Prompt by corvidspectre: Sam and Tucker maybe getting Pharoah + plant powers? ecto contamination for the win ig
Prompt by yellow-rhymes-with-dna: Half trio where Danny, Sam, and Tucker all half-died in the accident and became vigilantes.
Thanks to Ciara for the idea for Tucker's name!
Now What?
When Danny met Sam and Tucker, he knew it was the start of something awesome. Something true and pure that would be long-lasting. Everlasting, even. Even when they had been so different, there was something that simply clicked into place. Their annoyance at social conventions, the snark that found a worthy reply, or the rant that found a good sounding board. There was always something deeper that they agreed with even if their general tastes didn't coincide at first glance.
They had become so close they shared everything. Even their last breaths.
It had started the day after the portal activation failed. The Fentons had been so disappointed to not get even a spark coming from their invention, but for some reason they couldn't find exactly what had failed. That's how the trio found themselves taking a look around the lab the next day. Out of sheer curiosity.
They believed the portal was completely harmless while turned off, so they weren't concerned about any safety measures. They joked about how cool it would be to explore another world together, they took selfies at the end of the dark tunnel, protective gear be damned, and they joked all the way out.
Until Danny tripped and his hand came in contact with something on the metal wall. And everything changed for them.
It took a while to figure things out. They tried to help each other as much as they could, but they were each going through different issues during the adjustment phase. While they got the same powers, they didn't suffer the same things at the same time: while one was trying to stop phasing through the floor, another began to disappear in the middle of class. Then there were the minor displays of ghostly powers when they realized they were making things colder, or how static filled their calls every now and then.
They were a mess. But they were in this together, at least.
They were in this together as ghosts decided to show up in Amity Park. They were together as they began learning more about the Ghost Zone or the dangers that lurked inside. And when the most important question surrounding their powers came up: now what?
Should they fight back? Round up the ghosts that came from the portal? Should they let the Fentons handle it?
The ghosts that came through hadn't expected three teens with ghost powers to pose any resistance to their haunting. During the first month, the entities that came from the portal were mostly animals who the trio didn't know how to communicate with. By the time the more humanoid visitors started showing up, the three half-ghosts were already too used to dealing quickly and effectively with any threat, not even giving the other ghosts any chance to argue.
That's when the first discussion since they got their powers happened, with Danny arguing that he had to do something since the portal opened because of him; Sam countered they shouldn't just jump to conclusions since they hadn't gotten to know more about these ghosts, and that it was his parents' responsibility in any case.
But then Tucker proposed something else. A team. An alliance.
A Terrific Trio. A group of friends working together to keep things safe, make a statement, and kick ass when needed. To work outside of what other ghost hunters did, outlaws in a way. To prove ghosts could be cool.
"We can be like vigilantes," Tucker said in awe, Danny sharing the sentiment while Sam rolled her eyes (she wouldn't admit the idea of rebelling against the norm suited her well, too).
In the end, as always, they were also in this together as they chose to become a team and save everyone from the danger ghosts posed.
At first, they tried to assess the situation, per Sam's suggestion, but some ghosts were not looking to make friends. Not with the reputation the teens had already made within the Ghost Zone. So, they took turns to fight while someone in the trio ran distraction, but soon realized an important problem: their ghost forms wore inverted versions of their everyday clothing and that could be an easy way to figure out who they were.
That wouldn't do. They needed to find a way to hide. To keep this under wraps. After all, if they found out about one of them, people might catch on and figure them all out. Domino effect and all that.
They didn't want to think what the Fentons would try to do if that ever happened.
So that's how they spent the following days scouring for ideas. The three of them had talked about their options, as they tried figuring out their powers together, their limits, their differences… anything that would inspire them into their new direction. Then came the research: from comic books to myths and legends; visits to the library and even trips to Sam's most niche gothic places, opening up their minds to find anything that sparked some idea of how to craft a new identity.
They were hanging out in Sam's room, taking advantage of the privacy of the giant house. Sam's head was resting on Danny's stomach while they both flipped the pages of their chosen reading materials.
"I can't believe you convinced me to do this," Sam muttered and pushed Tucker's elbow to make him lose balance as he sat back-to-back against Danny. The two boys protested.
Tucker recovered and tossed a new comic book her way, the item landing on top of her mythology book. "C'mon, I'm sure you'll find something that fits your theme."
Danny sat up with a scoff, making Sam shift from her position until she lay on her stomach with the book on the floor. "Her theme?" he asked, followed with a slight chuckle. "What, the Goth Ghost?"
"As if I would ever go for something so obvious," Sam shot back while rolling her eyes.
The girl was about to push aside the comic Tucker threw at her, but something in one of the panels caught her attention. It portrayed a villain, Poison Queen, dressed in green and controlling two giant Venus flytraps to subdue the heroes in the story. "I think I might have a new source of inspiration."
"Really? From a comic book?" Tucker asked.
Sam showed them the open comic, making both boys lean closer to take a look. "Why not? Villains can also be cool sources of inspiration."
"Sam…" Danny said slowly, his tone tired. "My parents already hate ghosts? Why would I want to give them a reason to hate us even more?"
