It's time for an update! I've found sporadic moments to write this chapter virtually from scratch amongst my hectic search for a job in one of the worst economies in recent history.
Yay me!
Anyway, let's kick things up a notch and get back to Phasma and Peterman. (You'll see what I mean.) Big thanks as usual to my ever-invaluable (and apparently ever-expanding) beta team StarlinsGhost (FFn), DP-Marvel94 (Tumblr), whats-up-everybody (Tumblr), Lala2003 (FFn), LetTheChaosEnsue (FFn), and Weshney (AO3) for their individually magnificent contributions to this monster of a fic!
General Notes
"This is dialogue."
"This is alternative dialogue, meaning whispered or spoken from a distance such as on the phone."
'This is thought.'
This and THIS and *this* are emphasis. The *this* emphasis is more along the lines of the snarky or sarcastic.
[This is digital text, such as notifications on a computer or smartphone. It also represents A.I. voices, such as Karen or F.R.I.D.A.Y./"Friday" (because I really don't feel like typing out the full acronym with periods every time she comes up).]
I do not own Danny Phantom nor Spider-Man.
Ch. 05 originally published: Friday, October 16, 2020
FIRE WITH FIRE
05 — Ghosts, Amiright?
"Get out of there, Danny!"
Danny pounded the off button with a vengeance, but the system's automated startup had already initiated. He whimpered frantically, wrestling against the cord which had ensnared his ankle and trapped him inside.
"Come on, dude! This is not how you die!"
"No! Stay back!" Danny shouted, and Tucker stumbled back out of the mouth of the machine. Danny returned his focus to the cable, even trying to undo his boot, but it was to no avail.
PMMMMMMMMMB-
A bass-noted pulse assaulted Danny's gut. He stopped struggling, stopped fighting fate. He could only gape. Danny tried one last time to press the off button.
His muscles froze. He could do nothing when the pain struck a millisecond later. Millions of volts of foreign energy coursed through him as a new electrical ground and scorched the panel under his palm. Danny could barely scream as an outlet for the pain, building, compounding, intensifying-
His scream echoed through the entire house.
"Danny!" they screamed.
"DANNY!"
"DANNY!"
"GAAAHHH!" Danny shot up in bed and scrambled to press himself against the wall. "TURN OFF THE PORTAL!" he shouted. "TURN IT OFF! MAKE IT STOP!"
His hyperventilation gradually diminished into labored breathing. He looked around and saw his Sunnyside bedroom awash in light. His mother kneeled at his bedside, terrified, while his father stood worriedly just behind her.
"Danny?" Maddie gently asked. "Are you back with us?"
Panting, Danny slowly forced his head to nod. He pressed the palms of his hands into his face and rubbed at his eyes, surprised when they came away wet.
"Jack, close the windows. It's freezing in here," Maddie said with a shudder.
"It's warmer outside; I'll leave it open," Jack replied from the window. "Danny-boy…what was that all about?"
"I-" Danny's voice cracked. He coughed, then tried again. "It was just—just a nightmare."
"One hell of a nightmare," the man muttered with a huff. His breath clouded before him.
"I-I'm sorry," Danny whimpered then sniffled. "I didn't mean to…wake you guys."
"Hon, did something happen to you in the portal accident?" Maddie asked.
Danny briefly met her gaze before averting his eyes. He missed the loaded looks his parents shared at his obvious lack of response.
"Something must have triggered this memory," the woman mused. "You haven't woken us with your screaming since just after the accident."
Danny broke into tears rather than answer her question.
"Come on, sweetie," Maddie relented. "I'll make you some hot cocoa before you go back to bed, okay?"
It took a few moments for Danny to hesitantly nod in agreement.
"We can play a round of Uno if you want?"
"H-hardly the best way to get sleepy again," Danny wearily joked with a ghost of a half-smile.
Maddie pulled him into a brief but strong hug before standing back up and letting Danny untangle himself from his bedding.
Park Avenue, Manhattan — Wednesday, September 7, 03:15
Tony woke to a midtone ethereal beeping. He scowled at the far-too-small digits on Pepper's alarm clock face before noticing his illuminated glasses pulsating on the nightstand. With a quiet sigh, he fumbled to put them on.
[Good morning, boss.]
"Morning isn't for another four hours."
Pepper moaned beside him.
