Work Text:
'What does the green light symbolize to Gatsby? To Nick?'
Danny had skimmed the entirety of the test, before starting, hoping to answer the easy questions first, and then come back to the more time consuming parts.
Or, he had tried to, getting stuck on one of the questions before he had even began.
The green light at the end of Daisy's dock.
Danny knew this, he knew he did, even if he had only skimmed the book, he had studied the Sparknotes, he knew the green light was important, something about want? Maybe?
But as he looked at the lines dedicated to his answer, all Danny could think about was the green glow of the portal, his life changed forever.
Maybe he could write about the ways Nick and Gatsby's lives changed because of what the green light symbolized without bringing up ghosts?
Danny gasped, his ghost sense activating.
"Really?" Danny groaned "Now?" He placed his forehead against his test, pretending that if he closed his eyes and wished hard enough, it might go away.
"Mr. Fenton," Mr Lancer seemed to teleport to Danny's desk to reprimand him, "no talking during testing" he narrowed his eyes at Danny's largely blank test, "and might I suggest, osmosis is not an effective test taking strategy."
"Uh, Mr Lancer, I actually need to use the restroom?"
"No leaving the classroom before finishing the exam."
"What? But I gotta go."
"You were instructed to go before class. You may leave when you finish."
A crash echoed in the distance.
The kids closest to the window looked outside with a gasp.
Mr Lancer narrowed his eyes, walking towards the window to check it out himself.
Someone screamed.
Danny threw his test on Mr Lancer's desk and fled the classroom.
Danny ran towards the commotion, saving his energy for flight for later.
"Wow, I knew my grandma's jello salad was bad enough to kill a man, but I didn't realize it was dead enough to become a ghost," he quipped to himself as he caught sight of the ghost, less recognizable person/thing than a large amorphous blob.
Largely transparent but with a familiar green hue pulsing throughout it, the gelatinous blob lumbered down the street. As Danny watched it approached a car, and not stopping in its path, sucked it into itself, growing larger as it did.
"Well, at least you're slow," Danny ran closer, uncapping his thermos as he did, maybe if he made it back to class fast enough he could blame his 'fear of ghosts' and Mr Lancer would let him finish taking the exam.
He activated the thermos, and the blob— not of its own volition— slid closer to Danny.
A sound more felt than heard rang through the air, not unlike a drawn out annoyed school bell. The blob's form rippled and sputtered, a blast of goo water-hosing out of its body and hitting Danny with all the force of a charging bull.
Danny— also unwillingly— flew backwards into a building, the thermos slipping from his grasp as he did.
A part of the blob bubbled up, a tendril elongating and swinging for him,Danny jumped, willing for flight to work with him and taking to the air.
Weightless and uncoordinated he barrel rolled through the air, the tendril slamming into the wall where he was a moment later with a wet splat, gooey chunks splashing off and splattering the wall.
The tendril pulled back, slowly returning to the rest of the ooze, the splatter vibrating off the wall and slowly following suite.
Danny cursed, and dove for the thermos. He heard a sound like a 'ptoo' and looked up to see the ooze spit out a car tire at him, the car he'd seen it absorb disassembling and dissolving in it. Danny dodged desperately, overbalancing in the air and diving off course in his panic. He caught a streetlight to the gut and fell out of the sky with all the grace of a wet handful of sand, and the asphalt greeted him with force and without hesitation.
Danny groaned, pushing himself off the ground, and looking up just in time to see the ghost amble over and absorb the thermos.
He cursed again, his shoulders slumping, his eyes following the thermos as it floated, as if on a current, further into the blob.
Huh, a current?
His train of thought crashed as he rolled, dodging another tendril strike without thought.
No time to rest.
He pulled his legs up under him, hopeful to leap back into the air and take back his maneuverability.
He face-planted instead, his hands having sunk to his wrists in the asphalt.
"Shit." Danny cursed as he processed his predicament.
C'mon powers, work with me here.
He pulled against the ground, willing his hands to free themselves from the street.
The gelatinous ghost spat out a garbage can lid at him.
