Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The classroom was full of confused and curious murmurs surrounding the temporary addition in the front of the room.

Once Mr. Lancer got the class settled, he explained that, due to some damage in the front office, specifically the printer, he was unable to print today's assignments. Instead, an educational film would have to do. He unsheathed the VHS and slipped it into the slot of the TV'S VCR.

"Geez can't this school afford a projector?" Dash sighed as he leaned back into his seat.

"Or at least, like, a DVD player?" Paulina added idly twirling a strand of her long dark hair.

Ignoring the negativity, Mikey's hand shot into the air, "can I turn off the lights Mr. Lancer?"

"Sure, and Kwan if you could lower the blinds, please."

Danny took this opportunity to get one last big stretch in because just hearing about the broken printer reminded him of how sore his back still was from crashing into it last night.

Tucker leaned as far as he could to whisper ask, "So what do you think we're watching? I'm hoping for some classic Bill Nye."

"Well I hope it's a nature documentary," Danny said relaxing into a slump.

"Dude why would you want that?"

"Because," Danny lazily rested his chin in his hand and stared vacantly ahead, "I could use a nap." 

"Ain't that the truth," Sam smirked as she crossed her ankles.

The TV blipped as the tape auto-tracked before a soothing male voice began his narration, "From the woods, to the everglades, and even in your own backyard, you can see it in the darkness. Glowing eyes amid the shadows of the night."

Most of the class moaned upon realizing that it was, in fact, a nature documentary. All except one barely audibly, "yes."

"Just because it's dark in here doesn't mean you get to take a nap. I might just have to quiz you if I catch anyone sleeping." Mr. Lancer announced just before taking his seat.

The video continued as if it hadn't been interrupted, "Eyeshine can be seen when light reflects off the eyes of most nocturnal animals. But don't go shining any lights in your friend’s eyes, this doesn't work on humans, no matter how nocturnal they appear."

"Just when I was about to reach for my flashlight." Sam joked sarcastically.

Mr. Lancer was able to work on grading assignments and only occasionally had to look up to keep his students in line.

Just as he had finished up his most recent grading, he looked up to see mostly glassy-eyed stares directed at the video, but one thousand yard stare caught his attention.

In the very back of the room sat that troublesome trio of Sam, Tucker, and Danny. Sam was clearly doodling and no longer paying attention, Tucker also had his notebook out, but didn't seem to really be using it much, so he was probably using his phone. Danny, on the other hand, was staring vacantly ahead, which wasn't too surprising but something about it was off.

Somehow the room seemed darkest where the three sat, despite not being in the corners. And the longer Lancer looked the more it appeared that Danny's eyes were brighter than they should be.

Of course that was impossible. Human eyes don't produce light, they can't even reflect it.

And yet he couldn't stop staring. Even as this creeping feeling of wrongness started to bubble up inside.

And then the bell rang, and Danny blinked back into awareness. His usual gentle expression returning as it had never left in the first place.

Lancer decided that maybe next time he'll let the students sleep.

Chapter Text

After coming home after their trip to the ghost zone Sam noticed that the flower the ghost girl Florence had given her had closed its petals. She had a few other plants that would close like this, so she wasn’t too worried.

A few days later she realized it didn’t like the heat or sun exposure that the greenhouse provided. Several locations later she found it liked her basement the best. 

Sam invited the boys over for a movie marathon over the weekend, one because it would be fun, but mostly because her parents were going to be gone all weekend. 

Before the boys were due to arrive, she ordered the usual two extra-large meat lovers pizzas, but this time ordered her vegan dream pizza as a large instead of medium. Of course, the boys were able to easily devour the meat pizzas and she'd end up with leftovers of her own, but last time Danny decided to try a slice of hers and actually enjoyed it. She might have not had leftovers afterward, but hey it’s better to have a boy eat his vegetables.

Tucker arrived shortly followed by the pizza, but Danny ended up being several minutes late. 

Danny came down the stairs profusely apologizing, “Sorry I’m late guys, it’s just my parents decided to show me this new thing that they are working on and-” he stopped short turned to look back up the stairwell then let out a long sigh. “I just walked through your front door. I know you said to just come in when I got here, but-” 

“Danny it’s ok, we already know you’re a big weirdo. No need to fake it for our sake.”

“I think what Tucker meant to say was glad you could make it.” Sam got herself some pizza having been polite enough to wait, unlike Tucker who was about halfway through the first pizza.

“Hey is this the ecto-blossom? Why isn’t it in the greenhouse?” Danny asked after setting his backpack down.

“Oh yeah, she doesn’t quite like the heat or sunlight like the other plants do. It's just too bad that it won’t bloom anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“After I got it home, she just closed up, not sure what she wants, but she seems healthy enough.”

“It’s open now.” Danny stepped aside to reveal that the plant was, in fact, in bloom.

Sam rushed over to take in the view. The deep purple petals, not quite fully open, with just a light dusting of the bright green instead of the brilliant shimmering coat that happened when they first saw them.

“Maybe it likes you,” Tucker suggested mid-bite. He swallowed and added, “Because it wasn’t like that when I got here.”

“Oh maybe he’s right for once!”

Tucker’s protest was ignored in favor of Danny’s question, “How’s that?”

“It might be like how sunflowers work, they will literally turn to follow the sunlight and some other flowers close up at night. So maybe this one perks up around ghost energy?”

Sam picked up the plant and handed it to Danny, “Why don’t you keep it near you while we watch the movie?”

Danny shrugged in agreement and took the plant to a nice spot on the floor next to a cushion he was going to be sitting in.

Sometime around 4 or 5 am Sam woke up with a shiver. She wasn’t quite sure when she had fallen asleep, but both the boys seemed to be out as well.  As carefully as she could she got up from the couch figuring running upstairs and switching to her pajamas would be warmer than her crop top and mini skirt.

The blue glow of the television reflected off of Tucker’s glasses making it very obvious that they weren’t completely on his face; Sam took them off gingerly and set them on the table nearby.

She looked back on Danny and was glad he was actually asleep. These last few weeks had been pretty busy in the ghost fighting department.

It didn’t take long to clean up what little leftovers there were, then she had a proper wardrobe change and grabbed a few spare blankets from her room before heading back down.

She tossed her things on the other couch and after not being able to find the remote got up and turned off the TV. As she turned, she noticed that her ghostly flower was much livelier than it had been just a few hours earlier. The plant was in full bloom and shimmered so brightly it glowed in the dark. She couldn’t tell if Danny was also letting off a soft glow or if it was just the bioluminescence of the plant bouncing off his pale skin.

Or maybe her tired mind was playing tricks on her, either way, she was going straight back to sleep.

Chapter Text

Danny awakes with a jolt and finds himself in a strange circular room. There doesn't appear to be any doors, only a large piece of dark glass that fills the entire ceiling.

Taking advantage of already being in ghost form he flies up to the glass and pushes against it hoping it will open.

After a few failed attempts of using an ectoblast to try breaking his way out, light finally pours into the room from beyond the glass like the end of a solar eclipse. 

"Paulina?" This was the last person he would have guessed, and it only confused him more.

She smiles, "Hola, Phantom."

"What's going on? Where am I? How'd I get here? Why-?"

"Slow down, slow down, I'll explain." She moves back and more of here fills the window. "First of all, this is my room." She gestures around her like that's obvious and from what he can see she is in her room. "And I invited you over."

"Okay," Danny hesitated to try to think of a good way to ask his next question. "But why am I-? Where am I?"

"Oh well it said I needed a mirror and I didn't want to waste my vanity, so I used my compact. It's not too small in there is it?"

She started to ramble on how they'd be able to go everywhere together and how much fun they'd have when Danny had to interrupt. "Yeah but wouldn't it be better if I was out there with you?"

"You won't fly away?" She asked with an innocent pout.

"No, we can hang out today. You just need to let me out first." Danny bartered, still confused as to how she had managed to trap him in the first place.

Paulina eagerly agreed and Danny heard a loud thud of something heavy dropping onto a wooden surface. "Okay let me see." The sound of turning pages clued Danny into the source of the thud, a heavy book.

After several minutes Paulina broke the silence with a simple, "Ummm…."

"Um?"

"Promise me you won't get mad."

"Paulina."

"Promise me!"

"Okay, I won't be mad. Just tell me."

"I don't think I can undo this."

Chapter Text

Sam sat in the darkest corner of the school's library and idly flipped through the large anthology of ‘The Monsters of Greek Mythology’. One of the creatures caught her eye, but unfortunately, the book was mostly pictures and a bit skimpy on information.

After falling down a bit of a Wikipedia rabbit hole she came to an interesting conclusion. 

"Hey Danny, guess what?" She asked as she met the boys at Danny's locker after class. "You're a chimera!"

"He's a what?"

"Isn't that the half-cow, half-person thing?" Danny questioned. 

"No, no, that's a minotaur. But you're on the right track."

The boys both shared equally confused looks and waited for Sam to elaborate. 

"Okay so in Greek Mythology, a chimera is part lion, goat, and snake-"

Tucker was quick to interrupt, "Last I checked Danny was a person."

"I'm getting to that!" Sam snapped before composing herself. "There's also a Human Chimera which is a person with two separate sets of DNA. And you got ghost DNA, right?"

"Hu? I guess that makes sense."

"So you gonna start saying 'going chimera'?" Tucker teased.

Danny laughed, "I will absolutely not!"

Chapter Text

Danny, Sam, and Tucker made their way towards the Nasty Burger as they usually did on Friday afternoon. 

He wasn't sure why, but Danny stopped and turned. Beside him was the Chinese Buffet, nothing about it seemed unusual or eye-catching, it was just the same as it always was. 

"Why don't we eat here today?" 

Tucker turned and immediately noticed the sign next to Danny, “$5 all you can eat? Sign me up!”

Sam shrugged and figured a change wouldn’t be too bad.

The trio walked into a mostly empty restaurant. A few booths had older couples and one had a family with young children, other than that, the place was virtually deserted.

“So what made you want to stop in?” Sam asked as they were being led to a table in the back corner of the restaurant. 

Danny rubbed the back of his neck, “Not sure really. Just felt like a good idea.” 

“Right.” Sam eyed him suspiciously but didn’t elaborate.

After the waitress got their drinks, they had the space to themselves. They chatted about this and that as they enjoyed their food.

“Did you know there’s a full moon tonight?” Sam asked before taking a leisurely sip from her hot tea.

Danny sighed and dropped his fork, “Seriously? Guess I’m not getting any sleep tonight.”

“Why’s that?” Tucker asked, mouth full of noodles.

“Ghost activity always rams up during a full moon. It’s like everybody in the Zone gets antsy.”

“Explains why you haven’t been able to sit still all day.” Tucker pointed out as he pushed away his now empty plate.

Danny twirled his straw around in his drink swirling the ice cubes that refused to melt with him so close, “Geez was it that obvious?”

“Only to the well-trained eye.” Sam smirked, “So just me, Tucker, and probably your sister.”

“And don’t forget our favorite super-sleuth Wes Weston.” Tucker teased.

“He was staring at me a lot today. More than usual,” Danny paused, “at least I think it was. I don’t know, it’s been kind of hard to focus today.”

"Hey Danny, you might want to put a little more focus on gravity." Sam's eyes darted dowards pointedly.

Danny looked down and let out a small, "Aw crud." Before gripping the table and pulling himself back down into his chair to stop himself from floating.

"You okay?" Tucker asked cautiously.

"Yeah? Why?" Danny asked unsure he'd like the answer.

"Your eyes are green."

"How about I get the check today and you two go outside," Sam ordered more than suggested as she grabbed the bill.

The boys went out as quickly and casually as they could. Danny kept his head down to keep anyone else from noticing the glow his eyes were producing. 

On the way out Danny noticed an employee in the entryway lighting a pair of incense and tidying up a small altar space on the floor. She spoke softly in prayer in her native language.

"You're welcome," Danny responded automatically before it dawned on him that he shouldn't have said anything.

The woman turned and stared at him. They locked eyes and Danny was frozen as his mind was reeling as he tried to figure out a reasonable lie.

"Phantom?" She asked tentatively.

Please let my eyes be blue. Danny repeated in his head frantically with a sinking feeling that they weren't. 

She quickly took his hands in hers, "no it's okay, I won't tell. Just don't stay in the boy too long, you wouldn't want to become a hungry ghost."

"Uh, yeah of course. I was just visiting?"

She smiles, "I hoped you would. I did save you a place with my ancestors." She gestured to the small shrine.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Thanks." 

She waved him goodbye as Sam started to make her way over. 

Once they were all outside both Sam and Tucker dragged Danny into the alley.

"Dude, what was that back there?" Tucker started flabbergasted.

"Yeah, I thought you were trying to keep a secret?"

"It just sort of slipped out. And it's not like she knows the truth. She just thought I was possessing... me."

"Wait what slipped out?" Sam asked having missed the initial conversation he had.

"He said, 'you're welcome.' Which is weird because she wasn't talking to us and also not in English. Since when did you speak Chinese?"

