Hellooooo Part 3 kinda is here! I know its been a while but here I am! I know this story is still kinda confusing/un put together but well this is kinda a first draft lol. DW when I make the main fic it'll be more put together and better. Anyway enjoy the mall!
Danny got to the mall by flying.
Specter faded over Danny until they were one.
He was Specter now, but still Danny.
Still him yet not at the same time.
It felt like freedom. He flew for longer than he needed to and saved four people. It felt good. His core sung with glee and Specter was happy.
Grinning, he waved to the kid he'd just pulled out of a tree. The kid was a mutant type and wasn’t scared of Specter at all! Most people here weren’t but it still felt so good to be accepted.
In Amity Park his appearance was to be feared but here it was almost normalized.
Almost. Some people were still cruel but here it was more accepted to be different and a wee bit weird.
In Amity it was cause for his parents to try and pull him to bits.
Here it was just another thing. Another way a quirk could look. Common. Normal.
Discrimination against mutant types existed and was a problem. A huge one, but it was less than Amity.
It almost felt like a gift to him.
His toxic green eyes caught on the mall and he remembered abruptly what he was doing. Flying carefully he slipped into an alley and shifted.
Danny blinked and shifted into human form. Stretching he glanced down. Red sweater black pants and- shit did he forget his money? Immediately he shoved his hand into his chest and rummaged around for a moment. Thankfully his hands caught on his fanny pack and he pulled it out.
Inside were his meager savings coming mostly from criminals he may or may not have robbed. Honestly though taking money from a mugger was funny and shouldn’t be a crime.
Counting it he winced. Since coming to this world he’d needed to eat way more and it had cut his money down.
His theory was because the ambient ecto was pretty low in this world he was eating way more to compensate.
Danny could be wrong but really in this world he was the leading expert on all things ecto so he kinda had to just guess.
He had enough money for his trip but he would need to get back to his pickpocketing game soon if he didn’t find some way to get consistent money.
Getting a job was starting to seem pretty damn important.
Slinging his fanny pack over his chest he walked into the huge mall. It was pretty busy with people of all ages wondering about. Nervously he adjusted the mask over his face. Hopefully as he was nobody would recognize him as one of the Phantoms. (or be freaked out by his face)
A huge group of teens caught his eye for a moment. All of them were chatting together, a school trip maybe? They were around his age actually he wondered where they were going.
Casper High stopped having school trips after the GIW locked down the town.
Sighing he started his adventure through the mall. There were a lot of stores which meant he had lots of options. He started with a phone knowing it would probably be one of the highest value items on his list.
All of the newer models with huge price tags stressed him and his little wallet out so he ended up going to a second hand store. Luckily they sold him a used flip phone for a reasonable price. It was a dark green and fit easily into his fanny pack.
Now was the fun part. He got to wander and look for random things he wanted. It didn’t take very long until something caught his eye.
The store seemed almost similar to a hot topic but inside held merch from a bunch of different people. Most of them seemed to be villains or vigilantes. Danny winced seeing a Stain plushy. That guy was freaky even if his values could be kinda admired. He was a fruitloop for sure.
What had really caught his eye were the Phantom merch. There were plushies of him. In that store. Or well plushies of his vigilante personas.
Slowly he made his way over heavily ignoring the mini army of Stain’s.
The section of the store with Phantom merch seemed a little newer than the Stain stuff but it was no less full. Plushies, figures, keychains, hoodies and prints were all on display. It was kinda weird to see stuff like this with his face and symbol all over it. Well not exactly his face but the closest they could get to it.
Still it was kinda odd. The people who made these had no idea one guy was behind it all. Would they be upset he lied? Would they destroy all the merch they’d bought?
It was strange to think about. Him being separate people.
“Hi! Are you a fan of them too?” A voice spoke up distracting him from his thoughts. Turning he saw a girl in uniform with the head of a tiger. A fan of himself? He laughed. “I guess I am.”
The girl, Nellie according to her name tag, gave him a smile. “We have all sorts of stuff for Phantom from individual stuff for each member to things for the whole group! These prints over here are ones I did.” She gestured a lot while she spoke and seemed passionate about the topic. Passionate about him. A sense of pride welled in his chest. She liked him.
