Archive of Our Own

He had agreed to meet Peter at the convention, but Danny soon realized that he had no idea what the other would be wearing and looking out across the colorful and diverse—and huge—crowd before him, he began to understand the gravity of his mistake.

He had thought he had gotten somewhat used to colorful and weird looking people after all his years interacting with ghosts, but this was something else entirely. Maybe it had something to do with them being actual humans and Danny wasn't used to them being this… varied. Or maybe it had something to do with him being in human form at the moment.

This was the first time Peter was going to meet Sam and Tucker and Danny found himself almost feeling nervous as he scanned the crowd of people for Peter's head of brown hair, the tension building as he still couldn't find it.

"Is that him?" Tucker asked from his right, eyes tracking an approaching Spider-Man cosplayer.

Danny frowned at the person in a black Spider-Man costume, slapping a tag on the wall next to them while bobbing his head along to some music playing in the headphones he had on. Danny shook his head. "No, that's not him."

Maybe he should have asked if Peter was planning on going in a costume. He would be even harder to find if he was.

"Hm," Tucker hummed before nodding at another Spider-Man cosplayer with prominent webbing on their costume, dancing down the corridor. "Is that him?"

"No! And I don't think he will be dressed as Spider-Man. It would be too obvious."

"Says you," Sam laughed from his other side, looking up from the schedule she held in her hands to give Danny's own Spider-man costume a pointed look.

Danny glanced down at himself and his costume before shrugging. "What? I didn't have time to come up with something else!"

And besides, he'd already had a Spider-Man costume lying at home since last Halloween. Not that he would ever admit that to Peter himself.

"I'm sure he'll love it," Sam teased as she stuffed the schedule into her green backpack. "Even if you could at least pretend to try and keep the mask on."

"But I can't see shit in it!" Danny complained, waving the mask in his hand for emphasis. "I don't get how he fights in this. I would never—"

Danny cut himself off as something white in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Look!" Danny exclaimed as he pointed excitedly at two people in Phantom cosplay a bit further down the hall. "Look! They are dressed as m—as Phantom!"

"Yeah?" Sam raised one quizzical eyebrow as she looked at the cosplayers, not seeming very surprised.

"I didn't know that people like him that much!" Danny couldn't keep the joy from his voice as he bounced in place. Those costumes must have taken a lot of time and work to complete. It made him feel all warm inside.

Sam snorted. "Really? You didn't?"

"There's a lot of people who like Phantom nowadays!" Tucker chimed in with a nod. "Even outside Amity."

Danny's eyes were basically sparkling at this point. "There is?!" He knew his reputation had gotten better, but not that people like him enough to dress as him, especially outside of Amity Park. That was—that did something very tingly and warm to his core.

"Yeah, man," Tucker said as he clapped Danny's shoulder before pausing. "Oh! Maybe he's gonna be dressed as Phantom?"

Danny laughed, even as his eyes didn't leave the cosplayers. "Of course he won't!" and as he said it one of the cosplayers turned towards them, locked eyes with Danny and smiled before starting to make his way towards them.

Tucker gave him a small wave as he approached and a happy, "Nice Phantom costume, dude!"

"Thanks!" The cosplayer did a little twirl; hands out at his sides as he spun.

And… there was something very familiar to that voice. Danny narrowed his eyes at the cosplayer. "Peter?"

The Phantom cosplayer laughed and gave an exaggerated bow, before straightening up and striking a pose with one hand on his hip and the other giving a ridiculous V-sign. "Got it in one! I knew you would recognize me. Even in this beauuutfiul ensemble."

And now that Danny looked past the white hair and pale make-up he did recognize him. It was hard to mistake that shit-eating grin for anyone else.

Tucker did a double take, eyes wide, as he looked him up and down, "Wait… You're Peter?"

"Yes?" Peter asked as he relaxed his pose and tilted his head with a quizzical smile.

"I told you!" Tucker slapped Danny excitedly on the shoulder. "I told you!"

"Yeah, yeah, you did," Danny brushed him off, refusing to show how much it meant to him that Peter had come dressed as Phantom.

Peter shook his head at their antics but powered on, "And you guys must be Sam and Tucker! Hello, it's nice to meet you." He gave them a smile and a wave.

"Oooh," Sam cooed, "he's adorable, isn't he!"

Danny nodded enthusiastically. "Right?!"