"I don't!" Danny quickly defended. Then after seeing their confused faces, decided to elaborate, "I don't know exactly what she said, but I felt her gratitude and just accepted it?"

"You felt it?" Sam asked.

"Is this some new ghost power?"

Danny shrugged, "it's definitely ghostly."

Chapter Text

Everybody knew ghosts had obsessions. Some were painfully obvious, like the Box Ghost, and others were more subtle.

What bothered Wes the most was trying to figure out what Danny's was.

Everyone was convinced it was some sort of superhero-type thing, Phantom had to save the town and everyone in it.

But he just didn't see that from Fenton. Sure, the kid ran out to fight the ghost of the day. The thing is they usually came because they wanted to fight him.

So what would it be? 

That's when Wes started his reconnaissance mission. After a week of subtle stalking through the school, he finally caught a break.

The teacher decided to have the class grade their own assignment that day and for once Fenton hadn't slept through class and did the assignment. 

The teacher told them to place a star next to their correct answers and to fix the incorrect answer in the margins. It wasn't too hard especially with it being multiple choice.

After a few minutes of grading and the occasional debate on if some questions could have more than one correct answer, they finished.

With everyone else distracted with handing in their assignments, Wes turned to see if that stupid ghost kid was doing anything suspicious. 

Danny was smiling down at his desk doodling away without a care in the world. Wes straightened up in his seat to try and get a better look. The paper was covered in a variety of pencil lead stars. It looked like he had gotten all the answers right and then just kept adding stars. 

Tucker leaned in close to Danny with his hand cupped over his mouth he imitated talking over a walkie talkie, "Paging Space Cadet. This is Earth, do you read me?"

Danny perked up but still had that stupid grin on his face. "Yeah what's up?"

"As cool as the DIY galaxy you got going on is, you should really turn that in."

Danny dropped his pencil in surprise, actually, his pencil dropped through his hand, "Aw crud I didn't mean to get so carried away." He was quick to scramble out of his seat so he could turn in the assignment.

Wes made sure to make a note of that.

Chapter Text

Once the thought crossed his mind, he couldn’t shake it free. Could his old imaginary friend really have been a ghost this whole time? But that was years before the accident. Had he really been some sort of ghost freak his whole life? 

He shook the negative thought out of his mind, there was no need for that right now.

Danny hopped out of bed and was in-flight without hesitation. It wasn’t long until he was hovering above his old playground.

He touched down and turned back into his human form and stood just a few inches away from the fence around the old oak tree.

Why was standing here making him so nervous? Sure, he hadn’t been in this exact spot since he was eight, but it’s not like he didn’t spend all his time fighting ghosts now.

His ghost sense pulled his attention back up towards the darkened branches. 

“Danny is that you?” whispered a soft female voice from somewhere in the tangle of branches. 

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, he wasn’t really sure she’d recognize him after all this time, “Yeah it’s me.”

“Why’d you leave me, Danny? I thought we were friends?” she accused and saw as her eyes flared green.

“Because you scared me, Abigail. You moved the branches and trapped me up there.”

She was quiet for a moment before finally admitting, “I wasn’t trying to scare you.”

Danny sighed, “But you were trying to keep me up there.”

He could just barely make out her pouting face, “Maybe. It’s just so lonely up here and you were the only one to talk to me.”

“Well, why don’t you come down here and I’ll show you a place that’s a lot roomier than an old tree on a playground?”

“I don’t know how to come down.” 

He wasn’t sure if she was making herself more visible, or if his eyes were just adjusting to the dark, but he could finally start to make out more of her shape, a vague outline of a shadow in the dark.

“I could come up and help you down?” he offered with a smile.

“You aren’t worried I’ll trap you again?” she asked twirling the end of her braid around her pointer finger.

“I think I could get out a little easier now,” he floated up so they were eye level and held out his hand. “Besides would you really be asking me that if you were going to do it?”

Everything on her was pitch black, her clothes, her skin, and her long braided hair that looped over her shoulders and across her neck. The only part of her that really stood out was her bright green eyes, now full of wonder as they gazed into his. 

“You can fly?” she asked in hushed amazement as he slowly led her out of the tangle of dark branches.

“Yeah, and so can you.” he pointed out once they were both clear.

She gasped in surprise and wobbled in the air.

He guided them both to the ground so she could get her bearings. 

She gazed back at her former haunt idly fidgeting with the blunt end of her braid, “A lot has happened since we last spoke hasn’t it.”

Danny chuckled, “You have no idea.”

Chapter Text

Sam watched as the ghost that interrupted their lunch hour flew sporadically over the school taking Danny all over the skyline. It wasn't long until they flew off campus and unfortunately, Lancer caught her before she could run after them.

Begrudgingly Sam went back to class and kept her eyes and ears peeled for any signs that Danny might need her help. Or better yet, that he'd come back successful.

But he didn't. 

School ended so Sam immediately pulled out her phone and dialed Danny's number hoping that he'd be able to pick up, but it wouldn't be the first time that his phone broke in a fight.

To her surprise the phone line was busy. She hung up and shoved her phone in her pocket. With Tucker at home sick, she couldn't rely on his tech skills to help track Danny that way, but she wasn't going to give up that easily. 

She finished gathering her things and heading out in the direction she last saw Danny and the ghost flying in.

Sam was halfway across town and couldn't find any trace of Danny other than a discarded thermos. She pulled out her phone again and dialed his number again.

After a couple of rings, he answered with a tentative "h-hello?"

Just hearing his voice filled her with relief, "Danny! Oh my gosh, are you okay? I tried calling you earlier, but the line was busy. Where are you?"

"Danny?" he asked slowly as if the name was foreign to him. 

He went silent again and for a second, she was worried the line had dropped. After a quick check she asked as carefully as she could, "uhh, are you okay? Where are you?"

"I'm at the hospital. I don't know what happened to me and I don't know who you are. Should I?" He asked with honest confusion. 

Her breath caught in her throat as all the mental alarm bells went off. "I'll be right there! Don't let them take any tests on you! Get out of there as quick as you can! You really shouldn't be there Danny!" She hung up and immediately broke into a sprint towards the hospital. 

This was bad, this was so bad. She just hoped she would make it in time before they lost him to some horrible fate, they'd all been dreading since the accident. She’d rescue him if it was the last thing she did.

Chapter Text

Danny lay on his bed gazing up at the plastic stars on his ceiling. The soft artificial glow was something that never got old. 

He remembered how back in middle school, he spent an entire weekend with his dad meticulously placing each star to perfectly replicate his star map.

Over the years the adhesive had lost its hold on several different stars filling this false night sky with more and more darkness.

And of course, after Skulker first started his hunt he knocked even more down, along with crushing the model rocket Danny had built. Unfortunately, that wasn't the first ghost fight in his house and probably not the last either.

So now he had a drawer in his desk slowly filling with falling stars, with every intention to put them back. Yet with the ghost fights and schoolwork, it was getting harder and harder to find the time to sleep let alone redecorate his room.

So there he lay, gazing up at the remaining plastic stars on his ceiling, wondering just how long it would take before the final star fell.

Chapter Text

Danny struggled as best he could, but the group of ghostly skeletons was just too strong.

They dragged him into the decrepit ghostly castle, the torches that lined the halls igniting themselves as they made their way deeper into the keep.

They forced him into a large chair, it wobbled dangerously at the impact. He kicked one of the skeletons and tried to make a break for it. They held fast and pulled his right arm forward, pushing the rest of his squirming form into the chair.

For as much as Danny screamed in protest, the skeletons said nothing. The chattering of their teeth was the closest thing to talking that they did.

The skeletons let out a chorus of chattering and Danny looked through his boney captors and saw one, larger than the rest, as it came forward carrying a large black circular object Danny couldn't quite identify. The skeleton rotated the object and now it looked like a giant bracelet. 

They pulled his arm harder and Danny was starting to get scared, it felt like they were going to rip him apart. It got closer and Danny realized they wanted to put it on him. "Sorry fellas, I don't wear jewelry. Personal choice." 

There was a sharp pain in his wrist and his fist opened reflexively. They stopped short of slipping the black bracelet over his shaky hand then paused, as of waiting for something.

Danny felt the skeletons relax and took his opportunity to propel himself out of the chair and make his escape. Of course, taking this opportunity the second it arrived left little time for strategy, so his hand still went forward, into the bracelet. It was so large it went all the way to his shoulder.

He didn't care, he just had to get out of there. He flew off so fast he didn't notice that it never fell off.

Danny didn't stop until he was in the lab. He quickly closed the portal and landed as he shifted back to normal.

He felt a tug on his upper arm and was scared one of the skeletons had followed him home. He reached up and felt cool metal.

"Well that's just great." Danny huffed in annoyance. He pushed on the top of the bracelet expecting it to just fall off.

It didn't budge.

In fact, now it fit him. That was probably bad. Now that he was alone, he could now see the emblem on the top, a large red skeleton face.

Danny reached for his phone and tried to ignore how uncomfortable his arm was. "Hey it's me. Are you home?"

"Yeah, why?" Jazz asked and he could hear the sound of a book being closed.

"It's just I'm in the lab and I need your help."

"Then just come upstairs?"

"No!" Danny snapped, then grimaced as the bracelet tightened on his arm. "Ow. Sorry."

"Are you okay?"

"No. I got my arm stuck in something and I can't get it off." He sucked in air through his teeth as it tightened again. "But I shouldn't have snapped at you, I'm sorry."

"It's okay little brother, I'll be right down."

True to her word, Jazz descended the steps only moments later. "What is that?"

"No idea. This cult of skeletons jumped me on the way home from school and dragged me into the Zone through a natural portal." He told his sister the story as she tried to get the object off.

Finding no solution in the lab they snuck back up to Danny's room and called his friends over.

After several attempts, even using a stupid amount of butter, they couldn't get it off and it infuriated Danny to no end.

Danny stood in his shower in nothing but his boxers. "If the butter didn't work why would water?" he asked with arms crossed over his bare chest.

"It's two-fold, we clean you off and maybe relax the muscle too." Tucker shrugged then took his own shirt off. "Now let's get this water running."

Ten minutes later, Danny was clean, but the bracelet remained.

Still frustrated at his situation he was quick to usher Tucker out of the bathroom so he could get changed. It was bad enough to be as exposed as he was, but now he needed out of those wet boxers.

Once he was dressed, wearing his oversized NASA hoodie to better ignore his problem, he flopped face first on his bed with a sigh. His problem arm hung over the edge and he was able to reach the latest fallen glow in the dark star. It felt weird in his hand, until he recognized that tingling feeling in his fingertips.

He rolled over, dropping the plastic star back onto the floor, "Great, now my hand's asleep. Ow." He rubbed his forearm out of reflex despite it not feeling better when he touched it.

"Danny you need to relax," Sam said as she rolled the computer chair closer to his bed.

"And how am I supposed to do that when the thing that is distressing me is so obvious?" Danny cringed as the bracelet tightened again.

"It's reacting to your emotions. If getting mad makes it tighter, maybe doing the opposite will help get it off?" She countered.

Danny focused on his hand and tried to flex the feeling back into it. "I guess it's worth a shot, but I'm not really in the mood for anything."

Jazz picked up the star off the floor and went to his desk. At first Danny thought she was just going to add it to the collection, but she pulled out the jar instead. "Let's start by putting these back up." She smiled as she handed it over to him.

He took it and looked up at his mostly barren ceiling. He had been meaning to put them back up. With a shrug he reached up to put the first star back but hesitated. 

If space was ever-expanding, then he shouldn't put them back exactly where they were but even further apart. That would mean that they'd exceed the confines of his ceiling and need to go on the walls too.

Danny beamed at the idea and got started right away.

"Wow that actually kind of worked."

Danny turned towards the voice in surprise followed by a wave of embarrassment as he realized it was just Tucker.

"You forgot we were here, didn't you?" Sam smirked knowingly.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck with a nervous laugh, "maybe."

"That's okay." Jazz consoled, "you needed the distraction."

Danny followed her gaze and saw that the bracelet had migrated down his arm to rest loosely on his wrist. Unfortunately, it was still too tight to get past his thumb.

He touched back down to the floor suddenly self-conscious about floating around in his human form. He needed to stop blurring the lines between his two halves. He pulled his sleeve down over his hand mentally kicking himself and tried to ignore that he could feel the bracelet shrink ever so slightly.

Chapter Text

Danny felt pretty dumb for not expected that ghost bug to explode into a thousand tinier bugs. It was so obvious!

When the student body got infected with that weird ghost virus, he and Tucker ended up being the only ones safe from the quarantine. The two boys worked out a plan to sneak Danny into the hospital, all he had to do was use a single power and he'd be in.

He should have known it was a trap.

Spectra floated above him, her shadowy form was somewhat transparent under the dim glow of the operating lights.

"Ah, just what the doctor ordered." She smiled her sickly sweet grin as she held him down. “And I would know, I’m the doctor!”

He hated being looked at like that. Of course it was Spectra that was behind all this. Trapping all the students, making sure they were vulnerable and afraid. And what was worse than being sick with a mysterious illness that might not have a cure, and to be stuck with abilities you can't control, abilities that scare you.

