezes it over entirely, something small and inconspicuous to coat in a layer of ice to help him maintain his focus on his cold. Frost spreads from this focal point and within minutes, it's cold enough that the three of them are breathing out colds of smoke.
He doesn't open his eyes right away, waiting for the tell-tale glow to die down. Sure, his cold powers don't turn his eyes weird colors, but they still glow, and the last thing he wants to do is give these losers any reason to suspect he's anything but a poor innocent civilian.
Of all the times to wish he could duplicate invisibly, now is definitely the hardest time he's had pushing away the disappointment. Maybe after this he can get together with Sam and Tucker and squeeze in a quick power training session.
"What the hell?" one of the chuckleheads says through chattering teeth. "What happened to the heat?" Danny opens his eyes in time to see him turn and slap the absolute shit out of his partner. "I told you to pay the heating bill!"
"It's like seventy degrees outside!" the other man yells, rubbing the pain from his arm. "Why do we need heat at a time like this?"
Kidnapper A gestures at the room around them in answer. Kidnapper B squints and scratches his head like it's the first time he's ever seen it. "Huh," he says, an echo of Danny earlier.
"God, you're such a copycat," Danny snips, crossing his arms again. The cold never bothered him anyway. "Let me go," he says, if only to continue his shitty, internal Frozen reference. The irony of his words is not lost on him. But, hey. At least he's the only one that's aware he's making a terrible joke.
"Yeah, right." Bert scoffs. "We're not idiots."
Ernie elbows him and turns back to his typing. "Well. I'm not. Him I'm not so sure of."
Danny rolls his eyes and taps his feet against the floor. The chair slips, briefly, and Danny has to scramble to not fall onto the floor, but the absolutely buffoons don't appear to notice in the slightest. He wonders if he can just… get up and walk out. Their passive perception has to be ridiculously low if they don't notice any of Danny's abysmal stealth and sleight of hand rolls.
Though. To be fair. They think they're dealing with a normal kid.
Danny yawns, loudly and, testing the waters, rolls to his feet in one smooth motion. The first guy doesn't notice, having turned his attention to the phone he pulled out of his pocket, but the second one looks up, eyes blowing comically wide.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" he yells, making his way around the table.
"Stretching my legs," Danny says, doing just that. He bends on the waist and touches his toes. "My knees hurt if I sit in one place for too long." With a quick flick of his wrist, smooth, hard ice coats the floor near the table.
Computer guy pays his no mind as he continues his way around the table. As soon as he steps on the ice, he lets out a scream as he goes down, busting his ass on the floor. "Shit!"
Danny stands up with a dramatic gasp. "Oh my god, are you okay?" he asks, voiced pitched up, laying it on extra thick. "Wowie, that was quite a fall!" He lays a hand on the side of his face. "Poor thing."
Phone guy looks up with a shout of his own. "You dick, I did pay the bills! You're such an—what happened to you?"
Danny looks up at the single light bulb dangling from the ceiling. Please. Someone. Anyone. Give him the strength to deal with This Shit. "He fall down go boom." He shakes his head. "Tragic."
The dumb duo gives him looks that could kill. Too bad, so sad, been there done that.
Before either of them can make another move or make another sound, Danny hears the distant sounds of doors slamming and tires screeching. And not just any tires—the distinctive sound of treads like those used on the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle.
Danny smirks. "So, you guys must be from out of town. Maybe you're just renting this place or you're new here or you don't get out much. Whatever it is, you can't be native to Amity Park, because if you were, you'd know something. Specifically, about my parents." There's a crashing sound from upstairs. The men exchange frightened looks and the man with no more ass trips to his feet, also hitting his knees on the floor.
Danny moves to lean against the wall, melting his ice as he sweeps past. Eat your heart out, Elsa. Or would Jack Frost be a more appropriate comparison? Eh, details. "The thing about my parents is that they don't just sit around when someone threatens their kids. My dad is built like a brick shithouse and my mom is a black belt." There are footsteps on the stairs—he knew they were in a basement—and Harry and Marv's eyes widen comically. No, really, it's hilarious.
"They also drive what's basically a tank." Danny gives a shark's grin. "So, honey? You've got a big storm comin'."