A warm breeze blew through the sunny, midday, summer streets of the city of Amity Park. Amity Park was by no means a small town, even if it did have that atmosphere. Amity Park had beaches, museums, movie theaters, research laboratories (small and wackadoodle ones included), a prison, and a fair-sized urban center with towering skyscrapers. The city's urban center was by no means small, but it was also by no means the massive size of Metropolis or Gotham. Even still, Amity Park's crime rate was far below that of her two larger sisters. To the east of the city, across the river, lay her rival city of Elmerton. To the north of the city lay Lake Eerie (or Lake Erie for those outside Amity), and to the west and south lay large swaths of forest and grassy fields.
It is towards these fields that the wind blew through the city, carrying its comforting warmth and friendliness to a caravan of trucks and trailers on one of the highways just outside Amity's limits. Some of the trailers were modestly sized campers, other larger trailers being used to house animals, and others being for cargo. But what seemingly linked them all together was the wonderful array of colors adorning them, posters covering the surface of the larger cargo trailers.
As the wind blew over the caravan, one little boy basked in its comfort atop of his family's modest camper. He was six and loving the thrill of his dangerous perch; it felt like he was flying. His black hair was whipping wildly from the breeze and the moving vehicle, cerulean blue eyes fixed on the tops of the towers in the distance. The glare of the sun reflecting off the buildings' clean surfaces making it easy to find them again each time they disappeared behind the sea of trees flying past. It would be soon, that his family and the caravan would stop and set up, and for a couple of weeks, the fields outside this new place would play host to his home. 'What new adventure will this town bring?' the little boy pondered.
Another little boy sat by his bedroom window on the second floor of his house near the outskirts of Amity. He stared blandly at Amity's skyscrapers, a slight downward curl on his lips while he rested his cheek on the palm of his hand, arm propped up by the windowsill. The wind ruffled his ebony hair as it blew past, his eyes, an arctic blue, turning slightly to view the large neon sign bearing his family's name that was attached to his house. He stared at it for a bit, and then stared again. Bitterness creeping into his wandering thoughts as looked at it.
It wasn't fair. He turned eight a few days ago, but he was alone without his friends and it wasn't fair. It was summer vacation, he had no school or homework and had the entire day to play, but he couldn't because his friends were away on their vacation. It wasn't fair that his only friends besides his older sister were gone. It wasn't fair he could only have two friends, but no one else wanted to play with him. They didn't want to be covered in green goo from one of his parent's inventions (usually his dad's), or even talk to the loser whose weirdo parents were obsessed with something that didn't exist. That large neon sign was a reminder of his family's weirdness, and why he didn't have many friends.
It would've been okay if he could at least spend time with his parents, he didn't need anyone else but family because everyone else was mean and stupid—if only he could. The now eight-year-old boy hardly saw his parents even though they worked at home. They worked in the basement, locking the door behind them and only coming up for meals and when they went to sleep. Telling him to never go down there because it was dangerous and he'd be in a lot of trouble.
The boy sighed and turned away from the window, deciding instead to lie down on his rocketship bed and stare at the star chart on his ceiling. The boy's bedroom was filled with space-related decorations. Models of spacecraft, probes, rovers, and landers covered the tops of his shelves, and even more books about space filled the shelves themselves. The ceiling held the aforementioned star map, except it was made entirely of glow-in-the-dark stickers, each painstakingly put in its correct place by him and his dad during one of the few times they did something together. No daddy! A little more to the left! No! Now it's a little more to the right! A little more up, yeah there! Right there! Tears pricked at his eyes as he sighed again and pulled Bear Armstrong into a cuddle, closing his eyes and starting to drift off into a nap. 'I wish I had another friend.'
It was mid-afternoon when the caravan came to a suitable field and began unloading. All of the living trailers had been parked near the back, near the border between the field and the forest, farthest away from the road they had pulled off from. Most people were working earnestly to drive stakes in the ground as anchors for a large tent. A few others were working on setting up some smaller tents for stalls to sell food, drinks, or set up games.
The group was abuzz of activity, with even the children helping to unload, with exception to a certain six-year-old black-haired boy who snuck off to go see the animals. He had been waiting all day for the troupe to stop so he could see his favorite, a certain elephant that was especially playful towards him. He didn't know why the elephant liked him so much, but that was okay because it was one of the few friends he had. The other children weren't mean to him, but they certainly didn't include him in their fun a lot of the time because they were older.
The boy frowned, hating that the only reason the others ignored him was that he was younger than them. He shook his head, clearing his mind from that angry train of thought, and instead focused on the fact that he'd be able to practice in a few hours once the main tent was set up. He got giddy in excitement. He couldn't wait until he could join his parents up high in the tent and be free by swinging and performing tricks.
