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“Mom, Dad, is it alright if I invite Sam and Tucker over for their Spring Break?” asked Danny, leaning over the railing of the lab staircase.
Sam and Tucker were away at college. The same college. Actually, they had gone in together on an apartment, although they had different majors.
Danny missed them terribly. He talked to them on the phone, and online, but it wasn’t the same, especially when they were so busy.
Jack and Maddie exchanged glances across the workbench. Danny knew what they were thinking. They were worried that seeing Sam and Tucker would upset him, because they got to move on and Danny…
Danny looked fourteen. None of them knew if he was stuck that way permanently, or if he’d eventually grow. He’d barely passed high school. Normal jobs, jobs where he couldn’t drop everything to go fight a ghost, just weren’t an option. Also, weird things just happened around him. His parents’ tools suggested that when he was away from a thin spot like Amity Park, he’d wear away at the fabric of reality just by being around.
The only thing he could do with his life right now – beyond protect Amity, and big attacks were getting less common – was help at Fentonworks. At times it was frustratingly limiting. It was nice that he didn’t have to lie anymore. He liked the work well enough. He loved exploring the Ghost Zone and sharing it with his parents. But the parts of human life he could experience were going to get smaller and smaller as what he did look like and what he should look like got further and further apart.
But Sam and Tucker could have lives that were, while not completely normal after all they had been through, at least more open.
His parents thought that he’d resent them for it, Danny knew. Which was silly and a ghost stereotype he hadn’t yet gotten them to let go.
“Sure, honey,” said Maddie. “But don’t be too disappointed if they can’t come, okay? It can be hard to get back home in the middle of the school year.”
Danny suppressed an eyeroll. They weren’t that far away from Amity Park. “Thanks, Mom!” he said, running back into the kitchen to make the call.
“Hey, Sam,” he said, when she picked up.
“Danny! It’s been a while. How are you doing?”
“I’m okay,” said Danny. “Doing a lot of exploring. Some errands for Clockwork now and then. What about you and Tucker?”
“Keeping up with classes,” said Sam. “Tucker’s actually in programming right now. Can’t wait until we get a break.”
“About that,” said Danny. “I was wondering, if you guys are coming home for Spring Break, would you like to visit? Um, the other day, I saw Mallongaflorinsulo getting closer, and it’ll probably be less than an hour away during your break, and I know you thought it was cool, so…”
“We were planning for that anyway,” said Sam. “I mean, not the island, but hanging out with you. Maybe not the whole break, my mom’s already ‘made plans,’ you know how she is, but we weren’t going to, like… abandon you, or anything. You know that, right?”
“I know!” protested Danny. “I just… wasn’t sure if you were coming home.”
“We’re only a few hours away. We’ve had way worse road trips. But you have told your parents what Mallongaflorinsulo does, right?”
“I’m going to,” said Danny.
“You sure? It’s just, I don’t want to have to keep your parents from freaking out like we did the first time we ran into it.”
“I am going to tell them. I just wanted to check in with you guys first. Like, I don’t know, if you didn’t want to do anything ghost related and just wanted to see movies or something…”
“No, you’re right that it was a pretty cool thing to see, once we knew it wasn’t going to kill you or anything.”
“Hey, at this point I’ve died so many times I’m practically immortal. Filled in my punch card.”
“Sure, Danny. But, yeah, I’d like to see it again, especially now that I know more about botany. But you have to talk to your parents before we get there, okay?”
“I will, I will,” said Danny. “You don’t have to worry about that.” He paused. “So… how are your classes going?”
.
“You want to do what on an island that does what?” asked Maddie, having abandoned her food.
Maybe Danny should have waited until Sam and Tucker were here. They could have backed him up.
“It’s completely safe,” said Danny. “Like, we even asked around to make sure it was safe.”
“Who did you ask?”
“A bunch of people.”
“Specifically, Danny.”
“Well,” he said, trying to remember. “I asked at least Frostbite and Clockwork, but there were a few others, too. Frostbite and Clockwork were the most trustworthy, though. Plus, I’ve done it a couple times before, and I was fine.”
“Why, though?” asked Jack. “Isn’t that something you would prefer to avoid?”