"Hey! I'm right here!" Peter protested with a pout, black jumpsuit-clad arms crossing over his chest.

"We know and we love that!" Sam agreed, her smile equal parts adoring and teasing.

Tucker boxed Danny's shoulder and chimed in with, "We've wanted to meet you for so long, but Danny never let us!"

"I didn't want you to mess everything up," Danny muttered under his breath. "I knew you would embarrass me."

"Are you speaking about me or them?" Peter asked, one eyebrow raised.

Danny shrugged. "When I realized it could go either way, I figured it was time."

Peter laughed at that. "And you've finally realized that you won't get rid of me that easily?"

"Yeah," Danny heaved a dramatic sigh. "I've given up."

"Good choice!" Peter shot him a thumbs up and a blinding smile. A lethal combo. "And, dude! You look so good!" He gushed as he eyed Danny's Spider-Man costume, but as his eyes landed on Danny's hand holding the mask he frowned. "But put the mask on. You're disrespecting the costume!"

"No thanks. I can't cover up this handsome face," Danny huffed as he turned up his nose in a fake display of snobbiness. After getting the laughs he was aiming for he turned his attention back to Peter's cosplay; eyeing the Phantom costume with a critical eye. "Good choice in costume, it suits you." Danny nodded approvingly. "You almost look dead!"

"Thanks…?" Peter trailed off with a frown, before shaking himself off and going back to his smile, aiming it at Sam and Tucker. "Ignoring the idiot… So, what are you guys dressed as?"

Tucker opened his mouth to answer, but Peter cut them off with an excited, "Wait! Let me guess!" He pointed at Sam first. "Poison Ivy?"

Sam pursed her painted lips as she cast an incredulous look first at Peter and then down at her costume with its green contact-lenses and heavy eyeliner around the eyes, green dress with a cape and thorny wines trailing behind her, finished off with purple and green horns curving up from her head. She waved a gloved hand and casually said, "It's an homage to the time I was mind controlled by an ancient and powerful ghost and almost destroyed my whole town."

Peter blinked and stared at her in silence. Sam looked back with a serious expression before rolling her eyes with a sigh. "…Yes, let's say I'm Poison Ivy."

Danny laughed and nudged Peter. "Now you're almost pale enough to really be a ghost!"

Peter ignored him as he gave Sam a cautious glance before turning his attention towards Tucker. "Right… Now I'm almost scared to ask you about your costume."

Tucker placed his hands on his hips and struck a pose that he no-doubt thought looked heroic, wide stance and hands on his hips. "I'm dressed as Queen Lycanthra, ruler of the wolf tribe!" The effect was slightly impaired by the giant furry paws on his hands and the—not expertly crafted—homemade wolf-snout covering the lower parts of his face.

Taking pity on Peter's confused expression, Danny elaborated, "It's from his favorite comic called Wolf Queen."

"So…" Peter trailed off, tilting his head as he asked, "You're a furry?"

"No!" Tucker exclaimed as his paws left his hips to be waved in front of him frenetically. "I'm not!"

Peter raised his hands in front of him in a disarming gesture. "Hey, nothing wrong with that! Live your best life, man."

Tucker swore under his breath as he let his hands hang at his side instead, shoulders slumping in defeat. "I should have gone as Pharaoh Duulaman instead…"

Danny decided to take pity on his friend—even though he really did think that Tucker had done a great job with the costume—and turned to Peter to change the subject with a smooth, "Where's your friends? MJ and… Ned, right?"

Peter nodded and Danny mentally patted himself on the back for getting the names right. "They went to get some food. They should be back any minute."

"Nice, I can't wait to meet them!" And Danny really did look forward to meeting them, Peter had talked about them a lot and they seemed like genuinely nice people. And it would be good for Sam and Tucker to meet other people who were in a somewhat similar position as them.

Nothing bad would happen by allowing them to meet. Nothing. They would all behave like normal, respectable people. He was sure of it.

Peter gave an almost apologetic smile. "They didn't have the time to dress up, though."

"That's totally fine!" Danny assured him. "This is our first time at a convention outside of Amity, so we might have gotten a bit excited."

Sam tilted her head as she fixed Peter with a thoughtful look. "It's weird seeing Phantom so… civil."

"Hey!" Danny exclaimed and he did not pout as he grumbled, "I'm nice!"

"You're…passable," Sam waved him off, "I blame it on you always being sleep-deprived."