Of course, he was still too young to be in the real performance, but he was being trained to be the best, and nothing could quell his love of the closest one could get to flying on their own. The boy had gotten lost in his fantasies about all the great tricks he could show off when he was older until he heard a brief "Ahem", accompanied with a stern face and a raised eyebrow, a silent question being asked: 'Why aren't you helping with the others?'.
The boy just shot back a grin as he dashed off to his family's trailer, to help unload all their equipment now that the big top was set up.
The sun was just starting to set when a boy awoke to knocks on his bedroom door. He had slept dreamlessly, simply finding himself in a dark room and feeling very groggy, still clutching Bear Armstrong. He was able to mumble a tired "Come in" before an older girl with red hair opened his door, light from the hallway bursting in through the opening and blasting him in his eyes. An audible click was heard as the boy's room became brighter. When the boy looked at her again she had an apologetic expression on her face before quickly switching to an excited one. She was his ten-year-old big sister. She had an aqua hairband that matched her eyes and wore a purple t-shirt and light blue shorts.
"Come on baby brother! I've gotta surprise!"
"Buuuuut Jaaaaazz," he whined. "I don't wanna go anywhere. Especially since Sam and Tucker aren't here." Tiredness crept into his voice, but it was the slight dejection that made Aqua slightly cloudy.
His sister's eyes softened but still kept their determined gaze.
"Come oooooonnnnnnn. There's a circus and I got enough money from Mom and Dad so we could go! It's not too far a walk, and I know you've been bored looking for something to do." And get money from them she did. Their parents had not left the workspace that was their basement, and Jazz had not anticipated they would be out for a couple of days given how excited they were this morning before heading back down. So, Jazz, (in her little brother's ignorance) seeing she needed to be the responsible person in the house to properly care for her brother's mental health, decided to take some money from her parents' room to pay for their food for a few days and for the trip to the circus.
"What's so good about this circus thingy?" he asked.
"Oh, there's people that do cool tricks and a ton of animals like elephants that do tricks too! I heard this one also has a family that can fly!" Jazz said excitedly. Aqua now pleading.
"But Jaazz, people can't fly!" he protested, defiant arctic blue stared into determined aqua.
"If we go now we'll also be able to stargaze on our way home!" She quickly added in a singsong voice.
"Really?" he asked.
"Yep! Come on! Get ready so we can go!" Her face lit up in a triumphant smile as her eyes shone brightly.
At the prospect of being able to stargaze with his sister (and see some cool animals too), lively ice blue eyes searched through his closet as he got changed. He put on a pair of dark blue jeans, a dark gray NASA t-shirt with a tiny fake breast pocket, and a light-blue hoodie (he got mad slightly at the tiny ghost, but his parents got him the hoodie and it was the only one that was clean) with a tiny ghost emblem over the heart. He also put on a pair of red and white tennis shoes and followed his sister down the road towards the sounds of music and chatter. In the distance of the unlit road they were taking at the edge of their neighborhood they could see colorful lights shining into the night sky, a proud beacon of cheer.
As they made their way closer they saw more and more people heading to the same place. The boy absentmindedly saw that a lot of them were kids too, hanging off their mom or dad, or big brothers and sisters much older than Jazzy. He shook his head to get rid of the thoughts. He started to think that he might be able to make some other friends from Amity Park, but then noticed that the other kids were tugging at the grownups with them and giving the Fenton siblings a wide berth. His mood soured quickly.
By the time they got to the "entrance" of the circus, the boy had already wanted to go back home to not deal with any of the other kids, especially since he saw Dash and a couple of his friends heading as a big group without their parents. He really didn't like Dash. With deep blue eyes that were colder than the ice of Danny's own, Dash would make fun of him and encourage the other kids to do the same. Hey loser, what'd your freak parents do today? Scream at a vase they knocked over and say a ghost did it? Eww guys, do you smell that? It's Freaky Fenton. Hey Fenton, maybe you should wear a jumpsuit like your weirdo parents, at least that way we won't be able to smell you from a mile away!
The male Fenton looked up to see the sign on the entrance archway. 'Haly's Circus'. As the siblings entered, the fun and cheer of the place finally seemed to reach him, and he looked on at the cool games there, and the kettle corn, and the clowns doing facepaint, and was that an elephant he heard? While he was looking around, he saw a poster on the side of one of the game tents, 'Haly's Circus Come See the Flying Graysons!', with the outline of people in a strange position as though they were flying. He wondered what that was supposed to be, people couldn't actually fly. Could they? That'd be really cool if they could because then they could get to space on their own and not even need rockets, and then they could help carry the rockets into space so they had a fast way to get to other planets.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of an elephant trumpeting and got curious. Jazzy took him here to see animals right? Maybe he could go find out where the elephant was so he could take Jazz there to see it too. He followed the sounds of the elephant around to the backside of the really large tent. When he finally saw the elephant, it was waiting calmly in its pen, no one being around. The elephant seemed to brighten when it saw him, trumpeting in happiness after turning to him. The boy smiled and got closer to the elephant, close enough for it to reach out with its trunk and poke him. He laughed and was about to pet it but froze when he heard another boy's voice.
