For Phic Phight 2021! (not completely finished but AAAAfinshnowwww)
lowkey Dannymay Day 2 Portal, as well
“That portal is awesome!” Sam says. “Would be so cool if it worked.”
Danny goes down into the lab that night to try a few things—it doesn’t quite go as he planned.(aka a no one knows au) (Dey’s prompt!)
Danny really wished Sam and Tucker had stayed a bit longer that day. With them around, maybe he wouldn’t have wandered in that portal like an idiot. In his own defense, how could he have known that little panel in there had been an on switch? Who’d put that inside a reality tearing portal device? Jack and Maddie Fenton, apparently. He was just lucky the thing hadn’t killed him! Or at least, managed to overdo it to the point he…survived somehow? He hadn’t really decided what that portal had done exactly. Waking in a pained heap, bathed in a haunting green glow from the now active portal was confusing enough. Looking up and seeing a stranger in the reflective panel nearby just made it worse. Of course he didn’t take it well, or know what to think. If he’d become a ghost, his parents would freak. Fixing their portal by turning into some…evil human hating creature probably wasn’t in the plan. At least his terror somehow managed to get him to become human again. Heartbeat and everything. He hoped it had just been a weird one off, or he’d imagined it from trauma. Until he started falling through things. He died so hard that he got his life back? The portal only managed to kill half of him? He was dead but ‘imitating humans’ was his specialty? Some human that just got to use his ‘soul’ or whatever to be a ghost early? Sam and Tucker might have had guesses- but he knew one thing right away. Whatever happened, he wasn’t all human anymore. He couldn’t tell them. What if they decided that was just too weird? What if they blamed themselves for not being there- thought they’d killed him? It wasn’t worth the risk. Besides, he couldn’t let Mom and Dad find out, so he’d be trying to hide any of the new weirdness anyway. Might as well just always do it. Maybe the weird new abilities would just go away. They hadn’t. They just forced him to think about it to keep both feet on the ground. He could deal.
Summary: Danny has been hunting ghosts for a while now. He has been ever since they ruined his life and a mysterious package arrived with everything he needed to exact his revenge.
TW: Character Death!
You can read on AO3 or down below the cut.
Danny slowly slid the window open. He knew if he went too fast it would squeak. Just as he nearly had it wide enough for him to fit through, the door behind him opened.
“Danny?” his mom called out with a hint of warning in her voice.
He sighed and slid his backpack off of his shoulder. “Yeah?” he said with as much disinterest as he could muster. Which was a lot, surprisingly.
“What are you doing?”
“Opening the window? Am I not allowed fresh air now?” he said with a scoff. Could she just hurry up with the lecture already? He was missing out on his patrols and if he waited too long that ghost girl would get all the good ones.
She crossed her arms and scowled right back at him, “Why do you need your backpack to open a window? And where’s the screen?”
“It fell out.” That was true enough. She didn’t need to know that it was because he had kicked it out about a month ago.
“And the backpack?”
“I just hadn’t taken it off yet. Anything else you want to interrogate me over?”
She sighed and all the previous agitation drained out of her, “Why are you so angry? You never used to be this angry.”
“Well, maybe it’s because my life sucks?! Did you ever think of that? Maybe moving to this terrible apartment complex at the beginning of the school year wasn’t such a great idea?”
“You know we couldn’t afford to stay in our old house after what happened.”
“Yeah, but you could have tried a little harder to find a place with a few less rats, don’t you think?”
“Daniel!”
“Or maybe this is just who I am now?” He snatched his bag off the ground and pushed the window the rest of the way up. He didn’t care if she saw anymore. He just had to get out and shoot something.
“What are you-? Get back in here this instant!” His mom yelled as he slipped out the window and stood on the fire escape.
“You don’t want me to be angry here, so I’m going out.”
“Danny please, just come back in. It’s not safe out here at night.”
He didn’t bother replying. The only words in his mind were cruel and he didn’t want to make this worse.
He took the fire escape stairs two at a time and jumped from the ladder to the dirty sidewalk below. He quickly walked a few blocks until he got to the corner store, then he slipped into the alley and put his hunter suit on.
The technology used to make the gear was so beyond what he even thought was possible. He still had yet to meet the person who had sent it to him, but it worked so well he hardly cared if he ever would.
There was a ping on his visor HUD and he couldn’t help the smirk that stretched across his features. That looked like a big one. Perfect.
===============================================
Due to him staying out much longer than necessary for ghost hunting patrols he accidentally slept through a test and got in trouble for fighting when he decided to stand up for himself for once.
Why he got in trouble for not wanting to be shoved inside his own locker for the hundredth time was beyond him.
“I can’t believe you kicked Dash in the balls.”
Oh yeah, that’s why he was in trouble.
He laughed, “Well if he hadn’t made it so easy I wouldn’t have been able to.”
“Okay, but when did you become such a badass?” Tucker asked as the two sat in the empty classroom and waited for their detention to start.
Danny just shrugged.
He hadn’t told his friends about the ghost hunting yet. He almost did, but when he heard Sam going off about ‘Ghost Rights’ he figured it would just be easier to keep it a secret.
“Well maybe tone it down next time? I thought the plan was to be geeks in school and then take over the world when we graduate college and all the dumb jocks have to work for us?”
“That may be your plan, but I don’t think I’m patient enough for that.”
Tucker rolled his eyes before quickly pocketing his phone as Mr. Lancer entered the room.
He takes his sweet time making it to his desk before looking over the files in front of him, “Tucker Foley. Repeated loitering by the girl’s locker rooms and having your phone in the classroom.” he sighed and looked at Tucker with a disapproving frown before looking at Danny’s report. “Daniel Fenton. Sleeping in class. Talking back to faculty. Fighting with other students? Mr. Fenton, I know you’re going through a rough patch right now.”
Whatever he was about to say Danny didn’t want to hear it. “Save it. If I wanted a pity party, I would have thrown one myself.”
Mr. Lancer slapped the papers back onto his desk. “I was hoping some positive reinforcement would do you some good but clearly that’s not what you want.”
“How is getting detention for standing up to bullying ‘positive reinforcement’?”
“Danny,” Tucker whispered through clenched teeth, “stop! You’re gonna make it worse.”
“What could possibly be worse?”
“Suspension! You’re suspended for the next two weeks! Hopefully, that will get your attitude back in check.”
“You can’t do that!”
“Actually, as Vice Principal, I very much can. Now, wait here while I call your parents.”
Danny clenched his fists and glared at the floor. This wasn’t fair. Nothing was fair and everything was stupid.
If he couldn’t go to school what the heck was he supposed to do all day? He certainly wasn’t going to sit around in the apartment.
===============================================
Oddly enough, news of his suspension gave his dad the idea to visit his old college friend. “Sure I haven’t seen the man in years, but I’m sure he’d love to have us. It is our 20-year reunion this year, maybe he’d like to catch up?”
“Are you going to call him first? Before you just show up?” Jazz asked looking up from her book. It was a valid question giving their dad’s tendency to just do things.
“No need! He sent this invitation just the other day. It got lost in the mail for a bit due to the move, but here it is!” he said pulling the invite out with a flourish. “Nothing like a good old road trip to put the mind at ease!”
“Wisconson? That’s at least a four-hour drive from here.”
“Yeah! It’s going to be great! Especially if we see any cool attractions on the way!” his dad continued oblivious to his daughter’s distress.
“You know, this might be a good thing for us.” his mom said as she looked over the flyer. “I’ll give him a call and see if he minds if we all come.”
“I can’t believe that you get in trouble and now I have to waste my weekend on some dumb family road trip.” Jazz grumbled mostly to herself before sticking her nose back in her book.
Danny just rolled his eyes and went to his room. Apparently, he had some packing to do.
===============================================
They ended up leaving much later than they had intended because his mom wasn’t able to get off of work any sooner than 6 ‘o clock. Because of their late departure, they had to sleep crammed into a sketchy motel. If they still had the RV they could have slept there, but that got sold with the house and all their inventions.
The sleepover did reveal some very interesting bit of news that their parents had decided to wait until the very last second to mention. Apparently, this mysterious old college friend was none other than Vlad Masters.
The name meant nothing to Danny until Jazz started going on about how he was some super successful billionaire or whatever.
That was not something he would have expected to hear.
It was made even weirder when they said he had a lab accident when they were in college that sounded an awful like it might have been his dad’s fault.
No wonder they got shut down.
Danny can’t help but wonder what his life would have been like if they had built the portal in the basement as they had wanted, instead of renting the lab space at Axion. He’d probably would have gotten hurt somehow. He’s honest with himself enough to admit that he’s clumsy and accident-prone.
Or at least he used to be.
Now he’s always ready.
===============================================
Meeting Vlad was, interesting, to say the least.
The man was both obsessed with the Green Bay Packers and also Danny’s mom.
Jazz said it was fine as long as mom said no, and she was usually right about things when it came to other people so he let it slide.
He was watching the reunion party get set up when Vlad came up beside him, “Can I have a word with you?” he asked in his smooth rich guy voice.
“Uh, sure?” Danny agreed and followed Vlad out of the room and down the hall.
They walked for a while in complete silence and just when Danny was about to say something they entered a laboratory.
“So, how is the equipment fairing? Everything working properly?” Vlad asked casually.
“Equipment?” Danny asked when the only equipment he owned was his secret ghost hunting gear.
Vlad turns to face him with a smirk Danny can’t quite place. “Yes, you’re ghost hunting equipment.”
“You know about that?”
“Who do you think gave it to you?”
Danny hesitated and realized maybe he should have looked into what Dlav Co. was after all.
“How many well-off individuals with a background in ghost studies do you think there are?” he chuckles, “Or did it not occur to you to know your benefactor?”
Danny frowned not at all liking how this guy was talking. “If you wanted me to know who you were, why didn’t you just say so when you sent it to me?”
