Chapter Text
Danny let his backpack fall to the ground beside him with a thud as he took his seat in the back of the classroom. His shoulders were tensed, his jaw was clenched, and his leg tapped a fast, anxious rhythm, causing his knees to bang against the bottom of the desk hard enough to hurt. Anything to help ease the vibration settled under his skin. It did help. Just a little.
He only had to make it through this class. One more class, and he’d be done with school today. One more class, and he’d be able to do something that actually helped.
Danny raised his hand to his mouth on instinct, coughing the icy exhale of his ghost sense into his fist and suppressing a groan. He stood up and walked to the door, not bothering to get permission to leave or let the teacher know where he was going. All of the teachers at Casper High had long since given up on keeping Danny in class. Most of them had given up on Danny completely. He didn’t blame them.
The closest room was the janitor's closet, which was locked. That was annoying. He reached his hand through the door. The tingling in his hand got worse as it went intangible, nearly causing his whole arm to vibrate. He grit his teeth harder, and focused on unlocking the door from the inside. That's all he had to do. Unlock the door.
He heard the soft click of lock, and pulled his hand back quickly, dropping his intangibility. He shook it, trying to get the residual tingles out. He kept trying even as he slipped into the dark, musty confines of the janitor's closet, pushing the mop that probably hadn't been used in months out of his way. He stopped shaking his wrist, and braced himself.
His transformation washed over him quietly. Danny kept his eyes shut tight, his fingers digging into the side of the splintered shelving unit. As he shifted the vibration only got worse, more severe, and his grip tightened until the wood started to crack under his grip. Finally, his transformation finished and the sensation faded away into the normal vibration of his core and a persistent voice in the back of his head. A voice that he would not acknowledge.
Danny still didn't let go of the shelves. He focused on taking breaths he didn't need, pushing that voice further and further back. For a moment, his entire purpose narrowed down to suppressing it. One deep breath in, one deep breath out, and a futile attempt to quiet his mind.
It took the scream of someone out in the parking lot for him to snap out of his haze. Not a scream of pain, thankfully, but one of joy, calling out Ember’s name. Now that he was focusing, he could hear Ember singing from somewhere outside the school.
Just because they weren’t hurt yet didn’t mean he could waste time. Every second he waited was another that someone could be in danger. But he couldn't just throw himself into a fight anymore. He needed to prepare himself, or else that voice in his head might get what it wanted. If that started, it wouldn't be a fight Danny could win.
With one last exhale he let go of the cabinet and let his body relax. He couldn't waste any more time.
—
Ember was about where he expected to find her; crowd surfing on a small hoard of teenagers and shredding her guitar all the while.
"You know, for someone who can fly, you'd think you'd be able to stay in tune while crowd surfing."
Ember floated up off the crowd, much to the mind controlled masses disappointment. "There you are baby pop," she said. "Always fashionably late these days. Might as well try not showing up next time."
"And leave you to inflict mediocre half finished songs on these poor people?" Danny crossed his arms and bared his teeth in an almost smile. "Not a chance."
Ember scowled at him, and his smiled widened. Ember was always easy to goad. "Why you little-" she cut herself off by flying up to him, her hands fluttering over the strings. Danny dodged to the left of the sonic blast she sent his way. He let his body settle into the routine of the fight, and let his mind clear. Even the voice that normally pounded against his skull went quiet. It was satiated. At least for now.
Danny switched his momentum on a dime, twisting back to charge at Ember. She could throw a punch if she needed to, but she always preferred distance. That meant that if Danny wanted to end this fight quickly, he should take advantage of that. " But why would you want it to end early?" The voice whispered. It sounded like him, blending in with the rest of his thoughts. "You always have such a good time. Why cut it short?"
Ember twisted her guitar around to block Danny's approach, sending out another sonic blast at him. He tried to maneuver out of the way but was pushed back. He managed to stay on his feet- or at least stayed oriented the way he wanted to be. Danny his ectoblasts in his hands, continuing the charge. He launched them both at Ember, but she deflected the first one into a nearby car, the other one whizzing just by her ear.
Danny was almost close enough to grab her, but she let herself fall back into the crowd still gathered below. Danny cursed, hovering above the heads of the people, glaring down at Ember. "Aw, what's wrong? Still struggle with crowd control?" She strummed her guitar again, and the star struck crowd went from hovering around her to trying to climb on top of each other. She’d used this trick before; they were trying to grab Danny and pull him down.
