Here is the next chapter with some insane leaps of insanity, I hope you enjoy I apologize to anyone who felt offended by how I portray these characters~
I do not own Danny Phantom, it belongs to Nickelodeon
I do not own Cartoon City's denizens they belong to their characters.
Chapter Twenty-one: Sherlock Danny Phantom
Cartoon City at nighttime time was one of those magical places full of wonder and magic, especially in restaurants. We go to Pops Moon Palace Diner as we see some of the patrons leaving. We see the Eds, Scamp and Ben walking out of the diner. "I swear to god everyday Pops food still gets tastier each time." Scamp smiles picking at his teeth.
"I wish I could live in Pops diner." Ed smiles.
"I must admit, despite some of its unhealthy food items, it does have a nice healthy selection to balance it out." Edd smiles.
"I don't know how but even his chili fries are good." Ben smiles.
"Boys its clear, Pops Moon Palace Diner is here to stay- "Eddy stop as the diner explodes into flames sending the four to the ground as Ed catches Scamp. "What the hell?!"
"Was Jenny dealing with spicy chili again?" Scamp questioned and realized something. "Pops is still in there!" The terrier climbs out of the teen's hand and runs into the blaze.
"Scamp wait!" Ed runs in after him.
"I need to save them fast!" Ben turns on the omnitrix and slams on it, turning into a red, mollusk-like alien with four slitted green eyes, and a grey mouth. Behind his legs and on the top of his arms are small spikes that are grey, there are black spots on his shoulders and legs, and on his hands, there are portholes. "YES, WaterHazard for the win!"
He sprays the entrance with a pressure cannon of water dampening the fire as we see Scamp carrying Pops out of the fire. Ed runs out panting carrying Babs, Fifi and an overweight man with a luchador mask and a chef's apron.
"Pops! Speak to me!" Scamp puts Pops down and starts licking his face. The old man giggles waking up as he sits up as the terrier smiles. "My doggy kisses revived you!"
"Feels like you just wanted to see if he had food on his face." Eddy joked as Ben tried to put out the fire.
"Guys should we worry about Carl? I saw him in there- "A tall nerd in blue glasses runs out of the fire panting as he was trying to put himself out. "Never mind."
"At least we can contain this fire- "Suddenly multiple explosions were heard across town. "What the hell!?" As they look in shock, we go to a television showing news coverage of what was happening. We see Chet Ubetcha at a news desk.
"Good evening, I'm Chet Ubetcha and this just in, all of Cartoon City's restaurants have been set ablaze!" He declared as an overshot of the city shows numerous fires were seen in every district. "We go to Wolf Spitzer in the field where he's getting an interview from the Mayor of the city on what to do. To you Wolf."
The station then goes to a wolf standing outside a white judicial building with a microphone. The wolf had gray fur and yellow eyes, wearing a blue tuxedo. Standing next to him was a short balding man with a tiny, black levitating top hat and monocle. Wearing a purple tuxedo and orange pants and black shoes with white spats.
"Thanks Chet, I'm Wolf Spitzer and I'm here with the Mayor of Townsville who is ironically the mayor of Cartoon City." Wolf kneels to lower the mic. "Mayor, how are you going to deal with these rampant string of restaurant fires?"
"Mr. Spitzer, this was obviously a terrorist attack! And that terrorist is still in the city, I can feel it!" Mayor declared. "Which is why, I'm requesting the aid of heroes and detectives together! You see Batman is both a detective and a hero, which is why I'll pair one hero and one detective together, giving us the same equivalent. I've decided to call it, the Batman Initiative. Heroes will be given a notice of who they're paired with in the morning since its nighttime."
"There you have it, the mayor's plan sounds good on paper, but let's see the results." The canine declared.
The next morning, we go to a building called Fenton Works, to see a man in his late forties in the living room with a bunch of weapons on the table. The man had black hair slightly gray in the back, his eyes a light blue, wearing an orange and black jumpsuit.
"They take away a man's place of eats and they're going to pay." The man growled as he puts on gray metal gauntlets. He picks up a rifle with green and black circuitry in along the barrel. "I'll make sure whoever did this is going to pay!"
"Dad aren't you going a little overboard?" A voice asked as he turns, and we see a man with raven black hair that hung in his face his eyes a light blue. He was wearing a white T-shirt under a blue jean jacket, wearing black jeans and red sneakers.
