Living With Ghosts

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/49732096.

Rating: Not Rated

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Characters: Danny Fenton, Kon-El | Conner Kent, Jazz Fenton, Danielle "Dani"
Phantom, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Maddie Fenton, Jack Fenton
(Danny Phantom), oc baby character
Additional Tags: baby doesn't have lines or anything, But he's there - Freeform, Adult
Danny Fenton, Danielle "Dani" Phantom is Called Ellie, Good Parents
Jack and Maddie Fenton, they're not perfect, But they try, Parental
Danny Fenton, Danny Fenton is a Justice League Member (DCU), Tall
Danny Fenton
Language: English
Series: Part 2 of Phantom Clones
Stats: Published: 2023-08-30 Completed: 2023-09-28 Words: 7,303 Chapters:
4/4
 Living With Ghosts
by Vett2270

Summary

Conner living with Justice League member Phantom. The days in-between finding the clones
(July 4th) and the formation of the teen team (July 8th).
 First Night
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

July 4, late night.

Project Kr has felt small only two times during his shortly lived experience.

The first time was meeting Superman, and the second is right now, staring up at Phantom
‘you can call me Danny,’ the supposed teenage ghost hero.

Cadmus had implanted him with general information regarding the Justice League and it’s
members, but from his memory, Phantom is supposed to be a tiny immortal teen with a loud
mouth. He is not supposed to be this mountain of a man—a human man, might he stress.

Phantom has a heartbeat that Project Kr did not realize was missing until now.

Is this a trick?

Did Cadmus create a simulation to test his loyalty, to see if he would follow the heroes? Did
he fail? If this is a test, then why is the baby here? Can they even test a baby? A baby who
now that he looks again has also undergone an appearance change. Was the baby in on the
test too? Is he even a baby or—

“Hey, you alright there?,” the hero examiner? strange man asks, cutting off his mental spiral
as he waves a hand in Project Kr’s line of sight. “Sorry if the light blinded you. Probably
should’ve given a warning, I never figured out how to get it to stop doing that.”

Project grits his teeth and prepares to fight. Even if the heroes didn’t want him, he’s not going
to let Cadmus take him back that easily. He may have let his guard down once, but he won’t
make that mistake again.

“Anyways, like I said, not much space,” the man glances around the room, taking his eyes off
Project Kr, who immediately lunges to attack with a shout.

The man turns his head at the sound, but has no room to dodge. Unlike Project Kr’s plan to
knock out the examiner and run, he finds himself flying through the man and hitting the wall
instead.

“What was that for?” The man shouts, tightly cradling the unfazed baby to his chest.

Project Kr shakes off the landing and positions himself for a second attack.

“You’re not taking me back,” he growls.

“Taking you where?”

He silently glares at the examiner for his refusal to give up the act.

“Listen, kid, can we do this tomorrow?,” the man rubs a hand down his face, “it’s been a long
day, and I’m really not in the mood.”

Project Kr can not believe this. Does he not even view him as a threat? He must be confident
in whatever technology is keeping him untouchable.

“Is it the apartment? Is that the problem? I’m sorry about the mess, I’ll pick it up, wasn’t
exactly expecting company,” the man says as he kicks a pile of broken appliances under the
coffee table. The man glances at the other piles on top of the table and mutters, “okay
that’s…not safe, I’ll have to clean that all out.”

Project Kr has had enough of this game, he didn’t think Cadmus workers would be able to
play dumb for this long.

“Who are you?,” he asks with the most threatening voice he can muster, “what do you want?”
Why hasn’t he already dragged him back to the labs?

The man looks up sharply, a confused expression on his face. “I’m…Danny. Did I not
mention that? Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom, take your pick, and I want…to go to sleep I
guess?”

“You’re not Phantom.”

“Yes I am.”

“No, you’re not.”

“I’m pretty sure I am.”

Project Kr glares harder and bares his teeth. What is with this guy? There is absolutely no
reason for Cadmus to hire an idiot who couldn’t even keep his disguise on the whole time.

“Phantom isn’t human.” He can’t believe he has to explain such a simple concept to this
examiner.

“‘Phantom isn’t’—Oh, is this because,” he waves a free hand at himself, “cause that one’s on
me for forgetting to explain. I’m only half-ghost, so I don’t stay as ‘Phantom’ all the time.”

Project Kr doesn’t even bother with a glare.

“I’m serious! Watch.” A ring of white light momentarily blinds Project Kr and he soon comes
face to face with the hero Phantom he had been with earlier tonight. “See?,” the ghost asks
with a slight echo lacing his words.

There’s no heartbeat.

Project Kr may not have extensive knowledge about technology, but he thinks this level of
deception would definitely be out of Cadmus’ abilities. Even the baby changed (which would
 be a bit overkill if this really was a trick).

“Half ghost,” the teenager says as the light reappears.

“Half human,” the deep voice of human Phantom finishes.

