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Danny opened his thermos with a particularly heavy sigh, and the now normal-sized rat he’d been battling squeaked as it finally was sucked into the device.
He would need to research whether growing fifteen times their size was a common phenomenon of ghostly animals biology or not. He certainly hoped not.
He clasped the thermos to his utility belt and let his feet hit the ground. Hopefully that was the last one that had escaped. The portal’s malfunction hadn’t allowed him a single second of rest this week, and his parents only had taken the time to fix it a few days ago when they finally realized the influx of ghosts wouldn’t slow down otherwise.
Of course, it had fallen on Danny to capture them all. His parents’ overzealous ways had only caused property damage so far, mostly due to his father’s equal skills in shooting and driving.
That was just on top of everything else, too. He swore his teachers could sniff out the worst week to give homework, and decided to pile all of it on that one too! He barely managed to get anything done, and the only class he’d managed to study for, he ended up having to skip thanks to Skulker threatening to wreak havoc on the school otherwise.
Danny was tired .
Hopefully, that was the last ghost to soup this week, and the essay he needed to give back would have to wait for later— he’d probably ask Sam and Tucker for their notes. Right now, all he felt able to do was fly back home and de-transform right over his bed, snuggle under the blankets and peace out for a few hours.
No alarm clocks.
Oh, that was such a great plan. Danny stretched his neck a little, already looking forward to absolute sleepy bliss when he heard the sound of a blaster behind him, followed by a shot that crashed into the garbage bin three meters to his right.
His aggressor didn’t waste one more second announcing himself, in the distinct voice of his dad. “You may have dodged this shot, spook , but you won’t escape this time!”
Danny distantly noticed that he’d been exhausted enough to let the loudest ghost hunters in town sneak up on him. He turned around, much slower than he usually would have after being startled by a shot, and opened his mouth ready to send a quip at his Dad’s terrible aim.
Only for screeching an eep! when a wide-open net crashed into him, weights tangling together on his back and slamming him down on the ground.
The world shifted into blurry lines for a second, as his mother joyfully cheered her catch. He couldn’t exactly focus on the words, but it resulted in his father swooping her down for a passionate kiss.
Gross .
Danny used the distraction to, firstly, not look at his parents while they were on the cusp of making out, and secondly to try to see if he could phase through in any way. He let intangibility wash over his body and sighed when the net didn’t budge.
He should have recognized the rope from the Fenton Ghost Fisher.
Alright. Okay. He could still try to free himself the good old human way, by untangling the weights that had knotted themselves. It was a little bit uncomfortable, but he still could reach them and—
“What do you think you’re doing, ghost?” He heard his dad call out, and steps approaching.
“Freeing myself?” Danny chuckled nervously. He raised the weights he was holding a little more in view. “By any chance, you guys wouldn’t want to help?”
He got a whirring gun pointed at his face as an answer.
In a grand and unexpected display of restraint, his parents hadn’t shot him as they dragged him to the GAV and drove back to Fentonworks.
Any attempt at escaping had been squashed in the alleyway, as they loaded him on the passenger seat and his Mom refused to take her eyes off of him, just in case he would try to fiddle with the net again.
So Danny counted down the hours it would take for Jazz to finish her classes and come home, so she could rescue him from whatever his parents had planned for him.
He definitely did not think of what his parents wanted to do with him. He was especially not remembering all the threats they’d sent Phantom’s way, how he would be torn apart molecule by molecule, nor did he remember in painful details their morbid fascination with the idea of cutting open a ghost to study their biology.
Absolutely not.
He would find a way out before those nightmares came true, like he did everytime. Since he couldn’t exactly reach his phone in this form, he decided on the next best thing: bribing.
“Come on, Mo-Maddie! What would you even need with little old me? Tell you what,” he unclasped the thermos from his belt and shook it lightly. “I give you the thermos back — there’s two ghosts in it, by the way, you’re welcome — and in exchange you can let me go, and we each go our own-”
“Shut it, specter.” She said, nudging her Fenton Blaster towards him. “Don’t even dare try your manipulative schemes on us.”
