Chapter Text
Danny wished he’d never gone to Florida for vacation with his family. He hadn’t even wanted to leave Amity Park in the first place. Without him, ghosts liked to run rampant and terrorize the citizens of Amity Park even worse than usual. It's like they got excited that he wasn’t there to stop them and thought they’d be able to get away with being jerks. Their even wilder behavior meant that people could get hurt without him there to protect them. It also meant that Danny would have a huge to-do list of things to clean up when he got back. It made the whole point of a vacation completely useless. The catch-up game he’d need to play was not worth it at all.
Vlad had offered to let him stay in his house instead of going on vacation, after hearing about Danny’s worries. The man hadn’t been as much of a Fruit Loop in the past year, for some reason. It's like one day he just woke up and realized what a villain he was and decided to quit. Danny wasn’t sure what was going through the man’s head, or why he decided to try and change, but it certainly was weird. He had even offered Danny a few training lessons with no ulterior motives and, on occasion, tried to present himself as some kind of father figure for Danny without replacing his actual dad. Not that Danny was all that eager to allow any of that stuff to go on. He couldn't just trust his worst enemy to suddenly be on his side.
It had been a year since Vlad started to change, so there was some semblance of trust and understanding forming there. They had their moments where it felt like they could be friends, and then moments where they still felt like enemies. It was weird trying to befriend someone who used to beat the shit out of him all the time, even if Vlad didn’t do that anymore.
Training with Vlad Plasmius was one thing but living with him for a few weeks while his family went on vacation was another. He wasn’t quite on the ‘Uncle Vlad’ level just yet. It was more of a ‘maybe an ally if you’re desperate’ kind of situation. Like he would consider accepting Vlad’s help, but only if he had no other choice. A last resort sort of situation.
Since Danny had vetoed the idea of staying with Vlad so vehemently, the man made a counteroffer. He was limited on staying in Amity Park options (Sam’s parents dragged her on a vacation to Hawaii with them and Tucker was off at some kind of nerdy summer camp), so Vlad offered to look after Amity Park in Phantom’s temporary absence. Danny, clearly, didn’t completely trust Vlad to keep the place nice and safe for him. But his parents weren’t really giving him a choice. If he refused to stay with his ‘Uncle Vlad,’ then he would have to come with them.
There was no way they would trust him to stay home alone for weeks. Not after how often he broke curfew to fight ghosts. He was pretty sure he’d never get that trust back since he’d been breaking curfew fairly consistently for the past three and a half years. It wasn’t really his fault, though. The ghosts he fought didn’t care that he was on a schedule. Not that his parents knew about his ghost-fighting escapades, even after these past few years. He shuddered at the thought of them figuring out that he was Phantom. With all their talk about how much they wanted to dissect Phantom, he didn’t want to find out if they still planned to do that if they learned that Phantom was their son.
Since he couldn’t tell them and he still had ghosts to defeat, he kind of just had to keep breaking curfew. His parents would probably never trust him again, but at least they stopped punishing him as harshly. They sort of just… stopped caring. And Danny didn’t blame them. From their perspective, he must be a child impossible to discipline. He didn’t stop breaking curfew, no matter how much they punished him. He could never tell them why, so punishing him for answers didn’t change a thing, either. The longest he’d been grounded was for a full four months in his sophomore year.
No phone, no laptop, no TV, and no hanging out with his friends. They’d even stacked thrice as many chores on top of his responsibilities. It had been horrible, dealing with all the extra chores combined with ghost fighting. Not only that, but for four straight months he hadn’t had a way to contact his friends when he was in danger. He got seriously hurt one day, and he’d had to practically drag himself home with his side cut open and a concussion pulsing behind his eyes. Then he’d had to patch himself up all alone while biting down on his blanket so his parents wouldn’t hear his painful cries. He would’ve gone to Jazz that day, but he’d been too worried that seeking her out would wake his parents. Her room was directly across from theirs.
Things seriously sucked now that she was off at college and wasn’t there to cover for him.