“Half-ghost,” Project Kr repeats numbly. All the previous fight drained out of him. He
wonders what would have happened if Superman had taken him instead. Would he have
revealed himself to secretly be half superhero, half little boy? As if.

“Or ‘halfas’, that’s what most ghosts call us anyway,” Phantom continues with zero care for
his mental capacity for nonsense.

“‘Us?’ How many half ghosts are there?” How does something so ridiculous occur more than
once?

Phantom rocks the baby on his hip back and forth, “There’s Plasmius, me, my sister, and this
little cutie,” he gestures to the baby, “makes four.”

“And how does a half-ghost…happen?”

“Oh you know, lab accidents and cloning mainly.”

“I see,” Project Kr says, not knowing how to end off the conversation, he has already had
enough talks about cloning for one night. “I don’t want to fight anymore,” he says belatedly,
making sure Phantom doesn’t still view him as a threat (if he ever did). He can’t believe he
attacked a superhero, the only one that actually wanted him no less.

Project Kr can see Phantom’s lip twitch. “That’s good,” he says in what is meant to be a
serious voice, but Project Kr can hear him holding his breath (unknown to him, Phantom is
holding back from laughing, he doesn’t think the super would appreciate it).

“I’ll bring you some blankets,” Phantom says in a now less strained voice, “you will have to
stay on the couch for now, but I’ll figure out somewhere better soon.” Then in a volume that
Project Kr was probably not meant to hear, Phantom says, “I’ll have to ask Jazz to help me
look for a new place.”

Project Kr takes a closer look around the small, cluttered apartment in Phantom’s absence.
He’s not sure where he was expecting a ghost to live, but the reality is underwhelming.

“Better than a cloning tube,” he mutters to himself.

“That’s the spirit!,” Phantom cheers as he walks back in with blankets and a pillow under his
free arm, the baby fast asleep in the other.

Hopefully better anyway

Chapter End Notes

I can not express how much it pains me to use the word ‘growl’ as a descriptor, but there
is literally no other explanation to how Superboy speaks.
 Family Meeting
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

July 5th, morning.

Danny wakes up to a small limb smacking him in the face and the smell of a dirty diaper.

A baby.

He has a baby. That wasn’t just some kind of weird dream Nocturne made up, he has a real
life human child. A stinky human child, he thinks. Danny’s just relieved Cadmus put a diaper
on him at all, he didn’t even think about that last night.

Danny sits up on his bed and stares down at the baby clinging to his chest.

“Is it narcissistic to call your own clone cute?,” he asks no one in particular. He’s not really
sure he wants an answer anyway, don’t want Ellie to start getting a big head.

The events of last night are finally catching up, and he’s not entirely sure how to feel. The joy
he has when he looks at the baby is unmistakable, but he knows he’s not parent material.
Why the other heroes didn’t stop him is a mystery.

The baby stirs awake and starts crying. Oh right, the diaper.

“Shh, it’s okay,” he soothes, “alright, let’s see, what does a baby need, huh?,” he asks the still
upset baby.

“Uhm,” he gets up and creates an equally distressed duplicate, “diapers, wipes,” his panic
increases with the rising cries, “uh, clothes?, yea, baby clothes. What else?,” he practically
pleads to his duplicate.

“How am I supposed to know?,” the copy asks near-hysterical.

A half-asleep, half-panicked kryptonian bursts through the doorway shouting, “what’s

wrong?” His expression becomes confused at the sight in front of him, his eyes quickly
shifting between the two Dannys.

The teen moves into an eerily familiar stance and both Dannys yell “wait!” before the boy
pounces again.

Miraculously, the boy stops.

Danny nods at the duplicate to transform and head off to the store while the original
continues to rock the baby in an attempt to calm his cries.

The super lets the duplicate pass by with a palpable amount of suspicion.
“What is happening?,” the teen demands. Danny is sure he is meant to be intimidated, but his
only thought at the tone is the fact that this kid definitely took notes from Bats yesterday.

“Sorry, for waking you,” Danny says, “just having a bit of a baby issue.” He tries a laugh to
diffuse the situation, but it comes out more forced than he likes.

The teen doesn’t seem to notice though as he nods his head in acceptance, lowering his guard
slightly.

“And the…second Phantom?”

“Oh, he went out to buy some baby stuff,” the halfa assures.

“That’s not—,” the boy exhales harshly, “okay.”

He’s not really sure what all that was about, but right now Danny has other issues to focus on,
namely, the still crying baby. The volume decreased some, but he still doesn’t know how to
calm him down.

“Okay, how about food?,” he asks the baby, “are you hungry?” He looks up at the teen, “how
about you? Are you hungry?”

Instead of answering, the boy just looks at Danny with a blank face. “What is ‘hungry’?”

Danny sighs.

One trip to the kitchen smacks Danny with his previous realization of his inability to parent.
He stares miserably at the near-empty fridge and cabinets.

