Danifan3000: We're a long way from season 3 stuff, so we'll see how things go for Chloe when we get there.
Matt: We'll see about Zoe. I've said I have plans for her that involve some tweaks being made.
Guest: I can safely say Danny/Marinette and Adrien/Chloe won't be happening.
Tiamat Dragoness: Yeah, the guacamole is a thing; I thought it was strange too when I first discovered it, but realized it made sense once I thought about it. Yeah, magic and ghost stuff have a finicky relationship like that; we'll see if Danny ever figures out how to overshadow an akuma victim. The moment with the maid is one of my favorite moments of the chapter too; it seemed like a fun little inclusion after scaring her with Lady WiFi.
Pokemon fan 1991: One of my main goals for this project is to show the main characters growing whereas the canon material didn't do much of a good job at that. As someone going through issues with her mother, Chloe understands Adrien's struggle better than most because she's witnessed a lot of it over the years. Paulina seeing Ladybug as a love rival might make for an interesting conflict, but also seems kind of shallow.
King of Fans: Yeah, Chloe understands where Adrien is coming from better than the rest of the A-listers; after all, being one of his only friends growing up made her one of the limited number of people he could ramble about his interests to. Your theory about the guacamole makes sense. I'm glad you liked my explanation for why Danny can't overshadow akumatized villains; maybe one day he can break through. He might have to try one of the tricks you suggest someday. We'll see if Alya figures out a way to rise back to the top of the hero blogs. Spoilers on the Evillustrator and Desiree chapters. Interesting idea for Danny, we'll have to see if he thinks of it at some point.
Jebest4781: Thanks for reading!
Crystal Da Pony: In this house, we support complex Chloe over one-dimensional bully Chloe every day of the week. Season 3 is a long way away, so we'll have to see how things go for the mayor election.
1eragon33: Ultimate Enemy is far away right now, so we'll have to wait and see what happens with that. You have a point about the expanded friend group.
Erica phoenix16: Thanks for reading! Bitter Reunions was a blast to write, and I can't wait for everyone to read it.
Leonardo: Thanks for the well wishes. Mixing these two shows is really fun, and it's awesome to see how aspects of both shows contrast and flow together so nicely. Ha, Wes being the Phantom Press blogger would be hilarious considering the fandom's characterization of him.
Diamondteel4: Thanks for reading! It's amazing how well the shows blend together. Thanks for the concern about burning myself out too, I'm trying to take care of myself.
Dyna-Man 21: Long response, wow! This is going to be a long reply, so I'll break it up a bit. Okay, let's see... I'm trying my best to include characters in a way that makes sense without shoehorning them in too forcefully.
Sam didn't invite Marinette and Alya to her house because they aren't at that level of friendship yet. While Marinette knows the secret, the gang isn't on close enough terms with her to include her in everything yet. That said, I'm trying to find opportunities to have the two sides of the cast interact, again in a way that makes sense without seeming too forced. I can't remember if bakeries usually sell fudge, but if they do, then yes Jack would get fudge from Marinette's parents. No to the practice fighting, and the extent of Vlad and Gabriel's history will be revealed soon.
I understand wanting more mashups, but this is the way things are working out for now. As I've repeatedly said before, most of Danny's season 1 ghosts occur rather privately, so Marinette and the others aren't likely to notice and join in the fights. I hope for that to change as his fights become more public. Thanks for the ideas, they'll be taken into consideration.
Ultrakid202020: I'm still figuring out what to do with the time travel episodes. I can confirm Danny will meet a kwami in the future. No to Danny and Marinette shipping. What garden?
Stag-beetle: All is good! Yeah, it didn't make sense for Alya to make a farfetched guess like that and then accurately make another one. Your feelings about the Rabbit Miraculous are valid. Lila will appear eventually.
CryptologicalMystic: Thanks for reading! Glad my footnotes are helping readers out. I can confirm there will be original episodes included.
Eecobeo: Thanks for reading!
Casamora: Glad you're enjoying the story. One of my main goals for the project is to fix the lack of continuity and visible character development. Zoe is Chloe's half-sister on her mother's side introduced in season 4, she was conceived as a replacement for Chloe as the Bee Miraculous holder first and a character second, so her personality only highlights how nice and kind she is compared to Chloe. If I wasn't aware of her purpose, I would maybe like her more.
Friendly reminder that speculation about future chapters and what you want to see is okay, but please leave a comment about the chapter I just worked very hard on if you intend to speculate.
Also, Two Kinds apparently has a TVTropes page, so if you think of any trope examples for it, go ahead and add them.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Miraculous Ladybug. They belong to their respective owners. Any and all familiar dialogue is for the sake of the plot.
One Kind of Twisted Wish
Tucker's Log
Some people have a lot, and some people don't. But everybody's got something. Me? I've got charm, good looks, and modesty. My best friend, Danny? He has something else.
It was another weekend in Amity Park; in a city as large as Amity Park, there was something different going on every week. This weekend, it was a swap meet. Sam was sick, so Danny and Tucker hung out together on their own. The two boys approached a table at the swap meet, and found four skateboard wheels in a box. They looked at each other, clearly thinking the same thing.
"Two for me, two for you?" Danny checked.
"Sounds fair to me," Tucker said.
They both pulled out money to hand to the vendor and took their respective two wheels.
Danny and me have known each other since, like, forever. And we share everything.
As the boys wandered around the swap meet more, they passed a booth called Madam Babazita's Mystical Oddities. It had a lot of the typical fortune telling stuff one would see on TV, including mood rings, tarot cards, a crystal ball, and a genie in a bottle.
Thinking it was kind of funny considering their lives since school started, Tucker picked up the genie bottle for a moment. "A genie in a bottle? I don't think so. Thanks anyway." He set the bottle back down, and the two friends kept walking.
Coming from the other way was local news reporter Nadja Chamack and her young daughter Manon. Manon had a balloon tied around her wrist so it wouldn't accidentally fly away. Just beyond Madam Babazita's booth was a vendor selling cotton candy, and Manon's eyes lit up. [1]
Manon excitedly pointed. "Mommy, look! Cotton candy! Can I have some, Mommy? Please, please, please?"
Nadja shook her head. "I think you've had enough sugar today."
"I want it! I want it! I want it!" Manon begged as they kept walking.
As they passed Madam Babazita's booth, Manon's balloon string got tangled with the genie bottle, causing it to fall off the table and break open. Manon and her mother continued walking, so they did not see the green mist emerge from the broken bottle and swirl together to reveal a ghostly woman in a blue and silver dress with bangles on her arms.
"And your heart's desire is my command," the ghost said before reverting to the green mist and flying over to the vendor.