“And risk anyone finding out I’ve given dangerous and experimental weapons to a fourteen-year-old? No thank you.”
“Then why give them to me at all?”
“Because you're the most capable ghost hunter I've ever seen!” he praised as he put a hand on Danny’s shoulder as he steered him further into the lab. “You’re a natural in the field. Quick battle reflexes and amazing adaptability. It’s like you were born for this.”
“You really think so?”
An adult saying nice things about Danny was so rare, but this was something else. Was this guy actually proud of him? What he’d give for his own parents to be even half this proud of him.
“Of course, dear boy.” He let go of Danny as they approached a large workbench, “I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of gathering your equipment.”
Danny looked to where Vlad was gesturing and saw that that was his suit and all of his guns. Even the hoverboard was there too.
He hadn’t brought his ghost hunting gear with him. He distinctly remembers leaving that at home. In his room. Under his bed.
Should he be worried about that?
“I thought, after you’ve been working so hard lately, it could use some upgrades. Don’t you think?”
“Oh, okay. Cool.” Hard to say no when it was already here.
“Excellent.” He clapped his hands together once and spun on his heel, “Well I should be done with all of this in just a few days so I’ll just send them back once they are ready.”
Danny wasn’t super excited to be without his gear for so long, but this guy was being so generous. Danny just accepted the terms.
“Perfect. Now run along. I have a few things I need to attend to before all the other guests get here.”
===============================================
The reunion party was in full swing and Danny was starting to regret not just staying with Jazz in the movie room. Watching a bunch of grown-ups jump around to weird music because there was absolutely no one his age around to talk to was getting old.
He spotted Vlad from across the room as he walked with one of the waiters back into the kitchen.
Danny sighed and wondered if he would get in trouble if he just followed him in there too.
Just as he was setting his empty punch glass back on the table a scream broke out. He turned to the sound and instinctively reached for his gear.
Which he didn’t have.
He sighed and hoped that maybe it wasn’t ghost-related, they were so far from Amity that it couldn’t possibly be that, right?
He was wrong. Because of course, he was.
The ballroom was emptying out surprisingly fast and it didn’t take a lot to see why. Floating several feet in the air was his dad.
He was shouting nonsense about how he needed to pay for his sins as he flew about the room.
Danny bit his lip and looked around to see if there was anything in the room he could use to help.
He was about to grab one of the serving trays to use as a shield, Captain America style, but his mom gripped his arm and started to drag him out of the room with the rest of the crowd.
“Sweetie, we have to go! Where is your sister?”
“She’s in the theater,” he said pointing towards it as he tried to slip out of her grip.
“Good, let’s go!” before he could protest further she simply picked him up, slung him over her shoulder, and started running.
“Mom?! Put me down! We can’t just leave him!”
“I’m sorry sweetie, but it’s not safe. We need to leave.”
“But mom, it’s a ghost! We have to get it out of him!”
His mom slowed down in her retreat and held him in front of her, “And how do you suppose we do that? I don’t have any ghost hunting gear, do you?”
Danny bit back his retort. Of course, he couldn’t say that he did. He couldn’t say that it was in fact, here.
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t take a guess at where some could be.
“Maybe Vlad has some? He went to school for the same thing you did, right?” Danny said in a rush as he was finally able to wiggle out of her grip.
“Danny wait!”
It was too late, he was already off back to the lab to get the weapons his mom didn’t know he knew how to use.
He slid into the room and to his utter horror, all of his gear was completely dismantled. Exposed wires and opened components everywhere. When the heck did Vlad even have time to do all this while he was hosting a party?
Danny scrambled to find something, anything that was even remotely usable but the more he looked, the more everything just blurred together into a haze of black and red electronics.
There was another scream.
His mother.
He ditched the room and ran towards the sound hoping he wasn’t too late to help her.
It wasn’t his mom that needed help.
Outside of the ballroom was a large balcony that overlooked the front lawn. From there you could see the most stars Danny had ever seen outside of astral photography.
The stars weren’t what was holding his attention tonight.
Down below the balcony, on the hard unforgiving asphalt of the driveway was his dad.
Summary: The accident sent Danny to the hospital due to the damage to his eyes.
You can read on AO3 or down below the cut
Danny idly moved his hand back and forth over the blanket on his lap. He was trying not to be impatient, but he really wanted the doctor to hurry up already.
“Okay Danny, I’m going to take the blindfold off now. I’m going to need you to lean forward just a little bit, okay?” he asked and Danny complied, eager to be freed from his prison of gauze and darkness.
As the gauze made its final orbit, Danny took a steadying breath before opening his eyes.
He only found more darkness.
“Are the lights off?” he asked, hoping it was that or maybe his eyes were taking a bit to adjust.
“Yes, we didn’t want to overstimulate you.”
He hummed in acknowledgment and leaned back against the pillows. “I was kind of looking forward to seeing something.”
“Is it too dark?” the doctor asked. Something about his tone seemed off. It seemed almost worried.
“Yeah. Is there a way to turn on one light or something?”
He heard something being written down, “We can try that. Just a moment.”
Danny heard the doctor walk away so he turned in the general direction and waited for the click of the switch.
“This light is on a dimmer and I’m going to gradually turn it up. Just let me know if it’s too much and I’ll turn it back down.”
“Okay,” Danny nodded.
He waited for the light to come on.
He waited.
Waited.
Why was it taking so long?
“Danny?”
“Yeah?”
“How many fingers am I holding up?”
“I don’t know? Maybe turn the light on and I can tell you?”
There was the click of several switches and Danny could hear the buzz of fluorescent lights above him.
But there was nothing but darkness.
“I’m so sorry.”
That’s not something he wanted his doctor to say.
He thought it was bad enough that a stupid accident in his parent’s lab had him in the hospital overnight.
But this? It was so much worse.
“But I can’t be blind.” His voice hitched as he tried to keep his composure, “I want to be an astronaut. You got to get your pilot’s license first. I can’t be blind. I can’t!”
He couldn’t keep it together any longer so he asked the doctor to go away. He didn’t want to cry in front of them.
Why did his future have to rely so heavily on sight? You can’t touch stars. You can’t hear them either.
Why did the thing he loved the most have to go away?
He was only trying to be helpful and now it felt like his whole life was over.
He felt so stupid for crying about this. He wasn’t dead. He should just be thankful he wasn’t dead.
There were tons of people in the world who were blind and they got along just fine. This was just something he’d have to get used to. Something new to learn.
He thought he had it all out of his system but he lost it all over again when his parents found out. The second he heard his mom sniffle he was back at it with the waterworks.
The best the doctors could figure, and there were definitely multiple doctors that had come to poke and prod him once they figured out what happened, was that the light from the machine his parents made was just so bright it fried his eyes.
They all agreed that it was permanent.
Part of him hoped they were wrong about that. Part of him wondered if maybe it was just temporary. Maybe his vision would come back, but not all at once? Maybe he’d have to wear glasses like Tucker for a while. Heck, maybe they’d have the same prescription.
He wasn’t really sure how glasses worked, but he wouldn’t mind finding out if it would get him out of the dark.
He didn’t like how he had to stay in the hospital to relearn how to walk. He knew he was clumsy before, but without his eyes, he was even worse.
They got him a cane so he could waggle that around instead of flailing his arms. He hadn’t realized that it was so obvious.
He also had to get used to people just suddenly being nearby. Sometimes he’d just be sitting and zoning out and someone would just start talking to him, or worse, touch him, and he’d freak out because he didn’t know they were there.
Thankfully, his family learned pretty quickly not to scare him like that. His Dad sometimes forgot to announce himself, but he made so much noise just existing that it didn’t really matter. His mom sometimes forgot to say hello, but she always made sure to warn him before touching him. Jazz was the best at it.
At first, she sometimes went a little overboard by announcing literally everything, even the movement of others, but he did appreciate it.
===============================================
It was his last day in the hospital that his friends were finally able to visit him.
“Now remember you have to tell him where you are or if you want to touch him before you do it.” Jazz whispered to someone at the doorway.
“Jazz you’re supposed to say hello first.” he teased knowing she was just about to.
“I was!” she pouted with a little huff. “Anyway, Hello Danny.”
He stuck his tongue out in her general direction as he waved.
“No fair! I can’t stick my tongue out at you.”
“Sure you can! Just make a lot of noise when you do it!” he gave his best example by humming loudly with his tongue out.
Jazz snorted.
Or maybe that wasn’t her?
“Who’s here?” he asked and wondered why he didn’t just wait for her to introduce them before he teased her.
“Sam and Tucker,” she answered. “You can go sit in the chairs over there if you want,” she said to his friends who were still awfully quiet.
“You know you can talk to me right?” he said once he heard them take their seats. “I’m blind, not deaf.”
“You’re taking this rather well,” Sam said, sounding oddly timid.
“I have had a week to deal with it. Plus you know me? I don’t like being bummed out.”
“No one likes being bummed out, Danny.” she retorted sounding more like her usual self.
“Says the goth.” He teased right back.
Something hit him in the arm and he tensed.
“Oh shoot! I’m sorry! I forgot!” Sam quickly apologized.
“You forgot?! Dude, we’ve been in here for barely a minute!” Tucker yelled through what sounded like clenched teeth.
“Guys!” He really didn’t want them fighting. Not now. And definitely not over him. “I’m fine. She just surprised me, is all. Plus, I did kind of deserve it, so there’s that.” he shrugged it off with a smile and just hoped they relaxed.
It was quiet for a few moments.
Then a couple more.
“Could you let me know if we’re good or not? I am literally in the dark over here.”
Both his friends quickly reassured him that they were fine.
Then Tucker snickered, “Wait, did you just make a pun?”
“Of course!” Danny laughed. He was even happier when they laughed along with him.
With the tension finally broken the trio slipped back into their normal rhythm. It was easy for Danny to imagine that they were just hanging out in his room at home.
There was a knock on the door and Danny turned to the sound, “Who is it?”
