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What Little Girls Are Made Of

For my truce contribution I got a leetle carried away and wrote up this nearly-9k monstrosity. cosplayer-bara, I hope you enjoy it! It's a bit rough and ready. I don't really do sparkles and the fluff is actually more H/C, but it is Danny- and Dani-centric. I certainly had fun writing it.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year! <3

-Hj

*****

The Fentons picked their way through chunks of concrete and past the smoking iron skeletons of cars. The ozone, burning stench of ectoplasm hung in the air in an almost tangible fog.

Maddie pulled her goggles over her stinging eyes. Nothing moved. Two city blocks had been flattened, leaving ragged hills and furrows of smoking rubble. The news helicopter had gone down ten minutes before that last, massive attack, so they weren’t sure what they would find when they’d ventured outside the ghost shield. She kicked aside a twisted hunk of fender. Thank god they’d evacuated the city in time.

The monster had come from the breach, just barely squeezing in through a rip a hundred yards wide. It was four-legged and had something that might be called a head, but there the comparison to earth’s fauna ended.

It was a thing of indescribable complexity, with row upon row of boiling red eyes clustered on its brow and flowing down to the neck and forelegs. It had tentacles sheathed in glossy green-black scales that rippled over its body like a sea of worms. Great violet crystals jutted from its sides and back. Black smoke curled through a thousand rows of curving fangs. Its aura was a deep, vivid red, and painted the clouds into blood.

The city’s newly developed ghost defenses were blown away in minutes, except for the shields. There were a few who fought back--the woman in red with her jet sled, a handful of amateur ghostbuster-wannabes, the Fentons themselves. One by one they fell.

Maddie had woken up on a stretcher outside the hospital with Jack holding her hand. They’d somehow come back with just cuts and bruises, though neither remembered how. It seemed almost shameful, considering the ordinary people who’d suffered far worse.

All their expertise and prowess in ghost hunting could not stop it. There was no chance of distracting or mollifying the creature. It had no agenda, no plot; no desire other than utter destruction. Even Phantom, the self-appointed defender of their city and a powerful ghost in his own right, could only bring it to a standstill for half an hour.

The Fentons had watched with the rest of Amity Park in dizzying high definition as the news helicopter circled just out of range. The display of power--green smashing against green, shattered buildings flying left and right, Phantom hurtling himself into the creature like a torpedo against a glacier. He dug out deep, smoking pits into the thing’s green hide. They dripped gallons of vivid green ectoplasm, but the thing only roared louder. It did not stop.

In the end Phantom fell to his hands and knees, spent. A single claw would have crushed him in an instant.

Then a new ghost streaked in like a shooting star, peppering the beast with blasts, dividing its attention, giving Phantom the precious seconds he needed to rally. She was small and humanoid--an odd, female echo of Phantom’s motif of black and white, with twice the speed and fire.

Together they’d driven it step by massive step back, out into the suburbs, where it dug its claws deep into the exposed sewers and would retreat no more. Phantom and his new ally had turned their firepower on a nearby building, somehow triggering a massive blast.

The explosion had knocked the chopper out of the sky and left them blind. Silence had fallen. The beast, as far as they could determine, had vanished. For good? The Fentons were the best equipped--and the most curious--to find out.

“Mads.” Jacked called. He stood on a rise that might once have been a parking garage. She clambered up the hill of crumbling concrete slabs, avoiding twisted rebars and pockets of glass turned to powder.

The hill cut off abruptly, sloping down into a crater nearly a hundred yards across. Shattered bits of violet crystal lay strewn about in glittering fragments. The Nasty Burger sign jutted up at a crazy angle near the edge, the only hint of what had once stood there.

At the center of the pit lay a dark green mass of congealing ectoplasm the size of a bus. Thick black smoke billowed up from it. Blue flames licked over the twisted, sizzling surface. Maddie shuddered; to solidify ectoplasm like that took an unreal amount of heat.

“They got it,” Jack said. He pushed back his goggled and wiped the sweat off his forehead. “I don’t believe it.”

“Probably took out themselves with it,” Maddie said. Two birds with one stone, she would have said even yesterday. He’d saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives.

Jack tensed beside her, lifting his ectogun. “Look!” He pointed the weapon toward the far side of the crater. Something moved there, stumbling over the rubble. Something bright, ghostly green.

Maddie’s heart rate spiked, hope mingling with dread. Had part of the creature survived? Or… Weapons raised, the Fentons went down the slope to meet it.

It was Phantom. Covered in splatters of green, scratched and bruised, white hair smudged grey with soot, but intact. In his arms he carried--for one heart-stopping moment Maddie thought he held a human child. Then the smoke cleared and she caught sight of the white hair and translucent, greenish skin. It was the ghost girl.

The Fentons looked at each other, then lowered their guns.

Phantom hadn’t noticed them. His jaw was working, eyes fixed on the ground. Steam rose in greenish plumes from the body of the ghost in his arms. He kept walking, stiff-legged, like someone whose knees would buckle if he paused.

Jack holstered his gun and stepped forward, reaching out a hand toward Phantom. Phantom’s eyes widened and he jerked back.

“Don’t--touch her!” the movement overbalanced him and he fell back, landing in a heap on the broken stone and ashes. The ghost girl’s body warped and swayed. He clutched her tight. “Any warmth’ll finish her,” he rasped.

The ghost girl was just barely clinging to corporeality, Maddie realized. Her skin flickered in and out of visibility, exposing a simmering mass of dark green, lit deep within by a fitful core, with vague, dissolving shapes of… bones? How strange. Ectoplasm dripped from the girl’s hair and fingertips… no, her hair and fingertips dripped, slowly losing shape and substance. Her breath clouded in puffs of white steam.

They hovered, unsure what to do, unwilling to leave the two wounded ghosts.

“The beast is dead?” Jack asked.