Just feet away, Danny's Ghost Sense went off, and he and Tucker both turned around to see the ghost appear next to the vendor. Using her ghost powers on the cotton candy machine, she made it create a giant wave of cotton candy that would blanket the whole swap meet. Everybody stood and stared in horror, except Manon, who was quite pleased.
"Cotton candy!" The little girl exclaimed before she and her mother were coated in the sugary treat.
We share everything, except one thing.
Tucker watched as Danny checked his surroundings before ducking between two booths. "I'm going ghost!"
Danny has ghost powers, and is part of a team protecting the town from ghosts and akumas, ordinary people transformed into villains by evil butterflies.
After transforming, Phantom flew up to confront the new ghost.
"I am Desiree. What is your wish?" Desiree greeted.
Phantom glared at her. "None of your business, Candy Pants."
"Surely there must be something," Desiree said, reaching for Phantom's chest in a flirtatious manner.
"Hey, get away!" Phantom yelped, instinctively firing an ecto blast.
Due to the kneejerk reaction combined with Desiree being at point blank in his range, the blast sent her flying across town.
Phantom blinked at the results, glancing at his glowing hand. "Huh. My reaction time is getting faster on that." Flying back down and finding a spot to de-transform, he rejoined Tucker in his civilian persona.
"Great job, Danny. It only took you a few seconds to fire an ecto blast that time," Tucker said brightly. "Man, that's the cool thing about your powers. There's no downside." He raised his hand. "Gimme five!"
Danny lifted his hand to meet Tucker's, but a stray ecto blast fired from his hand and sent Tucker crashing into a pile of cotton candy.
"I'm okay!" Tucker called even as more cotton candy fell on him.
That Friday evening, Adrien snuck out of his house and made his way over to Nino's place. Ducking in an alley nearby, he de-transformed and approached his best friend's home. Ringing the doorbell, he only had to wait a few moments before the door was opened.
"Dude, you made it," Nino grinned. "Did you bring it?"
"Yep, just like I said I would." Pulling his backpack off his shoulder, Adrien reached in and brought out a game case. "My collection of the previous DOOMED games. All three of them."
"Nice! Come on. This is going to be killer!" Nino ushered him in, leading him to the living room where he had the game system set up to play. Also set aside were bags of chips and cans of soda.
"Wow, my father would be outraged if he saw me eat this stuff," Adrien mused as he looked at the snacks. Setting his backpack down, he turned to his host. "Which one should we play first? Should we play the third one, and work in reverse order? Or should we just start from the beginning?"
"What are you doing here?" A third, younger voice spoke up. Both teens looked over and saw Nino's younger brother standing in the hallway that led to the kitchen.
Nino smiled at his brother, walking up beside Adrien. "Chris, you remember Adrien, right? My new best pal from school?"
Chris nodded. "Yeah, I remember. What's he doing here, anyway?" [2]
Adrien held up one of the DOOMED games. "We're going to marathon the DOOMED series for a few hours. Nino told me he only had the newest one, so I thought I would bring all the older ones over since I had them."
Chris stared at the game case in awe. "Cool! Can I play too?"
To his dismay, Nino shook his head. "Sorry, little dude, but you have to be a teen like me and Adrien to play them. Why don't you go upstairs and play with your action figures? Mom and Dad don't want you watching me play these games."
"But I don't want to play with my action figures! Not when you get to play those." Chris pointed a finger at the game.
"I don't mind playing something else if he wants to join us," Adrien offered, putting the game back in his bag.
Nino shook his head. "Nah man, you came over for some bro time and you're going to have bro time." Turning to his little brother, Nino knelt down to his level. "Look, how about you let me and Adrien play our games tonight, and you and I can play one of your video games tomorrow? How's that sound?"
Chris pouted, but started heading over to the stairs. "Fine…"
Satisfied as his brother went upstairs to his room, Nino whirled around toward Adrien. "So, how about that first one?"
Adrien returned the grin and dug into his backpack.
So, anyway, I guess the craziness really started at the football game Saturday night.
The bleachers at the game weren't as full that night, due to the cold that got Sam sick spreading around. Those that were there were either wearing their casual clothes, or went out of their way to dress up in Casper High's purple and white Raven colors.
While Sam wasn't in attendance with Danny and Tucker, Marinette was, but she was there for a different reason.
"You did a great job fixing the mascot costume, Marinette," Tucker praised her, looking down at the mascot running along the side of the field during the game. You could hardly tell the beak needed mending. [3]
"Thanks! After Kim said something about how badly worn it was, I knew I had to do something to fix it up," Marinette said, taking the compliment.
"Speaking of fixing things up," Danny said, "maybe you could do something to fix up our team. They're fading fast." He motioned to the Casper High football team down on the field, which included Dash, Kwan, and Dale.
The football game wasn't half over, and the Ravens were already getting creamed by their opponents.
Marinette shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, but my kind of magic is fixing clothes, not people." Realizing what she just said, she scrambled to backtrack. "Did I say magic? I mean, I mean, my kind of trick. Yeah, fixing clothes is my trick to making things better, not fixing people." Both Danny and Tucker gave her a weird look, but shrugged it off after she stopped talking. When she thought their attention was away from her and back on the game, she quietly let out a relieved huff.
Down on the field, Dash was in a huddle with his teammates, trying to decide their next play. They had a tough time deciding what would be the best way to attempt a comeback. The stress was especially getting to Dash.
"Man, I wish I could turn into the kind of monster who could crush these guys single-handed," the quarterback complained.
Above the field, the green mist returned and morphed into Desiree. Little did Dash know he said the words she wanted to hear. She used some of her mist to discreetly change Dash's form. The transformation itself wasn't as easily unnoticed. Dash grew bigger, greener, and tore his football uniform to shreds.
While this happened, Danny and Tikki's Ghost Sense went off. Danny looked up as soon as he felt it. He spotted Desiree floating above the crowd and muttered, "Oh no." Before he could stand up, she flew away.
The teams continued to play the game, unaware something was going on with one of the players. Dash tossed the ball extremely hard when it was hiked to him, and moved supernaturally quick to catch it.
"Wow," one of the announcers commentating the game said in surprise, "it looks like those high protein breakfasts are really paying off."
"Something's off about Dash," Marinette noted as she watched the quarterback.
"I'll say. He's a beast," Tucker said, smiling.
"And getting beastlier," Danny said, seeing Dash's form get bigger. "He's running on ghost power. Tucker, remember that ghost from the swap meet?"
Marinette blinked at the boys. "Is that what caused the cotton candy mess?"
"Oh yeah," Danny narrowed his eyes. "Stay here. I'm going to take care of this." He ran down the bleachers and ducked under the first few rows. Everybody was too absorbed in the game to notice the bright light of his transformation.