Tucker nodded and chimed in, "Dead on your feet, if you may."

Danny crossed his arms with a huff. "You may not."

"Aww, cheer up!" Tucker gloated, seemingly having no qualms with the teasing now that he wasn't the subject of it. "Spider-Man is supposed to be niiice!"

"I. Am. Nice," Danny growled out.

"Excuse me!" Someone suddenly called out from behind them, "Phantom, can I get a picture?"

Danny straightened up and turned around with a huge smile and a happy, "Yes!"

It wasn't often that people wanted to take his photo and he loved it when—

"Ehhh," the person trailed off, fiddling with the camera and nodding towards Peter. "I was talking to him. Sorry."

Peter. Who was dressed in a Phantom-costume. Right.

Danny wanted to smack himself. "Oh, no. I'm sorry. Of course. I'm not even—Yeah."

Tucker hid his face in his oversized paws, but Danny could see his shoulders shaking in silent laughter. The traitor.

Sam had no such qualms and threw her head back as she laughed openly.

Well. If they didn't want to support him, at least he could show them what a real friend was like. He sidled up to where Peter was posing in an honestly almost insulting attempt at being spooky, and discreetly aimed his hand and—there. A couple of small ghostly orbs wafted over and surrounded Peter, who looked at them with wide eyes before sending Danny a smile and getting back to posing.

The photographer on the other hand gave a small startled squeak and lowered the camera. Peter gave him a smile and a, "It's okay. It's a… projector. To help… Set the mood?"

Danny almost smacked himself in the face at his friend's unconvincing lie before the photographer smiled and gushed, "That's so cool!"

Peter smiled back. "Thanks!"

Well. Maybe people in Amity weren't unusually blind, maybe people everywhere were just that oblivious.

Danny shook his head as he wiped his hands on his pants, leaving Peter to the impromptu photo-shoot.

Sam looked at him with one raised eyebrow and a dry, "Discreet."

Danny shrugged with a smile, but before he could fire off a super witty comeback, thank you very much, a new voice spoke up from behind him, "Spider-Man!"

Danny saw Peter turn around right as the photographer took a photo, before turning back around with a blush and a flustered barrage of "I'm sorry-s" and "excuse me-s".

And that was when Sam nudged him and Danny remembered what he was wearing. Right. He was Spider-Man right now. Danny spun around and came face to face with a big camera and a person behind it who looked at Danny with a shy smile and asked, "Can I get a photo?"

He smiled—careful not to show any fangs—as he tried to put the person at ease, "Sure!" before striking an awesome hero-pose.

The person thanked him and raised the camera, before hesitating and asking, "...Can you please put on the mask?"

Danny forcefully yanked the damn fabric onto his head as he did his best to ignore his burning cheeks. Suddenly he could see the appeal of hiding his face while in costume. "Sure…"

After the two photographers had left, Danny and Peter both stared after them with matching frowns. Danny reached up and pulled off the mask again with a sigh. "This is too confusing."

Peter nodded. "Yeah, agreed. Let's switch."

Peter's Spider-Man costume was quite shabby and well-used; some seams were failing and the fabric was fraying at the edges. There was a stain that looked suspiciously like real blood to the trio's trained eyes. Not to mention it was mainly made up of a red sleeveless hoodie with a spider painted on it and blue sweatpants.

Danny couldn't keep in the laughter as he took it all in. "What the fuck are you wearing?! Where's your usual getup?"

"Hey! Don't diss the 'stume! This is the first one I ever made!" Peter crossed his arms before nodding towards Danny. "And you're one to talk! You couldn't even bother to put on the costume I brought?"

"You want me to put on that when I have this perfection at my beck and call?" Danny gestured at his own costume. Which was really just his usual Phantom costume since he had taken the easy way out and simply transformed into his ghost form.

"Hey, Peter!" Someone called from behind them. "What happened to your costume?"

Danny turned around to see two people walking up to them with empty wrappers in their hands as Peter shrugged and answered, "We decided to change."

This must be Ned and MJ, Danny thought. Out loud he said, "Nice to meet you. I'm Danny!"

"Yooo!" The guy, Ned, smiled wide. "Phantom! So cool to meet you. I'm a huge fan!"

Tucker snickered. "You won't be after today!"

Danny couldn't keep in the affronted, "Hey!"

