Electrical Currents ~ Origins ~

Maddie and Jack Fenton, are self-proclaimed Ghost Hunters and owners of Fenton Works but are also parents of two kids. A daughter named Jasmine, who goes by Jazz, and a son named Daniel, who goes by Danny. 

Living with ghost-obsessed parents since birth, Danny had to put up with his parents' "unique" personalities, which often traumatized him and his sister. His parents would often get sucked into their own inventions and research often leaving Jazz and Danny feeling a bit neglected by their parents. He would often try not to take it personally, his parents would often tell them that they indeed loved both Danny and Jazz so it's not like it was really a problem that they weren't giving him much of their attention.

They loved them and were putting a roof over their heads.

With Maddie and Jack always chasing after ghosts, they wouldn’t want their children to get hurt while they are busy chasing after a ghost now would they?

At ages 7 and 5, the Fenton children were signed up for classes to learn Kyokushin karate, jujitsu, aikido, krav maga, taekwondo, and escrima all with the intent for them to be able to take care of themselves. Having them become well-versed themselves in these fighting styles, the siblings seemed to have inherited their mother's knack for combat, the siblings have become able to endure hits and return blows with ease. 

Jazz and Danny found it the most fun sparring with each other than anyone else and it wasn't until they were each in the double digits of age that they learned there was a reason the teacher never told them no to having each other as sparring partners despite them being in slightly different age groups. No one else in their age range was anywhere close to their skill levels. Now neither Danny nor Jazz would ever state their skills being above average or at mastery level but… they were definitely up there whether they realized it or not. 

Anything that required you to aim, however, Jazz seemed to have gotten Jack's genetics for that - the aiming should be left to Danny. 

Being children full of energy, the Fenton siblings hadn't stopped their physical capabilities. Danny started taking up teaching himself to freerun/parkour and Jazz started taking a gymnastic class, which she pestered her little brother into giving in and attending the classes with her. 

The Fenton siblings got more than their mother's knack for combat. Despite their antics, Maddie and Jack are intelligent scientists and engineers and have seemed to pass on all 22 intelligence-related genes to both Jazz and Danny. The Fenton parents' obsession with ghosts and their inventions extended to them raising Jazz and Danny on knowledge about ghosts and their inventions. They have taught their kids the ins and outs of their inventions so each kid would understand how and what was being built, its purpose, and the science and engineering behind it.

Jazz and Danny both have acquired in-depth understandings of what they’ve been taught, Jazz excelling in the scientific field and Danny in the engineering field. However, unlike their parents, Jazz and Danny have no interest in hunting ghosts. Jazz has grown enamored by psychology with dreams of becoming a Psychiatrist, just as Danny's enamored by astronomy with dreams of becoming an astronaut. 

Danny would always much rather be indulging in his interest or hanging out with his best friends Tucker Foley and Samantha "Sam" Manson than dealing with his parent's rants on ghosts. He has other interests, to begin with. Astronomy and NASA are his biggest hyperfixations but he also really enjoys video games, skateboarding, playing guitar, and listening to his favorite band Dumpty Humpty - sometimes he'll try playing some of their songs on the guitar.

With Maddie and Jack pretty often being busy themselves with their “ghost research” it left the siblings with a lot of room for doing as they pleased for the most part.

Meaning Danny got to get his ears pierced without complaints from his parents.

By the time Danny was fourteen standing at 5'5 with his black hair, fair/tan skin, and icy blue eyes has managed to build up quite a collection of piercings. He’s had each ear equally covered with four black studs on his lobe and three black mini hoops on his ears helix, a black stud tragus piercing and silver industrial bar, and on each side of his nose are black spike piercings. When in school he’d often wear skin-colored piercing plugs to avoid problems with them in gym class.

Danny had usually worn a regular tee shirt with jeans and sneakers and called it a day but - he'll blame his style shift on Sam. Honestly, he wasn't working on building a style really but after borrowing some of Sam's cargo pants that she had gotten too big for herself, it just all went from there.

Danny still wears his baggy jeans but he also now has some ripped jeans, a few with chains attached, and multi-pocket tech-wear cargo pants as well as some additional designed pants added to his wardrobe. He still has his sneakers, their good running shoes, but he's also got some black and white Converses and acquired black Dr. Martens platform boots. Sam told him if he didn't get Doc Martens when getting platform boots she would never speak to him again. 

On the days when you could say it's a little "nippy" out, Danny would put a long sleeve on under his t-shirts, sometimes wearing a jean jacket, and if it was more chilly out than that he'd have a hoodie jacket, pullover hoodie, or sweater. Danny didn't really care for name-brands or logos but he did have some of his clothes with the NASA logo printed on them. His clothes are a majority in darker shades, most of them just being straight-up black, but there were some colors in the mix and they were all on the loose/baggy side. 