“How do you feel about eating out?,” he asks the boys.

The baby sniffles and the teen gives him another blank look. Danny can’t help but feel this
one is meant to be judgmental.

At least they didn’t have to wait long for issue number 1 (number 2 depending on who you
ask) to be solved because the small form of Phantom flies into the room with his arms full of
baby products.

He dumps his haul onto clear spot on the kitchen table.

“So I asked the employee what to get for a baby,” the duplicate says, “they asked how old,
but I didn’t know, so I said about this big,” he holds out his hands in the approximate size of
the baby, “so I got the diapers and stuff you wanted, but then the employee asked if I even
had crib, which we don’t, so we’ll have to go back for that later.”

“Wait. You bought a crib?,” original Danny asks.

The duplicate rolls his eyes, “Yes. Keep up,” the ghost huffs in unwarranted exasperation.
“Then the employee helped me pick out everything a baby would need. We’ll need to go back
to the store with the truck to get it all.”

“How much money did you spend?,” Danny asks, horrified.

“Don’t worry about it,” the duplicate dismisses, “but look at these!” he holds up small baby
shoes, “so tiny!”

The teen super shifts closer to inspect the items on the table.

“Oh! Here, I got something for you too,” the ghost looks through the bags until he finds what
Danny assumes is the teen’s bag and gives it to the kid.

“Just the basics, ya know? I got you an outfit too, but I don’t really know your size so they
might not fit right.”

The kid takes the bag with an indecipherable expression and looks inside. He picks up a stick
of deodorant and tilts his head, frowning slightly.

Danny will have to deal with that later, right now he has to learn how to change a diaper.

Between a 24 year old halfa, a teenage superman clone, and a youtube video, the diaper
problem was quickly resolved. And by quickly, Danny mean much longer than it should
have.

Right now, the three of them are driving to an old diner near Casper High that Danny used to
hide out in sometimes to get away from Dash. He hopes that place is still there, he
remembers the owners being pretty old last he went.

He would have taken the kids to a more popular place, but something tells him it would be a
better idea go somewhere secluded for their first day out in public.

The halfa is startled out of his thoughts by the sound of a stomach rumbling. He looks over at
the teen in the passenger seat, who is staring at his own stomach in surprise.

“Well, I guess you can get hungry,” the ghost laughs.

The boy’s stony expression remains, but Danny thinks he can see a hint of embarrassment
creeping in.

They eventually reach the diner and Danny helps both boys get out of the car (the teen with
his seatbelt, and the baby with his car seat).

While inside, Danny explains various menu items for the older boy while simultaneously
trying to figure out what a baby can eat.

“Aren’t you the Fenton boy?,” a familiar, shrill voice asks next to him, “Didn’t know you
were still around here, woulda thought you’d make yourself more known, considering your
parents and all,” the restaurant owner chuckles.
He gives the old lady a blinding smile, “That’s me, nice to see you again ma’am.” He reaches
across the table to put a calming hand on the agitated super’s arm.

“Humph, if that were true, you woulda come a lot sooner, young man,” she scolds.

Danny rubs the back of his neck, “Sorry, I got a bit busy.” With hero work, he is unable to add
on.

“And who’s this little one?,” she smiles down at the baby in the high chair then glances at the
teen with a raised eyebrow, “and bigger one?”

“This is my cousin…,” Danny trails off, frantically looking around the room. He totally
forgot about that little lack of name issue. On the tv in the corner, an old show plays, and he
hears the red-haired girl call out to someone name Conner. “Conner.”

He can feel the kid jump in surprise under his hand.

“And this is my son,” he says and gestures to the baby. It feels weird to say that aloud, he
thinks to himself.

The woman gasps, “Oh how precious, let me get a better look at ‘em,” she turns to better face
the baby, “oh,” she starts tearing up, “time really does fly.” Fanning her face, the woman
says, “I still remember you as a boy, and now look at you.”

He gives her an awkward smile and thanks her, internally wondering if they can just make a
run for it.

As it is, the woman simply sighs and gets a far-away look on her face, “you were such a
scrawny little thing, looked like a small breeze woulda knocked you right over.”

He hears Conner snort.

She puts Danny’s face in her hands, making the halfa stare into her teary eyes. “You’ve
grown so much,” she says with such sincerity that Danny’s skin starts to itch

She finally leaves after taking their orders, and Danny can’t help but put his head in his hands
and groan. “We should have gone somewhere else,” he mutters.

The teen awkwardly pats his arm.

“If it makes you feel any better, everyone already knows you were a scrawny kid. You still
are.”

The halfa groans louder.

“Um…,” the super starts, but doesn’t continue.

Danny’s curiosity about what could possibly stump such a confident kid overpowers his own
mortification. He looks up to see the boy twisting a napkin and glaring at the table. He pauses
when he notices Danny staring.
“About earlier…,” the boy starts again, staring at the older halfa, “you called me Conner.”
The teen breaks eye contact and goes back to looking down. “Is that my name?”