Danny shrugged. “It isn’t like it hurts. It’s just a little tiring, and it’s really cool to watch.”
“What if you’re attacked?”
“The island has a decent threshold barrier, and when it’s active, it can throw its vines pretty far. No one is going to attack me.” He shrugged. “Even if they did, I can just go human and phase through everything. The plants the island makes are pure ectoplasm. Like I said, it’s not dangerous. Didn’t you want to know more about ghost plants, anyway?”
“Well, sure, kiddo,” said Jack, “but not to the point where we’re going to feed you to a cannibal plant island.”
“You’re being overdramatic. A plant eating me doesn’t count as cannibalism anyway. Come on, it’ll be fine. You all will be able to be lookouts, anyway.”
Maddie sighed. “Are you sure you want to do this for your visit with Sam and Tucker?”
“This’ll take at most a few hours, and they’ll be here all week.
.
“Sam! Tucker!” Danny didn’t, quite, fly out of the house, but that was mostly because he had too much practice keeping his feet on the ground when other people could see.
There was some hugging.
“Hey, dude,” said Tucker, gallantly refraining from patting Danny on the head, even though Danny did catch that aborted motion before Tucker shoved his hands in his pockets. “How’s it going?”
“Pretty good,” said Danny, leaning back to look up at his friends’ faces. “It’s been slow, lately. Not too many attacks.”
“You’re getting more sleep, then?” asked Sam.
“Yeah,” said Danny, leading the way back up the steps. “But that’s more because I don’t have to wake up early anymore.”
“Hey, kids,” said Maddie when they walked through the door. “We’re getting the Speeder prepped. You can just hang out up here until we do our mission briefing.” She disappeared into the lab.
“Mission briefing?” repeated Tucker.
“It can be useful,” said Danny. “It’s their thing. Like, what to do during emergencies and stuff.”
“They know we’ve been in the Ghost Zone before, right?”
“Eh, yeah. I think they’re still sort of in denial about a lot of stuff. So… Sprawl out on the couch, or up to my room?”
“I don’t trust your couch,” said Sam.
“Good call,” said Danny. “Half the time, I think it might actually eat keys and stuff.”
“Why only half the time?”
“As you well know, I only think half the time.”
“You’re hilarious.”
“I try.”
The exchange was relaxed, but Danny could see some underlying tension between Sam and Tucker. They were keeping a careful distance between each other. Had they had a fight on the way here?
They got to Danny’s room. At first, it seemed like they might pick the seats closest to each other, then they stopped and reversed direction, instead picking seats that were far away.
“Are you guys okay?” asked Danny.
“We’re fine,” they said at the same time.
Danny blinked, several pieces of information slotting together in his head. “Oh. Are you dating?”
“Uh,” said Tucker.
“Yes,” said Sam, looking pained even as she put a hand over her eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Danny, rather hurt. “Did you think I was going to pull a Vlad or something?”
“You have to admit it’s a similar situation,” said Tucker.
“No, it isn’t,” said Danny.
“You did have a thing for Sam, in high school. That wasn’t all that long ago.”
“I had a ‘thing’ for both of you,” corrected Danny. “Jeez, Tucker. Don’t give me that look, I know it wouldn’t work out now. I can be realistic.” He gestured at his body. “I still look like I belong in middle school. Ugh.” He let himself drop face first onto his bed. “I’ll be happy for you in a bit, but you could have told me instead of thinking I’d act like Vlad. You guys are my best friends. You’re supposed to know me better than that.”
“Both of us?”
“I meant what I said.” Danny rolled over. “Don’t make this weird.”
“Are you sure you aren’t mad about us?”
“Yeah,” said Danny.
Danny had actually thought about this a lot. Or, at least, this kind of situation. If his body never decided to grow up, then really his only chance with Sam or Tucker was if they became ghosts when they died, but the odds of any given person becoming a ghost were low and keeping Sam and Tucker from being happy in the meantime was just… bad. It was bad. And stupid. And he wasn’t going to do it. Long before he was interested, they were friends, and that’s the way it was going to stay.
He pulled himself into a sitting position. “So, Samantha,” he said, rubbing his chin. “Are you interested in a career in ectobotany?”