She looked at him up and down, which didn’t take long, considering he was still curled up all over himself because of the net, and then lunged forward to grab the thermos out of his hand. Danny barely had the time to protest with a ‘hey’ that the gun was back in his face.
After a small check of the device, she added with a snarl. “Especially when you’ve stolen from us before.”
The GAV came to an abrupt stop that uncomfortably squished Danny against the front seat. Not for long, thankfully, because his father opened the door wide and took hold of the net, holding it in front of him as if Danny had been some sort of glorified goldfish.
They didn’t care for his growing unease with each step they took down to the lab, but instead of tying him to a table like he’d expected, they pressed on a cartoonishly red button. Machinery hummed to life, and an entire pan of the wall slid up, revealing a bare room lined with metal walls.
Danny blinked. “When did you guys build this?”
They’d never spoken about it, nor did they seem to have time for it either. As far as he knew, this extra, smallish room had just appeared out of nowhere.
Neither of his parents replied, but he felt his father move the net in anticipation before he belted out a “Heave-ho!”.
Danny was nonchalantly thrown inside, curling up even deeper on himself as his back slammed against the furthest wall. Reflexes slowed by exhaustion and pain, he only had the time to raise his head to see the net around him retracting and an ecto-screen slam down in front of him, stealing his freedom away.
Really, when did his parents get the time to build a ghost prison of all things?!
No matter , Danny told himself as he wobbled to his feet once the world had stopped spinning. He had to find a way out.
He let intangibility take hold of his right arm before it spread to the rest of his body. He would get out of this box, fly to the next street over, transform back to his human half and sleep. For real this time. He’d been looking forward to that since the very beginning of the week, really.
He walked towards the wall with the determination of an exhausted teenager… and crashed head first into it.
After grimacing and rubbing at his nose, who'd taken the brunt of the faceplant, he put his hand on the wall.
It was solid.
The tingly, numb sensation of his power was still vibrating through his entire self, though. He was supposed to be fully intangible, and he was certain he hadn’t mixed up two powers this time.
“Nice try, ghost,” his Dad said with a hearty laugh, “but we’ve upgraded these walls with the ecto-contaminated bits from our fridge, you can’t pass through them!”
“And we need you to stay, after all, you’re gonna be useful to us,” his Mom said, prancing back after clearing some things in the lab and setting down the thermos to be taken care of later. She twirled a blaster in her hand, before setting it in Jack’s hands, while tiptoeing to give him a peck on the cheek.
“Are you—” Danny’s throat was dry, and trying to gulp down somehow only made it worse. All the worst case scenarios fleeting back up to his mind. He ignored the way his head was pounding as if this form still had an increasing heartbeat. He huddled closer to one of the two corners in the back of the room, bitterly noticing he couldn’t hide anywhere in this cell. He focused back on his parents. “Are you going to cut me open?”
The cold, scientific glee that shimmered in his mother’s eye turned to disappointment as soon as he asked his question. If he wasn’t so busy trying to reign in his rising panic, Danny would have sworn his mother pouted .
“ Hah! No.” Jack shouted with a forced smile, before he heaved a deep sigh and frowned as well, the same way he did when there wasn’t any fudge left in the fridge. “We’re still waiting for that equipment’s delivery.”
Tension released in Danny’s shoulders. He could work with this. Even if his crappy luck made it that the delivery would happen within the next seconds, it would still take a few hours to install. Enough time for Jazz to come back home, find an excuse to distract their parents and free him.
Even better, if they left him alone soon enough, he could transform back, fish his phone out of his pocket and— a shot echoed throughout the lab, crashing widely to his left, making Danny jump high enough in surprise he started floating, legs merging into a wisp under him.
He looked at his parents, and his father was aiming the blaster he’d received straight at him before he clicked his tongue in disappointment at missing him again. Maddie gently put her hand on her husband’s arm and cooed some words to cheer him up, before turning to him.
