Chapter Text
The colossal T-Rex’s artificial scream echoed throughout the air as it crashed through the ceiling of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome. It impacted with the football field below, spraying astroturf and twisted metal into the empty stands. The dinosaur twitched and jerked as it attempted to regain its footing, but it soon started convulsing as mini explosions racked its entire body. Its jaw unhinged and it began to belch black smoke, which also billowed from several holes that punctured its body before the metal creature finally powered down.
From the tear in the ceiling of the dome, the three figures of Timmy, Jenny, and Manny dropped into the Dimmadome. The two men clung to Jenny’s arms as she flew them down to the unmoving mechanical corpse.
Manny dropped from Jenny’s arm first as they approached and launched one of his grappling hook gauntlets at the dinosaur's tail, which was bent awkwardly towards the sky. His razor-sharp claws carved into the metal easily, and he used the momentum from the drop to swing himself towards the T-Rex’s face. Releasing his gauntlet's grip at the height of his jump, Manny did a double flip through the air, and landed squarely on the creature's jaw, striking the most heroic pose he could with both hands on his hip. “El Tigre’s first official mission has been completed!”
“And with only massive structural damage done to the city,” Jenny said when she touched down across the dinosaur’s face from him, placing Timmy down next to her.
“Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad.” Manny said, waving her comment off.
The giant monitors all around the Dimmadome suddenly sparked to life. Giant red and orange letters flashed across the screens reading ‘BREAKING NEWS!!!”. It was replaced with the panicking face of a new anchor who appeared to be clutching the camera, her shrill voice filling the air.
“It’s a disaster!” She screamed, as the camera’s operator pulled away and gave a sweeping bird’s eye view of Dimmsdale from their helicopter. “City Hall is now sitting in the middle of highway five, there are monkeys loose in the makeup factory eating all the eyeliner, and everything is on fire! Oh my God, look! Dimmsdale Bridge is falling down!”
As the aforementioned structure slowly collapsed into the water onscreen, Jenny shot Manny a disapproving look and echoed, “It wasn’t that bad?”
Manny gave her a sheepish smile, but Timmy came to his rescue and placed a hand on Jenny’s shoulder. “Relax Jenny, Dimmsdale will be fine. Nobody died, and we’ve lived through city-destroying earthquakes and minivan-sized hailstorms before. It’s all about positive thinking and changing your perspective around here. I just have to say, ‘I wish the city could get fixed up overnight,’ and the universe will manifest it to happen.”
Jenny scoffed, “I highly doubt that a little positive thinking-”
“Breaking news!” A new voice exclaimed from the monitor before the images cut to a different anchor sitting behind a desk at a traditional news studio. “It appears as if the Underpaid Workers Union have just made an unscheduled stop in Dimmsdale and have offered to fix the city in exchange for Chip Skylark tickets. Mr. Skylark has generously agreed to give the U.W.U. backstage passes, and everything in Dimmsdale is expected to be back to normal by tomorrow morning.”
Both Manny and Jenny stared up at the screens, mouths agape in disbelief as the news stations jingle played and the monitors darkened again.
“What’d I tell you?” Timmy beamed. “You call it a little positive thinking, I call it keeping your childhood optimism alive and bending Da Rulez.”
“That makes literally zero sense.” Manny said. He glanced at Timmy’s pink backpack, which he could have sworn gave off a dim flash just a moment ago. “But those are some freaky coincidences. Like, how is it that all those things just happened to line up after we finished fighting this thing?”
“You get used to coincidences around Timmy,” Jimmy’s voice crackled through everyone’s comms. “He’s just a really lucky guy.”
“Relax my dudes, everything worked out in the end.” Timmy walked across the T-Rex’s face, taping his green bat against the metal until he found a part that sounded different from the rest. He turned to Jenny and bowed, “I believe I found our entrance to the cockpit. If you would do the honors, m’lady.”
Jenny frowned at him as she walked over. “Never say ‘m’lady’ at me again, Turner.” The tip of her robotic finger flipped backward, and a red beam shot out when she pointed it down at the metal face.