"Danny, this terrorist took out every single one of my favorite restaurants." The man stands up. "If I let this go then another terrorist will blow up more restaurants, what then Danny?! What then?!"
"Dad, only heroes can investigate with detectives." Danny sighs.
"I don't need some detective to deal out some street justice, I have your mother." He smirks as woman drops from the ceiling. She was dressed in a blue skintight jumpsuit with black utility belt that covered her hair, her red goggles covering her eyes. "The smartest woman I know!"
"Thanks Jack." She smirks and tosses him a cookie as he catches it. "Fenton Works will be investigating this too."
"Just, try not to end up on the news again." Danny cautioned.
"Oh, we will be on the news when we find out who destroyed all the restaurants. Don't be surprised when we find the culprit!" Jack smirks and runs out the door. "Come on Maddie!" Maddie smirks pulling out two pistols and running after him.
"Crap, I should've said don't get arrested again for carrying weapons." The hero sighs facepalming and closing the door, as he heard a knock at the door as he opens it. He saw a short anthropomorphic stout standing at the door, looking at her phone. She has white fur, brown on her tail, and brown eyes. She was wearing a red dress with little yellow flower designs and black shoes. "Uh are you lost?"
"No, I'm the detective assigned to you Danny Phantom, or do you prefer your civilian name Danny Fenton?" She asked.
"You can call me Danny for short." He chuckles. "And your name is?"
"It's Hermione. Nice to meet you, Danny." She smiles holding her paw out to shake as he smiles and shakes her hand. "Shall we begin the investigation?"
"Alright, let's go to the one place that's effected by the most." He advises. A few moments later, we go to a collapsed building with a charred sign out front that said, 'House of Mouse'. We see Jake walking around the building side looking at some of the burn marks. "Hey Jake." The Chinese hero turns around and sees Danny with Hermione.
"Tch, so you're here?' Jake glared.
"I'm a hero too." The black-haired man smirks. "Still mad about the Death Battle, I see?"
"First, the fact you killed me, body and whole it is hard to get a new body on short notice." The dragon glared.
"So Death Battles actually happen?" Hermione questioned.
"Correct, and he's mad that I beat him. Not my fault he has no natural defense against ghosts." He snarked. "And it's not my fault B.E.H.O.'s only works on living bodies."
"Beho?" The stout questioned.
"Biogenically Engineered Healing Organism." The two inform.
"It's an organism that heals all damages including fatal ones. But it needs a body to work on." The dragon declared. "And since you vaporized me into dust, I needed a body. Thank god my grandpa knew some revival spells."
"Who's your detective?" Hermione asked when suddenly a female figure drops from the sky. She was girl around the age of eighteen wearing a purple Batsuit with yellow gloves, yellow boots. A utility belt, and a yellow bat logo on her chest with her hair showing down in a ponytail. "Hi Batgirl."
"Hi Hermione!" Batgirl waves smiling.
"Doesn't Batgirl count as a hero and detective?" Danny questioned.
"She came to me personally seeking my expertise in scorch mark recognition." Jake smiles pulling the young hero to his side.
"Right, it's not like I was curious about dragons and their mating habits." She lied smiling.
"Still, what exactly do you make of this?" The blue-eyed hero gestures to the building.
"Whoever did this, did a random job…All of the burn marks show the bombs were placed both inside and outside." The dragon informed.
"Was anyone inside when it happened?" Hermione questioned.
"No one, and we've talked to the owner about his enemies, they all have alibis." Batgirl chimes in. "Whoever did this was targeting all the restaurants, not just this one."
"So, this could possibly be a rival business looking to take out the competition?" The ecto hero guessed.
"Too early to tell, but let's not rule it out." Hermione comments. "Did the owner say anything about possible suspects, anyone come in the last few days who might have had a grudge against them?"
"We asked, but as far as we could tell there's no one with any real motive to go to these extremes." The bat themed heroine declared as Danny pondered something and smirks. Suddenly, a blue ring appears around the man and splits into two rings going upward. His clothes were replaced with a black and white jumpsuit with a white belt, white gauntlets, and white boots. His black hair turns snow white as his eyes turn green.
"Hermione come on. We're going to follow a lead." He picks her up and take off into the sky. As we did, we go to Exile and Blitz's Comics and Café to see Dan hiding behind the counter.