“We’re gonna use you to train Jack’s aim instead,” she cheerfully explained, before starting to give tips to Jack on how to improve his shooting posture.
A shiver ran down Danny’s spine.
Oh, crud .
On the bright side, his father’s aim was truly terrible.
On the less-bright side, either he was actually improving, or Danny’s exhaustion was peeking through his adrenaline-filled brain. It was getting difficult to dodge in time or at all, and the only times he could rest and catch his breath was when his mother gave a few more explanations.
They never lasted long.
Jack took aim again and Danny felt a twitch in all of his muscles, readying to evade. When he saw his father’s finger press down on the trigger, he dived to the side but the ectoblast still nicked him in the hips.
He shouted in pain and grabbed at the wound to prevent the ectoplasm from dripping everywhere. He grimaced when the movement pulled on another burn in the middle of his forearm, caused by Maddie when she had shot him in hopes to help her husband’s posture with an example.
His father whooped in victory before he readied himself again.
Danny managed to avoid all of the next shots, and could quickly let go of his bleeding side a few minutes later, as it had started to scab over, his enhanced healing process taking over, much like it had for the wound on his arm earlier.
He couldn’t find the strength to say anything back to his parents when they taunted him, and begging to be released had only led to more aggressive shooting, so he’d resigned himself to staying silent, praying for his sister to come back home already.
It had to have been hours already, right? It felt like days had passed by. Surely Jazz was on her way by now.
He gave a glance at the staircase behind his parents, hoping to hear anything from the front door, where Jazz would come downstairs to greet everyone.
He was brought back to the situation at hand with another shot that passed close to his head. His father cursed Phantom and his evasive ways, even though Danny had been too tired to move as he got distracted.
Many more shots were aimed his way, thankfully avoided, but barely. He tried his best to hide the pain when some of the blasts burned his skin when they brushed against him. If he did so, to his parents' eyes, it meant it wasn’t as close as they thought, and that only fueled Jack’s rising frustration.
Which was something Danny was actively working for. He knew his dad. The more frustrated he got, the worse his aim, and eventually he would complain about it.
As if on cue, Jack threw his hands up in the air. “Argh! It’s no use, Mads! My aim’s not getting any better, with this slippery ghost!”
Which was untrue, he was improving, but in this situation in particular, Danny didn’t feel like cheering his dad up. It was enough work keeping his focus and the numbness of exhaustion away, while he floated in the middle of the cell.
He watched his father lowering the weapon, as well as his head.
Danny released a quiet sigh. Finally, his dad was giving up. This meant that he wouldn’t go back to using him as a moving target for a while. It was always the same when he got to this point. He didn’t know how long Jack would sulk about his aim, but it would be long enough that Jazz could come home.
Just like she had done every time his father complained, his mom gently ran her hand down his arm and gave him a quick kiss. “Look at its grazes, Jack! Your aim has definitely improved. At least a little.”
She then looked at Danny and said grazes, before scowling at him, as if she was disappointed he hadn’t stayed put while his father was trying to shoot him down.
Danny scoffed in reaction to that, and it was the wrong thing to do.
She picked up another weapon from the table, their latest on-going invention. And brandished it towards him with a firm grip. The message was clear, and Danny closed his mouth with a click, threatened enough not to make things worse.
He hadn’t seen much of that weapon before. It was another blaster, that much was clear, and his parents had been engrossed in it for the past few weeks. Unfortunately, neither of them wanted to explain what it was supposed to do before the project was complete, so Danny’s best guess was that whatever it would do, it would be painful.
He raised both hands in a placating gesture. If he was getting too tired to dodge his Dad’s terrible aim, then he would stand no chance next to his Mom’s impeccable ones, and he really didn’t want to be a test subject for their new weapon.
This was, apparently, another thing he shouldn’t have done.
“You better watch it, creep!” Jack said, puffing his broad chest out and waving his gun around with no care for safety. “Whatever power you’re using will be useless while in the Fenton Anti-Ghost Jail!”