“Dude, who are you talking to?” Tucker asked.
“Someone knocked on the door.”
“Who did?”
Danny sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “I don’t know, Tucker, that’s why I asked, who is it.”
“Well, I didn’t hear a knock.” Tucker retorted.
“Boys!” Sam interrupted, “Danny do you want me to go check?”
“Yes! Thank you.”
Danny heard the creak of the chair as Sam got up and he followed the sound of her boots as they made their way to the door.
The door opened.
After a few moments, it closed again before Sam made her way back over to Danny’s bedside. “I didn’t see anyone. Maybe you just mistook one of the nurse carts rolling past.”
Danny furrowed his eyebrows in frustration, “I know what a cart sounds like and that wasn’t a cart!”
“Geez sorry.” Sam apologized sarcastically as she dropped back into her chair.
Danny sighed, “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
He pulled his knees in and just hoped he didn’t piss off one of his only two friends. It’s not like making new friends was going to happen.
He was only frustrated because that wasn’t the first time that had happened. He’d been hearing knocks at his door only for no one to be there all week. It was just often enough to be annoying but not so frequent for him to ignore it.
He thought about telling them about it. Or maybe even ask them to leave the door open in case it really was the cart sounding odd when it passed.
He almost did.
But the knock came again.
“That’s it!” Danny got off his bed in a huff and walked straight to the door, or the general approximation of where he was thinking the door was, anyway. He hadn’t exactly memorized the room yet.
His hip bumped the tray next to his bed, but it was on wheels so it rolled out of the way as he course-corrected.
His friends called for him, both to come back and to be careful, but he didn’t care right now. He needed to find out who was at the door. To prove that he wasn’t hearing things.
He hit the door a bit sooner than he was expecting and it took him a moment of feeling around to find the door handle, but he did it. He took a step back as he opened it to make sure he didn’t bean himself with the thing.
Then he just stopped and stared because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Mostly it was because he was seeing.
Everything was still dark, like he existed in a void with no discernable up or down, but now there was something else. A woman.
Something about her was off, besides the fact that he shouldn’t be able to see her. At first, he thought she was standing on her toes, but then he realized she didn’t actually have feet. Her legs just sort of morphed together into a long wispy tail as it tapered down towards the ground. He looked back up and noticed her short red hair that defied gravity along with the rest of her. He also couldn’t help but notice that the edges of her seemed blurry like she wasn’t really there.
She wasn’t facing him so he had no idea what her face looked like. She was currently knocking on the door across the hall from his.
He slowly closed his door and leaned against it.
There was a soft rhythmic tapping on the door behind him. Like someone was drumming their fingers against it one at a time.
“I knew you could hear me,” whispered a voice from the other side of the door. “Poor little thing. All alone in the dark.” her sugary-sweet voice sent shivers up his spine. “I could help you, you know? All you have to do is let me in.”
His legs shook so bad he slid down the door until he was sitting. Somehow he just knew she wasn’t asking permission to enter the room. She could come in anytime she wanted, he wouldn’t even need to open the door.
No, she was asking for entry into something else. Something much more important.
This was the sort of thing his parents had warned him about all his life.
For once something they taught him was finally paying off.
He clenched his fists and squeezed his eyes tight. He had to be firm. He couldn’t let her, it, trick him into agreeing. “No.” he opened his eyes and the darkness didn’t seem so dark now, “I don’t need you.”
She hissed and scratched at the door. “You can’t get rid of me that easily!”
“Go away!”
The door rattled in its frame in response to his outburst and he frantically crawled away from it.
He bumped his head into something and he screamed because everything was just too much.
“Danny! Danny! It’s just me! Sam! I got you!” Sam pulled him into her arms and he clung to her as he shook.
“Hey, I’m coming over too, man,” Tucker said as he came next to Danny and hugged him too.
The trio sat on the floor huddled together until Danny finally stopped shaking and could breathe regularly.
He relaxed his death grip and leaned back with a sigh.
“What the heck was that?” Tucker braved and Danny could hear the click of his phone being unlocked. “I mean, I already didn’t trust this place, but that was something else.”
“Wait,” Danny turned towards Tucker and tilted his head in confusion, “What was that like for you?”
“Well at first I thought you were about to flip out over nothing.”
“Gee thanks.”
“So I pulled out my phone to see if I could catch something funny.”
“You recorded that?!”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t going to send it to anybody.”
Danny crossed his arms and huffed in annoyance, “Well?”
“It’s just that once you started talking, things got weird.”
“Weird how?”
Danny heard his own voice through the tiny speakers of Tucker’s phone, but Tucker just talked over it, “Well I thought I was seeing things at first, but I could have sworn your eyes changed color.”
“You saw it too?” Sam asked as she shifted, presumably to get closer to Tucker and watch the video. “Yeah, right there! Pause it!”
Tucker tapped the screen right as past Danny was yelling at the ghost to go away. “Whoa, they just turned green.”
“And they are glowing,” Sam added.
Which to Danny, her addition was a tad more alarming than a slight hue shift, “Glowing?”
“Who were you talking to anyway?” Sam asked, ignoring Danny’s worry.
“I don’t know.” Danny stammered, “There was this woman. I think it was a ghost.”
“Why do you think it was a ghost?” Tucker asked as he set his phone on the floor.
“Because she was floating?”
“You saw her?” Sam asked in awe.
Danny nodded.
“That’s crazy,” Tucker whispered just as awestruck.
That only made Danny more self-conscious. Did they not believe him? Did they think he was nuts now? Had they always thought he was crazy?
“I can’t believe you can see ghosts! That’s so cool! What’d she look like?” Sam asked eagerly as her hands slapped onto the tile and he assumed she must be leaning towards him.
“You believe me?”
“Of course we do!” She answered quickly, “isn’t that right?”
The sound of something, or someone, nudging into someone else was followed by a grunt from Tucker, “Yeah.”
Jack knows exactly what it’s like being a dumb guy with eyes for a kick-butt lady, only one difference right now? Jack wasn’t a spook, Phantom definitely was.
Jack had been hiding in the brush, fully intending to get a good shot at Phantom, but when he saw the look on Phantom’s face as the spook watched the Red Huntress fly off into the sunset… well that was an expression Jack knew darn well. Heck! It’s one he wore a lot himself back in college! The look of totally having a thing for someone, a full-blown crush, but thinking there’s no way it’ll ever happen because they are so totally out of your league… or species in Phantom’s case. Jack is fairly certain the Red Huntress is a human after all. If she’s not then that’s news to him. And well, one hopeless lovesick man -boy? Who knows with ghosts. He should make a scanner that can tell! An age-o-meter! But needs a better name first- to a previously hopeless but still lovesick man was basically a brother-in-arms.
@currentlylurking Team Human My First 2021 phic phight phic
Prompt from @Slyph-feather :Would love to see Danny dealing with some of the minor inconveniences/differences in being a ghost; slower heartbeat, sickly pallor, maybe not showing up correctly in photographs, etc… bonus points if this is like in the school setting (because I think that would be funny)
Phic Phight Oneshot for Ectopal: After an argument with her now grounded son, Maddie wishes that Danny wouldn’t lie to her-and Desiree overhears. [TransDanny]
The OG prompt: After an argument with her now grounded son, Maddie wishes that Danny wouldn’t lie to her-and Desiree overhears.
Potential TW for trans-related venting and implied violence, but there’s nothing graphic
on FFN and AO3
The front door opened, and Maddie frowned as she glanced at the clock that informed her that yes. It was definitely hours past his curfew.
No lights turned on, but she still could tell from the faint light of the one kitchen light, the light that the family just never turned off so that they could see at night, that it was definitely her son doing his best to remain quiet. And now that she knew he was safe, all of her fears about if he was okay and his safety melted away and allowed for anger to start boiling.
“Daniel James Fenton,” she finally called out. The figure froze, and she flipped the light switch on. Before her was her son, looking as guilty as ever. One hand was on the wall, guiding him as he approached the stairs, the other holding onto his binder and shoes. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”
“…Um…Can I plead the fifth?” he asked weakly. Her frown deepened.
“It’s nearly two in the morning, and on a school night!” she scolded. “Let’s not even talk about how you snuck out right now.” His shoulders slumped. “You could have been dead for all I know!”
Danny stepped off the bus and stretched. It was a long bus ride for this field trip and he had definitely got a crick in his neck from the nap.
“I told you to bring the neck pillow.” Danny turned and saw his mom with a hand on her hip and a lopsided smirk, “But did you listen to me? No. why would you?” She teased.
He rolled his eyes with a smile because she had warned him after all. “I was going to stay awake, but.” he just shrugged. Lately, if he was in a car longer than 20 minutes he was asleep.
The bus ride here was easily over an hour, maybe two if the traffic was bad. He checked his phone for the time and saw that he got at least an hour and a half nap. Nice.
Mr. Lancer stood on the last step of the bus, just so he had the extra height, and announced to the group that they had, in fact, arrived.
“Does he always point out the obvious like that?” His mom asked as she leaned into his shoulder.
Danny shrugged, “Yeah, kind of.”
Mr. Lancer then proceeded to tell everyone the plan for the day, again. Because apparently saying it before they had gotten on the bus the morning wasn’t enough.
Once Lancer was finished they entered the museum. Inside the class was broken up into smaller groups with either a teacher or a chaperone. Danny of course was put in a group with his mom.
He didn’t mind in the slightest. It was actually kind of refreshing to do something so normal with her. She had even left the jumpsuit at home.
He was pretty sure she still had some ecto-weapon on her, but it was subtle.
The museum was huge and they only had a few hours to explore before they had to all pile onto the bus and journey back to Amity Park. To try and make sure everyone got to at least go to one exhibit they would like, they had filled out a questionnaire the day before the trip and were arranged into groups that way.
This did mean that both his friends were in different groups, but he figured he could survive one afternoon without them.
