To Judge A Phantom - Danny Phantom AU part 1
"Danny, we need you to clean the lab! There's pizza money in the kitchen while we are away on our ghost hunt, okay?" A cheerful female voice called up the stairs.
A skinny twig of a teenager with blue eyes, black hair, and bags under his eyes to rival any college student studying for some truly vicious finals looked up from his homework with a sigh.
"Alright, Mom!" Danny called back tiredly. "Have fun."
"Oh we will, Danny boy!" A loud male voice boomed back up the stairs.
"Your sister should be back from tutoring by five. Behave for her and Vlad will check in on you both regularly," Mom called back cheerfully.
A few minutes later Danny heard the front door slam shut and the GAV raced out onto the street. The GAV was a converted camper outfitted like a tank but with Ghosts as the target and was officially called the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle. Most of Amity Park just considered it a monstrosity and a terror on the road considering how Jack Fenton, Danny's Dad, treated it like an actual souped up tank and everything to be off road wilderness. The local weather report even had a section on if Jack and the GAV were likely to be on the road that day. Of course with reports on Ghost attacks and the damage from them in their own section on the local news reports that wasn't exactly surprising either.
A light blue icy mist expanded in Danny's chest and escaped his lips after twenty minutes of doing homework. Danny groaned in annoyance and resignation before setting aside his work. He stood up and checked something before bracing himself for something.
"Going Ghost," Danny said firmly, triggering the magical girl transformation he had received when he got his powers.
White rings appeared around Danny's waist and split, running along his body in either direction as his form shifted from human teenager to ghostly Phantom. His eyes turned bright glowing green and his hair turned bright white while his skin went even more pale from the original pale shade. His clothes shifted from the original jeans, sneakers, and white plus red NASA logo t-shirt he always wore into a Hazmat suit without the helmet and mask. The Hazmat suit was primarily black with a white stylized DP logo on his chest. The gloves, boots, and belt along with the area around his neck were white.
"I hope it isn't one of my tougher regulars or a new one," Danny muttered as he allowed gravity to stop mattering in favor of floating up into the air. Sighing he phased through the outside wall of his room to float in the air just outside his second story bedroom window and look around for the ghost his misty breath had indicated was nearby.
"Daniel," an unwelcome male voice greeted.
Danny turned to face the other floating form. The male ghostly form had pale blue skin, red eyes, and a very vampire look about him. His hair was black with two horn shapes from the hair, one to either side, and a streak of silver grey down the center from his forehead to the back of his head. His white outfit wouldn't be out of place on the Emperor from Flash Gordon or some other fictional supervillain. From the white, nearly above his head, high necked cape with a red lining to the the white pull over long sleeve shirt with a black upsidedown triangle on the chest to the white slacks and boots it still gave off a very supervillain vibe matched with his red eyes and death toned blue-grey skin. The black gloves, belt, and boots gave the only other color contrast in his wardrobe. He even had pointed ears, a small black beard, and tiny fangs in his mouth but none of that distracted Danny who had seen it all before.
"Vlad," Danny greeted in pure teenage annoyance.
"I thought I should check in sooner rather than later," Vlad explained neutrally as he floated nearby. "We aren't normally on the best of terms but given the circumstances and the fact that I had absolutely no influence on your parent's trip, much to my annoyance, I thought it wise. I actually would have preferred if they stayed in Amity this month but I have had to scramble to adjust or scrap various plans, including anything you might term evil plans for you."
"Uh, okay? This is really weird but appreciated?" Danny said warily.
"I just don't understand why you won't renounce Jack and accept me as your mentor," Vlad grumbled.
"You want to kill my dad and marry my mom on top of making me your evil apprentice/son. That's just really wrong in my book and a bit too out there when we first met," Danny pointed out archly. "Yeah, we are both halfa's and I've now seen weirder connected to the Ghost Zone but I just can't get past the ick factor, plus, ya know, the evil factor. You used your ghost powers to pretty much steal money and companies and whatever from anyone you thought was worth the effort. I don't want to learn that or go that route. At all, Vlad. Frostbite says I'm a Protector Spirit and warned me that if I get hurt bad enough I have to figure out something that lets me rest while I protect."
"Frostbite?" Vlad asked with a frown.