Meanwhile, the players lined up for another play. As Dash called out numbers in a rougher voice than usual, Phantom flew over to him invisibly. His nose wrinkled as he lingered over Dash. "Whoa, ghost energy is pretty strong. Hopefully ripe for the picking," he murmured to himself. Phasing his hand into Dash's head, he felt around a bit before touching something he figured did not belong there. When he pulled it out, he was surprised it was a little green blob ghost.
Once the ghost was out of Dash, he shrunk back to normal, though his football uniform was in shreds.
"Uh, hike?" Dash said, confused, only to be tackled by opposing players almost instantly.
Phantom flew back under the bleachers, the little ghost in hand. He pulled out the Fenton Thermos. "Back to the Ghost Zone for you, pal." He turned on the thermos and sucked the ghost inside.
Danny had no problem getting the ghost out of Dash, but we lost the game. Which was bad news for the guy wearing the mascot costume. Thankfully, that was not me.
At the end of the game, the football team strung up their mascot on one of the goalposts and started whacking the poor thing with baseball bats.
Marinette was not happy about having to sew the beak back on the costume. Again.
After the game, Phantom phased into his parents' basement lab, and inserted the Fenton Thermos into a console next to the portal.
"End of the line, gruesome." Phantom said as he coldshed the ghost into the portal. Once he was sure the ghost wouldn't be flying back out, he turned to leave and catch up with Tucker and Marinette, only to fly through some kind of net covered in the same ectoplasmic resin Jack had coated the Fenton Fisher in.
He was split into two people, the human half and the ghost half. They stared at each other quietly, doing their best not to freak out and potentially alert the Fenton parents. Keeping calm, Phantom merged back into Danny's body, leaving the human on the floor.
Having heard Danny's fall to the floor, Jack and Maddie emerged from a tent they had set up in a corner of the lab, both looking fatigued and snotty from the cold.
"Who's that? Is somebody out there?" Jack asked in a daze.
Danny looked between his parents and their latest invention. "Am I interrupting something that I hope I'm not?"
Maddie sneezed. "Your father and I are purifying ourselves of negative ghost energy."
Then Jack sneezed. "We're trying to expel any viral ghosts in our systems with the Fenton Ghost Catcher." He motioned to the net-like thing Phantom had flown through. "It's like an Indian dreamcatcher, except it expunges ghosts and not dreams, you see."
Danny looked between them and their invention again. "You could just have a regular cold. It doesn't have to be a ghost cold."
His parents shared a look, then went back into their tent, Jack muttering, "I remember when I was that naïve."
Once Danny was sure they were fully inside, he turned his attention back to the Ghost Catcher. He stuck his arm through, and saw his human and ghost sides separate before pulling his arm back. "Whoa! This one actually works. A little too well. I'm filing this one under 'Must Avoid'."
Meanwhile, as the football game went on, Adrien was back at Nino's house. This time, they were watching an action movie that Adrien had on DVD he mentioned wanting to show Nino the night before while playing the second DOOMED game.
The two boys cheered at an explosion that occurred in the movie. At that moment, Chris wandered into the living room and stared at them. "He's over here again?"
Hearing his little brother's voice, Nino frowned. "Chris, you can't be in here while we watch this movie. It's too intense for kids your age to watch."
Chris stomped his foot. "But I'm not little! I'm a big kid like you guys."
Adrien paused the movie so Chris wouldn't see anything or hear anything he wasn't supposed to. "Well yeah, but this movie is for bigger kids, like high school big kids."
The young boy scowled indignantly. "That's dumb. I'm big enough for your movie. I know I am."
"No, you're not." Nino got up from his seat and went over to him, standing in his way. "Now, can you please go play in your room or hang out with Mom or Dad until we finish? We're not turning the movie back on until you leave."
Huffing at the unfairness of the situation, Chris turned and left the room, yelling, "Mom! Dad! Nino and his friend won't let me watch their movie with them!"
Once he was in the kitchen, Nino returned to sitting on the couch beside Adrien. "Sorry about that. The little dude hates being told he isn't big enough for stuff. He likes pretending he's more grown up than other kids, but he's really not."
Adrien shrugged it off. "It's okay. Growing up as an only child, I wish I had a brother or sister around like you and some of our friends do." He grabbed the remote. "Ready to get back to the movie?"
"Yeah! I want to see how the car chase ends."
Grinning at his friend's interest in the movie, Adrien started it up again.
Little did they realize that it was only through Nino's parents calming Chris down they avoided the young boy becoming an akuma.
Even during trying times, one must remember a fallen comrade. Poor Sam was so sick, and all cooped up in her house. That's the worst. She wasn't even the only one from our class, too. Juleka, Alya, Ivan, and Kim all had it.
"Ugh, I feel like I'm going to die," Sam complained, then sneezed so hard an ice pack she was keeping on her head fell off. "I hate being sick."
She was on a call with Danny and Tucker, who were at the mall.
"Hang in there, Sam. Tucker and I are going to come visit you when we're done at the mall. Want us to bring you anything?" Danny asked on his end.
Sam sneezed again. "No, no. Please don't bother. My folks are taking pretty good care of me." She pulled away from her phone to shoot a look at her grandmother, who had a bowl of soup for her, and a team of a doctor and three nurses. "Guys, it's just a small cold!"
Then another nurse came in with a defibrillator. "Clear!"
Sam ended the call before the boys could hear her situation get worse.
Danny pocketed his phone as he and Tucker walked into the movie theater part of the mall. "She's gotta be sick if she's missing Dead Teacher IV."
"This time it's personal," Tucker quoted the movie's tagline.
With time to kill before their movie began, the boys went over to the theater's arcade corner. In another area of the theater, a couple of girls were gushing over a standee of an anime character by the name of Sayonara Pussycat.
"Oh my gosh, I can't wait for the Sayonara Pussycat movie! I want to see it so bad," one of the girls said to her friend.
"Oh my gosh, I know. She's so cute!" The girl's friend agreed.
After the two girls walked away to find their movie, Paulina approached the standee. "Sayonara Pussycat is so cute! Why can't I be that popular?"
Nearby, Desiree phased through the wall and cast some of her mist at Paulina. The popular girl gasped as the mist surrounded her.
A few moments later, she called out to the line at the concessions stand. "Hey, everybody! What do you think of me?"
The line turned around, and gasped in unison at the sight of a chibi-fied Paulina with Sayonara Pussycat's big eyes and rosy cheeks. Entranced by her appearance, the crowd began to chant, "We love you! We love you, Paulina!"
Paulina began to march around the theater lobby, flaunting her cuteness. "Look at me! I'm so cute and cuddly and ever so wonderful! Don't you think?"
"We agree! We love you, Paulina!" The crowd chanted again.
The noise caught the attention of Danny and Tucker in the arcade, playing a Crash Nebula arcade game, who finally saw what was going on. Their eyes were immediately drawn to the little figure leading the parade around.