[There's an urgent incoming call from Agent Hill.]
"Put 'er through." Tony sat up and walked out into the hall. "Do all SHIELD agents have no perception of time or privacy?"
"Sorry, Tony, it's midday here in Mumbai," Hill replied. "Something just happened which I thought might interest you."
"I already know about the Mondrian auction next month."
"Operative Ghost just made an appearance at a covert SHIELD base."
"In Mumbai?"
"Yep."
"On my way."
Astoria, Queens — Wednesday, September 7, 08:04
"I'll knock out the basic bones of the Death Star at my place and then I'll come by afterward, because for the most part, the difficult thing is the base of it," Ned explained. "The top half we can knock out in two hours, tops."
Peter, however, tuned out the remainder of Ned's ramble. He found himself distracted by Liz Toomes walking across his field of vision. They made fleeting eye contact before she disappeared around the corner. Oh, how he would love an evening hanging out with Liz. "Yeah, that'd be great," Peter mindlessly agreed. He adjusted his focus from the middle ground and noticed Danny fumbling in his locker a few yards ahead of him.
"Heh, looks like the new kid got a bottom locker," Ned commented with a chuckle. "I wonder what he thinks about Danny Phantom showing up last night?"
"How do you know about that?" Peter asked.
"Somebody recorded the car crash and it's been all over the news this morning. Small-Town Troublemaker Causes Big-City Crash or whatever. Hey, isn't it kinda funny that a ghost from Danny's hometown shows up here in the city the same time he does?"
"Well, Danny's parents are kind of Phantom's sworn nemeses," Peter thought out loud. "Maybe he's stalking them and looking for a way to take them down?"
"Wouldn't it be funny if Danny Phantom is just Danny Fenton's secret identity?" Ned joked with a laugh.
"S-secret identity?" Peter asked anxiously. "Ghosts are dead, Ned. And we're just in high school. How could any of us secretly be a hero? We'd fail one test and then have our lives ruined."
"Dude, relax. I'm just kidding! You gotta admit it'd be the perfect cover, though. Everyone thinks you have to be an adult to be a hero and dead to be a ghost. No one would suspect a living high schooler."
"You read too many comic books." Peter glanced down the row of lockers to where Danny was kneeling in front of his own. His new neighbor moved with sloth-like verve as he fumbled for his history textbook. "Huh…"
"You ever wonder who Spider-Man is under the mask?"
Peter's hand twitched and sent his own history textbook arcing above the students milling around him. He leaped across the hallway and grabbed it just before its corner could strike a boy leaning over the drinking fountain.
Unfortunately, that boy was Flash Thompson.
Flash flinched as the book halted millimeters above his head. He straightened and snapped, "What the hell, Parker?! Are you trying to attack me with a book?"
"No!" Peter quickly denied. "It was flying through the air an-and I caught it before it could hit-!"
"Bullshit!" Flash interrupted and balled his hands into fists. "I can't believe you're that jealous of my popularity that you'd try and harm my beautiful face!"
"What?! No, of course not-"
"You better watch yourself, Penis," Flash threatened and jabbed an index finger into Peter's sternum. "And pray we're not playing any contact sports in P.E. later, 'cause that'll give me free rein to attack you."
Flash shoved upwards on the bottom of Peter's book and sent it whirling to the floor. It landed open, creasing a third of its pages at an awkward angle. As the bully skulked off Ned lowered his phone from the recording he'd started in case evidence was needed.
"Here," Danny said, appearing out of nowhere. He picked up Peter's book and straightened to standing once more.
"Thanks, man," Peter said, but he finally took in the dark circles under Danny's eyes. "Hey, Danny, are you alright this morning?"
"Yeah, you look like the walking dead," Ned agreed jokingly.
Peter shot a brief glare at him for his reference to their previous conversation.
"Just…had a weird nightmare last night," Danny said. "Brought some stuff up," he added, rubbing at a phantom pain in his left hand.
Astoria, Queens — 12:45
"It was really freaky," Danny said, readjusting his right earbud. "I've fought a lot of intimidating ghosts, but that thing was actually scary."
"Wraiths are like that," Sam confirmed on screen. She jostled Tucker to fit into the frame. "They must have evolved in the Ghost Zone to be more intimidating so they could cause fear and feed more easily. They're made up of ectoplasm, but instead of having a consciousness they are driven by pure negative emotional energy."