“Hey guys!” A familiar voice called from above them, drawing their attention. Manny looked up, just in time to see Danny touch down gently a few feet away. He quickly swiped a hand through long, white, ghostly hair to style it back into place and out of his eyes. He looked around at the three of them with a sheepish smile. “Soooo. What’d I miss?”
Manny looked his ghostly teammate up and down, his black and white costume still in pristine condition. His eyes lingered for a few moments before he realized Danny was watching him with a curious expression.
“What is it?” Danny asked, looking down at himself. “Did I spill my lunch on my costume again? I did have to ditch Tuck with the bill to rush over here.”
Manny’s chest tightened slightly, and he bit his tongue in embarrassment. He exhaled loudly to try and dispel the feeling, crossing his arms and looking away as he muttered quietly to himself. “¿Siempre tiene que ser tan guapo?”
Danny blinked, and then regarded the masked tiger with a smile and an eyebrow raised. “What was that?”
“I said you missed pretty much everything, amigo.” Manny flashed his cockiest, no-nonsense smile when he looked at Danny again. He confidently pounded a hand against his puffed-out chest. “You’ve got the amazing El Tigre on your side now, the fastest feline around! If you’re going to keep showing up late, I’m gonna end up taking your spot as the team’s ace.”
Danny hummed, his small smile cracking a little wider. “I don’t know. I just heard you say that you’re willing to do all my work for me. I’m kind of tempted to let that happen now.”
“Ey, don’t give up so quickly! It’s no fun if I don’t have anyone to compete against.”
“How about we just bet on who the villain of the week is this time?” Timmy called over to the two men. Jenny had just finished cutting through the cockpit’s hatch and had tossed the scrap metal aside. Smoke was billowing out of the opening, and Jenny’s extended arms were fishing around for the pilot.
“I haven’t heard from Skulker or Technus in a while,” Danny offered as he and Manny walked. “They’re about the only ghosts I know that're into mechanical suits.”
“The giant metal animal feels more like a Plankton thing,” Timmy mused.
“SpongeBob already confirmed that Plankton is still in Bikini Bottom right now,” Jimmy added.
“There wasn’t nearly enough self-sabotaging monologuing to be one of my villains,” Manny said. “Actually, now that I think about it, whoever was piloting didn’t say anything during the fight. They were kinda focused on destroying as much of the city as they could.”
Jenny’s arms stopped suddenly, her body jerking forward slightly as she snagged her prize. “Well boys, it looks like we’ve got a two for one deal on our hands.” Arms retracting, Jenny stepped away from the hole and then dropped two dizzy-looking old men on the ground. One was short, dressed in a white lab coat, and completely bald. The taller one was suffering from a terrible hunch and had extremely thin, greasy black hair.
“Dr. Calamitous and Mr. Croker?” Timmy almost laughed at the reveal, his voice coming out at a higher pitch. “Didn’t you two learn your lesson the last time you guys teamed up?”
Croker shook his head wildly, before pointing at Timmy. “T-T-Turner! I knew it, I-I knew it! You all heard it, didn’t you? He wished for Dimmsdale to be fixed, he wished for it, and it happened!” He turned to Dr. Calamitous and shook the tiny man violently. “My theory is right! It’s undeniable proof!”
Croker shot to his feet and started laughing maniacally. He immediately and frantically launched into a rant, rambling on to no one in particular. He would occasionally twitch or make random, loud, exclamations to emphasize certain words; Manny could only really catch the word ‘fairies’ every now and then through his manic voice.
“Sooooo...who’s the crackpot?” Manny asked in a hushed voice, leaning towards Danny. “And why’s he doing the same dance as Senor Chapi when my bird tries to seduce the houseplants?”
Danny snorted, and the smile he flashed made Manny’s stomach feel like he’d just swallowed a package of popping candy. “Timmy’s fifth-grade teacher,” Danny explained. “Been stalking him for years because the dude thinks Timmy’s got some magical pixies or something granting his wishes.”
“Not pixies!” Crocker spun on them, his spittle spraying into Manny’s face. “He has, he has, he has…” Crocker’s whole body suddenly spasmed as he repeated the two words over and over.
