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Growing up Danny had always been called slow. He didn't feel slow but his parents loved to complain about how slow he was to learn to crawl, like it didn't come naturally to him. He had a speech therapist until he was 9 because words didn't sound right to him. He can remember his mother losing her temper with him as a toddler because he kept making weird sounds instead of using words. He would often get punished and locked in his room when he slipped up and made the sound that came so naturally to him.
Danny’s parents are supernatural hunters but their magnum opus is a Siren. Danny's father had lost his sister to the Sirens call and has been hunting them ever since.
That's how they found Danny, no Danny isn't their biological son, he is the replacement baby they found. Maddie had lost her pregnancy in the final stages, she was grief stricken.
So Jack had taken her on a Siren hunting trip in Florida. They had been tracking down rumors of a strikingly beautiful human looking couple they believed to be Sirens in human disguise. They set traps and waited, weeks passed and there were no signs of the Sirens.
Then days before they planned to pack up and go home a hurricane was due to hit. They decided to wait it out rather than get caught in it. The storms started early in the morning and by afternoon the beaches were uninhabitable, waves were well over 30 feet as they crashed into the shores. By evening the worst was over but rain still fell in sheets.
Maddie heard it first, the warbling chirps and wers of a Siren’s call. The Fenton parents ran from the cabin on the beach, harpoon launchers in hand. It didn't take them long to find the owner of the Siren’s call. The rain obstructed their view in the already dark night, they could only make out the silhouette of two humanoid creatures dragging themselves ashor.
The next part happened in a blur of motion, harpoons were launched, Maddie's struck the smaller of the two in the chest, Jack’s struck the larger in the tail, both creatures shrieked, the larger cut the ropes and dragged the smaller back into the water. The Fenton parents ran to where the creatures had disappeared, all that was left were scales of obsidian black and opalescent White with splattered red blood on them.
The Fenton parents stood there fuming about losing their catch when they heard the pathetic squeaky cry of a baby. They searched for a few minutes before finding the small baby laying in the sand with bleeding scapes. They quickly took the baby back to their cabin and got him cleaned up and wrapped in a blanket.
After a rather short discussion they decided to keep the baby, because clearly the Siren’s had killed his parents and he needed new ones. Maddie’s sorrows were temporarily quelled.
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After Danny turned two people started noticing he wasn't normal. He couldn't talk, he could barely walk, and he would only eat fish sticks and other fish related foods. Of course the Fenton parents hadn't noticed much because of their research keeping them away. Danny was raised by his older sister Jazz, she was only 6 when she started caring for her baby brother full time. She did her best to feed him and teach him things.
It wasn't until Danny was three that the pair of children were spotted walking themselves several blocks to the library with nothing but their school bags with simple snacks did anyone intervene. William Lancer was a young middle school teacher who happened to be walking to the library when he spotted them.
When asked Jazz simply stated that “Mom and Dad have been in the basement for a few days so I’m taking Danny to the library so we can work on reading some more” and if that wasn't enough reason to call CPS then the fact that both children were dirty and thin and Danny’s eczema was red and untreated was definitely a good reason. Mr, Lancer was a mandated reporter but even if he wasn't he would have made the call.
This seemed to kick the Fenton parents into parenting gear for a year or two. They made sure the kids had the bare necessities like at least Dinner, a bath, clean clothes, and more one on one time for Danny to help his speech.
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Shortly after Danny turned four an old college friend of the Fentons reached out asking them to come to Wisconsin for the summer. They stated they had to bring their kids if they were to come, to which he replied that it was fine and there would be more than enough room in his lakeside Cabin for the kids.
After arriving the Fenton parents left the kids with a sitter to go “monster hunting” for the next few days. The sitter was a kind teen girl who took excellent care of the kids. She was more than happy to find that both kids were very independent and well behaved. It worried her that Danny seemed selectively Mute but he didn't complain when she needed to apply his eczema cream and he was a strong swimmer so she didn't have to be excessively vigilant of him when he wanted to swim.
Danny noticed early on in life that water made the burning itching feeling in his skin feel better. But the water still felt weird… like there was something missing. One afternoon while he was playing in the water he heard something that resonated with something deep inside him. He stopped and listened for a moment, hearing it again he swam out into deeper water. There was a net setup so he and his sister would accidentally swim too far, here he could still touch the bottom.
He looked back to see if anyone would notice but Jazz was laying in the shallowest area staring at the sky and the sitter was reading a book. Neither would hear if he Chirped back. So he did.
Chirp?
After a few seconds a responding warble was heard, a second later hands came out of the water and hefted Danny over the net. He was dragged out deeper into the water. For some reason he wasn't scared of the thing that had him, not like he was when his mom came to find him for their “talking sessions” they always ended with a sore bottom and being locked in his room.
The hands around him were slimy and scaly but gentle like Jazz’s. When the creature stopped it seemed confused and looked him over, playing with his toes and running their hand over his spine. They Chirped at him and he Chirped back. That only seemed to confuse them more. He tilted his head at the Mermaid, that what his teacher called these creatures, he looked up to the surface before pointing and swimming up. When his head broke the surface he gasped for air, not because he needed to but because that's what he was told to do. The mermaid popped its head up as well and Chirped again.
Danny wasn't sure how far he had been taken but he knew they would come looking for him soon. He looked at the Mermaid wondering why it had taken him in the first place.
Oh well might as well introduce himself and ask it right?