Oh. Danny wishes he hadn’t been so hasty in deciding, but what is he supposed to say now?
No?

Sure, he could explain how the name was a last minute impulse, but the uncharacteristic
nervousness in the question has him shutting that idea down immediately.

“Do you like it?,” he says instead, “If not, we can pick something else,” he adds on, in case
he is misreading the situation.

To Danny’s relief, the boy simply shakes his head with a quiet, “it’s good.”

At the sight of the small smile on Conner’s face, Danny vows to take the name’s true origin
to his grave.

After breakfast, Danny realizes he hadn’t taken any pictures of the kids yet.

He missed taking pictures of a newly dressed baby, but the oatmeal faced ones will work.

“What are you doing?,” Conner asks.

“Taking baby pictures,” he answers, turning to take pictures of Conner and his syrup covered
mouth.

“I’m not a baby,” the teen says, glaring at the camera.

Danny makes a noncommittal noise. He’s generous enough to let the comment slide.

He sends matching messages into his family and friend group chats, then mutes his phone at
the wave of buzzing that follows.

“So, how’d you like the food?”

“Aren’t you going to answer that?,” Conner looks at the phone in concern.

“Nah, it’s best to let ‘em get it out of their systems.”

The teen opens his mouth to say something, but suddenly clicks it shut and tenses.

“What’s wrong?,” the halfa asks, instantly on guard.

The boy doesn’t answer, but Danny hears the faint sound of a very familiar siren.

Oh no, Danny thinks. He didn’t know they would recognize the background.

The teen across from him is halfway out of his seat with his hands clenched, and Danny
sighs.
“It’s alright, Conner, there’s no danger.”

“But that noise—”

“Not a threat,” he reassures, but amends his statement under his breath, “to us anyway.” He
can’t speak much for the rest of the town.

Conner sits back down, but the tension in his posture remains.

“What is that?,” the boy asks, wincing at the close proximity of the noise.

A crash sounds outside and the doors slam open.

“Danny-boy!,” a voice booms.

Danny sinks down into his seat and wearily answers Conner. “My parents.”

Unsurprisingly, the owner kicked them out.

She sent one final glare to the Fenton parents and insisted Danny bring the kids again.

Outside, Danny’s dad is able to get a better look at the boys and declares Conner “a true
Fenton!” after seeing how tall he is.

“I’m not—,” Conner retorts but is cut off by the high pitch squeal of Danny’s mother.

“Ooh, is this my grandbaby?,” she holds her arms out for the baby in his arms. She gasps
when she sees Conner and slaps Danny’s shoulder. “You didn’t mention there being two!”

They eventually make it back to Fentonworks and Danny is sure that enough time has passed
for the group chats to calm down.

While scrolling through the walls of texts, a cold gust of his ghost breath builds up, and a
green portal next to him spits out a tiny black and white blur that tackles him to the ground.

“Daniel Jackson Fenton!,” the high-pitch voice of Ellie’s ghost form shouts at him, “how
could you text ‘new clone just dropped,’ with a picture of a baby, and not answer my calls?”

“Didn’t want you screaming at me over the phone.”

“Well now you gotta deal with it in person,” she stands, making sure to stomp on his stomach
(ignoring his pained ‘oof’) and floats away to coo at the baby.

“What’s his name?,” she askes in revered awe.

In his pained daze, it takes a moment for Danny to realize all the eyes in the room are focused
on him.

“Oh,” he sits up, still on the floor, “he, um, doesn’t have one yet?”
He probably should have expected the shouts that followed.

“We should call him Jack!,” offers his dad.

With the inclusion of a video call to Jazz, Sam, and Tucker, the entirety of the Fenton family
and friends are deciding what to name the baby.

“Ooh! Name him after me!,” Ellie requests. “What about Ellie…ot, Elliot?”

“No.,” chorused three friends in sync, with varying amount of dread.

A mix of voices and suggestions are thrown around in chaos.

The baby in question is laughing as Ellie flies him around the room, calling him various
names to see what he responds to.

“What do you think, Conner?,” Danny asks.

The teen startles from being addressed but contemplates the question for a while. “Baby,” he
declares.

He pats the teen on the shoulder. “Maybe as a nickname.”

The boy nods satisfactorily.

“Danny, Dan, Da, Nee,,” a voice above says.

Danny looks up at the sound of his name, but he is not the one being addressed. Ellie has
reverted to making random sounds at the baby instead of name suggestions.

“What are you doing?,” he calls up to her.

Ellie glances at him and floats down a bit to avoid yelling over the ongoing shouting.

“Trying to find baby names.”

“You’re not saying any names.”

“Sure I am!, How do you think I picked mine?,” Ellie remarks and goes back to making
sounds stemming from his name.

