A few days have passed since the whole fiasco with the Wards at Casper High, and since then, school has been fine. Not great, not terrible, just… fine. Dash has left Danny alone, and Walker has been lingering around the school like a creepy Undertaker, but things have been quiet. Almost eerily so.
Regardless, Danny's not gonna complain about finally getting a good night's sleep, so if things are quiet, he'll ignore paranormal stuff for as long as he can.
Which is why he's not altogether pleased when, on the first day of his long weekend, he's wrenched out of bed by the sound of something letting out a high-pitched, keening cry.
The sound toes the line between human and animal, almost forming words but too animalistic to have any sense made of them. Danny wakes up in a frenzy, the strange creature's panicked aura affecting Danny's own perception until he's lucid enough to determine that these aren't his emotions. From there, he realizes he can sense the aura of yet another spirit in the house.
In the basement.
Danny's heart sinks at the same time his blood runs cold. Without even pausing to explain to Alvin and Sidney what's going on, he tumbles out of bed, trips ungracefully on some dirty laundry strewn across the floor, and starts for the door. He forces himself to act calm and collected as he descends the stairs and turns the corner into the kitchen.
Of course, Jazz is sitting there already. Her blue eyes flick up to acknowledge him as he enters, probably looking like a reanimated corpse, but before she can say anything, Danny rubs at his eyes and yawns, "Do you hear that?"
She cocks an eyebrow at him and swallows her bite of toast. "What, Mom and Dad yelling about spirits? Yeah."
Danny only realizes then that he can also hear his parents chattering excitedly, but shakes his head. "No, I mean the animal howling. Or… I guess crying is a better way to put it? I dunno. Maybe I'm going crazy."
Despite his obviously-strange question, Jazz doesn't look at him with anything other than acceptance. She places the toast down on her plate and rises to her feet, stretching her arms high above her head with a yawn. "I don't hear it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were freaking out over a black cat or something down there. Let's go see what crazy stuff they're doing now."
For whatever reason, Danny doesn't feel scared or anxious that Jazz is coming with him. In fact, he's actually relieved. He doesn't dwell on it long, though; the two of them are already heading for the stairs to the lab. When they reach the bottom of the stairs, they both stop dead, shock written across their faces.
Jack and Maddie are chasing a tiny blue spirit around the lab.
It's a small thing, no bigger than a corgi, with four legs, sky-blue scales that reflect the light like tiny diamonds, and glittering green horns that curl back from its head not unlike ram horns. Its eyes are solid red, glowing faintly, and a golden amulet hangs from its neck. Danny feels the tiny dragon's fear as though it were his own as it skitters around the floor, wailing in terror and leaving deep gouges in the tile with its pale blue claws.
"Quick, Maddie, catch it with the thermos!" Jack shouts as he slips and goes skidding sideways into a cabinet full of talismans.
Maddie, hearing Jack shout, snatches a plain-looking thermos from where it sits on one of the counters and aims it at the tiny creature. She pushes a button on its side… but it fizzles and coughs out a pathetic column of smoke. The spirit, seeing its chance, makes a break for the stairs.
Unfortunately, it doesn't realize that Danny and Jazz have blocked the way, and before either of them can react the dragon catapults into Danny's chest. He collapses backwards under the weight of it, instinctively grabbing at it in the way he would with someone's cat. Jack and Maddie let out simultaneous shouts of alarm, but the dragon's terror is momentarily suspended as it realizes that Danny is, in a way, another spirit.
He opens his mouth, ready to ask what the fresh hell is going on, but the dragon's voice invades his head before he can.
HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME
THEY STOLE ME HELP ME HELP HELP HELP
I DO NOT BELONG HERE TAKE ME HOME HOME HOMEHOMEHOME
Her voice is almost too much to handle, but somehow, he manages to give her the opportunity she needs to escape.
He screams in mock terror, tossing her behind him in the direction of the stairs in enough of a frenzy that it can be mistaken as genuine fear. Her claws scrabble for purchase on the steps for a few heart-stopping moments, then she spreads her leathery wings and leaps into the air. Before Jack and Maddie can even come close, the little spirit is long gone.
