Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Danny walked in the front door after a day of school. He fully intended to go up to his room and take a nap. His plans were quickly changed when he was met with a pair of ectoguns shoved in his face. All words died in his throat as he looked into the eyes of vengeful ghost hunters, not his loving parents. Toxic words of hate were flung into the air, dying as they met Danny’s ears. It was only the whine of a charging ecto-gun that had him spurring into action.

On instinct, Danny turned tail and ran. His sneakers clapped against the pavement as he set off in a dead sprint down the street. His bookbag slammed against his back repeatedly as he made his way down the road. His heart pounded against his ribs and his lungs burned. The rumbling of an engine behind him had Danny turning, the sight of the GAV following him making his breath catch in his throat. 

The sight of it barreling towards him ignited something in Danny, and before he knew it his ghost form was flashing across his skin, tracing over his limbs like an electric current. The shouts behind him grew louder but Danny didn’t waste the energy to comprehend their meanings as he launched off his left foot, taking to the sky in a giant leap. 

The wind rushed by Danny as he rocketed into the atmosphere. He soon passed the first layers of clouds as he rose. The air only got colder and colder as he went, further spurring Danny on. The attack could only mean one thing: his parents had figured him out. They knew he wasn’t human, that he wasn’t  really  their son. That he was a  freak.  He wasn’t worthy of their love, the only thing he ever was going to become was an experiment. What was he thinking? He simply put off the inevitable with every step he took. He was nothing but a mockery, and they had finally seen through his guise.

Tears formed in the corners of his eyes, crystalizing into flakes of ice and snow as soon as they met open air. Still, Danny went. His speed slowed but he persisted. There was no hope for him below. Any chance of a normal life had evaporated the moment he stepped through that front door. He didn’t stop when the ground disappeared from view, didn’t pause as the air grew thinner and thinner. He didn’t need to breathe, after all. Only humans breathed. A cloud of despair followed in his wake. 

Eventually, the atmosphere was gone entirely, just empty space in every direction but down. Suddenly all of Danny’s problems seemed so small, in the face of the entire planet beneath him. He was so minuscule compared to its magnificence. He didn’t matter. It could have been an eternity as he stared down at the planet he left behind. Yet somehow, the sight was marred. 

Imaginings of a forbidden lifetime passed Danny’s eyes. He could never grow up and have a family, never even have his first girlfriend, or boyfriend. Heck, he didn’t even know yet. He didn’t have the option, and that was what hurt the most. Going back was out of the question. It wasn’t safe. As he realized that Danny’s gaze rose to the great expanse of space stretched out before him. He needed time to think, and what harm would it be to just… check out the moon? He could see it now, just a little while farther. Why not? He could do it. There was nothing stopping him.

The ‘freedom’ wasn’t entirely welcome.

The moon was even better than he had imagined. Clouds of dust billowed out from the impact of Danny’s landing. It was a soft, soundless arrival. The landscape was a dim gray, but it made Danny’s mood improve, however slightly. He managed to put his problems behind him, for a moment. He soared over the landscape, kicking up dust. He found the highest mound in sight and jumped off of it, marveling when he landed, uninjured, what must have been 100 feet down. The gravity was so different from what he knew and just plain fascinating. Danny stripped off one of his gloves and threw it, surprised when it sailed on for what seemed like it would be forever before arching down and landing softly in the dust. Danny turned intangible and dove through the mound of rock, just in awe of what he was doing. He was the only human who-  no.  

Danny froze in his tracks, hundreds of feet below the surface of the moon. He wasn’t human. He would never be human, again. He lost the right to call himself that when he stepped into that portal. Even the word halfa didn’t feel right. It was an empty word for an empty being. It was an attempt to label something that existed outside of life and death, it was an excuse. Danny’s head hurt, he realized. He didn’t want to think, he didn’t want to contemplate. It did nothing but harm.