"Dan why are you hiding?" Ed asked looking from behind the counter.
"I want to eat my lunch in peace but every time I go on break, Pinkie Pie takes me to some place." Dan explained pulling out a brown paper bag.
"Or are you hiding from the long hand of the law." Danny comes out of the floor startling the short man causing him to hit his head on the counter. He groans holding it as he comes out from under the counter.
"What the heck, a little warning next time when you do something like that!" The angry man growls rubbing the top of his head.
"Tell me Dan, you're an explosive expert, correct?" The hero comes out of the ground as Hermione walks behind the counter with a black notepad.
"Oh no, far from it. Though I do dabble in explosives I'm far from an expert." Dan shrugged. "Why do you ask?"
"You're possibly a suspect in the Restaurant Terrorist fires." Hermione informs him.
"Woah! Okay sure I take revenge on people, but I'd never blow-up restaurants because of one person. I'd target the manager." He comments. "Plus, I have an alibi to last night's explosions. I was forced to go to a late-night amusement park with Pinkie Pie and her husband and bratty son."
"Do you have proof of said outing?" The ghost man asked as Dan pulls out his phone and shows him in a group photo with Pinkie Pie, Lil Cheese, and an orange anthro stallion with brown curly hair with gray streaks in it. They were all wearing a T-Shirt marked Adrenaland.
"I was able to salvage the night when Lil Cheese couldn't go on a ride, so we faked a zombie apocalypse." He swipes left showing a photo of them disguised as zombies. "We had the amusement park to ourselves. I stole Mr. Mumbles a Simba lion plushy."
"It's a crime, but not the one we want." Hermione sighs.
"Plus, one of those restaurants that were destroyed was one of my favorites. If anything, I should be out there figuring out who did this!" Dan glares. "And fact I'm going to make a guess on who it is."
"Wow you must be really smart Dan." Ed smiles.
"Ed, don't patronize him." Danny glares.
"The bomber is none other than SpongeBob SquarePants." He answers as the ghost man's eye twitched at the sound of his name. "It's obvious, the Krusty Krab in Cartoon City has gotten poor reviews, that got him to snap and take out all of the other restaurants and to make sure the Krusty Krab isn't implicated in the act, he blew it up as well."
"Oh my god, you're a genius Dan!" The redhead smiles at him.
"Is there any doubt?" The scruffy haired man smirks.
"Yes, several. For starters SpongeBob wouldn't endanger people's lives he's too kind for that." Danny corrects him. "Second, SpongeBob doesn't know how to use explosives, chances are if he did try to use them, he'd blow himself up! Your suspect is too nice and too stupid to do anything right."
"Which is why it's the perfect alibi! No one suspects the golden boy. Plus, he's not blowing up the original, he's blowing up a copy." Dan smirks as the hero rolls his eyes before turning to the door and walking out with Hermione behind him. "You'll be back, saying I was right!"
"Hey, can you tell me who ate the last pizza from the breakroom fridge?" Ed asked as the short man's eyes dart back and forth.
"Uh, it was Exile." He runs out of the room. We go to Danny and Hermione walking down the street.
"Dan's assumption may be accurate." Hermione suggested as the hero raises an eyebrow at her. "Not in the actual sense that its SpongeBob. What if it's a Cartoon who blew up their own copy of their restaurant. It could be a way to get insurance money or eliminate the competition."
"That is a good point, we should eliminate the ones who couldn't have done it." Danny agreed. "Bob's Burgers for one, I go to their restaurant, and they wouldn't risk destroying a second copy of the restaurant. Lynn's Table isn't one, I took my wife on a date there and Lynn Loud Sr wouldn't risk destroying something he loves."
"The more suspects we eliminate, the closer we get." She smiles as they walked.
"There's one candidate. Pops of Pops Moon Palace Diner. This could be a get rich quick scheme. Where is he?" Danny asked as she pulls out her phone and goes wide eyed.
A few moments later~
"The hospital." She answered as we see them walking down a white corridor and they go to the room to see Ben and Jenny next to Pops bed to see the man was asleep.
"Pops, I didn't think he'd be here because of something random like an explosion." Jenny whimper patting his hand as she was kneeling by his bedside.