After four long months of being grounded, his parents realized that Danny wasn’t going to budge. Even when they personally escorted him to and from school, he still managed to disappear at some point. He still broke curfew, even when he was grounded and knew that breaking the rules was only extending his grounding. So, they lifted it, and sort of just… stopped caring. Danny broke curfew, and all he got were disappointed frowns from his parents these days. They never asked him where he’d been anymore.
Danny shrugged it off on the outside, but on the inside it kind of stung. But he supposed maybe it was for the best. There was no way he would risk his parents finding out about him being a half-ghost, so now he didn’t have to worry about telling them since they’d stopped pressing for answers. He no longer had to worry about his parents freaking out over curfew because he’d been out late keeping the town safe. He could just do what he needed to do without the extra baggage.
But that also meant they no longer trusted him with any type of personal responsibility. Which means… Danny was definitely not allowed to stay at home alone for an extended period of time. He might be turning eighteen in a few months, and therefore becoming an adult, but even then, Danny didn’t think his parents would trust him to be alone as long as he lived under their roof.
So, he went to Florida.
Jazz was with them since it was summer and school was out, so it was kind of like a family reunion as well. The drive was the worst, though. It was a literal 28-hour drive according to the GPS. In Danny’s opinion, that was way too much time to be spending hauled up in a car with your family. His parents played loud music and noisily sang along, constantly urging him and Jazz to do so as well. The back of the RV was cramped and filled with ghost weapons, as per usual, which was a total health hazard for both him and his sister. Danny accidentally stung himself with an anti-ghost knife that someone had just left lying around after his dad had recklessly jerked the wheel around to avoid an accident that he’d almost caused himself.
One perk was that they got to stop at Disney World once they finally got to Florida. After spending two days cramped in an RV (they didn’t even stop at a hotel, they just pulled into a truck stop during the night and his parents slept in a tent outside on a patch of grass while him and Jazz slept in the RV), it was nice to get out and actually do something. He’d never been to Disney World because his parents had never been able to afford it. However, this year was different. His parents had taken to dealing with the Guys in White more recently.
They’d sold a few of their lesser inventions, which was not so great for Danny Phantom, but for Danny Fenton and his family? They weren’t as strapped for money lately. It was the reason they were going on this big vacation.
The rides at Disney World were fantastic, and Danny got to meet some of his favorite Disney characters (they were just actors playing the part, but it was still fun). In general, he just had a good time with his family, and he got a bit of a break from dealing with shitty ghosts trying to take over the world. He called Vlad periodically whenever he had a chance to be alone and the elder half-ghost updated him on what was going on in Amity Park while he was away. So far, he’d only had to deal with the Box Ghost terrorizing the post office. And Cujo, who had decided trees were just big sticks he could play with and started ripping them out of the ground at the park. Vlad had taken care of both situations without any issues.
After they were done with Disney World, they camped out in another truck stop for a night before driving the rest of the way to the beach. They stayed in a cheap hotel across the street from the ocean and spent their days lounging at the beach and swimming. Danny spent a lot of time snorkeling near the underwater reefs and spying on all the sea creatures that lived there. Later in the days, Danny and Jazz talked and caught up on their lives whenever they had time alone because… well, Danny couldn’t talk about his ghost escapades in front of his parents. He did hide some of the more distressing details from his sister, though. He didn’t want her to worry while she was away at college.
But the peace of vacation just couldn’t last forever for poor Danny.
On their third night staying at the hotel, Danny woke up to a very familiar sensation. A chill filled his chest, and he exhaled cold air—his ghost sense had gone off. Still groggy with sleep, Danny rubbed his eyes and glanced around the room. It was silent, other than the air conditioner. His parents were sleeping in their king-sized bed, and Jazz was passed out on her twin-sized one. Danny was laid out on the pull-out couch. It had been a ‘first come, first serve’ kind of deal between him and his sister, and obviously, Danny had lost and ended up last to make it to the hotel room. So, he was stuck on the least comfortable sleeping spot for the duration of their stay.