"So like a poltergeist?" Tucker asked.
"No, poltergeists manifest on the human plane. Wraiths breed within the Ghost Zone in more isolated regions since sentient ghosts treat them like they're dangerous predators. Which…they are."
"Damn," Danny muttered.
"Wraiths are basically emotional leeches," Sam continued. "A lot like our pal Spectra, except they're not exclusive to teenage angst. Or sentient. At least that's what people say."
"Sure didn't seem intelligent to me. It was even more animalistic than Plasmius' experiments. You don't think this is one of the fruitloop's schemes, do you?"
"Doubt it. Wraiths are so hard to control, I doubt he'd mess around with them."
"Vlad's definitely about control," Tucker agreed.
"So what are they doing in the human world? In Queens?" Danny asked. "Do you think it has anything to do with my parents?"
"Not unless your parents have already built a functioning portal which just so happened to break through into the Ghost Zone in the wraiths' quote-unquote 'habitat.' So, probably not. But they have to be getting in somehow."
"Great, so now I have to start combing one of the biggest cities in the world for some natural or manufactured portal. How the heck am I gonna do that? My ghost sense only does so much. And to be honest? I really, really don't want to have an up-close interaction with another wraith anytime soon."
"Can you borrow some of your parents' stuff? Did they bring a Fenton Tracker?"
"They'd have had to," Danny mused.
"Great! So just nab it and get to work!" Tucker said.
"Just one thing," Danny morosely protested. "They took pretty much all their stuff to their new lab."
"You mean it's…"
"In Avengers Tower," Danny confirmed. "And how am I going to explain why I need the tracker? It's not like I can just tell them what I'm trying to do."
"Just steal it," Sam suggested. "How hard can it be? You've done it tons of times before."
"The Tower systems might already be calibrated to detect ectoplasmic energy," Danny disagreed. "Mom and Dad probably did that the second they arrived."
"So Danny just needs a reason to go into a maximum-security lab," Sam added.
"Maybe I can visit my parents at work sometime? Peter says he has an internship with Stark. I'll just go with him one day and find a moment to *go to the bathroom* or something."
"That could work. So what's this Peter guy like anyway?" Tucker asked.
"He's cool, I guess. Well, cool for us, anyway. He's definitely not that high on Midtown's social ladder."
"That's not all that matters, Danny," Sam sighed.
"I didn't say it did, Sam," Danny mimicked.
"How cool is he?" Tucker prodded.
Danny scoffed and rolled his eyes. "He isn't, nor will he ever be, as cool as you."
"I'm allowed to be jealous of my best bud making new friends!"
"I'm not gonna be a hermit for a year! I need social interaction too, ya know!"
The bell rang.
"Sorry, guys, I gotta go. Class is starting here."
"Aw, man!" Tucker whined. "Why can't our lunchtimes overlap more?"
"Hang in there, Danny," Sam encouraged. "Keep us posted about the wraith sitch."
"Will do."
Danny put his phone away and shouldered his backpack. He carried his tray towards the trash cans and passed next to a ladder where Liz was adjusting a banner.
"Whoa!" the girl exclaimed, causing Danny to look up.
Liz's foot slipped off the ladder rung. She fell back and Danny instinctively frisbeed his tray onto the nearest table and caught Liz with both arms. Everyone nearby stared on as Danny stood there effortlessly holding the senior girl.
Danny realized he was acting too strong in the moment and buckled a knee, bringing himself and Liz ungracefully lower. The girl found her footing once more and removed herself from Danny's embrace.
"Uh, sorry," she mumbled and straightened her sweater. "Thanks for the catch."
"No problem," Danny replied with a half-smile. He found his lunch tray and exited the room.
"What a knight in shining armor," Betty commented as she and Liz watched the boy leave. "It should be criminal to look that cute and be that gentlemanly."
"Yeah, I guess."
"Liz, if your attention's elsewhere, I claim the new kid as mine to pursue."
Liz shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I'll invite him to my party for you," she offered with a smile.
Mumbai — Saturday, September 10, 07:00 Local Time
"Tony."
"Hill. Always a pleasure," Tony greeted and shook the agent's hand as she escorted him inside. "So I hear you're having some ghost troubles?"