Manny was about to reach out and make sure the deranged schoolteacher wasn’t having a stroke, but was stopped by Danny’s hand on his shoulder. He gently but forcefully pulled the masked tiger back a step, a quick shake of his head being the only explanation given.
“He has,” Crocker suddenly leapt into the air, limbs flailing while he screamed. “FAIRY! GOD! PARENTS!” The teacher fell hard on his back, cackling gleefully and rolling back and forth on the face of the metal dinosaur. “And I finally have proof!”
As Crocker continued laughing, Manny shot Danny a confused look with his brow knitted together very tightly in concern. “Has he always been like this?”
Danny merely shrugged. “Don’t know what to tell you. Timmy says he’s been obsessed with proving the existence of magic for years.”
“And they let someone like that be a teacher?”
“Yeah, well now he’s not allowed within five hundred feet of a school.” Timmy added. “He broke into my parents’ house when I started high school and tried to install surveillance cameras in my room, convinced he could get recorded proof of these so-called ‘fairies.’” He turned back to adress Crocker. “Speaking of which, aren’t you supposed to still be in jail?”
“I’m on parole, for good behavior!” Crocker exclaimed.
“Oh really? Then it would be a shame if your parole office would misdial me and I could tell him about all this. I’m pretty sure you’re breaking your restraining order right now. I really wish that would happen.”
Crocker froze, his eyes wide and pupils small. In the next moment, a very obnoxious pop song started playing from Timmy’s pocket. Timmy simply smiled, not breaking eye contact with his old teacher as he pulled out his phone and accepted the call. “Hello? Oh, no. I’m sorry officer, I’m afraid you called the wrong number. But while I’ve got you on the phone, do you happen to know a man named Denzel Crocker?”
“NOOOO!” Crocker screamed, leaping at Timmy.
Timmy casually stepped aside. Jenny’s arm shot out, snatching the man out of the air. Two slots on her forearm opened up, and smaller mechanical hands holding a roll of tape and a rope appeared. They spun Crocker around, quickly tying him up and covering his mouth before dropping him on the ground next to the still recovering Dr. Calamitous.
“Don’t know why I didn’t do that sooner,” Jenny said. “Dude was giving me a migraine with all the screaming.”
Manny looked between Crocker and Timmy, eyes narrowed, and gears in his brain spinning. “Okay. Don’t throw me in the loony bin for saying this, but…I almost believe the crackpot about this magic thing.”
Danny laughed, covering his mouth as he did, and a warmth blossomed in Manny’s cheeks. “Seriously? You’ve been around him for less than a minute and you’re already buying into his conspiracy theories? If you break out a tinfoil hat, I’m going to tell Neutron he needs to be a little more selective with the recruitment process,” he teased.
“Okay, okay, I know I sound crazy, but hear me out.” Manny lifted four fingers and then started counting them off with his other hand. “Before Jenny and I came along, your team consisted of a karate-fighting sponge, a supernatural ghost hunter, an eclectic super genius, and then some dude that’s lucky? One of those things is not like the other, guapo.”
Danny turned away, another smile breaking out across his face as he laughed again. Manny’s body felt light, a natural smile slipping onto his own face. He hadn’t had many one-on-one conversations with Danny yet. It’d only been a few days since he’d joined their ragtag group of universe-hopping heroes, but if he was honest with himself, this wasn’t the first time Danny’s laughter had elicited this reaction from Manny.
And he kind of liked it.
Danny took a moment to ponder his response before he flashed Manny a cocky smirk. “Yeah, it’s the sponge because he’s the only one of us that can hold down a 'real' job longer than two weeks.”
“Ha, simpático y divertido!” Manny bumped his arm playfully into Danny’s side, laughing cheerfully. “Don’t worry Danny. If I steal your spot as team ace, I think you’ve got a shot at a promising career as a standup comedian.”
“Go from fighting supervillains by day to getting heckled by drunks at night?” Danny mused. “Yeah, sounds like a real dream job suggestion, Rivera. Right up there with professional birthday-party clown.”
“Well, it looks like the cops will be here to pick up Crocker soon,” Timmy announced, interrupting their banter and pocketing his phone. “What do you want us to do about the other quack job, Jimmy?”