And as he started explaining what it did, he immediately forgot his aiming and safety courses. His finger pressed on the trigger as he cocked the gun to his side. Danny cried out in fear when he saw the shot go right towards his mother’s head, and he rushed forward, only for the screen to zap him painfully, sending him backwards.
His parents also let out surprised shouts, but only as the shot passed by his mother’s hair, before hurling itself towards the Fenton Ghost Catcher that was in the corner of the lab. It slammed right on the side of it, turning it towards them.
Danny only saw a green blurr bounce around the lab as he recovered from the electric shock, shoulders tense and even more worried when the speed of the ecto-bullet just increased more and more, passing near his parents one too many times.
Then, as fast as it was bouncing, it was gone when it dug in the Fenton Thermos, breaking its outer layer. Two ghostly forms were spit out and reformed in the shape of the rat, already in his giant form, and a haggard-looking Box Ghost he’d captured earlier that day.
It looked like he’d been bitten and scratched, a state he hadn’t been in after his fight with Phantom.
“Beware! I, the Box Ghost, will rain havoc on the—” He interrupted himself with a high pitched screech when the rat jumped at him. “I’m sorry, make it stop! Make it stop!”
Both Jack and Maddie trained their weapons towards the two uncontained entities and unleashed ecto-bullets upon them. A large green blast hit the rat dead in its side, sending him and the ghost he was latched onto right back in the Portal, while another, smaller blast completely missed the target and started bouncing once again all over the place.
It passed through the Fenton Ghost catcher once again, splitting the ecto-bullet into two and while one quickly and conveniently ended its course in the Portal’s ‘close’ button, while the other one rushed back towards his parents and slammed itself right in the new blaster his parents had created.
They all released a sigh of relief when the sudden madness finally seemed to be over, only leaving a thick quietness in its wake, and a malfunction on the weapon his mother was still carrying. It emitted a few sparks at irregular intervals.
Both of them turned back to him with a glare, cursing him for breaking their latest invention, and Danny felt the weight of the adrenaline and exhaustion both snap what little patience he still clung onto.
“I didn’t even do anything!” Danny screeched, opening his arms wildly. He grimaced when they aimed their guns at him. They clearly thought they’d finally broken through his pretenses to be a Good Friendly Ghost. He couldn’t care less about that, at the moment. He had had a crappy week, he’d been captured and shot at for hours and he had just seen his mother almost get her head blown off. He pointed a finger at his father. “It’s your fault she almost died !”
Jack frowned, opening his mouth to argue back with him, and Maddie sneered, clearly taking the last statement as a threat. The blaster in her hands sparked more and more, but Danny was too gone to really pay attention to what it could possibly do.
He interrupted his dad before he could speak. “Why are you even blaming me?! I’ve been stuck in this cell, and you’ve been shooting at me for the past hours, what do you even think I would do? You designed this stupid cell!”
From the corner of his eyes he saw his mom looking warily down at the weapon, and he could hear a low, whirring buzz that slowly became more high pitched.
He was too focused on keeping the burn in his eyes at bay, and gesticulating wildly at his father torn between a rant and an accusation at how they’d been treating him when he’d been nothing but helpful for the entire week.
The blaster finally went off, shooting one large ecto-blast right in the middle of his chest, and slamming him right into the wall behind him.
When Danny came to, the first thing he noticed was how comfortable he was. Every single limb was pleasantly relaxed, the pillow under his head had never been fluffier, and his blanket had never been this snug over him, slightly on top of his chin.
He was just about to sigh with content and drift back to a peaceful sleep when his memory caught back to him.
The exhaustion of dodging every shot. The pain of failing to do so. The absolute Fenton-approved mess when his father misfired which ended up with him feeling like a train had hit him straight in the chest.
Not even noticing the pain in his back as he slumped from the wall to the ground, the shot feeling like it was burning through his plexus instead. The low moan torn from his throat as he tried to push himself back up, only to slump forward again. His transformation rings coldly washing across his body.
Then nothing.
He suddenly sat up. He was in his bed, in his room, in his comfiest pajamas.