“Neee…” she trails off when she notices the baby perking up at the sound.

Danny rolls his eyes at the smug smirk she throws his way.

“Neen,” she tries, but the baby only stares. “Neeve.” No response.

“Neese,” Conner suggests, but gets the same reaction. “Nee…l.”

The baby tilts his head.

“Neil?,” Conner repeats, smiling widely when the baby giggles.

Danny pats the kid on the shoulder in pride, pointedly not thinking about who’s going to
break the news to the others.

Eventually, Ellie takes Conner and Neil away to form some kind of clone union, so Danny
heads down to the lab to see if he can find some way to ghost proof his new baby items.

While there haven’t been any incidents yet, he doesn’t want to risk the baby having a power
mishap and falling out the crib or something. The whole ride in the car today had Danny
constantly checking to make sure the baby didn’t phase through the seat.

He passes by some containment cells and has a mini-moral crisis on whether it would be
ethical to use it as a playpen. It doesn’t look too different from the playpens the duplicate saw
at the store, in fact, that’s probably what his parents used as the base, but that doesn’t the
situation better.

He decides to take the cell. He’ll have to figure out some way to decorate it, or create a whole
new one, but until he ghost proofs the rest of the baby stuff this will have to do.

When he meets back up with the kids, Conner notices the playpen and shifts into a defensive
stance.

“Why do your parents have that?,” he asks, all previous humor gone.

Danny shares a look with Ellie as she awkwardly floats away with the baby.

“Don’t worry, it never got used,” he laughs. For better or worse, his parents were awful ghost
hunters.

“That doesn’t actually make me worry less,” Conner responds.

Danny sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “That’s fair.”

He thinks about the vitriol his parents used to show towards ghosts and looks across the room
to see them gushing at Neil.

“It’s…complicated. My parents have done some pretty messed up stuff in the past, and
they’re doing better now, but I’d understand if you don’t feel comfortable around them,” he
knows it took himself years to trust them again, “I’m sure you’ve had enough mad scientists
in your life already,” he tries to joke, but the truth in the statement makes it fall flat.

“I would never let them hurt you though,” Danny assures, “you or the baby.” He’s sure his
parents know better by now, but “if they ever cross a line you don’t like, you tell me,
alright?”

As much as the situation would pain him, he needs Conner to know that his safety is Danny’s
priority.
 Conner searches Danny’s face, most likely testing his sincerity, but he seems to find it
because he nods and replies, in a tight voice, a quiet “okay.”

Danny nods back. “Good.”

Chapter End Notes

Extra:
Conner: Aren’t you worried about me knowing your identity? What if I go after your
family or something?
Danny: Good luck with that.
Yes, Conner is still named after a character in “Hello, Megan.”
“He can’t speak much for the rest of the town,” says the town hero.
Do I know the fanon options for Danny’s middle name? Other than James, no. For this
story, let’s pretend Jack named him after himself.
 Adjustment Period
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

July 6

Danny never realized how much junk he had in his apartment. Even with Ellie and Jazz
helping, taking out all the scrap appliances and machines is taking much more time than
anyone wanted to spend. The only bright side to this is the fact that Conner is keeping Neil
entertained. Packing all this with a baby around would be a nightmare.

“When was the last time you cleaned this dump?,” Ellie complains from where she is
pretending to organize the kitchen mess.

“Excuse you, miss couch surfer,” he gasps. It may be a dump, but it’s his dump.

“Hey, my situation is a choice,” she defends, “why would I willingly pay taxes?”

Danny grumbles, but does not disagree. Even after she had the chance to create a legal
identity, Ellie refused claiming it would make her ‘legally responsible for her actions’ or
whatever. “Should’ve faked my death years ago,” Danny mutters.

Jazz sighs from the living room, “Ellie, please don’t encourage the boys to commit tax
evasion.”

“It’s a Fenton tradition,” she claims passionately.

Jazz raises an eyebrow, “Is going to prison a tradition too?”

“No prison can hold a Fenton!”

Danny carefully shifts his eyes away, thinking of his own experience breaking out of
Walker’s prison. Guess that’s one tradition he kept.

“And just for that,” Ellie says, standing from her chair, “I think I’m going to do some more
prison evading.” She creates a portal and jumps through with a promise to pick some gifts up
for the kids.

Danny and Jazz stare at the empty space their little sister escaped from. Guess it’s just the
two of them left to clean.

“You know, I’m proud of you little brother, you’re really stepping up,” Jazz says, packing
more dismantled tech inside a box. Her and Danny are finishing up the last the packing in his
room. Why he had scrap metal in there she may never know.
She came over as soon as she could (with Ellie’s help) to meet her nephews in person, but got
saddled into helping Danny clear out his work. Maybe she should have escaped earlier with
Ellie…

A snort interrupts her thoughts, and she looks up to see her brother trying to tape close an
overstuffed box. “What else was I supposed to do, leave a baby halfa at an orphanage?”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Danny, it’s amazing how responsible you’re being during such a
life changing situation.”

