Wrote and posted this yesterday, but I may or may not have forgotten to crosspost it to AO3 and FFn. Whoops. To be fair, I wrote it during a livestream (to test if writing streams were 1. a thing that worked and 2. a thing people were interested in) so things were a little more chaotic than usual. For an anonymous asker, who sent me this prompt: "Could you perhaps do, if you are still doing ficlets, of Wulf getting captured by either Danny's Parents or Vlad"

"Not so tough now, are you?" his mom taunted, and Danny clenched his fists tighter. Forced himself to take a deep breath, to stay calm.

A scoff from Maddie at the lack of an answer, and then the sound of footsteps as she paced away from the containment area. He could do this. He just… He just had to be brave.

He straightened his spine, unclenched his hands a little. Then, mustering all the courage he had, he stepped down the stairs and into the lab.

The noise of his feet on the stairs immediately drew the attention of his parents, and they both looked up at him. Behind them, deeper in the lab, the only other person looked up too, hope sparking in his green eyes.

"Danny?" his mom asked, her expression hard to read while she was wearing her goggles. "Why are you down here, sweetie?"

He made a face, then shrugged, faux-casual. "Just, uh…" His eyes caught on the ghost in the far back, slumped in on himself, heavy shackles on his wrists and a mean-looking collar around his neck, and he trailed off.

Maddie followed his gaze, then turned back to him, her arms crossed. "You're not here because of the ghost, are you? It's a menace, Danny, like all ghosts."

"You can't do this," he insisted, instead of arguing. He'd tried plenty of times, and so had Jazz. No matter what, they refused to believe them. Preferred to follow their own outdated and misguided research, rather than listen to actual proof. "He's a living creature. Well, not living, but a sapient creature."

Jack shook his head. "Danny, kiddo, ghosts aren't intelligent beings. They're just semi-sentient ectoplasm, doing whatever they want to do. The only good thing this one will do is advance our research."

"No, you can't!" Danny stepped forward, closer to the cage. Its shield was based on a Ghost Shield; it wouldn't affect him in human form. "You can't hurt him! I won't let you!"

His parents shared a glance, brief but meaningful. Then Maddie said, cautiously, "Why not?"

"Because he's- he's-" Danny scrambled to think of a reason. Well, might as well go with the truth, right? "Because he's my friend!"

"Your friend?" his dad echoed, slowly. His eyes were narrowed at Danny, and he had to withstand the temptation to cower under the inspecting gaze. "Since when?"

"And how?" his mom added, her posture considerably stiffer. "You should know better than to associate with ghosts, young man."

"He- He-" Danny glanced past them, at the enormous ghost that laid there. His bright green eyes gazed back, clearly following the conversation even if he didn't understand it. Like this, it was like nothing had ever changed. He'd just traded one prison for another.

"He saved my life!" Danny blurted out.

"What?" both of his parents exclaimed, in perfect unison.

"I, uh, yeah." He shrugged, an attempt at returning to his previous casualness, like he didn't regret spouting that out. "He saved my life, during that first ghost invasion, with all those guard ghosts? A, uh, a bunch of those surrounded me, wanted to attack me. Wulf fought them off for me."

His parents shared another uncertain look. Behind them, Wulf seemed to pick up on the change in mood, ears cautiously perking up. The tip of his tail started twitching into something that was almost a hopeful wag.

"Why didn't you tell us?" his mom asked, coming closer and pulling her goggles up. "Why did you rely on the protection of this- this ghost instead of us?"

"Well, I didn't exactly get a choice, did I?" He flapped his hands, aggravatedly. "They just pounced me! What did you want me to do, tell them to wait so I could call you guys?"

"It doesn't even speak a real language," his dad muttered, frowning at Wulf instead of looking at Danny. "Just some made-up gibberish."

Danny shook his head. "Nah. I mean, it is made-up, because all languages are, but it's not gibberish. He speaks Esperanto."

"And how do you know that?" his mom asked skeptically, one eyebrow raised.

"Tucker taught me," he told her honestly, letting his muscles relax just a tiny bit.

He'd planned on breaking out Wulf as Phantom, but his parents had recently updated the anti-ghost protection, and he wasn't sure how yet. He figured he could try as Fenton instead of risking getting caught himself. "A lot of nerds speak it, apparently, as a secret language."

His mom crouched in front of him, frowning at him, clearly not convinced. She stared at him, and Danny straightened his spine and stared back. After a long moment she seemed satisfied, because she stood up again.

