Chapter Text
"Mister Fenton, a word, if you will?" The demand, phrased as a request, stopped Daniel Fenton in his tracks. He turned towards the school's vice-principal, who had stopped him before the fifteen-year-old could leave English. Danny looked up at the overworked teacher and tried to think of what reason he would have had to stop him.
I got my homework done in time today, and for once, the ghosts are leaving me alone. I don't think I fell asleep in any class...
A girl wearing all black and purple lipstick put a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Danny. Tucker and I can wait outside for you."
His two friends looked like complete opposites of each other. While the girl’s skin was extremely pale from avoiding the sun and the contrast from her dark clothes, his other friend had dark mocha-colored skin with splashes of bright clothing. He smiled and patted Danny on the back as he rushed out of the room. "Yeah, good luck, man!"
Danny smiled. "Thanks, Sam." Danny waited until his two friends - his only friends - at the school left the room. He then turned toward his teacher. "Can I help you with something, Mister Lancer?"
The teacher sighed. "Mister Fenton, to be frank, yes. The school talent show is coming up soon, and it seems that not enough students are interested in taking part."
Danny blinked. "Wait, what? Really? But Jazz made it sound like the talent show was one of the biggest things at this school."
"Yes, well," the man rubbed his balding head, trying to stave off a stress-induced headache. "That was before ghost attacks became a common event here."
Danny frowned, beginning to feel guilty. It was his fault that he fixed his parents' machine to view ghosts, and now they were coming out in droves. "Uh... no offense, Mister Lancer, but how is this any different from the school football games?"
Lancer raised an eyebrow. "Do you know what night the talent show is slated for?"
"Uhh... like a month from now?" Danny answered, wincing at his own indecision. Jazz was excited for the talent show this year, even if she wasn't going to be in it, and his parents were too. It's just when he spent every night fighting for his life to stop rampaging ghosts from attacking people, the school talent show didn't seem like even a real footnote in his life.
"Yes," Lancer said, narrowing his eyes and beginning to loom over Daniel. "April 30th. Do you know what else is on that night?"
Danny blinked. "Ah, no?"
"Hm... well, I hope you'll be able to answer the other history questions better when I'm grading those papers tonight," Lancer stated in disapproval. He let out a sigh. "It's Walpurgis night, which in German folklore was a night when witches would meet on a mountain to dance and sing with the devil himself. Ghost attacks are on the rise, and the school event happens to land on a pagan holiday. I know your math isn't great, but I think you can do this one."
Danny shifted his pack. "I'm trying, okay?" He folded his arms. "Why doesn't the school just change what night it's on?"
Lancer's shoulders fell, and his gaze went to the ground. "Mister Fenton, it may seem like us adults have all the power in the world, but there are things that make that difficult." He folded his hands behind his back. "The next night is a big sports event out of town, and it may surprise you that the constant damage from ghost attacks to this school doesn't just get magically fixed every time it happens. We have to pay for it. The school events, like our sports teams, and our talent show are paying for our school necessities, and-"
Danny straightened, and his shoulders went back. "What do you need, Mister Lancer?"
The vice-principal jumped at the confidence in Danny's voice. He looked into Daniel's eyes and smiled. "Well, Mister Fenton, what I need is another entrant in the school talent show, and if I'm allowed to give a little extra credit to our football players to make sure that they aren't suspended from football for their grades, I'm sure I can give you a little extra to bring your grades up a bit."
Danny broke out into a smile. "Really? That'd be awesome!" He frowned. "What kind of things go into the talent show? I don't feel like I really have any talent worth showing."
Mister Lancer put a hand on Danny's shoulder. "As long as it's not dangerous, anything goes. And I'm certain you have something to show." He squeezed Danny's shoulder and then let go. "You're a good kid, Mister Fenton. You agreed to help before I offered anything." The vice-principal walked over to the door and opened it, letting Danny's two friends fall into the room. "You three are free to go, and Mister Fenton, if you can get anyone else to sign up, I'm sure we can reach an agreement."