He’s really got to learn not to jinx himself like that.
Most of the day was fine. They walked from exhibit to exhibit. Learned some stuff. Saw kids from other schools. Just an average field trip.
That is until they got to the elevator.
His group got in and he lingered just outside for a second. Something just felt off.
“Come on, Sweetie,” his mom gestured for him to follow her.
Not seeing any reason not to, besides the weird feeling, he shrugged it off and stepped inside.
“Could you push the button for us? It’s B3.”
He nodded and turned to the buttons looking for the correct one.
He spotted it easily, its shiny chrome reflected the green of someone’s headband and he froze.
That wasn’t right.
His hand twitched over the button. The light flickered, or maybe he blinked.
This wasn’t right.
“I can’t.”
He ran out of the elevator and that’s when he noticed he was hyperventilating.
What the heck was wrong with him?
“Danny?” his mom’s voice was just to his left but she didn’t touch him. He was glad for that, he might have jumped if she had.
“Sorry. I just,” Why was he like this? “I can’t go in there.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know.” he turned to her still working on breathing like a normal person, “Can’t we just take the stairs?”
“It’s three flights?”
He floundered for an excuse, anything would do, “So? I want to get my steps in! Do you know you’re supposed to get 10,000 a day? What better way to get the blood pumping than a good old staircase?”
His mom just stared at him. Her brows coming together in concern.
Luckily for him, another group had just arrived. His mom asked Paulina’s dad if he could take their group in the elevator while they took the stairs. He agreed easily and they went on ahead.
Danny was about to walk to the stairs when his mom stopped him.
“Why don’t you want to use the elevator, Danny?”
He stopped mid-step, his foot hovering above the shiny linoleum. He took a breath and turned to face her.
“I just, I don’t know. Something felt off and I didn’t want to.”
“What do you mean it felt off?”
“I don’t know? Just off. Like something bad was going to happen if I did.”
“Do you think the elevator is going to break?”
“No.” That wasn’t quite it.
She hummed in thought, clearly trying to figure him out. The only problem was he didn’t know the answer either.
He wasn’t trying to lie to her or be evasive. He just didn’t know why being in the elevator made him uncomfortable.
“Look can we just go downstairs? I’ll try to get on when we go back up, okay?”
Would he? He really didn’t like the thought of that either.
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not! I-” he stopped and then sighed as his shoulders dropped. “I really don’t know what happened. Stepping in there just felt bad. All that metal and the buttons and I just-” he stopped mid-sentence and it slowly dawned on him why he was so nervous about the elevator.
God, Jazz was going to have a field day if she found out about this. Definitely need to make sure that never happens.
“You know what, I figured it out and I was being dumb. Let’s go!” he spun on his heel and made his way to the stairs as fast as he could without technically running.
Thank God for speed walking. The most useful thing he’s learned in school.
He was already on the first landing when his mom finally caught up with him. “Danny wait!” his mom called and joined him on the landing. “Is this about your accident?”
He stopped dead. His hand holding onto the railing and his foot suspended above the next step.
He just needed to say no. Just lie. Say it reminded him of a horror movie or something. She knew he liked scary movies, it would be believable enough.
He just had to say it.
But he couldn’t get his mouth to work.
He still hadn’t moved.
How had she figured it out so fast?
“It is, isn’t it?” she asked, but it really wasn’t a question anymore. Just confirmation in what they both knew.
He took a step back onto the landing, his hand slipping off the railing. “It’s pretty dumb, isn’t it? They aren’t that similar but I guess it’s close enough.”
His mom was quiet and he wasn’t sure he was ready to face her yet. This was not how he expected things to go.
But considering how many worse case scenarios he had run through, aka, how many different nightmares he had, this wasn’t that bad. And he was still feeling nervous from before so that seemed like a running theme, might as well keep it.
“They’re both big metal things you can stand inside. Both mechanical and,” he chuckled a little before continuing, “they both take you places.”
“And the button?”
“Yeah.” he turned to face her both with a pseudo-bravery that he had mastered as Phantom and a small hope that maybe this would all end okay. “Both have a button on the inside.”
He watched her, as the gears turned in her mind. As the final puzzle pieces started to click into place.
It really was foolish of him to think he could keep this from her forever. Not that he really thought that he would, he just wasn’t sure when the right time was. Or if there was such a thing.
“On the inside? You,” she hesitated as she tried to find the words, tried to find some other explanation. “You never said you went inside.”
“You never asked.”
She gasped and he realized that sounded like he was blaming her.
“Not that you should have needed to! I should have told you sooner. I just,” he looked away and stared at the dusty corner of the stairwell, “I just didn’t know how to tell you. I tried, but things kept getting in the way. I kept getting interrupted. And then one day I just gave up. I thought it would be better if you didn’t know. And then I was worried that” he bit his lip, “I was worried you wouldn’t like me anymore if you knew.”
“Why wouldn’t I like you?”
“Because I’m different.”
She walked over to him, closed the distance, and lifted his face to look at her. “I don’t know how you survived, but clearly you did.”
He looked away but she placed her other hand on his shoulder, not tightly, just placed it there.
He looked back at her.
“I’m sorry for whatever I did that led to your distrust in me.”
“Mom,” he started but she shook her head.
“No, I can’t have you keep blaming yourself for this. This rift between us.”
He wondered how much she really figured out. How much was she willing to accept?
She pulled him into a hug and for that moment it didn’t matter.
He hugged her back and promised himself he’d tell her everything. Just not yet. He’d wait until they got home.
Prompt: How does being constantly exposed to high amounts of ectoplasm affect the citizens of Amity Park?
Prompt by: @robotbeowulf
Word count: 2,487
[AO3] [FFN] [more Phic Phight fics]
—
Danny shrugged, shifting his backpack to lie a little more comfortably on his shoulders, and pretended very hard to be a regular student. It wasn’t easy, but it hadn’t been easy for the last two years. The constant secret-keeping from everyone was wearing on him.
Not to mention the constant ghost attacks, of course. He was pretty sure all of Amity Park was covered in a thick film of ectoplasm by now, considering how much of it he and the other ghosts spilled and fired during the almost-constant battles. Sure, his parents said that the stuff evaporated and then returned to the Ghost Zone, but his parents also said that humans couldn’t have ghost powers, and Danny was the (mostly) living proof that that wasn’t true, either.
He was jerked from his thoughts—literally—by a fist, grabbing him by the shirt and slamming him against the lockers he had been walking by.
“Hi, Dash,” Danny muttered, trying to hide away his weariness with apathy. “Good morning to you too.”
For the 2021 phic phight! Inspired by @ajility Team Human prompt, “Johnny and Kitty have decided to adopt Danny after seeing the human ghost hunters (his parents, Val) going after Phantom. Only problem, is that they didn’t actually get Danny’s opinion on this.”
The Word count: 2,430
WARNINGS: Blood mention, mention of child abuse, violence, and light cursing.
…
Johnny grips at his own hair and looks down at the dirt. His shadow pools beneath his boots: spiraling, churning, uneasy. From the corner of his eye and under a flickering highway lamp post, he sees Kitty pace, sits down next to him, gets up, and pace some more. Her brows furrowed, and her lips settle into a twisted scowl.
Johnny opens his mouth, and tries to speak, but he can’t think of anything useful or new to say. They all saw it. They all saw how the Fentons had haunted Phantom down. How that mammoth of a man – Jack, that’s what his name was – shot Phantom out of the sky. They saw how the other – Maddie, they called her? – They saw her take Phantoms skull to the asphalt. And then – somehow this was the worst part. Somehow this was what unnerved him the most, despite the brutality, the wet crunch that followed, or the red that leaked onto the creases of the ground – was the grin Phantom had made when he jerked away.
Arms and legs jittering like a dying insect. Blood came down from the swelled gums and covered his teeth. His eyes were wide, wild, and terrified. But he had made that shallow grin, a hollow laugh, and gargled some ridiculous joke or pun that Johnny couldn’t remember as Phantom staggered and tried to crawl away like a butterfly that had its wings plucked.
To be honest, everything after Phantom’s grin came in a blur. Johnny’s thoughts were mudded, unclear. There were no words. There was no plan. Shadow’s form, black and like a fluid liquid became once more shapeless, and had the Fentons’ gadgets and guns fall apart in a single hot spark. Kitty pushed the woman, who was too busy being fascinated by the fact that Phantom had bled red to of had noticed her coming, and Johnny scooped up the boy – who wasn’t unconscious yet, but had half-lidded eyes - in one fell swoop. They piled onto his motorcycle and drove without turning back.
Danny crawled out of the portal. Hand over hand, he pulled himself forward as he stretched and reached for the familiar tile floor of the lab.
He had to get away from the portal. It was too bright, and everything hurt, and he just wanted to crawl into a cool dark hole and never come out again.
Everything hurt but the strange sour buzz of the portal wasn’t touching him anymore so he collapsed onto the ground.
He wasn’t sure how the portal felt sour, but it did.
He lay there for a few moments, he wondered if the portal was the source of the buzzing or if his head was somehow filled with bees.
That didn’t make any sense at all. But with the whole feeling of a flavor thing, he couldn't be too sure.
He opened his eyes and stared at the tile below him.
It finally dawned on him that if the portal was making noises, and being bright, and feeling sour, that meant it was on.
He bolted up and turned to look at his parent’s, now working, invention. How had he, a simple high school freshman, managed to make his Ph.D. having parent’s greatest life work, work?
Also, that was incredibly painful, but he wasn’t dead?
Right?
He looked down at his hands and nearly screamed.
Scratch that. He did scream.
His hands, they weren’t his hands. You could hardly even call them hands at all. They were long skinny pitch-black claws.
He frantically searched the rest of himself to find it only got worse from there.
His whole body was as black as night, impossibly skinny and much longer than he remembered being a mere five minutes ago. He scrambled to the bathroom just under the stairs and stopped when he saw his reflection.