"Paulina?" Danny asked in a stunned tone.
"Attention, moviegoers," an announcer came over the loudspeakers, "Amity Park Cinemas has officially declared it Happy Fabulous Paulina Day."
At the announcement, Paulina stopped the parade to face her followers. "I don't know what to say. Why squander my popularity here? I'm so adorable, I bet I could become Super Fairy Queen of all Teenagerdom! Isn't that luscious?" Without realizing it, all the love and adoration was making her grow in size.
As the crowd continued to obliviously praise Paulina, Danny glanced at Tucker. "Tucker…" He began to say, but Tucker already had the Fenton Thermos out of his backpack and in Danny's hands.
"Do what you gotta do, I'll get seats." Tucker gave his friend a supportive smile, and watched him transform between the game they were playing and another cabinet.
Phantom flew over to the crowd, and snatched Paulina from her adoring crowd.
A few minutes later, Tucker had movie tickets and seats saved, though he was noticeably disgruntled because the movie in question was not the one he and Danny were supposed to see. Instead, he was stuck watching a movie based on the Dino Huggies cartoon, a show about colorful dinosaurs.
Tucker sulked in his seat. "Man, I cover for Danny, my movie gets sold out, and I gotta watch this now. I'm tired of being left out all the time. I wish I had powers too." He then noticed Desiree's mist filling the empty room, and gasped when the ghost herself came into view.
Desiree waved a hand. "Your heart's desire is my command." Once he was coated in her mist, she flew away to find another victim.
When the mist finally disappeared, Tucker noticed that he was invisible and phasing down through his seat. After initially panicking, he poked his head back up through the seat and realized he now could do what Danny could do as Phantom.
"Sweet!" the tech geek grinned.
Meanwhile, Phantom phased Paulina into a storage room of the theater. Though she was first confused by the change of location and the disappearance of her fans, she smiled at Phantom.
"Hi, I'm Paulina! I'm adorable and swell and full of big-headed anime goodness," she said, posing as she introduced herself.
If he wasn't aware there was something off, he might have been taken in by her sweetness. Phantom charged up a quick ectoblast in his hand and fired at her. The blast hit her hard enough to force a ghost that looked like Sayonara Pussycat out of her body, reverting Paulina to her normal self.
The ghost Sayonara waved a paw at Phantom. "Hi! Isn't everything sweet and wonderful and- meow!" In the middle of a cute spin, Phantom had pulled out the thermos and sucked her in.
"Bye-bye, kitty," Phantom said, not playing around. He looked down at Paulina, who seemed to be recovering, and smiled to himself. "Cool. It worked. Can't wait to tell Tucker." Going intangible, he phased out of the storage room, leaving Paulina there by herself.
Paulina looked around in confusion. "Where am I? And why do I feel special and adorable?" She thought for a moment before answering her own question. "Because I am!" Flipping her hair confidently, she went to find a way out and back to the lobby.
Returning to the lobby, Phantom transformed back into Danny near the screening room he was supposed to meet up with Tucker at, and peered into the room for his friend. The room was crowded, and Tucker's distinct fashion did not help him find the tech geek.
"Huh, no Tuck. Eh, he must have taken off." Danny left the room, unaware that his friend was definitely there.
Above the crowd, Tucker watched as the movie started to play.
Oh sure, that's what he probably thought. But why would he suspect that I was having the time of my fourteen-year-old life?
Originally, Tucker intended to use his powers to see the movie he and Danny meant to see, but realizing all he could do, he decided to have a little fun. Going invisible, he ate some popcorn from a viewer's bucket, drank some of another's soda, snatched a man's toupee and put it on a kid, and laid a guy's arm around a girl he was sitting next to. He flew up above to watch the results of his pranks, and laughed as the man took his toupee back, ranting at the kid, while the girl Tucker had laid a guy's arm around smacked the guy said arm belonged to.
Outside the theater, traffic was heavy on one of Amity Park's most used streets.
One driver, who had a surfboard tied down to the roof of his car, especially grumbled about the slow traffic. "Oh man, bogus. Stupid car. I wish you could just fly over stuff so I wouldn't have to sit here."
As soon as he said that, Desiree's mist entered his car through the vents. "So you wish it, so shall it be."
The guy threw a weird look at his radio. "What the heck? This is isn't my station." He reached for the radio knobs to correct the assumed error.
His car began to glow green like a ghost, then it floated up from its spot on the street and began to fly over the traffic. Rather than be happy with the development, the driver instead screamed.
As soon as Danny stepped out of the movie theater, his Ghost Sense activated again, and he looked up in time to spot Desiree flying off to a new location to grant wishes.
"Jeez, lady. Don't you ever take a break?" Danny muttered to himself, then saw her most recent victim. "A flying car?"
Ducking back inside the theater, he transformed again, and flew out to catch up with the car. The car was flying fast, but he managed to catch up.
"Hey, slow down! You're going over the speed limit!" He told the driver, then after checking how far they were from the ground, added, "And over the height limit!"
The driver was too terrified to answer him, and the car, seemingly on its own, sped up.
It was at that moment Tucker came up next to Phantom. "Don't sweat this one, Phantom. I'm on it." With a surprising burst of speed, he went to catch up with the car.
Phantom halted mid-air, staring at his friend in shock. "Tucker?!"
Tucker caught up to the car, and phased into the passenger seat, giving the driver a confident smirk. Chill, dude. Tucker Ghouley's on the case."
Phantom caught up to them after getting over his initial surprise and phased into the car, frowning at his friend. "Tucker Ghouley? Okay, choices in name aside, how the heck did you get ghost powers anyway?" [4]
Tucker smirked at him. "Sorry, you want to know my origin story as a hero, you had to be there." He reached over and grabbed the steering wheel. "And now if you'll excuse me, I have some heroic exploits to attend to."
"Tucker, we're too young to drive!" Phantom exclaimed, also reaching for the steering wheel. "Let go of the wheel. This is serious!"
As the boys bickered over the steering, the currently flying car swerved out of control. During their fighting, the car started flying directly at an apartment building. Both ghosts and the driver noticed this, the latter beginning to scream for his life. Thinking quickly, Phantom used his intangibility and spread it to the passengers and the rest of the car moments before the building could be hit. For a brief few moments, the car flew harmlessly through the building until it was out the other side. Phantom ceased the intangibility, and sighed in relief, the spread of his power draining him.
Still in the passenger seat, Tucker rolled his eyes. "Oh sure, phase the car through the building. You had to save the day, didn't you?"
"Uh yeah, because a car smashing through the twenty-eighth floor of anything is bad!" Phantom retorted.
"You're just jealous that someone else is around to grab the spotlight now," Tucker shot back, pointing at himself with his thumb.