"Just one. Ex-Operative Ghost, real name Ava Starr. She was here," Hill clarified as she swiped her ID on the elevator access panel. The doors opened, and she led the billionaire inside. As the elevator descended underground, Hill continued, "Since I called you, I've debriefed more agents and built a better picture of what happened. She appeared out of nowhere and seemed disoriented, like she didn't expect to just appear in our offices. We have remodeled in the past few years, but what remains of our intel doesn't show any sign of her having been here while holding an active status."
"Weird. So you're saying she might not have even planned to come here in the first place?"
"It's a possibility."
The elevator dinged and opened onto a sprawling underground command center with glass-encased labs flanking the central desk pods and workspaces.
"So how does an ex-SHIELD agent accidentally find herself in a SHIELD facility? Seems a little too small-world to me. What's the draw?"
"Our neighbors."
Tony followed Maria into one of the labs, and its electrochromic glass immediately darkened when the door hissed shut. One wall lit up with a live CCTV feed of a building outside. The glow of the projection glinted off a few technicians' glasses where they sat at a workstation.
"It's the whole reason this SHIELD base was established," Hill explained. "An experimental research and development division buried deep within the General Electric conglomerate. We opened a month after they did."
"Why?"
"A few months before, they established a defense contract with the Guys in White, which had only been established a year before that. You know Fury; any talk of the paranormal has always had his ears burning, ever since the Krull fiasco in '95."
"So you think Starr came for them and, what, came in here by accident?"
"She's been exhibiting a pattern for the past few months targeting ultra-secure facilities overflowing with advanced tech. Most recently was the Avengers Facility in upstate New York and now here, a SHIELD base. But we think she came for the tech across the street, walked through the wrong underground wall and ended up here."
"So has this place actually done anything suspicious over the years?"
"Aside from leading to the Parkers' death? There's been a few nighttime shipments that had excessive security, but nothing explicitly 'villainous.' "
"Wait wait wait, did you say 'Parkers'?"
"Yeah, they were investigating, got their cover blown and then died in an 'accidental' plane crash. What about them?" Maria confirmed. She glanced over at the technicians and nodded her head towards the screen. They wordlessly pulled up two agents' profiles.
Richard and Mary Parker.
Tony began pouring over the data on the screen. "Did they…have any next of kin?"
"A son. Lives with his aunt in Queens."
Tony looked over his shoulder with anxious concern written across his face.
[Boss, sorry to interrupt,] Friday interjected, [but it's Peter.]
"I thought that was obvious, Friday," he replied.
[No, I just received a distress signal.]
Tony eyed the SHIELD technicians attempting to listen to Tony's one-sided conversation. "Send in a drone and connect me. Sorry, Hill, gotta take care of this out of earshot."
Moments later found Tony back in the marketplace above with a lemonade order placed.
Forest Park, Queens — Friday, September 9, 21:46
The tunes from Flash's turntable assaulted Danny's ears the second he stepped inside. He cringed, looking around for any familiar faces. A stranger lost in a sea of teenagers who all had their own cliques, Danny couldn't help but feel a little alone. He ended up shuffling into the kitchen where he found some drinks and quickly poured himself some water from the fridge's dispenser.
"Every party needs a phantom."
Danny choked on the water and ended up spitting most of it back in the cup. Coughing, he looked and saw Michelle silently leaning against the counter next to him, eyes grazing over the hordes of teenagers.
"What?" Danny finally managed, pouring his water in the sink and fetching some more.
"A silent specter hovering in the corner," Michelle waxed poetically, "watching over the feast until it's time to strike."
"I ain't no specter, just a spectator."
Michelle half-smiled.
"I don't know anyone here, so…"
"Your buddy Peter's floating around somewhere," Michelle said. "He evaporated as soon as the Penis Parker chant started."
"Aw, shoot, I missed it?"
Michelle let out a single chuckle and held out her own plastic cup. They cheers'd and took a sip.
"So how'd you get invited?" Danny asked, but when he turned, Michelle was already meandering off to other parts of the house. Danny sighed and broke off in a different direction.
Ned soon caught Danny's attention as he stood next to the wall of windows. He was alone, dejectedly sporting a trilby.
"What's up, Ned?" Danny greeted.
Ned looked over and smiled. "Oh, hey, Danny. What's crackalackin'?"