Only it wasn’t his reflection.
It couldn’t be! Could it?
The stranger staring back at him; the thing in the mirror was a monster.
It was hard to make out the details in the dark, everything was so dark in the place where he stood, even darker than the unlit room should be. Everything but the eyes.
His eyes. They were just pinpoints of light. Green light.
Just like the portal.
He didn’t just fix his parent’s machine. He also proved them right.
He proved them right by becoming the very monster they wanted to destroy.
Should he let them know what happened? Should he go and find them? Should he let them see him like this? Would it make him a better son if he let them destroy him?
Would they even know it was him?
He was glad there was a shower down here.
It was meant to be used in case of a spill. In case of a lab accident.
Well, this certainly qualified as a lab accident, didn’t it?
He climbed inside the unused shower and pulled the curtain closed.
He found his dark cool space to hide after all.
==============================================
He woke up to the sound of voices.
He groaned and rolled over.
Except he was not in his bed, or any bed, and rolling over led to face planting into the cold tile floor and accidentally pulling the shower curtain down on top of himself.
A couple of shower rings bounced harmlessly off his head but he still complained about it anyway.
He had just sat up and freed himself from the curtain when the bathroom door burst open.
“Danny?!” his mom called out to him before rushing over to pull him into her arms. “Oh Sweetie, we’ve been looking for you everywhere!”
“I’m sorry.” he apologized into her shoulder.
She leaned back on her heels and looked him over, “What are you even doing in here?”
“I don’t,” he looked at his hands and found that he was himself again. Maybe that monster thing was a dream?
But if that was a dream how did he end up here?
“I don’t know.”
Her relieved smile from finding him instantly vanished, “What do you mean you don’t know? What’s the last thing you remember?”
Being a monster.
“I think…” there had to be an explanation. Something that made sense and, hopefully, wasn’t horrible. “I think I saw something.”
He couldn’t look at her anymore. What if she saw what he saw? What if he turned back into that thing again?
“Do you remember coming down here? Down to the lab?”
He nodded. “I just wanted to take a look. Maybe if a different pair of eyes looked it over, the mistake would be obvious. You know, like when you have someone else proofread your paper before you turn it into the teacher?”
She nodded, “That was a good idea sweetheart, but why did you come down by yourself?”
“I thought if I found it I could surprise you, and if I didn’t you wouldn’t get your hopes up.”
She pulled him into another hug and kissed his forehead, “You’re such a sweet boy! How did I get so lucky?”
He held on to her, he felt so bad for making her worry about him. He tried so hard to make sure she didn’t have to worry about him.
That’s why he didn’t tell her about how the other kids at school picked on him all the time.
She pulled back again, “So did you figure out what we missed?”
“Kind of? I think I accidentally touched something. There was a click and it-” he didn’t finish. He couldn’t.
“It turned on,” she finished for him.
He just agreed.
“But why are you in the bathroom?” she asked with a concerned smile.
He looked to the mirror above the sink remembering those haunted green eyes and all the darkness. “I think I saw something.”
“What did you see?”
“I don’t know. A monster? It was too dark. I only really saw the eyes.” he looked back to his hands still unsure how much of what he saw was real.
“Were you trying to hide from it?”
He nodded and felt stupid for the tears that were threatening to spill.
“It’s okay, Baby. I won’t let it get you.” She hugged him again before she stood, “now let’s get out of here.” She held out her hand and he took it.
He wanted to ask her what she would do if it was too late. What would she do if it already had him? What if it was him?
But he didn’t ask. He just followed her lead.
He stumbled over the downed shower curtain but his mom was able to keep him upright.
His legs felt funny.
It was sort of like the tingle like when they fell asleep, but also not. It was more… spicy? Or was it sour again?
That wasn’t right.
He looked down and his legs looked normal enough.
“You okay?” his mom asked when she noticed he wasn’t following her.
“I think my legs fell asleep.”
He also might have hit his head at some point because these thoughts aren’t making any sense. How could he feel in flavors? Why was he doing that?
Should he tell her about that? No, she’d only worry. He didn’t want to worry her.
They walked out of the bathroom and past the portal. He did his best not to look directly at it.
They walked upstairs and she sat him on the couch. She put a blanket on his shoulders and told him to sit tight while she made him a cup of hot chocolate.
She said it would help warm him up.
He didn’t notice he was cold.
He didn’t contradict her. He just accepted the warm drink when it was offered.
He was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, what he had seen was some sort of hallucination. Maybe by the shock of what happened?
Oh, that was a bad pun, even for him. Also, too soon?
He shrugged it off. It was his accident, he could decide when jokes were too soon or not.
Besides, it was probably not real. Or at least not what it seemed. Maybe a ghost did get out and was just messing with him.
He obviously wasn’t a ghost himself. His mom had just checked his pulse and everything.
He was only cold because he had passed out in the bathroom.
He looked down at his cocoa to blow at the steam but stopped.
His reflection wasn’t right.
The eyes.
Those piercing green eyes stared back up at him.
It took everything not to scream. Took, even more, to not chuck the mug across the room.
He loved this mug. He wasn’t going to let this stupid hallucination-ghost-monster-thing make him break his favorite mug.
He blinked hard, purposely, and willed the image away.
He looked again.
It was still there.
The dark shadowy creature stared back at him.
He opened his mouth to try to get more air in. Why was it suddenly so hard to breathe?
It mimicked him.
Only it didn’t have a normal mouth. Its mouth opened like someone was ripping fabric apart. The edges were jagged and sharp.
Summary: Jack never imagined growing fond of the ghost kid, breaking the ice over puns and love advice, before everything's ruined by the cold light of day.
Word Count: 4,832
Also available on FFN [Link] and AO3 [Link]
Broken icicles, snowflakes, and overall a snowy mess covered the floor. In the middle of the scene, a large piece of ice was being reshaped over and over, as if it didn’t satisfy its creator. It looked like a heart, from the rough carving it showcased. The power emerging from two gloved hands covered the sculpture in frost, then snow, then ice, undecided on how to make it work. Because it had to work. Phantom had given it so much effort to make it perfect. Quitting was no longer an option. It probably never was.
The ghost boy seemed deeply focused, his intense green eyes almost trying to burn holes on the offending edges of the sculpture. While he surely didn’t have laser eyes among his already large list of skills, for a moment Jack Fenton was almost convinced Phantom would be able to develop said power if the spook had enough incentive.
Leaning against an adjacent wall, the Fenton patriarch cleared his throat to get the ghost kid’s attention. The otherworldly teen was startled for a moment, recovering as soon as he met the hunter’s eyes. There was a small sigh of resignation, but he set once again his attention on the heart-shaped figure.
“How long have you been standing there?” the ghost asked almost absentmindedly.
Jack felt a sudden smile filled with bemusement tugging at his lips. The now-familiar pace still felt odd with his previous methods and beliefs. Neither ghost nor hunter had jumped at the first opportunity to flee or shoot, respectively. How had things changed in just a few days... “Long enough to see your heart’s not really in it, spook” the man jibed.
Phantom only offered a snort. At least he was being more receptive than last time. It was a hit or miss in each encounter. Sometimes they got into heated arguments over basic spectral behavior, while on other occasions they would laugh at the absurdity of certain pseudoscientists parading as ghost experts. During several interactions, the ghastly boy would withdraw and provide the vaguest responses, with no hint of his characteristic sense of humor present. After all their meetings, Jack knew if he wanted to get him in a chatty mood, he would need to break the ice first.
“I’m impressed,” the orange-clad man exclaimed with no veiled astonishment in his voice. “I never knew you were able to do something like this. Something...”
“Non-destructive?” the ghost supplied with some annoyance. There was still resentment from their previous confrontation.
The older man shook his head. “Ice powers!” he replied with his usual boisterousness. “It’s not something you see every day!” He knew ghosts had a distinctive temperature and it was a tell-tale sign of possession or spectral presence in most haunts. But to deduce this was somehow related to ice was unthinkable. None of the other entities they had studied or observed in combat had ever displayed that kind of ability, unless there was a theme behind it. Then, again, Phantom was one of a kind in every sense. There was something so peculiar in this ghost’s development, the way each new power appeared and adapted to what the situation required. There was so much potential in only studying this ability alone. “Are these powers new?”
“No,” Phantom replied shortly. Still not willing to talk much, then.
Jack scratched his head if only to get more attention from the spook with a simple movement. “Guess that explains the lack of practice,” he muttered loud enough for the eerie teen to hear. The patriarch knew Phantom liked to show off and taunt his enemies. Being challenged on how well he used a power could be the perfect bait to get him talking. Or so he hoped.
The ghost shot him an unimpressed look. Sure, there was a hint of hurt pride visible for a moment, but he was resolute on not giving in to Jack’s efforts today. “It’s just hard to concentrate with an audience. Do you mind?”
It was his companion’s turn to snort. “Yeah, nice try, spook.”
While ectoplasmic-based entities required no air to survive or had no other use for breathing than to appear more human to unsuspecting victims, Phantom had dominated the art of sighing in a very dramatic way. Which he did once again as if surrendering from the futile attempt of getting Jack to leave him alone. Of course, he should have known there was little to deter the rambling and uninhibited inventor from getting to the bottom of anything that piqued his curiosity.
Sensing no other response from him, Jack gave a closer look at the ghost’s creation. “What are ya trying to make anyway?”
Softer green eyes turned to give him a more patient glance, confirming Phantom’s resignation from the cold shoulder approach. “A gift. If I have to 'practice’, as you call it, then I want to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Who knows? I might even keep it for its intended purpose if it turns out right.”
A knowing smile appeared on Jack’s face. For a moment he was reminded of his kids and how they struggled with the complexity of romantic teenage relationships, where everything’s unnecessarily stressful and serious, despite not being that big of a deal when he thought about it. Sure, he only reached that conclusion once he was old enough and married, while adopting phrases such as ‘kids these days’ or ‘back in the day’.