Danny's friends looked up from the ground, Sam waving from on top of Tucker. Tucker let out a groan as Sam shifted her weight off of him. He sat up slightly and adjusted his beret. "Danny, Mister Lancer, hey, funny thing these doors..."
"For our sake, I hope Tucker isn't planning on doing an acting gig," Lancer said, stepping around the teens.
The two of them stood up and looked at Danny. "Danny, what was that about?"
Danny groaned. "The school talent show is on a pagan holiday. Word apparently has gotten out, and everyone is worried about doing the talent show on the same night."
Sam folded her arms. "And this affects us how?"
"Mister Lancer asked me to volunteer. He said that it's a big deal and would help pay for the repairs from the ghost attacks..."
"He wants us, the certified weirdo trio of the school, to participate in the school talent show? That sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen," Sam stated dryly.
"Eh, probably should anyways," Tucker said, shrugging and pulling out his phone as he began to search the web. "Let's face it, there's a ninety percent chance that they're right a ghost is going to show up at the talent show, aaaaannndddd the odds just bumped to ninety-five."
Danny shrugged. "He also said I'd get some extra credit for it."
"Oh, was that what he was talking about with the agreement thing?" Sam said, raising an eyebrow. "Bribery?"
Danny smiled. "Hey, for once, it's in my favor. I'm all for it."
Tucker gave him a thumbs up. "Sounds good to me! So... what are we doing?"
Danny frowned. "I was hoping you'd have ideas."
Sam patted Danny on the shoulder. "I'm sure we can think of something. Come on, let's go get some food and brainstorm."
Danny stiffened, just barely, but his friends caught it. They gave him concerned glances. At a shake of his head, they relaxed. “Where do we want to grab food? There’s that vegan place on Peeves street?” The statement came out more as a question.
Sam smiled and gently nudged him with her hip. “You two took me there yesterday, I’m fine with Nasty Burger. Come on, I’ll buy you a heart attack combo.”
Danny chuckled weakly and rubbed the back of his head. "Okay, that sounds awesome. I've gotten a decent night's sleep and I'm ahead on my homework for a change." Today was going great.
Today was going terrible. The ghost known as Ember McLain was forced to hide from two men in white suits, a set of government-funded ghost hunters known as the Guys in White. They weren't great at their jobs, especially compared to the other ghost hunters in the town, but they were well funded and persistent in ways the others weren't.
The Red Huntress at least tried to avoid property damage, and if you knew where and when to fight her, she might have to run before she could do any real damage to you. The Fentons weren’t much easier to deal with. Jack Fenton may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he did have an instinct most didn't, and for every deficiency he had, his wife covered for it in triple. The woman was an absolute beast, and every ghost that haunted Amity Park knew not to mess with her if they could avoid it.
And the less said about the ghost turned local superhero, Danny Phantom, aka Danny Fenton, the better. The others had never captured any of the powerful ghosts such as Ember, but Danny Phantom had done it repeatedly.
Though it looks like those dipsticks are going to finally get a notch in their bedpost worth having, Ember thought to herself as she bit back a wince. She pressed a hand against her shoulder. Her shirt burnt and melted into the ectoplasm that comprised her body. Even though every bit of her was ectoplasm, it still, unfortunately for her right now, followed the rules that a normal body had to follow. Which meant a blindsiding shot from a laser, designed to make her skin burst like rotten fruit smashed against the ground, hurt like hell.
"Signal is coming from over here."
Ember jumped, and without thinking about it, took off to start flying. She kept low to the ground. Her old human nature was still kicking in and making her want to avoid flying directly at walls. She didn't know if she would have been capable of controlling herself to pull off the ghostly trick of intangibility anyways.
"There she is!" the other agent shouted.
Ember growled as lasers blasted all around her. One struck her leg, and she screamed as she came crashing down to the ground. She scrambled to her feet, or rather she tried to. She glanced down at her leg and saw the ectoplasm that substituted for her bones visible through her destroyed legs. She looked up and saw where she had landed.