"What are you doing?"
He turned quickly, arctic blue met cerulean. He paused, and saw a slightly shorter boy that kinda looked like him. He had the same color of black hair and similar face, although the other boy's eyes were a little bit darker than his, and were looking at him curiously. He was wearing a red t-shirt and black pants, with a green jacket and shoes. The other boy also paused to take him in, noticing the similarities too. Regardless of how strange it was, Danny still had something very clearly on his mind. Every inch of his brain screaming DANGER!, Danny was about to get in big trouble for being where he probably wasn't allowed, and then he and his sister would get kicked out, and then Jazz would be mad that she didn't get to see the show.
"I'm sorry, I heard an elephant and really wanted to see it. Please don't tell!"
The other boy looked a bit skeptical, unsure about whether to trust him and had a slight frown before suddenly nodding and walking over to him.
"You're not supposed to be back here, but I won't tell because you want to see Sitka. I'm Dick!" the shorter boy said with a smile
"Hi, Dick! I'm Danny! And you said its name was Sitka?" Danny gave a shy smile in return.
"Her name. Sitka is a she." Dick corrected.
"Oh. Sorry, Sitka." Danny glanced apologetically at the elephant, who gave a quick snort before poking Danny and then reaching out for Dick to stroke her trunk.
"She's so cool," Danny said in awe. And indeed she was cool. She would take up a lot of space in his house's living room, and she seemed gentle and smart.
"Right? Sitka's really smart and kind. I love to play with her, and she likes to give me hugs." Dick said proudly, beaming at his new friend. "Do you wanna pet her? I think she likes you."
"Yep!" Danny said enthusiastically, slowly reaching out to pet Sitka's trunk. Sitka gave a responding rub back. As he giggled at Sitka's affectionate rub, he thought about what he knew: 1) Dick seemed to be really nice, 2) Dick seemed to be part of the circus meaning he wouldn't know of his parents' reputation as the town's crazy people because they weren't from around here, and 3) even if he did Dick is nice enough and probably used to enough strangeness that he probably wouldn't care. With this thought out, Danny made up his mind.
At the same time that Danny was having his think, Dick was also having a think. Danny looked older than Dick, but he also looked shy and kind, and he hadn't just brushed Dick off like he was nobody. It didn't hurt that Sitka was usually a good judge of character and already seemed to like Danny. With that, Dick also made up his mind.
"Hey Danny/Dick, do you wanna be my friend?" Dick/Danny said at the same time, arctic lining up with cerulean for a second time. They blinked at each other, before smiling.
"Yes!" they both exclaimed at once. Smiles even brighter than before. They started to animatedly talk to each other, trying to become good friends. Danny just turned eight a few days ago, but Dick was gonna turn seven on December 1st. Both of their favorite colors were blue, although the blue Danny had in mind was a deep cobalt blue while Dick favored a light baby blue. Danny lived in Amity Park with his sister, mother, and father, while Dick lived with his mother and father, and his aunt, uncle, and cousin in Haly's traveling circus.
"Hey Dick, how come you're back here? Do you take care of Sitka and the other animals?" Danny asked, now wondering why the other kid was also back here.
"Nope," Dick said cheerfully popping the p. "My parents are the ones who fly. I came here because I wanted to see Sitka before I go watch them."
At this Danny was confused. "Huh? What do you mean they fly? Do they have wings? How come you don't have any?"
Dick giggled, trying to imagine his parents do flips on the trapeze with wings in the way. "No silly! They don't actually fly, they do really cool tricks on the trapeze and they let go and do flips in the air and stuff."
Danny flushed pink and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "I still don't know what you mean."
"That's ok! We can watch my parents when it's their turn! Let's go, the show is gonna start soon." Dick grabbed Danny's hand as he led the slightly taller boy further backstage to wait in the cast area.
"Wait! I need to find my big sister, I kinda went looking for Sitka without telling her because I wanted to surprise her and bring her to see the elephant." Danny admitted sheepishly.