Danny ducked, as well as he was able, the lid scraping against his back, and his arms sinking further into the ground.
The ooze seemed to stare and process that Danny hadn't fully dodged, the next swipe coming from the ooze itself, a powerful tendril strike that hit Danny like a tsunami wave hitting a sand castle.
Danny crumpled, his body whip-lashing into the street from the force of the blow.
His shoulder screamed at the stress of anchoring him to the ground under the strength of the recoil— and Danny followed suite— he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and instinctively pulled his hands up to block the next blow, unintentionally managing to pull the pavement up with him, his arms still encased to mid forearm, pebbles and gravel dust sprinkling from his arms at the impact.
The tendril pulled back, almost questioningly.
Danny looked down at his hands, "alright," with a smirk he knocked his pavement encased fists together, "let's dance."
He flew towards the jelly ghost, slamming a fist into it.
The surface rippled, moving with Danny's punch and Danny pushed the filmy skin in before his fist slid inside the ooze with a wet plop, sucking his arm in up to his shoulder. He pried his other hand into the blob, stabilizing himself against the side of the ghost that was just growing larger as it ate whatever debris crossed its path.
The gravel loosened around his hands, dissolving faster than the car had in the ghost. He scanned the debris drifting in the ooze. Their paths weren't random floating, or drifting based on the ooze's movement like Danny had first thought, their paths moved with a purpose around the center, the ghostly green shone throughout the goo, but originated from a small uneven sphere rotating in the center. And— There!— Two well placed ecto blasts, which moved slower than he'd like inside the ghost, one to blast a hole on the other side, and one to knock the thermos off course and out of the acidic gelatin. Danny pulled back, his suit smoking from it's contact with the inside of the blob, and dashed for the thermos.
He scooped it up, the blob screaming behind him, and he put on a burst of speed to put some distance between him and the ghost. He threw ecto blasts behind him as cover fire, disappointed but not surprised when the ghost wobbled with the impact, but didn't seem more than annoyed.
The jello beast absorbed another car as it advanced towards him, growing larger.
He groaned internally, but now Danny knew, while it moved like jello, the inside was liquid, or liquid like, which gave him an idea.
He blinked out of sight, holding onto invisibility like a drowning man holding his breath. He changed direction and darted up towards the power lines and inspected the thermos. It smoked slightly, but it wasn't in there as long as the car had been when it had started dissolving, and being made of anti-ghost technology seemed to have helped at least slow its decay.
At least, Danny hoped so.
Not seeing anything worrying he clipped the thermos to his belt and dropped his invisibility. He lounged in the air, propping himself cautiously on the power line.
"Yo!" Danny yelled, goading the ghost towards him. "You moldy piece of jello! I'm over here!"
It 'turned', and lumbered towards him, a shrill annoyed— and annoying— whine emanating from it.
"Please work." Danny muttered under his breath, pleading to whatever force was listening. "Please, please, please work."
Danny was making assumptions, he was hoping, a half thought out plan based on guesswork and determination.
It shot a steering wheel at him, but that wouldn't work for what Danny was planning, and he ducked with a taunting laugh.
The ooze lunged for him, multiple tendrils shooting out and surrounding him.
There we go.
He waited for the right moment, and as the tendrils converged on him Danny smirked. With forced confidence he didn't fully feel he gripped the power line, drew ecto in his hands, and burned through it.
He grasped the two sparking ends, and shoved them into the ghost.
It screamed, Danny clenched his teeth, intimately understanding the sentiment.
He's caught in the crossfire. He hadn't let himself fear that he would be, hadn't let himself hope that he wouldn't be.
But as long as this worked, as long as it hurt it more than it hurt him, it would be worth it.
The world flashed, bright bursts alternating electric white and ghost green, until with a pop the power cut out and the ghost splattered like a water balloon.
Danny let go of the dead power lines and fell to the ground.
His muscles ached, his veins burned. Green still colored his vision, and— who would ever want to deal with this?
His breath came out in a rasping cough, green phlegm and ectoplasm splattering on the ground beneath him.
A wet sound reminded him it wasn't over yet.