“Yeah. Yeah, I checked. Not even the core’s left.” Phantom’s aura brightened and he squeezed the girl a little closer to his chest. He was cooling her down, Maddie realized, pushing his own core close to hers and trying to share its icy energy. His own skin flickered; there wasn’t much left to give.

“You saved a lot of people today, Phantom,” she said softly. She touched Jack’s arm. They exchanged glances. Maybe there was something they could do. They were ghost experts, weren’t they?

He shook his head. “She did. It had me. When the wail didn’t work, it could’ve taken me out in a second. That would’ve been it, for all of us. But she came back. And--” He took a deep, shuddering breath. “She knew she wasn’t strong enough. But she came back.”

Maddie knelt, pulling a water bottle out of the bag slung over her shoulder. She opened it and poured it over the girl’s body. The girl moaned, but the steam escaping her body lessened, just a little.

Phantom looked up at Maddie. “Do you think you can help her?”

“We’ll give it our best shot,” Jack said. He rummaged in his own bag and brought out a second water bottle, handing it to Maddie. “You think you can bring her up to our RV? It’s not far.”

Phantom’s expression steeled. “Yeah. I’ll do it.”

*****

Maddie cranked up the air conditioning as Jack screeched out of the half-ruined parking lot and zoomed toward Fenton Works. Sure-footed despite the swerving from years of practice, Maddie moved to the back to check on their strange passengers.

They sat strapped in together; the girl was much the same, flickering in and out of visibility, soft and shapeless. Phantom looked even worse up close in the bright GAV interior lights. Sweat rolled down his neck in a steady stream. Dark green circles ringed his eyes. On one leg the jumpsuit was torn open, a nasty gash oozing dark green. There were rips and cuts littering his arms and torso. They’d have to help him too, or he might destabilize himself. She hung onto a handle and reached into a compartment, producing another bottle of water. She took off the lid and handed it to Phantom.

“Hydrate,” she instructed.

He blinked at her. “Me?”

“Yes, you. You’re the only thing keeping her intact. If you exhaust your own resources before we can find a way to keep her stable, she’ll be in trouble.”

The ghost boy took it from her with one hand, leaving the other tucked securely around his friend. Raising it to his lips, he gulped it down. His arm shook.

Maddie went back up to the front. “You’d better hurry,” she told Jack.

*****

Phantom threaded through the living room furniture led by some sixth sense, as if he’d walked through it a thousand times before. His eyes stayed fixed solely on the ghost he carried. Clumps of ectoplasm fizzled into the carpet.

“Come on, stay with me,” he muttered.

“Danny?” It was a small, disembodied voice. Vague blue-white eyes blinked in a formless face.

Phantom smiled. “Hey cuz. I’ve got you.”

Maddie’s brow creased with worry. The ghost’s consciousness was no longer tied to her ectoplasmic body. This was bad.

The eyes widened and a shapeless arm jerked, sending a glob of ectoplasm splatting across the kitchen floor. “I can’t feel my arms--I -- Danny -- help --”

“Just hang on, we’re almost there.”

Jack shoved aside the kitchen table and chairs with one sweep of his arm. Maddie dashed ahead, down the stairs and into the lab.

There had to be something they could use to at least stabilize her and give them time to think. She pushed piles of weapons, suddenly impatient with the overwhelming destructiveness of them all. Extractors, blasters, atomizers--they’d dedicated their work to destroying ghosts, not helping them. What could they do?

“Maddie.” The quiet, carefully calm way Jack said it made Maddie’s pulse skip. She looked toward the stairs. Ectoplasm dripped off the bottom step. Something bright flickered just out of sight. She ran.

Phantom sat halfway down the stairs. The steps below him were a flood of liquid green. Cupped in his hands, a ball of blue-white light crackled, flashing like caged lightning. The ghost girl’s core. Nothing else was left. Phantom had gone dead white, eyes wide and staring, pupils bare pinpricks in orbs of green. They flashed blue-white in time with the orb.

Something sizzled. The stench of burning ectoplasm filled the stairway. Maddie realized the core was eroding Phantom’s gloves, slowly eating into his fingers. It was drawn to the ectoplasm, trying to assimilate it.

“Phantom--you have to let go!”

Phantom shook his head once, violently. The effort of containing the core’s energy--energy that should have dissipated instantaneously--made the cords stand out on his neck. Sweat beaded on his face. It drifted free in shimmering droplets, evaporating against his aura.

Maddie reached for the ghost, then drew her hand back as electricity knifed out of the core toward her hand. “You won’t save her. It’s just taking you with it!”

He bared his teeth. Electricity arced across them. “No.”

Jack crouched so that he was eye-level with the ghost boy. “It’s more than you can hold onto, son. Let her go.”

Phantom’s shoulders shook, and his head bowed.

Hold. Maddie’s brain clicked. Hold. That could… “Wait--just hold on one minute, don’t move!” Maddie flew down to the lab, nearly slipping in the ectoplasm.

She yanked out a crate from under the workbench and snatched up a ray gun-- a recent invention, shelved because the results had been so inconsistent. It had a thirty percent success rate. She’d have to bet on those odds.

Dashing back, she trained it on Phantom.

“Mads!”

“Trust me.” She fired--and--time seemed to stop. A bluish gel wrapped around the ghost, solidifying instantly, dampening his aura, freezing him in place. Bright green ectoplasm went grey. The raw core in Phantom’s hands ebbed to a subded blue, like a dying coal.

“Hold gel,” Jack said, and his face broke out in a smile. “Good thinking Mads.”

She nodded, heart hammering in her ears. Luckily it had worked as it should, containing and slowing their ectosignatures--at least until the gel dissolved.

“That buys us maybe ten minutes. We have to work fast.”

Jack nodded and scooped up the immobile ghost, gel and all, bringing him down to the lab in three strides. Maddie hurried across to another table.

“We need a fluid containment matrix with a stable base current, don’t you think, Mads?” Jack set the ghost on a chair next to the lab table. The greyed-out tones were beginning to fade back in, blue gel hissing softly as it evaporated. To Maddie it sounded like a burning fuse.