"Yo, hallucinations! Focus!" The driver snapped, pointing ahead of them.
Not hearing the driver, Phantom replied, "When have I ever grabbed the spotlight?"
"How about now for instance?" Tucker said.
The driver began to scream again, finally getting both boys' attention. They only had a few seconds to learn the situation before the car crashed into a grain silo. Thankfully, they didn't break through a wall, just crashed into an open window at the top. The car quickly sunk down to the bottom of the silo, and burst the door open, allowing it and a pile of grain to slide out.
A chicken on the farm came over and began to peck at the grain before the driver poked his head out of the grain, and after processing the fact he was alive, smiled at the animal. "Yeah, I have a chicken on my head!"
While the driver was occupied with his new animal buddy, Phantom and Tucker phased out of the grain.
"Tucker, please. This is stupid. I'm your best friend. I'm not jealous; I'm concerned." Phantom tried to reason with his civilian friend.
Tucker scowled at him. "Well, don't be. There's room for more than one hero in this city, so there's room for more than one ghost kid." Before Phantom could say anything else, Tucker flew away at near sound breaking speed.
Phantom looked on in shock. "Whoa! I can't fly that fast. Is he getting more powerful?"
"I think Chris is mad at me."
At the bowling alley, Adrien and Nino were playing several rounds of bowling. They were on game three of intended five.
"What makes you say that?" Adrien asked as he stepped up for his turn, grabbing his ball from the rack.
"The little dude was in a bit of a mood this morning. I told him at breakfast I was going bowling with you, and he got all 'fine, if you're going to be with your friends all the time then I'll be with my friends all the time!' Then he asked Mom to take him to one of his friends' houses. It was really weird. He doesn't usually act that way unless he doesn't get something he wants." Nino explained while Adrien lined up his aim and rolled his ball down the lane.
Adrien watched his ball hit eight out of the ten pins down then turned to face his friend. "If that's how it normally goes, then maybe there's something he's not getting."
"But what would that be? He's got lots of cool action figures, movies, video games. It's almost as cool as my own collection." Nino watched as Adrien grabbed his ball from the return tube and knocked over the last two pins.
Adrien thought for a moment as the boys traded spots. "Maybe it's not so much as something he wants, but someone he wants." He looked at Nino curiously while his friend picked up his ball. "We've been hanging out a lot since I bailed on Dash's party. Have you been doing much with him when I'm not around making up for lost bro time?"
Nino considered the question as he aimed his ball and made his roll. The answer came to him once he saw only five get knocked down. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I haven't now that you bring it up. We did keep him out of the living room because we were playing games and watching movies he was too young for." Nino frowned as he retrieved his ball from the return tube. "Come to think of it, we haven't done much since school started for the year. Between dodging akumas and ghosts, all the homework, and stuff, there just hasn't been much time." He rolled his ball, and got the other five pins knocked down.
His best friend smiled at him with approval. "There you go. I think you know what you need to do."
Nino smiled at the scoreboard adding his spare to his grand total. "Yeah, I think I do."
"So why didn't you see a movie today?" Sam asked over Tucker's phone.
"Uh, we got a little distracted. I'm just goofing off by myself now," Tucker told her.
Sam couldn't see it over their video call, but he was currently at the butcher shop, using his powers under a table in the store's display window to make it look like his head was on a plate. A pedestrian passed the window, and jumped at seeing Tucker before hurrying along. Then a stray dog approached the window, and Tucker blew a raspberry at it, frightening it into running away.
"What happened? Hero trouble?" Sam asked.
"You might say that." Tucker said cryptically. "How are you feeling?"
"Ugh, it's horrible, Tucker." Sam stopped speaking for a moment to sneeze into a tissue. "But somehow, I'll muddle through." Ending the call, Sam closed her laptop and pressed a button on a remote. A large stereo set emerged from some panels in her floor, and started blasting music at full volume, nearly turning her bed over with her still in it.
I didn't want to tell Sam about my ghost powers yet. What if she got as jealous as Danny did? And speaking of Danny…
On Monday, it was back to class. Several students that had been affected by the cold were well enough to return to school. Sam was not among those students.
During a break between classes, Mr. Lancer went to a drinking fountain to get some water. Before he could touch the fountain, the handle spun around, causing enough water pressure to spray in the vice-principal's face.
"Moby Dick!" he exclaimed with a drenched face.
Without warning, the belt holding up his pants came undone and fell to the floor. He bent over to pick it up, but the fountain sprayed him again. If that wasn't enough, his tie came loose on its own.
"Gulliver's Travels, I'm losing my mind!" Mr. Lancer yelped at his misfortune. Then his pants fell down without his belt to keep them up, exposing his underwear to the population of Casper High. "And my pants!"
Students all around him began to laugh and jeer at their vice-principal as he hiked up his pants and snatched his belt before stomping off in humiliation.
Watching the results of his efforts from around a corner, Tucker didn't notice Danny walking up to him.
"Nice trick. Do you do kids' parties?" Danny greeted dryly.
Tucker turned around. "Relax, I'm just having fun." He then took in Danny's appearance and noticed something was wrong. "Are you okay?"
Danny sniffled, his eyes a little red around the edges and his hair disheveled. "I may be catching Sam's cold, but that's not important right now." Shaking his head, he put on a stern frown. "Tucker, look."
The tech geek dismissed his friend's concern. "No need. You can keep all that superhero jazz to yourself. I'm in this for kicks."
Danny sighed. "I was afraid of that." Then he put his hand on Tucker's shoulder. "I hate to do this, pal, but I need to see what's going on inside of you, and there's only one way to do that."
Looking around to make sure nobody saw them, Danny went intangible and entered Tucker's body. Tucker's body began to glow like it had been doing whenever he started to use his powers, and his eyes went red. Grunting with effort, Tucker forced Danny out of his body. Danny flew across the hallway into a janitor's closet with a startled yell, and crashed into some cleaning equipment.
A scowl on his face, Tucker approached the closet and pointed a threatening finger at Danny. "Don't ever do that again. Got it?"
A bit winded, Danny nodded. "Got it."
"Good." Tucker went off to his next class, not seeing Danny suspiciously frown.
Okay, maybe I was a bit rough on Danny. But nobody likes a party pooper. And man, I was having a party.
Later that day during lunch break, students in line to receive their food were in for a shock as a tray seemingly floated past them up to the food.
"Excuse me, pardon me," Tucker said casually as if everything was normal. Humming to himself, he started to serve food onto his tray.
Alarmed by the sight of putting lunch on a tray on its own, the students fled in fright, many of them dropping their trays.