This loose and baggy clothing style of Danny’s often made him look to be on the thinner, scrawnier, side - which was far from the case. Practicing self-defense and martial arts has kept Danny in shape in addition to his routine exercise and workout keeping him in good health. He’s definitely got more muscle to him than appears to have, even when you can see the strong firm build unexpected of a fourteen-year-old.

Danny, getting close to fifteen, is a straight A occasional B student with an average attendance record now a ninth grader, making him a freshman while his now sixteen-year-old sister is a grade above as a sophomore. The school year had barely begun when the Fenton parents had exclaimed they finished the Fenton Ghost Portal. 

The Fenton couple were really distraught by their “greatest invention” failing to even turn on. At this time of Danny’s life, the worst he had to deal with was his eccentric parents and those who are A-listers at school, the popular kids, who bully him and his friends - mostly by Paulina and Dash.

The topic of Danny’s parents would sometimes come up around with Danny’s friends as it did this day when Danny, Tucker, and Sam Manson went to eat at Nasty Burger after school. 

“Yeah, they were pretty numbed out when they turned on the portal and nothing happened,” Danny told his friends.

“What’s the portal supposed to be again?” Sam ask.

Danny raised a brow, “What’s the one thing my parents are trying to prove exists?” he mostly rhetorically asked her. 

“Oh, right. Ghost. So they think they're all in some other dimension of sorts then.” Sam says. 

Danny shrugs his shoulders, “I guess.” before taking a bite of his burger.

“We should go check it out!” Sam says.

Both Danny and Tucker spoke, “Why?” they asked simultaneously.

“Because it’s supposed to be a portal to another dimension? Why wouldn’t we check out this possible other world?” Sam asks as if it’s the most obvious thing to do, both boys sigh trying to mentally prepare for dealing with a ghost tangent from Jack when they try to show Sam the portal later.

“Smile!” Sam says before taking a picture of an unprepared Danny now a little dazed at the camera's flash. 

“Okay, I showed you the portal can we get out of here now, my parents could be back here any minute. Besides, they say it doesn’t work anyway.” Danny tells her with his own hazmat suit in hand. 

“Come on Danny, a Ghost Zone? Aren’t you curious? You gotta check it out!” Sam says. 

Danny sighs, “You what, I guess you're right. Who knows what kind of cool stuff exists on the other side of the portal.” he says as he shrugs his shoulders a bit over the arguing. Even though I don't really believe this portal could lead to anywhere...

He slips on and zips up his white hazmat suit that has a high neckline with an attached baggy hood and the pants of the hazmat looking more like tech-wear cargo pants and boots that look like combat boots, the fabric over his back and torso is more shape conforming. In contrast to the majority white hazmat suit the neckline, belt, gloves, and boots are all the color black. The final thing to put on was the white mask with attached goggles that with a press of a button collapsed the visor into the sides of the mask just leaving the bottom half that looks like a tech-wear a gas mask covering his nose and mouth; the inhalation valves on each side has a red colored ring around them sticking out on the white mask.

After he finished zipping it up Sam speaks up “Hang on,” she walks over to Danny, “you can’t go walking around with that on your chest.” she says ripping off the sticker on the chest of Jack Fenton's face. 

“Forgot he put that on here, I never planned on needing to wear it so I didn’t comment,” Danny informs them before turning to look down the dark tunnel of the Ghost Portal and started walking in. With not much light but the glowing of some wiring lighting it up some, Danny feels around the inside of the tunnel wall when his hand moves across a button accidentally pressing into it. 

Unknown to Danny, he was pressing the second misplaced ‘on’ switch for the portal, and once he pressed it the portal turned on. All Sam and Tucker could see at the moment was a bright green and white light emitting from the tunnel so they put their arms up the shield their eyes from the light, but they could hear the blooding curdling scream Danny made before the sound suddenly ceased. 

Danny felt like a million volts of electricity started flowing through him starting from the tips of the fingers of the hand that triggered this all. He could compare the feeling of how the sensation traveled through him like when medicine is running through your body like veins when given an IV. The sensation itself though, it was a jolting, excruciating pain. He had put his finger in a light socket as a kid but this was more like it was multiplied by a gazillion and through his entire body. He felt his whole body stop and he couldn’t move, he saw white light with hints of green and some black peaking through surrounding his body as if in a bubble. It felt like everything was in slow motion like he would be stuck in this bubble with excruciating pain forever until everything ceased. 