Peter smiled innocently and said, "Ned, Tucker here has built his own phone. It's even ghost proof."

Ned gasped and looked at Tucker with wide eyes and an even wider smile. "The guy in the chair?"

Tucker shrugged, but Danny could see the pleased smile on his face. "At least the man with the brains."

"I hear you!" Ned nodded seriously. "You're my new best friend."

Oh no. There were two of them now, and Peter's smile told Danny he knew exactly what he had done.

Looking for reassurance, Danny turned around, only to see Sam and MJ staring at each other in silence for several seconds before exchanging almost imperceptible nods.

Oh no.

It was almost enough for Danny to regret this whole meeting each-other thing.

Before he could call them out on it, Sam turned and gave him an innocent smile that he didn't trust one bit, no sir. "Come on, let's go! We'll miss the hero panel you wanted to go to."

At least there were a limited number of things they could get up to at a convention. Hopefully. Sadly, Danny knew better than to underestimate his friends, and from what he had heard from Peter, the same applied to the other two.

Well, hopefully they would wait until after the convention before unleashing whatever they had cooking.

So Danny settled for shrugging his unease off and instead resorting to his favorite coping mechanism; teasing. He showed Peter's shoulder with a wink. "I heard that Stark is coming to the panel."

Peter grinned, and this time it wasn't very innocent. "Why don't we go say hi?"

"I was thinking…" Tucker trailed off.

Ned nodded and added, "Of going to the demonstration of the new Hammer tablet? The one taking place right now?"

Tucker pointed at Ned with a smile. "Yes!"

They peeled off, heads close together as they threw around advanced technological terms fast enough to make Danny's head hurt.

"Well…" Peter trailed off. "Hopefully they will stick to just the demonstration."

Danny wouldn't bet on it.

As they sat in the audience listening to the hero panel Danny felt a tug on his arm and looked down to see Sam frowning up at him. "Hey, Danny, you're drifting again."

"It's fine, I'm supposed to pretend to be Phantom, right?" Danny smiled even as he tried to contain his surprise at seeing his friends so far below him all of a sudden.

"Normal humans can't float Danny!" Sam hissed under her breath as she tugged on his arm.

He pouted but landed back on his chair, if only so that he didn't have to admit that he hadn't noticed himself starting to float.

"And please, dim the light," MJ added in a whisper from Sam's other side.

"What?" Danny frowned before glancing down at himself and noticing how the ghostly glow he was always emitting as Phantom lit up his surroundings in the dark of the audience. Oh. Sorry." He did his best to dim it. "Whoops."

He noticed several people glancing their way, a majority of which had annoyed expressions on their faces. Danny ducked his head and did his best to listen in on the panel.

After the panel was over, Peter and Danny went up to where the participants were greeting fans by the side of the stage. They got in line and when it was their turn, Peter took the lead as he walked up to Stark, who in turn took a single look at Peter, stopped, and raised an eyebrow with an incredulous, "Really?"

"Hello! I'm a huge fan," Peter gushed with a smile audible in his voice, face hidden by his handmade mask.

Stark snorted a laugh. "You didn't sound like a huge fan when you chewed me out after the attack last week. Or when you complained to Happy, again, about how I—"

Peter grabbed Stark's hand, shaking it enthusiastically and repeating, "Huge fan."

Stark rolled his eyes and made the strategic decision to change the subject, taking in Peter's clothes with a critical look on his face. "What's with the old suit? The one I gave you isn't good enough anymore?"

Peter dropped Stark's hand in favor of crossing his arms with an annoyed huff. "Why is everyone against the—"

Stark cut him off as he looked over Peter's shoulder and finally spotted Danny. "You even brought Casper?"

Danny waved with a cheeky smile on his face. "Hello!"

Stark groaned. "Get out of here!" He made a shooing motion with his hand. "Both of you! Before you break something."

Danny opened his mouth to argue, seeing Peter do the same, but before they had the chance to talk, they were both grabbed by their friends and quickly dragged away from the queue. Danny could see Stark mouth a thank you to Sam and MJ and rolled his eyes. They weren't that bad.

As they came to a stop, Sam let Danny go in favor of smacking him on the head instead. "You know, we have better things to do than babysitting you idiots."

MJ let Peter go and ignored his sputtering as she turned to Sam with a raised eyebrow. "You thinking about the debate panel centered on the ethical way to rebuild after an alien invasion?"