“On it.” Maddie gutted the Fenton Weasel as she spoke, tearing out the parts she needed. “There’s a drum of de-natured ectoplasm in the back cabinet. We just need a container big enough… a glass one. We need a good view to monitor any changes.”

“No time.” He lifted the fifteen-gallon drum with a grunt and settled it next to Phantom. Grabbing a crowbar, Jack pried off the lid. “Just hook it right up to this thing, it’ll do fine.”

Maddie twisted a set of wires together, snipped another, then dragged the whole tangled mess next to the tank. She ran the wires into the ectoplasmic fluid and switched on the Weasel. The fluid in the drum bubbled and began to glow brightly.

The bluish glow faded from Phantom. A few warning crackles ran over his body.

“Here we go,” Jack said grimly. He moved behind Phantom and stood with his hands poised to catch the ghost if he fell.

Phantom started, looking around wildly. Then he hissed and doubled over, clutching the core between his hands.

“Into the ectoplasm, quick!”

The ghost boy shuddered and didn’t answer. Either from pain or the electrical havoc the second core was wreaking on his body, he no longer seemed able to respond.

Jack grabbed Phantom’s wrists. He flinched at the shock, then slowly and firmly moved Phantom’s hands over the open drum and turned them palm down. The instant the core touched the ectoplasm, it leapt from Phantom’s grip, crackled across the surface, and sank.

Maddie held her breath; no one moved. Ectoplasm dripped from Phantom’s burned hands and made ripples on the surface. The core became a pulsing, green-white glow in the heart of the canister.

“She looks… stable,” Jack said, and his face split into a grin. His arm was still around Phantom and he jostled the ghost good-naturedly. “That’s about as close as you can cut it, eh, Phantom?”

The boy’s face broke into a slow, careful smile. “She’s…”

“We can take things from here,” Mads said gently. Then she grinned, too.

The ghost nodded. His face scrunched up and he sobbed, still smiling.

Jack patted his back awkwardly. “You did good, kiddo.”

***

“Mom, Dad?”

Maddie glanced up from her work, warm relief breaking over her face in a smile. Her daughter stood at the bottom of the stairs, sooty and with a tear in her blouse, but unharmed. The ghost shield that city hall had bought for the hospital really paid off.

Jazz stepped into the lab. Keys jingled in her hands. “I’m glad you’re okay! They only just opened up the roads or I would’ve--”

She stopped short, her eyes landing on Phantom, who sat at his post next to the tank of ectoplasm. Her mouth fell open.

“Jazz honey, don’t be afraid,” Maddie said quickly “He’s…”

“One of the good guys,” the ghost supplied with a crooked smile. “That’s the bright side of fighting off something bigger than a blimp. Good PR.”

“Oh,” she said faintly. “Okay. Are you…”

Phantom shrugged. “Danielle’s worse.”

Her eyes followed his to the drum of ectoplasm and she paled. “Oh yeah, your…”

“Yeah. It got bad, but they’re helping her. How’s...”

“Alive. All of them.”

He gave her another tired smile. “Good.”

Maddie glanced from her daughter to the ghost, puzzled by this half-spoken conversation. “Do you know each other?”

Jazz and Phantom both flushed , finding a sudden interest in opposite corners of the lab’s ceiling. “Uh… I rescued her from a ghost once?”

Maddie sighed. So this was where all of Jazz’s pro-ghost notions were coming from. ...though in the end she’d had a point, or else they wouldn’t be here now. “Did Danny stay at the hospital?”

Jazz’s eyes went to Phantom. “Oh! Yeah. He’s with Tucker. You know how Tuck gets freaked out by hospitals. Sam’s there too, and Valerie, one of Danny’s friends. They’re all hurt, but they’ll be okay.”

“I should’ve stopped that guy before he ever touched the bazooka,” Phantom growled. Something not quite human flickered angry and green at the back of his eyes. “This got way out of control.”

“You couldn’t have known what would happen,” Jazz said. “No one did.”

He fiddled with a half-empty water bottle, shoulders hunching. “People died.”

“A lot more would have died if you hadn’t stopped it.” She crossed her arms. “Mom, back me up here.”

“She’s right, Phantom. We all owe you our lives.”

“I guess.”

“I know.” To Maddie’s surprise, Jazz kissed him lightly on the head. “And my brother’s safe. That means a lot, too.”

*****

“You okay?” Maddie, measuring drops of ectoplasm into test tubes across the lab, pretended not to hear Jazz speaking to Phantom in an undertone.

“Yeah.”

“For real, or are you just saying that?” A pause. “Danny…”

It was strange that Jazz would use the ghost’s first name, but it seemed to have the desired effect. Maddie heard Phantom sigh. “Some broken bones,” he admitted. “My side feels like it’s gonna cave in. There’s the burn, and I think this breaks the record for straight-out tiredness. But nothing fatally bad. Ghosts are pretty durable.”

Ghosts, in general didn’t have bones. Or sleep.

“Tell me that when I’m not watching one being reconstructed from scratch.”

“She’ll be fine. They promised.”

“I hope so.” There was a pause as both of them gazed down into the tank. Jazz’s eyes flicked back to Phantom, worry creasing her face. “Shouldn’t you, you know, go rest?”

“I’m not going anywhere until I know she’ll be okay. And before you say it, I won’t tell them. Not yet. They’ve gotta focus on her.” He bowed his head and raked his hands through his hair. “Besides, if I sleep now, I’m going to be out for a while. A long while. A year sounds good.”

“You’re going to pass out right in front of them and it’ll happen anyway.” Jazz warned. She had that resigned, know-it-all tone she usually reserved for Danny when he was downing cheese whiz or some other ungodly junk food.

He shook his head. “I won’t. I’ll crash later. I’m staying.”