Maddie vaults over her reeling children, wielding the Spirit Staff and shouting as she tries to catch the spirit before it leaves the house. That's to be expected; spirit-hunting is her entire world, her drive, and it's nothing to feel upset about. Jazz, however, is immediately hovering over Danny, eyes wide with alarm as she offers him a hand up. "You okay?"
"Y-yeah, I'm…" he glances over his shoulder at the stairs, "...I'm fine. Um, did you see that?"
Jazz's face goes a few shades paler, but she pushes her red hair away from her face with a heavy sigh. "Yeah. What was that?"
"That was a spirit," Jack groans, rubbing at his lower back as he crosses the lab towards them. "We managed to lure one out of the Spirit World, but this didn't go nearly as well as planned."
While he appreciates the explanation, Danny feels his stomach twist at his father's admittance. "What do you mean, 'planned'? What were you guys doing?"
Jazz shoots him a sideways glare that tells him she'd rather be anywhere but listening to this supernatural crap, but Danny pointedly ignores it. Jack gives his son a smile, but not even that is reassuring when Jack explains what it is they're doing.
"We were gonna use it to lure out the spirit at you kids' school!"
Danny's mouth goes dry.
My parents are hunting me.
His hearing fades out into white noise as Jack continues explaining everything about their plan.
My parents are hunting me.
In spite of how suspicious it must look, Danny lowers his head, mumbles a hasty excuse, and goes back upstairs at a faster pace than he should. Jazz calls out after him, but he's already forming a plan in his head as his bare feet take him all the way up to his room.
He knew it would come to this, it would always have come to this, but it doesn't make it any less devastating to finally have to face. His parents are spirit hunters, and he is a spirit. Simple as that.
I'm being stupid.
He enters his room, rubbing at his tired eyes and letting out a long, exasperated groan.
As much as he wants to dive right back into bed, his goddamned hero complex is jabbing at his mind, reminding him of the spirit's primal terror and desperate pleas for help as she clawed at his shirt. There's no way in hell he can just ignore that and let her be dissected by his parents or slaughtered by Walker. He knows, fuck, he knows this is only gonna end badly for him; this was literally a trap set to catch Danny, but if… if he's caught by his parents, he can just reveal himself. They'll… they'll still accept him, right?
He feels his emotional resolve waver for just a moment, and in that moment, he feels that strange presence in his chest creeping up his throat once more. It's never occurred to him before, but he realizes that he almost feels like another person is rising from slumber, sharing a body with him. The thought freaks him out enough to make him flinch, scrabbling for something to ground himself, and like waves crashing into a beach and retreating back into the sea, the feeling subsides. Danny lets out a shuddering breath.
He's going to do this.
If he doesn't… who the hell will?
Jazz doesn't like to boast, but she's always been very good at picking up the little things that most people don't. Things like red herrings in word problems, minute changes in the placement of objects around the house, and most importantly, the slightest alterations in a person's mood and feelings. Which is why she's certain something happened to Danny on that fateful night he ended up in the hospital.
It was a traumatic event, and Jazz knows that anyone would suffer from PTSD or other lasting effects had they experienced the same thing her brother had, but too many things don't line up with his behavior. Some of the quirks she's noticed from him are the way he talks to himself when he thinks nobody can hear him, the remnants of salt particles on his bedroom windowsill and in the hallway outside his room, and how he steals away from home and school at every given moment. It's all quite strange, and while Jazz doesn't consider belief in the paranormal to be a logical choice, she can't help but feel as though someone or something strange and ethereal is living in the Fenton house alongside its living, human residents.
It's eaten away at her mind so thoroughly that she's even found herself sneaking down to the lab and nosing her way into her parents' computer for answers. Nothing conclusive comes up, not even during the few times she went so far as to open the Spirit Portal and wait to see if anything would come out. Even now, she feels that itch gnawing away at her mind, desperate to find what it is that's caused such a dramatic change in Danny's behavior and help him chase that anxiety away.
That's what she's doing with her laptop at the table, having suffered through her father's long-winded monologue about their spirit-catching plan, when she picks up on the sound of her brother's sock-footed steps coming back downstairs. She pretends not to notice, as she often does, until he walks into the kitchen with the silent purpose of a cat searching for prey. Speaking of cats, Jazz finds her mind wandering back to that night she'd entered Danny's room and the light from the hallway behind her had passed over his face as the light from the kitchen does right this moment.