"Nice hat."
"Thanks! Not everybody's digging it."
"Go figure," Danny commented with a roll of his eyes. He sensed movement outside and glanced up, but all he saw was the moonlit roof of the master suite across the patio. He turned back to Ned and said, "You looked kinda lost over here."
"I'm just hoping Spi- Pe- Spid- uh, Peterman will show up."
"Peterman?"
"Peter. Or Spider-Man. Or neither. Both. Both is good. Both would've been here at some point. Um—I—I can't talk good…after…nine?"
Danny leaned over to look in Ned's cup. "You got more than just water in there, buddy?"
"What?! No, no no no!"
Danny chuckled. "Chillax, man. I'm just messing with you."
Ned breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, haha, thank God. No, Liz's parents would kill her if she had alcohol here."
"Glad these rich people have some standards. The A-listers at Casper High were all delinquents, and the rich people in town are downright evil. Where are her parents, anyway?"
"I think she said her dad's working tonight, and her mom's with friends or something."
"So they trust a bunch of high schoolers not to destroy their house?"
"Eh, some of these guys are jerks, like Flash, but we're responsible enough with other people's property."
"The benefits of going to a snobby prep school."
"More like the benefits of having the descendant of a Howling Commando as a principal."
Vacuum.
The noise of the party disappeared, though everyone else continued dancing obliviously.
"D-do you…n-not hear it too?" Ned mumbled fearfully.
Danny darted his eyes around looking for any signs of an attack. "Ned, you need to find someplace to hide."
"What's happening, Danny?!"
One by one, the nearest students each paused, perplexed, and looked around in confusion.
A shadow fell over the boys. Danny slowly turned around and grabbed Ned's arm. "Run!" he barked.
Two wraiths hovered outside the glass, backlit by the early September moon.
"EVERYBODY RUN!" Danny repeated and pulled Ned towards the kitchen.
The first wraith seeped through the glass, but the second shattered it as it entered.
"What- what the hell are those things?" someone shouted.
Flash's DJ set faltered as he bumped the turntables' controls in surprise. He screeched and dove for cover behind the sofa.
Danny practically threw Ned behind the island before sprinting down the vacant master hallway. He rounded a corner and pressed flat against the wall. "Time to introduce Midtown to Danny Phantom," he mumbled. Danny heard footsteps coming, so he closed his eyes and fell through the wall, transforming as he passed through the drywall.
Danny Phantom arced up and over the house then looped around through the park behind it. Whipping through the trees and back into the Toomes' house revealed a living room in chaos.
Students crouched and huddled around the furniture while two wraiths hovered overhead. A subtle green glow fogged the air and bled towards the beasts.
"EVERYBODY CHILL OUT!" Phantom screamed. "These are wraiths! They feed off bad emotion!"
A few teens heard him and reduced themselves to whimpering, but a majority continued to freak out. Some of the jocks took to throwing picture frames and coffee table books at the wraiths, but they either shattered ineffectively or sailed uselessly through the wraiths' smokey trails.
Phantom charged his fists with ectoplasm. "Do you guys understand words?" he asked the beasts.
The wraiths screeched senselessly.
"That's a no, then." Phantom released two blasts. One hit its target, but the other missed and destroyed the behemoth LED television on the wall. He cringed. "Er…sorry."
Flash stood up from his hiding place. "Bro, are you here to help or not?" he taunted, but the boy screamed when one of the wraiths targeted him.
Phantom saw the wraith charging, so he flew forward and straddled it. The beast bucked like a bronco, and the hero tried his best to maintain a grip, balling his fists in its ethereal cloak. He fumbled to get an arm wrapped around the thing's neck, but it sent him sailing into the wall. Phantom crashed against a metal-framed glass bookcase and shattered the upper shelves, sending himself and their contents plummeting to destroy the lower ones. He got his bearings and saw one piece of the metal frame rolling next to him. Phantom grabbed it, stood and held it like a bat.
"Hey, piñata, you missed me!" Phantom barked and leaped back into the air.
"Pretty sure it didn't," Michelle commented from the sidelines.
Phantom swung forcefully but missed when the nearest wraith dodged. He instead caught the solid-glass chandelier's support cable and ripped it from the ceiling. The assembly immediately fell to and dented the walnut coffee table, and the closest students had to shield their faces from the scattering glass.