Looking around the room seemed to prove that no ghosts were actually inside. If that had been the case, he would’ve let his parents handle it. They never left home without more ghost equipment than they actually needed. But since the ghost wasn’t inside, that meant this was a job for Danny Phantom.
Danny sighed, pushing his blankets off and grabbing his phone so he could send a quick text to Jazz, so she’d know where he was if she woke up and saw he was missing. With the message sent, he tip-toed his way into the bathroom and closed the door. He didn’t lock it, just in case his parents woke up and thought he might’ve slipped and hurt himself in there. He didn’t need them to wonder how in the world the door got locked from the inside if nobody was in there.
“Goin’ ghost.” Danny sleepily mumbled to himself. He watched through the mirror as bright rings of light traveled over his body, changing his pajamas into his suit with the ‘DP’ insignia. His raven black hair turned to snow white and started to float against the laws of gravity and his blue eyes started to flash a bright green. His slightly tanned skin turned pale, and his bony, slouching form filled out subtly with lean muscles and broad shoulders.
His outfit had changed in small, subtle ways over the years. He wasn’t quite sure how that happened… it must be some power he wasn’t quite sure how he used? All he knew was that the plain, solid hazmat suit had somehow gradually filled out with more detail. His belt had become more solid and had loops on it, where he’d hooked his Fenton Thermos to it. The boots that used to be a plain, plastic-y white had somehow turned into a more fabric-like material with laces. They looked more like regular boots.
Danny looked down at them, trying to remember when they changed on their own and how. He had never liked the old boots; they had been uncomfortable and not very appealing. These new ones fit him better and made running easier. Plus, they just looked better. He still wasn’t sure how they changed on their own, though. Being a half-ghost was weird. He knew the ‘DP’ insignia on his chest came from when his friend Sam had put it on him in a weird… time travel situation. She had wished that her and Danny had never met in the middle of a fight, and Desiree had gladly granted it. He wasn’t sure if that was still considered a ‘time travel’ situation if they never went back in time? But Desiree still snipped a part of the past out of existence and changed the future in a significant way.
He had to re-die and everything. Sam had stuck the little ‘DP’ detail on his chest before he entered the Ghost Portal and turned himself back into a halfa. The ‘DP’ insignia had just… stayed after that. So, Danny assumed that whatever you died in is whatever you got. But looking at the new details on his outfit… maybe he was wrong. Plasmius had this whole vampire look going on and he knew for a fact that the man hadn’t half-died looking like that. It wasn’t like he was working on the proto-portal on freaking Halloween.
Danny’s ghost sense went off again, pulling his sleepy attention away from his boots and reminding him that he had work to do. He floated up slightly off the ground and allowed his legs to merge into his ghostly tail before groaning to himself and floating upwards. He allowed his body to turn invisible and intangible so he could phase through the walls and ceilings and out into the open. Hovering over the hotel’s roof, he looked at everything around him. It was a cheap hotel so it was only four stories high, and he could see the ground pretty easily from this height. He could see just about every detail of the palm trees near the hotel. Off in the distance, he could see the beach. After all, they’d only chosen this hotel because it was the closest one they could find.
He was thankful his ghost powers came with a little bit of night vision, but with the streetlights, he wasn’t sure how much it really helped him right now. He'd really have to start testing the range of that power. He hadn’t even really noticed he had it until Tucker crashed into a trash can in the middle of the night last year, even though Danny could very clearly and easily see it right there. He’d thought that Tucker should have seen it too, and after saying as much, Tucker grumbled about how dark it was and it wasn’t his fault he didn’t have night vision like Danny. He snorted at the memory.
Danny’s thoughts were interrupted by a familiar whirring sound coming from behind him. The half-ghost dodged an ectoplasmic blast just in the nick of time, and he spun around to see who had opened fire on him. There, hiding just behind a large air conditioning unit, was a ghost he knew all too well.