When Danny's eyes flick up to meet Jazz's, she sees it once more and concludes that it wasn't just a trick of the light; Danny's pupils, which have been oddly glassy since the accident, light up brilliant white, reflecting the harsh white LED light cascading from the light fixture.
The way he doesn't even attempt to hide it clues Jazz in to the fact that he likely either has no idea that his eyes reflect light like an animal's, or knows about it but is still so new to this change that he's not sure when his eyes do glow. Regardless, Jazz calmly lets her gaze drift away from Danny's eyes and begins scrolling through her personal research with a long, slow sip of her coffee.
When she's done, she gives Danny her 'sympathetic older sibling' smile, which is decidedly more appropriate than her 'I know you're up to shit and I want in on it' look. "You alright, little brother?"
He blinks at her slowly, once again catlike in nature, before looking down at his socks and shuffling across the kitchen to the pantry. "I guess."
"I'll take that as a 'no', then," she hums as she places her pumpkin-print coffee mug back down on the table. "That weird little animal didn't hurt you, did it?"
Danny pulls a jar of peanut butter out of the pantry- he never liked peanuts before the accident, that's another new personality quirk- and hunts for a spoon with a shake of his head. "N-no, no, I'm just. Processing."
Jazz nods. "I've never seen anything like it before. Have you?"
"Nope, I haven't," comes the far-too-quick reply, which tells Jazz that Danny does in fact have experience with the paranormal.
She doesn't let on that she's suspicious, shrugging and jotting down her latest observations in her open Google Docs tab. "Wonder what it was."
"I dunno, maybe some neighbourhood cat they zapped with some radioactive crap they have stored in the basement. Like the time they irradiated a toad and it escaped so the entire neighbourhood had to be evacuated while the bomb squad and animal control looked for it."
Jazz can't help the way her face twists with distaste at the memory. "Don't remind me."
It's silent for a time as Danny shovels huge spoonfuls of nothing but straight peanut butter into his mouth, seemingly unaware of what he's doing. The whole thing is so odd that Jazz eventually takes a deep breath and speaks up. "I thought you hated peanuts."
"I do, why?" Danny asks vacantly.
"Whatcha eating there?" Jazz prompts with a jerk of her chin at the jar in Danny's hands.
Only now does he look down, spoon still hanging from his mouth as he freezes for several seconds. It's hilarious, in all honesty; the only thing that stops Jazz from bursting out into hysterical laughter is the fact that the look on Danny's face isn't funny. Rather, a shadow of horror passes briefly across his blue eyes before he swallows his last mouthful of peanut butter, drops the spoon in the sink, and puts the jar back in the pantry. He doesn't offer any explanation. Instead, he shifts his weight awkwardly from foot to foot for a few seconds as though thinking of something to say. He doesn't defend himself, in the end. Danny just mumbles something about needing to run out for something and heads for the front door.
Jazz lowers her head again, and when Danny thinks she's not paying attention, his too-casual movements sharpen. He swipes something from the coffee table, then jumps across the living room to the front door. Which wouldn't normally be concerning, but seeing as the distance from the coffee table to the front doormat is around 15 feet, it's definitely something that piques Jazz's interest.
Five minutes after Danny leaves out the front door, Jazz shuts her laptop, pulls out her phone's 'Location Sharing' map, and heads for the door. She swipes her car keys from where they hang on the little rack near the front entrance with a purposeful smile.
Having a forgetful younger sibling is a blessing when that sibling forgets they have their Location Sharing set to 'share indefinitely'.
Danny (10:08))
Meet me at the mall asap. Need backup.
Tucker (10:09)
Oh shit
On my way man
Sam (10:09)
Same. I'll be there in 20
Danny follows the spirit's aura through the neighbourhood and ends up standing at the edge of Amity Mall's gargantuan parking lot, glaring daggers at the huge building. With a groan, he shoots Sam and Tucker a text asking for backup before sucking in a deep breath and walking across the frost-glazed asphalt. The sky is a dismal gray, and heavy clouds hang low over the city, sucking the colour from everything around Danny- and he can't really complain about it bringing down the mood. If anything, it complements the ominous atmosphere.