She shrugged. "It's not like naming yourself The Master of Fudge would make your dad shoot less in your general direction."
That made Danny snort and shake his head lightly. "Brilliant. I'll go all in and name myself Phantom, then. Danny Phantom. Get it? Like a pun with my name?"
"Dude, you can't just use your name to fight crime," Tucker said between chuckles.
"It's not crime—well, ok, yeah, it kinda is," Sam muttered.
"Tuck, there's like tons of characters who hide their identity in plain sight," Danny shot back. "Besides, it's not like people would see the name 'Danny' and immediately think 'oh, hey, that's the son of the town's ghost hunters, tell the Fentons'. Everything's gonna all right."
"So, your theme is that you're a ghost boy? Is that it?" Sam asked, making Danny blush.
"Better than going with something obvious like a space theme, right?" he muttered.
Sam got up and walked towards a pinboard in her room, tapping her chin in the process. "Okay, so let's forget about where we get our inspiration or what type of things we like. Let's say we do have a theme. What would it do to our powers?"
Tucker quirked an eyebrow that wasn't now hiding behind his usual glasses, a sight his two friends still hadn't used to. "Why would a theme be related to our powers? It can just be like a brand kind of thing. Like, getting a catchy name and unique. We can't just all be, say, Tucker Ghoulie and Sam Banshee based on our powers."
"That's precisely my point," Sam replied. "Think about it… Box Ghost control boxes. Lunch Lady controls lunch—"
"And Skulker skulks?" Danny added with a deadpan tone.
Violet eyes flashed green in annoyance. "Focus, ghost boy. Names have weight. What came first? Their names or their powers? What if what we call ourselves allows us to bring the image we have in our heads to life?"
Tucker seemed to consider this. "So, if I went with, I don't know, a tech theme—"
"Isn't that taken by Technus, tho?" Danny interrupted, rubbing his chin.
"Really?" Sam asked with an unimpressed look, summoning all of Pamela Manson's coldness into it.
Danny's eyes shifted between his two best friends. "What?" he asked innocently.
Sam huffed. "It's just an example, Danny, please focus." She turned to face Tuck and gestured to continue. "So… tech theme?"
Tuck shook his head with a smile. "Yeah, let's say I go as Tech-Man 3000…"—his friends snorted. "Would that mean that I'll start developing more compatibility with tech?"
"Maybe," Sam admitted with a shrug. "I don't have hard evidence, I'm just theorizing here. I mean, we could test it for a week or two. See if that works."
"That doesn't sound that bad," Danny said as he considered his options. "Test and learn, right? So, maybe I could go with a space theme…"
"Not really, Danny." Sam shook her head. "Think about it… what is one defining interest for Danny Fenton?"
"Space," Tucker said cheerily, earning a glare from the other boy.
Sam nodded. "Right. So, if a ghost kid who started showing up when we got in an accident suddenly talked animatedly about the same topics Danny Fenton did—"
"Okay, fine," Danny huffed and rested his head in his hand. "People might draw conclusions and all that. Got it. I'll try to think about something else."
With newfound direction, the trio started testing a couple of things the following few days. Above it all, they wanted to find a way to express themselves through their new identity, which meant finding a name to give out to other ghosts who attacked and coming up with costume ideas to wear.
The first to find a new identity was Sam, who had already started considering a few options. She had gone shopping at the local greenhouse, looking for new soil for her growing garden. She had found gardening to be a neat way to reconnect with nature and find peace and solace as she struggled with the dark spirals her new existential stress put her through. She was already set with her purchases when Desiree decided to attack, making dead plants come back to life.
Sam had become better at handling her powers, but the way she saw small roses turn into giant carnivore plants reminded her of her naming idea. Determined to test her own theory, she took out the small domino mask the trio had crafted to keep their identities hidden and added a few stray vines as a lasso around her waist.
"Hate to break it to you, Desiree, but these plants are not at your disposal," Sam declared as she floated in front of the genie.
The wish-granting ghost laughed. "And just who are you supposed to be now, silly girl?"
Sam's ghostly-green lips shifted into a smirk. She threw the vine around her waist towards her enemy, wrapping her arm with it. The girl then shot her power through the vine to shock Desiree. "Haven't you heard? I'm Nightshade!"
Soon after, she was able to defeat Desiree and even helped get the greenhouse back in order, looking for ways to combine her power with a conscious effort to manipulate leaves and flowers destroyed in the attack.
"Holy shit, it worked!" Sam whispered to herself as she noticed the dead leaves crawling up her arms to create beautiful sleeves, while the vine she originally used twisted around her waist.
Sam rushed to tell her friends her discovery, showing off how her new wardrobe continued adjusting as she used her powers to simulate plant-like abilities. Nightshade became widely known after a few days, her powers growing, finding new uses with each passing day, such as helping plants that were wilting to recover and bloom. Or how she could overshadow trees and use their branches to move people to safety.
Tucker was completely in awe, and if he was totally honest, a bit jealous. Though he had to admit the new design Sam had chosen was breathtaking. He didn't have to dwell on his envy for long when he got the perfect inspiration in a school field trip to the museum.