“Oh, no. Don’t give your parents that idea. I’ll never hear the end of it.”
.
The direct translation of Mallongaflorinsulo was something like ‘the Island of Brief Flowers,’ which was extremely accurate.
At the moment, the island was completely barren, nothing but soil laid on gray stone. Danny hovered over it, curled so that his legs were tucked against his chest. Mallongaflorinsulo, like many places in the Ghost Zone, enforced a dress code, so his feet and hands were bare, and his sleeves and pants ended just past his elbows and knees.
“Ready?” he called to parents and friends. Sam and Jack were already on the island, which wasn’t responding to them in any way, because they weren’t ghosts. Tucker and Maddie were on the Specter Speeder, which was floating some distance away.
“Whenever you are, sweetie,” said Maddie through the Fenton Phones. “Remember if you change your mind—”
“I just wanted to know if you had set up all the cameras and stuff you wanted to,” interrupted Danny.
“I’ve got mine,” said Sam.
“Yes, we’re all set up.”
“Great,” said Danny. He lowered his feet, watching carefully. When his toes were a few inches from the ground, moss and tiny, white flowers, each no larger than a grain of sand, began to bloom, pushing their way up through the soil.
He nodded to himself, then dropped. He could feel grass and vines start to unfurl under his feet, push up through his toes, but he didn’t intend to stay in one place for too long. Not yet. He sprinted lightly, quickly, across the flat surface of the island, not maintaining contact with the ground for more than a split second. With each footfall, the ground beneath him came alive.
Or, well. Metaphorically alive.
Small, bright flowers, soft, fluffy moss, foliage that was either green, purple, or blue. It was pretty, and temporary. He reached the edge of the island, launching himself off it, and twisting to look behind him. In less than a minute, the plants faded, withered, and decayed back into the unremarkable soil.
“Do you guys think it was a bit faster this time than last time?” asked Danny. “The growing, I mean?”
“Maybe?” said Sam. “It would make sense. You are stronger than before.”
“Do you want to stop?” asked Maddie.
“We’ve got a lot of readings just from that!” added Jack.
“No, I’m good,” said Danny. He landed on the island again, and took a few more laps, this time making sure to run around Jack and Sam, giving them a better view. He lifted off again. “Okay, this time is for real.”
He placed himself at the rough center of the island. Instead of running, he dug his toes into the thick, plush moss. He could feel it growing thicker, feel it, and the other growing plants, feed on his ectoenergy, a tiny, but constant, drain. The flowers were able to grow larger, now that he wasn’t moving, and more complex. Different varieties, ones that needed more energy, sprouted up.
Sturdy vines emerged from among other, shorter plants, four-petaled white-blue flowers blooming along its length. They cinched themselves securely around his ankles, then started to inch upwards. The circle of plants around Danny expanded slowly, in rippling waves.
“Everything still normal?” asked Maddie.
“Yep, this is pretty much as expect- ah.”
“Danny?”
“It’s fine, they just got to my knees,” said Danny as he allowed the vines to force him to kneel. The taller flowers came up to his chest when he was in this position, and they were reaching higher.
He leaned backwards. He’d done this face down before, and that wasn’t as fun. He liked being able to breathe. The vines caught him and pulled him the rest of the way down. He stayed limp and pliable until the rest of the vines had arranged him so that he was pressed completely flat against the ground, other plants creeping over him. Above him, the view was almost jungle-like and included trees, leafy lianas, and many-layered flowers bigger than his head.
The drain was more noticeable now, Danny’s core humming in effort and the plants echoed his ectosignature back at him. His skin tingled as roots brushed over it.
“Danny, we’ve lost visual on you,” said Sam. “Are you still alright?”
“I’m fine,” said Danny, watching a collection of hanging buds burst into full bloom, releasing spectral butterflies that scattered into the new forest. “Butterflies just came out.”
“I think that is faster than before,” observed Tucker.
“Butterflies?” asked Jack. “I didn’t see any butterflies before.”
“Yeah, some of the plants make them,” said Danny. One of said butterflies, white and glowing, landed on Danny’s nose. It felt cold. Its wings grew as it sat there, until its wings extended past Danny’s peripheral vision and he started to feel its weight on his face. It took off a moment later, wheeling through branches and out of sight.