“Hi, I’m Danny. What's your name?” The Mer looked at him, seeming more confused. He tried again “why did you bring me out here?” it Trilled and tilted it head, the sound made his chest tight with anticipation of making the sound back. But only a choked off sound came out as he swallowed it back. The Mer looked concerned and placed a hand on his chest “my mommy doesn't like it when I make weird sounds so I can't keep making them” Danny tried to explain but the Mer only seemed more concerned and confused.
Danny and the Mer continued to swim around and play with each other for a while but Danny's spine started to get tired so Danny had to slow down and just float on the water. His spine always felt weird when he was swimming, like there was pressure in his lower back.
After floating for a while Danny could hear a boat speeding across the water. When he righted himself he saw it was a cop boat, he learned about those from Jazz. Their blue and red lights were flashing so maybe they were looking for him? He looked around for his new friend but they had already left, so he started splashing around so the police could see him better.
Soon the boat got close enough so he stopped splashing and waited for them. There were three people on the boat and all of them were dressed in police uniforms so he waved at them. He watched them all breathe a sigh of relief.
The older of the three was the first to speak “Hey little buddy are you doing okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, Jazzy told’d me I had to splash if I got lost in the water so people can find me”
“Oh? Well it sounds like good advice” the woman said as she reached out for him.
Danny took her hands and was pulled about where he was promptly wrapped in a towel and picked up by the older guy “I bet you're freezing aren't you?” He asked
Danny shook his head, no he wasn't cold the water had been nice if not a little warm. The trip back to shore took longer than he thought it would but when they got there his Parents were there with their friend that gave Danny the creeps. Jazz and the sitter were there as well.
His mom looked angry so Danny cuddled closer to the guy holding him. Danny knew his mom was going to spank him for this even if it wasn't his fault.
His parents and the police talked for a while so Danny got to cuddle with Jazz and the Sitter until the cops left. Danny watched his mom and dad the whole time, she wore a strained smile while she thanked the cops, but Danny knew it wasn't real, she had used that when he got in trouble at kindergarten.
After they left the sitter was dismissed, Danny was dragged into the house where his parents started to yell at him for having swam off and scared everyone. He was spanked until his butt hurt and locked in his room with no blankets, that's okay Danny likes it cold anyway. After a few hours Jazz came in and applied his cream and gave him her fuzzy blanket.
Jazz hugged him and whispered “when mom and dad leave again I’ll make a bath for you and get some food. Mary will be back in the morning to Babysit again” and with that she left.
True to her word Jazz came back after an hour saying their parents left. She ran the bath nice and warm trying to convince him to soak in the warm water, but Danny doesn't like warm water so he took a quick bath. After a bath they both ate dinner and went to Jazz’s room so Jazz could read a story.
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Danny made a friend in first grade, his name was Tucker. They were best friends from the moment Tucker threw a notebook at a bully. Danny learned to open up to Tucker because Tucker didn't mind when he made weird sounds in his chest by accident and wouldn't tell anyone.
They met Sam a year later, she was pretty cool. She kept his weird sound secret as well. She liked to make sure Danny and Jazz had plenty to each and would often take them to the Nasty Burger after school.
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When Danny turned ten he started to feel a sense of longing but he wasn't sure what it was. Taking baths helped but the feeling made him cranky and snippy at everyone.
Jazz said it was depression from the news of Sam moving away, but Danny knew better, this had started before Sam mentioned moving away.
Danny started missing classes and staying home locked in his room. His parents tried many things to get him out of his room including using the belt if he missed a day. But soon they grew bored of him and left him to rot in his room. Jazz helped the most but the itching and burning sensation under his skin only grew and he couldn't ignore it anymore.
Danny knew he was throwing tantrums but he tried to only do it while no one else was home. It was the only way to release the pressure under his skin.
He only found relief from the pain by biting the eczema patches on his arms. Sure it didn't feel much better but anything was better than nothing.
Then one day Vlad showed up. He offered to take them to one of his beach houses in Bermuda for the summer. His parents and Jazz were ecstatic, but Danny soon found out he HATES flying.
Danny's opinion of Vlad over the years was that he was out to kill Jack and “get rid” of Danny. He seemed infatuated with Maddie and happy to have Jazz as a daughter type figure. He liked to take Jazz out shopping and of course Jazz would insist that they get Danny things as well, much to Vlad’s displeasure.
Vlad likes to invite them (mostly Maddie and Jazz) out on small vacations every summer to some remote area where Danny's parents would run off in search of monsters to hunt. Vlad seemed to like places with water. His favorite being Lake Winnebago, the lake Danny met his Mermaid friend as a toddler. He never told anyone for fear that his parents would try to kill his friend. He had only seen his friend a few times but after the first encounter Danny didn't leave the netted area.
Their flight to Bermuda was long and agonizing and filled with Vlad bragging and trying to woo Danny's mom. After getting off the plane Danny suddenly felt a lot better. Jazz was happy to see Danny smile again after months.
Two days into their trip Vlad kidnapped Danny, or well his parents said it was fine but Danny felt kidnapped. Danny hadn't even had a chance to play in the ocean yet and here he was on an old fishing boat with Vlad as his only companion. Danny knew Vlad had something planned but hadn't figured it out in time.
There were storm clouds gathering and the boat started to rock as the ocean grew angry. Danny saw Vlad with a weighted rope in hand as Danny lost his balance and was thrown around until his head smacked into a rail and everything went black.