Behind him, he feels the familiar pulse of Alvin and Sidney's auras. They haven't said anything since he asked them to come with him, which is a bit unnerving, but Danny's grateful for the silence. It allows him to focus on what's ahead without losing his nerve.
It's only when Danny pushes open the doors to the mall's food court that Alvin speaks in a hushed voice that hums in Danny's head like static. We'll do what we can to distract anything that tries to capture you. But be careful, kid.
Danny expected to feel awkward or angry when the ghosts finally decided to speak to him, but now that it's happened, he feels comforted.
He's not alone.
A smile ghosts across his lips, but Alvin and Sidney are gone before he can say anything in reply. Which is a bit disappointing, but Danny can't fault them for that. They just want to look for threats.
As their auras grow further away, Danny can more easily tune them out and focus on the dragon spirit's aura.
It blankets the entire food court like a heavy fog with the stifling tang of fear and paranoia that contrasts the happily-chattering shoppers sharply. It doesn't converge on one single point, which means that Danny will have to search for it manually. He sighs.
Danny's fingers tighten around the handle of the folded-up Spirit Staff in his hoodie pocket, cool and humming with paranormal energy. He tries to put his faith in the Staff, imagining all his nervous energy being sapped away and siphoned into its shining silver form, but as expected, nothing happens. Well, shit.
As he passes a particularly busy Wendy's, a brilliant glimmer of pale blue catches his eye.
Barely managing to remain casual, Danny angles his head in the direction of the blue thing. Sure enough, he catches sight of the tiny creature cowering on the floor, practically glued to the leg of some unlucky shopper and whipping its head around anxiously at every footstep that comes too close. Thankfully, it seems to be invisible or insignificant to human eyes and isn't drawing any attention. Danny sets his jaw.
I'm really doing this.
With as much casual energy as he can muster, Danny weaves through the claustrophobic sea of clamoring customers towards the spirit and her unlucky companion. He finds himself roughly shoved off-track by a few particularly aggressive customers once or twice, but quickly regains his footing with a hasty 'sorry' and continues on his way.
He's pretty sure he can deal with this whole thing right up until he realizes that the spirit's companion is none other than Paulina Sanchez, the most popular girl at Casper High.
His breath catches in his throat as nerves begin to take hold. However, Danny does manage to soldier on through the anxiety and worries at his lip for a moment before taking the plunge.
"H-hey, Paulina," Danny begins with a smile he hopes isn't too horribly awkward and a small wave.
The girl pauses, then turns to look at him. Something like disdain sparks in her eyes and radiates from the way she raises her chin and furrows her brow, so Danny's pretty sure his smile is less 'I'd like to be your friend' and more 'My stomach isn't agreeing with that Taco Bell'. Mission number one failed.
"Oh, it's you," she says bluntly, "the kid with the ghost hunter parents. Keep your 'Fenton Weirdness' away from me, or I swear to God I'll make your life hell."
Danny holds up his hands in a placating gesture. "Don't worry, I'm not here to bother you or anything, I just…" he takes a deep breath, "...I'm looking for… Sam's cat. I saw it run past and was wondering if you saw where it went?"
For some strange reason, Paulina suddenly seems to give off an aura akin to the one the Flesh Eater had, which immediately makes Danny stiffen. "Is that all you wanted to ask? God, you're not even man enough to ask me out? Even Mikey could do that."
It's so stereotypically 'Mean Popular Girl' that Danny immediately finds himself suspecting something supernatural afoot and lets his gaze drift down to the spirit winding itself around her ankle. It stares back at him with wide, scared ruby eyes as its form flickers and slowly begins being absorbed into the girl it attaches to. Danny's eyes fly wide open and he makes a grab for the spirit's outstretched claw at the same moment it vanishes into Paulina's skin.
This seems to be the wrong thing to do, because Paulina's 'aura' explodes with a rage so intense, it forces its way into Danny's lungs and burns him from the inside out. He coughs, stumbling back from her and trying to plead with her through watering eyes.
By now, customers are noticing the commotion and turn to watch, murmuring in confusion as Paulina's form shifts in minute ways, slowly, slowly, becoming something inhuman. She grows taller, her normally-tan skin taking on a blue hue and her skin cracking, swelling, reforming into diamond-sharp scales. Her bones crack and her howling voice becomes more and more distorted until Danny finds himself staring, horrified, up at something straight out of an H.P. Lovecraft novel.