*****

Maddie peered down into the canister, frowning over her clipboard. The core had gathered itself a thick, protective layer of denser ectoplasm, but it had been hours and it was progressing no further. It swirled around the drum, looking like a glowing tadpole. Every now and then a few strands would wander out, as if to form an arm or a leg, but they all lost shape and retreated.

“This isn’t right,” she muttered.

“What? Is she okay?” Phantom was next to her in a flash, hands on the rim of the canister.

Maddie glanced at him, startled, then over at Jack--he seemed better at handling the ghost boy’s odd personality, but he was neck deep in printouts, frowning in that preoccupied way that she knew only offers of chocolate could penetrate.

“She’s stabilized,” Maddie said at last. “That’s a good thing. But that’s far as it’s gotten. Ectosignatures are usually so resilient--the reformation of her body around the core should have kicked in automatically as soon as she had enough ectoplasm available. This…” she gestured at the tadpole-like thing in the tank, “this proto-form doesn’t have enough resilience to maintain itself outside the confines of this container.”

“All she needs is time, right? And more ectoplasm. We could get her more, easy. That’s all she needs, right?”

“It… might be that her ectosignature was damaged during the transfer," Maddie said reluctantly, watching the fear on his face. "That crucial patterns in its electrical matrix dissipated while it was exposed. It’d be like brain damage in a human."

Phantom’s hands clenched, fingertips just touching the ectoplasm. He shook his head. “No.”

The core swam up, as if responding to his distress, and brushed against his fingertips.

“She may not even--” Maddie cut off, grasping Phantom’s shoulder. Out of the core’s mass sprang a hand--almost perfect at the fingertips, translucent, with faint traces of bones underneath. It stayed there for the barest of moments, then crumpled and dissolved. The core resumed its restless swimming.

Maddie and Phantom looked at each other, eyes wide.

“What was that?” he breathed.

“I was going to ask you the same question.”

“Me? I barely passed high school science,” he squeaked. “What do I know?”

“You know more about this ghost than any of us. Where she came from, what her nature is like...”

“I don’t know much,” he admitted. “The best I can offer is that we’re similar. Really similar. We are… different from other ghosts,” the ghost said slowly, as if picking his words out of a minefield. “Maybe more different than I thought. Maybe… maybe she is missing something, but it’s not her ectosignature.” He sucked in a quick intake of breath. “Wait--” He pulled off the tatters of his glove and fumbled at his sleeve, rolling it up with slow, clumsy fingers. Maddie cringed at the burns on his exposed hand.

“There was blood on my gloves-uh, ectoplasm,” he said. “I bet she was reacting to it--but it was dried stuff, and maybe that wasn’t strong enough. Maybe I have what she doesn’t. If you just look at it, you could figure it out.”

Maddie nodded, opening a drawer and pulling out a package of syringes. “Let’s do it.”

*****

She looked up from the microscope screen at Phantom’s anxious face.

“Does it help?” he asked.

“What… what are you?” Maddie pushed her chair back and gestured for Jack to have a look. He peered at the closeup of Phantom’s ectoplasm--ectoplasmic blood, really--and let out a low whistle. Phantom’s eyes dropped to the floor, and he fidgeted with the bandage on his arm.

“There are vestigal cell structures here,” he said, excitement rising through his tone. “Strands of DNA. This almost looks human.”

“Yeah. That’d be the, uh, human part of us.”

“Part?” Maddie echoed. A ghost-human hybrid? The idea would’ve been ridiculous if she hadn’t just seen the evidence with her eyes. Ectoplasm and blood were diametrically opposed. It was like blending oil and water. For such differing systems to fuse into a functioning, stable bioelectric entity… the chances were one in a million. In a hundred thousand millions, maybe. And two of them? At least?

“How human are you?” Jack asked, eyes sparkling with interest. He’d realized it too. This was big.

Phantom leapt out of his seat, green eyes flashing. “Does it matter? You said you’d help her!”

“Calm down, Phantom. No one said we wouldn’t. We need to know what we’re dealing with here.”

“Alright. Sorry--I’m tired.” He ran a hand across his face and sighed. “I’m half, about half, we think. She’s maybe a little less. But our makeup’s going to be really similar, since-- since she was based off of me.” He leveled a glare at each of them in turn, daring them to make something of it.

Jack scratched his chin, eyeing him doubtfully. “You mean like… your daughter?”

“What?” Phantom’s cheeks flushed vivid green. “Um, no. Clone. Some lunatic made her in a lab--he stole my DNA and based her off that. Blood DNA. Not, uh. She’s a clone.”

It was adorable how flustered he’d suddenly become--it reminded Maddie uncannily of Danny. She hid a smirk behind a sheaf of papers, tapping them against her chin in mock thoughtfulness. “A female, younger clone? Sounds suspicious. Human DNA would allow for parenthood. We don’t know your real age, and ghost children might age at an accelerated rate.”

Jack caught her drift and winked over Phantom’s head. He assumed a stern expression. “Something you’re not telling us, kid? Been getting frisky in your off time?”

The blush reached the roots of the ghost boy’s hair. “No! And ew, and--” Phantom glanced from one to the other. “You’re teasing me.” He groaned and flung his head onto his arms on the table. “I’m too tired for this crap.”

“You should get some rest, Phantom. You’re the only one who hasn’t slept.”

He shut his eyes and pressed his forehead into the cool stainless steel. “Ghosts don’t need sleep.”

“Hybrids do, apparently.”

“Danielle first.”

“This “lunatic” who created her. Did he make you, too?”

“Me? Nah, I was an accident.” Jack opened his mouth and Phantom pointed a finger in his direction without raising his head. “Don’t even start--the other kind of accident. Lab explosion. Kinda. But the point is that I’m the original. This guy wanted me, 2.0. A version of me that he could control.” He smiled wryly. “That didn’t work out so well for him.”

“Made of better stuff, huh.”

“Dani’s, well, herself. But he screwed up something when he made them--took shortcuts, I think. Or maybe he wante them to be disposable. There were other clones, but they… well, you saw.”

Maddie and Jack looked in grim silence at the ectoplasm-stained stairs.

