The other new story I'm posting more for the Date Stamp than anything else. This one is a four way crossover between Danny Phantom, American Dragon, Randy Cunningham, and Miraculous Ladybug. Not sure what kinda route it'll go yet, but here will be both angst and humor no matter what.
Whenever Danny thought about one of his ghostly allies doing something that could only be described as trying to mess with him or shock the hell out of him, he usually thought Clockwork would be the culprit. He figured it was a fair assumption given the first time he met the Ancient had resulted in him fighting an evil version of himself and going on a brief trip between timelines. One ghost he never, or at least rarely, considered doing something that could be labeled as 'lets throw Danny a curveball for his own good' however was Pandora. She didn't get involved in things unless it involved her box or her queendom, and she wasn't a prankster or a troll so why would she do anything to mess with him right? Yet here they were, Danny with his jaw hanging open and Pandora with all four of her arms crossed.
"You set up a what?" The teen yelped.
The giant woman didn't even twitch at the smaller boy's exclamation, "A support group," she stated again. "You have been isolating yourself too much since you received your powers and it is clearly taking a toll on you. The secrets you choose or are forced to keep are eating away at your will. You need help Danny, and since you refuse to speak to myself, your human friends, or your parents this was the best option left available to me."
Danny was pretty sure that was a lie. There had to have been other options available between 'do nothing' and 'set up an interdimensional support group for teenaged heroes'. Maybe a ghost shrink that wasn't a shitstain like Spectra? Or a vacation at whatever the Infinite Realm's equivalent to a spa was? "You really expect four teenaged boys who have never met or even heard of each other to not only talk about our feelings but be able to help each other?" Danny asked her incredulously.
Pandora nodded, "Yes, I do." She finally let her stoic face fall along with her crossed arms, "Danny, I know this will be hard, and awkward, and probably more than a little uncomfortable for all of you, but you all will be entering things on a level playing field. Your problems have many commonalities, your ages are similar, your responsibilities while not equal are not unrelatale to each other." She kneeled down in front of the clearly distressed young hero, "Please, the arrangements have already been made, can you not at least trust me enough to try the idea? If you truely do not think it will be helpful after two weeks, I will make the arrangmetns to terminate things and arrange for something else to be done to try and help you and them." She held up a hand, one finger pointed up, "But only if you try, truely try, to make this work. If you do not, and I will know, I will simply make the entire thing formal and force you all to not only talk with each other, but do so under the supervision and guidance of trained professionals who will in turn give reports on your mental and emotional well being to some form of guardian of yours."
Oh come on! Not only was she blackailing him but what was she reading his mind now or something? Could she do that? He actually had no idea what Pandora's actual powers were so… maybe? Either way she had him trapped now. He either did what she wanted and tried to make the support group work or he fights her and she gets an actual shrink to send either his parents or more likely Jazz reports about his issues. Not that he was really sure what those reports would even say given that no one in his family knew he even had powers and he doubted Pandora would be cruel enough to tell them against his will, but really that probably meant the reports would concern them more.
Ancients damn it.
"Fine!" He threw his arms up, "Fine I'll try and work with the support group." He sighed, covering his face with his hands, "Who even are they anyways? What can you tell me about them without breaking whatever agreements you made about this whole thing?"
The ancient woman smiled as she stood back up to her full height, clearly happy that he was bowing to her desires on this subject. "Their names are Jake Long, Randy Cunningham, and Adrien Agreste," she told him, "They are heroes like yourself. Jake is the Dragon that protects the magical creatures of America, his father is unaware of the legacy Jake inherited from his mother's family and due to the laws of their world he is not allowed to tell his two friends what he is and what he does, which like with yourself with your own friends has driven a wedge between them." She saw the young teen wince at the reminder of his friends, continuing on quickly before he could begin to wallow in thoughts of how they had begun to drift apart. "Randy Cunningham has been chosen to hold the legacy and power of the Norsu Ninja for the next few years, sacrificing his social and personal life to combat the machinations of the Sorceror, a dark mage who holds power that when unbound can threaten even some of the gods. Finally Adrien Agreste is the current holder of the Black Cat Ring thus making him the champion and master of a creature known as a Kwami, a type of god aspect, specifically the Kwami known as Plagg who bears the power of Destruction."