“So, who’s the lucky ghost girl?” he teased.
“What makes you think it’s for a ghost?” Phantom’s playful smirk was branded with his trademark I-know-something-you-don't seal. It got in the hunter’s nerves and at the same time it filled him with a certain giddiness at the prospect of having more things to discover. The scientist in him wanted answers so badly, but it was a mystery he felt he was getting closer to figuring out with so many pieces already laid on the table. If only he could concentrate enough to connect each dot.
He knew the ghost kid wasn’t bluffing either. There were so many rumors about his proximity to humans. Even Jazz had once been a target of speculation on Phantom’s love interests, something both Fenton parents – and, thankfully, the girl herself—had found appalling and nauseating. Still, since he was given the opportunity... “At least I know my daughter wouldn’t be crazy enough to fall for a punk like you.”
Phantom responded with a disgusted face. “Eeeewwww, gross! I can’t unhear that! Again!” He shivered dramatically, closing his eyes and grimacing. “Fine! If it means I won’t have to go on with your train of thought, I’ll tell you who she is, okay? Jeez...”
The middle-aged father didn’t know how to respond to that. Part of him wanted to defend his daughter’s likeability and was deeply offended by the disgusted reaction. On the other hand, at least this meant there was no sign of even a platonic relationship between them, which was something both he and Maddie feared after listening to Jazz defend the so-called hero so many times.
After a moment, Phantom seemed to weigh his options, taking a more serious look and frowning before his confession. “It’s... the Red Huntress, okay? I... really like her,” he added in a softer tone. “But it’s not like she would give me the time of the day, anyway.” The revelation was sincere, if the way the ghost deflated and continued focusing on his sculpture was any indication. That spook sure wore his heart on his sleeve...
The Red Huntress had been targeting him since she first appeared, even coming close to destroying him a few times. She was relentless, which impressed and even inspired the eldest Fentons immensely. Of course, there were odd occasions where she had made some sort of temporary truce with Phantom, but those didn’t last long. Usually. Now that he thought about it, it was hard to remember the last time she actively attacked the ghost boy. Not that it meant anything in terms of a possible romance. A ghost and a human falling in love? What was this? A Patrick Swayze movie?
Jack shook his head to dispel the thought. “You really do have a death wish, spook.”
This only resulted in a heavy sigh in response as the heart-shaped sculpture was once again destroyed with a flick of his white-gloved wrist. “Story of my life.”
Scientific curiosity won him over and Jack was determined to see the ice sculpture finished. If Phantom could be able to master in just a few minutes the rough edges of this power, it gave the man plenty to study. No way was he going to let it go.
The hunter walked closer but kept enough distance from the ghost. An unspoken sense of respect they had built in the last few days, even if Jack wouldn’t admit it out loud. And if they had come this far to be able to talk more civilly, it was only because Phantom was willing to listen to Jack’s ramblings about ghosts while supplying information on his own. In exchange, Jack had decided to listen to the ghost more, if only to learn more about so many mysteries still residing inside the Ghost Zone. It always took some time to get the white-haired boy to talk, but once he opened up, it became quite a ride.
“Cheer up, ghost kid,” he said in a rather fatherly tone to get him at ease. “No need to shoot yourself down when she can do it!”
Phantom rolled his eyes so hard it reminded the man of his teenaged son whenever he made a dad joke. “Hil-arious!” the ghost deadpanned.
Jack seized the given opportunity, enjoying this brand of playful torture. “What, don’t tell me you’re losing your cool already. Didn’t mean to give you cold feet on the whole sculpture thing. There’s no need to take my jokes to heart.”
The second-hand embarrassment had been so effective, Phantom had no other choice but to groan in his hands, covering his blushing face. “I can’t believe you’re willing to murder me in cold blood...”
Bingo! There it was. Jack smiled triumphantly, delighted to see a worthy rival of his puns, which had been another pride and joy of countless Fenton generations. He wasn’t sure how to feel of sharing this kind of interest with a ghost, though.
Trying to get things back on track, the hunter changed the course of the conversation. “Fine, I’ll be merciful, but you’re on thin ice. Why not tell me what’s the story, then? How did you figure out you liked her?”
The father of two had found in their meetings that treating Phantom like he would any of his kids had better results than approaching as a hunter or, worse, a scientist. Something about treating him like a person seemed to click, even if he really wasn’t one. But even studying the response the Fentons had to any other manifestation of post-human consciousness paled in comparison to the ghost kid. He didn’t seem as fixed to an obsession as other humanoid specters. Nor did he fall into feral or one-track responses either, even if he was somewhat hasty and temperamental at times. That was something they thought came from being a teenager. If anything, this ghost had more complex ways to connect ideas, multi-layered stories, and modern concepts. That’s why Jack often gave him a chance to tell a story. Any story. Because if there was something Jack liked more than blathering on and on about his research, was listening to others sharing their own theories and discoveries.
The ghost kid shrugged and began to recreate his sculpture, fixing some of his earlier mistakes. He avoided the hunter’s eyes but otherwise didn’t refuse to talk. “I just...” he spoke as he turned around the ice figure. “It’s complicated, okay? She hated my guts but also liked another side of me. It’s never been easy.” His hands shot a small ice ray to give the asymmetric shape more balance. “She’s strong and driven.” A small ghost ray from his fingertips began to carve part of the edges. “She’s beautiful and smart. And all I could offer was some help she didn’t even want because she thought I ruined her life on purpose.”
Jack blinked. “So, you ruined her life but not on purpose.”
Phantom stopped his carving to grimace at the older man, no doubt replaying in his head what he just said and figuring how awful it sounded. “No, it’s not like that. It’s, uh... comp--”
Blue eyes rolled. “Complicated, gotcha. What happened then? Did she start going soft on you?”
Despite how some details would likely remain private, at least the scientist was getting the conversation to flow, as well as getting him to get back to working on the ice sculpture, which seemed to become smaller in this new effort.
“She didn’t start going soft on me,” Phantom replied as he continued his handiwork. “It got worse before it got better. Please, don’t make me go into detail,” he added before his companion could ask him to elaborate. The ghost shrugged, using his ghost ray to fix another mistake on his creation. “I guess she learned to trust me and realized we work better together than as rivals. Not that I ever saw her as an enemy.”
This took Jack by surprise and yet... somehow it fit entirely with the way both Fenton parents had interacted with him. How he would dodge without counterattacking, or how his taunts had a playful tinge to them, or how he would avoid confrontations altogether, something the two hunters had chalked to a sense of respect and even some fear. It was still hard to understand, but Jack believed these enlightening conversations would be crucial to getting a better grasp of his motives, if any.
Of course, the man preferred to keep the interaction on topic. “You liked her from the start? Even when she hunted you down?” he asked intrigued.
Phantom blushed again and stopped his work in favor of crossing his arms. “You’re making this awkward on purpose, aren’t you?“
“Now, why would you say that?” Jack asked innocently. It never failed: once the ghost detected the hunter’s intentions, he would call him out on it. Almost as if he had known beforehand Jack’s different techniques. “I’ll have you know I’m used to being awkward. Comes with the territory.”
This did little to convince Phantom, who returned to his annoyed mood if his scowl was any indication. “Yeah, well, I’d rather talk about other things. What happened to asking me about the Ghost Zone or my daily battles? Or, heck, even threatening me with a Fenton Bazooka?”
“I thought you said you liked casual conversation,” Jack recalled. It had been one of the first requests made by the ghost when they started talking to each other. He had joked about the whole formality of their exchange and how the hunter needed to chill because he wasn’t going to fly away, anyway. That’s when Jack began to test the waters and see what he could achieve using a different approach. Hence the turn to father-like interactions or sudden pun duels. But at the end of the day, no matter how much they wanted to pretend to have a normal conversation, they were still a ghost and a ghost hunter. It was always going to be awkward. There would always be a barrier.
The figure floating in front of him kicked a small piece of ice that fell from his once again failed sculpture. “Yeah, but this is kinda too personal. Why are you so interested in teenage love lives anyway?”
Phantom didn’t usually engage in conversation through questions when he was annoyed or undisposed. This meant he was more frustrated with something else than with the current topic. Jack took the small olive branch and followed with his previous course of action. “And I’m supposed to be the clueless one...”
A curious look crossed the white-haired boy’s features. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Taking a more relaxed stance, the ecto-scientist smiled as warmly as he could to his former hunting target. “When you’re blocked in a project, sometimes thinking about something else does wonders. If you want your ice sculpture to work, maybe you just need some inspiration.”
“Right, because talking to my personal ghost hunter about someone else attacking me is really inspiring,” the ghost replied with the heaviest dose of sarcasm he could muster.
“Kids these days... only listening to what they want to hear...”
“Ok, boomer...”
Jack almost snorted at the juvenile response. He was sure Danny would be just like this given the time and opportunity. There was an odd pull at his heartstrings whenever their interactions had some resemblance to his relationship with his son. Maybe that’s how he’d learned to bury his hatred towards the spook. He didn’t like dwelling on that for too long.
“I'll pretend that’s a compliment and ignore the eye roll. Look, if this is a gift for someone special, why not focus on what makes this girl special?”
Phantom seemed to study the rough patches in his icy creation. “Sure, like the death threats? Seems like they inspired me here.”
“No need to get all smart with me,” Jack scolded but remained friendly. “Try something like this: when I think about Maddie, I can’t stop thinking about how lucky I am for being by her side. How talented and amazing she is. Her powerful black-belt moves, the way she finds the most logical answers to impossible problems... see what I’m getting at?”
Glowing green eyes turned to the unsatisfying shape with an over-critical look. He wasn’t convinced yet, but the wheels in his head seemed to be turning towards a more approachable subject. “Sure, why not?” he practically muttered.