“That fills in the puzzle some,” Maddie said at last. “The ectoplasm is stabilizing her core, but it’s not enough. Ectoplasm doesn’t have the same structural density that human bodies do. It can’t recreate all that cell matter on its own.”

“I could give her my blood,” Phantom said, moving as if to stand up.

“Not an option,” Jack shook his head. “You’re already running on fumes, kiddo.”

“Jack’s right,” Maddie agreed. “Besides, the foreign DNA might do more harm than good. She needs something genetically neutral but substantial, building blocks, or her body can’t come together.”

Jack sprang up. “Mads, you’re brilliant! Be right back!”

Phantom looked quizzically at Maddie, who shrugged and sat back, a small smile on her face. “Be patient. My husband knows what he’s doing.”

In another moment Jack reappeared, his arms full of small, brightly colored cardboard boxes.

The ghost walked over and picked one up. “Is this… jello mix?”

“Sure is!” Jack tore open a box and ripped the top off the paper packet, pouring a little pile of the sugary green granules into a petri dish. He snatched up a test tube--one of the ectoplasmic samples they’d salvaged from the stairs--and poured it onto the jello. The ectoplasm fizzled.

“Jello’s made out of animal gristle-- connective tissue boiled till it dissolves.”

“Really?” Phantom picked up the abandoned box and squinted at the ingredients list. “Gross.”

“You bet! But those are the exact proteins your clone’ll need to start rebuilding her body.”

“I see where you’re going with this,” Maddie said, putting on her goggles and peering at the mixture closely. There was some kind of chemical reaction going on. “Sugar is a super simple, easy-to-process energy source for human cells. With the proteins from gelatin to provide basic building blocks of connective tissue and energy in the form of sugar, it just might jumpstart the fragments of remaining cells into production.”

“Right. We can start with the DNA from the stair samples so those cells have information to build on. Together, I betcha that--aha!” He pointed at the petri dish, a grin spreading across his face. “Look at that!” The ectoplasm in the dish had condensed into a ragged lump of darker green. As they watched it flickered with white energy, then changed to a dirty green-brown. Reddish liquid oozed out of the thicker mass.

“That’s… blood,” Phantom said. He swallowed, going white. “That’s, like, a piece of her.”

“That’s good,” Maddie said quickly. “We can isolate the DNA much easier from this than ectoplasm.” They had DNA analysis equipment somewhere in the shed from back when they were playing with the genetic lock on the Ghost Portal. “If we multiply the DNA a thousandfold, that will give her even more genetic material to grow from.”

Jack studied Phantom with a strange look on his face. “I guess part human doesn’t just mean human-like traits, huh?”

The ghost looked at his feet and nodded.

Maddie paled as the implications sunk in. Of course. If this one little piece of hers “turned” human, what about the rest? And what did that mean about Phantom--the original?

“I’ll explain everything, I promise. Just… just save her first, please.”

“Alright. But you aren’t leaving without giving us answers.”

*******

Time passed. The DNA replicator whirred. Jack disappeared for a half hour and returned with another dozen boxes of jello, a thermos of coffee, and a package of fudge. Maddie took notes on the girl’s progress--slow, but promising-- and tested different samples of ectoplasm, looking for ways to stabilize and purify the ectoplasm.

Phantom didn’t move from his post, planted in the chair, one elbow on the table, eyes on the tank. He’d sipped half-heartedly at the water Maddie pushed on him and even agreed to eat some jello, but refused to leave. Maddie had even offered the couch upstairs, but he’d just waved her off.

Eventually, though, the ghost’s head drooped. Maddie watched, fascinated, as he nodded. After what she’d heard Jazz tell him, not to mention everything she had learned today, she couldn’t help the feeling of anticipation. Something significant was about to happen.

The ghost jerked alert. It was no use; soon his eyes dropped again, hazy and unfocused. His head sank down to rest on the table; clenched fists relaxed. Their up-until-recently number one hunting target had just fallen asleep in the middle of their laboratory.

Phantom’s aura flashed, condensing into a halo of white around his body. It split and peeled away, like a translucent veil suddenly whisked off, and then--Phantom changed. It left him without an aura. With... human flesh, and black hair, and--”

Maddie’s mouth formed a silent “Oh.”

Ectoplasmic DNA. Near-human physiology. I promise, I’ll explain everything. Just--save her first. Oh. Danny. Oh.

“Jack,” Maddie whispered, afraid to move.

Jack turned, saw Danny asleep where Phantom had sat moments before. The tray with its glass tubes of samples nearly tipped out of his hands. “Sufferin--”

Maddie shushed him, and he broke off, fumbling to rebalance the tray. He shoved it onto a clear patch of worktable, then turned and stared down at his son.

“He just… changed.” She gestured helplessly. “I don’t know how… he just…”

Keeping up a ghost form must be conscious reflex, she realize now that she thought of it. That idea made her relieved; that meant ghost wasn’t the default. That meant… probably meant, that Danny was still alive. Whatever else he might be.

Jack’s big hand came up to rub at the back of his neck. “So it is him,” he murmured.

“You knew?”

“I was starting to wonder. Haven’t you noticed my aim’s been more horrible lately?” He grinned. Then his face fell. “I mean… it was just idle suspicions. Nothing serious. Danny’s not dead, that was the kicker. I was sure of that.” He crossed the room and put his hand on Danny’s head, brushing back the dark hair and studying the sleeping face. “A ghost that was also alive, had human qualities, that just wasn’t scientifically possible. At least we didn’t think so till today.”

They both looked at the containment tube, where the amorphous silhouette was beginning to look more and more like the body of a child.

“You think she has a human side?” Jack asked.

“If this psuedo-human DNA’s anything to go by, then she has to. Her ghost body wouldn’t know how to absorb the food she’d need to maintain cellular function.”