Sam smiled. "You're reading my mind."

And just like that Danny was left alone with Peter.

Danny looked at Peter, Peter looked at Danny, and slowly, two matching grins grew on their faces.

They were chased out of the convention's gaming hall for "cheating", but really, Danny was just using the skills he had. And if those skills happened to include possessing the game to get Peter to win all his matches, who could blame him?

Admittedly, maybe they had gone a tiiiny bit overboard.

But nobody had even noticed that something was wrong until Danny had forgotten himself and talked to Peter directly from the screen! So really, there was no reason to call them "cheaters" or "monsters" and all that stuff!

Who could have known that a bunch of competitive teenagers could be scarier and more combative than their usual rogues gallery. In hindsight; maybe they should have realized that.

Danny couldn't help but laugh at the expression on Peter's face as they were chased out of the room; he was so obviously not used to being yelled at and cursed out by regular humans. Danny almost felt bad for dragging him down with him. Almost.

Danny was still laughing as they skidded around a corner and out of sight of the mob. He placed a comforting hand on Peter's shoulder, trying his best to suppress his giggles to reassure his slightly panicking friend, "It's—it's fine. It's fine. They won't call anyone."

They heard the crash of yet another raging teenage boy throwing something to the floor.

"Probably," Danny amended, before dissolving back into laughter.

Peter nodded, swallowing. "Hopefully," but he was smiling so Danny counted it as a win.

"Your suit isn't quite right."

Danny stopped in the middle of a step and turned around to face the girl who had been speaking. "Excuse me?"

"Your suit," she nods towards it. "The white on Phantom's suit doesn't go that high on his knees and arms."

Danny choked, "R-right." He had no idea how to respond to that. "I'm sorry?"

She nods with a serious expression. "That's alright."

Peter was doing a very bad job at concealing his giggles as he said, "You should have taken my Phantom-costume. At least that one was accurate." He hid his head in his hands, and if he thought that it made his very obvious laughter unnoticeable then Danny would have to have a serious talk to him about his acting skills. He was supposed to have a secret identity for the Ancients sake!

The girl just sent Peter an unimpressed look and continued with the conversation as if Peter hadn't interrupted. Danny was impressed. "Are you coming to the ghost meet-up later?"

That made him stop and Danny blinked at her as he asked incredulously, "The what?"

And it wasn't until that moment that Danny noticed that she was dressed as Ember—blue hair and guitar and all. She gave him a look that clearly stated that she thought he was a bit slow, which was right on brand with the real Ember, he had to give her that. "A meet up for everyone dressed as ghosts or ghost hunters. You should come."

"Alright…?" Danny still had a hard time computing what she was saying, but she apparently deemed this to be the end of that conversation as she simply nodded and left. Danny looked after her with a frown; he realized that he still had no idea if she even liked Phantom as a hero, but maybe he should take it as a compliment that she was invested enough in Phantom to critique strangers about their clothes? Maybe?

"Food?" Peter asked as he patted Danny on the shoulder.

Danny nodded with a sigh and a nod. "Food."

They found a mostly empty table to sit down and eat their spoils, but before Danny had even taken the first bite out of his burrito, a pair of people plopped down next to them. One of the dudes—the taller of the two—leaned over and eyed Peter's costume with a smile and a, "Hey, I like your suit! Looks cool! Early period Spider-Man, right? Love the web shooters!"

"Thanks!" Peter said around his mouthful of hamburger, "I made it all myself."

The tall dude nodded. "Love the attention to detail with the dirt and tears and stuff. Looks legit."

Peter beamed as Danny huffed and crossed his arms. "That's so unfair! People like your ragtag costume, but think mine looks 'wrong'?"

"That's ok, I think your cosplay looks awesome," the other, shorter, stranger said. "Phantom is my favorite superhero!"

Danny almost combusted at the praise. He just hoped his blush was pink instead of green.

"Ha! Spider-Man is much cooler!" the tall person with totally objective bad taste argued.

Danny sent Peter a glance, but his friend seemed content to eat his food and watch the exchange as if it were a tennis-match.

"Phantom is a ghost, he can fly!" The person—now affectionately dubbed shorty in Danny's mind—said.

"But Spider-Man has his webs and can climb walls! And have you seen how athletic he is?" The person with bad taste said as he waved his hands for emphasis. "Besides, he's worked with the Avengers! How cool is that!? Phantom just stays in his own town."