“H-Hey, stop it!” Dr. Calamitous exclaimed, as Jenny lifted him, tied his hands and legs, and then dropped him unceremoniously next to Crocker. “W-who are you people? I demanded to speak to…uh, um…”
“Jenny, do you mind?” Jimmy’s voice said through the comms.
“Yeah, no prob.” Jenny pushed a button on her shoulder, and a metal panel on her chest slid aside. A mechanical arm extended and the end of it unfolded into a monitor. The screen flickered to life, and Jimmy’s image appeared.
“Back to not finishing your sentences, Dr. Calamitous?” Jimmy frowned at him through the screen. “I guess it shouldn’t be that surprising that you didn’t finish serving your jail time either.”
“I was wrongfully imprisoned!” Calamitous exclaimed. “I-I was…um, I was…”
“You were arrested on three counts of child endangerment,” Jimmy cut him off, “Sixteen counts of property destruction, and two counts of attempted mass murder. I’m honestly surprised I haven’t gotten an alert saying you escaped. Goddard,” he looked at something to his left. “Remind me to visit the Retroville Prison and upgrade their security later this week.”
“Wait, that munchkin got arrested for all of that?” Manny’s eyebrows shot up, casting Dr. Calamitous an alarmed look. He half-expected the small man to produce a bomb from his lab coat any moment.
“That’s only taking into account his crimes in the last year,” Jimmy said. “It would take too long to list everything he’s actually supposed to be in prison for. Can you guys bring him back to HQ so he’s in the correct universe?”
“You heard the boob tube, Dr. Quack. You’re going back to jail.” Timmy said with a smirk and slapped a piece of green duct tape over the man’s mouth.
Jenny’s hand shot out, smacking the back of Timmy’s head and nearly knocking his hat off. “What have I told you about calling it the boob tube?” She said, her voice thick with annoyance.
Timmy rubbed the spot she’d hit, frowning at her and readjusting his hat. “Technically you said not to call it a ‘boob monitor.’”
Jenny’s frown deepened, eyes narrowing. “Permission to snap his neck, Neutron?”
“Granted,” Jimmy said indifferently, looking down at some papers in his hand.
The screen went black and the metal arm retracted before Jenny’s arm shot out again to grab at Timmy. The pink-clad man ducked quickly and then jumped to evade her second arm. “Aw, come on Jenny, it was a joke!”
“Your buck teeth are a joke!” Jenny yelled as she lunged at him. “Haven’t you ever heard of an orthodontist?”
“You think orthodontists are real? Next thing you’re going to tell me is that you think Santa Claus isn’t real!”
“He’s not!”
As Timmy and Jenny continued their roughhousing - the mission to return Dr. Calamitous having been completely forgotten - Manny broke out in laughter listening to them. He glanced over at Danny and said, “Man, you guys are funny. I don’t know why I rejected Jimmy's invitations for so long. This whole superhero team thing is a blast!”
“Wasn’t it because, ‘El Tigre prowls solo!’” Danny teased, deepening his voice and imitating one the masked tiger’s poses by quickly bringing up his hand to frame his chin with his thumb and pointer finger.
Manny cringed, flashing Danny an embarrassed smile. “Yeash, you guys aren’t gonna let me live that comment down, are you?”
“Nope,” Danny hummed. “You’d better get used to it, because the teasing goes hand-in-hand with this ‘superhero team thing.’ And based on all the collateral damage I had to fly over from today's fight, you’ve got a lot more quips headed your way, El Tigre.”
Manny smiled, “If this is the worst you got, I think I’ll be okay.”
“Oh it’s not, we’re just being nice cus you and Wakemen are still new.”
“Then bring it on, guapo, because unfortunately for all of you, I’ve taken a liking to the team. I’ll be sticking around no matter what you throw at me.” Manny took a pause, stealing another glance at Danny and adding in a quieter voice, “Ya que puedo mirarte todo el día.”
“What was that?” Danny asked, giving him a side-eyed glance.
“Don’t worry about it,” Manny waved him off. “Say, do you think you can do me a favor and fly me out of here before the cops show up? I don’t think Timmy and Jenny will be done anytime soon, and I promised papá I’d be back in time for dinner. The only way I know out of here is how we came in.”