He nodded. “Right. The ghost core must be tied into her nervous system--maybe the electrocardial pattern. See that flicker? Just like a heartbeat.” He leaned forward, grinning. The flickers of light through the ectoplasm played over his square jaw and lit green sparks in blue eyes. “It’s a symbiotic system. How cool is that?”

Maddie massaged her temples. Jack might be able to enjoy the cool factor of this, but they still had major problems to solve; this girl wasn’t out of the woods yet. “Symbiotic would mean it’s a working system.”

“It works for Danny, doesn’t it? We’ve just got to puzzle out the part of the cycle that’s weak and buffer it.”

“He nearly died today. Not the first time either.” Jack half-smiled. “Is it bad that I’m proud of him?”

“Nearly died…” Maddie echoed, shivering.

Something about Jazz’s earlier conversation with him rang in her mind, something that sent red flags flaring across her nerves. Some broken bones. Nothing fatally bad...

She pushed her chair back and hurried over to Danny, grabbing his hand. It felt clammy and cold. His skin had gone grey. “Jack, he’s barely breathing--”

She pulled up his T-shirt and gasped at the blue-black bruise that took up Danny’s entire right side. The ribs were lumpy and swollen, bulging weirdly under the skin. Something was damaged--badly damaged. Why hadn’t he said anything?

Jack pushed her aside and gathered up Danny in his arms. “Get the keys,” he rapped out, already running up the stairs.

*****

A hand encircled her arm, and a sharp pain jabbed into her shoulder. Every nerve ending felt frayed and bare. The sensation of the needle jumped down her arm and made her fingernails ache, and whatever had been in the syringe crawled like an icy worm into her body. Dani knew better than to struggle, but she couldn’t help whimpering.

Instead of a reprimand or a quick cuff, someone muttered something indistinct and a hand stroked her back. This strangeness frightened her--her muddled mind thrown into terror by the uncertainty. Where? Who?

Coolness embraced her, closing over her head, soothing the parts of her body that hung raw and open. The icy worm worked its way into her core and exploded with energy. Dani gasped and stiffened, suddenly very, very awake. Her eyes wouldn’t focus on anything--all a bright wash of green that stung her eyes and made her head throb. Dani panted as that cold, cold feeling rushed to every corner of her body- from her fingertips to the ends of her hair--it felt like she was standing in a tunnel with a winter gale slicing right through her body.

When it was coldest--colder than thought, colder than whiteness--something in her snapped like a joint clicking back into place. White-cold turned white-hot, and warmth trickled from her core out to her fingertips. A heavy thudding took its place in her chest. She realized she was swimming, floating in a world of green light--she was warm, but everything around her had suddenly become unbearably cold--and she needed to breathe--really breathe, air, soon.

Panic sang through her. She flailed, swimming for the surface. Her head broke free. Dani gasped and choked. Some part of her noticed a crash, a shout, rubber gloves gripping her by the arms--then exhaustion pulled her back under, into the black..

******

Somewhere in the middle of her bath Dani woke up enough to be embarrassed. She was sitting on a plastic stool set up in a bathtub, naked except for a towel in her lap. Half-congealed ectoplasmic goop clung to her skin, itchy and cold. The biting, limey smell made her shudder. Her wet hair was piled on her head, and someone sat on the side of the tub a little behind her, just outside of her line of vision.

That person was in the middle of bathing her, hands sponging ectoplasm off her shoulders. Dani’s face turned crimson and she pulled away.

“I...I can get it, thanks,” she said, snatching the washcloth from the womans’ hands and scrubbing at her own skin. It stung, but in a blissfully real and solid way. She wasn’t on the verge of melting into a puddle. In fact, she felt better than she had in a long time.

“Gently!” The woman grabbed her hand and pulled away the cloth, frowning at the reddish patch where Dani had been rubbing. “You’re skin’s still too new for that kind of treatment. Just relax and let me help you.”

She dipped the washcloth in the sink and squeezed out the excess water, then moved to Dani’s back. Greenish water flowed past Dani’s feet and gurgled down the drain.

Dani clutched at the towel draped across her legs. She tugged it a little higher. “You’re… Maddie, aren’t you?”

The hands on her back paused. “You know me?”

Dani shrugged. Saying that she used to talk to Maddie’s CGI double because no one else was around probably wouldn’t go over well. “I know what you look like.” She nibbled her lip, weighing her options, then added quietly, “You’re a ghost hunter.”

Maddie’s hands continued to wring out the washcloth. “I’m also Danny’s mother,” she said firmly.

Dani processed this. Considering all the ectoplasm and what she remembered from earlier, that probably meant that they knew about her ghostliness. What else did they know?

As if reading her mind, Maddie patted her shoulder. “You’ll be safe here,” she said. “The ghost shield is up and the portal doors are closed. As far as we’re concerned, you’re here to stay.”

Here to stay. Dani rolled those words over in her mind. As a prisoner? Or… she gulped. They were scientists. Maybe they wanted to experiment.

“Vlad and I… discussed things.” Maddie continued. Her voice hardened. “Thoroughly. He won’t be making any claims to you.”

Dani twisted around to gape at the woman, fears momentarily forgotten; Maddie’s steely eyes and pursed lips looked nothing like AI Maddie. “You stood up to Vlad? He’s a really bad guy.”

“Yes,” the woman agreed curtly. She wrung out the cloth with a sharp twist. “Evil. But so did you, sweetie.”

“I guess so.” It wasn’t like she’d had a choice. It was either all or nothing with Vlad.

“You’re a brave girl. You’re a lot like Danny that way.”

“Is he okay? I feel like I… hurt him... “ Dani shuddered and shook her head to clear it. Those weren’t exactly memories--more like convictions--impressions of pain and an awful feeling of exposure and brightness and the air tearing away at her mind--and--her memory hop-skipped over it, like a stone whizzing over still, dark water, refusing to settle.

“A little. It’s not your fault, though. You were in bad shape.”

Dani knew that. Her legs had boiled away in front of her eyes. You didn’t forget something like that. She lifted her hands and admired the soft, raisiny fingertips. She counted them. There were ten. “You saved me.”

