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The summer between Middle School and High School is a special time for your average teen boy. But Daniel Vladimir Fenton is not your average teen! His summer started by discovering a secret order of Daemon Hunters - turns out demons exist - joining that order and ending up ending a Wendigo.
Wendigo's suck! But hunting them had one good thing. He met Skulker, a ghost hunter who also hunts Wendigo's and now acts as one of three mentors of Daniel. In other news, Ghosts are real and his parent's aren't nut cases like he thought.
After his break, he attended Casper High. Solomon, one of his mentors, even became a teacher of this. Thing were good. Than the Accident happened.
His parents build that portal, the portal Solomon was convinced would bring doom. (He did not like Skulker, he does not like ghosts in general.) Danny stepped in alive. Danny stepped out dead.
Well, half, but none the less he was a ghost.
When Skulker met Danny after his half death, he wasn't sure how to feel about this. There was a young ghost wearing a jump suit, with white hair and rather human skin for a ghost. Not to mention the eyes, green lie pure ectoplasm.
"Kid, is that you?" asked Skulker, eyeing the new ghost floating in Danny's parent's basement, in front of the new artificial portal. He feels like Danny, he looks like Danny, somewhat.
Then he turned back and dropped to he ground. Skulker picked him up. He considered bringing him to his boss... but considering some things, maybe not. Plasmius may pay him, but Skulker still considers him nuts.
That was months ago.
Danny got used to his powers – with Skulker's help - and things were good. Then the ghosts – other than Skulker - came to Amity Park.
Like Solomon feared, the portal teared into their worlds. Even if the Fenton Portal is closed, it's existence ripped more natural portals into the human world. Those tend to be unstable, but they are good enough or some ghosts to cause trouble.
"Wait a minute." said Solomon after Danny caught the Lunch Lady and the Box Ghost (again). Solomon stepped closer to Skulker, "How did you manage to get here before the Portal was opened?"
"Natural portals existed before. More stable, too." he answered. Solomon did not believe him.
Danny sighed. He doesn't need a ghost sense to know they will argue again.
A few more weeks passed. Danny started to rotate though the ghosts he fought. For the most parts, new faces rarely turned up. Until his school got a new counselor... who turned out to be a ghost.
"Should've that seen coming with your name, Spectra." he said to her.
She just shrugged him off. "Whatever. Not like anyone's going to believe you. You're just a kid."
"About that." He switched into his ghost form. Solomon - and Sam, because these two are on the same wave length - broke his habit to yell 'Goin' Ghost!'
Penelope the while just looked at him. Saring. Her eyes wide, her face confused. "You're Phantom? Skulker mentioned you. Honestly, I knew I would be at risk to tun into you, considering this is your haunt and all, but still..."
"What are you yapping about?" Danny thought she makes them miserable, not annoyed.
She stepped closer to him. "I was not aware you can pretend being a human. You're so good at it! You had me fooled, Phantom! How are you fooling the Fenton's? Are they really that incompetent? And why are you bothering? Sure, the town is your haunt, but..."
Her parasite – for all Daniel cares Bertram is a parasite – muttered, "Oh no, you triggered her psychology mind."
"I've never seen a ghost treating their haunt like that." she stated. "Let alone protect it. Why are you pretending to be a teenager at that?"
"Because I am a teen? Didn't you study psychology before dying?" h countered with his own question, "Aren't you supposed to be smart?"
"A teen, you say? How long did you exist?" she asked.
"Fifteen. Wait, Skulker said you ghosts focus on your time as a ghost." he answered, remembering one of Skulker's many talks about the Ghost Zone and it's inhabitants. "Uh, I actually died like half a year ago."
"So... you are really young." Her face returned to be full of shock and yet be empty at the same time. "Yet your haunt... I... I can't fight a child."
"Isn't he supposed to be in the Zone?" chimed Bertram in.
"He is where he is supposed to be." chimed Skulker in, making himself visible. "Penelope, scatter or you can fight me."
"We leave." she decided quickly, taking her parasite with him.
As she left, Danny asked, "Why is she so weird?"
"She studied psychiatry. But ignore her for now. Penelope is a chatter box, she will share your talk with other ghosts." explained Skulker, "She doesn't realize you're Liminal. This is good, I suppose."
"So, other ghosts will be weird, too." guessed Danny.
"You didn't pass your first death day. It is kinda bad manners to fight ghosts under five." stated Skulker. "Now... I don't know. Focus on the Wendigo's and Vampire's, I suppose."
Danny sighed, he has a bad feeling about this.
It was dead of the night when Danny followed a bunch of Vampires. Like his targets, he was not bothered by the cold November air. He may focus more on ghosts since the Accident, but he won't neglect his duties as a Daemon Hunter. Which means collecting intel on new gatherings of vampires and fighting them if they are San grue Vampires. Paid by vamps to hunt vamps, life really writes the best stories.