"My ghost doctor. He's a Yeti in the Far Frozen Kingdom in the Ghost Zone," Danny explained with a sigh. "My point is that you repeatedly told me to stop being a hero and be your evil son/apprentice instead. I literally can't if I don't want to let my own core kill me to my second death. I have to protect. It isn't negotiable. I'm only telling you this because of the fact you are my nominal guardian while my parents are out of town and because of the whole clone mess with Danielle. I got her to not melt on her last visit but she still thinks you're a fruit loop as much as I do. How did you even get a girl clone from my weird DNA anyway?"
"She was the only one I mixed some of my own DNA with. I was born a chimera and apparently absorbed my twin sister in the womb," Vlad admitted. "The clones weren't supposed to be that... alive. I wasn't going to actually throw her away the way you both thought after that first fight but I didn't have a way to save her from melting like the others. Even if I had gotten your mid-morph DNA it would have taken me weeks to analyze it well enough for another set of clone attempts. I was hoping to either get a new more stable clone out of things that might actually survive or, however unlikely, get you to stick around if only to protect the clones from me."
"Why? Why did you even try to clone me in the first place?!" Danny demanded angrily.
"We are the only halfa's in existence from what I can tell, dear boy. I am increasingly aware that my obsession over your mother is... less than ideal. Unfortunately, it was a core part of me when I was exposed to the proto type portal accident in college," Vlad admitted with difficulty. "You also were changed with more normal genetics than mine."
"Who blackmailed you into actually explaining things to me?" Danny asked with a frown. "You haven't threatened me or attacked me or anything."
"You are aware that our type of ghost requires a certain amount of combat just for basic health? That the play fights you have been engaging in all over town since your parents portal was activated have been the equivalent of saying hello or minor disagreements?" Vlad asked with a frown. "Discounting the fights with various Ancients and Pariah Dark."
"No... I, uh, wasn't aware of that," Danny said nervously.
"...No one explained anything to you?! At all?!" Vlad demanded incredulously. "None of your ghost friends? Or even this Frostbite? Or the Ancient Spirit of Time that you seem to be on good terms with?"
"Uh, no," Danny said uncomfortably.
"Good lord, no wonder you keep meeting literally everyone who shows up and fighting them," Vlad groaned. "You are allowed to tell them no and if you do it the right way they will respect it unless they are actually around to cause trouble. If done right you can even probably get the true troublemakers to wait until after school."
"Not if it requires seriously hurting them like you did those animal ghosts, Vlad," Danny said stubbornly. "You maimed them and forced them into freaky amalgamations! They fit some sort of Horror movie pretty much perfectly once they were ghosts! Not cool, dude! You're like... like Lex Luthor to my Superman. Except I am in no way as good as Superman and you're my godfather..."
"I think you are vastly underestimating yourself but what do I know about teenage superheroes?" Vlad said sarcastically. They both heard a beep and Vlad checked something at his waist before returning it to the pocket he had pulled it from. "Butter biscuits. I have a meeting as Mayor to get to. Here, stop wrecking the credit cards I keep giving you and make sure you actually eat this week. If your parents are going to be out of town for longer I'll make arrangements for you and your sister to at least have another week's worth of clothes and food. You are both old enough to be left alone but I would really rather you both out of that death trap of a house. So since neither of you trust me please see if your friends will let you sleep over as much as possible this week or I can get you both a hotel room."
"Just this once," Danny warned, accepting the credit card.
"As for my obsession over Madeline... I don't know if you've noticed but when I focus on having some sort of close relationship with you it and my drive to kill Jack are... reduced. I believe part of it is knowing actually succeeding with them might lose me you completely. Since you don't know about certain health things for ghosts like us I need to inform you that our fights? They count as training in one way and enrichment activities in another. You are a baby ghost and I'm.... technically I count as something like a toddler," Vlad admitted with a grimace. "Compared to the effective life span of the others in the Ghost Zone it makes sense even if it is rather galling."
"If focusing on me stops you from going after my parents as much... Could we use that to shift your obsession?" Danny asked curiously.
"I don't know," Vlad said, spreading his hands helplessly. "If it lets me keep you... I'm willing to consider trying it but I would probably hyper focus on keeping you safe or something if we manage to shift it."
"I should drag you to Frostbite. Did you ever get checked by one of the Doctors in the Zone? Or just the human ones after the accident?" Danny asked thoughtfully.