"So Danny, how does it make you feel, knowing you walked right into my trap?" She ran the back of her fingers down his cheek, which would have been a soothing jester if her touch didn’t make him feel terrible.

"Stupid." He admitted against his better judgment.

She laughed and her shadow form darkened, "And why did you even bother to come in the first place? It's not like anyone here actually likes you."

She had a point, everyone at the school either picked on him or ignored him. And most of them still ran away from his ghost half. It didn't matter what he did, it was a losing battle.

"It's been a while since our last session, and I believe we left off on a question. Do you have the answer yet? I think you've had plenty of time to think about it." She crossed her legs as she leaned back into the chair next to the bed.

Somehow she had shifted back into her human disguise and he hadn't even noticed. She might not be holding him down, but he couldn't find the energy to leave either. "What was the question?" He asked hating himself for being so forgetful.

She leaned forward, taking his hand, and making him sit up. "I asked, what are you? A ghost trying to fit in with humans? Or a creepy little boy with creepy little powers?" Her grip tightened and it wasn't just to keep him there, but to make him answer.

But he didn't know. How could he? "A living ghost? A screw up that can't even die right."

Her grip loosened but she still held fast. He hated feeling like this, but she was like a large planet compared to him. The gravity of her pulling him into her orbit but it was so strong that it pulled him in too far. He was crashing into the surface and burning up in the atmosphere. There was no escape.

"Why do you insist on saving anyone?" She asked, "If they don't want you around, why bother?"

"It's the right thing to do, isn't it?" He wasn't sure anymore, "I just want to help. I activated the portal, I let the ghosts out."

"Oh, so you're cleaning up your mess? That's not heroic Danny, it's damage control." She set down his hand on his lap and leaned back in her chair, "That's not your purpose." She pondered aloud before changing tactics, "So stop confusing rushes of adrenaline for acts of bravery. Tell me what you really want. What grabs your attention and won't let go?"

"I want to be an astronaut." The words slipped out in barely a whisper. "I want to go to space. I want it so bad it hurts."

"But you can't, can you?"

He pulled his knees up to his chest and hugged them tightly. Of course he couldn't be an astronaut. Not with his grades, and he had no idea if he’d even pass the physical test now. His new normal wasn’t healthy.

She placed a hand on his shoulder, “I think that’s enough for today. We’re making some real progress. And remember, it’s okay to reach for the stars as long as you don’t leave your head in the clouds.” She gave his shoulder an encouraging pat before walking away.

He sat there feeling absolutely numb.

He had beaten her before, but how? She was stronger than ever and had the student body held hostage. There might not be a cure for them. They might not ever leave here.

Danny got up from the bed in a daze. There was no point in staying if he couldn’t save them.

“Danny!” a bad attempt at a whisper called.

He perked up at the sound of his name to see Tucker.

“You’ve been in here for like an hour and I started to get worried,” Tucker admitted nervously fiddling with the lipstick laser Danny had let him borrow.

“I’m sorry Tucker, I don’t think I can fix this.” Danny looked down at his shoes, “It was stupid of me to even try.”

“Did you not find who did it? I’m sure if we both look-”

“I know who did it, Tuck.”

“Well let’s go kick their butt.”

“It’s no use. She already beat me.”

Tucker looked him over, but Danny couldn’t look him in the eye. He was taken off guard when Tucker smothered him in a hug. “Dude I’m so sorry. If I had known it was Spectra, I would have never let you go in alone.” Tucker pulled back and looked Danny over again, trying to catch Danny’s eyes, “What awful things did she tell you this time?”

“Nothing I haven’t told myself before.”

“Oh man, I wish I had your mom’s bazooka. I’d blow that lady’s mouth clean off!”

“Thanks, I think?”

“You’re my brother from another mother! I’d do anything for you.”

“That’s a little scary dude. And I’m the ghost.”

“Pfft, only half. And the other half is a scaredy-cat.”

“Hey, no fair.” Danny playfully pushed Tucker’s shoulder. “At least I don’t smell like gym shorts and ginger snaps.”

Danny paused to think now that the negative cloud of self-doubt had started to clear. “You still have that cologne on you right?”

“Of course,” Tucker reached into the largest pocket of his cargo pants, “How do you think I got in?”

Deciding to ignore that last comment Danny nods in acknowledgment, “Good, because I have a plan.”

Chapter Text

It was 3 AM and Danny couldn't sleep. Especially not after he had somehow turned back into a ghost.

It had been a week since his accident in the lab and yet this was only the second time he'd seen himself like this.

He stood in the dark bathroom staring into the ghastly green eyes he barely recognized as his own. He had really hoped he wouldn't have to see himself like this again, but clearly that was foolish.

He looked down at his gloved hands and watched as they trembled.

And glowed.

He didn't look like himself and he couldn't stand it. He reached up to his collar and struggled with the zipper not wanting to be confined to such a strange outfit.

The zipper kept getting stuck as he forced it down too quickly. In frustration, he stopped midway and tugged on one of his gloves to help loosen the suit.

To his surprise, the glove just came off.

He blinked at the glove. Then slowly drew his gaze down to his bare hand. Wasn't the suit one piece? Why did it separate like that? How did it separate?

He dropped the glove on the counter and looked at his hand. If he ignored the glow it looked like his hand. He brought it closer and noticed his veins looked green, or greener anyway.

They were normally green-ish, and according to the magazine quiz he took in the doctor's waiting room that one time, it just meant he had a neutral skin tone.

This though, this was not the same green.

Despite being weirded out but his discoloration, he still wanted the suit off. He unstuck the zipper and got undressed. Weirdly enough the boots came off separately too.

He gathered his things and went to his closet to pull out the loosest clothes he had. He didn't want anything touching his skin that even remotely felt like that skintight suit.

He crawled into bed and tried to fall asleep. Trying as hard as he could to ignore the glow he produced, or how his hair was still white, and his eyes were green and were bright enough for him to see in the dark.

It didn't work. He was still awake.

He felt this restlessness in him, but he didn't understand why. It's not like he had anywhere to go. Other than to go to sleep.

But the ghost in him had so much energy. He could feel this constant pulse, no hum inside himself. It reminded him of the hum the refrigerator makes when everything else is quiet.

That wasn't right, he wasn't a kitchen appliance. But the hum was familiar.

It didn't take much thinking to remember. The portal made this same hum. He'd heard it before.

No, not heard, felt it every time he went into the lab. The same hum he felt in himself now and ever since the accident.

He didn't know what that meant, only that it was true.

Chapter Text

Wes had done his research and now probably knew more about Fenton than he'd ever care to admit. But he did get some very crucial information from one Valerie Gray.

Turns out Danny doesn't just like to doodle stars, but he actually wanted to be an astronaut. If Fenton wasn't such a two-faced jerk, Wes would find that charming.

He thought the hard part of research was out of the way, but it turned out finding a natural way to implement it was harder.

How do you casually bring up outer space?

That's when Wes learned that Danny was bombing his math class and he figured that was his in. Wes waltzed up to their teacher after Danny left and offered his services as a tutor for his fellow student.

That afternoon the two sat in the library with a single math book between, Danny had "misplaced" his. Danny lazily rested his head in his hand as Wes went over the assignment.

"Why are you doing this?" He finally asked.

"Because you're failing? And math isn't hard."

"Pfft, easy for you to say. Besides, I meant why are you helping me? I thought you hated me?"

"I don't hate you; I just don't trust you. Completely different."

Danny rolled his eyes, "Whatever, let's just get this over with."

Wes copied down the first problem, a simple solve for x. "Okay, so what about this don't you get?"

"I don't know? The whole thing?"

"You just solve for x. You have a and b so you can fill that in and a^2 + b^2 = c^2."

"But what's c?"

"That's the problem, Danny."

"No, but like where is it?"

"Oh it's x."

"What? Why?"

"It's just a variable. It's not a big deal." Wes picked up his pen, "see you use the formula and plug in what you do know."

"Okay??"

"Did you sleep through this class?"

"What? Ms. Lansberry has a very soothing voice and it's the first class of the day. I can't help that I'm tired."

"Is it because you're a ghost?"

"No Wes, it's because our town is haunted, and I live above the interdimensional portal between the two worlds. You try sleeping through that!"

"Touché."

"Can we just get back to the math problems instead of my life problems?"

"Yeah sure." Wes looked at the page trying to figure out if there was another way he could explain this, then he remembered his other mission. "Let's try looking at it another way. Say a is a rocket on the launchpad."

Danny perked up, "a rocket? Why a rocket?"

"Because I heard a rumor that you want to be an astronaut. That true?"

"Yeah."

"Okay so a is the rocket, b is the ground and this point here is a guy just standing looking at the rocket."

"What's he doing that for?"

"I don't know? He's a photographer? Yeah, he's gonna take a picture." Wes watched as Danny nodded before continuing his lesson, "If a is how tall the rocket is, and b is how far the photographer is away from the rocket, what's the distance between where he's standing and the tip-top of the rocket?"

"You mean the nose?"

"Yeah, whatever. Plug the numbers into the formula."

Danny did as he was told then looked back at him, "now what?"

"What's the square of a?"

Danny pulled the calculator closer and typed in the problem, "and then do that to b?"

"Yeah, then what?" Wes prompted.

"You add them together?"

Wes nodded encouragingly, "you got it."

Danny pulled back staring at the page, "that's not the answer."

"Almost there. Look back at the problem."

It took a moment, but the lightbulb finally clicked. He solved the problem and smiled at Wes. "Is that it?" He asked eagerly.

"Yeah, now do it again. This time we need to know how tall the rocket is." Wes pointed to the next problem and this time was silent as Danny worked through it.

Danny blew through the section once he got in the right mindset. He started to make up his own scenarios of using a telescope to look at the moon and the transit of Venus. Not that Wes knew what that meant, but it didn't matter.

Then it was time for the next section, circumference.

Danny slummed, "why circles?" He lamented.

"But they're not just circles Danny, they're planets."

A grin broke across his face like wildfire and Wes had to look away once he noticed the light in Danny's eyes wasn't just excitement, but literal light. Green ethereal light from within.

Wes refocused on the lesson, doing his best not to think about how he was teaching a space obsessed ghost how to do math.

They were almost done when Danny let out a small gasp and dropped his pencil. "I gotta go."

"What? Why?"

Danny decided to ignore Wes's questions and darted off. Not a moment later Phantom was outside just as a second ghost appeared.

"Wait how'd he know that ghost was going to be here?" Is he psychic? Some sort of ghostly premonition? That would explain why Phantom always shows up first. Wes shook his head, that kid was too overpowered.

Wes gathered up both of their things and headed outside, figuring he could meet Danny after the fight.

Wes kept his distance and winced as Phantom got slammed into the parking lot. The ghost kid easily shook off the blow and rocketed himself back into the fray.

As he watched the fight, Wes noticed a chunk of asphalt was stuck to Phantom's boot. No that wasn't right, it kept moving around his ankle, slowly making its way up his leg. Once Phantom used the thermos to trap the ghost he landed not too far from Wes.

"Hey wait," Wes called, easily getting his attention. He held out Danny's backpack as he pointed at the chuck of debris that was spinning around his waist. "What's with that rock?"

Danny looked down, surprised to see the chunk of pavement float around his waist.

"What are you a small sun and that got caught in your orbit?"

The pure joy that followed was overwhelming. Ectoplasmic green freckles blossomed across Danny's cheeks and nose as he reached for the floating rock. "I have a satellite!" The rock ignored his grasp and instead orbited his hand.

"I always wanted to discover a planet." He beamed not taking his eyes off it, "I'll call you Persephone," he cooed like it was a baby.

Wes sighed and pulled Danny's phone out of his bag. He typed a quick text to Sam and Tucker, "It's Wes. Danny's acting weird. We're in the back parking lot behind the school."

Sam was quick to reply, "what do you mean weird?"

Wes held up the phone, "Hey Danny, smile. We got to commemorate the discovery of the planet Persephone."

Danny turned with a huge grin proudly holding up his hand to show off his prize. Wes waited for the right moment where the rock was clearly visible to be floating above Danny's hand and made sure Danny was in frame as well.

He sent the image and added, "that weird enough?"

It took about ten minutes for Sam and Tucker to arrive and another five for Wes to explain the course of events as Danny kept interrupting with his nonstop blathering.

Wes seriously regretted everything that led to this moment.

Chapter Text

Danny and his friends were walking home late after a long night of ghost fighting. All three if their thermoses were full so they were going to sneak into the lab together to empty them.

They idled at an intersection waiting for the little red hand to switch to the little walking man so they could cross. They probably could have crossed whenever, it's not like there was traffic this late.

But they waited, partly out of habit and partly because it was a nice rest.

The light changed and Sam and Tucker were eager to cross, but something made Danny hesitate.

Something felt wrong.

Something wasn't right.

His breath hitched in his throat and his mind screamed danger.

Pure instinct made him grab his friends by their collars and yank them back from the road.

Not even a second later a black sedan raced through the intersection, ignoring the red light and their pedestrian right of way.

Danny could finally breathe.

The danger had passed.