Danny watched one of the 'Pires just grab a stray cat and bit into it, drinking its blood. "Not Sangrue's, good." The Vampire then offered it to another one from the gathering. She rejected it. "A Sangrue." Realizing this, he draw a sigil circle into the air. "Are the others..."
Some from the gathering fled, while Cat Bite and another Vampire stayed behind to fight the Sangrue lady. Normal vampires can't stand Sangrue's, for a good reason at that. As the Sangrue knocked the other guy out like a light, Danny jumped into action, attacking the Sangrue.
He threw a sigil ring at her, electrocuting her lightly. Cat Bite jumped away and looked around. He then saw Danny. "Are you the local Hunter?"
"Yes!"
"Yeah, I'm not going to risk being infected by her." said Cat Bite. "Yo handle that." With that, he turned into a cat and ran off.
The Sangrue focused onto Danny. He saw in her ruby eyes she is on a blood low. She needs human blood. His blood. (Albeit shouldn't it be poisonous to them now? Then again, Sangrue's don't think when it comes to blood.) She attacked him and he made a few sigils, throwing his magic insignia's at her.
He threw an ice sigil in front of her feet. "Missed, blood bag!" Then ice spread, impaling her like she was a victim of Vlad the Impaler.
"Did that kid just take out a Sangrue?" whispered a voice in utter disbelief.
Danny's ghost sense then kicked in. Danny spotted two ghosts in an alley. Johnny 13 and Kitty. They're rather harmless.
"Hello, ghosties." said Danny. He then made the ice disappear, before incinerating the corpse of the Sangrue. All with one hand while the other was close to his Thermos. Even if he shadows Vampires, Werewolves or even nymphs, he never is without ghost equipment. Skulker made it clear he should keep his identities a secret even from the ghost. (Not that he bothers to hide it much from the ghosts.)
When he was done, Johnny and Kitty had left.
Flying though the air will always be his favorite thing to do. Even if he has to focus on the happenings in Amity Park, being unable to stare into the sky. As he flew over his school, he saw something glowing in the cafeteria window. Flying in, he saw the Lunch Lady there.
"Uh? You're back?" He heard rumors she now bothered Sidney's school. From what his locker mate said, she's good.
"Mm, looks like I don't have to wait this long for you to show up here." she said.
"You were looking for me?" With the exception of Skulker, Cujo and Sidney, he does not like it when ghosts are looking for him.
"Yes. I've noted you spend most of your time in the human world." she pointed out.
Danny just crossed his arms. "And that bothers you because?"
She put her hands on her hips like an angry mom, "Don't you remember our first meeting? I haunted this school to make sure the kids here have proper food. I am here to make sure you're properly nourished."
He huffed and crossed his arms. "What makes you think I am not properly nourished.?"
"You barely spend time in the Zone, no one recalls you spawning there, you are not a Deathless. You are young."
He sighed. He never hated his age that much before he became ghost.
"Are you aware you need to consume ectoplasm?" she asked him. "I doubt you get that stuff here."
"Actually, I do. I mean, I know, Skulker told me. And I get my fair share of ectoplasm." he told her. "Like, I just ate a Blob Ghost hours ago."
"And before that one?" she countered. "Young ghosts always assume they don't need much."
He sighed. He does need only little amounts. As he is only half a ghost. But the Lunch Lady does not know that. "I ate one yesterday. Geez, Skulker and my other mentors make sure I eat enough. Heck, even my sister does."
"Your sister died, too?"
"Lunch Lady, please leave my haunt."
Illinois has, of course, a lot of corn. Many states in the Midwest have. Wisconsin is no better, even if they are more known for their cheese. So of course Danny was bound to chase a Wendigo though corn fields. it may mean he'll be more similar to Plasmius – his middle name and eventual fate of becoming a vampire are already annoying enough - but he really would prefer a fire core when handling Wendigo's. Those fuckers die to nothing else. Besides cutting their heart out.
Then he spotted it. The boney figure, gray rotten skin, spanning over sharp bones, perched on a Scarecrow. It's beaked skull easily visible over the corn. Even more so the antlers, bloody pieces of flesh hanging from it. Wendigo's are disgusting, especially those like the one perching on the Scarecrow.
Texan Wendigo's are tiny, rat sized, but they're hard to find and chase as they fit into so many nooks and crannies. West Coast Wendigo's, while looking like gray corpses, would be a problem as they resist the cold. Albeit they can't smell shit. Not that their teleportation is annoying enough. And than this fucker, an East Coast Wendigo. The fastest runner, the strongest. It can track smell for miles.
He prepared sigils as it was only a matter of time until it attacks him. As it leaped onto the spot he sat at, he rolled away and threw everything he had at it, even the fire spells he struggles with. (Fuck his ice core.) Every time the Wendigo attacked, a sigil blew into its face, allowing Danny to get away from it.
Danny rolled behind the Scarecrow, tricking the Wendigo to mindlessly jump into it. As it was shaken by the impact, Danny took out his Hunter's knife and attacked the Wendigo, stabbing the obsidian blade right into its back. He cut the Wendigo open, before taking out the heart and halving it with the blade. he got away from the Wendigo as it combusted.