"Not overshadowed," she told Jack, simply.

"Wait, what?" He felt like someone had upended a bucket of ice water over him. They really thought he was overshadowed because he was, what, protecting a ghost? Like he and Jazz hadn't defended them before? "Yeah, I'm not overshadowed! I'm your actual son, telling you that I won't let you hurt this ghost! What about it?"

"We had to be sure, kiddo," his dad said, tone almost cheery but clearly fake. "You never know with those ectoplasmic bastards."

He growled, then stomped forward. Past his parents, not stopping until he stood next to Wulf's cage. The ghost sat up a little in interest, ears perked and tail slowly thumping against the ground. Danny swung out an arm in his direction.

"How would he even have done that? You guys have him locked up! Look at him!"

"It could've send a friend." His mom narrowed her eyes, staring at him and Wulf behind him. "It would make sense."

"More sense than me wanting to protect him for saving my life?" Danny balled his fists, forcing down his anger. He couldn't have his anger take over, couldn't have his eyes glow. That would be disastrous, would ruin everything he had achieved. "Or do you just refuse to accept that maybe not all ghosts are bad?"

Narrowing his eyes, he stepped closer to the side of the cage, three pairs of eyes following him. "Now, either you guys are gonna free him, or I will."

"You wouldn't," his dad said, moving closer despite his words. "Danny, it could revolutionize our research! A ghost capable of making ghost portals like it's nothing! Imagine what we could do with that knowledge?"

Danny, quite frankly, didn't want to. His parents might not have felt inclined to enter the Ghost Zone via their own portal just yet, but if they started creating temporary portals? Who knew what kind of innocent ghosts could be captured and dragged into their lab?

He shook his head violently. "No! I won't let you experiment on him! If you want to learn more about his abilities, you can settle for asking him, like a normal person! And maybe, maybe, if you hadn't resorted to," he threw out his hands, gesturing at the lab around them, "to this, to locking him in a cage, maybe he even would've helped! But here we are!"

"Danny," his mom said, voice low and icy, "Step away from the ghost."

"Sure." He smirked, moving another step to the side. He saw all the eyes around him open wide, his parents' in shock and Wulf's in excitement. Then he slammed down his fist on the large red button on the control panel.

With a hiss, the containment unit opened. A click released Wulf's collar, and an additional two clicks loosened his shackles, too.

The ghost pushed himself onto his feet easily. Wrapped his clawed hands around the sides of the now-open cage as he walked out, nails clicking on the steel floor and tail swishing behind him. His green eyes moved over Danny's parents, then settled on him.

"Hey Wulf," he greeted the ghost, inclining his head. Then, in Esperanto, he added, "They didn't hurt you too bad, did they?"

"Amiko," the ghost said, matching him with a head-bob. "No, it was only the cage. You came before anything could happen."

Danny opened his mouth to reply, but his mom stopped him before he could say anything, a furious expression on her face. "How could you?!"

"How could I?" He whirled around to face her, seeing Wulf puff himself up to loom over him, protectively. "You are the ones who locked my friend, someone who saved my life, in a cage! You are the ones who threatened to hurt him, to experiment on him!"

"It's a ghost-" his dad started, but Danny interrupted him before he could get further into the spiel.

"A ghost, yes, yes, I know!" He blew out a noisy breath. "Honestly, is that all you can say? If Wulf had been human you would've sung his praises for all eternity for less, but because he's a ghost he's a vile being bound to betray me? Come on, man."

He could see both of his parents reach for ghost weapons, as covertly as they could. So he stepped right in front of Wulf. Then, purposefully, turned his back fully to them, looking at Wulf instead.

"I think it's best if you leave. I don't want you to get hurt."

The ghost narrowed his eyes, ears lowering to his neck. "They are upset. I don't want them to hurt you instead."

"They won't," Danny insisted, shaking his head. "They might be willing to shoot Phantom, but they won't hurt me. It'll be fine, Wulf, I promise."

Wulf hesitated a moment longer, then nodded, clearly reluctant. He tensed his paw-like hands, claws fully unsheathing.

With another nod of assurance from Danny, Wulf wound back his arm, then soundlessly ripped through reality to form a portal to the Ghost Zone. He took one last look, then jumped through the portal.

The tear repaired itself almost immediately, and it was like nothing had ever happened.

Until Danny turned back to his parents, and was greeted by their furious expressions.

He laughed, a last kernel of dread in his stomach, and said,

"So, uh… I guess he's not welcome back?"