Nobody in Amity Park had ever liked him. Not enough to make merch and gush about him to anybody who asked.
“Thats incredible, those are beautiful.” The prints were beautiful. They had a more cartoonish style but were wonderful nonetheless.
She seemed to prefer drawing Wisp and Plasma. Often she drew them hugging or being cute together. “Ah Plasma and Wisp are my favorites personally! I know Plasma is pretty new and all but he seems pretty cool.”
Nellie rubbed the back of her neck with a smile.
“Anyway, if you like stuff for the whole group we’ve got those,” she gestured vaguely to a stack of prints, “Or we have this keychain here.”
Nellie reached down and gently grabbed a key chain. Instead of just one brother this one had all five posing together. “On the left here we have Frostbite then Plasm, Wisp, Specter and Plasma. Specter is the leader because we see him the most!” She paused, seemingly nervous. Danny just grinned and gestured for her to continue.
“I personally think Plasma and Plasm are twins. Their names are pretty similar and people say they are super similar in appearance too but well all the brothers look pretty similar.” Delight filled her tone. Danny smiled under his mask.
He’d looked at the forums containing masses of text about his personas once or twice, but to see a person gush about them in person was different. It felt good.
His core rumbled in joy and approval.
“As I said before, Plasma is definitely my favorite! He's the brother who can turn into goo and shapeshift. A bunch of people think he’s pretty scary but I like him a lot.” Nellie continued gesturing at the section for Plasma.
Danny had been using Plasma more often recently and had showcased his shapeshifting. On the forums he’d seen so much about this new Phantom could use his quirk. One of the things was how maybe he could use the quirk to make animal features.
It made him make horns and a tail. It was pretty neat. The horns just looked cool as hell and his tail helped with balance a lot.
While he had them out, stunts like balancing on the edges of roofs and stuff became way easier. He never knew how much a tail would help balance.
It caused him to use Plasma more even if people were a bit more uncomfortable about him.
In that form he was kinda… creepy. His eyebags were more pronounced and he knew his eyes were even more of a toxic green.
Still he had been using it more often because he liked Plasma. His powers and personality were all so fun to play with.
He wondered if Nellie was happy about that. Then he wondered why it mattered to him. She was someone he’d just meant yet he already cared about her. How odd he was.
“Well, enjoy! I'm uh sorry for rambling so much! I just really like them.” Nellie waved and wandered off to the counter once more. A shy yet excited look on her face.
The way she ranted about Phantom with such excitement reminded him about his own rants and excitement over stars.
Danny smiled under his mask. Well it couldn’t hurt to get some of his merch could it?
Danny left with a few of Nellie’s prints, the keychain and a little fan-made book filled with drawings and information about the Phantoms.
He was a protective spirit. Being appreciated by those he saved felt like a shot of pure energy and happiness.
Danny rode the high until his shopping trip came to a close. He ended with a new star blanket, a pillow, glow in the dark stars and a backpack. The backpack was the other ‘essential’ thing he’d picked out.
He really needed something to carry his stuff. He couldn’t just shove it all in his body forever.
So he’d stuffed his new stuff in his bag barely containing his excitement over sticking those stickers on his walls later. The warehouse ceiling was way too high up but the walls would be perfect.
In the backpack already were some clothes he’d picked up. They were kinda a last minute thing but having extra clothes to change into would be nice. Fitting his blanket and pillow in there was a bit of a squeeze but he made it work.
Satisfied he slipped the backpack on and made his way towards an exit.
He was almost there when he saw something that made him pause. It was Midoriya. The green haired kid from the USJ attack, sitting on a bench with another person in a black hoodie.
Danny would have moved on and just ignored it but… it felt wrong. He had spoken to Midoriya a couple of times in human form so approaching him wouldn’t be weird so… what was wrong?
Why did this whole situation feel so off?
He focused closer on the person next to Midoriya.
It was that guy! The weird scratchy one from the USJ! The one who brought that monster.
The one who had a disintegration quirk.
Dusty Mc Crusty over there had his hand on Midoriya’s throat. Only a single twitching finger wasn’t on the poor kid's neck.
So there you have it! Hope you enjoyed!