“What’s wrong Rivera, don’t like talking to the cops?”
Manny shrugged, “Grandpapi was a supervillain, so I guess you could say I inherited his instinct to run away when you hear sirens in the distance.”
A bewildered smile blossomed on Danny’s face before he laughed, covering his mouth with his hand again. It was a cute habit, Manny realized; one that he was secretly hoping to see more of.
“Dude, you’ve got to tell me more about your childhood sometime,” Danny said. “Sounds like you’ve got some pretty interesting stories under your belt.”
Manny shrugged. “Can’t imagine they’re more interesting than a guy whose parents unknowingly turned their own son into a half-ghost superhero.” Manny pointed a thumb over his shoulder towards the tear in the Dimmadome, the sirens in the distance growing louder. “What do you say about that lift? Getting out of here would be a lot faster with your help.”
Danny regarded the hole in the ceiling for a moment, then looked back to Manny. There was a brief twinkle in his eye before he smirked and faded from existence. Before Manny could react, he felt a pair of arms slide under his own from behind. He was abruptly shot into the air, like he’d been strapped into a slingshot ride at the county fair. He swore loudly, hand’s coming up to cling onto the invisible arms around him as Danny’s laughter filled his ear.
He was above the tear in the Dimmadome in seconds, and the moment Manny’s body cleared the opening, he felt himself thrown freely into the air. Limbs flailing wildly, Manny tried to reorient himself; but with all the adrenaline coursing through his body, he failed to do so until he was caught again by a pair of invisible, ghostly arms - one under his knees and the other across his back.
Becoming visible once again, Danny beamed down at Manny, the setting sun casting a halo around his head. “What’s the matter, Rivera? Was that exit too fast for you?” He taunted.
“Pft, of course not,” Manny grumbled, his bottom lip jutting out to the side and cheeks burning red with embarrassment. “Just give a guy some warning next time. What would have happened if you dropped me?”
“Eh, I’m sure you’d be fine. After all, I hear cats always land on their feet.”
Manny glared at him. “I take it back, your jokes suck. Now put me down.”
“Are you sure? At this height, I might end up seeing you in the Ghost Zone.”
“I’d like to think I could do better things with my afterlife than stalk you until the end of eternity.”
“I don’t know,” Danny mused. “There’s a whole world of ghosts out there that already does just that. Apparently, I’m highly desirable.”
Manny stared at him, keeping his expression flat and emotionless while Danny continued to look smug with himself. He said nothing, simply raised his right arm, and fired his gauntlet at one of the Dimmadome’s support beams. The moment it connected, he retracted the chain and pulled himself out of Danny’s arms.
Swinging himself down towards the street, he felt Danny’s presence follow behind him. “Hey Rivera, wait up!” Danny called, quickly overtaking him and matching Manny’s speed as he swung through Dimmsdale. Manny ignored him best he could, but couldn’t help stealing glances at the ghost every now and then. His small, charming smile made it hard for Manny to hold onto his annoyance. Truthfully, he was only holding onto it to keep the butterflies in his stomach from fluttering too strongly whenever their eyes met.
“Come on, that was pretty fun, wasn’t it?” Danny asked.
Manny rolled his eyes and scoffed, “Fun? Sure, maybe. Shocking and terrifying? Absolutely.”
“What’d I tell you? This is all a part of the initiation.”
“Wouldn’t you call this hazing?”
“Nah, hazing is when you don’t like your new teammates. You’d never guess what we did to the last guy we didn’t like.”
Manny dropped onto the tip of a stoplight, balancing on the metal pole while he caught his breath. “What, did you jumpscare him in the middle of the night?”
“Nah, I just never pointed out that he was swinging in the opposite direction of the portal,” Danny said with a cocky smile.
Manny’s eyes narrowed into a small glare.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding,” Danny said quickly with a smile, hands raised defensively. “But not about the part where you’re going the wrong way. Come on, the closest portal around here is anchored near City Hall.”
Danny turned and flew off, leaving Manny alone at the intersection. The superhero huffed softly, eyes trailing after Danny’s spectral form. “Tienes suerte de ser guapo,” he muttered.