Chapter Text

Axion labs had been spending the better part of a week going through the heaps of inventions they had gotten on loan from the Government which had been originally invented by the now-defunct FentonWorks.

Most of the pile had been ignored just by their sheer ridiculous nature. Why a ghost toaster? And the Weasel looked like a souped-up leaf blower. Although the information on the thermos sounded promising. 

Valerie currently held the collapsible fishing pole in her hands. It seemed ordinary enough, despite the unbreakable fishing line. She shrugged and figured it was harmless.

"Hey sweetheart," her father greeted happily as he made his way into the lab, "whatcha looking at?"

She showed off the pole, "what do you think they were gonna do with this one?"

"Fish for ghosts?" 

"More like fish for ghost fish." Valerie joked but couldn't help but wonder what her life would be like if the GIW hadn't closed down FentonWorks so early after she got her powers.

"Wanna give it a whirl?" Her dad asked with a playful grin, "I mean we've gotta test it anyway."

After about 15 minutes of staring into the swirling green void of the Ghost Portal and getting nothing her dad sighed. "Well, this is a bust. I better mark it-" he stopped and looked around, "oh darn I left the clipboard on my desk. I'll be right back sweetheart." He quickly handed her the pole and darted off.

"Wait Daddy what am I supposed to do with this? Do I reel it in or-" she felt a shudder run through her and felt a violent tug on the fishing line. "oh no."

Before she could react, a dragon, an honest to god dragon, walked out of the portal with the fishing line between its razor-sharp teeth.

"I want to go!" It roared dropping the hook on Valerie's head just barely missing her hair.

"Go where?" She dropped the fishing pole and held up her hands trying to calm the beast.

"I have to go!" It roared again and swung its tail knocking Valerie off her feet.

"Hey, there's no need for all that!" Valerie shifted into her Wraith form and floated up, "can't we just talk for a minute?"

The dragon roared again and Valerie wondered how her Dad had not heard any of this. Either way, she knew she didn't have much time so she put her inhibitions aside and wrestled the angry dragon to the ground. Luckily it didn't take too long and the dragon changed back into a girl in a medieval dress.

"I just wanted to go to the ball," the ghost lamented, "but my horrid mommy won't let me!" She wailed before diving back into the portal.

Valerie changed back to normal and let gravity take hold just as her dad finally made it back into the lab. 

"Sorry that took so long. I got to talking to-" he stopped dead noticing how still she was in the center of the lab, "what happened?"

Valerie spun on a dime and plastered on her biggest good girl grin, "Nothing Daddy, everything's fine!" She scooped up her bag that had somehow gotten on the floor. "I should really go home and study. Good luck with your report!" She gave her dad a quick peck on the cheek and made her way out of the lab before he could protest.

The whole school was abuzz with hype for the upcoming school dance. Valerie was pretty excited with it being her first high school dance after all. She was looking forward to the dress shopping trip with her friends later that week, but she still didn't have a date. Sure she could always go with Kwan as long as he was still free, but she didn't really want to go as someone else's stand-in.

During lunch, she, along with the rest of the student body, watched the awkward exchange between Fenton and Paulina. He somehow lost his balance standing still and stammered his way through his introduction that only got him laughed at. It was bad enough to give her second-hand embarrassment.

Sure Fenton was a bit of a dweeb, but he didn't deserve that. Plus with his family having to move to Elmerton after all the ghost stuff started, she sort of felt responsible.

"Hey Danny." Valerie greeted cautiously.

"Oh, hi Valerie." He looked around confused, "what's up?"

"I," she hesitated just now noticing how cute he was. "Was just wondering if you had plans for the dance."

His shoulders slumped, "Haven't you heard? I had the audacity to ask Paulina." He slammed his locker angrily but then recoiled, as if the noise scared him.

"So no backup plans?"

He turned to face her and shook his head. "No, and now I'm probably just going to stay home."

"Or you could go with me?"

He perked up at that, "really?" Then he squinted at her in suspicion, "this isn't some elaborate prank is it?"

"What? Of course not! I would never!" She stammered out and felt her bag pass through her now intangible shoulder spilling its contents between them.

They both dropped down to gather her things and they had a brief moment where they reached for the same book and their fingers touched.

Still embarrassed from dropping her things she grabbed the last book and ran off before she said or did anything else.

Had Valerie really asked him out? Danny stood in the hallway and watched her run off, his head still reeling. 

Maybe his luck was turning around after all. He looked down and saw a gold necklace with a bright green gem. "Did that fall out of Val's bag too?" He picked it up and wondered if he had ever seen her wear it before. 

"Hey Fenta-relli." Sneered Dash as he roughly pushed past Danny. "Whatcha got there?"

"I, uh, it's not mine." Danny stammered suddenly feeling like he was a thief caught red-handed. 

"Oh no, I think it is! Why don't ya show us?" Dash teased as he pinned Danny against the lockers. "Put it on."

"No. It's not mine. I need to return it." Danny tried to wiggle free but it was no use.

The quarterback snatched the necklace and easily closed the clasp around Danny's slender neck. "And don't you dare take it off until school's over." Dash gave him one final shove and laughed as he headed off to class.

Danny waited until the jocks were gone before he tried to reach for the clasp. If he wasn't allowed to take it off yet he could at least loosen it, right? His fingers passed over the cool metal but he couldn't find the seam.

Great, he really couldn't take it off.

The week went by in a blur and Valerie was beyond excited for the dance, but hadn't actually told anyone who she was going with.

She had a feeling the other A-listers might tease her for her choice, or call it a charity case, but she was more worried about the boys picking on Danny.

Speaking of Danny, he was sitting alone on the front steps. She almost didn't recognize him in that turtle neck.

"Hey there." Valerie greeted him with a smile which quickly fell once she really got a good look at him. "You okay?"

"I got in a fight with my friends. Or I guess I should say I yelled at them until they went away."

"What happened?"

"That's the thing! I don't know! I've been so angry lately and I'm lashing out at everyone. And I just want this stupid thing to get off of me!"

During that last outburst, it looked like Danny's eyes were green and glowing. But that didn't make sense, she was very sure his eyes were blue.

"That's right! The necklace!" He pulled the collar of his shirt down to reveal the golden chain and emerald jewel, "Look it fell out of your bag the other day and Dash made me wear it but I think he broke it because I can't get it off. Can you fix it?" Danny looked up at her pleading, desperate.

His eyes turned green again, the pupils slit like a cat, no, reptilian.

Valerie hesitated because something supernatural was definitely going on, but quickly recovered. "Yeah, of course, let me take a look."

He let out a sigh of relief and leaned forward so she would have better access.

She ran her fingers across the chain and was surprised to see how seamless it was. Too seamless. "Uh, where was the clasp again?"

"It should be in the middle, I think."

"Danny, I don't see it. Or feel it. I don't know how we're gonna get this off."

"Can't... get it... off?" Danny quietly muttered, "I need it off."

She watched his shoulders tense as his breathing got more ragged.

"Need it off." Danny's voice came out rugged and low, lower than she had ever heard him speak before.

Then he screamed and the next thing she knew there was a giant dragon where Danny had just been. Specifically the same ghost dragon she had fought earlier that week.

And it was wearing the same necklace Danny was. No, he was still wearing it.

"Gonna make him pay." Dragon Danny growled before leaping up into the air and flying over the school.

Chapter Text

"Alright Ghost, you better get ready! I'm not holding back!"

"Well that makes one of us" Danny quipped back as he easily avoided her latest ectoblast.

She stopped short and he could just make out that accusatory glare from under her visor, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I'm not trying to hurt you?" Danny answered, starting to regret opening his mouth earlier.

"You don't think I could take it? Are you going easy on me because I'm a girl?"

"What?! No! It's because you're human."

She finally lowered her weapon, flying just a tad closer on her hoverboard so they could talk, "why are you so worried about me though? I'm wearing armor."

"Yeah, but say you knock me into the street hard enough it'll leave a nice crater, but I'll be fine. If I knocked you into the street with that same force or at my full strength, I'd break your bones. And human bones take forever to heal, like months! Mine only takes like a day or so."

"Wait. You have bones?"

"Yes? Is that all you're going to get out of this conversation?"

"Why?"

"I don't know? Why do you have bones?"

"But I thought ghosts were just made of goo?"

"Rude."

"Whatever. I don't need you babying me."

"Okay, but before we get into it, don't you have homework or something?"

In a panic, Valerie shouted, "I almost forgot," before she flew away. "This isn't over!"

Danny hovered in the air for a moment, "wait, did we have homework?"

Chapter Text

Jazz slid the tray of pizza bites into the oven and set the timer before leaving the kitchen. Danny, Sam, and Tucker were in the living room chatting when she walked in.

"We've probably got about ten more minutes on the food," she said, taking a seat on the unoccupied chair.

"Aw man, I don't think I can wait that long," Tucker whined.

"Dude, you just ate an entire bag of pretzels. By yourself."

"They were good." He shrugged. "And who could say no to that sweet, sweet honey glaze?"

"It was a family size though?" Danny grabbed one of the nearby embroidered throw pillows and tossed it at Tucker, "It was meant to be shared."

"Well, I for one, wasn't going to have any." Sam bristled before taking a swig of her sparkling water.

"Why's that?" Jazz asked.

"Because honey is made by bees, for bees."

"Oh right, you're vegan." Jazz blushed at her forgetfulness, "I'm sorry, it must have slipped my mind."

Sam waved her off, "It's fine. That's why I bring my own snacks." She reached into her spider-shaped backpack and pulls out a container of pre-cut vegetables.

She offered her dish to the group, "unlike some people, I know how to share."

Tucker just blew a raspberry at her.

"Oh, I have an idea! Why don't we play a game to get to know each other better?" Jazz suggested scooting to the edge of her seat.

"Okay but why?" Danny asked with half a carrot sticking out of his mouth.

"Why not? We're a team and it'll be fun!"

"What kind of game did you have in mind?" Sam asked.

"Just a simple game of truth or dare."

"Ooh, slumber party games! I'm in!" Tucker agreed eagerly.

"Alright but if we do this, we gotta do it right." Sam turned to Jazz, "mind if we lay down some ground rules?"

"Not at all."

"To keep things interesting, everyone is allowed two passes if they get asked something they really, really don't want to answer or do, but you have to do at least one dare."

"And tell at least one truth too!" Jazz added. "Just so someone isn't only doing dares."

"Well of course." Sam smiled. "Are we in agreement?"

"I can live with that," Tucker smirked as he kicked back on the sofa.

Danny was the only one hesitating, but quickly agreed once he realized he was the odd man out.

"So, who goes first?" Jazz asked looking around the group.

"Well it was your idea." Sam took another sip of her drink, "show us how it's done."

"Alright," she turned to her brother, "Danny, Truth or Dare?"

"What?" He sighed and leaned back into the sofa hugging a pillow embroidered with the phrase, ‘home is where the haunt is’, "Fine, dare."

Both Sam and Tucker oh'd and ah'd playfully.

Jazz blinked in surprise, having seriously expected him to hold out on dare's until he absolutely had to.

"If you need any help, I've got a few ideas." Sam casually whispered as she leaned in towards Jazz.

"No, no, I'll think of something." Jazz looked around the room until an idea struck her. "I got it!"

The trio perked up with various levels of anticipation and curiosity.

"Danny, remember that show we used to watch as kids? The one we rented from the video store so many times that they finally just gave it to us?"

Danny nodded, "What about it?"

"You remember her catchphrase?"

He smiled at the memory, "of course, how could I forget? It was only in every episode."

"Then that's my dare! You gotta recite the catchphrase." She paused and then added, "but you have to do the whole thing. Like when we were kids."

"The whole thing!" He asked incredulously.

"Well it wouldn't be a particularly good dare if it wasn't. But if you really don't want to you can always pass… and have to hope Sam or Tucker don’t have a worse dare." Jazz ended with a devious smirk.

Danny flopped back against the couch with a resounding sigh of defeat. "Ugh, fine I'll do it."

He hopped up off the couch and scrambled over the coffee table almost tripping on it in the process. Luckily, his back foot went intangible and easily passed through.

Once he regained his balance, he kept his back to the couch, "okay just give me a second and don't say anything until I'm done."

Jazz clapped happily nodding in agreement, as Danny looked over his shoulder at her.

"Do you know what this is?" Sam asked Tucker only to get a shrug in response as Jazz excitedly hushed them.

Danny took a deep breath before spinning on his heel and launching right into the quote, "I am Sailor Moon, the champion of justice! And I say on behalf of the moon: I shall right wrongs and triumph over evil! And that means you!"

But it wasn't just a quote, it was the whole thing. He did the entire choreographed sequence and ended on the infamous pose.

And he did it perfectly.

Chapter Text

Danny sighed as he tried to concentrate on his history book. He was supposed to be silently reading chapter nine section five like the rest of his class, but he couldn't focus on that while his neck was hurting this much.

He could feel the tenderness of the incoming bruises across his collar bone. Why did so many ghosts insist on catching him by the throat? Sure, he might not need to breathe as a ghost, but it was rude as heck.