“Danny did. And you saved us first.” Dani stiffened as Maddie pulled her close, giving her a very gentle squeeze. “It seems to run in the family.”

Dani’s face glowed and she fought the urge to squirm--half wanting her to keep doing it, half wanting to phase through the floor and--

“Yikes!” She slipped through the stool and was ankle-deep in the downstairs ceiling before she had the presence of mind to grab Maddie’s arms and cling for dear life. Great job, genius, keep reminding the ghost hunter you’re a ghost, why don’t you?

Maddie only laughed and pulled her up, stooping to retrieve the towel that hand fallen into the tub. “Well, I guess we know your abilities are in order. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“No--it’s--I’m just,” Dani grabbed the towel and flushed darker. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be.” The woman stood up and laid the washcloth across the sink. “That’s most of it, anyway. I’m going to turn the shower on now, but don’t try to stand up yet, okay?” She waited until Dani nodded, then twisted the knob. Warm water cascaded over her shoulders for a long, glorious moment. Then the knob squeaked and a new, fluffy white towel dropped on her head.

“I think you can handle the drying part, right?” Dani nodded, and Maddie smiled. “There are new clothes for you here in the the basket. I’ll step outside and be here if you need me.”

A soft, brand-new pair of leggings went over her new legs. The tags were still on them. They smelled like a department store. Next came a red t-shirt--it fit close to her body, which felt oddly snug after living in oversized clothes for most of her life. Odd, but nice. Kind of like the hug from Maddie.

A lacy, girly thing at the bottom of the basket turned out to be a sweater--sort of. Dani wrinkled her nose as she inspected it; not exactly her style, but the air was cold against her skin, even with the shirt, so she begrudgingly pulled it on.

As she gathered her wet hair into a messy bun, Maddie’s voice drifted in from the hallway. “We figured you’d be waking up today, and we wanted to have a little get-together. You think you’re up for it?”

Great, even more awkward people who would probably want to give her hugs. She peered around the doorway, trying to gauge the woman’s mood. “What if I say no?”

Maddie mock-sighed, putting her hands on her hips. “Then I’ll go downstairs and find somebody else to eat all that bacon pepperoni pizza.”

Pizza? Dani darted out of the bathroom. “What are we waiting for?”

At the end of the hall stood the stairs--way steeper than Dani remembered them. Her legs felt weak and wobbly, and she was out of breath just from crossing the hall. Maddie caught her arm as she teetered at the top.

“Don’t go breaking your neck and undoing all our hard work,” she chided, then slipped her arm around Dani’s shoulders and helped her down. “This is Danny’s first day out of bed, too. You can celebrate together.”

Worry and guilt pricked at Dani. “Was he that hurt?”

“Shattered ribs. One punctured his lung.” Maddie’s hands tightened on her arm. “He fell asleep down in the lab--he’d pushed himself past exhaustion between the battle and what happened after. If we hadn’t noticed…” She stopped and cleared her throat. Her grim tone brightened to its earlier pleasant ring and she smiled down at Dani. “It’s alright now. He’s fine. It was just… a little too close.”

As they crossed the living room, laughter and chatter drifted toward them. Dani balked despite the tantalizing smells. “That sounds like a lot of people, I--”

“Just the family,” Maddie said, and propelled her gently through the door.

There was a blue banner hanging over the doorway to the lab--one that read CONGRATULATIONS in huge block letters. Jack stood at the stove, stirring a huge pot full of something spicy and steaming, whistling to himself. Jazz sat in a chair next to him with her nose in a book, though her eyes were on the noisy group across the room.

The kitchen table had been pushed to one side. On its surface sat every kind of junk food Dani craved-- fried chicken, buffalo wings, steaming piles of hot dogs and a huge, greasy bucket of popcorn, balanced on top of pizza boxes stacked three high. Jammed right in the center stood the mother of all cakes, two-tiered and coated in a swath of blue icing.

Parked in easy reach of the table, Danny sat in a wheelchair with bandages on his bare feet and spiraling up his right leg. Sam sat next to him with her crutches tucked under her chair, black cast resting on the floor, and Tucker leaned against the wall, grinning despite the new, pink scars that stretched on his neck as he smiled.

For looking like in-patient escapees, they sure seemed to be having a good time.

Sam threw back her head and laughed. Tucker pounded the table, eyes streaming. “No way dude, you’re killing me.”

“A magenta football,” Danny insisted. “He’s got all this crazy tech,” Even more gauze peeked through the neck of the tent-sized orange t-shirt he wore as Danny swept out his arm. “Billions of dollars of junk all around him, and he didn’t have a clue we were coming. Vlad’s just totally speechless--and get this, he’s blushing neon pink. Then Mom marches right up to him, not even batting an eye that he’s in ghost form, and says--”

“Repeat that kind of language and you’ll find yourself grounded,” Maddie cut in, but she was grinning.

Danny stopped mid-sentence and threw up his hands. He beamed. “Danielle! My favorite cousin ever!!”

He shoved himself away from the wall and the wheelchair spun across the kitchen, bringing him in range to catch Dani in a tight hug. She squeaked in surprise for the second time that day. His arms were warm around her shoulders, but an icy spark jumped between them--their ghost cores flickering in recognition.

“Don’t mind him, he’s on painkillers,” Sam drawled.

“So are you,” Danny pointed out, sitting back.

“Yet somehow you’re the only one making an idiot out of yourself.”

“Can’t I be glad to see Danielle? She almost died, remember?”

“We all almost died. Thus the party.” Sam waved her spoon at the banner.

“It’s a half party. Half congratulations on saving everybody, half hooray we’re not dead party,” Tucker said, and grinned. “Get it? Because you’re both half-ghost, and--”

Sam elbowed Tucker. “Yeah, we get it. It’s still lame.”

“The big ghost is gone?” Dani asked.

