#phantomcryptidau

So, I'm back from the grave with this idea! This is Chapter One of the first investigation! I hope i can keep up with it... I'll spruce it up a little more before posting it on AO3!! ENJOY :)

The Case of The Chalk Pyramids Menace

Chapter 1-- "It's not a Fluke..."

A firm hand came crashing down on the alarm clock, shutting it up for the fifth time in a row that morning. Groggy eyes blinked wearily, and a groan of "why am I even awake right now" cascaded into the crisp early morning. He shivered, digging for the sweater next to his air mattress, and flung it on as quickly as possible. Arms hugged torso, warming up his body to the point of him willing to move. The sun wasn't even peaking over the horizon as he stared out the windows of the van.

Tucker blinked again, and he smacked his lips together to get the morning breath off his taste buds. It was too early for this, and why did he have to be the first one awake? It was cruel and unusual punishment. He was not a morning person in the slightest. Flinging off his covers, he slipped on his wool socks, followed by his mud crusted hiking boots. The back door swung open, and Tucker jumped out, taking a deep inhale of the cool air. He walked towards the front of the van, opened the passenger door and retrieved his laptop.

"There's that coffee mug..." it wasn't washed out from the last morning. He rolled his eyes. Danny never seemed to do any dishes. Laptop under arm, he took out a little of half a water bottle and swirled it in the cup, dumping out the contents onto the ground.

"Uhg, keep it down..." a growl mumbled from underneath piles of covers as he re-ented the back of the vehicle. "You're louder than my mom on a Sunday having brunch with the house wife brigade." A black pillow creased over the head of the amorphous blob. "It's too early."

"We have to be up, Sam, Danny's probably waiting for us." Tucker nudged her sleeping bag with his shoe end, barely moving away from the coffee maker. She grumbled in response, and a quick, purple stocking foot whipped out to kick him. "Hey!" He jumped back, rattling their only table with his movement. "Watch it!"

"You watch it."

"Stop being such a baby and get up already." Tucker scolded. Sam responded back with the same words, only in a snide mocking tone. He sighed. "You are hopeless."

"And you're annoying me."

"If you dont get up, well miss our chance to investigate; and then what will Danny say? He'll be more mopey than you, and we already have enough that around the van." He paused a moment, and his nose krinkled. "And stop making me the responsible one. That's your job."

"I don't give a damn, I'm cold and tired. Danny can deal with it himself, we might as well go back to the motel at this point"

"He's the only one with the motel key." After a brief pause, Sam sat up, rubbing her eyes. Smudges of black makeup lined her bottom eyelids, and her short cropped hair was tossed in various directions. The coffee had finally brewed, and Tucker passed her a cup then sweetened his own to his liking. The few sips of black coffee seemed to rejuvenate his companion, and once the clock hit four, Sam was up, dressed, and slightly more energetic than before.

The van puttered to life as the key turned. Tucker typed into his computer as Sam put the vehicle in gear.

"Where's the meeting spot again?" She asked, slowly moving them forward. She adjusted her side mirror and began to move a bit quicker.

"The chalk pyramids." Tucker said. "Take a left up there than go for another 7 miles. We're pretty close."

"This entity better be a big deal for us to be up this early."

"Reports have been pretty steady, and if people are certain, it's likely real... Probably a tangible entity."

"I'm not sure which one it could be... there aren't a ton of tangible entities in this state, mostly spectral creatures, really. There's Sinkhole Sam, but it lives in a lake." Tucker raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"Sinkhole Sam?" He asked. A noise came from him choking back a laugh.

"Yeah, it's my namesake," Sam said, deadpan. Tucker burst out laughing, and she grinned. She eased the van to the right and before them arose the chalk pyramids.

"Wow..." Tucker murmered in awe. "This is beautiful!" The headlights flashed, catching the stone with their rays ever so slightly. "Nice meeting spot. It's gotta be gorgeous in the daytime." He glanced around until he saw a figure sitting atop one of the rocks. "There he is," he pointed. Sam squinted towards the shadow figure.

"Whats he doing just sitting around? I thought this was a stake out..." She huffed and parked the van.

"It's a good vantage point." Tucker responded. "He could probably spit on a ghost without them knowing where it came from." Sam made a face and rose an eyebrow.

"Why'd that come to mind?" She asked, hopping out of the van. The other shrugged.

"It's what I would do."

"Weirdo."