What felt like forever to Danny was only a couple of seconds, and in those couple of seconds, the electrical currents and intense surge of energy that poured into and through him killed Danny. Except the ectoplasmic energy pouring out merged into Danny causing his DNA to become infused with ectoplasm bringing Danny back to life.

Danny feels his consciousness return to him but everything is cloudy and foggy around him with green, he manages to walk out of the portal but falls down to his knees and hisses in pain. He brings a hand to his face his head holding it in pain as his ears ring loudly. Sam and Tucker ran over to Danny who had smoke coming off of him shouting “Danny!” as he collapsed back onto the ground passing out. 

Danny didn’t look the same now Sam and Tucker could observe, he now had a more paled complexion, all his canines were sharper like fangs, his ears had a bit of a point to them, his hair was now snow-white, and the black and white colors of his suit inversed. 

Looking down at their friend concerned, Sam hesitantly reaches down and touches Danny’s wrist to feel for a pulse. Her breath hitches when she can’t feel one but then Danny suddenly stirs around squinting his already closed eyes more shut startling Sam back to standing next to Tucker. Danny sat up still on the ground holding his head and started opening his eyes, he groaned a bit “What happened?” he asked as he opened his eyes looking up at his long-time friend Tucker and newer friend Sam.

They both gasped a bit at the sight of Danny’s eyes, they weren’t blue anymore, instead, they were glowing green. This made Danny give a confused and worried look at them both as if to say ‘what’ so Tucker manages to speak up, “Um dude, your appearance it’s um different. Not different bad, but different.” he says.

Danny raises an eyebrow at that, so he walks to the back of the lab where there’s a bathroom, and looks in the mirror, when he sees himself he has to hold his breath so as to not scream at his own appearance, what happened to me, he found himself internally asking before returning to the other two. 

They were now staring with gaped-open mouths at Danny, making him worried once more so he hesitantly asked, “What is it now?” 

“Don’t freak out but um, your legs are gone.” Tucker supplies and Danny now realizes that their eyesight was directed to his legs. 

Danny’s brows furrowed a bit confused but looked down but this time didn’t catch himself to keep from a startled yell he gave out looking down to see where he should have legs replaced with a ghostly-like tail. What. The. Hell. 

“You're a ghost!” Sam shouts still startled at what she is seeing. 

“What’s going on down there?” is heard shouted from upstairs by Jack.

Danny stops yelling getting startled when suddenly a ring of light appears encircled around his middle that pops in two before traveling along his body transforming Danny back into his human form. Oh, fucking thank you it was temporary! Danny internally says to himself. 

Tucker and Sam stare in awe, shock, and confusion at Danny who’s looking back at them with all the same emotions coming across his face about himself. 

“Well, what’s going on down here?” Jack asks when entering the basement lab. As he looks at the three he’s immediately alerted by the marks he sees on his son's arm. “Danny boy what happened?” Jack exclaimed looking down cupping hands around but not on Danny’s left arm. 

That’s when the other three are finally seeing Danny’s arm as well, it was as if lightning had been formed and spread up through his arm. “Sorry Dad, I was messing with the portal and it kind of shocked me but I’m okay.” Danny admits, “It seems the portal does work though!” he exclaims trying to switch the topic.

Jack immediately looked to the portal and gasped, “Maddie!” he shouted before running off to presumably tell his mom that the portal was working quickly forgetting that Danny messed with equipment and got injured.

“Danny that still means you died though, you had no pulse!” Sam exclaimed, emphasizing each word of had no pulse to get her point across.

“I understand. Seriously, I do. But I can feel my heart beating so obviously I only died momentarily and then came back. I don’t know what just happened but I think it was just temporary. I’m okay.” Danny reassures his friends. 

Tucker sighed and Sam groaned a bit at that, “As long as you're sure you're okay dude.” Tucker says.

“I’m sure,” Danny confirms. 

Sam sighs “Danny I’m so sorry I didn’t know that would happen and, your arm, it-it looks like lighting-shaped burns across your skin…” she says hesitantly at the last statement. 

Danny looked at his arm observing the type of scar patterns he recognized, “Lichtenberg figures” he had muttered.

“What?” Tucker asked.

Danny’s still looking at his arm as he says “These types of scars are called Lichtenberg figures.” he looks back up at his two friends, “So what,” he shrugged, “honestly aside from my pounding headache I really do feel fine.” he reintegrated. 

“You're seriously not mad or even bothered that you have likely permanent scaring on your skin? And you literally died for a second, there was too long of a moment without a beat for it to have not been stopped. And also what had just happened with that-that ghostly appearance–” Sam was going into a spiral ramble. 