"Have you been to Amity? I visited once and man. I understand why he can't leave," Shorty said emphatically. "It's chaos there."

"Thank you!" Danny couldn't help but exclaim, just so relieved from hearing someone else acknowledging it. "That's what I've been saying!"

"Oh, you've been there?" Shorty asked with sudden interest and Danny realized he might have given too much away.

He did his best to wave it off with a laugh and a vague, "Yeah. Yeah, I live there."

Shorty gave a wince and a sympathetic, "I'm sorry."

Danny didn't know how to respond to that, so he didn't.

"That doesn't change the fact that Spider-Man is a recognized hero," Mr. Bad Taste cut in haughtily, "Phantom is just some vigilante."

Shorty huffed. "He's doing what's right even without the support of some billionaire or a bunch of other heroes!"

"Please stop fighting about it," Danny said in a strangled voice. He had never heard someone he didn't know say so many positive things about Phantom and he found that he could barely handle it.

Sadly, all he managed to do was capture both of their attention as they turned towards Danny and Peter. Mr. Bad Taste raised both eyebrows and asked, "Who is your favorite, then?"

That question seemed to be what it took to get Peter involved in the conversation as he shook his head as well as his hands in front of him with a panicked, "Nope! We're not doing this!"

And Danny couldn't agree more. They were not going there, especially in front of strangers. "Sorry, we have a meet-up to get to!" Danny grabbed Peter's arm and dragged him up. "It was nice meeting you!" They could finish their food while walking.

"Oh, alright," Shorty said, slightly surprised at their sudden departure. "You—you too! Bye!" Danny made a mental note to give them a shout out the next time the news station managed to corner him after a fight.

After wandering around for a while—and helping Peter set up an impromptu swing made up of spider webs to the delight of several of the visitors, and the annoyance of the organizers, especially when they couldn't get it back down—they found their way to the ghostly meet-up taking place near the entrance to the convention. Danny was absolutely flabbergasted to see so many people cosplaying ghosts and ghost hunters, he had no idea that so many people outside of Amity Park even knew about them.

He was staring at several people dressed as Phantom when his eyes landed on one of them; a young girl. She was very small and had long hair in a ponytail away from her face, which made her almost the spitting image of Dani.

Danny poked Peter's shoulder to get his attention from where he had started talking to a Skulker-cosplayer about their costume and how it was built, and said, "I'm just gonna go talk to someone, be right back." Besides, he would rather not be standing so close to someone who looked so much like the real Skulker. It made him nervous.

Danny walked up to the Phantom/Dani cosplayer with a wide smile and a, "I love your costume!" If she was intentionally cosplaying as Dani, then he just had to get a picture to show the real one. She would be ecstatic.

The girl turned to him with a somewhat self-conscious smile. "Thank you. I think I might be a bit too small to cosplay Phantom but… I just… I just wanted to try, you know?" She pulled at her ponytail with a frown. "I wasn't even allowed to cut my hair."

So she hadn't consciously dressed as Dani then. It didn't come as a big surprise; Dani hadn't been very visible in the media and not a lot of people knew about her, and she preferred to keep it that way. It made traveling easier.

But he doubted that Dani would fault him for reassuring this girl a bit, even if it did give her a new fan. "I think it looks amazing! Have you heard about the other Phantom? You look just like her!"

The girl frowned in confusion. "What do you mean by her? There's only one Phantom."

"There's actually two. Look!" Danny quickly scrolled through his phone for a picture of Danu and held it out for her to see when he found one. "She's not as visible in the media, but she's Phantom's cousin. You look just like her!"

The girl looked at the picture with wide and wondrous eyes. "Really? I didn't know… She looks so cool."

"Right?!" Danny nodded in agreement; puffing out his chest with pride for his self-proclaimed cousin. "She's just as strong as Phantom and loves to travel. That's why she's not on the news that often."

The girl turned her big eyes to look at him instead as she said softly, "I also love to travel."

Danny smiled at her, lowering his phone. "See? You're perfect for cosplaying her."

"If she's not on the news… Then how do you know about her?"

"Weeeell… Can you keep a secret?" Danny leaned in with a smirk and she nodded. He lowered his voice and dramatically revealed, "I'm the real Phantom."

She raised one eyebrow, looking disappointingly unimpressed, and simply said, "No. You can't be."