A giant sign saying "Nasty Burger" loomed over her.
"There, we've downed her! Get the ecto containment devices!" Ember looked behind her and saw the two guys in white running up to her. One of them opened up what appeared to be a small thermos, and Ember couldn't help it.
"No! Get away from me!" she screamed as she attempted to crawl away from the hunters.
"No can do, no way we're letting ecto scum like you run free."
Ember turned to glare back at them. "I wasn't even doing anything! And I have a name! Use it!"
"That's what they all say. Let's bag it and tag it."
The next thing Ember knew was a world of white as she started getting sucked into the thermos. Almost nothing was visible outside the energy that was absorbing her. Through the diner's windows, she could barely make out the shapes of the humans watching her get captured, though she was able to see one pair of icy blue eyes.
Inside the diner, Danny stared out the window while talking to his friends. "I can't believe it. The Guys in White actually caught a ghost!"
Sam put a hand on Danny's shoulder, easily ignoring the chill that followed him. "I'm guessing we're going to have to put a pin in this brainstorming thing, huh?"
Danny turned to Sam and raised an eyebrow, ignoring the Guys in White as they gave themselves high fives. "What, why?"
Sam dragged him down back into sitting in the chair. "I thought you'd run off to go save her."
Danny blinked. "What? Why? She'd leave me there in a heartbeat."
Sam shrugged. "I mean, yeah, it's the Guys in White. They've probably got a whole list of experiments they want to run on her as they dissect her."
Tucker held up a finger. "Actually, it's vivisect. Dissect is for dead things, vivisect is when they're alive while you do it."
Sam glared at Tucker. "Really not helping, Tucker."
Tucker grumbled, "Well, I know someone who isn't going to be passing the vocab test next Tuesday."
Danny groaned. "Really, you guys are guilt-tripping me over this?"
Sam blinked. "What? No! I'm not trying to guilt-trip you! I don't know what they're going to do to her in there, and I don't want them doing that to you!"
Danny's forehead hit the table and he groaned loudly. He turned and looked toward the kitchen with a frown. "Dang it. I gotta go chase them down. I don't know where their base is."
Tucker tapped away at his phone. "It's the one outside of town off of I-94. They wouldn't risk the cops being called on their base while testing on one of the human-like ghosts in their base at the docks. Besides, nothing they've shipped to the dock site was for vivisection and experimentation."
Danny looked at Tucker without raising his head from the table. "You know where the secret government bases are in our town?"
Tucker looked up from his phone for a minute. "Yeah, you aren't the only one worried about what would happen if they caught a ghost and dragged them in there."
"Granted, we thought it would be us running in to save your clone, Ellie," Sam said with a shrug. "But hey, any chance to stick it to the man."
Tucker let out a hum and stole a fry from Danny's plate. "Dude, you better hurry. They drive like your dad."
Danny hesitated. “You guys will be okay?”
Sam and Tucker glanced at each other. “Uh? Yeah, it’s you we’re gonna be worried about.”
"Sorry, guys," Danny said, sliding past Sam. "I'll make this up to you later!" He ran into the bathroom. Once the door was closed behind him, he closed his eyes for a second, and a glowing white ring appeared around his body. The ring became two as one slid up along his body, and the other went down. As they passed, his clothing was replaced with a black jumpsuit with a white belt, boots, and gloves. His chest had a stylized white D on it with a black cut out P.
He looked up at the ceiling and raised his hands, and his body lifted off the ground like a puppet on strings as he began to levitate and fly upward. He phased through the ceiling as a ghost and scanned the streets below. His head snapped to focus on everything that caught his eye from a hundred feet in the air. It didn't take long for him to see a white car cutting off people as it sped out of the city. Danny took off and began following it at a distance.
The car rolled up to a warehouse, and Danny watched as the two operatives got out of the vehicle. His head lolled to the side as he eyed the warehouse. "Smaller than I expected," he mused to himself. He dropped to the ground, way faster than gravity itself would have dragged him back down to Earth.