He falters a bit but brushes off her words with a laugh, “I’m pretty sure taking two kids
you’re not ready for is the opposite of responsible.”

“It’s a tough decision,” she admits, “but like you said, what orphanage could you drop them
off at?”

“They’re other heroes available, a lot of them are way more capable of handling kids,” Danny
says.

“But how many stepped forward?,” Jazz points out. At her brother’s silence she continues on.
“It’s a big job to take on, a lot of people would hesitate or walk away, but you, you’re seeing
it through and changing your whole lifestyle with no second thoughts,” she gestures to the
boxes of tech being prepared to leave.

“It’s just cleaning, Jazz,” he replies dryly. “This place is a major safety hazard, I’m just
making sure no one gets hurt.” Like I did, he left out, but Jazz heard anyway.

She only hummed in response. Oh well, she’ll get her brother to accept compliments one of
these days.

While Danny leaves to put the boxes in the truck, Jazz walks over to kneel beside Conner on
the living room floor as he plays with Neil through the playpen. Looking at her nephews, she
is stunned by how much they look like Danny. Sure it’s expected for Neil as his biological
son, but Conner, despite having differing features, is nailing Danny’s annoyed expression
right now.

She can’t tell if he’s annoyed at her or if that’s how he naturally rests his face, but she’s sure
making conversation can’t make things worse.

“How do you like it here so far?,” she asks.

“The baby’s loud.”

She laughs, “I’d imagine so.” She does not envy his super hearing.

The two sit in silence for a moment, Conner because he looks like he has something to say,
and Jazz because she’s patient.

Patience, however, does not prepare her for his question of “Are you a mad scientist?”
“No…no, I’m not,” she says, bewildered. “I am working on my doctorate’s right now
though,” she starts cheerily, eager to talk about school.

This, apparently, is the wrong thing to say because Conner’s face turns completely blank and
he shifts his position from the floor…is it just her, or does he look like he’s about to jum—
“Conner!,” Danny shouts from the doorway, “no attacking Jazz please, Ellie’s more durable.”

He drops his stance with a pout, but keeps glaring at Jazz for some reason.

Danny sighs in relief, and Jazz is wondering if she should be doing the same.

Conner lets the passenger door shut with a bang and crosses his arms in irritation as Danny
straps Neil in his car seat. He glares at the older man when he climbs in the driver’s seat and
tells him to put on his seatbelt (not that he even needs a seatbelt).

After a tense staring contest that Danny loses, the man sighs and asks, “what’s up with you?”

“Where’s Jazz?,” he grits out.

“She’s heading back to school, apparently she called out of classes today to come meet you
two,” he answers and begins driving.

I’m sure she did, he thinks, she’s probably dying to study two superhero clones.

“Sooo,” Danny says, “what was all that about back there? How’d Jazz get on your bad side?”

He glares at the halfa, “You didn’t tell me she was a doctor.” After that whole revelation with
his parents, he thought Danny would give more warning from now on.

“What? Jazz isn’t a doctor.”

“She said so herself!” Either Danny is trying to trick him, or Jazz lied. “She said she’s
working on a doctorate’s.”

“Ohh,” Danny nods, “Conner, that’s different. A doctorate’s is just a college degree, she’s not
a real doctor,” he smirks but quickly drops it and adds on, “but don’t tell her I said that.”

Conner nods without really understanding. So long as he’s not going to be experimented on,
he’s just going to include it in the ‘weird things about Danny list.’

Conner decides to just focus outside the window instead. He already saw part of the town
yesterday, but right now they’re heading in a different direction. Apparently, Danny has a
workshop out here that he’s going to put all the boxes in.

He jumps back from the window when a green floating creature passes by. “What was that?,”
he demands, gripping the surprisingly sturdy car door.

Danny leans over the passenger seat to see out the window but simply says “that’s just an
ectopus” before going back to watching the road.
He has no clue what an ectopus is, but considering it was green, glowing, and flying, he is
going to take a guess that they just passed a ghost. “You’re just going to leave it? Isn’t
fighting ghosts your whole deal?” According to his memories, Phantom specializes in
supernatural creatures, mainly powerful ghosts.

“In high school maybe, but things have been pretty peaceful the past few years, only the
occasional world domineering scheme,” he explains with a shrug, “a lot of ghosts just kinda
hang around.”

Another look out the window shows a park of human and ghost children playing with one
another. The ease at which the humans in this town accept other creatures leaves Conner
wondering if he can live like that too, in a place where his powers are just seen as normal.

But if that’s the case…“How come you keep a secret identity?” Surely the town would
welcome their half-ghost hero. Unless, there’s some kind of hidden villain waiting to take
advantage of Phantom’s human half and civilian life.