Was it some sort of power move to catch such a narrow target? They sure would have a way easier time grabbing his big stupid feet.

Feet that were in need of some new shoes. Hopefully, he could just get the same shoes but bigger. He wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to these red Converse.

Wait, wasn't he supposed to be doing something? Crud, the reading assignment!

With the upcoming holiday weekend, Danny planned to do some much-needed ghost training. This time Jazz had asked to come, and he couldn't think of a reason not to.

"So, what are you going to focus on?" She asked as the two entered the lab.

"Well I have a bit of a routine that Sam, Tucker, and I put together, but there's still one power that I haven't got a handle on."

Jazz took a seat on the nearby stool, curiosity peaked.

It didn't take long to explain the duplication that he had seen Vlad do on multiple occasions, especially since she had seen it too. "But the last time I tried it all I could manage to do was more Lovecraftian than I was intending." He admitted still unable to shake the memory of seeing with that many eyes and reaching out with that many hands.

"Yikes. That sounds scary."

Danny shrugged, "I filed it under 'too spooky for kids’ parties', but may be good for pranks?"

"Danny!"

"I'm kidding!" He shifted into his ghost form with casual ease. "But seriously, you have any ideas on how to do it? I think I'm just not in the right headspace."

Jazz tapped her chin in thought, "maybe you're trying to do much at once. Try just one part and go from there."

After several hours, all Danny was able to do was get a second right hand to sprout out of his wrist. If he focused any harder he ended up with an eyeball in his palm, like some sort of Nintendo boss.

The evening was clear in terms of weather and ghost sightings. He decided to do one final lap of the city before calling it a night.

He lazily floated across the sky with his eyes to the stars, trusting that his ghost sense would warn him of any danger below.

His attention was pulled away from the night sky with a jolt as his ghost sense trailed past his lips. He looked down at the city below, currently much higher than he realized, and spotted a familiar flash of magenta. "Plasmius." The name forced its way out through gritted teeth.

Danny flew down to see what the old man was up to now, planning on keeping his distance to keep the element of surprise on his side. 

Unfortunately, Danny didn't notice the second Vlad until the dark glove of the older ghost forced its grip around his neck.

Dany gagged at the assault and tried to squirm free, but it was no use. 

"Ah, Daniel, just the boy I wanted to see." Vlad gloated as the first Vlad Danny had seen flew up behind Danny and held his hands behind his back. 

It was bad enough that Vlad got the jump on him, but to have done it with a duplicate after he had been spending so much time practicing. All that time and he wasn't even close.

He wanted to scream or at least punch that smug look off his face, but neither would work in his current position. 

He felt Vlad's grip shift as he tilted Danny's head up against his will. "What's the matter, boy? I haven't even done anything yet and you're already in a sour mood."

Danny gagged at Vlad's overly dramatic tone. Couldn't the fruitloop just go back to Wisconsin already and brood in the privacy of his own castle?

Something shifted in the back of Danny's throat at the action and he did his best to clear it. Unfortunately, being strangled made that difficult. Danny squirmed again hoping that the old man would just let him go already.

Vlad didn't and instead started to blather on about how he was so much better at everything, and how Danny should just surrender to him, and the usual garbage. 

It was the same as always so normally Danny would have started tuning him out regardless but that tickle in the back of his throat was getting worse.

It was starting to feel more like pressure, or like he was going to be sick. But he didn't feel sick. So what was that?

Something was moving its way up into his mouth. Making its way up the back of his throat until he finally felt it on the back of his teeth. 

He knew what it was instantly. 

He needed to deal with this as quickly as he could, he just had to get free first. He curled up and kicked the Vlad behind him hard with as much force and ectoplasm he could muster in such a short burst. Luckily, it was enough to disburse the duplicate leaving only the original in front of him, hand still firmly on his throat. 

Danny pulled as hard as he could trying to pry Vlad's stubborn fingers away while also trying not to gag on the thing that was still inside.

Vlad must have felt it, because he finally stopped talking. Danny pressed his lips together as tight as he could. He didn't want him to see, he couldn't know. 

Vlad was too curious and opened Danny's mouth, pried open his teeth and peered inside. 

Danny felt as it pulled its way up and over his tongue. How it slipped between his teeth and forced his jaws apart, reaching outward.

Vlad let go instantly and just stared at him. The shock and horror evident across his features.

Danny wasn't sure if he should apologize or be grateful. 

Sure, he hadn't meant for there to be a hand sticking out of his mouth, the arm starting somewhere halfway down his throat, but at least he was free now.

Chapter Text

After a disjointed tour by their exuberant host, which may or may not have ended with them opening a door at the bottom of a swimming pool, Danny found himself back in front of the main doors.

Tucker was enjoying looking at all the trinkets in the mess of a room that was basically a glorified junk drawer and Sam was so enthralled with the indoor ecosystem of the rainforest room that she had lost all of her previous mistrust.

Danny however, just stared out the little blue framed windows.

“You alright?” The Doctor asked as he walked up next to Danny.

“Yeah,” Danny smiled, “Just enjoying the view.”

“The views a lot better when the doors are open.” The Doctor cocked a clever grin as he made his way over.

“But isn’t that dangerous?”

“Not at all!” he swung open the door and Danny was surprised when he didn’t feel all the air in the room rush out into the vacuum of space. “See, perfectly safe.”

Danny stepped up until the tips of his sneakers hung over the threshold. He could feel gravity weakening and craved that floating feeling, his eyes hungry for the expanse before him.

Almost overwhelmed by what was before him Danny couldn’t help but ask The Doctor about the names of all the stars and planets that he could see. Eagerly pointing from one to the next, trying to absorb as much astral knowledge as possible.

After he had exhausted all the questions about the viewable space did The Doctor asked a question of his own, “Danny I have a question, or possibly a few, that I’ve been meaning to ask.”

“About what?” Danny turned slightly to acknowledge The Doctor, but couldn’t quite bring himself to turn away from the stars just yet.

“Well your friends seem to be very human,” he started.

“That’s because they are.”

“Right, but what does that make you?”

Danny spun around at the accusation, “I’m human.” he immediately replied.

The Doctor simply asked, “And?”

“And.” Danny echoed taken aback by the bluntness of the question.

“And you’re floating with a considerable amount of control for a human in the vacuum of space with no equipment.”

Danny froze as his eyes slowly drifted downwards to see he was in fact several feet outside of the safety of the ship. “I-I can explain.” He stammered.

“I certainly hope so.” The look in The Doctor’s eyes was hard to read. He didn’t seem to be angry at Danny, simply curious, ready to understand. It also showed a hint of danger, warning not to lie. 

Danny sighed and touched back down to the threshold. He was in a spaceship, talking to an alien about how human he was. “Before I explain, there are a few things we should get out of the way first.”

“Alright.” The Doctor closed the doors of the TARDIS and they walked back to the center console.

“How are you in accepting impossibilities?”

“In all of my travels, I’ve seen plenty of impossible things. So much that maybe ‘impossible’ isn’t as impossible as they say.”

Danny nodded, this was a good start, “And what do you know about ghosts?”

“Not much more than most I would assume. Plenty of things pretending to be or having been mistaken as such, but I’ve never seen one before.” he paused and then looked deep into Danny’s eyes, “unless of course, I have?”

“Hi, my names Danny and up through my 14th birthday, I was just an ordinary human. Not too long after there was an accident, and for almost four years now I’ve been half-ghost.”

Chapter Text

Danny sat curled up on his bed, knees to his chest, with his back pressed against the headboard. He didn’t know how he was going to go to school tomorrow after what had happened.

He hardly knew what had happened himself.

How had he gone from ending his tutoring session with Wes to fight Skulker, to blathering like an idiot over a rock?

No, he knew how. He let himself get carried away, too swept up in his own excitement. Danny sighed and hugged his pillow even tighter, he must have sounded so stupid.

The knock on his door drew him out of his mental spiral, if only just.

"Hey Danny, it's me. Can I come in?" His sister asked.

Great, they told her, didn't they? "Go away Jazz."

"Come on Danny, I just want to talk."

"Isn't that all you ever want to do?" He grumbled.

Jazz took that as admittance and slipped inside. "I heard what happened."

"Figures." He huffed in defiance and turned invisible. If she insisted on talking it didn't mean she could stare.

"Danny." She chided, "why are you hiding?"

"Because I don't want you psychoanalyzing me."

She sat on the edge of his bed, "I just want to make sure you're okay."

He sighed and faded back into view. "I'm fine Jazz. I just-" he really didn't want to admit how embarrassed he felt.

"You just what?"

"I just can't believe I was such a dweeb in front of Wes of all people. He's gonna tell everyone what a big dork I am, and I'll never live it down."

"Oh, you're just embarrassed."

"Of course I am!" He blurted out then hesitated, what did she mean by just? "What were you thinking?"

"Nothing! I was just- it doesn't matter." She quickly composed herself before adding, "I'm sure it won't be as bad as you think. And besides, what's wrong with having interests?"

"Easy for you to say." He let the pillow fall out of his grip, "your interests make you sound smarter. I sound like a babbling five-year-old."

"You don't sound like a five-year-old." She started but he cut her off.

"I named a rock, Jazz. A chunk of the ground that just got caught up in my ghost energy or whatever and I claimed it as a planet and named it."

"Speaking of," she wrung her hands together nervously and Danny wasn't sure why. "Where is it?"

Danny shrugged, "don't know. It stopped hanging around when I changed back."

"Oh." Jazz was quiet for a moment, contemplating.

Danny hated being in the spotlight like this, he had to break the tension, "What?"

"You don't mind that it's gone?"

He shrugged. He really wasn't sure what to think of it. If anything, he didn't want to think about it at all. He wasn't sure he'd be able to get his head out of the clouds so easily next time.

Chapter Text

Maddie couldn’t stop pacing. She had tried to sit, she really had tried, but all this waiting, the not knowing, she couldn’t take it.

The four of them had been in the waiting room for what felt like years. It was only a few hours, but still much longer than she ever wanted to wait.

Just this morning she’d seen her children off to school, both happy and healthy. It was beyond surreal that she’d find herself in the hospital waiting room almost eight hours later as her son was fighting for his life.

At first, she was suspicious when Vlad appeared in the hospital with his own special team of doctors that he had somehow talked his way into letting them be the only ones to see to Danny. She knew about his infatuation with her but did her best to ignore it. She was also very aware of how close he tried to get to Danny, and how much her son didn’t like it.

If it were any other day she might have said something, but not today. Not after Jazz had described Danny’s condition, as best she could make it out through all her daughter’s tears.

Somehow the school’s new ghost defense system came with some horrible side effects, ones her son was paying for.

But why?

Knowing she wouldn’t find any answers here she decided to head to the school. They needed someone to clean up the mess anyway, it was a biohazard after all.

Mr. Lancer showed her the way and did little to fill the silent halls. He simply opened the door and let her inside the classroom, no fuss at all.

Even with the lights off, she could see it. The bright glowing splatter of ectoplasm. It covered the desk, slowly dripping in long viscus strands to join the puddle on the floor. There was a small trail that led out the door, probably from when they carried him out. She had noticed small samples as they had made their way to the classroom.

There was so much more than she was expecting.

Jazz said it had come out of him, out his nose, in bursts past his lips when he coughed. Her daughter said before he lost consciousness, he was crying it out as well.

She had heard of things like this happening before. It was usually just in old stories about seances, but it was possible.

She still didn’t expect this much.

How did he manage to have that much ectoplasm in his system and not show any signs of it? Or was that why all their inventions kept keying into him? With enough ecto-contamination maybe it could register as a small ghost?

But there was no way a person could possibly survive that.

Her mind conjured images of her baby boy in the hospital. Struggling to breathe as that putrid slime oozed its way out of his mouth.

She shook the image from her mind. She needed to collect these samples and she needed to trace where this particular strain came from.

If she could do that maybe she could find the answers she was looking for.

Chapter Text

Danny opened his eyes slowly and was slightly confused.

He jerked into full alertness when the memory hit him. The last thing he knew was coughing up ectoplasm in the back of his English class. So how did he get home?

A warm hand touched his arm and he turned to see Jazz was at his bedside. "Hey, it's okay little brother. You're safe."

He relaxed at her words, "What happened?" His voice came out surprisingly groggy.

"What do you remember?"

He recalled the events of that day, how he'd gotten so ill, and wasn't sure why. "Wait does everyone know?"

"They know you had a bad reaction to the school's ghost defense system, but you weren't the only one. Just the first."

Danny cocked his head in confusion, if it was ghost-related he understood why it affected him, but what did she mean first?

"The system was designed to purge any lingering ectoplasm from the building in the hopes that it would keep the ghosts at bay. Unfortunately, the building wasn't the problem."

Danny pulled his legs closer as Jazz explained further.

"It turns out that whenever a ghost overshadows someone trace amounts of ectoplasm is left behind in the person's system. And so many kids at school have been controlled by one ghost or another. Not to mention the ghost bug incident."

"So that happened to everyone?" Danny asked slightly horrified at the idea of the entire school having all that mess coming out of their faces.