He stayed floating above the ground by a few inches but flew forward rapidly through the air before coming to a stop by the side of the car. He thought to himself for a moment before reaching into the hood, his hand passing through with no resistance. He rummaged around in the engine of the car a bit before drawing his hand out. He held a belt and a few gears in his hands, which he then proceeded to crush with a glowing fist.
That might slow them down when I book it out of here. Danny thought to himself. He dusted his hands of the ruined metal and plastic and flew towards the warehouse itself. He took a breath into unfilling lungs and turned invisible. He then stuck his head through the wall of the warehouse and frowned. Of course, it's not the Guys in White if it's not overkill.
In the center of the warehouse was a single elevator bank, and surrounding the elevator were ten soldiers wearing all white and carrying laser weapons. Fortunately for Danny, and every ghost in existence, detecting an intangible and invisible ghost was nearly impossible without specialized equipment. The same could be said about keeping a ghost out.
And Danny had a lot of practice avoiding detection. Danny flew past all of them and flew down the elevator shaft.
Ember couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh when she was released from the thermos. The sigh immediately turned into a scream when she felt a shock run up her spine. She turned and reached for her guitar to find it wasn't next to her anymore. She glared at the two operatives. "What the hell did you just do?"
The agent closest to her held up what looked like an oversized tuning fork. "Like it? It's called the Plasmius Maximus. Guaranteed to short out the powers of a ghost for three hours. Costs literally my entire salary for a year, but worth every penny."
Ember attempted to reach up to feel her hair, but she winced and looked down to see that the wound on her shoulder was still dripping ectoplasm. She shook her head, trying to check her hair. The flaming ponytail that indicated how much power she had available was utterly gone.
"Now then, gentlemen, your test subject awaits."
Ember tried to stand and fight as four scientists wearing full body protection equipment came into the room. Before she could even get anywhere close to upright, she collapsed again as the wound on her leg reminded her that there was a reason she was captured.
"You've damaged the subject severely," one scientist noted.
"Had to capture it somehow," the agent snapped.
"Oh, no, that was not a complaint," the scientist defended. "The blaster appears to be working excellently. How was the aim?"
"Could be better," the agent admitted. "Barrel size made up for it, though."
"Excellent. We'll get plenty of opportunities to test new weapons on this one."
Ember growled at the scientists, "I have a name! It's Ember McLain! Remember it!"
"Cute, it thinks it's people," the scientist scoffed. He quickly grabbed Ember's hand and latched it to a shackle hanging from the ceiling. Another scientist did the same with Ember's wounded arm. After confirming she was secure, they stepped back and picked up a remote. The shackles started raising, and Ember refused to scream when pain rippled through her body as she hung from the ceiling. Instead, she angrily glared at the humans in front of her.
The scientist turned to the others. "Biological study for it, or weapons study?"
The field agent chimed in, "Weapons. Better weapons mean more chances for study."
"Hmm... good point, but biological studies might mean more complete captures," the scientist mused. After a moment, he demanded, "Scalpel."
Suddenly the alarms went off. "An intruder?" The field agents looked at each other. "Who'd be stupid enough to break in here?" one of them said with a grumble.
The two agents looked at the scientists. "You'll need to put this on hold."
"Damn it," a scientist spat. Ember couldn't help but relax when she saw them put the scalpel down on a table in the corner she hadn't noticed before. Everyone left her alone in the room, powerless to do anything.
Ember dangled angrily but helplessly, silently cursing Kitty. When Ember had told her she had wanted a few days in the world of the living without fighting, Kitty suggested that she ask Danny about it. Kitty had apparently begged Danny to let her and Johnny have one day out in the real world for a joy ride. Once they both gave several promises and solemn oaths to not cause problems, he had let them do it. The appeal of having one day on Earth again without fighting was worth asking. But before she could find the teen, the Guys in White had jumped her.
Ember bit her lip and tried to draw on the feelings of people chanting her name. Someone somewhere was listening to her music, she knew that for a fact. Still, nothing came to her. At this moment, she might as well have been a human again.