The curious onlooker stared in fascination as the ghost closed his eyes to focus on the newfound topic, which seemed to bring a small smile to his lips. After a couple of seconds, he opened his eyes, which glowed a fierce blue that sent shivers down Jack’s spine. The temperature dropped even further, and the frozen remnants of his previous efforts surrounded the central piece and then dissolved into nothing. Phantom extended his gloved hands towards his smaller creation, making it shrink until they covered the heart-shaped ice completely. The glow then began to return to its usual lighting and color, while his frosty gaze went back to its usual radioactive-green.
Phantom blinked out of his daze before opening his cupped hands to reveal the final product: a much smaller but perfectly shaped heart, adorned with barely discernable patterns from Jack’s vantage point. The ghost kid stared incredulously at his masterpiece. “It worked?”
A small sense of pride filled the Fenton parent, who couldn’t hide the huge smile from his face. “Ha! Told ya it would work! I’d say that’s a huge breakthrough, then.”
The ghost returned his attention to his spectator and offered a fond smile of his own. “Thanks. For the advice, I mean...”
Jack sensed the imminent end of their conversation. The good times never lasted between them and the downfall would usually begin right after an important milestone, once each began to settle back into reality and view everything in the cold light of day. But the hunter wanted this moment to linger. It was a huge accomplishment, even if it didn’t seem like it at first glance.
Not wanting his mood to sour, Jack tried to maintain his animated tone. “Listen, kid, I obviously don’t know the first thing about using ghost abilities. But giving awkward love advice to hopeless teenagers--”
“Hey!” Phantom protested.
“--is part of my job as a parent.”
There was a beat. The ghost stared strangely at the older man but didn’t say a thing for several seconds. Jack began to rack his brains for any kind of clue to the odd non-response, part of him beginning to feel uneasy at the lack of clarity.
“Huh...” Phantom mused out loud once he regained his echoey voice. "You just called me kid.”
Jack froze at the revelation, dumbfounded as he tried to remember saying that damning word. “What?” he replied defensively. “No, I didn’t!”
Phantom’s smile widened, but not in a teasing or mischievous manner. It was a genuine, happy smile. “C’mon, you know I’m not some soulless monster or whatever.”
“I said ghost kid,” the hunter insisted.
The specter ignored his reply. “You even stopped calling me spook for more than five minutes!”
Jack scoffed. “At least not out loud, punk.”
Before either could add another word, a deep voice interrupted their exchange and froze their blood. “Is there a problem here, Dr. Fenton?”
Both ghost and hunter were violently sent back to the reality of their current situation. The large containment unit. The glass separating them. The various monitors assessing Phantom’s performance. Jack could see the exact moment the bubble burst for Phantom, who returned to his earlier withdrawn state, now devoid of a sculpture to distract himself with.
The otherwise exuberant scientist felt the loss of the witty banter and the paternal advice, making him settle for a more subdued tone as he turned to the lab’s newcomer. “Not at all, Agent K,” he replied. “The ghost finished the assignment. This baby got plenty of data from the process, for sure,” he added as he tapped the largest monitor on the panel he was leaning against.
The GIW agent didn’t show any hint of emotion. His tinted glasses could be deceiving, but Jack was sure he was staring at the ghost kid. “Good,” the man replied in a somewhat satisfied tone.
While it had been the Fentons’ life-long dream to have enough credibility, support, and resources to research up to every last detail there was to know about ghosts, he felt snowed under the emotional rollercoaster brought by the ghost boy’s companionship. Sometimes he even felt just as trapped as the kid was. There it was… that deceivingly innocuous term again.
Jack used the opportunity to bring an important topic to Agent K’s attention, even if it was mostly to distract himself from his inner ramblings. “However, never let it be said that I, Jack Fenton, am single-minded. I’ve been checking the rest of the information we collected throughout the week. There’s something odd you need to see.”
“Odd?” the agent repeated.
The spectral researcher tapped into a nearby keyboard to show on screen a series of graphs with a diminishing trend. “His readings are not coming as strong as before. He won’t last long if we keep this up.”
There was a malicious grin on the otherwise reserved agent, who returned his attention to the ghost floating aimlessly on his back. “Then we have to try to learn as much as we can before he destabilizes, don’t we?”
Jack Fenton could be many things. Overexcited, naïve, boisterous, clueless, impulsive, impetuous... anything but cruel. That’s why the GIW’s detached approach to ectoplasmic experiments rubbed him the wrong way. Sure, he always mentioned wanting to rip ghosts apart molecule by molecule, but it had always been a figure of speech and a way to threaten dangerous entities. He wanted to learn everything he could about how ghosts and ectoplasm worked, existed, and interacted. Every single detail. But more often than not, their inventions were meant to study and analyze ghosts. Heck, he even wanted to interpret ghost speak!
But purposefully destabilizing their subjects? To what end? It almost seemed like petty revenge against Phantom for being a thorn on their side. Maybe that’s why they had decided to call him instead of Maddie. Because they knew how vocal Jack had been in wanting to basically dissect the ghost kid.
After taking a brief moment to observe triumphantly over his prized trophy, Agent K turned around to give Jack a firm nod. He then headed out of the lab, not a single word spoken during his departure.
Once they were alone again, the tired scientist sat on his chair and faced the forlorn entity. Phantom was watching carefully his ice sculpture, which now looked more like an out-of-season Christmas ornament. This kind of scene had been part of what made Jack question some of his previous assumptions. It made his subject less of an object and more... human-like. It brought several important questions about how the deceased could retain old habits from their life. Talking about post-human consciousness didn’t exclude the humanity or sentience implied. Maybe they had been using inappropriate terminology, or maybe they had always known but tried to leave that revelation out in the cold. Neither Jack nor Maddie wanted to think about the real implications that train of thought could have in the way they lived. And died. Would they come back? Would they be sentient or outright an evil manifestation of what they once used to be?
If anything, Phantom brought Jack more questions than answers. Some even forming a new layer of mystery, especially with his constant riddles.
“If I don’t make it out of here,” a small voice cut Jack from his mental unrest. Phantom still wouldn't turn to face him. “Can you at least give her this? At least to get some closure,” he said with no amount of hope, lifting his icy heart in front of his face. He wanted to give it to the Red Huntress.
Jack took a closer look now that Phantom was placing it against the glass. He stared at the details around the piece. Aside from small snowflake patterns, there was something written. VG + DF, the engraving said. Vigilante Girlfriend? Daring Freak? There was no “P” among those initials, so maybe those weren’t even names.
“It has something written,” he pointed out.
The intense green eyes bore into Jack’s blue ones, as if trying to convey some hidden meaning. “She’ll understand what it stands for.”
The large man nodded and signaled the ghost to place the figure into a tray used for other kinds of samples.
After pushing a few buttons, the heart-shaped ice ended up in the man’s black-gloved hands. He figured it would have to remain in an insulated container. Maybe he could try searching for the huntress tonight after his shift. Or convince Maddie to do it to avoid being interrogated by the GIW.
Even if he was being constantly monitored and even followed to avoid any leaks of information, he still had the right to return home every night. They had agreed to only allow contact with Maddie, which wasn’t a problem now that Jazz was off to college and Danny had gone to the Space Summer Camp in Florida. He already missed his kids too much and wouldn’t want to miss Maddie as well during this project.
Jack sighed and placed the heart inside his lunch box. “C’mon, Phantom... let’s... let’s just start the next test,” he suggested after he went to safely store the box into his paper bag. He didn’t want to go back to their now daily routine, looking for new tests to perform to measure his power, which in turn would help develop stronger weapons and devices.
Phantom settled in a corner, sitting on the floor. The ice probably took out more energy than they first thought. He crossed his arms before turning a resolved green glare at his captor. “I think I’m done talking for today. I’m not so sure I want to give you a hand this time.”
Jack tried to at least bring back a brighter mood. If they were both stuck, they could at least try to make it bearable. “That’s no problem,” the man beamed, though he knew the ghost would see through his intentions again. “I’ll do the talking for both of us. Won’t be as fun, but it’ll keep us busy. Whaddya say?”
The ghost sighed in defeat. “Knock yourself out.”
As the former hunter tried to calibrate the system for the new test, featuring the recently unveiled ice power, he tried to blather on about some old story about his great-grandfather and some ghost-hunting shenanigans as told by his father. But in all honesty, his heart was not really in it.
His mind drifted back to the small gift stored in his lunch box. As he did prior to the current experiment, he tried to find a good topic to thaw the cold interaction between ghost and hunter. Maybe something to keep Phantom in good spirits. “I promise I’ll try to give your gift to the Huntress. Who knows? Might even land you a date in the process,” he joked.
Phantom gave him a small smile, its levity not reaching the glowing green eyes of the crestfallen ghost. “Any chance you can give her my current address as well?”
Jack shook his head lightly and smiled back with the same optimism. “When hell freezes over, kid.”
-----------------------
Prompts:
danny-fenton-is-trans / Prompt 07: After an encounter with Phantom, Jack finds himself apparently helping him. Not with ghosts, but asking out the Red Huntress.
Aedelia / Prompt 10: Danny is having a difficult time trying to make an ice sculpture and finds inspiration/advice in an unlikely place.
q-gorgeous / Prompt 109: The GIW capture Phantom and bring Jack in to assist them instead of Maddie.
Danny walked through the doorway thinking that today was just going to be another day. Oh, how wrong he was.
Without any warning at all, his mom sprayed something right in his face as he walked in. The harsh smell of the aerosol had him gagging immediately. He tried to cough it out of his system, but it felt like he had just swallowed broken glass.
His eyes watered as he stumbled onto his knees.
“What was that?” he barely managed to choke out between his labored wheezes.
He heard the spray nozzle go off again and just hoped it wasn’t being directed at him.
One of his parents took a deep breath, they must have sprayed themselves as a test. Danny placed his forehead on the tile hoping the cool flooring would help him focus on breathing.