"Don't worry Pops, I'm going to find who did this." Ben pats his belly. "You'll be back and serving us overpriced greasy food in no time." He storms out of the room not noticing Danny and Hermione.
"Pops, I never told you this, but you were like a second father to me- "She stops and sees the two staring at her. "Oh uh, are you here to visit Pops?"
"No, we have to ask Pops, but we didn't know he was incapacitated." Hermione disclosed.
"Damn it, another paparazzi group. Look!" The fiery blonde stands up. "I'll tell you what I said to that Carly from 5Ds! Pops would never blow himself up to get the insurance money!" She growls. "And if you so much as ask a question about him faking his coma, I'll wedgie your ass so hard you'll be glad you're in the hospital!"
"I don't understand?" The stout tilts her head.
"She's threatening us, saying that she'll break our butts with a wedgie." The ghost hero cleared up.
"No, I mean I don't understand why you're talking to him that's not Pops." Hermione smiles as Jenny blinked as the stout pulls the curtain back to the next bed showing the actual Pops asleep.
"Wow, I have been chatting up the wrong guy." The blonde blushed. "Well, I said my piece, see ya!" She runs off as the two looked to the sleeping Pops and walked off.
"Well, that's one culprit down the drain." Danny claimed. "Hermione, do you have any idea who could've done this?"
"Well, as my mentor taught me, we can't rule anyone out. Perhaps we should try SpongeBob?" The stout detective suggested.
"No, let's look at another crime scene to see if we can find anything." The ghost hero suggested. "Let's try Lynn's Table." A few moments later, we see the two walking on the scene as they see a man crying in the wreckage of the shop. He was wearing a sea green sweater over a light green checkered collar and cuffs, brown slacks, and shoes. He has a long pointy nose, brown eyebrows, and curly brown hair that is thinning on the top. "Hey Lynn, how you doing?"
"How am I doing?! Look at my restaurant! It's burned to ashes!" Lynn cries holding the ghost man as Hermione looks over the area.
"Sorry to hear that. It'll be okay." He assured as he patted the man's back. The stout moves some debris off an object.
"The worst part is I'll have to move back to our cartoon world. Because I don't have explosion insurance." The owner cries into his jean jacket. "It was fifty dollars extra and I thought it was an upsell."
"Danny, you might want to see this." Hermione gestures him over as he phases through the man and walks over and sees a yellow hand with three fingers and a thumb. "A severed hand. With four fingers."
"So, it could have been a character form the Simpsons." Danny theorized as the white furred detective gave him a flat look and grabbed a bottle of water from her purse. She opens it and pours it onto the hand, causing it to absorb the water. "...Possibly one mutated by the power plant." The stout face palmed.
"Why do you not want to see SpongeBob?" She questioned. "Did something happen to you?"
"Look, SpongeBob's innocent. So, chances are someone's framing him. This isn't definitive proof; SpongeBob loses body parts all the time." The ecto-hero declared. "Someone close to SpongeBob…Must…know him well…I know the culprit."
A few moments later~
We go to a rock under the sea as we see Danny and Hermione walking up to it wearing air helmets and air tanks on their back. He lifts the rock up and under it was a pink starfish wearing green swim trunks with purple flower prints. The starfish wakes up looking around and sees Danny.
"Hey Danny, I- "He stops as the man punches him off the rock and onto the ground, startling the detective.
"You bastard! You psychotic bastard!" The man glares. "It was bad enough you were faking your idiocy, but now you have to make SpongeBob a scapegoat in your plans!"
"Well good morning to you Danny." Patrick greeted in annoyance as he recovered standing up. "Now, what's all this about again?"
"Admit it! You blew up all those restaurants in Cartoon City." He glares as the starfish gave him a flat look.
"You're...saying that I, Patrick Star, well known competitive eater destroyed a bunch of food establishments?" The starfish asked as the hero paused and facepalms.
"...I made an ass out of myself, didn't I?" The ghost hero sighs.
"You can make it up to me by buying me lunch at the Krusty Krab." Patrick pats his back and walks ahead. Afterwards, we see Danny sitting at a table with Hermione as the starfish orders.
"I must be an idiot compared to your mentor?" The hero sighs putting his hands up and covers his face.
"Actually Danny, he made mistakes too, he made up for it by being right about the case. Maybe there's something we're not seeing?" Hermione asked.