"Oh ok! Let's go look for her and then we can watch the show with the other performers!" Dick, still holding Danny's hand, led him to the front of the big top to look for Danny's sister. Arctic and cerulean scanned the crowd. Some of the passersby entering the big top quietly cooed at how cute the two 'brothers' looked. Dick tried looking for a girl that also had black hair and blue eyes, but couldn't find any. He was about to ask Danny what his sister looked like when the boys heard a slightly panicked and high pitched voice.
"Danny!" Aqua spotted arctic.
"There you are! I've been looking for you! I was worried about you! Where'd you go?" Jazz questioned as she quickly pulled her little brother in a quick hug. She released him and then held his shoulders to look at her. Dick was slightly surprised, to say the least, he was not expecting Danny's sister to have red hair. But, on the other hand, he admitted it fit her, and she did look a little like Danny otherwise.
Danny had the sense to feel ashamed, and it showed on his face, unable to meet his sister's gaze.
"Sorry Jazzy, I wanted to find the elephants to show you like you were talking about earlier." Danny apologized.
Jazz's eyes softened their look, a smile quickly forming as she thought of how sweet her little brother was when her eyes drifted to the boy next to him. Aqua expanded momentarily in shock. It was like Danny was standing next to a mirror. The stranger fidgeted a little when he saw her staring at him.
Gaping a little, Jazz asked, "Danny, who's this?"
Coming to his senses, Danny brightened and introduced them to each other.
"Dick, this is Jazz, my big sister! Jazz, this is Dick, his parents are those people you told me could fly. He found me while I was trying to find the elephants. He said he'd let us watch the show with him in the special area for the performers." Danny finished happily.
Jazz stupefied, only nodded, still coming to terms with the existence of this strange kid who looked so much like her younger brother. Dick becoming impatient, decided to grab Danny's hand again to drag him backstage to watch. Danny, sensing his sister was about to be left behind, quickly grabbed her hand too, forming a strange train that had the shortest in the lead, drawing amused chuckles and coos from bystanders watching the trio.
As they walked towards the performer's viewing area, Dick answered each strange look at his little crew with a large grin. Playing the innocent child as the adult performers merely shook their heads and smiled in return.
When they finally reached the viewing area, Dick took Danny and Jazz over to meet his parents, who were also taken aback at Dick's and Danny's similarities. At the very least, Mary and John Grayson knew that the appearances were merely coincidental, Dick was very much theirs, and they hadn't had another child before then. They also very much knew that Rick and Karla Grayson had not had another child after John. Still, it had them momentarily questioning if they had forgotten one of their children until Dick introduced them.
"Mama, Papa, these are my new friends Danny and his sister Jazz. Can they watch the show back here with me, pretty please?" Dick asked, lips in position to tremble and eyes looking quite like a puppy's.
Mary and Richard Grayson would not normally be swayed by their sons pleading (who were they kidding, they actually caved in a lot), but the look in Dick's eyes, as well as the fact he had made a friend around his age, convinced them to acquiesce. Dick, letting out a whoop of joy, quickly introduced his parents to his new friends. Jazz and Danny respectfully said hello before following Dick to sit down and watch the show.
And watch and enjoy the show they did. Danny and Jazz absolutely loved the various performances put on, and Dick seemed to match their energy and encourage it. As the time drew near for the Graysons to perform, Dick only seemed to get more and more riled up. For good reason. Mary's, Karla's, both Johns' and the elder Richard's performance was spectacular, even if Danny and Jazz were both momentarily horrified about the lack of a safety net. Dick, so proud of how awestruck his new friends were of his family, proclaimed that he was training to be able to do that one day, especially the trick that had left them speechless, the quadruple, a trick only able to be performed by members of the Flying Graysons.
As the show drew to a close, Jazz and Danny found themselves running on reserve energy, and had decided to go home. After asking a slightly dejected Dick how long Haly's was going to stay in Amity, Dick's frown lessened and grew into a smile as Danny stated he would come to play every day until Haly's left. He did not want to leave his new friend. And with that schedule established, Jazz and Danny left towards home, a pep in Danny's step and a smile on Jazz's face as she watched her little brother.
Whew! That was fun. I started writing this to see how much I had improved since my poor attempt in middle school. I intend to make this a series, but whether it'll be a full follow along or a set of shorts is still undecided, and since I'm not that great a writer I can't promise regular updates. It's been forever since I've watched the Danny Phantom series, and I've never had a real introduction into the DC fandom until Fanfiction, so please do forgive me if I make incorrect assumptions about lore. Most of all, please review with suggestions about writing improvements! I love reading well-written stories and I know you all do too, so help me bring another story to life right so we have a bit more to enjoy.
In addition, if you believe you can do a good job or wanna run with this idea a bit too, feel free to use elements of the story or even make your own version that diverges from mine. Just let me know so I can be sure to read it, I wanna read good fanfiction too!