"Look whose talking" Tucker shut his door and flung his gear bag on his back. They trudged towards the shadowy figure, Sam's flashlight helping them see in a the low light. The sun was still behind the horizon to see properly.

"Uhg, turn that flashlight off, it's too bright." Danny sprung from his roost and landed next to the two, covering his eyes. "Whyd you bring the floodlight out?"

"It's just a flashlight." Same waved it, light still on, to show its small size. "Your eyes are getting a bit more sensitive..."

"Well, we've been dealing with nighttime creatures for a while, I suppose it was bound to happen..."

"Nocturnal vision, sick." Tucker nodded in approval. He threw down his bag and pulled out the Fenton Finder. The sonar device didn't make a single sound as he turned a knob to zoom in. "Did you see anything?" Danny tapped his finger on his chin.

"Well, I saw a few tumbleweeds, some geese, a couple of late night tourists..." his friends glanced at each other as he prodded on. "Oh! And a coyote and roadrunner." He grinned at their groans of annoyance.

"Danny..." Sam chided. He shrugged.

"Honest. There wasn't much last night. For such a Nocturnal creature it really didn't do much..."

"Theoretically nocturnal." Sam pointed out. "We don't know if it truly is. it's just based on sitings. We didn't see anything either. It was dead quiet."

"Except for Sam's snoring." Tucker laughed. He winced when she punched his arm.

"So a theoretically nocturnal creature that only attacks tourists to this area. Could be anything." Sam mused. "Could it be bigfoot?"

"You're kidding..." Tucker blinked at her. "Isn't bigfoot from the northwest?"

"That's a bit of a reach, isn't it Sam?" Danny asked. Her hands flew up in defense.

"It's a thought! There are legends about Bigfoot as far south as Texas, I mean, they have a whole group of people in the area that believe bigfoot, and the dogman duke it out once in a while." After there was no response and some concerned looks, she pressed. "I'm serious. Look it up. The cryptid hunter sphere is wild on the internet. The dogman is supposedly the bad guy."

"If bigfoot were here, though, wouldn't there be reports?" Tucker asked, fiddling some more with the Fenton Finder. "This state is flat, i doubt there are a lot of places a creature like that could hide out in."

"It's just a thought... I mean, the legend has spread everywhere at this point, anything could be bigfoot."

Danny began to walk towards one of the large structures of sandstone. "I'd imagine that maybe the tangible entity could by a flying creature. These rocks are pretty tall and that would explain why we haven't found any solid evidence on the ground yet."

"But wouldn't people have seen it? Wouldn't reports say it was in the sky?" Tucker asked, moving his gear with him as the three made their way to the rocks.

"Not unless it was under the cover of night..." Danny theorized. "But what could it be?" A jump of alert hit him when Sam called them over.

"Check this out!" She said as the two jogged over. "There's fossils!"

"Oh whoa!" Danny stared down at the etching in the ground. He dusted at them to see the impression clearer.

"Didn't the lady at the museum say this was a giant seabed millions of years ago?" Tucker asked. After a curt nod from his friend, he continued. "Pretty crazy to just see fossils just out!"

"With the erosion of the stone around here, there's no doubt we'd see some cool fossils." Sam responded, whipping out her pocket knife. She began scraping at the sides of the fossils until it was exposed enough to grab with her fingers. She tugged, but it didn't budge. "Oh well." She said, placing her knife in her pocket. "Guess mother earth doesn't want it coming with us."

The three fanned out, flashlights and night eyes dancing every which way for clues. Nothing seemed to stand out, and the sun began cascading over the horizon. It wouldn't be long before tourists started to show up in the area, and having three young adults investigating a cryptid in broad daylight would be a strange sight to see. They piled into the van to recollect as more coffee brewed. Sam whipped out her laptop, and Danny pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. Tucker fiddled with the Fenton Finder as they sat and pondered. He turned the knobs to send the sonar out further to find more blips. Nothing more than two small dots appeared on the Finder, and there was no activity on either. When compared to a map, the blips were too far away to be anything worthwhile. He scratched his chin in thought. How could something that's been reported on by so many people not be obvious on the Fenton Finder?

"Anything yet, Sam?" Danny asked as he wrote down their theories.