"What are you things doing to my house?!" Liz shouted from her perch next to Betty.
Phantom angrily whipped to face her. "I'm NOT a thing, and I'm TRYING to save everyo-!"
One of the wraiths had risen behind the hero and raised its skeletal arm. It struck Phantom behind the skull and sent him careening into the protruding corner of the wall next to Liz, his skull taking the brunt of the impact. Phantom collapsed unmoving and face-down on the floor.
Liz fearfully looked up at the two wraiths now focused on her, Betty and Phantom alone. The rest of the students scrambled for the kitchen, master wing and broken glass wall to the patio.
"M-m-mister hero guy?" Liz stuttered and violently shoved his shoulder.
Phantom jolted and struggled to press himself up off the floor. "Mm—mmhm?" he slurred. "Yeahp, I'mmmmup. Nev'r fear, Phasma's here."
Liz and Betty shared concerned looks.
Phantom tipped over onto his butt and shook out his head. His white hair floofed back into its typical untamed style. "Ugh, what hit me?"
"A wall," Betty informed. "And now if you could please stop destroying my friend's house and start killing the dementors, that would be super great!"
"They're wraiths. No souls, feed on bad emotion not happy thoughts. Big difference."
"Are you...dead?" Liz asked.
Phantom squinted at her as he tried to focus his vision.
"I mean...ghosts are real?" the party hostess clarified.
Phantom rolled over to get on his hands and knees. "As real as you are, dudette."
Liz saw him feeling around for something and noticed the long metal bar which had rolled against her knee. She picked it up and held it out to the hero.
"Thanks," he said. Phantom stood, fumbling once but catching himself before Betty could intervene. He took the piece from Liz and snapped it in two against his knee, brandishing its pieces like eskrima sticks.
The closer wraith charged.
Phantom sprung into the air once more, using the metal pieces as conduits for his ectoplasmic energy charges. He crossed his arms tightly in front of him and whipped them out and together once the wraith was in reach, scissoring the beast's head off. A few people screamed and one partygoer wretched as both head and body fell to the floor and disintegrated into a cloud of infernal smoke at Betty and Liz's feet.
The students watching on from the kitchen cheered, unwittingly attracting the remaining wraith's attention. Phantom groaned in frustration as he went in pursuit. Before he could get ahold of the wraith, it extended its arm and wrapped its unnaturally long fingers around Phantom's torso. The wraith began leeching his energy, and Phantom went slightly slack and dropped one of the sticks in hand.
"Come on, Danny Phantom, get him!" Ned shouted.
Phantom's eyes locked onto Ned's, and he mustered a determined frown. He didn't have nearly enough wherewithal to get a forceful strike in, so he looked down at the metal piece in hand. He turned it intangible and laboriously lifted it until the metal phased straight through the wraith's skull. Phantom dropped the intangibility.
The wraith paused for a moment before letting out one final, terrible screech and disappearing in the same cloud of smoke as the other. The pipe dropped and clamored across the kitchen island while Phantom dropped over the faucet.
"Holy shit," Flash said.
The students cheered once more in victory. Ned shoved his way through the crowd to Phantom's side and helped lift him upright. Phantom threw an arm over the boy's shoulder and looked around as he panted for air. The hero lurched forwards and, realizing where he was, merely said "Bye" before sloppily flying out the window.
Ned hurried to the window and looked out at the sky, but Phantom was nowhere to be found. A body suddenly fell from the roof, though, and crashed into a bush. Ned hurried over and exclaimed, "Danny!"
Danny looked not quite as worse for wear as Phantom had been when he'd left, but it was obvious the wraiths had attacked him too. "Hey, Ned," he greeted as if the situation were completely normal.
"What did those things do to you?!"
Danny fought against the bush's branches. "Grabbed me, sucked out my energy and dropped me on the roof. I was looking for a way down. Guess I just fell off."
"Too bad Danny Phantom didn't help you down!"
The weary boy finally escaped from the shrubbery's clutches. "Looked like I shoulda been helping him, not the other way around."
Ned brushed some leaves off of Danny's shirt. "C'mon, let's get you a drink."
Liz, Betty and Flash appeared in the opening in the glass wall. Flash held a nearly-full red solo cup in hand, and it visibly shook from his frayed nerves.