The door opened slowly, and Ember tensed as someone walked in wearing completely white personal protection equipment. She looked down at them and sneered, "Aren't you a little short to be working for the Guys in White?"
The scientist stopped. "Excuse me for not hitting my second growth spurt yet!" He paused and then barely above a whisper stated, "Oh, god, Ember."
Ember stared at him. "Phantom, what the-"
He rushed forward and wrapped a hand over her mouth. "Quiet!"
She glared at him. She was at least thankful he had the sense of mind to steady her body, keeping her from swaying and putting any more pain on her wounds. He looked around and saw the remote on the table for lowering her cuffs. He grabbed it, then dragged it over to her.
"What are you doing?" she whispered as he hooked her legs under his arm.
"Getting you out of here," he whispered back. He got a shoulder under Ember's wounded arm and pressed a button on the remote. The cuffs came off, and she dropped like dead weight into his arms. She grunted in pain and clutched at her wound on her arm. "Any other injuries I need to know before we fly out of here?"
Ember bit her lip. "I can't fly right now."
"What? Why?" Danny asked as he laid her on the ground. Ember winced and tried to sit up, but he gently put pressure on her to keep still. Danny reached for his waist and patted around for a second. He looked down, and she could see his shoulders slump. He reached up and began taking off the equipment. Once back in only his own hazmat suit, he stuck his hand into a pocket and pulled out several palm-sized bandages, and a container that looked like an asthma inhaler.
"They hit me with something," Ember growled. "Said it was the Plasmius something or other."
Danny stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. "Plasmius Maximus?"
"Yeah, that's it. You run into it before?"
"Someone's been selling ghost tech to the government," Danny grumbled. He unwrapped the bandages and folded them out, and they turned into large bandages the size of printer paper. "This is going to sting like crazy, but you should start healing faster, assuming that you're healing isn't completely shorted out."
"Real comforting, dipstick," Ember snapped as he spritzed whatever was in the inhaler onto her leg. She winced, but it didn't hurt. "That... that didn't hurt. Should it have?" she asked worriedly.
"Haven't used it on a full ghost before. It might be my human part that doesn't like it," Danny offered, placing the large bandage over her wound. He turned toward her shoulder and winced. "Umm..."
"Dipstick, if you're going to give me some-"
"Alright, alright," Danny stated, beginning to spray the medicine into her wounds on her chest. Once he was satisfied that enough of the spray was applied, he placed the bandage on her chest.
"I still reserve the right to smack you once we get out of here for touching me, though," Ember joked. She looked toward the door, thankful that no one had come through yet. "Please tell me you have a plan."
"Well... I did have one."
"Which was?"
"Sneak in, find you, release you, we go invisible and fly out."
Ember stared at him. "Tell me you're joking."
Danny winced. "I'm known for joking, but not for thinking things through."
Ember growled, "Well, great. Looks like I at least get to die again comforted by knowing you'll be joining me soon enough." She tried to sit up again, but moving put a strain on her wounds. She fell back onto the ground, trying not to scream.
"I've been through worse," Danny muttered, tucking an arm under her head and another under her legs.
"What the hell are you doing, dipstick?" Ember tried to snap, but the pain through her wounds made it more of a hiss.
"Picking you up," Danny said, as he did just that, "and getting us out of here." Danny took a moment and Ember felt him make her invisible when a wave passed over her body, chilling her. She looked at Danny, able to see him as part of the same invisibility field they were in. The sensation of being in his arms and under his power instead of her own was deeply uncomfortable. Still, she knew she wasn't in a position to complain.
Ember wanted to say more, but as he moved toward the door, she realized now wasn't a good time. She even held back her urge to grumble. Instead, she was forced to act helpless while he carried her in trembling arms.
Ember blinked a few times. Wait, trembling? She looked at the hands holding her and saw that, yes, he was definitely shaking. What the hell? Is he scared? Then why the hell did he go running into a military base?
Ember glanced back and, seeing the scalpel on the table, decided that she was better off not asking.