“Sam, hey, Sam, calm down. Shouldn’t I be the one going into a spiral?” Danny said a bit jokingly making Sam lightly punch him in his arm, his right arm not the one that’s been scarred, in a friendly way but with a scowl on her face. “Alright sorry, but seriously though if you think I’m blaming you for what just happened you're dead wrong–” he momentarily halted at his turn of phrase but continued on “I don’t know what was going on when I looked like a ghost, but that portal is supposed to open up to the ghost zone so I guess it…” he tried to think “I guess it did something to me, the effects are probably temporary and the same thing with that other appearance - my parents once made a vase intangible by accident but it went back to normal eventually,” he tells them. 

“Okay so that ghostly appearance could likely just go away…” Sam says a little quietly thinking to herself. 

“But like… Danny, you died for a moment, shouldn’t you go see a doctor at least?” Tucker mentions. 

“I feel perfectly fine,” the burns on my arm only sting a bit, “and when dad gets back down here with my mom she will want to look me over to make sure I’m okay anyway. So seriously guys, I’m okay.” Danny reintegrated again. 

Tucker and Sam seemed to have let out a breath of air none of them knew they were holding, “Okay if you say so.” Sam finally says. 

Jack and Maddie suddenly burst through running downstairs into the lab, Danny didn't pay them much mind as they ran towards the Portal. "You guys should head home I'm gonna wash up and turn in early tonight," Danny tells his friends.

It's evident by the looks on their faces when they look at each other and then back to Danny that Tucker and Sam are a little hesitant but still "Okay Danny, get some rest and be sure to text us when you wake up." Tucker says. 

"For sure," Danny confirms.

Danny took himself to the bathroom, he was going to shower and turn in early for the day. He felt dead. Technically he did die temporarily so he felt like it was the right word to describe how drained he felt.

When undressing in front of the mirror, Danny could now really see the damage that had been done to his body. Along the left side of his body, originating from the tips of his fingers spreading up his arm and out across his back and abdomen going down his right leg and snaking around to spread out further behind and up his neck going past his chin and up his cheek there were fractal patterns like a lighting strike scar.

The electrical discharge left tattoo-like markings or burn scars on his skin that he recognized to be referred to as Lichtenberg's figure, they came from getting struck by lighting not shocked by electricity though and he knew it. That must mean that the heat of the energy that went through him was as hot as lightning and a bolt of lightning is said to be 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun.

That was a bit crazy to think about though because aside from the drained exhausted feeling he has and the sting of pain from the fractal pattern burns, he doesn’t feel like someone that got hit with something capable of leaving Lichtenberg figures on his body. They weren’t that nice to look at to Danny either… He still didn’t blame Sam for this because he did have a choice in the matter, he could have said no in the end but got curious himself. 

There was also the fact that he had died today.

Even if it was temporary, and only for a moment, he had died today.

And his parent's invention had done it. He couldn’t tell them what happened. He wasn’t even supposed to of been in there. He couldn’t tell them one of their inventions killed him. And now part of him was what his parents hunted. He really hopes it turns out to be temporary. 

This was a lot to take in, he stepped into the shower putting it on cooler water but not too cold, he knew better, you are not supposed to put a burn in freezing cold water you're supposed to build up to that. He let the water coming from the shower wash over him and he ran his hands through his head as he took in a deep breath and exhaled. Then he sat down in the shower. He leaned his back and just laid there. I … really just died today… how is one supposed to feel about that? Would there be lasting effects, did I permanently damage my brain? And that ghostly form… I looked so different from myself …

He started mentally noting the changes he had seen in the mirror earlier. The suit's colors had inversed… His usually fair skin looked paler. The whites of his eyes were black… and his icy blue eyes were glowing neon green… His black hair was so pure white that it looked like snow. His teeth too. The canines of his teeth were larger and more fang-like as if they were the canines of a wolf. Then the thought occurred, are my teeth still that sharp now? He ran his tongue along his teeth. They were sharp. He jumped out of the shower and ran to the mirror to look at himself. He let out a breath of relief, he still looked like himself. But he could have sworn his teeth felt sharp. He looks closer into the mirror opening his mouth wide.

They didn’t look like they did in the other form. That was good. Except they were still sharper... Could that mean the other form is permanent? He really hoped it wasn’t, his parents had said for years how they wanted to get a hold of ghosts and test them… They love me … He reminded himself, but he still worried about how they would feel about the ghostly form. Would they think Danny was no longer Danny?

Danny had decided to just go on as everything had been before.

He’s still just an average moody teenager with parents who are on the eccentric side. 