A few class periods later, a bunch of band students were playing their instruments as instructed by their teacher. Tucker hovered above them all invisibly, holding a liter of Purple Flurp soda. In the middle of a song, he flew over to a tuba player and poured the soda into the big end of the horn. The tuba player was so caught off-guard by the fluid that he had to stop playing, and Purple Flurp sprayed out of his mouth, nose, and somehow, his ears. [5]
That day after school let out, Danny caught up with Marinette. Since Sam was still sick at home, Marinette was the only other person who knew his secret, and was at school when Tucker was pulling all his shenanigans.
"…And after that, he's been pranking people all afternoon," Danny told her as they sat at a picnic table outside the school. "I don't know how he got his powers, and I don't know how to stop him before he hurts somebody."
Marinette hummed thoughtfully, putting a finger to her chin. "Him having powers is pretty weird. So was Dash growing into that beast football player." She looked at him curiously. "You said that there was a flying car, Paulina turned into a chibi version of herself, and that mess of cotton candy at the swap meet, right? Did any of those incidents have something in common? Maybe you're missing something."
Danny shook his head. "Nothing. Nothing except… that ghost." Realizing there may be a link between all the incidents, he rose to his feet. "Except for Tucker, I've seen this one ghost at every situation."
"Really? Where did you first see them? That might be a clue."
Thinking back, Danny remembered where he had first seen Desiree. "The swap meet. The cotton candy!" He frowned. "There was this one stand that claimed to have a genie in a bottle."
Marinette raised a brow at him. "Considering we live in a city constantly attacked by ghosts and akumas, I wouldn't rule out this being the work of genies." Stealthily, she opened her purse and sent a glance down towards Tikki, who nodded at her words, confirming her suspicion.
"You may have a point," Danny agreed, grabbing his backpack and shouldering it. "I better go. Hopefully that lady's stand is still there. She might know something."
As Danny ran back into the school to transform, Marinette called out, "Good luck!" Once he was out of range, Marinette got up from the table herself and started walking home. On the sidewalk, she looked down at her kwami. "First akumas, then ghosts, and now genies. There's a lot more to the world than we know about it, isn't there?"
"You know what they say," Tikki said brightly, "all stories have to come from somewhere."
"If stories about ghosts and genies are true then, I wonder what other stories are real," Marinette mused as she walked.
Tikki smiled up at her. "I could tell you, but it's more fun to find out for yourself. That, and I don't want to overwhelm your mind too much all in one day."
Marinette giggled. "Thanks for thinking of me." [6]
To be honest, I should have realized that Danny would figure out where the ghost came from. Danny went back to Babazita's stand at the swap meet, and got her to tell him the whole story. Apparently, a long time ago, Desiree was a harem girl who had been promised her heart's desire, her own kingdom, only to be banished by the sultan's jealous wife. She died of a broken heart, and old age. After that, her spirit roamed, granting people's deepest desires, but at a great personal cost. Hey, who knew?
After receiving the story from Babazita, Danny started to strategize how he would deal with Desiree and Tucker. The first thing he needed to do was prevent Desiree from causing more trouble.
"If you're trying to snag a wishing ghost, what better place than a wishing well?" Danny pondered to himself as he stood before a fountain at Amity Park's community park. He had his Fenton Thermos slung on his back, ready to catch her the minute she showed up. Digging in his pocket, he pulled out a quarter and flicked it into the fountain. Once the coin splashed into the water, he looked around for any sign of Desiree. To his dismay, a minute passed and nothing happened. "Dang it."
Figuring he should try somewhere else, he started to walk away. At that very moment, a middle-aged man in a work suit and tie approached the fountain and threw a quarter of his own in. The man was Walter Weston, the father of a boy named Wes in Danny's grade. [7]
"I wish I had a million bucks," Walter said, making his wish.
Once the quarter was in the fountain, Desiree's green mist emerged and coiled around Walter ominously.
"So it is desired, so it shall be," Desiree murmured to him within the mist.
Before he got too far away, Danny's ghost sense went off and he whirled back to the fountain. The moment he saw the mist, he ducked behind a bench to avoid Walter seeing him transform. As Phantom, he flew over to the fountain. "Oh no, you don't," Phantom protested, grabbing the man and yanking him out of the mist's center.
Desiree appeared out of the fountain, snarling at Phantom's disruption. "Young intruder, you dare to interfere with my spellbinding?!"
Mr. Weston suddenly became very afraid for his life. "Money isn't everything," he said hastily before pulling himself out of Phantom's grip and sprinting away from the confrontation.
Making sure the man was out of range first, Phantom turned his frown at the wishing ghost. "Listen, Desiree, I want you to take away Tucker's powers. Pronto."
Desiree smirked at the hero. "I cannot. By noon tomorrow, your friend's fate will be sealed. His jealousy will transform him forever into the most powerful ghost boy in the world!" She cackled maniacally.
Her statement actually gave Phantom pause. "Tuck? He's not that jealous, is he?"
The wishing ghost continued to cackle. "More than you know. Tomorrow, his jealousy and frustration will cement into rage and rebellion. He will be complete!" She made to fly off and grant more wishes elsewhere, but Phantom caught her wispy tail before she could.
"You change him back!" Phantom demanded.
Desiree's gleeful expression turned to a scowl as she twisted to face him. "You dare lay a hand on me? No man may lay a hand on me unless I wish it!"
"Yeah? How about a fist?" He yanked her close so he could punch her, but she ducked out of the way at the last second. Pulling her tail out of his grip, she formed a lasso with one of her hands and roped him with it. She then used all her might to throw him down onto another bench nearby, just barely missing a man feeding the local pigeons. The man startled at the sudden intrusion of his personal business, fleeing from the bench with the pigeons flying after him.
The thermos, which had been on Phantom's back, slipped off his person onto the ground a few feet away.
Releasing Phantom from her hand lasso, Desiree swooped down to attack him. Before she could reach him, he recovered from the impact and shot an ecto blast at her.
"Get back!" He shouted at her in defense.
The ecto blast hit her, sending her crashing into the grass a few feet away. She recovered quickly, however, and enlarged one of her hands to pin him to the ground before he could get up.
Phantom struggled in her grip as she hovered above him. "Can't break free. Can't go intangible and escape." During his attempts to free himself, he spotted the thermos he had brought.
Could it really be that easy?
"You can't do anything unless I wish it," Desiree gloated down at her opponent.
"Or I do!" Phantom reached an arm out and successfully grabbed the thermos, twisting off the cap with his other hand before pointing the device at the ghost. "I wish you would disappear inside this thermos!"
Desiree recoiled as if she had been burned, letting him go. "What? No! I must obey." As she grappled with her own free will and her compulsion to do as requested, the thermos began to suck her in. "You will pay for this! Pay!"