“Skulker.” Danny grit out, feeling the palms of his hands heat up in preparation for the battle to come. All grogginess from earlier evaporated in an instant. Sure, he might've just woken up in the middle of the night. But during this vacation, he’d managed to get about a week’s worth of good sleep. Which was unfortunately better than the irregular sleep he’d been getting for several months. Ghosts seriously did not give a single fuck about his circadian rhythm.
Exposed, Skulker stepped away from his hiding place. He was holding a shiny knew ectogun that was still smoking from the barrel. “I see you’re still as perceptive as ever, Ghost Boy.”
“Takes more than a laser pointer like that to gank me, ya tin can!” Danny snarked.
“This is not a laser pointer, you ignorant fool!” Skulker yelled, enraged as he lifted the gun again to start shooting. Leave it to a ghost to never understand sarcasm. “It’s the latest thing I’ve created to kill you! Maybe now I’ll finally be able to hang your pelt on my wall!”
“For the millionth time,” Danny groaned. “Ew.”
And thus, the battle began. Danny shot at Skulker, and Skulker shot at him. They flew around all over the town and Danny made sure to keep any citizens from being caught in the crossfire. Turns out, Skulker had tracked him all the way across the fucking country like some kind of stalker. He figured if Phantom was outside of familiar territory, he might get the upper hand for once. He was sort of right. Navigating the town was complicated, especially since they hadn’t quite ventured out much yet. They kind of just stuck to the beach and the hotel, but they were slowly figuring out the layout when they went out to eat.
What the idiotic metal ghost hadn’t taken into account, however, was the fact that he was in unfamiliar territory as well. So that put them both on the same level as usual, and it ended with Skulker retreating the very second his mechanical suit got too banged up.
This interaction alone started the beginning of a pattern. Almost every single night after that, Danny was woken up because Skulker was lurking around and hunting for him. They would fight, Skulker would try new things to kill or capture him. Danny tried to use his Fenton Thermos so he could just keep him locked inside until they went home. But after years of using the same trick, some of the ghosts had gotten pretty good at avoiding it. Not all of them, but Skulker was definitely one of the higher-level ghosts who could.
Skulker even started bothering him in the daytime and Danny often had to sneak off to fight him. This led to people seeing them fight, and they caused some property damage, which meant the locals were starting to freak the fuck out. Danny forgot that people outside of Amity Park didn’t really see ghosts just out and about like this. After all, Danny was pretty good at keeping them all corralled inside, only getting as far as the edges of town before he captured them and sent them back to the Ghost Zone. It was also incredibly hard to capture a ghost on camera for some reason. Danny had tried taking photos of himself in his ghost form, but they usually turned out blurry, distorted, or unrecognizable. The videos weren’t much better, so the bizarre news reports about ghosts never really made it that far outside of Amity Park. And if they did, it wasn’t taken seriously.
The citizens of this small little Florida town were horrified by the sight of both. Police Officers were frequently called to the scene, so Danny had to dodge actual bullets on top of avoiding Skulker’s ecto-blasts. While he’d been shot at by humans before (his parents, other ghost hunters, the Guys in White, etc., etc.), it was still an unpleasant experience. He was trying to keep both himself and the town safe, and he gets repaid by being shot at.
At least most of the people in Amity Park knew he was trying to protect them. These people thought both him and Skulker were out to get them. Which wasn’t true on either end. Skulker was a hunting ghost. Phantom was his chosen prey, and he had been since he became a halfa. In his attempts to capture or kill Phantom, he didn’t care who got caught in the crossfire. Phantom was left to protect both himself and the people around him. It wasn’t a great situation, and honestly, if he could leave to keep people safe, he would. But he couldn’t.
Something Danny didn’t think about was the attention he would gather outside of Florida. It was a popular vacation spot, so he should have seen it coming. Amity Park was some random town in the middle of nowhere that hardly anyone visited, so that aided in not letting news spread far (besides the whole un-photographable thing ghosts had going on). But here in Florida? People were always coming and going. Which meant… people talked. To their friends, their family, and on the internet about the crazy things that were happening in Florida.
Danny seriously wished he’d never caught the attention of what he now knows as the Winchester brothers.