Something called to Danny. On a whim he darted upwards, breaking the surface of the moon. The stars spread out before him. They were what called to him, in the same way that they had since he was a small child, since he was human. They were always there for him, always smiling down at him from the cosmos. They were reliable. They were home. A large grin spread across Phantom’s face, and his core buzzed. Protection? That had never been his obsession. It was simply meant to keep him occupied until he could escape. Constellations of glowing green freckles lit up on Phantom’s cheeks. He’d found his calling.

Phantom floated past the moon, content in his exploration. Next up on his agenda, Pluto. He had decided to explore each of the planets in this solar system before moving on to the next. Then the next. Maybe he’d even find aliens! That would be amazing! This solar system might be devoid of life, save one planet, but who knew what he would find elsewhere! He had an infinity to explore, well, infinity, and he was going to make the best of it.

The trip between planets was long, of course. But Phantom could wait. This was his purpose, and he was determined to follow it through. Obsessed, even. 

Phantom arrived at the next planet, freckles glowing even more brightly. The moon had been explored before, but this was a new frontier. The red planet was truly right for its name. The ground was a ruddy orange-red in every direction, not too unlike tomato soup. Rocks littered the surface in every direction. Phantom messed up his footing as he walked and almost tripped over one, managing to catch himself in time due to the low gravity. He stomped a boot on the ground, flew up, and dropped himself. The gravity was slightly more than the moon, it seemed. That made sense. The moon was only 2,158 miles in diameter and mars was about 4,200 miles in diameter. More mass meant more gravity, and Mars sure had that covered. The numbers were supplied to Phantom’s mind easily. He didn’t spare a second thought as to where they came.

Familiar-looking craters could be seen in the distance, as well as large mountains. The sky above was a faded red. There were even clouds in the distance, which Phantom had noticed first when he was descending. The ground was solid under Phantom’s feet, and he decided to change that. As he had done before, he turned intangible and dove right into the surface of the planet.

The mantle, the piece between the core and the surface, was liquid. It was startlingly hot compared to the surface, and it spurred Phantom on. He didn’t entirely understand why, but he knew that hot meant bad, and cold was good. He was hit with a sense of relief when he flew deeper and suddenly everything around him was solid. He was at the core. Phantom zoomed around inside the core for a little while, taking interests in the different minerals it seemed to be composed of, dreams he didn’t even know he had being fulfilled. With a rush of speed spurred on by his euphoria, he darted upwards, blasting through the layers of molten magma and condensed dirt.

Phantom burst through the surface as he had done once before, smile widening as he saw the planet around him. He was determined to find out everything he could about it. He would have to move on, eventually, but he was going to find out as much as he could before he did. Wind blew past Phantom as he surveyed the surface, making his shoulder-length air whip around his face. His eyes narrowed as they locked onto something different. It was grey, almost bluish in its tint. Nothing like the red which surrounded it. Phantom neared and his eyes lit up with recognition.

‘Opportunity’ was the name he was supplied with. The rover was half-buried in the red dust, including its solar panels. That was what Phantom locked onto first. One of the first theories was that the bot’s solar panels were covered during a storm and it ran out of power. Phanom hoped that was true, seeing as he didn’t exactly have any tools. Phantom phased it out of the ground and set Opportunity back on its wheels. Dang, it must’ve been like three years since it was lost. He rotated the bot so its solar panel was facing the Sun and sat on the ground, waiting for it to move at all.

Phantom explored every planet on his way out of the solar system, even paying visits to their moons. He left no stone unturned, burning every stop into his mind. He phased through Jupiter, studying the different clouds and gases, examined Saturn’s rings up close and personal, laughed at the name of Uranus as he examined its icy exterior, and inspected the surface of Neptune while getting pushed around by its high winds.

But suddenly it was all done. He’d paid an honorary planetary visit to Pluto, but now he was done. Somewhere he knew that there were more planets, so from  before , but any thought about going in that direction made his core buzz, vibrations warning him that nothing good could be found in that direction. And he listened. Usually.