"I was sure it was Patrick, he stated in the show he does stupid things on purpose, blowing up restaurants is a stupid move." He went on. "I guess it was dumb to assume it was him. Still, let's look over the clues…the scorch marks were both inside and outside the building. SpongeBob's severed hand was found at the scene of a crime and- "Suddenly Jake and Batgirl burst in wearing air helmets with air tanks on their backs.
"SpongeBob, we're here for you!" Jake shouts and stops seeing Danny. "Oh, hell no, you're not going to bust this guy! We found the hand first at the House of Mouse!"
"The hand? But we have it right here?" The stout holds it up in the evidence bag.
"Well then I guess he lost another hand." Batgirl holds up another hand.
"Hey guys, Patrick your order's ready!" A cheery high-pitched voice was heard as the kitchen door opens, revealing a yellow square sponge, wearing white shirt with red tie, tucked into short brown pants and black shoes.
"SpongeBob! You're under arrest for- "Suddenly a huge angler fish-like mermaid alien with the omnitrix symbol on his chest swims in knocking Jake over. The fish tackled SpongeBob to the ground knocking the Krabby Patty out of his hand.
"SpongeBob, you're under arrest for almost killing Pops and destroying other stuff!" The fish puts the sponge's hands behind his back.
"Ben?!" Jake glares.
"Mr. Tennyson, is it cool if I could get your autograph?" The bat heroine asked smiles holding up a sketchpad.
"What's going on?!" SpongeBob questioned only for Ben to punch him in the back of his head.
"Don't act dumb! Double D found your hand in the wreckage, and it matches with yours!" The alien glares punching him again. "You're going to jail for a long time, they're going to eat you alive in jail!"
"But, I didn't do anything?!" The sponge whines, suddenly a door slams open as they look to the left and saw a red crab with green stocky eyes. He had on a light blue shirt over a white muscle shirt and dark blue jeans with a black belt holding them up.
"What's going on here?!" The crab questioned.
"Mr. Krabs, please tell them I had nothing to do with the explosions in the city!" SpongeBob frowns.
"SpongeBob, I'm sorry but I can't. I saw your confession letter on my desk." Mr. Krabs holds up a sheet of paper. "You said you did it to boost the Krusty Krab's popularity. Take him away Ben."
"Gladly, this asshole's going to pay-"
"Wait!" Danny shouts. "SpongeBob couldn't have done it! Lynn's Table serves salmon casserole."
"So?" Jake questioned. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"SpongeBob can't stand the smell of salmon because its dead fish!" The ghost hero points out. "And the person who did it, would have to have access to explosives, know SpongeBob's schedule…and…be able to hit every location with a bomb…at high…speeds…I'm an idiot Hermione."
"What?" The stout tilts her head in confusion.
"Cartoons can access reboot forms…and movie forms…" He looks to Mr. Krabs who was glaring. "It was you wasn't it, Mr. Krabs! Your Sir Pinch-a-Lot robot form has jets powerful enough to blast you to each district in a short amount of time. That's why all the bombings weren't simultaneous. One explosion happened in rapid succession of the other. The first place you hit was Pops, because you know he's more visited by the heroes of that district. And you figured out someone like Ben would go overboard and send an innocent sponge to jail."
"Hey!" Ben glares.
"You clever specter, I always knew ye was trouble." Mr. Krabs glares.
"What I want to know is why? Why blow up a bunch of restaurants when you could've moved back to your world where they're more liked." The man glares.
"Simple Danny-Boy." The crab scuttles over to a lever on the wall and pulls it down causing metal sheets to incase the Krusty Krab. Everyone looks around in shock as the Crustacean started to shift into a robotic form. "See, there's a lot of things wrong with your city. Money! Your city wasn't sharing any of its glorious money with me!" He spins around. "And so, I had to destroy the competition, I.E., every single restaurant in town. Some business has insurance, others do not. And that is a lot of don'ts, seriously I drove everyone out of town with a single bombing."
"Why tell us this, we literally have an omnitrix, a dragon, a freaking Batgirl, a detective and a ghost?" Batgirl questioned.
"Because, you'll be forgetting this ever happened." He declared as a compartment open on his chest, and he pulls out a white ray gun. "This memory gun I got at a garage sale at Mandark's for two dollars has paid for itself." The crab glares. "See, in the past SpongeBob has quit over two-hundred and fifty-nine times. Each time he did, I'd mind wipe him. He'd forget each day like nothing ever happened."