"Nothing. Literally not a single thing..." her stocking feet kicked up as she typed on the computer. She was lying on her stomach using her pillow to prop herself up as she surfed the web. Music blared out of the headphones wrapped around her neck. "No sources have talked about a flying nocturnal cryptid, and anything worth a look at is about 100 miles away. Unless it's a roaming entity, I've got nothing, not a clue..." Danny sighed and clicked his pen rapidly.

"This doesn't make any sense... could it just be a fluke?"

"Reports were consistent and every witness had a lie detector test and their stories were accurate with each other. Hard to say it's a fluke." Tucker responded. "Unless it's mass hysteria, which could be as big as a possibility of a flying bigfoot."

"I hope we haven't wasted our time..." Danny groaned. He fell back, his hands on his face in frustration. "The portal is too unstable to keep it open this long." He sighed and stared at the ceiling of the van. All of the people in Amity Park were relying on them, whether they knew it or not; and with Freakshow in the running while the monsters and ghosts caused havoc in the real world... he shook the thoughts out of his head. There was no way that this kind of thinking was going to help them. He had to be strong and confident and that will get them steady for the task ahead.

"Earth to Danny!" Sam called. He blinked and then sat up to see Sam leaning over Tuckers shoulder, looking at him with wide eyes while the other was staring at the Fenton Finder. A faint "beep" sounded from the machine, and it was getting faster with every second.

Back to drawing for my Danny Phantom au-- when Danny gets mad, instead of him getting just glowy green eyes, his whole body turns into black ecto energy. And I mean really mad, not just annoyed or kinda upset.

It wouldn't happen often unless his family, friends, or innocent folk were in serious danger. His ghost half takes over more in these cases. After the situation settles, people are safe, and he calms down, he has to rebalance himself so his ghost and human half stay equal. Balance between both worlds.

Also, a story idea involving the Fresno Nightcrawlers lol

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"I can't believe this" Sam muttered, folding her arms across her chest. "They have a *real* cryptid just living in their barn? Yeah, sure..." She kicked a rock. "And I'm all sunshine and rainbows..."

"Sometimes you are!" Tucker turned around, walking backwards. "On a full moon, at least." The other made a face at him which, in turn, caused him to laugh.

"It's possible, I mean... my parents have a ghost portal in their basement. How weird could it be that some locals have a weird creature just holed up in some dingy building? We've seen weirder." Danny chimed in, raising an eyebrow and keeping his voice low. The crunching of the gravel beneath their boots was rhythmic as they followed far behind the two teenage boys that were marching quickly to their property. It was a bit out of town, and with the van broken and the two teens not owning their own car, the trio had to walk. A breeze rolled by, causing all three to shiver. Sam threw her scarf around her neck.

"Which makes it all the more suspicious. Remember when we were in Kansas, and that weird guy with the glass eye told us he found a dragon at the chalk pyramids? Captured it with his bare hands and put it on display?" Danny and Tucker nodded. "Well, when we went in, it turned out to be some dinky little lizard with wings strapped on its back, a total hoax. We wasted so much money for just a peak!"

"I remember it being so cute, though. Well worth the price." Tucker smiled at the memory.

"We needed to see, didn't we? You're always on about seeing proof rather than just believing people. Its the only way we can really get all of the issues these creatures and ghosts are causing figured out." Danny pointed out. Sam rolled her eyes.

"Uh, yeah, but we also need to have some kind of common sense about what we're doing. Trust the crazy glass eye dude who, by the way, was drunk off his ass and believed he was some messiah, or actually take a moment to think about what we're being offered to see? The more we spend working on these hoaxes, the less time and resources we have to work on actual cases."

"I do have to agree with Sam, Danny. We need to start being a little more wary of what we investigate. We can get into some serious trouble if we're just diving head first into every case." Tucker added. Danny sighed, slowly nodding.

"I guess you're both right. After this, I'll think it through before I agree to an investigation. I promise." He said. Sam grabbed his turtle neck sleeve, stopping him in his tracks.

"Not just a promise. A pinky swear." She held out her pinky, waiting for the other. "The most sacred of promises."

"Sam, come on."

"It's the only way you keep your promises, man." Tucker shrugged. "You have to seal the deal."

"Alright then, you pinky swear too! You're also diving into everything!" Danny chided. Tucker raised his hands in defense.

"You both are a dynamic duo of no common sense." Sam responded dryly. "Let's swear it!"

All three hooked their pinkies together. In unison they said, "I solemnly swear with pinkies paired, to follow hold onto my promise." After untangling their pinkies, the continued to walk forward. The barn came into view as they rounded the curve.