Not-Paulina stands about 35 feet tall with a long, scaly face similar to that of a barracuda. Crooked teeth, both human and dragon, stick out of her maw at wild angles and an uncountable number of blue-and-red marble eyes roll around a misshapen head, crowned by two crooked green horns. The only thing that can even be vaguely recognized as either of the two combined individuals is the lithe, blue-scaled body and leathery wings of the dragon spirit… but even then, it's constantly shifting between humanoid and reptilian, sometimes with long, thin human arms and sometimes with the muscular forelegs of a dragon.
By now, customers are running, screaming, snapping photos with their phones, and Danny takes their lead. He spins on his heel, nearly slipping on the smooth tile floor, and breaks into a dead sprint for the nearest hallway. With a cry of alarm, he narrowly ducks under the monster's slavering jaws as it lunges for him.
Danny opens his mouth to shout for Alvin, but stops short when he realizes that he's now separated from his friend by several tonnes of lovecraftian horror monster. Fuck. Well, there goes Plan A.
As if in response to his dismay, the weird presence stirs in his chest again, but he shoves it down. This is not the damn time for an existential crisis. He skids around a corner, catching himself on one hand before bolting down the next shop-lined hallway. Behind him, the monster bellows and crashes into the wall. Debris rains down from the cracking ceiling, filling the halls with hazy dust only broken up by the neon lights of the mall's storefronts. Danny shields his mouth and nose with his sleeve as he keeps running through the chaos.
The only time he hesitates is when all falls silent, the screams of customers muffled with distance, and the creature forces its voice into Danny's head with a jolt of pain.
Ẃ̶̡̜̰̖͍͋͂̊͠H̠͓̙̖̖̖̰̙̬̫̏̾́̍͂̆̕Ę̵̭̻̮̆̈́̈́̓̿͟͝R͓̪̲͍̠̗̞̩̤̽̂̂́̈́́̚͜Ȩ͕͉̯͕̹̇̈̾͂̇̂̉́̀͜ Ā̰̣͕̝̳̯͖͒̾͞͝͞Ŗ̸̟̖͇̺̯̭̳͚̊̑͆͛͐̈̓E̻͕͙̥̬̜͔̎̈́̽̓̅̽̀̚ Y̵̡̧̛̱͈̯̘̱̤̰̐͂̿́̒̚͘Ơ̷̰͕̻̝͔̪͍̑̊̔̊̇͜Ư̵̢̢̟̦̬̭̦͑̈́̿̐̅̍̔͟
It's the tortured sound of two garbled voices trying desperately to talk over one another, and it's the worst thing Danny's ever heard. His stomach lurches at the sound of it, and so does the Thing in his chest. It stirs so violently, in fact, that Danny feels a strange voice tumble from his lungs to his lips, speaking in tongues that by all rights he should not be able to understand… and yet he hears it clear as day.
"You are not yourself, Sky Dragon. Allow us to help you, dear friend."
Danny feels his hands start shaking, and he has to force himself to keep running away from the monster in spite of that. His mind is jumping all over the place, his feet keep slipping on the tile floor, and he can't think straight. Something else is living inside his body, something controlled my voice, that wasn't me, this is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG-
The ceiling above him explodes as the monster bashes its horrifying face through the second floor, shrieking loudly enough that Danny can feel the moment his left eardrum ruptures, sending him flying down the hall. In spite of how rattled and terrified he is, Danny staggers to his feet and whirls around to search for an escape route…
There! A wide doorway at the far end of the hall beckons him with promises of safety, and he starts running again. By now, his lungs are burning and his bad leg is starting to ache dully, but he keeps on pushing, pushing, pushing.
I'm almost there, I'm almost safe, I'm-!
A massive, blade-tipped blue tail flies around him in a wide arc, colliding with the ceiling and wall over the exit. Danny can't help the despairing curse he shouts as he puts on a last burst of speed in an attempt to get through the exit before rubble crashes down on it and blocks off his last chance at freedom.