Danny mumbles something incomprehensibly.

“What was that?”

The halfa takes a deep breath and grips the steering wheel tightly. “I said, ‘it’s
embarrassing,’” he repeats with a calm voice, but a flushed face.

“Being a hero?” That can’t be right, everyone loves Phantom.

Said hero groans as he parks in front of a building labeled “Fix-it Shop.” “Being a kid,” he
says with his head resting on the steering wheel. “It was cool and all ‘till I had a growth
spurt, and then it just became a joke how small my ghost form is.

“Do you know how many kids at my school had crushes on Phantom when I first started?
Now they see me and call me adorable, and it feels so weird.”

Neil giggles at his dad’s distress from the back seat and Conner is fighting to hold in his own
amusement.

“And you wanna know the worse part?” Danny begins passionately, lifting his head to make
direct eye-contact. “Kid’s still have crushes on Phantom.”

He laughs outright but Danny continues with frantic arm waves, “No seriously! Phantom has
been 14 for a decade already. You’d think that would scare people away, but it’s like they’re
living out their Twilight self-insert, and I’m just Edward if he had moral issues with dating
minors.

Conner isn’t sure what half of that statement means, but Danny’s hopelessness while saying it
keeps him and Neil cackling.

Yea, Conner thinks to himself, with the amount of weird in this town, a teenage clone would
fit right in.
Chapter End Notes

Extra:
Conner: *Meets Jack, Jazz, and Ellie’s human form* “Why is Danny from a family of
giants?”

Danny to Jazz: “How’d you get Conner to attack you within a few minutes?”
Also Danny: *got Conner to attack him within a few minutes*

Conner: It must be dangerous for Danny to live with his human life known by enemies.
Danny who grew up with all his worst villains knowing his full name, family, school,
and home address: “I don’t want to face my old classmates.”

Did I take the Fix-It Shop from Sesame Street and give it to Danny? You have no proof.
 Future Plans
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes

July 7th

With the apartment now relatively safer and the process of baby-ghost proofing underway,
Danny readies himself to start house-searching. He has absolutely no clue when he is going
to move or where he is going to get the money, but there’s no way his apartment can
comfortably fit all three of them for very long.

Danny looks at the baby on his hip as he walks over to join Conner in the living room.
Honestly, before the kids, Danny never even thought about moving. Sure, he’s had chances
before in the past, and it’s not like he’s particularly sentimental with his apartment, but there
was never a real need to leave. He has a job, the town is safe, and he himself has been safe
for years since he moved out of Fentonworks and his parents learned to accept his ghost half.
The life he has now had been calm apart from the occasional Justice League mission, so the
thought of changing all that simultaneously excites and terrifies the halfa.

He never planned on having kids, especially not anytime soon. But, Danny contemplates as
he hands Neil over to Conner and opens his laptop to begin his search, it’s not like I’ve ever
done things according to plan before.

Conner has never held something so delicate in all of his shortly lived experience. He tried to
protest being given the baby, but Danny practically threw Neil in his lap and put on some
kind of children’s movie for them to watch. He tried to protest the movie too, but Danny
claimed that the best way for Conner to integrate into human society was to live out common
life experiences.

It would have been more believable if Conner didn’t hear him muffling a laugh while he was
saying it.

So here he is now, one hour into a cartoon about ponies with a baby half-ghost asleep on his
chest. The story was, unfortunately, very entertaining, but Danny’s amused glances at him
throughout the film made Conner swear against ever admitting it.

The older halfa had been across the couch the whole time focusing on his laptop, but the
super found that his casual presence has been…nice. For a hero, Danny doesn’t actually do
much patrolling or fighting. The town has ghosts yeah, but there isn’t actually much conflict
for Phantom to fix.

A ringing breaks Conner’s reflection, and he turns to see Danny sticking a hand into his chest
to pull out some kind of communicator. A few days ago, Conner would have, understandably,
panicked, but after constant confusion and insufficient explanations regarding Danny, he has
learned to ignore him. With a skill mastered by all those close to Danny (or any Fenton),
Conner looks away and continues watching the ponies.

His plan to tune out the older hero works great until he remarks, “Oh hey, looks like the kid
heroes are making their own team.” At that point, Conner has no real choice but to look back
at the older man.

The kid heroes. Conner remembers them helping him escape and taking down the Cadmus
lab together, but their names are not as clear to him. It seems Cadmus only programmed him
with knowledge on the adult heroes. He wonders if he can meet them again, he has yet to
meet other people his age in Amity Park, and it would be nice to not have to hide or explain
the whole clone situation to them.

“Do you wanna join?,” Danny asks in Conner’s continued silence.

“Join?” The hero group? Conner had assumed he would be considered too dangerous to put
on a hero team, that he would have to live under constant Justice League watch until they
either trusted him to not double cross them or until they found a use for him.