He needed to separate Ember from her groupies. Even if she hadn't decided to weaponize them, just their presence was boosting her power. Now that she was in the center of them, she was even more of a threat. Getting her out without hurting any of the people was going to be a problem. The one good thing about this situation was that Ember wouldn't hurt the humans herself; injured fans didn't cheer as loud.
"Why worry about it? They're the ones in your way. It would be so simple if you just stopped worrying about them."
Danny let himself float further away, and the crowd stumbled on top of one another as they all tried to follow after him. Ember stayed behind the group, strumming a cord on her guitar and a wave of sonic energy at him. He dodged it without a thought. Interesting. Just as his plan started formulating, he started talking. "And here I thought you liked being center stage. Just letting all these folks steal your spotlight?"
"Every good musician has background dancers," Ember said. Another ectoblast was fired Danny's way, and he flew further backwards to avoid it. The crowd continued stumbling after him reaching over each other and trying to grab his boots.
"They don't seem very background to me," Danny shouted. Another ectoblast, and another few feet backwards.
"Then we'll call it my opening act. Once they're done with you, I'll be sure to put on a real show. " She laughed and sent a volley of attacks at Danny, pushing him further back.
As soon as there was a break in the attacks Danny leapt off the ground, flying forward as fast as he could. His legs shifted into a tail behind him, letting him fly even faster. He zoomed over the heads of the crowd, their reaction speed too slow to grab him. The group had been following him as he led them away, creating a nice space between them and Ember. Enough space for him to do what he needed to do.
"Enough space for you to do what you want to do. Stop being such a stick in the mud. Let yourself go a little, let yourself tear her apart, just-"
Ember had enough time to dodge to the side, but he'd expected that. A blast of pure cold left his hands directly towards Ember. The already icy ground was coated in a layer of frost, and Ember hissed as her flame hair flickered from the change in temperature. Danny used the opportunity to skirt around her, transferring his momentum onto the ice. By the time she turned around, Danny had his hand pressed to her side, an ectoblast charged against it.
"Bye." Danny waved, and Ember was sent flying into the side of the school.
Danny turned towards the school. Ember was sitting in a pile of what used to have been the wall, the foundation of the school visible through the bricks. She was clearly dazed, as she hadn’t bother to try and phase out of the pile yet. This was the perfect chance to end the fight. His hand went to the Fenton Thermos on his belt
"Keep fighting. Prove that you're stronger, prove that you're the best. Show her what happens when someone messes with you, with your territory. She's vulnerable. She's weak. Make her never able to show her face again. Or even better, take her face."
Danny shook his head and uncapped the thermos. Ember was sucked inside, leaving claw marks on the ground as she went. Danny twisted the cap back on. He let himself just one moment to exhale, just one second. He just needed one second. And one second turned to two, and then three.
Unfortunately for Danny, that was too long. Three seconds was enough time for the mind controlled humans to snap out of it, gather their bearings, and see him standing there. As much as he loathed it, Phantom was a celebrity. Now the crowd of people were trying to grab at him of their own volition. All he had to do was turn intangible. All he had to do was fly away. The fight was over, they weren't trying to hurt him. He didn't want to hurt them.
The voice in his head didn't care.
You can stop them with nothing more than a thought. They’re too weak, a threat to what’s yours. You can fix it, get rid of the problem in the blink of an eye.
Danny tightened his fists further. He heard the creaking of metal; he was still holding the Fenton thermos. That wasn't good. He couldn't deal with another fight. Not right now. But you want to. Let her back out. Finish this, properly. Not when he was like this.
It took more effort than he'd care to admit to let his intangibility wash back over him. The act itself was just as easy as ever. The problem was convincing as much of himself as he could that he didn't want to touch these people, let alone hurt them, that he wanted to get away, not hurt attack fight -
Danny flew away, soaring up into the sky and blinking out of vision. Here, floating high enough that he couldn't hear their voices, couldn't feel their grabbing hands, the voice in his head was...manageable. Only a bit more annoying than the buzzing he'd grown so used to. He'd been dealing with it long enough to know that the second he got back near the crowd, or anyone else, it would only get worse. He needed a good place to cool down. He just needed time.
He wanted to go to the school’s roof. That had always been his go to spot, back before the voice got so loud. No one was ever up there, no one could see him, and it had a fantastic view of Amity Park. But he needed to go ghost to get down, and that wouldn’t help him. The bell still hadn't rung for the school yet, but it would soon. Even if the group of people had dispersed, the parking lots were out. So were the bleachers, the soccer field, anywhere inside the school, the front steps...