He's almost there, when the Thing sharing his body once again seizes control of him, hijacking his ability to use his legs and changing direction sharply enough to give him whiplash. A heartbeat later, several tonnes of concrete, iron supports, and brick wall segments crash to the ground right where he'd have been had he not been forcibly wrenched off course.
As suffocating dust billows around the wider area in which he's been cornered, Danny shakily forces himself to his feet once more and pulls out the Spirit Staff in trembling hands. The Staff gives off a pale green glow when he extends it to its full length, reflecting off the burning cloud engulfing him and choking out his line of sight. Paranoia begins to set in, and his head whips around as he wields his staff like a sword, hoping to catch the beast before it reaches him.
I̵̢͔͙̫͙̤͍̹̻̤͋͒̌̄͑̔͛̿͑̕'̹͙̭͚̬͔̍̇̽̌̑͞V̵̛̺̯͚͍͎̊̌̎̔̆̿̕͜E̷̢̡͉̗͉̜͙̒͆̃͆̿̊̓̔͘͟͞ F̵̠̞̖̰̟̘̣̱͊̓̈́̉͘͠ͅO̷̢͇̹̜͚͕̜͂̌̀̂̿͒͘͞ͅU̡̻̖͚̿̓͋̄̚͢N̴͙̝̖̖̘̥͚͔̄̓͑̊̏̆͟͡D̢̡̦̣̞̖̘̅̏͌̇̔͝ Ỳ̵̨̢̗̫̟̈́͊͑̅͟͞͠ͅƠ̴̧̡̪̪͉͎̈̀̇̿͒̓͝U̴̺̮͍̘͇͎͛̊̆̃͒̅̉͂̆͝.̪̺͖̞͖͙̜̿̍̆́̉͝ͅ
The guttural, rasping leer comes not a heartbeat before countless gleaming eyes glimmer to life less than ten feet away through the dust and debris. Despite the fact that he does in fact have ample time to launch an attack, his blood runs cold in his veins and his entire body freezes up. His mind goes numb, empty, silent, save for the simple thought that perhaps this is how he'll die.
Danny's unable to move to attack or evade, even as the beast screeches with glee and swipes a massive paw at him.
The blow sends him flying sideways through the air like a ragdoll, where he hits a glass storefront, slams through the wall separating the window display from the rest of the store, and finally into the small store, where he lies sprawled out on his back with the Staff at his side. Danny's head spins, making his stomach churn with nausea, and the sickening, coppery taste of blood fills his mouth and runs from his lips to his chin. He knows for sure that this sort of hit would've killed a human; he can tell from the way he can feel his insides weaving themselves back together and his bones melding into a healthy shape again. But even with his impressive healing abilities, he knows for certain that he won't be well enough to fight the spirit beast before it reaches him and finishes the job.
Danny's heart lurches when he lets his pained gaze drift down to the shattered glass window dripping in his own blood, and sees the beast's ominous silhouette lumbering closer through the dense dust cloud. He grits his teeth and lets his eyes fall shut.
Fuck.
A few seconds pass where the only sounds are the distant police and EMT sirens outside the mall, and the slow, thunderous footsteps of the spirit monster bearing down on him. Sounds that Danny expects.
When those sounds fade into utter silence, Danny cracks his eyes open and finds himself once more lying in that strange limbo where he'd first… where he'd…
His body is still riddled with terrible wounds, and he can't bring himself to move, but he feels a presence gradually drawing nearer to him. Ice-cold yet scalding-hot all at once, an intimidating white figure approaches to sit next to him on silent feet. Flame-wreathed jade eyes bore holes into Danny as Ayla watches him from where she sits at his side.
I should have known that my bond with you would not bring me peace.
Danny lets his eyes slide closed and wheezes, "'M I dead fr' good?"
Ayla makes a sound similar to a human clicking their tongue in disapproval and flicks one of her many ears. No, but you are in no state to fight.
"So 'm gonna die soon."
Not if you accept the full extent of my power.
"Thought I did th't."
No. It is an invasive process, one that few like and even fewer try more than once. It will lead to drastic alterations in your perception, physical abilities, and, potentially, your appearance. Even while not actively using the bond.
Danny takes a deep, shuddering breath. "Don' wanna die. Do it."