Danny leaned back again, pouting. "What? Why?"

"Your hair is too long."

"It's hair. It grows!" Danny exclaimed in exasperation.

"Sure, but you could have fixed it for the costume." She shrugged, "Also, your eyes are the wrong shade."

Danny raised a hand to his face as if that would give him any answers. "…Wrong?"

"Yeah," she shrugged, unaware of the crisis she had just caused, "but thanks for the tip! I'm gonna look Dani up!" And then she skipped away, leaving Danny alone with his disappointment.

"You're welcome…" Danny muttered after her. He was very glad no one else was here to witness this.

Speaking of others… He looked around for Peter, but as he did he noticed someone in a red costume approaching out of the corner of this eye before tapping him on the shoulder. A very familiar someone.

Danny ducked low, spinning around with his fists raised only to come face to face with—a very startled looking girl who was decidedly not Valerie. It was just someone in a Red Huntress costume that maybe looked a little bit too much like the original for his comfort.

Danny straightened up and rubbed his neck in embarrassment, hoping no one else saw that. "Oh, I'm so sorry!"

"Ha!" She laughed as she put a hand on her hip. "Wow, you're really in character, huh?"

"Haha, yeah… In character, that's me."

"Wow, dude," Peter said drily as he suddenly came up behind him, shattering Danny's hope that he hadn't seen it. "Discreet."

"Welcome back…" Danny muttered darkly. He really couldn't catch a break today, huh?

The Red Huntress cosplayer seemed mostly unfazed as she asked, "I was just going to ask if we could take a photo together? I like your costume."

"Finally," Danny whispered under his breath, hope blooming in his chest. Finally someone who recognized his costume for the wonder—

"Yeah, it's a cool take on it. I respect that not everything has to be accurate, you know?"

What had he expected, really. Danny kept the smile fixed on his face as the hope in his chest died. "Thaaanks."

Peter snorted, giving Danny a thumbs up. "Yeah, I love the creativity. The artistic freedom, the—"

"Shut up," Danny cut him off with a growl. "Let's just take the photo."

Danny's relationship with the real Red Huntress was still a bit rocky since she found out his secret, but it was getting better—good enough for him to be brave enough to tease her a bit. So he followed it up with a, "By the way, can I get a picture too?"

"Yeah, no problem," the cosplayer agreed easily, nodding to Peter. "Your friend can take them."

Thankfully he didn't embarrass himself any more as they took the pictures and said their goodbyes.

Danny didn't waste any time before sending his picture to Valerie with the text, "This could be us :( :("

Her response of, "Not if you don't give me back my Switch. I know it was you" made him laugh. He would give it back eventually. He just had to beat that damned pig first.

"Hey," Peter said, drawing Danny's attention away from his phone, "should we try and find the others? I don't like how we haven't heard from them in a wh—"

The sudden sound of a car screeching to a halt just outside the main doors made him pause. As did a lot of the other conversations around them.

Then came the indistinct sound of shouting from outside.

"Wait a minute," Danny said as dread filled him, "Is that…?"

And it sure was.

Maddie and Jack Fenton burst through the front doors of the convention in full battle regalia and with their guns raised and charged.

Danny groaned. "Oh my goood, nooo …"

"You know them?!" Peter asked as he dropped into a battle stance, warily eyeing the big weapons.

Danny dragged a hand down his face. "That's my mom and dad…"

Peter turned to look at him with wide eyes. "That's your mom and dad?!"

Danny shrugged. "This is not how I wanted you to meet them."

"What are they doing here?" Peter asked with exasperation as he gestured towards the two spandex-clad adults hastily setting up a big weapon just inside the entrance doors. "And is that a bazooka?!"

"Someone from the gaming hall must have called them," Danny said with a grimace as he stepped behind the big Skulker cosplayer they had met before to hide from their sight.

"I thought you were exaggerating when you said how much they hated ghosts!"

"Sadly, no," Danny said with a wince as Jack gave a triumphant shout as they finished setting their weapons up.

"We know you're here Phantom!" his mom called as she peered through her goggles at the gathered crowd of ghost cosplayers.

All the cosplayers side-eyed each other.

"What? The Phantom is here?"

"No way!"

"...Is this part of a show?"

"That's so cool! Your weapons look almost rea—"

"Ghost!" Jack fired off his gun and the Phantom cosplayer to Danny's right got covered in ecto-slime.