"It varied from person to person. Some only had a little nosebleed, some cried it out. Sam and Tucker sure had a lot to cough up, but I just had a headache and it came out my ears, got all in my hair. Super gross. So they had to send everyone home, closed school for a week. You definitely had it the worse."

"How bad was it?"

"You went to the hospital, Danny. Vlad swooped in with his specialist, but you were still there for a day. We brought you home last night."

Danny was quiet for a moment. He'd never been exposed to something like that before.

"And Danny I don't want to rush you, but Mom and Dad are going to want to see you now that you're awake. Are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." He shrugged.

"Okay. Well, they might have some questions. Mom definitely has questions. Once they figured out why it was happening, I think Dad was quick to dismiss your case and lump you in with everyone else, but Mom's been oddly quiet."

"Which means she's thinking. Great. You don't think she knows, do you?"

"Doubt it. Unless she thinks it's even remotely possible, but she might have her own theories."

Danny nodded wondering if now was finally the right time to tell them the truth.

"If you want, I can stay here with you." Then as if she could read his mind, "in case you wanted to tell them."

Danny shook his head, "It's fine. I'll take my chances that they won't ask any hard-hitting questions right away."

Jazz nodded and left to get their parents.

As he waited, he decided to hold back on saying anything about his ghost side. He figured it would be better to see where they were first, maybe that would be easier.

His dad was beyond excited to see him awake. "Hey, there's my boy! Look and the color is back on his face too! Knew no ghost could keep my boy down! We Fenton's are just too tough."

"Now Jack, it wasn't a full ghost. Just the lingering remains clinging to him."

"Yeah. You think we should do our house like they did the school? That place was like a sauna, really cleans you out good!"

Danny couldn't help the small audible squeak that passed his lips, "please no."

Whether his mom heard him or not he wasn't sure, but she still rejected the idea, "You know how much I distrust the sort of things they used. It's too many variables and is in no way scientific. We can work on a purifier for that room off the lab, but there's no need to coat the whole house in magic."

Danny sighed then realized something about what his Dad said was off, "Did you guys go in there?"

"Of course sweetie, we had to clean up the school and we're the only ones qualified to handle such hazardous materials. And your father wanted to see how it affected himself, so he spent the night there last night."

"And you're okay?" Danny asked hesitantly, surprised by his Dad's boldness.

"Right as rain Dan-o!"

Maddie turned to Jack, placing a gentle hand on his arm, "Jack dear, why don't you go down and make Danny some soup. He hasn't eaten since yesterday."

Jack was quick to oblige and ran off leaving Danny alone with his mom.

She was quiet as she pulled up his desk chair next to the bed. "Danny did Jazz explain what happened." He nodded and she continued, "Good, because your father and I have been documenting this," she hesitated, "phenomena and I needed to ask you a few questions. Just so we have all the data."

Danny picked a loose thread in his comforter instead of looking at her.

"You got infected with that ghost bug like your sister, right?"

Danny couldn't hide his surprise as that was the question she had started with. "Uh," technically no, but he did pretend. "Yeah?" Where was she going with this?

"And what was your symptom?"

"I," what had he faked again? Oh right, "invisibility."

"But you didn't get quarantined immediately, why was that?"

He didn't realize she noticed that, "I actually had Tucker carry me there, I guess no one noticed me at first. Because, you know, invisible." He shrugged hoping that was good enough.

"Oh sweetie I'm sorry."

"It's okay Mom." If he was honest, sometimes it was just easier to be invisible.

"Okay, well I guess my other question is have you ever been overshadowed?"

"No."

"Are you sure? There hasn't been a time when you had gaps in your memory or hadn't felt like yourself?"

"I- actually yes. Did I tell you I had to switch lockers earlier this year?" With her curiosity piqued he continued, "Yeah, a ghost broke my locker, so I had to move. The thing is the locker I moved to had this rumor attached to it. I didn't believe it at first. I was wrong."

Danny sighed at the memory of how his pettiness got him trapped in the first place.

"The locker was haunted and the ghost, well he got mad at me and decided I needed to be punished. He took over my body by pushing me out and with no place else to go I got trapped in his former confinement. A mirror inside the locker. I'm just glad that I was able to get Sam and Tucker's attention. It took 50 years for Sydney to free himself and I really didn't want to wait that long."

"The ghost evicted you from your own body?"

"Yeah?"

"How long after the accident was it?"

"I don't know. About a month and a half maybe."

She pulled him into a tight hug, "No wonder you were hit so hard. I figured the lab accident must have left you with some residual ectoplasm, but you seemed fine.” She pulled back and held his face in her hands, her eyes searching, “You didn't get ecto-acne like Vlad did, so I figured you didn't have any direct contact. Oh and to be so viciously possessed so soon afterward…" she didn't finish her sentence, only hugged him more.

He didn't correct her. He simply hugged her back.

Chapter Text

“Hey, birthday boy!”

Danny turned from his locker, “Sam, my birthday was three weeks ago. Remember? We went to the bowling alley? The one at your house."

“Of course I remember that. I meant your other birthday.”

“Other?”

“Yeah, the one that was a year ago today.” 

Danny just blinked, his face blank as his mind.

Sam rolled her eyes, "Seriously? Fine, I'll put it another way, it's Phantom's birthday."

"That's today? Wow, I guess it really has been a year hasn't it."

"So did you wanna celebrate? I was thinking movie marathon at my place. We could watch all the Ghostbusters movies and laugh at what they got wrong."

Danny chuckled, "Sure sounds great." Then Danny remembered, "oh wait I'm supposed to help my Dad with something in the lab today."

"That's okay, just come over after."

"You sure?"

"Of course. Tucker and I can entertain ourselves." Then she smirked devilishly, "and if you take too long, we can just summon you with a Ouija board."

"Sam!"

"I'm kidding!" She waved him off, then paused. "Unless?"

After it had been pointed out, Danny felt pretty clueless for not noticing it before. He'd been feeling jittery and on edge all morning but hadn't been able to connect the dots.

Or at least he hoped that's why he was feeling that way.

Sitting in the back of Biology he couldn't keep his leg from bouncing with nervous energy. He tried to focus his attention on something else, anything else. Since he failed this class last semester, he couldn't just chat with his friends. They had passed just fine.

In the front of the room, the teacher had one of those cheesy plasma balls. It was on today, which meant Mr. Harrison was in a good mood.

Danny stared at the ball. Watching as the arcs of electricity danced wildly. Of course it was green. Why did it have to be green?

"Danny?"

Despite the softness of the voice Danny nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Oh geez, I'm sorry."

He turned to see an apologetic Valerie before relaxing enough to release his death grip on his desk.

"I was going to ask if you were okay." She said as she slid into the seat next to him.

"Was?"

"Clearly you aren't. See you already got the jimmy leg going again." She pointed to his bouncing right leg.

"What?" He haplessly tried to push it back down, "No, I'm fine."

"Danny you're a terrible liar."

He sighed, how could he still be so bad? He's had this huge secret for a year now and somehow he'd been lucky enough not to out himself. He slumped in his seat. "Alright fine."

"Did you wanna talk about it?"

"I-" he hesitated, eyes flicking back to the front of the room, "I wouldn't want to ruin Mr. Harrison's good mood." He finished quickly just as the teacher addressed the room.

A few minutes into class a note bounced onto Danny's desk. Careful to not draw attention to himself he opened it.

'That wasn't an answer,' was all the note said.

Danny looked over to Valerie, guessing she had sent it. He sent her a questioning look.

She just looked at the note more intently, silently egging him on.

Danny caved and picked up his pencil. 'It's just some nervous energy.' He replied then folded the note and passed it back under the guise of a stretch.

She quickly opened it, then frowned. She scribbled her message and slipped it back to him. 'That much was obvious. But why?'

'Idk.' Then he scribbled that out and wrote a better, truer answer. 'It's the anniversary of my lab accident.' He looked over his reply and steeled himself as he passed it off.

He didn't look to see her reaction.

The note slipped back into view with a simple 'you ok?'

He thought about that for a moment, hopefully not a moment too long, 'I will be.'

He passed it back one final time with a silent ‘thanks’.

The rest of the school day passed without much incident.

Although there was one odd encounter with the Box Ghost. It was between passing periods, so Danny was able to slip into the supply room where he was.

Danny didn't even bother transforming once he saw who he was up against. "Boxy? I thought we agreed you wouldn't come during school hours?"

"I am the Box Ghost and I-!" He started out with his normal bravado but stopped short. "I was just looking." The ghost fidgeted then took an empty box before flying off.

Danny shrugged it off and went to his next class.

Ever since he stopped taking his aggression out on poor Boxy it was really easy to set boundaries. For his good behavior, Danny had given all the empty boxes from his birthday. Of course he still had slip-ups like today, but it was better.

Once he was home, he dropped his bag by the door hoping that whatever his Dad wanted to do wouldn't take too long.

As he descended the stairs, he was surprised by how quiet the lab was.

"Dad?" He called, suddenly very wary.

"Hey there son, how was school?" His father cheerfully greeted.

It was then that Danny saw why it was so quiet. The usual constant hum of the portal was silenced. The blast doors were open, yet the green light was absent. "Why is the portal off?"

"Well, your mother and I just finished our research paper on this old beauty and realized that we still needed to run a second trial."

"Oh?" Danny stopped about halfway into the room, he ran his fingers along the hem of his shirt to keep from rubbing the back of his neck. "So what do you need me here for?"

“I was hoping you could be a second pair of eyes. I reset everything to how it was based on the photos we took and the calculations in our notes, but I need to be sure.”

Danny took a few tentative steps forward, he had no idea what all the dials and sensors had been set to. He honestly never looked at any of that, even when the thing was working. There was only one thing that really needed to be checked by him.

The button inside the machine.

He found himself standing in the archway, feeling like he was on the edge of a cliff. He squinted into the dark tunnel. The button was still pressed in, his Dad must not have gone inside. “Looks good from here.”

“Alright, then let’s do this thing!” Jack exclaimed proudly holding each end of the power cords.

Danny quickly scrambled back and used his Dad’s body as a shield seeing as he was the only one wearing protective gear.

He gave Danny a quick wink before jamming the two ends together.

A bright flash of electricity burst inside the portal followed by a horrid shrieking howl. Then the familiar green swirl filled the borders of the portal. The hum of the portal reverberated throughout the room and Danny exhaled.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been holding his breath, but he was glad it was over.

Chapter Text

Maddie couldn't stop thinking about what Danny had told her. Not only had a ghost possessed him, a feat she thought was only capable in horror movies once the act of Overshadowing came to light, but it was so intense.

He'd been pushed out of his body? His consciousness removed? How was that even possible?

Was that what would happen to anyone who got possessed or was it because of his ectoplasmic contamination? Was that just the specialty of that ghost?

But the thing that plagued her mind was worse than the implications of potential, worse than the theories about these monsters that she could cook up.

It was her worry about her son.

He seemed almost casual when regaling this horror story, practically blasé about the whole thing. Heck, he had apparently nearly forgotten all about it? How could something so intensely dramatic not leave a bigger mark on his psyche? It was almost like this wasn't the worst thing that ever happened to him.

Maddie froze. Not the worst thing? What could be worse?

What else hadn't he told her?

She had to know. If she couldn't get the information from the source, she'd do her research, someone had to know something right?

Maddie had started by asking her ever perceptive daughter. Surely she would notice if Danny was hiding things.

Jazz didn't reveal much. Other than saying that Danny did his best to clear out the second any ghosts showed up. She also promised to keep a closer eye on him.

Maddie just hoped she'd be able to catch anything before it got too bad.

Next Maddie waited until school was back in session, a few days in, to let the routine fall back into place before she continued her quest for knowledge.

She changed into her civilian clothes before making her way to the school, she wasn't here for ghosts.

Maddie knocked on the doorframe to Mr. Lancer's office and waited to be invited in.

"Ah, Mrs. Fenton. What do I owe the pleasure?"

"I was hoping to ask," she hesitated, not really sure how to put it without sounding like a bad mother, "to ask you about my son, Danny. Has he ever been attacked by a ghost at school? Been directly targeted?"

"Danny? Oh heavens no. He's always the first to run for cover. No idea where he hides, but it must be effective."

"Oh?"

"No one can ever seem to find him. Even his friends end up sputtering for answers."

"How often does this happen?"

"It'd be easier to ask how often it doesn't. The ghost attacks on the school are almost daily." He paused then gave her a concerning look, "I thought you of all people would know that."

"I- Right of course." Gosh was it really that bad? No wonder they resorted to magic to try and protect themselves. Not that it did them any good.

"Then again, now that you bring it up. Danny isn't always just the first to leave. It's more than that." Mr. Lancer gasped, "Wuthering Heights! I think he tends to leave before the ghosts show up! I don't know how I didn't notice it before. I'll have to confer with the rest of the staff to be sure, but gosh if that's true he's like some sort of human ghost alert system."

"That reminds me I have something I need to do at home." She fibbed before ducking out of the office.

Her mind raced as she sped home. If Lancer was right, she'd need to test it.

The plan itself wasn't complicated. The hard part was setting up the pieces first. She checked her watch and waited.