Ayla pauses as though uncertain of whether or not to accept his quick agreement, but soon dips her head and speaks in that odd tongue that the Presence- which Danny now realizes was Ayla all along- used in an attempt to appease the dragon-beast earlier.
"As we have agreed, so the pact shall be."
The pain paralyzing Danny in place suddenly melts away like magic, and he gasps sharply. As he sits bolt upright, the endless, billowing blackness of space around he and Ayla twists, distorts, closes in… then explodes outward to reveal a beautiful landscape characterized by green fields dotted with wildflowers, unearthly spirits flying through the air and strolling through the grass, and the strangest trees Danny's ever seen. A warm breeze caresses his skin like an embrace, leaving him content and sleepy.
It only lasts a moment, however, and Danny finds himself falling through the ground, covering immense distance and none at all at incredible speed. The wild descent only ends when he manages to right himself and his bare feet splash into ankle-deep water reflecting a beautiful, cloud-speckled blue sky that seems to curve around Danny in a wide dome with no visible exit. Ayla faces Danny, thick white fur billowing around her like a ghostly halo in the salty sea-breeze.
Cool water soaks into the hems of Danny's jeans, but he's too confused by everything he's seeing and experiencing to care about that.
"What-" he begins, but Ayla dips her head and vanishes.
At the same moment, Danny finds himself suddenly back in his own body, not having moved from where it lies motionless on the floor of an Old Navy. Something isn't quite right, however. He's… not one. He is two, working in tandem to channel otherworldly energy through Their shared vessel.
The sensation is euphoric, and the human half of Them wants to whoop loudly with ecstasy. Their other half, despite feeling the same rush of energy, gently guides the former half back to the task at hand, and then They are one being and They see the world in brilliant splashes of every colour, every Aura, every Essence, every ally and every enemy all at once.
They are the Halfa, and as Their form shifts, grows, and contorts into something no longer human, They bare Their teeth and challenge the Dragon-Beast with a snarl.
Jazz pulls into the Amity Mall parking lot at the same time that throngs of panicking customers surge out of every single available exit, screaming, battered, and visibly in shock. The sight of it makes her dig her nails into the steering wheel, but she reassures herself by murmuring under her breath, "Danny's smart. He knows what to do in an emergency. He's gonna be fine."
At least a dozen police cars come tearing down the road and swerve into the parking lot, blazing past Jazz in her small hatchback car in a blinding display of red-and-blue light. Behind them, several ambulances wail at deafening volume and rocket into the parking lot before splitting off to approach every crowd of shoppers they can. Jazz hesitates for just a moment before pulling into a vacant parking space, face grim, and reaching for her cellphone with shaking hands.
Danny's gonna be safe.
She swallows and opens her phone.
He's gonna be with the rest of the crowd.
She opens her Location Sharing map.
I'll pick him up and we'll go home and I'll tease him like I always do.
Jazz's heart stops.
Danny's blue location marker stares back up at her as though mocking her silent hopes, pulsing from the mall's South entrance.
She turns off the engine, grabs her shoulder bag, and leaps out onto the slick, damp pavement without a second thought. She doesn't even lock her car as she normally would. Her only care is that she'll find her little brother safe and sound.
"Why do we hang out with a kid who has literal monsters trying to kill him at every goddamn moment of every day?" Tucker hisses under his breath from where he and Sam sit huddled under a collapsed segment of roof.
Sam doesn't grace his attempt at humor with an answer. Instead, she peers down the hall in the direction the monster had gone before grabbing Tucker's wrist- which he actually quite appreciates because he's pretty sure he's on the verge of passing out- and pulling him out from under their hiding spot. She then meets Tucker's eyes with an intense expression that he wishes he was courageous enough to return, and says, "That's exactly why we need to stick with him. We're the only ones who know about his secret and we can help."
Tucker sucks in a deep breath through his teeth. He's pretty sure Sam thinks he's gonna chicken out and stay behind, and had it not been Danny out there, well, Tucker probably would just stay out of harm's way.
But that's his best friend out there.
He's not gonna give up on Danny.
Setting his jaw, Tucker ends eye contact with Sam and breaks into a jog before she can even speak. He can feel her watching him with bewildered eyes, and glances over his shoulder to shout, "Whatcha waiting for?! We gotta help him!"