An ache in Phantom’s chest had him doubting his journey. What was doubt, even? He’d always just done what he wanted… right? But something was calling to Phantom. He found himself turning away from infinity and back to where he’d come. He could see the last place he went to -Pluto- and the planets before it. Neptune, Uranus, Saturn… weren’t there more? A certain little ball of rock called to Phantom. From this distance, he couldn’t see much. It seemed to be blue, and white swirls covered the surface. Had he been there before? Something was saying that he had, but he didn’t know what. His core pulled in the opposite direction, telling him that was what he was meant to do. But the other voice was stronger, and before he knew it Phantom was taking off in the other direction. He rocketed past every place he’d been before, eyes locked onto his target.

Flames licked at Phantom’s feet as he descended, relative to the surface below. But he paid it no mind. He’d dealt with worse entries. Phantom had decided to come down near some land. It turned out the planet wasn’t entirely made of oceans as it had appeared from a distance. But as he passed the clouds more doubt drifted across Phantom’s consciousness. Structures unlike any he could recall came into view. The stretched high up into the sky, hundreds of times larger than Phantom’s being. Suddenly creatures appeared as well. They looked familiar, but there was something off about them. Not quite what he remembered, but familiar. Why did it feel as though Phantom had seen all of this before? It was making him conflicted. 

Their eyes fell to him as Phantom landed. There was no cloud of smoke at his feet, this time. The stares weren’t welcome in the slightest. What was so weird about his appearance? To him, they were the  freaks-

The stars in Phantom’s eyes vanished. Words invaded his brain. Brain, not core. How long had he acted on only its guidance? How long had it been since he was human? He stared down at his hands, and the tufts of white drifting around his face. His hair. It was down to his knees, now. How hadn’t he noticed? He’d aged and didn’t even bat an eye. He was too focused on his adventures. 

He was rash and blind. He could’ve at least made an attempt to fix things, but instead, he fled. Like a coward. He realized now how much of a fool he had been. Heh. Options. What did he have now? Rings crackled into existence, sweeping over him. They took with them Phantom and left instead the ghost of a teenager. He might’ve stopped aging when he hit his twenties, it appeared, but that didn’t make it any better.

Danny choked as he breathed in the atmosphere of the planet from which he came. His lungs didn’t want to work at first, so long since they’d last been used.

Gone.

Chapter Text

Little did Phantom know, he had started an uproar at Nasa. Scientists crowded around screens as suddenly Opportunity blinked back to life. Its cameras came online and when they did everyone was met with the sight of a teenager with long, white hair staring into the camera. He pulled back, freckles on his faces starting to glow as he beamed at the rover. His voice was faint due to the sounds not traveling well in Mars’ thin atmosphere, but he could still be heard.

‘Hi Oppy!’ He greeted. A white-gloved hand reached out to pet the bot as its systems came online.

‘ I cleaned off the dust from your solar panels, so you should be good now! And hey, I glow so it’s not dark anymore!’ The boy was referring to Opportunity’s last message, the one it sent out before going online. ‘ My battery is low and it's getting dark.’ Who was this kid? How the hell was he on Mars without a helmet or any kind of gear? And why was he glowing?

A sudden gasp rang out from an intern that had been drawn to the scene. He was from a small town, somewhere in the midwest. He was pretty nerdy, a ginger boy with coke-bottle glasses pressed against his face. Barely a year out of school. Mikey, was that his name?

“Danny Phantom!?” He shouted. He drew the disbelieving eyes of everyone present in the room. The blood drained from his face as he was suddenly the center of attention, but he managed to stutter out more of an explanation.

“That- He’s Danny Phantom! He’s a ghost from Amity Park! He disappeared almost two years ago.” Anything further was cut off by Danny Phantom’s next words.

‘ As much as I would love to stick around, I’ve got galaxies to explore. Good luck!’ He disappeared with a wave, floating unsupported into the air and off zooming off in another direction.

“I wish he could explore those for us. He’d be hired in a moment.” Chuckled a director that had been listening in. Laughter spread across the room, both at the joke and in euphoria. They had their rover back!