A few days later it was noticeable that the burn marks had started to scar, and Sam felt guilty but Danny insisted there was no reason to feel bad, he had already forgiven her and he didn’t even blame her in the first place. At that moment back then he had been a teen wanting to impress his friends not the son of a scientist who knew better.

Sam had bought him scar cream for him to start using which he opted to focus using it on the most visible areas of his scar, it also helped that he had grown his hair out a bit so there would be fewer people likely to comment about his pierced ears so it helped to cover that part of the scar reaching around his neck and up the left side of his cheek bit. The ointment did prove to start making the scars fade but they were still visible, especially on his leg, torso, and back which he paid less attention to since they would rarely be exposed. When he was in the ghostly form the Lichtenberg figures were so faded on the skin you could hardly notice, except for the part of the scar running up his hand and arm where it originated. The suit he had worn hides it under the sleeve and gloves though and with the mask on his face wasn’t placeable anyways so that added to the contrast of difference in appearance when Danny was in his human form compared to the ghost form.

The scars, slightly pointed ears, and oddly sharper canine teeth would be the only lasting side effect of the lab accident.

Danny was sure of it.

Danny was wrong.

He had decided to go on just as everything had been going on before - he’s just an average moody teenager with a bit on the wack side of things type of parent - right?

But as it turned out Danny was wrong about that other form having been only temporary, so wrong.

Danny was like any average teenage boy at that day and age attending high school, he was awkward and nervous but friendly. Like most teenagers, he had crushes on girls, desires to be popular, a dislike of bullies, and embarrassment from his parents. But unlike most teenagers, he had ghostly superpowers. 

He struggled to cope with them and was afraid of anyone discovering his secret, fearing it would make him "go from geek to freak," and longed to be normal just like everyone else again. 

Danny was still trying to get the hang of his powers, often losing control of them at inopportune and embarrassing moments going intangible and falling through or dropping things. He didn’t have any proper excuse to give any time he dropped a beaker in science class. People were trusting him less and less withholding things especially if it is breakable. Then Tucker and Sam started noting his eyes would sometimes flash green like the green iris of the other form. 

Not trusting the idea of going to an adult and getting Danny turned in and tested on, Tucker and Sam end up helping figure out what really happened that day of the lab accident.

After a while, Danny and his friends figure out what exactly the portal did to him.

The hazmat suit proved to have been pointless because when the portal turned on with Danny standing inside the high-powered electrical shock it sent through his body had killed him. Except he had only temporarily died.

The electricity that surged through him was heavily ectoplasmic charged so while the electricity had killed him the ectoplasm has simultaneously revived him. As the electrical shock killed his body and the intense amount of ectoplasm was forming him into a ghost, the ectoplasm infused with his DNA, infusing his own ghost into him. Instead of dying and returning as a ghost ectoplasmic energy that merged with Danny had reanimated him back to like. As if his spirit was possessing his own reanimated corpse, a corpse that still breathed and had a heartbeat - albeit a slow one - just like all among the living.

In a shorter explanation, the ecto-powered electricity that poured into Danny and infused with his DNA had turned him into a human/ghost hybrid. Half alive, half dead.

Ghost did exist, and he was one now.

Well, partially.

So a part of him really was the thing his parents hunted...

Below are reference and inspo photos of Danny’s appearance (I do NOT own any of the pictures below):

Fenton/Phantom’s Figure/Frame - he was raised learning to fight and he keeps in shape so… more muscles than you would expect

Phantom/Fenton’s Teeth “fangs” - his canines are all sharper, although they are much sharper in his phantom form

Fenton/Phantom’s Piercings - a reference to know what's being referred to for his piercings

Phantom/Fenton’s Hair - a reference to Danny having longer hair

Phantom’s Ears - they are only slightly pointed, not completely elven like more like the ears of a half-elf/human hybrid

Phantom's Eyes - black scelera with glowing neon green iris, they are blue when using ice powers and a grey/yellow/blue weird shade when using electricity powers

Lichtenberg Figures - references 

Phantom’s Suit - In contrast to Phantom's canon suit the "DP" will in up on the waistline/belt (reference image "1"), phantom's mask in this au fic is exactly like the mask in the reference image below "2"  and there is a button that can be clicked to pull the visor into itself as to fully expose the eyes. The suit's style is that of the reference image "1"  with the baggy look to the pants and the hood as well as the placement of the black and white colors on the suit.

(1)  (2) 

Fenton's Wardrobe Style - inspo/references (the first image given for this below; you can consider the depiction of Tucker and Sam in the image is accurate to Sam and Tucker's wardrobe in this fics au in addition to their canon wardrobe style)