Sam gawks for a moment more before racing after him, combat boots crunching on shattered glass and thumping on dust-coated tile. They sprint side-by-side down the hall, vaulting over collapsed roof supports, swerving around gaping holes in the floor, and shielding their faces from the chalky dust still spilling from the roof. It's not fun, especially not since Tucker's nowhere near a decent fitness level, but he pushes his screaming legs and protesting lungs to their limit in the direction of the monster's bellowing.
If he dies, I'm gonna kill him.
Sam is the one who notices the beast first when the hall opens up into a wide pavilion lined with once-quaint little shops and decorated with the remnants of delicate flowerpots and ornate fountains- the South entrance. She skids to a stop, grabbing Tucker by the back of his shirt and making him stop short as well. Tucker's vaguely aware of her saying something in a hushed, urgent tone, but Tucker doesn't hear it. All he's focused on is locating his best friend.
Sunlight cuts through the dust from the glass ceiling and illuminates the entire pavilion, and Tucker catches sight of something red glittering on the shattered remains of a glass storefront. He turns his attention to it to inspect it more closely… and immediately wishes he hadn't.
"Oh, fuck," he barely manages to choke out before slinking out into the open, trying to silently weave around the pavillion in the direction of the storefront.
Sam follows him, hissing, "What?"
"That!" Tucker snaps shortly and jabs a finger at the window. Sam follows his gesture and immediately pales.
Bright red blood drips from the razor-edges of the shattered glass window. It could be anyone's blood, Tucker knows that, but deeper in his gut he's certain that it's not some stranger's blood. The monster is hunting Danny and Danny alone. It wouldn't be drawing closer to the storefront if it were anyone other than him.
And the thought that Danny's too hurt to fight back is terrifying.
Despair is beginning to sink it's icy-cold claws into Tucker's flesh and tear at him until there's nothing left but an empty husk wracked with panic and terror, but just when he's sure he's going to fall apart…
...Danny steps through the broken window.
Jazz manages to squeeze through the wreckage blocking the South entrance at the same time her brother steps through the bloodstained glass window decorated with Old Navy decals.
Under any other circumstances, she'd be overjoyed to see him walking out of the wreckage (mostly) intact. This time, though, something isn't quite right.
Well, more accurately, she's having a difficult time finding anything not unnatural about him.
Wherever his worn-out red-and-white sneakers touch the floor, it cracks audibly and fragments of shimmering white floor tiles hover around his feet as though gravity no longer applies to them. His veins are lit up, pulsing with eerie greenish-white energy in time with his heartbeat, and his eyes glow solid green, hissing with equally-bright green tongues of flame.
Jazz's breath catches in her throat when Danny speaks.
"The destruction and terror you have caused on the first plane is unacceptable. We will not allow you to continue this behaviour."
The monster snarls something in reply, speaking in a strange language Jazz can't pinpoint. Not that she has long to linger on it anyhow, seeing as Danny is transforming, growing, changing, twisting into a beast the likes of which Jazz has never considered the existence of.
Standing on six massive paws, eyes blazing with emerald fire as a white mane of flame runs down the length of its spine, is a huge, three-tailed black-and-white dog.
Hey there, it's me, Hita! I'm not gonna waste your time with a huge-ass A/N but I'd just like to thank you all for following and reading my fic! This thing is so much fun to write and I'm thrilled that you guys love it as much as I do! Also a huge thanks to the user who left a review telling me that my scene/perspective breaks had been all mishmashed together. I'm still hella new to and didn't know how to use the site's formatting. I hope everything is much easier to read now!
Yes the little dragon is Dorathea from s1e2, and I put my own darker twist on the whole 'the person who wears the amulet becomes the dragon'. In this AU, if Dorathea is under great emotional duress and comes into physical contact with a living being, her Essence will merge with theirs in a horrifying version of the lovely fusions from Steven Universe. Why am I like this? That's a fuckin good question.
And no, I'm not a furry. I'm just a sucker for monster transformations :'D
Thanks to my awesome friend Aster for beta-reading my stuff all the time!
If you wanna check out my art and get updoots on everything (as well as seeing the illustrations I've done for this fic) you can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Deviantart and Tumblr under the same name I have here! (hitamory)