He uncapped the thermos, and sucked in the squirming core of the gelatin ghost, the rest of the pieces evaporating as he did.
Danny capped the thermos.
Relief washed over him as his adrenaline fled, his transformation crashing over him as he collapsed, the sound of his name distant in his mind.
Alertness hit Danny like freight train, the smell of the popcorn Tucker held in front of him like smelling salts motivating him to full consciousness. "Wasgoinonwhereami?" Danny mumbled eloquently as he sat up.
"My house," Sam answered, pushing him back against the recliner in her home theater.
"What are you guys doing here?"
Sam raised an eyebrow at him, "this is my house."
"Not that, is school out already?"
"Dude, there was an emergency early release due to the ghost attack. And the power outage you caused taking it down." Tucker said around a mouth full of popcorn.
"Ew, chew with your mouth closed you dog."
Sam slapped his hand away when Danny reached for the popcorn.
"Nuh uh, you get this bag of popcorn."
Danny accepted the bag she offered, eyeing the two bags as he ate a piece.
"Sam. This is the blandest popcorn I have ever had."
She rolled her eyes. "You fell unconscious after the fight with the roided out blob ghost."
"Really? I thought I just fast traveled from school to your place? Like in a game video."
Tucker interrupted Sam's retort, "Sam is saying you're on concussion watch dude. And you aren't helping your case. You should eat because you haven't had lunch and you just got your ass handed to you, but blander is better if you're nauseous."
"I'm not nauseous."
Sam glared and retorted sharply, "alright then, you can have Tucker's butter cheese monstrosity-"
"Hey!" Tucker clutched his popcorn to his chest.
"But! If you eat it and throw up, you're cleaning it up"
Tucker laughed at Sam's ultimatum and shoved more popcorn in his mouth.
"What if I don't eat and I throw up?"
"Then we'll help you clean up."
"You guys have terrible bedside manner." Danny mumbled as he began nibbling on his bag of popcorn.
Sam and Tucker made exasperated eye contact over him.
"So. What are we watching?" Danny asked around a mouthfull of popcorn.
"Uh. We aren't."
"What? No movie? We're in the theater room!"
"And you're on concussion watch! Minimal screen time!"
"You guys are so mean to me." Danny melted further into his recliner.
"Right. Cause the worst you've been through today is us vetoing movie night." Tucker rolled his eyes.
"But!" Sam said with a feral grin, "as an alternative we picked out something to listen to! I'm so excited for you guys to check out this podcast-"
"Your cruelty knows no bounds!"
Tucker nudged Danny, faux whispering, "I looked it up when she suggested it, it's a horror podcast, the first two seasons are supposed to be reminiscent of The Thing."
"I like The Thing."
"I know you do, who doesn't?" Sam said excitedly as she pulled up the podcast, "now get ready to go to Svalsbard!"
"Svalsbard?" Danny turned to Tucker, raising an eyebrow and asking under his breath, "isn't that the seed bank place?"
"Pretty sure that's how Sam found the show, but it's not about that."
Sam hit play.
"Several days ago I came into the full collection of documents and recordings that I will be presenting here. Although many of the recordings and documents are dated, some lack explanation for where they fit into the constructed timeline. Additionally, due to the multiple viewpoints present, I have taken it upon myself to edit and sort documents or recording into appropriate points, in the hope of presenting a fuller picture."
Danny narrowed his eyes, "is this? A found footage podcast?"
Sam paused the podcast. "If you don't shut up I'll put on the Great Gatsby audio book instead."
That was probably a more responsible idea, "Sam nooo, I love found footage, I just didn't know what to expect when you hit play…"
Tucker elbowed him softly, "dude, she's mostly bluffing, she's too excited for us to get to the polar bear bit to stop when she has a captive audience."
"There are polar bears?"
"Oh, you're going to wish there were polar bears!" Sam grinned and hit play again.
Tucker snorted and began messing around on his PDA.
Danny nibbled on his popcorn and let the voices of the show wash over him, letting the presence of his friends comfort him.
This was what he fought ghosts for, his green light on the dock.