Once he was sure she was inside, Phantom capped the thermos. "If I weren't a C student, I would have thought of that days ago." Slinging the thermos on his back, he thought to himself. "Okay, so Tuck got his powers from a genie ghost. Dash and Paulina both had a ghost inside them, which means Tuck might have one too. But Tuck has had a few days with his, so splitting them up might be harder. How do I separate them?" After a moment, his answer came to mind and he smirked. "Of course!"
Flying away from the park, Phantom pulled out his phone and dialed. "Marinette? It's me. I need your help."
The next day, Casper High was completely empty despite being a Tuesday. Thanks to a tip from Phantom, Alya was able to put a warning on the Ladyblog about a ghost sighting around the campus. Tucker's shenanigans the previous day was enough to convince faculty and students that it was true, leading to Mr. Damocles and Mr. Lancer to make the executive decision to preemptively close the school down that day.
With the school being empty, Phantom knew that Tucker would not be able to resist fooling around there.
It was almost noon, the deadline that Desiree told Phantom that Tucker's powers would become permanent. He wandered the halls alone in search of his friend. Thankfully, his teammates understood why this had to be done solo.
"You want to take on this ghost on your own? What about us?" Chat Noir asked earlier that morning as the three heroes gathered on a random roof away from the school.
"Sorry," Phantom apologized, "but the ghost is kind of personal. I don't want you guys to get any hints about my identity. After all, you guys need to keep yours secret. It's only fair."
Ladybug nodded at the explanation. "I agree with Phantom. Let's respect his wishes. Okay, kitty?"
Chat Noir sighed reluctantly. "Okay, but don't hesitate to call us if you need help."
"Right, but don't worry. I have a plan," Phantom said confidently.
"Quarter to noon, and no sign of Tucker." Phantom said to himself, checking his phone for the time. A few minutes ago, he got a text from Marinette saying she had the Ghost Catcher and was on her way. Hopefully she would be here in time.
His ghost sense went off, and he knew Tucker was nearby. He looked up at the nearest door, which read 'School Records'.
"Should have guessed," Phantom murmured, not even surprised that was what Tucker would take advantage of a school closing for.
Inside the records room, Tucker had hacked his way into the school server, and was in his own file, changing all of his bad grades to good ones. Once he finished changing the final one, Phantom phased through the door.
"Tucker, you're changing your grades? That's cheating!" Phantom exclaimed.
Tucker spun around in the desk chair to grin at the hero. "I like to think of it as 'academic enrichment'. Want me to do yours?"
"No way. Tucker, you're in real danger." Phantom reached a hand out to grab his friend, but he leaned back.
Tucker took the simple motion as an attack, and began to growl. It was just as Desiree said, his rage was beginning to change him. His skin started to turn green and his eyes went red; his teeth sharpened into fangs while his fingers and toes sharpened into claws.
Seeing Tucker's transformation, Phantom held up his hands defensively. "Take it easy. We're friends, remember?"
"Friends? What kind of friends blow theirs off to play hero?" Tucker huffed. "How about you stay behind and get stuck watching a lame movie while I go be the hero for a change?" Inhaling deeply, he blew a huge gust of green wind at Phantom.
The force was so great, Phantom was blown through the records room door he managed to quickly phase through then into a science classroom across the hall.
Unable to hold the intangibility after the second wall, Phantom hit the science classroom's blackboard and slid down until he landed on the floor. Phantom looked up, slightly winded by the attack. "He's getting more malevolent. More ghost-like." Tucker phased into the classroom to continue the fight, and Phantom rose to his feet. "Tuck, please! You have to listen to me. There isn't much time!"
"You got that right." Tucker started charging ecto blasts in both hands. "Your time is up!" He fired them at Phantom, who flew out of their trajectory, and Tucker kept launching them at him but Phantom swerved out of the way of each one. Phantom managed to land behind him for a brief enough moment to flip Tucker's signature beret off his head in a quick distraction attempt. Growling, Tucker spun on his heel to punch Phantom, but the hero had already ran behind a table with lab equipment set up on it. The tech geek shot ecto blasts at his friend, but each blast hit the equipment instead.
Once Tucker determined that Phantom was a considerable distance away, he stopped his assault for a second to pick his beret up from the floor and return it to its place on his head. He quickly noticed the classroom model skeleton being thrown at him, and went intangible so it passed through him and hit the wall, shattering into a pile of bones.
Returning to tangibility, Tucker jeered, "Ha! Is that the best you can do?" He charged up another ecto blast and fired.
Phantom ducked behind another table for cover. "Unfortunately, yes. I can't get through to him," the hero admitted. His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out to check it.
Marinette – At school w ghost catcher. Get him 2 gym.
"But I know what can," Phantom smirked at the message, putting his phone back. Jumping out from his hiding place, he taunted at Tucker. "Catch me if you can, Sucker Ghouley!" Turning intangible, he sunk through the floor to the room below.
Tucker ran over to the spot where he last saw Phantom. "Tucker! Tucker Ghouley!" He then did the same thing as his friend did.
In the room below the classroom, which happened to be the girls' locker room by the gym, Phantom quickly ducked into a locker. Moments later, Tucker arrived in the same location. It took the tech geek a few seconds to realize where he was.
"The girls' locker room," he said in awe, letting his guard down. "So this is what it's like in here."
Hearing Tucker's voice, Phantom took that as his cue. He flew out of the locker he had hidden in, and shoved a bra over Tucker's eyes. While Tucker scrambled to get it off, Phantom tackled him and phased them both into the gym proper. Taking advantage of the air they were getting, Phantom forced Tucker over to a basketball hoop and shoved him through it, sending the possessed geek to the floor.
While Tucker landed head over heels with the bra on his rear, Phantom checked his phone for the time. "Only a minute left," he said quietly, growing a bit anxious. Shoving his phone back in its pocket, he taunted Tucker. "Ha! You got no game!"
Yanking off the bra from his rear, Tucker roared as his skin got greener, his eyes got redder, and his body got even bigger. Phantom's smile was wiped away when he saw how much worse his friend was getting.
"Phantom!" Marinette called out, and both boys looked over to see her standing in the center of the basketball court with the ghost catcher standing tall and active. "Over here!" She waved, holding the catcher's post so it would remain upright.
Knowing what he had to do, Phantom scowled. "I've only got one shot at this." Swooping down, he grabbed fistfuls of Tucker's shirt and flew him over to the catcher, where he threw his friend through so he wouldn't be affected himself. "Shot from half court!"
Marinette, still clinging to the catcher's post, yelped and ducked her head as Tucker went through.
Just as Phantom had witnessed a few days ago with his own ghostly half, Tucker was split into two- the human half and the ghost half.
The human Tucker fell to the floor, and opened his eyes to see the green, beastly form of himself as a ghost. His eyes widened. "I-Is that me?"
The ghost Tucker roared at him, preparing to attack, but was already being sucked into Phantom's thermos.