"And as you both know, if we break a pinky swear y-"

"Yeah yeah, we know." Tucker rolled his eyes. "We've known since the beginning, Sam."

They finally reached the barn and the taller of the two teens unlocked the lock that strapped the two doors tight.

"Alright, are ready to see som'thin' wild?" He said to the trio. "It'll knock your socks off!" The smaller of the two nodded his agreement.

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"It's a creature that lurks in the shadows of the trees, darting whenever you turn to look..." the old man garbled. He wiggled his fingertips as he spoke, evoking a spooky ambiance to his tale. "The only evidence they've found of this creature are large footprints in the mud, too large for any human man to make!" There was a brief pause. The three teens stared at the old man, who took a tentative sip of his too-hot-cocoa, grinning with an eyebrow raised. They all look at each other, then back. In unison, they said, "You mean Bigfoot?"

The man slammed his mug down, the streaming liquid sloshing about inside at the force and stood up, pointing a long bony finger at them.

"NOT Bigfoot he's a myth! This is a humanoid creature, one that has not been seen for more than a glimpse, and has large back legs. Some say that it's hairy all over, like an ape!" Another pause.

"So Bigfoot..." the three said together again. The old man squished his face in frustration, yelling to himself incoherently in frustration.

"Everything's Bigfoot! It's always Bigfoot! Why is it always HIM!?" He stomped off, pulling out a pack of cigarettes, towards the door.

"That guy's nutso..." Tuck muttered widening his eyes at the other two.

"What was your first guess, the undying hatred for Bigfoot, or the fact that he drinks hot cocoa like he's a drunk?" Sam snidely asked.

"Both, plus the fact that he's not wearing any shoes..." Danny said, scrunching up his nose. "That guy smells in more way than one." Sam sighed and leaned back, placing her hands behind her head, and smiled.

"Don't you just love locals..." She murdered.

"There has to be some truth in what he's saying. The Fenton Finder said there was an anomaly here, somewhere. I'm not sure if it's a creature or a ghost or just something silly like a floating car." Danny pulled out the machine and placed it on the table. After glancing around to make sure people weren't eavesdropping, he continued. "See that blip? It means it's pretty close. My ghost sense isn't going off at all, and I can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"If it's a floating car, I'd argue that's a good thing." Tucker chimed in. After a turned eyebrow from his friends, he shrugged. "Well, I'd prefer that over a ghost or some ravenous creature trying to eat us."

"Fair point..." Danny turned a few knobs on the Fenton Finder. "The blip hasn't moved from wherever it's at, so it may be possible that it's nocturnal and just asleep or dormant. Sam, do you know of any other local legends in the area?" Sam furrowed her brows in thought, tapping a black, coffin shaped nail tip against her purple lips.

"Hmmm, well... there's the legend of the cemetery ghost, the church ghost who haunts one of the 50 here in town, I'm not sure which one... there's not as many legends out here. Mostly just general hauntings, and even those are far and few between. The last sighting of the cemetery ghost was back in 1987, and the church ghost was in 2004. Nothing has become of either since then, honestly." Danny frowned and then hummed.

"I wonder what it could be, maybe a new entity?"

"To make a blip that size, though, would mean it would be pretty obvious. People would have seen it and it wouldve gotten reported to someone. That much ectoenergy would turn your hair on end if it was fully functioning. So either it's an old entity that's been on our plane of existence since forever, or it's still a dormant new entity waiting to be awakened." Tucker grabbed the Fenton Finder to look himself. "The blip size is how much ectoenergy there is in each entity, and the fact that this town has seemed peaceful even with this giant thing lurking around means it has to be a creature or ghost that's been around long before the portal was destroyed." Sam slapped her hand down, jolting Tucker and Danny from their thinking and causing some locals to turn their heads for a moment.

"There's a roaming cryptid around these states! That means that while it may not be a local legend, it could be a large ectoenergetic creature!" Danny and Tucker looked at each other and grinned.

"Well? What is it?" Danny asked, buzzing with excitement and leaning in.

"The Skunk Ape!" Sam said, crossing her arms and smiling ear to ear. There was a pause as the two boys looked at each other. Tucker turned toward Sam and asked,

-------------------------------------------------------

"Is this thing on?" The camera jostled as hands began to adjust the screen and move the lens in place.