Danny was surprisingly quiet as he entered, if she wasn't actively watching he would have just slipped by completely. When did he get so sneaky?

"Hi honey, how was school?" She called from the kitchen making sure she was loud enough.

"Fine, I guess." He shrugged as he made his way towards the fridge.

With him distracted she held up her hand and used her fingers to countdown from 5. Her eyes watched Danny intently the whole time.

He was still rummaging around for food when he abruptly stopped, his body went ridged with a gasp. Quickly pulling his head out and slammed the door. "Gotta go!"

"Danny, wait!" She easily outran him and blocked his path. "Where are you going?"

"Bathroom," he blurted out, "geez can't a guy go to the bathroom in his own house?"

Well, he was definitely getting better at lying, still bad, but better. "Danny you don't have to hide. Your Dad can handle it."

"Handle what?" He asked but his attention was clearly split. His need to flee apparent in his fidgeting posture.

"The ghost. It's just a small one."

"Ghost? What ghost? Who said anything about a ghost?"

She placed a hand on his shoulder, "Sweetie it's okay. I know."

"Know? Know what exactly?" He asked, pulling back half a step.

"That you're psychic. I just don't understand why you thought you needed to hide it."

"Psychic? I'm not psychic." He denied.

"Then what do you call it?"

Danny was beyond exasperated, "What are you talking about?"

She sighed and urged him to sit down. After some reluctance he relented. "I had a hunch and needed to test it.” She started, “Your father is outside, behind the fence, he released one of the samples."

"You released a ghost outside? On purpose? Why?"

"To see your reaction."

It only took a moment for Danny to catch on. "My ghost sense?"

"Is that what you call it?" That was so precious, he must have named it so it didn't seem so scary. "So how does it work?"

He gave a noncommittal, "I dunno." He leaned back in his chair, "and I don't get why you think that makes me psychic."

"You don't need to see or hear the ghost, and yet you are just aware that it's around. How is that not psychic? And does it only work on ghosts?"

"What else would it work on?" He asked, honestly confused.

"So it's not just a general danger sense." Maddie mused aloud.

"Don't think so." He looked away suddenly self-conscious, "so you're not mad?"

"Mad? Why would I be mad?"

"Because I lied."

"I can't say I'm happy about it, but I'm not mad at you."

"Just disappointed then." Danny slummed so deep into his chair that you could hardly call it sitting. Only his back touched the chair, his arms hung listlessly at his sides.

"No, I'm just confused. Why did you think you had to hide it in the first place?"

He sighed and pulled himself back up. "I don't know." He kept his gaze down at his hands, "At first I didn't understand it. I thought it would just go away if I ignored it. But it didn't. It got stronger," his eyes flicked up to her, watching for her reaction.

She did her best to show support, doing all she could to hide the hurt in her heart seeing him like this.

It worked and he continued, "I haven't really tested it. Not scientifically. It starts with this feeling, like I’m not alone. Then I get cold and see my breath. It always points me in the right direction."

"Away from the dangerous ghost?"

"No. Always towards it."

She wanted to question that, but he stood up abruptly and stared out the window.

"What was the ghost you released?" A visible white-blue mist escaped his lips as he spoke, slowly drifting up to the ceiling before making its way to the window. Just as he said it would.

"It was just a small one. A little animal looking one."

"Well, it's not alone now." He turned back to her and held out his hand, "let's go help Dad." He smiled despite the mist in his mouth. The courage he was showing her filled her with a level of pride she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to verbalize. 

So she took his hand instead.

Chapter Text

Today sucked. It was definitely an 'if it could go wrong, it did' type of day. He knew there was a word for that, but he was too pissed off to care.

He slammed the front door closed and threw his backpack on the couch with enough force to make it wobble. He marched towards the lab and made his way downstairs, he figured a nice stint in the ghost zone to pummel some dumb ectopie would help. Heck maybe he'd just go pick a fight with Johnny and his shadow, they were decent opponents. That or just find The Box Ghost.

Danny stopped short when he found his mom in the lab. Crud, he couldn't fly off into the Zone with her in the room.

"Oh hi, honey. How was school?" His mom asked before he could sneak back upstairs.

"Fine." He spat really not in the mood to talk, already going back up the way he came.

"Now wait just a minute." His mom set down her clipboard. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing! Can I go?"

"You're the one who came down here stomping up a storm."

Why did she choose today to be observant?

She easily closed the distance between them and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Oh sweetie, you're so tense."

He felt her eyes on him and he hated it. He didn't come down here to be examined, he wanted to punch something. His fists clenched reflexively.

"Follow me."

Danny relaxed slightly purely out of confusion but did as he was told. He followed her through the doorway that led towards a few offshoot rooms that weren't part of the lab. Past the storeroom where they kept their holiday decorations and seasonal clothes, past the laundry room, past the weapons vault, past the cursed objects room that Danny kept forgetting about for some reason, all the way to the last room at the end of the hall.

His mother's home gym.

The space was open, the floor covered in gym mats while half resembled a dojo the other half was a normal gym.

The dojo side held a large case showing off all her trophies and colored belts she had earned, along with her training uniform and most current black belt.

The gym side had a few machines and a rack of dumbbells and resistance bands.

But something else held his attention more.

"Why'd you bring me in here?" He finally asked, still staring.

"I've been meaning to for a while now." She walked towards the one piece of equipment that he'd been eyeing, "You're getting older and that means you're going through changes."

Danny groaned in embarrassment, was she really going to lecture him about puberty?

"Now Danny, what you're going through is perfectly normal. I just want to make sure you have a healthy way to channel it. You can't just carry all that anger around with you." She took his balled-up fist in her hands, "Trust me, holding on to all that only makes it worse. A person can only hold so much before they burst."

She gave his hand a tight squeeze before turning back towards the task at hand, "So whenever you feel like this, whenever you need to, I want you to come down here and take it out on Ol' Blue, alright?" She gave a pat to the big blue punching bag beside her. "But first I've got to show you proper form. Can't have you hurting yourself."

She gave a quick tutorial and once she was satisfied with his technique, she gripped the bag from behind and gave him the green light.

Twenty minutes later Danny was exhausted. He was covered in sweat, his arms felt like wet spaghetti, and yet he'd never felt better. For the first time in a long time, he truly felt alive.

Chapter Text

Even in a world full of superheroes and supervillains, Danny was weird.

At first, it was because they didn't know what his quirk even was.

He had first been labeled with a vocal quirk because throughout his infancy whenever he cried, he shattered glass. There was also the time when he was four years old, he screamed so loud when the doctor gave him a shot that he ruptured one of his Dad's eardrums and gave the doctor and both his parents’ tinnitus.

When he was five his sister lost him during a game of Hide and Seek. It took hours to find him and even longer to understand how he had done it. It was worse when they lost him outside. One second he'd be there, and the next he was gone. It took weeks to finally catch it on film, him clearly disappearing.

The doctors were stumped, how could a single person have a sonic scream and invisibility? It had to be a subset of his true quirk. But what did those two things have in common?

Then he got to school and became very clumsy. He insisted he wasn't doing it on purpose, that he wasn't dropping anything, that things were falling through him.

The Fenton's were besides themselves with worry. No one in their family had quirks this intricate. They did everything they could to keep their boy safe. They spent so much of their time finding ways to Danny-proof the house.

It got even harder when he started to float.

The best the doctors could figure was that his quirk was unstable, only half-formed. They suggested that he try to repress it before he got himself hurt.

It wasn't until he was almost 14 that a simple conversation with his friends, that they realized what it was.

He had a ghost quirk. His abilities finally made sense.

But he was still weird.

Chapter Text

Jack beamed at his newest invention. Maddie had finished up the final soldering last night and insisted that he at least wait until the morning before testing it.

He wasn't the best at being patient, but he did his best. He waited until the kids were up before running into the lab to fetch it. It was like Christmas morning finally having it in his hands.

"Is that new?" His son asked, eyeing the fresh invention.

"You betcha!" Jack loved it whenever anyone showed interest in his work, but it was ten-fold when it came to his children.

"So what does it do?"

"Glad you asked!" Jack held up the device, it was around the size of the Fenton Finder and its design lay somewhere between a handgun and a taser, but its use was purely for research. "This baby uses a high current of ectoplasmic electricity to stun a ghost into submission."

"So a ghost taser?" Jazz asked with a skeptical brow raise. “I thought you were working on non-lethal tech.”

"Now Jazzy-pants, you can’t kill something that’s already dead. Besides, its main purpose is to get them to divulge their obsession."

In an act of, admittedly, carelessness, Jack accidentally pulled the trigger.

He of course wasn't aiming it at anyone. He knew better than that, but the metallic kitchen table wasn't any better.

Jazz was safely at the kitchen counter, having just put a box of cereal away when Jack had entered the room, Jack was still standing, and Maddie was sleeping in this morning.

Danny on the other hand, was at the table, where his poor table manners betrayed him. As the current made its way to the connection point of his elbow his arm jerked forward and slammed down hard against the metal of the table. The spoon in his other hand was being held in the tightest of death grips.

Jack was horrified by the rigid form of his son but then was taken aback when he started to speak.

"I… I…" he stammered through the convulsions, "need to… n-need…" He winced before squeaking out, "help."

Jack fumbled with his device trying to remember if there was an off switch or not.

"Space." He heaved through labored breaths, "W-want to. N-need t-to." 

The machine ran its course and he went limp, collapsing out of the chair in a heap.

Jazz rushed to his aid, carefully propping him up on her knees and lightly brushing his hair out of his eyes. "Hey Little Brother, can you hear me? You okay?"

Danny's eyes fluttered open. His words came out in a slurred soup, "Well that sure was a shocking turn of events."

"Danny no." Jazz sighed. “Now really isn’t the best time for puns.”

“You know me. Everybody’s favorite joking cope-ster.” 

“I think you said that wrong.” Jazz gave her dad a worried look.

Jack set down his invention and carefully picked up his son. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s k.” Danny’s voice came out in more of a slur than Jack would have liked. If he hadn’t been a witness, he would have thought he was drunk.

He hadn't noticed the slight tremors that occasionally ran through his son's lithe frame until he held him. "Let's lay you down somewhere more comfortable."

"M'kay," Danny agreed, resting his head against his father's shoulder.

Cradling the boy in his arms was an incredibly easy task. He must be ninety pounds soaking wet. "Geez, how are you so light? You got a hollow leg or something?" Jack teased, figuring it would be easier on Danny to keep things light.

Danny smiled sleepily, "Nah, just a secret half. Uses up a bunch of my energy, but it's cool. We have a symbiotic relationship."

"Well, that's a new one." Jack chuckled. At least Danny was aware enough to be creative.

Jazz had followed them up the stairs and squeezed past to open Danny's door. Jack tucked him into bed and gently pried the spoon from Danny's grip. "I'll clean up the kitchen and let your mother know, can you stay with him?"

"Of course." Jazz smiled sympathetically, "it's okay dad, it was an accident."

He nodded knowing it was true.

It didn't stop the guilt.

Chapter Text

Having worked the night shift for the last five years, Tina had seen her fair share of weirdos. Being that the Nasty Burger was the only 24-hour establishment, it was the only place they had to go.

But then ghosts became a thing. Or, she supposed, they always were a thing.

With the supernatural presence of the undead amplified by the late hour, even her regulars started reconsidering leaving the safety of their homes.

A new normal eventually emerged and the night shift was mostly for late-night travelers and the occasional delinquent high schooler.

Tina didn't really mind and found the quiet comforting.

One night, around 3 AM, she had a sinking feeling that she wasn't alone. She looked up from the counter she was cleaning and saw the local ghost hero, Phantom, floating in the back corner booth.

Curious, she grabbed a menu and walked over. "Hello there. Can I get you anything?" She asked as if he were any other customer.

He looked up, and she was surprised to see the bags under his eyes, "A chocolate milkshake, please."

"Sure thing, sweetheart." She hadn't expected that, but didn't see any harm in filling the order. "Did you want whip cream?"

He nodded sleepily.

It was weird seeing him up close. He was usually just a black and white blur flying past or just a speck among the clouds. With him so close she could tell why all the local kids liked him so much. He looked like them, if you ignored the space suit thing he wore. He looked so alive. 

He was so young it was hard not to pity him, a life cut short so soon.

She slid the fresh milkshake across the table, "I'd say drink it before it melts, but I don't think you'll have much of a problem with that." She teased.

He gave her a confused look as he reached for the glass, then noticed his hand and laughed nervously, "Oh crud, I forgot I was a ghost."

"That happen often?" She asked as she handed him a straw from her apron pouch.

"No, just tired." He phased the straw right out of the paper sleeve and dunked it into his treat.

"Didn't know ghosts could get tired."

He shrugged and took a sip, his aura flickering a bit brighter as he smiled.

She couldn't help but smile as he enjoyed such a simple pleasure. "Just holler if you need anything." She jerked her thumb towards the counter, "I just gotta reset the condiments before the morning shift, so I'll be right over there."

He nodded and accidentally got a dollop of whipped cream on his chin.