"No, it's not you, Tuck." Phantom said seriously. "Not anymore." Once his friend's ghost half was fully in the thermos, he put the cap back on.
Tucker and Marinette both walked up to him once they were sure it was safe to do so.
"Oh man, Danny." Tucker said, horrified at himself. "I'm sorry. I-I couldn't control myself."
Phantom waved the apology off. "Dude, don't worry about it. You were under the genie's spell, and we broke it." He sniffled as his nose began to get stuffy again.
"Yeah, but none of that would've happened if I wasn't jealous," Tucker pointed out.
Marinette smiled at them both. "The important thing here is you didn't get stuck as a ghost forever, you learned a valuable lesson about wishes, and you're still friends." She paused, frowning in concern. "You guys are still friends, right?"
"The best," Tucker confirmed, shaking Phantom's hand.
"Come on, let's get this ghost catcher back to my parents' lab before they notice it's gone and tell Alya to post an all-clear." Danny took the lead, transforming back to his human form, and walked over to the ghost catcher, his two friends following him. "Hey, Marinette? How'd you get the ghost catcher down here in time anyway?"
Marinette giggled knowingly as she and the boys each grabbed onto part of the device. "Oh, you know, with a little bit of luck," she said with a cryptic tone and left it at that.
As the three teens started heading to Fenton Works, Danny let out a sneeze.
"Oh, sick!" Tucker complained. "Cover your mouth!"
Danny and Marinette laughed at his reaction.
Once the kids and the ghost catcher were several blocks away from the school, the heroes had Alya give the all-clear signal. Some of the staff went in to check for damage, and a few weren't too happy to learn that one of the science classrooms had been trashed, requiring them to relocate all classes held in that room to another open room until the damage could be repaired.
Some questioned why the heroes hadn't fixed the damage like they usually do, and the heroes would put out a statement that, like the dance and the zoo, this was a special case.
They say 'Be careful what you wish for'. To that, I'd like to add a big, fat 'duh'! Especially when it comes to best friends. Because I couldn't ask for a better one.
The next day, both Danny and Tucker were bundled up in blankets on Tucker's couch, pillows behind their heads. Additionally, Danny had an ice pack on his forehead. Both boys sneezed at the same time. Right after they did, Sam walked in from the kitchen with bowls of soup, looking much better than she had over the weekend.
"Jeez, do you guys have to share everything?" Sam said, setting her tray down in front of them.
Danny and Tucker shared a knowing smile. "You don't know the half of it," Danny replied.
On Friday night, Nino found his little brother playing in his room with his action figures like he had been doing the previous weekend.
"Hey, little dude," Nino greeted from the doorway.
Chris looked up from his toys, and scowled when he saw his brother. Returning his attention to his toys, he continued to play. "What do you want? Isn't Adrien coming over again?"
Nino smiled warmly at his brother. "Nah. Dude has other plans tonight. So, I thought tonight would be a bro night."
Having just grabbed a soldier figure, Chris froze then stared up at him in surprise. "Really?"
Nino nodded. "Really." Stepping into the bedroom, he sat down on the floor beside him. "Look, I'm sorry I haven't been hanging out with you much since school started. High school hands out a lot more homework than middle school, and the stuff with the akumas and the ghosts is not making it any easier."
Chris shrugged at the explanation. "I get that. What about Adrien? He's been over a lot lately."
"Yeah, I guess he has," Nino agreed. "See, the thing about that is Adrien's dad is really uncool. Remember how I got akumatized a few weeks back?"
"Yeah?"
"I got akumatized because I was mad that his dad wouldn't let him have a birthday party."
Chris gasped in horror. "No!"
"Yeah. The guy has Adrien do a bunch of stuff on top of school, and he grew up with, like, only one friend. He's new to having a bunch of friends, and since I'm his best dude friend, we were just trying to make up for lost time." He frowned. "I didn't mean to leave you hanging. You know that, right?"
"Now I do." Chris scooted over and hugged his brother. "I forgive you." Once the moment passed, he looked up at Nino with a grin. "Adrien can come over as much as he wants. Just have fun with me sometimes too, okay?"
"Deal." Nino held up a fist, Chris did likewise, and they bumped them together. "Want to go downstairs and play a video game? Whichever one you want, I'm okay with playing."
Chris jumped on his feet excitedly, hurrying out of his room. "Yeah!"
Nino chuckled at his brother's energy, and got up. "Slow down, dude! It's not a race."
If either brother had been paying attention to their surroundings, they would have noticed a certain cat hero watching them from a neighboring roof. Smiling at the boys' interaction, he vaulted away on his staff.
A few minutes later, Chat Noir arrived back in his room and de-transformed. While Adrien went to sit on his couch, Plagg hovered over to a wheel of camembert he had left sitting out.
"No DJ Cappy tonight, huh?" Plagg asked, digging into his cheese.
Adrien shook his head, turning on his TV to play a video game. "Nah, hanging out with Nino more is great, but other people want to hang out with him too." He smiled fondly, thinking back to what he had just witnessed. "Besides, as close as I try to get with my best friend, I can never compete with a brother or sister."
That's Desiree's debut done. I had considered akumatizing Tucker like a few people mentioned, but with stuff planned down the line, Desiree was necessary. Sorry to those who hoped for akumatized Tucker. Rest assured a DP character will be akumatized when the time is right. The Adrien and Nino subplot of this chapter was born after completing 'One Kind of a Popular Crowd'; as part of my effort to show character relationships better than ML has been doing, I wanted to show Adrien and Nino actually spending time as friends together. Them getting along in their new friendship made for a nice contrast to Danny and Tucker hitting a rough patch in their lifelong friendship. Adrien and Nino's subplot also serves as more screentime for Nino, showing Adrien and the audience a bit of his home life as an older brother.
[1] – Puppeteer foreshadowing with Manon's early appearance.
[2] – Nino's little brother, Chris, appears early instead of only meeting him in the third season.
[3] – Judging by how the costume looked in canon, I figured it could use a repair job. Also no, Kim is not part of the football team. He's more of a track and field/swimmer guy. Him not being an A-lister should be a clue.
[4] – Obviously couldn't use Tucker Phantom in this because Phantom is already a known hero here, so I went with Tucker's name in the AU where he is the one with ghost powers - Tucker Ghouley.
[5] – A reference to The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, a childhood favorite of mine.
[6] – In a world where ghosts and kwamis and akumas exist, is it really so hard to believe genies and other mythical figures exist too?
[7] – Walter Weston, and by extension his son Wes, are creations of the Danny Phantom fandom. Wes is based off a background character that appeared in Cujo's debut episode that heavily resembles Danny, and the fandom named the guy that wished at the fountain his father. He'll be back later.
Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome! Also remember to say something about the chapter I worked hard on, don't just use the review box for speculation on future plot points.