“Yea, I mean if you want to do the whole hero thing,” Danny says, waving the communicator
in his hand, “the kid team would probably be a good start.” He winces and then adds, “well
technically, being an adult first would be best, but if you’re really set on this, I’d rather you
have teammates.”

“You want me to be a hero?” If Phantom thinks he would make a good hero, then maybe
Conner should try it out.

Danny looks up from his communicator with a frown, “No, not really. The whole teen hero
thing is really overrated.” He then shifts into a teasing grin, “besides, you’re practically a
baby. You haven’t really lived long enough to decide if you want to be a hero—And no,
programmed memories do not count,” he interrupts when Conner opens his mouth to refute.

“But,” Danny sighs, “you also seem like the type to hate being told what to do. So, Conner,
it’s up to you. Do you want to be a hero? Even if, temporarily?”

And Conner…doesn’t know. Yes, he wants to meet the other teens again, wants to see people
outside of his family that know his origin and treat him like normal. He just, never considered
a life without fighting. In Cadmus, he was programmed to serve as Superman’s replacement,
he already had a role set out for him. When he was take in by the Justice League, he had been
prepared to fight for their cause and work to earn their trust. He never thought about just
stopping.

Conner has met Ellie though, he knows his aunt was never pressured or expected to be a hero
despite being the clone of a strong hero like Phantom. Conner is sure that Neil will be raised
to live as normal a life as he can as a halfa and the son of a JL member. The thought of the
baby being primed as a replacement never even crossed his mind since living with Phantom,
and he doubts it ever occurred to Danny either.
So really, there’s not much keeping Conner from just rejecting the offer. He doesn’t have to
fight, he doesn’t have to prove himself, he doesn’t even have to hide his powers. His future is
completely free for him to choose, and knowing how crazy the Fenton family is, he’s sure
they would fight the Justice League themselves if he ever was forced into hero work against
his will. That freedom, it’s a bit uncomfortable.

Before Conner can decide—or have an existential crisis—a green portal forms in the living
room and Ellie’s ghost form burst through with bags filing her arms.

“Your favorite aunt has returned!,” she announces, jerking awake Neil in the process. She
snaps her mouth shut when the baby looks around in confusion. “My bad,” she whispers.

Danny rolls his eyes and stretches his arms towards Conner who gladly hands over Neil
before he can start crying. “You know, normally when people say they’ll be right back they
mean a few hours right?”

Ellie drops the bags on the coffee table and waves a dismissive hand towards Danny, “Time
shmime, none of that is real anyway. My nephews deserve the best gifts,” she starts with a
tone of voice that reminds him of Wonder Woman announcing the league’s plans to the teens,
“and if that means I must travel to the ends of the Earth in my search, then so be it.”

Danny gives Ellie’s performance an unimpressed look. Conner thought it was pretty good,
very inspirational.

“Here,” Ellie says as she plops a few of the bags on his lap. “We’ll have to go shopping
together later, but it’s definitely better than whatever Danny got you.”

The bags had some clothes and shoes, but the majority was a bunch of random souvenirs with
little tags marking which country they’re from. Some of the items are questionable, but
overall it’s much better than the child development books Jazz left. During his exploration of
the gifts, he hears Ellie ruffle through one of the bags and holds something up with a
triumphant sound. The noise that really gets his attention though is Danny’s resulting groan
of “why?.”

He looks up to find Ellie grinning and holding a black t-shirt with Phantom’s logo on the
chest-center.

“Because,” she explains joyfully, “Conner’s the only clone that didn’t come with a built in
suit. Now we match.”

“I didn’t even know they made those,” Danny mutters.

“You’d be surprised the things they make for Phantom,” Ellie says as she tosses the shirt to
Conner. “You’re lucky I didn’t grab the Phantom wig too.”

“They do not make Phantom wigs.”

Ellie hummed, “you’d know if you ever went outside. On a related note, I should really start
charging you for the amount of autographs I sign for you.”
 As Danny and Ellie begin bickering about fraud and child labor, Conner stares down at the t-
shirt in his hands. There’s a rising emotion in his chest that he can’t seem to name, but it has
become increasingly familiar in the past few days with Danny and Neil, he feels…safe and
taken care of. Maybe that’s just a normal hero thing, to make that unknown emotion build.

If that’s case, he thinks, maybe he was wrong about Ellie not being a hero, if she’s able to
make others feel like this too. Conner looks to see his aunt holding up a laughing Neil and
happily greeting him. If that’s really what it takes to be a hero, then he wonders if he’d be
able do the same for others.

Looking down at the logo in his hands, he decides that it might be worth giving a try.

Chapter End Notes

I really just wanted to get started on the show time-line, but I feel like these days with
Danny were really important to Conner's character in this au. As for the rest of the
series, I will probably just focus on episodes I like or think are interesting. Definitely not
doing the entire show though.
Please drop by the Archive and comment to let the creator know if you enjoyed their work!