The whole class was looking at an exhibit close to the Egyptian wing they were remodeling and would open in a few months. The Box Ghost had gotten excited with the new crates that had been placed all over the closed room. Since this was Tucker's turn to deal with the annoying ghost, he moved into the off-limits section. Various crates had already been emptied of their contents, so he tried to look into whatever got scattered to keep testing new ways to defeat the Box Ghost.
That's how he noticed hieroglyphics on some of the items scattered on the floor, most broken. There was a particular tablet that caught Tucker's attention. Heh… a tablet. Wait…
He figured he could try Sam's advice and tried to use the nearly-broken tablet to "hack" into the code around him as he would with his PDA. He had already tested that and it worked. So, what if he willed his powers to work with a different kind of language?
Tucker changed into his ghost form, took out his mask, and grabbed a… hat or whatever it was called, adding to his new identity. Wasn't it like what mummies wore sometimes? Or pharaohs, even. He floated towards the box ghost. "Hey, Boxy, whatcha go there, pal?" he called out.
The Box Ghost loosened the hold he had on the box. "You! Why are you interfering with my crate-hoarding spree? I AM THE BOX GHOST!" The blue-tinged ghost looked at his opponent closely and quirked an eyebrow. "Wait, who are you?"
While he had done the most reading of comic books and superhero lore out of any of his friends, it was hard coming up with a new name. What had Sam called herself? Nightshade? Danny would have used a pun, probably. So, what did that leave Tucker with? He was honestly above all that. Brightening up at the sudden idea, Tucker crossed his arms in a heroic pose. "You're now facing Hierarch, master of hieroglyphs!" He figured he should work on his introduction, lest he sounds like one of their rogues.
The ghost teen then made some of his energy surround the signs in the tablet and focused on controlling the hieroglyphs on the walls around Boxy. A bird-like symbol became surrounded in green and was brought to life, flying towards the Box Ghost to peck him on the head.
"Hey, what's the big idea?" the ghost complained while Tucker cackled.
The fight wasn't much of a fight. It felt more like playtime, with Hierarch testing his newly desired powers. He could definitely work with that.
It was in the following weeks, as Tucker and Sam exchanged stories in her room, that they found Danny slumping between them over her bed.
"What's going on, Ghost Boy?" Sam teased her friend.
Danny lifted his head enough to glare with his glowing green eyes, a shade more intense than they were used to seeing. "Please don't even joke about that," he grumbled.
Tucker leaned closer to look at Danny's face, scrunching up his eyebrows. "Dude… are those… fangs?"
Danny's face was buried between his arms with a loud groan. They knew he was having a hard time coming up with a new idea for his identity. Living above the portal meant he was usually the most overworked of the trio, with new weapons even going off under his roof. While Sam and Tucker had found a good balance, it seemed Danny had no respite. At least Jazz was being more understanding, even if she wasn't aware of their secret (as far as they knew, at least).
"What happened?" Sam asked as she placed a placating hand on his back, running soothing circles that made something in his chest vibrate. Almost like a purr.
The sound was a new development and it seemed only Danny had gotten that ability so far (though she did feel something buzzing from time to time when she was close to her two best friends, something Tuck also noticed a few days ago). Maybe it was the way they connected when they died together.
Danny propped his head in his hand as he turned to see his friends, leaning closer to Sam's touch as Tucker held his hand to comfort him. "You know how I joked about calling myself Phantom?" His friends nodded softly. "Yeah, well, I think it's coming to bite me in the ass."
Instead of explaining, her turned his head to show them how there was a slight change to his ears, curving slightly to a more pointed shape. While they had all changed their appearance slightly over the past few weeks, they never carried over to the human sides. Until now.
"Shit, dude, are you turning more ghostly than human?" Tucker asked in awe, his words laced with mortification.
"It gets worse," Danny replied, not meeting their eyes. "Remember Vlad? The other half-ghost" He didn't see their eyes roll in response. "He's been obsessed with having me as a son and sends Skulker to attack me at all times of the day. I'm sure he just wants to make me snap."
As he spoke, his friends noticed the temperature plummeting, frost covering one of Sam's windows. They shared concerned looks, unbeknownst to Danny. Sure, they could pull a trick like that as well, but usually with more concentration and in smaller displays.
Sam stopped her soothing motions and stared at Danny's green eyes. "Danny, maybe you need to leave out some steam. Or why don't we help you figure out who you want to be? You're always forgetting to use your mask and the only changes you made were shifting to darker clothing."
Danny smiled, mischievously, almost feral. A fang almost teasing its way out of his smirk. "Oh, but I found what I want to be."
His two companions stared expectantly, something dark and sinister looming over their heads. "From now on, I'm done hiding. I'm done keeping my head down. I'm done faking it."
Danny got up from his position and walked towards the window, his back facing his friends. "Oh, I'm going to make them see me for who I am." He turned his head to face them with the same smile, red eyes greeting them instead of green. "Hey, wanna come and have some fun? I heard there's a circus in town."