"Danny, be careful! It's expensive equipment, we can't have a fiasco like last time" another voiced responded, with a slightly annoyed tone. "Don't worry about the tech stuff, I got it all taken care of." The image of a young man's chest focused in the viewfinder. His brown, handmade sweater was the main focus of the entire screen, until he stepped back to be seen. "Okay, stop there for a sec... let me try to find a better angle..." The camera moved back to get the boy in the frame. A row of corn stalks were seen standing behind him, waving as a slight breeze rolled a cloud, briefly, over the setting sun. The golden light cast long shadows of the stalks, shading him and his features, darker than they usually were.

Danny tapped his foot as he waited, turning towards the left side of the video, shoving his hands in his black jeans' pockets. "Sam, are you sure I have to wear this? It's itchy..." he shrugged in the sweater, trying to get it more comfortable and shivered as another breeze rolled by.

"I made that, you better wear it!" Sam chided from out of frame. "Besides, it makes you... blend in a little. You don't look as out of place, like you usually do. Like a local, or something. Also, seeing as your shivering, it'll keep you warm as we investigate, Clueless."

Danny rolled his blue eyes and then averted his attention back to the camera. "C'mon Tuck, we go live in about 2 minutes, we have to be ready. It's the first live video on the channel!"

"Hold your horses, let the tech master work his magic!" Tuck shouted. "Dude, you're really on edge."

"Sorry, Im just excited... and kind of nervous. I mean, what if the audience sees something theyre... not supposed to, ya know?" He tugged on his sweater sleeves.

"It'll be fine. We picked an easy investigation. Trust me, I researched all night about it." Sam said.

After a moment of more adjusting, a muttering under breath, "There! Alright, we're ready to go live!" Danny beamed, eyes glowing, and clapped his hands together, instantly shaking off his nerves.

"Alright keep your eye on the time. Remember, we're just going to focus on the legend. If anything happens, act like it's nothing. Then we'll end the stream..."

"And then we can take care of some real business." Sam finished, walking on screen. She wore a dark purple cardigan, over a black turtleneck, a thick book in her arms. She opened it up to show Danny a couple pages. "Here, this should help ease that overly active brain of yours. It should either be dormant, or not active. Besides, according to this book, it won't be hard to deal with at all. The easiest way to keep it away, if we need to, is by walking backwards. That way, it'll feel like we're watching it. Should be a good show, with no issues!" She smiled towards Tuck behind the camera, humor dancing in her eyes. "So long as you can keep everything in frame this time, 'tech master'" she joked, raising a pierced eyebrow.

"Ha ha." A red gloved hand came into view, shooing at Sam. "We're on in 30 seconds! Get out of frame, cryptkeeper." Sam stuck out her tongue and moved out of frame, still smiling.

Danny adjusted the mic hooked to his sweater collar, smoothed his messy hair as best he could, and took a deep breath. "Ready Tuck?"

"Always ready, Danny." Tuck responded. His gloved hand came back into frame, giving a tuumbs up. "It'll be awesome. Nothing will go wrong." He counted down from five with his fingers, and pointed at the other to start.

Sam knows all of the legends and where they take place. She helps navigate the trio to each spot and goes over the legends and myths to help Danny and Tucker with the investigation. I also hc that she crochets and knits sweaters for everyone when they're hanging out for a bit in one spot (I even hc it in the actual series too, she just gives off that vibe). She also drives the crew around too. She frequently showers the internet for more research on different topics too to make sure she's up to date on what they are or will be working on.

Tucker is the brains behind the operation. He handles the filming, the setup, tends to be the one to communicate with the locals to get information, manages their social media's, and helps danny, hands on, in the minor investigations (the ones they film, mostly). He invented a portable portal (HA) for those that are put to rest so they can go to the ghost zone for their afterlife or for them to have a different, safer life in the ghost zone. Sometimes they'll leave an entity where it is if it won't harm anyone.

Danny is the one that communicates with the entities in his ghost form. He can also sense where they are and effectively help put them to rest. He always goes for the easiest option before heading straight into battle. He does make tons of quips though, which tend to make him accidentally piss off an entity cause of his jokes or lack of awareness. On the videography side, Danny is the main host of their videos, introducing the entity. Him and Tucker both edit videos together if they have the time off.

I wanna start writing a fanfiction, but also want to make sure I have the idea for the au down. But regardless, enjoy some really rough doodles!!