Sam and Maddie talked about the implications of the butterflies over the radio. Danny listened with one ear but was mostly just happy to watch the flowers get bigger, more elaborate, more numerous, the branches and stalks bowing with their weight. He breathed deeply, feeling the perfume settle in his lungs.
“The vegetation is passing us now,” said Sam. “Probably going to be a few minutes before it gets to the edge.”
“Okay,” said Danny, lazily.
Something tickled the bottom of his foot and he twitched in surprise. The vines overlaying his leg tightened and pulled him back into place. He shifted in discomfort as they were reinforced by something significantly more rootlike, but reminded himself to relax, let go of tension. He couldn’t see what had tickled his foot, though, so that was somewhat disconcerting.
When he refocused on the flowers above him, though, he noticed something odd.
“Hey, Sam, I think there are some birds in here.” It was about the same color as the butterflies and glowed with the same intensity.
“Oh, cool. Did they come from the flowers, too?”
“I don’t know,” said Danny. “I’ll keep an eye out for it, though.”
The bird flew down from its branch, landing somewhere next to Danny, although he couldn’t see exactly where.
There was a creak from above, and Danny watched, oddly calm, as a branch laden with a dozen different kinds of flowers bent toward his face, just a little too slowly to count as falling. It stopped only when the first few flowers touched Danny’s skin. Of course, since everything was still growing, this meant that Danny’s vision was quickly obscured by flowers.
He sneezed.
“Not a good time to develop allergies,” said Tucker.
“Very funny,” said Danny, sniffling and trying not to roll his eyes. “Believe it or not, there’s a lot of pollen here.”
“Hey, you’re the one that volunteered to be covered by plant reproductive cells. You can’t complain about it now.”
“Au contraire, I can complain about anything I want.” He snuggled deeper into the moss, feeling drowsy. The plants around him crowded tighter.
“Hey, Danny?”
“Yeah, Sam?” He was not falling asleep. This wouldn’t last much longer, and he would never live it down.
“You ever hear anything about plants on this island actually bearing fruit?”
“Nothing about that specifically. Why?”
“I think some of them might be fruiting.”
“Huh. That didn’t happen last time we were here.”
“Yeah. Do you think they have any special qualities?”
“Maybe?” said Danny. He examined the flowers he could see, trying to see if there was any fruit growing behind them. As he thought about it, the petals began to wither, leaving behind pulsing, glowing fruits.
And a lot of glowing white birds.
That was a bit intimidating. Huh.
They each picked a fruit off the branch, holding them delicately in their beaks. Instead of eating them, though, one of them hopped over to Danny, landing on his chest, and pressed the fruit to his lips.
If he was ever asked about this in the future, he’d say it was the pollen, but he opened his mouth and let the bird put the fruit in.
He was never very good about denying his curiosity.
It tasted sweet.
The birds flew away. The plants started to decay, quickly, after that, crumbling into dirt and dust. Danny went human, pulling himself out of the soil he’d been half buried in, and waved first at Jack and Sam, then at Maddie and Tucker in the Specter Speeder.
“Did you get good data?” he asked.
.
“So, Clockwork,” said Danny. “I may have eaten something I shouldn’t have, and I was wondering—”
“You will be fine,” said Clockwork, glancing away from the large time window he was watching. To Danny, it looked like a lot of static, but he knew that just meant it was something he wasn’t meant to see. “But, perhaps, your new power will remind you not to consume items you do not know are safe.”
Danny tilted his head. “What new power?” Clockwork moved on to the next window. “Clockwork,” whined Danny, following. “What new power?”
“It will be quite subtle,” said Clockwork. “But you should still, perhaps, refrain from walking barefoot outdoors in public.”
“Wha- Oh. Oh no.”
“As I said, this should serve as lesson to not repeat similar actions. Not all such transformations are so benign.”
“Are plants really going to grow where I walk? Is that really a thing that’s going to happen?”
Clockwork turned and leaned down to tap Danny on the forehead with a long, gloved finger. “That is something you may test, hm?”
Danny covered his head to protect it from any further assault. “Clockwork.”