Danny started flying towards the woods. It was cold out, cold enough that most everyone was wearing winter coats, even if the trees still clung stubbornly to nearly dead leaves. No one would be in the woods in this type of weather. As long as the animals stayed far away from him it would be fine. They probably would. Most animals had been scared of him since the accident. At least now they had good reason to be.
The moment Danny was certain that the trees would cover him, he transformed back. The voice was fainter like that, but still there, whispering in Danny’s head. All that really changed was that the vibration under his skin had returned, stronger than it had been at any other point today. It shook Danny hard enough for his teeth to start chattering, for his legs to give out underneath him. He didn’t quite enter the fetal position- the voice in his head wouldn’t let him give up that last scrap of his dignity. But he did dig his fingers into the ground until they were nearly completely submerged, and heaved heavy breaths into the earth. His labored breathing wasn’t because of the earlier fight, or the effort of holding back the trembling, or even trying to resist the temptation of the voice. His breathing was labored because he was forcing air into lungs that didn’t need it anymore, forcing organs that had started to forget how to work to remember again.
Danny choked on every breath, but he didn’t stop. Humans needed to breathe, and Danny was still human. He had to be.
With no targets around, the voice in his head faded away to a faint whisper, drowned out by the vibrations still rattling his bones. After a few more minutes, that too subsided to a now familiar hum. It was still uncomfortable; Danny refused to ever find it comfortable. But it was manageable.
He climbed back onto still shaking feet, and started to walk back towards the school. He'd lost track of time, but he was almost certain that the bell had rung by now. Sam and Tucker would have heard the fight and would be looking for him. Danny couldn't afford to be late. Not again.
---
He took a seat on the half wall that lined the teacher's parking lot. No students would be coming that way, and the teachers wouldn't be out for another thirty minutes or so. Danny shot a quick text off to Sam, nothing more than his location. He didn't bother going back for his backpack. One of his friends would grab it; it was routine at this point.
In the few minutes it took for Sam and Tucker to round the corner of the school, the vibration had faded to its normal level. Bothersome, distracting, and just shy of painful, but manageable, and more importantly, something Danny was able to hide.
Sam tossed the backpack at Danny's feet at the same time he hopped off the small wall. "Thanks for letting us know how it went," she said, crossing her arms.
"It was just Ember," Danny said dismissively. "It's not like it's something we haven't seen before."
"You could at least let us know!" she snapped. "Or come back to class after? I know you had time, but no. You have to ditch us, and everyone else, just like you're always doing lately."
"I am not ditching you," Danny lied. It came out far sharper than he intended. "Tucker, back me up."
Tucker pulled a face. "You know I've always got your back, dude, but... well, Sam is right. You have been disappearing after fights. Even when its just us. We've talked about it before."
"Oh, so what, I'm not allowed to take some time to recover?" Danny said.
Sam took a deep breath, exhaling in a puff of cold air. "You can recover with us. Do you have any idea how hard it is to deal with everything when you just take off and leave? We're worried-"
Danny cut her off. "Oh, it's hard for you? Newsflash, I'm the one who takes the hits. I'm the one who gets thrown into walls. I'm the one who has to fight-" Danny cut himself off. He couldn't mention the voice, couldn't mention any of it. "If its so hard for you, than maybe you should just quit."
"Danny, that's not what we-" Tucker started, but Sam talked over him.
"Quit? You're asking us to quit because we're worried about you?" Sam said. "Do you even hear yourself right now?"
"Yeah, I do," Danny retorted. "I know what I'm saying, just like I know what I'm doing. Or are you going to try and say that I'm doing that wrong too?"
"I'm not saying that you don't know what you're doing!" Sam shouted. "I'm saying that you should at least tell us! We're your friends, Danny!"
"I don't need to tell you shit," Danny spat back. "If you were my friends, you'd understand that."
"Danny, Sam, please-" Tucker tried again.
"Oh, so we're not your friends now?" Sam pressed forward, crowding Danny’s vision. "Fine then! You clearly don't want us around anymore, so we will quit. When you realize just how shit you do without us, let us know." She grabbed Tucker by the arm, walking back to the school. "Come on, Tuck. We're going home."
Tucker looked between Sam and Danny rapidly, clearly conflicted. Danny waited for him to do something, anything, but by the time they reached the walkway at the end of the parking lot, Tucker was walking of his own accord. All Danny got was an apologetic look.
Danny bent down and swung his backpack over his shoulder with a thud. He didn't know why he expected anything. It was a miracle they'd stuck with him as long as they had. But it was fine. Danny was fine.
He couldn't afford not to be.