She tapped her chin to signal his mistake and he chuckled and a slight green blush spread across his cheeks as he wiped it away.

That was the first time the ghost kid came into the diner. It wasn't the last.

Chapter Text

Valerie probably should have seen this coming. And yet here she was, practically nose to nose with Danny locked in Paulina's dress closet.

This culmination of events started at school during lunch hour. Paulina stopped by her table and invited her to a party. Supposedly it was going to be the party of the year and she wanted everyone there.

At first, Valerie turned it down, she knew Paulina didn't care about her and she didn't want a pity invite, but she insisted. "Look I'm sorry we kicked you out of the group. That was really shitty of us. But I," she fidgeted with the flyers in her hands, "I miss having you around."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but if the feeling isn't mutual, I guess you don't have to come."

Valerie sighed, "I'll see if I can get the night off." She actually already had the day off from the Nasty Burger, but she wasn't sure she was ready to commit just yet.

Later that day she overheard Danny and Sam loudly disagreeing.

"Is it really such a big deal that I want a normal high school experience?"

"That's not what I'm saying, Danny."

"Then what Sam?"

"You know she's just using you to get to her precious ghost boy. She's not actually inviting you."

"Technically, yeah she is! And so what, I go to the party and have some fun for once? Not seeing how this is the crime of the century?"

"God, why are you always so stubborn?"

"Could ask you the same thing." He replied harshly.

Sam glared, "Fine. Go to the stupid party. I don't care! But don't be surprised that I'm not there!" She stormed off the heavy clunking of her combat boots only accentuated the action.

Danny sighed and pulled out the flyer from his pocket.

"You got invited too?" She asked as if she hadn't heard the fight.

"Yeah, but maybe Sam's right."

"About what?"

He gave her a wry look, "I know you heard that."

She shrugged, "Didn't want to butt in." She held her tongue for a beat before adding, "but if you want my advice, I say go. You always look so run down. You deserve a night out."

"Yeah?" He went from a look of needing approval to pure determination, "Yeah, you're right! I do deserve it!"

It took a lot of self-control not to melt when she saw that spark in his eyes, "Plus I'll be there."

She almost regretted the obvious flirtation, almost.

Unlike her, Danny wore his heart on his sleeve. He blushed immediately and fell into that cute habit of rubbing the back of his neck. "Really? That's cool." He stammered, obviously trying to be nonchalant but failing.

Hours later, the party is in full swing. She may or may not have mentioned that she was glad Danny had been invited, even if he hadn't arrived yet.

This of course delighted both Star and Paulina. Those two loved the drama of romance, specifically other peoples.

Despite her protests, the girls were determined to hook the two back up. Even more so when she said that they had hardly been together in the first place.

So once Danny arrived, Paulina announced that they were going to play a game. One bottle spin later, she and Danny are locked in Paulina's overstuffed closet for the next seven minutes.

Valerie had pushed back against the far wall, but Danny was awkwardly cramped between trying not to touch Paulina's clothes and not breaking the invisible barrier of Valerie's personal space.

"You can come closer if you want. I don't bite."

"You sure?"

"Oh just come here." She grabbed his forearm and yanked him forward.

He was a lot lighter than she was expecting, and he crashed right into her chest.

She felt the warmth of his face through her shirt, but also the coiled tension in his arms. When did he get muscles?

He popped up immediately and locked eyes with her as if staring at anything else wasn't allowed. "I am so sorry."

"Don't be. It's my fault. Besides," she ran her hand up his arm towards his shoulder, "I'm more interested in these biceps." She traced her finger around the muscle in question, "when did you start working out?"

"Boxing." He blurted out.

"What?"

"I mean recently. My mom's training me. To box."

"Why, self-defense?"

"No. I mean, I guess also that."

He still hasn't moved, his face was so close to hers that she could see that he had a light trail of freckles across the bridge of his nose. How had she not noticed that before?

He sighed when he noticed she didn't reply. "It's more for anger management." He admitted.

"You get mad a lot?"

"Not really. It's just when I do, it's kind of,” He hesitated, “intense."

She was surprised at first, she really never saw him get mad. 

But then again, it made sense. He was such a people pleaser, always bending over backward to help, that he must just bottle it up all his negativity just to keep everyone else happy.

She knew all too well what it was like to be so full of anger and not have anywhere to put it. "I know the feeling."

They were still just inches from each other, so tantalizingly close that she could hardly stand it.

"I-" they both started simultaneously.

"Sorry. You first." He relented.

She smirked, "I was just gonna say that I missed you." And she did.

She still regretted breaking things off. Maybe she should have tried harder. Maybe he wasn't as defenseless as she once thought.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Then a devious part of her took over, "We still have like 5 minutes, right?"

"I think so. Why?"

She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him in.

It took about half a second for Danny to realize what was happening, and even less to reciprocate.

Chapter Text

Psychic? His mom figured out his ghost sense and went straight to psychic?

What bugged him more was, if that was the test, how did she know to test it? How did she find out about it?

Danny tried to push his questions aside as he opened the back gate, his mother close behind. They stepped into the alley to find his dad fighting off a small army of ghost rats.

Their toxic green fur bristled as they hissed. Each one did their best to try and bite Jack, but the thick jumpsuit didn't give way to the hordes of tiny teeth.

"Jack, why didn't you call for backup?" Maddie asked as her own ecto-gun whined in preparation.

"Oh hey hon, sorry, they just sort of popped up." He let down his guard a bit and turned to see Danny, "So it worked then?"

Seeing the opportunity, the largest of the rats set its beady red-eyed sights on Jack's throat. On impulse Danny punched the rat mid lunge, knocking it into the neighbor's trash cans. He held out his hand for his mom, "Blaster."

She didn't hesitate to place the cool metal gun in his hands and he easily knocked back the six closest rats in quick succession then frowned when he felt the gun start to overheat. Great, he was stuck in a fight with a gun that couldn't keep up. How the heck did his parents get anything done?

"Nice shooting, tex! Good to know you inherited your mother's great aim."

Danny chuckled back nervously. It definitely wasn't because of months of never-ending practice. "Video games." Maybe they'd buy that answer.

"Well, I guess we better have a game night later." His dad cheerfully exclaimed.

"Fight now, play later." Maddie chided as she daringly rolled in front of them to take out a few more rats with expert precision.

Danny bit his lip and purposely missed two easy shots, one too far forward and one just past the tail of another. He counted to three in his head before shooting the third right between the eyes.

It was bittersweet ghost fighting with his parents. Sure, it was nice he wasn't on the receiving end, but using only their equipment and having to react at what felt like half speed really drilled in how important his ghost side was. If he was on his own he could have cleaned this up easy, five minutes tops.

They were currently pushing the 20-minute mark.

"Mads, you got any spare reloads?"

She fished in her back pocket and held out a full cartridge, "I thought I reminded you to set your empties on the charger after our last outing?"

Danny took the cartridge and traded with his father's now empty one.

"I did. I just forgot to put them back in my pocket." He reloaded flawlessly and was quick to shoot again, even if he did miss.

Danny palmed the empty one and quickly hit the release on his own gun as an idea formed. He passed his mom his own nearly empty cartridge, then took a half step backward so he wouldn't be in his father's peripherals before focusing his attention on the empty cartridge in his hand. He really hoped this worked.

He focused on drawing out just a small portion of his ghost energy and poured it into the container. It hardly took any effort and he slipped the cartridge back in barely a second later.

He lined up his next shot. That huge rat had returned, and Danny had a feeling the fight would end with that one.

The rat king exploded in a glorious shower of ectoplasm. Unfortunately, so did the gun.

Danny was knocked back on his butt from the recoil and felt incredibly stupid for thinking that would actually work.

"Danny are you alright?" His mom popped up from her battle stance and rushed to his aid.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Sorry about the gun, didn't know it would explode." He shook his hand trying to get rid of the weird warm tingling sensation.

"It's fine Dann-o, we got plenty more where that came from." He clapped a hand on his shoulder as he holstered his blaster.

"Why do you think it's your fault?" His mom asked as she examined his hand.

Crud. He really didn't think that one through.

"Pulsed it!" He blurted once he remembered how he had come up with the idea in the first place. "In Doomed, there's this glitch that if you hit both trigger keys at the same time when you aren't dual-wielding the game thinks you're holding two guns in one hand and fires a shot that's twice as powerful. It's my favorite glitch because it doubles exponentially every time you use it! It's fantastic!" He shrugged and added, "That is of course as long as you don't use it past level nine. If you try it in level ten you get stuck in a reload loop and the only way out is death."

“But how did you know that would work with an ecto-gun?”

“Because of the double click trigger. The first click it charges and then you fire. I just double tapped it so it would overcharge.”

It didn’t seem like such a crazy leap in logic. Sure they didn’t have knowledge of the game, but still. He figured anyone with who knew both would be able to connect those dots. And he said as much to his parents.

“True. If I had known about your game, I might have considered that.” She paused and looked him deep in the eyes, “But you didn’t have prior knowledge of that weapon. You couldn’t have. It was a prototype.”

“Prototype? You mean that wasn’t just a regular one?”

“No, what made that one unique was the double-action trigger. I made it that way so it would be quicker and quieter. That gun didn’t make that distinctive power-up whine because it would only charge enough to fire each shot individually.” Maddie explained carefully. "Two actions per each trigger pull."

“Then how did you know?” Jack asked.

Now that she had mentioned it, none of the ecto-weaponry had that type of trigger, yet he knew that one did. Wow, maybe his mom really was on to something.

"Because I'm psychic."

Chapter Text

When Jazz first pointed it out, he wasn't exactly happy. Of course that only proved her point.

"See that's what I mean. You have to give yourself a break."

"And how do I do that?"

"Pause, count to ten, then look at the situation again. See if that first instinct was right, check if it's worth getting angry over."

Danny didn't think it would be that easy to just stop being angry, but he was willing to try. He didn't want to do anything he would regret, and with his powers, he could do a lot of damage.

It took some practice, but it sort of worked. It was mostly just holding himself back long enough for his stupid ideas to pass.

The counting soon became a source of irritation. It reminded him of math, which he was still failing. That only made him angry at all the ghosts that took him away from his studies, angry that he couldn't stay awake in class.

Angry that he wasn't getting better at this.

His sister suggested a change. "Then don't count. Maybe just list something you like, something that makes you happy and comes in multiples."

Danny smiled and knew exactly what to do. He'd count the moons of the solar system. List them by name.

At first, he'd just list Pluto's because five was usually enough. Sometimes he had to add in the pair from Mars's orbit.

On one particularly bad day, he got halfway through the list of Jupiter's moons before he felt the tension in his shoulders go down. He had been so close to just screaming, and that was dangerous.

After a while, he started listing them by size, or length of the orbit. Then he changed to listing off the constellations and naming their stars.

The new habit had more of an effect on him than he realized. 

At first it seemed like progress. He didn't get angry as often, he hardly got mad at all. And how could he be? He was usually only a degree or two of separation from thoughts about space. And space always made him happy.

His freckles came back. First, it was just his ghost form, the light green specs across his cheeks and nose making him glow even brighter than before.

It didn't take long for them to show up on his human half as well, luckily they didn’t glow and were a natural color. Tucker was the one to point out that they had clustered on his shoulders as well. He wondered if it was true in both forms.

His suit was the next place stars appeared, filling in the darkness with various pinpoints of light and swirls of green.

He was equally thankful for the current ghost that showed up so he could see this newest look, but also super annoyed that he had to deal with the ghost instead of enjoying it.

He didn't bother with the silly quips or jokes. The ghost didn't say much either.

The fight was quick, and he took the chance to really admire the galaxy that he wore. He turned to show his friends and was surprised they were already right next to him.

When did they sneak up on him?

How did they? With Sam's heavy boots and Tucker's overstuffed cargo pants, he could always hear them coming.

It took him a second to realize that Sam was talking to him. He saw her mouth move, but why was she being so quiet?

She paused and then moved her lips again, it looked like his name.

"What?" He asked.

Or at least he meant to. He felt his mouth move, but the sound… Where was the sound?

He reached for his ears. He wasn't hurt, was he? He hadn't hit his head recently. He wasn't bleeding.

Tucker waved a hand in his face to get his attention, panic rising in his chest. He mouthed something but Danny didn't know what. Tucker snapped his fingers and Danny froze.

Tucker smiled hopefully but Danny grabbed his wrist, pulling himself closer. Closing his eyes, he simply stated, "do it again."

He felt the movement of Tucker's fingers but there was nothing.

His grasp slipped as his hand dropped.

His friends must be asking so many questions. Questions he couldn't answer. Not just because he couldn't hear them, but because he didn't know the answer.

An icy tear ran down his face and the trail it left behind reminded him of a comet.

Then it hit him.

The most simple of space facts. The one everyone knew, even if movies forgot. It was the only thing that made this make sense.

He had merely adapted, like how moles are blind because they spend their whole life underground. Why waste energy on a sense that you didn't need.

His sardonic laugh at the realization must have been audible. His friends turned to him, mouths still moving for words he'd never know.

It was simple really. A basic fact.

"There's no sound in space."