"Just the human ones," Vlad admitted. "I did a lot of the study on ghost physiology myself and there were a fair number of things that didn't match between us as Halfa's and that of full Ghosts. You have to account for the human still living side of things as well as the ghostly side or you're in trouble. None of that is important right now though. We've gotten off topic for what else I wanted to discuss with you."
"What was that?" Danny asked suspiciously.
"The Ghost Investigation Ward is not happy at the Anti-Ecto Acts being repealed in the next months and losing their test bed of sorts. The Acts didn't pass muster when they came up for official review after being passed and since I slipped in the clause that they had to be ratified again every year for twenty years before they could become permanent and as such it was repealed. The Ghost Investigation Ward was not happy to discover that while they are still a Federal Agency they lost the right to officially go after and experiment or exterminate on anything involving Ectoplasm. That is they lost it except where they had managed to bully states and other local governments into putting in laws more favorable to them and reiterating the Acts as legal," Vlad explained.
"Like Amity," Danny said moodily, kicking at the air he was floating in as if he were standing on solid ground.
"Like Amity. Thankfully, nowhere else seems to be maintaining the laws making Amity Park a blind spot to the rest of the world in yet another way," Vlad said in agreement. "Unfortunately, the GIW noticed a pattern. They noticed that you, as Phantom, are heavily focused on your school and that many of the ghosts go straight there to face you."
"What did they do?" Danny asked in dread.
"They have legally ordered the entire high school to report to one of their larger bases for testing and have formally locked down the town," Vlad explained heavily. "Your parents were allowed to leave specifically so that they would be out of the splash zone as it were to be called on in an emergency while trapping you and Jasmine here as motivation. That leads me to believe that if nothing happens from the ghosts then they will make something happen to excuse what they are doing and justify anything... out of line or excessive they may attempt. I regret ever funding them to mess with you."
"Most of the town is too Liminal to pass their tests," Danny said in open horror. "That's not even counting what might happen if they check you, me, Jazz, Sam, or Tucker and we will all be at the top of their lists. You because of being Mayor, me and Jazz because we literally live on top of the stupid portal, with my friends being seen around Phantom all the time.... If they get Valerie too with her being Red Huntress and the weird way the ghost hunting gear you gave her was bonded to her by Technus.... It won't matter if I'm in Phantom or Fenton form and it won't matter if you are in Plasmius or Masters form. Human or ghost if they catch us and have any idea that we might fall under those Acts we are so dead."
"Exactly my concern," Vlad said grimly. "Just as a precaution I want your permission to potentially hire a number of ghosts to either fight the GIW or kidnap the town into the Ghost Zone. By being able to say that I have your permission more of them will take this seriously instead of another plan to play with you or cause trouble. Technically the entire town is your Haunt and I just live here under your sufferance according to Ghost custom because you are probably stronger than me even if right now we are roughly close in actual power if not experience."
"I don't think we are going to have any choice," Danny agreed with a slump of his shoulders. "Make sure they understand the humans are under my protection and I will fight for them if I have to."
"Not the GIW," Vlad warned. "If we do this they will be subject to Ghost justice. That's the part I was most worried about you having problems with. According to Ghost custom claiming the town as your haunt officially puts the residents as under your direct authority but they are also yours to punish if they do something to another Ghost. You would be held responsible for them. Officially, it's like having a pet but they are in a weird grey area because technically the living are not supposed to have official influence among the dead. We also can't claim or protect Jack or Maddie with their association with the GIW. Your link as blood family and the fact that the rest of the ghosts don't realize your situation with them is the only thing keeping them safe."
"Crud, okay," Danny agreed reluctantly. "What about you and any of the local ghosts that don't cause trouble?"
"Depends on age and power level," Vlad explained. "You are technically too young to have permanent subordinates but a lot of the blob ghosts stick around for your protection even with the risks from the GIW and other Ghost Hunters, like your parents. The fact that you protect the Ghosts as much as the humans has been getting around and some of the weaker ghosts have started talking about asking you to accept them as subordinates when they can. I only know about it because Skulker was very annoyed at getting trapped into explaining some things about Amity instead of coming back to hunt you again. He complained about it for a good half hour before we got around to our normal bartering for his services to mess with you at the time."
"Alright, I officially authorize you to get help from the zone," Danny said reluctantly. "No human deaths if possible. We can clean up the mess afterwards."