Gulping down, he shakily raised his shirt, and saw an angry red burn still festering where he’d been hit.
If he’d passed out, then… his parents had to know. They had to have done something to him while he was unconscious. They wouldn’t have let him out otherwise, nor put him in his bed. Their hatred of ghosts would have blinded them.
He jumped to his feet, taking a few seconds to balance himself when his head spun from the speed and took off his shirt, carelessly dropping it to the ground in favor of looking at every inch of his skin.
He could see his usual scars. The few shots that were still healing. A band aid on his finger that hadn’t been there before, when the small rat ghost bit him, before turning into a not-so-small one. Nothing on his chest, or on his arms.
He tried going invisible, then intangible. He even quickly transformed back into Phantom before dropping back into Fenton. His powers were still intact.
He phased through the wall to reach the bathroom faster, contorting himself at best as he could to check out his back. He accidentally knocked down soaps as he did. Jazz always left them balancing precariously on the side of the bathtub and they always fell down at the slightest gust of wind. But he didn’t notice the loud clattering it made, too focused on finding something his parents had left on him.
But there was nothing.
Footsteps rushed through the corridor and before long, the door slammed open with a loud “Danny!”
“H-hey…” Danny nervously greeted his parents, taking a few steps back and bumping into the bathtub as he did so. More bottles fell down the tub, the loud noise startling him this time. His parents didn’t have any weapons drawn out. And a quick glance at their belts indicated they didn’t have anything on them at the moment either.
His mother reached a hand towards him, but stopped herself, looking at war with her own emotions. “Are you alright, sweetie? Do you… do you remember what happened?”
He gulped down and nodded.
Maddie searched him with worried eyes for an instant, shared a look with Jack who gave her a slight nod in his direction before she moved, hands forward as she pulled her son against her. Danny couldn’t help the slight flinch, and he saw how the reaction made his father grimace.
Jack didn’t dare move from the door, his massive frame blocking the only human exit Danny could think of. He was guiltily playing with his fingers, and failing at being subtle when he stared at him. Danny was the one to break off the stare-off by quickly looking down at the ground, over his mother’s shoulder.
This seemed to be the sign his father was waiting for to step forward and wrap his arms around the two of them.
Danny limply put a hand on his mother’s back, and the other on his father’s side. It was more out of habit than because he truly wished to embrace them. In fact, right now, he felt more trapped than loved.
“I’m sorry,” he eventually said, after seconds of unblinkingly looking at the crinkle in his mother’s hazmat suit, where it was pressed against his dad’s arm. The more he stared, the more it felt like the seconds stretched to eternity, like the touch was too hot, burning him alive yet making him feel as cold as a corpse. He would know. “Are you mad?”
Maddie gasped, shifting her hold so she could squish both his cheeks between her hands, at the same time as his father straightened up, grabbing his shoulder in a strong grip which should have been fatherly but was only threatening at the moment.
“Of course not, sweetie!” His mother cooed at the same time as his father exclaimed “Why would we be mad, Dann-o?”
The gross dreadful and sticky feeling dripping around his core eased ever so slightly as Danny realized what his parents were saying. They… they were alright with him being Phantom?
“It’s not your fault that the blasted ghost used you!” His mother sweetly said before carding her fingers through his hair. “Who knew it had that kind of power in the first place? I’m so sorry you got hurt because of me, sweetheart.”
His dad firmly and enthusiastically nodded. “Exactly! He may have escaped with this little switch-and-bait trick, but I promise you it will be the last, son!”
Danny closed his eyes and breathed out of his nose. When he looked up again, he saw his sister hovering in the corridor, lips pressed thin as his parents found an excuse not to see that he and Phantom were one and the same. She sent him an apologetic gaze and made a small gesture with her head towards her door.
Her room was always open if he needed to speak about all of it, she would always say. Maybe he would take her on that offer today.
In the meantime, he forced a smile over his lips, kept the weight of his secret deep inside his throat and looked back at his parents.
“Thanks dad, thanks mom. I’m okay now.”