"Liz, can you get Danny some water?" Ned asked.
"Flash, give him yours," Liz suggested.
"This isn't— er it's my-"
"We don't have time for you to be a dick to the new kid, Flash," Betty interrupted and easily stole the cup from his grasp, handing it to Danny.
Danny immediately gulped almost the whole thing down and broke into a coughing fit. "Holy crap!" he sputtered. "You guys really need to change your Brita filter!"
Liz frowned and grabbed the cup from his hand, lifting it to her nose. She turned a furious glare onto Flash.
The boy wilted under her gaze. "I-it wasn't water," he feebly admitted.
Everyone turned their attention to Danny who still leaned heavily against Ned. "What?" he asked.
Jazz slumped harder against her hand in a waning attempt to stay upright. She stared across the table at her mom as the older woman frowned at her letters.
"It's just Scrabble, Mom, not a password which unlocks the secrets of the universe," Jazz groaned. "Just play a word already."
"Don't rush me, Jazz!" Maddie protested. "You've won every game we've played for years, and tonight's the night I break that streak."
Jazz sighed and stood to get a sweater from her room. Mercifully, her phone buzzed in her pocket.
[Call from: Toast]
"How's the party, Danny?"
"Hey, uh, is this Jazz?" an unknown voice replied.
"Yeah? Who's this?"
"This is Ned from school. Peter's friend? And Danny's, I guess?"
Jazz's eyes widened. She glanced out at her mother at the table and her father on the sofa before silently shutting her bedroom door. "Why do you have Danny's phone? Is he okay?"
"JAZZ!" Danny shouted in the background. "I HASHTAG SENT IT! IMMA COOL KID."
Jazz gasped and whisper-shouted, "Is he drunk?!"
"Accidentally!"
"How does someone accidentally get drunk?!"
"GHOSTS, AMIRIGHT? I'M, LIKE…DEAD."
"Well after he fell off the roof we thought we were giving him Flash's water but it turns out Flash had poured himself, like, four shots of vodka after Danny Phantom destroyed the living room and killed the wraiths?"
"I'm getting whiplash from this conversation."
"Look, can you please come pick HIM up? Peter already left so I think Mrs. Parker isn't coming back to give me a ride so Abe said I could crash at his place tonight but he doesn't have room for Danny too, and I don't even know how Danny got here? He just kind of appeared? Besides I don't really want to get adults involved anyway since it was legitimately an accident and it'd only cause MORE trouble-"
"Yes, alright, calm down. I'll come give you guys a ride. Keep Danny safe until I get there, okay?"
"I will, don't worry."
"IT'S NOT THE ONLY ACCIDENT I'VE EVER HAD," Danny added.
"And try to get him to shut up."
Ooooo a couple bomb drops in this chapter, eh?
References:
- The Parkers: Yes, really. If you've read all the comics (or spent 2 hours googling their characters' bios like I did in preparation for this fic since I didn't grow up reading comics), they *were* in Mumbai on assignment at one point, they *were* recruited by Nick Fury, and they *were* killed in an 'accidental' plane crash after their cover was blown. Now it's suddenly not such a flip-flop for Tony to want Peter to stay a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, is it? Suddenly our boi Peter's origin story is a million times more tragic.
- "Both. Both is good": Because of the current popularity of the Road to El Dorado meme
- "Phasma's here": concussed Danny is accidentally referencing Captain Phasma from Star Wars Episode VII
- Call from Toast: Yes, Jazz would 100% make sure her contacts are organized and formally labeled; Sam would be Samantha Manson and Mom and Dad are Mother and Father. BUT, the 'toast' exchange from Secret Weapons in season 2 ("You're toast!" "Oh, yeah? You and what toaster?") is iconic and would remind her of a critical moment of growth in their sibling relationship. Close runner-ups include Pariah Dork and Space Cadet.
- "I HASHTAG SENT IT!": Dudebros of 2016 unite. This was a ridiculously popular hashtag #sendit because of some viral video that was popular at the time this story takes place in MCU canon.
Thanks as usual for everyone's feedback and reactions! It's always nice to be reminded that I'm writing this story for other people to enjoy too and not just myself lol.
Also, I *may* have recently become obsessed with My Hero Academia and am trying to figure out a story idea that satisfies my DPxMHA crossover itch...