Everybody froze.

The covered cosplayer looked down at themselves with a grimace. "What is this? It's so sticky!"

And then all hell broke loose.

Jack started firing off into the crowd of cosplayers, now somehow convinced that they were all ghosts. Most of his shots went wide which did result in fewer people getting covered in the glowing green substance, but it also resulted in an awful mess as ectoplasm got absolutely everywhere. Maddie was a bit more strategic; firing of shots at all the Phantom cosplayers specifically and hitting almost all of them dead-on.

Luckily neither of them did any real damage with their ecto-weapons as the only real ghost present was still hiding, careful to keep out of their sight—now hunkered behind Peter's frame.

Sadly, the people here weren't used to ectoplasmic weapons, and even if the people who had already been hit seemed to be fine, everyone was beginning to panic.

Peter cast Danny a look over his shoulder. "I also thought you were exaggerating when you told me how bad they were at hitting their targets. They are worse than stormtroopers."

Suddenly, all the speakers in the hall blared to life and started belching… the Ghost Buster's theme song. Because why not.

Danny groaned again. Well, at least now they knew where Tucker and Ned had ended up.

"That's great help, you guys!" Danny screamed at the ceiling, but the only answer he got was the music increasing in volume.

"Well, this has been going on for long enough," Peter said before promptly firing off some webs that clogged up the gun in Jack's hands. Before Danny could convince his shelter to stay put, Peter had stepped up and screamed to be heard over the music, "Hey! You're shooting at innocent people!"

Several people next to them took stumbling steps backwards as they stared at Peter with wide eyes.

"Spider-Man?!"

"Holy sh—"

The additional screaming did at least manage to draw the attention of Maddie and Jack.

"There he is!" Maddie shouted as she pointed the gun right at the now exposed Danny, still crouching on the ground. "We would recognize you anywhere Phantom!"

Danny straightened up and tuned to Peter with a genuine smile of relief on his face. "Is it bad that I'm almost happy that they think my costume looks correct?"

Peter rolled his eyes. "Dude, so not the time."

Not respectful of their conversation, Maddie fired her gun and Danny ducked on instinct. The beam of ecto-energy slammed into the Skulker cosplayer from before and Danny winced as the big costume, and the guy in it, toppled over and landed on his back; arms and legs waving in the air like a turtle.

Jack bellowed, "Get him!" and pointed right at Danny.

Well, that probably meant that hiding was out the window.

Danny rose into the air to the alarmed shouts of several of the people around them and as he took off across the floor, his eyes met with the accidental Dani-cosplayer, who was staring at him with wide eyes and with ecto-slime dripping down her face.

Danny winked and then he popped off the visible spectrum.

He wasn't sure what the best way to fight them was, not with this many non-combatants around, but before he could make a choice there was the sound of numerous feet quickly approaching and suddenly, a horde of people burst into the hall; clamoring and screaming and holding clearly improvised plaques.

Several of them approached Maddie and Jack with angry expressions and waving arms screaming things like, "Don't bring your interdimensional wars here!" "Justice for other species!"

Ah. That answered the question on what Sam and MJ had been up to.

Instigating an impromptu rally should surprise him more than it did.

He was just grateful for the distraction as countless people swarmed around Maddie and Jack, interspersed with the occasional ghostly cosplayer either joining in the swarming, staring at Peter, scouring the air for Danny, or fleeing the scene.

Danny touched down next to Peter and allowed himself to become visible again, confident in Jack and Maddie being distracted enough by now not to notice him. He gestured at the chaos in front of them and cleared his throat before speaking with a pompous voice, loud enough for only Peter to hear, "Spider-Man, meet my parents. Mom and dad, this is Spider-Man."

Tony heard the commotion and prepared for the worst as he hurried to the front of the venue. He had really hoped that he would get one day free from villain attacks or other disasters, but he would never turn away from the familiar sounds of a large number of people screaming. He readied his suit as he broke out into a run.

He burst into the convention's entryway and was met with a sight of a screaming horde of people with plaques surrounding two adults equipped with what clearly looked like guns; an unidentified substance coating a majority of the room as well as several of the screaming people; loud music booming from every speaker, but still not managing to drown out the clamor; and, of course, Danny and Peter in the middle, laughing their asses off.

Tony turned around in the door. They could sort this mess out themselves.