A hand pulled him up by the hair rougher than his parents had ever handled him before and made him look at them. His mom was the culprit, because of course she was.
“You picked the wrong kid to possess, Ghost!”
“What?” Now she thinks he’s a ghost? After all this time and all the ghostly things he had done while he was still getting used to his powers, this is what convinces her?
“You heard me! Now get out of my son this instant!”
“Mads, shouldn't've the ecto-cleanser knocked the bugger out of him?” his dad asked in what was his best attempt at a whisper.
“It must be a strong one. Or it’s just got a strong grip anyway.”
“Mom, wait.”
He wasn’t sure what he wanted right now. He wasn’t sure what the best thing to do was. Should he admit he’s part ghost or try to keep the lie going?
He just wished he could breathe long enough to think.
“Don’t call me that!” she gripped his hair harder and pulled one of her ecto-guns to his temple.
The way the metal barrel rested so neatly to the side of his head tripped some deep-seated primal fear. If he hadn’t already been crying from his body trying to reject the toxin, he would have started now.
“No, wait! Wait! Please!” he tried to get out of her grip if just to get away from the gun so he wouldn’t get shot point-blank.
His squirming only made her press it harder into him.
His need to survive overrode his need for secrecy.
He phased out of her grip and blindly crawled away.
He still couldn’t properly breathe, he could barely see, but this was his home. He just needed to reach the stairs. If he could get up the stairs he could get to Jazz or maybe even outside.
He just needed to reach the stairs.
Something grabbed him from behind and he screamed.
He screamed so loud it bordered dangerously close to his wail.
He never wailed in human form before.
It hurt.
His hand hit the first step but before he could pull himself up something sharp hit him in the back and the next thing he knew was darkness.
===============================================
Danny opened his eyes slowly but closed them again when the light above him was too bright.
He rubbed his eyes and tried opening them again while he used his hand to shield himself from the light.
“-’s awake.”
Danny turned toward the voice and found his parents.
They were still in the lab.
Only now he was sitting inside the containment unit while they stood just outside. They were staring at him like he was an animal on display at the zoo.
He took a breath and found it didn’t hurt as much as before. It was still uncomfortable, like having a sore throat. He wondered if he asked for a lozenge if he would actually get one.
He probably should save the jokes for later.
Like when he wasn’t being held hostage in his own home by his parents who may or may not think he’s possessed.
He figured he should start simple, “What’s going on?”
“You’re being quarantined until we can figure out what’s going on with you.”
“And once you figure that out?” he asked hoping it meant they would let him out but fearing they wouldn’t.
“That depends on what we find now doesn't it?”
“What if you find out something you don’t like?”
“Like what?”
“Like something ghost-related?” He asked then quickly added, “Like ecto-contamination or something?” so that it wouldn’t sound like he was being over-shadowed.
Because he wasn’t.
“Then we’ll get rid of it.”
“What if you can’t?”
His mom gave him a very condescending look, “oh course we can. Human biology and ectoplasm don’t mix. It’s just a fact.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I am! Now stop asking stupid questions I have work to do!”
“I’m not,” he stammered.
“We’re the ones that will be asking the questions from now on.” She spat before pulling her hood up and obscuring her eyes with her red-tinted goggles.
He was starting to hate those goggles.
“Who are you.” she interrogated.
“I’m Danny.” his voice cracked from how sore it still was.
“Nice try, Spook!” his dad jeered, “But I know my boy and he ain’t you!”
Danny couldn’t help how his fists clenched at that. What exactly had he done that was so different that he was unrecognizable.
“I’ll only ask you one more time,” his mother warned, “who are you.”
“I already told you! I’m Danny! I’ve been Danny the whole time! Why don’t you believe me?”
“Because ghosts are liars!”
“Then what do you want me to say? How can I prove I’m not lying?” he begged.
His parents looked at each other. Based on their body language they hadn’t been expecting him to say that.
His mom turned to him again, gave him a good long stare before nodding to herself.
Danny didn’t get a chance to ask what she was thinking before she wandered off and picked up a scanner from one of the lab tables.
With a quick flick, she powered it on and pointed it at Danny. The handheld machine whirred and blinked before letting out a shrill beep.
She looked at the readings then back to Danny. Then back to the readings.
His dad leaned over her shoulder to take a peak. “It’s the same.”
She nodded slowly, a frown forming on her face.
Danny wasn’t entirely sure what that scanner did, or what they were so confused about. He didn’t want to get yelled at again, but he also really wanted to know what they were looking at. “What’s the same?”
“The readings. They’re the same. When we built this,” she hesitated as the scanner slowly lowering in her hands toward the floor as if it was suddenly too heavy. “We tested it on everyone in the house, just to get a baseline reading. To know what to look for.”
His dad took the scanner and set it on the table before she could drop it.
“But it’s the same. You’re readings, they haven’t changed since the last time.”
“So? What does that mean?” did that mean they believed him or did they think something somehow worse?
She moved her head in a sort of half nod half grimace.
Not exactly reassuring.
“It means you’re not over-shadowed?” she said with not nearly enough certainty to ease his nerves.
His dad put a hand on her shoulder, “We’ll figure this out Mads. We always do.”
“Does this mean I can go to my room now? Since we all agree that I’m me?”
God, he really hoped that’s the conclusion they came to otherwise he’d sound like an idiot.
“I just don’t understand why he reacted so badly to the ecto-cleanser.” his mom said totally ignoring him.
“Mom.”
“You’d think we pepper-sprayed him.”
“Mom!”
She turned to face him again, thankfully removing her hood, “What?”
“Can you let me out now?”
“Oh, right?” she looked to her husband who merely shrugged.
She sighed and rolled her eyes before entering the combination and unlocking the door.
Danny got up carefully from his spot on the floor and slowly made his way over. He hesitated only for a second when he got to the doorway because his parents were still right there.
He suppressed the urge to run and walked past them as casually as he could.
He couldn’t let them know he was afraid. Couldn’t let them know how much he didn’t trust them not to just push him back inside and make sure he never got out again.
He just had to pretend it was an honest mistake. That they didn’t just hurt him with one of their inventions.
Again.
That he was just a normal teenager in a normal house with normal parents that didn’t hunt him for a living.
Once he made it to the stairs he gripped the railing with more force than necessary just to anchor himself. To make sure he didn’t just fly up and up and up.
He made sure to walk.
He closed the basement door and kept walking.
He walked into the living room.
He stopped and knew he had a choice to make.
He checked his pocket and found, miraculously, that his phone was still there and charged.
He walked to the front door and just kept walking. He just walked right out.
He didn’t want what happened to happen again.
He couldn’t.
He just knew they wouldn’t let him go so easily the next time.
So he wouldn’t stick around for there to be a ‘next time’.
His vision blurred as he opened his messager app. Luckily he had planned for this, so he didn’t need to think. Didn’t need to see his screen as he selected the pre-typed message.
A message that he knew would be understood by his intended recipient.
He hit send and kept walking.
He didn’t need to see to know where he was going. He’d walked there a million times before.
His phone buzzed but he didn’t bother to check it. He had to keep walking.
He was afraid if he stopped he wouldn’t go through with it. That he’d go back.
But he couldn’t. He couldn’t go back. He couldn’t be there anymore. That was the last straw.
His destination was up ahead.
He walked up the front steps and knocked on the door. His hands were far too shaky. He didn’t knock hard enough.
He knocked harder.
The door opened and he was pulled inside. His vision was so blurry he couldn’t even see who was holding him, but he knew.
The door closed behind him as they led him further into the house. They gently coaxed him to the living room.
His shin hit the sofa and he collapsed. He couldn’t walk any further.
He also couldn’t hold it in anymore.
He was pulled into a hug and he clung to them as his if life depended on it. And in a way it did.
He had to let it out.
So he did.
He let it all out.
All the fear and the doubt and so, so, many tears.
He knew what happened wasn’t the worst. He had way worse nightmares. They usually involved Y-shaped incisions and a lot more blood.
Usually, he was able to shake off the nightmares as just that. Nightmares. Impossible fears from the stress of his life.
But that all felt so possible today. He was so close to that horrible possibility today and he never ever wanted to feel that while he was awake again.
He hoped one day he wouldn’t dream about it either.
Danny yawned, blinking sleep out of his eyes and stretching out his sore muscles. Looking around only served to confuse him though. He wasn’t in his room anymore, and he wasn’t downstairs either (which sometimes happened with his body’s penchant to fall through not only his bed, but the floor). He was in a large, heavily shadowed room that was on the edge of familiar, and it was taking him a moment to place it in his sleep fogged mind.
“It’s not healthy to fixate on what could have been,” came a deep, familiar voice from behind him.
The GIW need ghost samples to conduct experiments. Why capture ghosts when you can make your own? prompt by @mystyrust
word count: 2609
warning: offscreen character death
gosh this prompt
Danny yawned as he walked into the school. He walked up to Sam and Tucker and was just about to greet them when heard Paulina sobbing into Dash’s chest by her locker.
“Woah.” He said. “What’s happening?”
“Star’s still missing.” Sam whispered.
“It’s been a week since her parents filed that report and no one’s seen any sign of her since then.” Tucker looked at his PDA. “No one has anything new to report online. I think it’s starting to really wear on Paulina.”
“Maybe when we patrol later we should check up on some other places rather than just the ghost hot spots.” Danny said, looking back at Paulina. “Maybe we’ll be able to find something while we’re out.”
“Maybe.” Sam said. The first bell rang and they started heading to class. “But if we’re being realistic, a week is a long time with this kind of thing. She could be long gone out of Amity Park by now. Or, you know.” She whispered that last part.
“It wouldn’t hurt to try looking around though.”
The three of them walked into Lancer’s class. The empty desk next to Paulina felt like it took up the entire room and many of their classmates were trying not to look at it. The final bell rang and Mr. Lancer turned from where he was writing on the board.
“Alright, class.” He said somberly. “Let’s get started.”