Danny raised his hand, "Wait, so we have a dragon cop who's in charge of basically a whole country, the last and only line of defence against a god-teir threat, and a teenager who has a god of destruction hanging around him all the time? These are the people in my support group?" The unspoken 'these people with that kind of power and authority are close to snapping?' was obvious.
The tall woman nodded, "You are essentially a psycopomp and anti-god in case you have forgotten," she ponted out, "and I did say you would have commonalities with them. Overwhelming power and responsibility are just two of those things."
All Danny could do was put his head back into his hands and groan in despair. This ws his life now. This ticking time bomb of an apoctolyptic shitstorm was his life. "Am I allowed to know anything else ahead of time?" He asked.
He wasn't looking but he could imagine the ghost shaking her head, "No. Part of this is meant to involve the four of you opening up and learning about each other, having me or anyone other than the boys themselves tell you any more about them would diminish that."
He sighed again at the expected negative response. Other than names he was flying blind then, not a big deal, most of his first encounters with new enemies had been like that. And hey, at least these guys wouldn't be boring right?
In case it wasn't clear, this story is a four-way No One Knows AU- or as close as possible in Jake's case- and will be set up to make it as sucky for each of them as possible without their settings being full of murder and torture. With that in mind here's a quick rundown of each of the four's situations:
Danny: No humans know his secret ID, he's still friends with Sam and Tucker but because they don't know why he keeps vanishing and flaking they've drifted apart more and more, he's beaten Dan and knows the worst-case scenario for his future, his parents are super species against ghosts, the GiW is present in Amity but the US government shot down he Anti-Ecto Acts and replaced them with less extreme but still very strict measures that would allow people to terminate Danny without consequences, Dani is a thing but she's in the wind and while stabilized she isn't 'stable', he's a mostly C student but has As in all his science classes including mechanics.
Jake: The Huntsclan is still a thing, he knows that Rose is the Huntsgirl but hasn't told anyone else, Jake and Rose are on and off dating, Jake has been injured several times- including a few that were rather extreme- by members of the Huntsclan including Rose, the Dark Dragon is still active and has it out for Jake and his grandfather as they are his 'only real threats', Haley has less power but is much more skilled in magic and general dragon skills like firebreathing so she sometimes looks and often acts superior to Jake much to his chagrin, he is still friends with Trixi and Spud but they still think he's working for his grandfather and don't know he's a dragon, his teacher knows Jake is a magical creature but has no proof and doesn't know that he's a dragon, he's a B student despite never having time to study non-dragon academics.
Randy: The Sorceror and McFist and Viceroy are still things, monsters and robots have hurt Randy many times but the magic of the Mask of the Art of Heal keep him going without scars or giving away his secret, he and Howard are friends still but argue much more often than they used to, Randy crushes on Terresa but hasn't been able to rationalize approaching her when he knows that being the Ninja sucks up so much time, his parents are absent at best, he's becoming more and more reliant on the Ninjanomicon and the Blacksmith for emotional and mental stability, his fear of becoming 'Stanked' has left him with increasing anxiety and constantly increasing stress, he's a mostly C student because he can't study and often misses homework assignments but has an A in English and in History thanks to the Nomicon.
Adrien: Season 4 base so Marinette is the Guardian and his father is Shadowmoth and super controlling, I'm adding in an element from the story 'Chat Blanc Against The World' where Ladybug has made all the temp-heroes pertinent and has not only let them tell each other their IDs but has shared her own with them all as well, however she never told Chat who she is or about the other heroes, instead Carapace revealed him and the others to be permanent holders and knowing Ladybug's ID by accident because he thought he already knew but he didn't tell Chat who he or Ladybug were, Shadowmoth knows the IDs of all the heroes from Heroes' Day but Adrien didn't learn them that day and Ladybug said he can't know, Kagami still broke up with Adrien, Nino has drifted away from Adrien because he doesn't like having to censor himself about being a hero, Adrien is essentially shut out from the class socially aside from Chloe and Lila, Adrien still dislikes Lila and avoids her as much as possible, he did not end his friendship with Chloe but their relationship has been damaged, Plagg tries to help Adrien but due to his own social issues caused by how the Guardians and his previous Holders tended to treat him he sometimes just makes things worse, he's a straight A student thanks to his tutors and throwing himself into his studies to ignore thinking about his problems with Ladybug and has a passion for Physics.