A corrupted soul left the burning body. Danny took out crystal and chanted a mantra, a mantra Sol and Horace – the weirdo that teaches him magical sigils - that forced the soul into the stone, until Danny can free it from the Wendigo curse via a ritual.
Then his ghost sense activated. He looked around the field, now chaotic and flat from his fight with the Wendigo, to see another ghost, Ember McLain.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, his hand reaching for his Thermos.
"I could ask the same." she countered.
"I was hunting a Wendigo."
"I saw..." She then vanished.
"Ah, ghosties…"
It took a surprisingly amount of time for Danny to fight a daemon, the name sake of his order. The daemon looked like a one eyed cat without a mouth. If Danny wouldn't be aware of what they can do, he would call it cute. He looked around the city. Amity Park was rather empty, a habit the town got since the ghosts came. Staying at home, safely. Also great for hunting Sangrue's, daemon's and Wendigo's.
The daemon sat on a trash can, pretending to be nothing more than a cat. If it wasn't for the one eye and weird ass fur pattern, it could fool quite a lot of people. But not Danny, Solomon is too good of a teacher for Danny to fall for that daemon.
"You suck being a cat, Daemon." he said to the cat, preparing sigils in the air.
"A Hunter? Well, then let us play." answered the Daemon despite not having a mouth. The voice sounded as if a man and a woman would speak at the same time. The white fur marks glowed, so did their eye, before it bounced to attack. In the air, it grew to the size of a bison.
Danny threw his sigil spells at it, some exploding or electrocuting it on impact. The Daemon growled in pain. As it attacked again, Danny created ice on the ground, using it to skate away. He is a natural to ice sigils, even before he had awoken his ghost core.
The Daemon followed him, only to slip on the ice and fall onto the ground. Danny didn't waste time to weave magical threads to keep it in place. When he was sure the Daemon was secure, he send a message sigil to Sol (and Horace for good measure). After that, he summoned a sword. While he could carry a better one with him, a teen running around with a sword may be very suspicious.
Unlike Alicia's home, Amity is not rural enough to pull that one off without anyone asking questions. Albeit he does have the dagger Alicia gave him, maybe he could carry that one around?
He stood in front of the Daemon and stabbed the magic projected blade into its body, hitting what could be considered to be a Daemon's heart. It screeched the most unholy noise Danny ever heard (and he heard a lot unholy noises being a ghost and daemon hunter) before it turned to dust.
"Shit, that kid killed a demon."
Danny spotted Technus, a very powerful and annoying ghost. If he won' be so crazy, Danny would respect him.
"It is a Daemon, Technus." he corrected him. Technus just flew off, by fear judging by what Danny could sense from him. "Not even an overly strong one..."
Phantom was just flying around Amity, not even a patrol, he just felt a need to fly. Burn some useless energy as it is getting late. It was relaxing until Johnny's shadow flew up to him and dragged him to a gas station. Johnny does not fly (even though he can), so if they want to talk, Danny has to go down or Shadow has to get Danny's attention.
Landing besides Johnny, Danny asked, "Sup, Johnny, is there an issue?"
"You're aware of the Ghost Hunter's son, right? Daniel Fenton?"
"Yeah? Kinda difficult not to."
"You need to keep away from him." stated Johnny. "Ember saw him take out a Wendigo, according to Technus even a daemon! Kitty and I watched him killing a Sangrue Vampire! Imagine what he could do to a ghost!
"What are you talking about?" asked Phantom.
"All I am saying is, he is dangerous!" said Johnny. "The Fenton boy is nothing like his parents. You need to avoid him."
Danny tried not to laugh. Johnny told him to stay away from himself. "Oh really, why that?"
"He lives in your haunt! You should know!" yelled Johnny. "He took out a demon! Wendigo's on the regular, according to Skulker. If the kid can take out a demon, sure he can make a ghost fade."
Kitty chimed in, all worried. "We're just saying, maybe you should go into the Zone more often. Being in the vicinity of that boy isn't save for a young ghost like you."
"Relax, I'll be save." reassured her Danny.
"But unlike his parents, he is actually competent!" argued Kitty. "I know you're a young ghost, but listen to us!"
Danny sighed. "Guys, most people are more competent than the adult Fenton's. And the other Danny? He won't harm me, believe me. He isn't after ghosts."
"Phantom!" yelled Kitty. "Why can't you understand!"
"Danny Fenton won't hurt me. Or you for that matter." said Danny. He then sighed and turned human. "You're idiots. My identities aren't even that good. Color swap. Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom? I half-assed the names in panic."
"Oh." said Johnny. "So, you're not a needy baby ghost-"
Danny kicked him in the nuts. "I may not make you fade, but never insult a Daemon Hunter." There was a noise. "Sounds like a Texan Wendigo. See ya, dimwits!" With that, he ran off. Leaving Johnny on the ground, Shadow hiding behind Kitty and Kitty just standing there.