Danny beamed. “Yep. The GIW carted off that big hunk of ectoplasm on a truck, but we zapped the core. It’s history. You’re officially a hero, Dani.”

“They talked about you on TV!” Jack interjected.

“There’s been a lot of speculation on what happened to the two ghost heroes after the attack. Most people think you were destroyed with it. Though certain experts,” here she grinned and gestured at Jack and herself. “Have hinted that you’re off recovering and will make a reappearance in a week or two. There’s talk of having an official Phantom Day in your honor.”

Danny, who had claimed a half-eaten hot dog from the table, let it drop to his plate in undisguised horror. “Two more weeks?"

Dani slipped over to the table and grabbed the popcorn. She perched in the chair across from Tucker; this should be good.

"Do you have any idea how many ghosts are gonna attack between now and then?”

“We will handle it,” Maddie said, calmly cutting into the cake. “You are not fighting anyone until your body heals completely. I will ecto-cuff you to your bed if necessary, young man.”

“Okay, one, I think that fits under the whole “no using your weapons against me” thing we discussed. Two,” light burst out of his chest and he transformed from human to ghost, floating effortlessly into the air, “This body doesn’t need to breathe so broken ribs are no problem. See?”

To prove his point, he drifted over to the table and swiped a fingerful of icing off the cake, then threw himself on his back and lounged hammock-style.

Maddie only sighed and set the plate of cake in Dani’s lap. “Let me know if you want some ice cream with that, sweetie.”

“You’re gonna get hurt, showoff,” Jazz said.

“Am not,” Danny retorted, stuffing the finger in his mouth.

The doorbell rang. Danny yelped and his transformation reverted, leaving him hanging in midair. Tucker lunged and caught him, making a funny little oof, his glasses askew. He dumped his friend into the wheelchair and tromped off to answer the door.

Danny laughed silently, clutching his ribs. “Owowow.”

The technogeek came back with a funny little smile on his face. “Guess who answered her invite?”

Valerie Gray appeared in the doorway. She was a good match for the trio already in the kitchen, a thick white band of gauze around her head and one arm in a sling. She looked pale and tired, and blinked in outright confusion at the banner and the decadent spread of food.

Dani waved with her spoon. “Hi Valerie!”

Valerie blinked and frowned. “Danielle? What are you doing here?”

“She lives here now,” Maddie said firmly, putting both her hands on Dani’s shoulders.

“A bona fide Fenton! Soon it’ll be official!” Jack added, raising a chocolatey spoon in a triumphant arc. “My wife put a good word in with the mayor, the paperwork’s almost a done deal. Glad you could make it!”

Valerie took a step back. “No--no, I’m not here to… I came to--” She cut herself off, took a deep breath, and straightened. “Can I speak to you privately, Danny?”

He picked up the ketchup and squirted another layer onto his hot dog. “You’re here to talk about me being Phantom, right?”

She flinched and glanced sharply at Danny’s parents. Valerie’s eyes widened. “They know? And they’re okay with the whole--”

“Well, okay is probably too strong a word, but yeah. After the whole mega-monster thing it all came out.”

“We’re proud of our son,” Jack said, slapping Danny on the shoulder. “He’s a bangup ghost hunter.”

“Banged-up, you mean,” Tucker interjected.

Danny snickered and took a huge bite of hot dog.

Valerie put her hand on her hip. “What kind of pain meds did they give you?”

He swallowed the mouthful and shrugged. “Uh, a lot, but that’s beside the point. Weird as it is, I don’t have a lot of secrets right now. Not here anyway. And I’m starting to like that. So whatever you want to say, go right ahead.”

Valerie’s fists knotted and she glared at the floor. For a long moment Dani was sure she’d just turn around and storm off. “I came to… to apologize,” she ground out at last. Then the rest came in a rush. “It took me way too long to figure out what was staring me in the face, and I blamed you for a lot of stuff, and--I’m sorry for the thing in the basement and hunting you. I wouldn’t have done if it I’d known you were you--human, that is. You have to believe that. So I guess I’m saying I’m sorry. Alright? I’m sorry.”

A raw, uncomfortable silence filled the room. Dani stared at her toes and clutched her plate of cake. For some reason it made her feel guilty. Valerie had been kind to her from the moment they met. It had never occurred to Dani that Danny and her rescuer might be enemies.

“Cake?” Danny offered, tipping a head toward the table.

Dani looked up. Val stared at him.

“It’s chocolate. That’s your favorite kind, right?”

Valerie’s brow knotted like a thunderstorm. The fists at her sides shook. “Were you not… listening? Do you have any idea how hard that was to say in front of everybody?”

“Val, relax. Look around. My parents are ghost hunters. Sam’s been an evil plant. Danielle was Vlad’s minion. Everybody in this room has nearly killed me at some point, on purpose or otherwise. Except Tuck.”

“Well actually dude, remember that one time with the wish thing?”

“Oh. Oh yeah.” Danny scratched the back of his neck and grinned. “You see? So stop looking so tormented and have some cake.”

Maddie moved over to the table and cut another slice, putting it on a paper plate and offering it to Valerie with a smile. “We’d love for you to stay.”

“Thing in the basement, huh?” Tucker remarked with a smirk. Danny ducked his head and Sam glared at him. Dani snickered.

“Shut up, Foley,” Valerie muttered, turning red. She snatched the offered plate from Maddie and pulled out a chair, plunking herself down beside Dani. She stuffed a chocolatey bite in her mouth. Her eyes went from Dani to Danny as she chewed. “So are you two really cousins?”

“More like siblings,” Danny said. He’d somehow gotten the ketchup again and his hot dog was vanishing in a flood of red paste. “Or delayed twins? Uh… It’s kind of a long story…”

“Save it,” Valerie said, and tugged at the nearest box of pizza. “I’ve had enough staggering revelations for the day.”

Dani took a tiny bite of the cake in her lap. It was rich and warm and solid, like the room, and the laughter, and her own skin. For some reason, everything tasted just a little bit like lime jello.

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