"Wait…that was you!? Then-"
"All those years and weeks of waiting for SpongeBob to come hang out wouldn't have happened." Mr. Krabs interrupted him as if he knew what the ghost hero was going to say. "You see Danny, this is your second time seeing the gun. You got curious about SpongeBob staying late each time. And then you got snooping and I had to mind wipe you. It's not my fault! If you just eat a Krabby Patty-"
"Krabby Patties are literally a heart attack on a bun! Your second movie showed citizens acting as if they were cut off from drugs!" Danny shouts in anger. "And you basically did this to SpongeBob who didn't know any better?!"
"Mr. Krabs, how could you?" SpongeBob asked. "You've besmirched the Krabby Patty- "
"The Krabby Patty is my lively hood! And it will stay that way, you're all trapped in here." The mechanical crab's wheels back and forth in front of them. "Try to use your powers, the water will slow them down, Jake if you use your fire powers then you'll melt your helmet. Ben if you turn into another alien that'll shorten your omnitrix time and make you time out. And I don't have to worry about Batgirl and weasel girl cause I'm in my metal form. Their attacks wouldn't be effective. And Danny, I bet you'll want to use that wail of yours break everything I own but that would destroy your own helmet." Danny glares but smirks as a part of the ground turn transparent and was making its way to the madman as Hermione notices and decides to stall.
"I have one question before you mind wiped us. Did you use it on Patrick a lot and that's why he's dim?" The stout asked.
"Yes, he somehow stumbles into my plans every single week." The crab growls as the others saw what Danny was doing. "Each time it was so annoying. He literally landed in the middle of my speech one time."
"One more question? Where's Squidward?" Batgirl asked.
"That bastard opened a restaurant in Cartoon City. I have the last laugh, that was the first place I blew up in the Nick District." He laughs maniacally when suddenly he fell through the intangible floor causing him to drop the ray gun. Hermione jumps into the air and grabs it as Jake and Ben tackled him to the ground.
"It's over Krabs! You have eye-witnesses, and this is the proof!" The ghost hero smirks pointing to the mind erasing gun.
"No! I'm not going to jail!" The Krabs shouts as he punches the two off and pulls the lever up, causing the metal casing to recede back into the ground. "See ya suckers! I'll be back!" Huge jets appeared on his sides as he blasts through the glass and into the sky.
"Dang it! We're never going to catch him!" Ben groans. "And I'm going to time out soon."
"He'll be back, and we'll be ready." Danny sighs. "I just…never pegged Mr. Krabs to be this jaded."
"Wait, does that mean…I've been mind wiped?" SpongeBob asked as the ghost hero sighs.
"It's going to be a hard time explaining this." He patted his friend's head.
A few days later~
We go to Fenton Works, to see Danny sitting in the living room on the couch, his legs crossed as he read a news article on his tablet. The news article read 'Krabs on the run' detailing the story of Krabs madness.
"Hey, I heard you were hanging out with a girl name Hermione?" A voice asked as Danny looks up, seeing a woman with black long hair past her shoulders, her eyes a light lavender. She was wearing a black choker and a black T-shirt, a black skirt with fishnet stockings and black boots. On her right hand's ring finger was a black jeweled ring.
"Yeah, it was work. But she's a good friend." He smiles.
"Speaking of friends, I heard you made up with SpongeBob." She sits next to him.
"Well, he's in rehab trying to get over his memory loss problems." The teen smiles. "Oh, Sam by the way, if my dad asks about a fifty thousand dollars withdraw from Fenton Works shared account, tell him it was for a good cause."
"What did you spend?" She asked as we go to Lynn's Table to see it was being fixed up.
"You could say, its for a good cause." He smirks as Lynn smiles holding up the note from Danny.
Here's a little money to fix the place up,
Yours Truly
Danny~
"Hey, it's not weird to put yours truly on a letter, right?" Danny asked.
"It's kind of cheesy to say that." Sam smirks at him. "I would've said sincerely."
"Oh come on, yours truly is much better than sincerely." He smiles pulling her into a hug.
Toons got to look after each other
Enjoy life, you are loved and appreciated, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise